Chapter 752.1: Southern Front Progress
Chapter 752.1: Southern Front Progress
Wasteland Online’s official website.
[War for Paradise Frontline Progress: Major strongholds on the northern front have fallen one after another. Ten Peaks Mountain are now under coalition control, and the gateway to Ocean Edge Province has been opened! Fighting on the southern front remains concentrated around the Southern Seas. Players in that region, keep up the good work! Final event rewards will be tied to frontline progress!]
Not long after the announcement was posted on the official forums, the discussion section exploded with activity.
Irene: Damn, the devs are actually rushing players to update the war progress. (˵ ¬ᴗ¬˵)
Elf Wang: Other games nerf equipment to slow players down because they're afraid we'll clear content too quickly. This game's the only one complaining that we're clearing it too slowly. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Escaping Mole: Ample Time, you guys gonna get it done or what? (◔_◔)
Tail: Dori: Ample Time, can you even do it~? (⸝⸝> ω <⸝⸝)
Sisi: Tail, calm down. You're on the southern front too.
Tail: Eek! I forgot! ( °ロ°)!
Makka Pakka: Too weak! ₍₍⚞(˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶)⚟⁾⁾
Light Wind: Can't be helped. The W-2s are just too slow. It can't punch through the Federation destroyers' close-in defense network. The limits of old propeller aircraft are way too obvious. T.T
Little Ghost: +10086. The southern front desperately needs faster fighters!
Mosquito: Ahem... Kamikaze attacks with those things are way too expensive. Just make do with propeller planes for now. Or I could build you one without landing gear?
Light Wind: !!!
Little Ghost: Damn it! Commander, are you even human?!
Irene: This game is too realistic. (ᗒᗣᗕ)
...
Reading the complaints beneath the announcement, Ample Time’s eyebrows couldn’t stop twitching, but he ultimately resisted the urge to reply.
Light was really being unfair this time. Was the slow progress on the southern front really the players' fault? Any one of the North Island Federation's destroyers or those stationed around the Southern Archipelago would completely outclass an entire fleet of so-called battleships in the real world.
Meanwhile, the Baiyue Strait Development Company's entire air force consisted of propeller aircraft that had been modified over and over again.
To be fair, they were excellent for ground attack missions. They had long air time, were inexpensive to operate, and could be fielded in large numbers. However, when facing powerful point-defense systems and high-precision guided weapons, they quickly showed their limitations.
It was especially so when it came to naval warfare, where beyond-visual-range engagements dominated. More often than not, the enemy had already locked onto them shortly after they took off.
Of course, the New Alliance had its own advantages. Its ground forces and individual soldier equipment were vastly superior to those of the North Island Federation.
If they could slip through the Federation fleet's maritime security perimeter and land directly on the Federation's islands, the campaign would certainly proceed far more smoothly than it was now.
The problem was that the enemy clearly understood their weakness. Their sonar arrays and radar systems remained on alert 24 hours a day, while patrol boats carrying depth charges continuously cruised the open sea.
Forget about landing. Once they came within 100 kilometers, they risked being struck by beyond-visual-range weapons.
Of course, the same was true for both sides. The North Island Federation remained vigilant against New Alliance aircraft and airborne troops, while the New Alliance was equally wary of the Torch Church's frogman Mutant Human scum. Early warning systems and beyond-visual-range strike capabilities remained on alert around the clock.
Previously, several groups of Mutant Humans equipped with specialized underwater combat gear had attempted to swim to Peace Island and launch surprise attacks. However, before they even reached Coral City, most of them were wiped out by several depth charges. The surviving Mutant Humans scattered in all directions, only to become food for the predators of the sea.
The mutated creatures roaming the open ocean were far more terrifying than those on land, and considerably more diverse.
Without the protection of their psychic interference devices, lone Mutant Humans had no chance of surviving in deep water for more than an hour.
Wary of the submarines based on Peace Island, the North Island Federation fleet likewise dared not push beyond its security perimeter into the heart of the Southern Sea New Alliance.
As a result, the war had settled into a bizarre stalemate. It was like two armed men hiding behind cover 50 meters apart, occasionally firing a shot or two without seeing the enemy before immediately ducking back behind cover.
Neither side could afford the consequences of making a mistake, so neither side dared leave the safety of its cover.
However, that didn't mean things would remain that way forever. The Southern Sea New Alliance, with New Alliance support, was developing underwater submarine carriers in preparation for landing on North Island.
Meanwhile, the North Island Federation, with the Torch Church's backing, was clearly preparing a trump card of its own.
Both sides understood that the war would not drag on much longer, especially with the coalition's relentless advance in the north, opening up strategic space in the south had become an urgent priority for the Torch Church.
Everyone was preparing for the decisive battle to come. Against that backdrop, there wasn't actually much room for the players to make a difference.
Even Ample Time himself found there was little left for him to do beyond focusing on infrastructure projects throughout the Southern Seas and the Baiyue Strait, while using economic development and trade to strengthen ties with the islands aligned with the New Alliance.
After finishing a simple dinner, Ample Time went downstairs for an evening jog before putting on his helmet and logging back into the game.
A regular meeting was scheduled for 10:00 in the morning in-game time at the Governor's Office inside French Fry Harbor’s city hall.
As CEO and Chairman of Baiyue Strait Development Company, he would be meeting with a governor-general from Dawn City to discuss regional affairs and the next stage of development, while also receiving instructions from the administrator.
Although he was called a governor-general, his position was fundamentally different from that of a governor of a kingdom.
The latter represented the Emperor's authority and interests, essentially serving as the Emperor's incarnation within the region. The former represented the New Alliance, and the New Alliance Constitution.
In terms of powers and responsibilities, the position was closer to that of a city lord.
In essence, someone who exercised the New Alliance supervisory authority over local affairs, oversaw local defense, and ruled on matters affecting the New Alliance's broader interests from the New Alliance's perspective.
The actual administration of local affairs and the exercise of public authority, however, were handled by city hall and the relevant municipal agencies. Only under exceptional circumstances, such as when the local population possessed virtually no capacity for self-governance, or when the New Alliance specifically needed a place to accommodate such survivors, would a city lord or governor directly administer local affairs.
Singularity City was one such example. If the New Alliance hadn't stationed someone there, the local survivors would have treated the New Alliance Constitution as toilet paper in no time and set up some counterfeit Dogshit New Alliance.
Places like French Fry Harbor were different. The players themselves had developed the settlement remarkably well, and the administrator was perfectly happy to let both the players and local residents manage it themselves.
As such, only a Governor's Office had been established within city hall. When there wasn't much to do, the governor typically spent his days drinking tea, reading newspapers, compiling reports on local conditions, sending telegrams to the administrator, and issuing instructions to local departments based on the administrator's replies...
Well, that was if the administrator had any comments.
At least over the past several months, the administrator's responses had consisted solely of read receipts. It was clear that even the meticulous administrator himself had found their work beyond reproach.
This time, however, things were different. Having heard that the administrator had issued unusually specific instructions this time, Ample Time couldn't help growing curious about the upcoming meeting.
There was still some time before it began. Rather than heading straight to city hall, he leisurely strolled through the settlement they had built with their own hands. Perhaps by the time he reached city hall, he would already have guessed what the administrator intended before the governor-general from Dawn City even opened his mouth.
It was now early August in the game, right in the middle of the Baiyue Strait's rainy season.
One moment the sky could be brilliantly sunny. The next, torrential rain would come pouring down.
Even so, the rain wasn't unpleasant. After the showers passed, French Fry Harbor gleamed like freshly polished glass, inside and out, exuding an invigorating freshness.
After several months of development, French Fry Harbor had finally begun to take shape. With the completion of the port, large quantities of cement, steel, bricks, construction equipment, and other materials remained unused.
city hall simply issued a housing improvement initiative, offering subsidies that encouraged local residents to replace their hand-built wooden cottages with three-story reinforced concrete homes.
Part of the reason was naturally to improve French Fry Harbor's appearance. Another was to better withstand tsunamis and earthquakes, since the old wooden houses were only ever a temporary solution. But more importantly, the policy aimed to stimulate the local economy as a long-term investment.
After all, once survivors owned proper homes, they could rent out unused floors or open small businesses on the ground level facing the street.
In spacious, sparsely populated French Fry Harbor, land was practically the cheapest resource imaginable.
It wasn't only people's homes that had changed. The roads in front of them had changed just as dramatically. The muddy dirt roads that turned into quagmires whenever it rained had all been replaced by clean concrete streets.
Those roads, however, were far from ordinary.
As everyone knew, maintaining roads in the Baiyue Strait was extraordinarily expensive. Strictly speaking, the construction methods used in Dawn City weren't really suitable for building settlements in the Baiyue Strait.
However, not long ago, researchers at the New Alliance’s Biological Research Institution, drawing on biological samples collected locally as well as research conducted on the Hive beneath Clearspring City, developed a new biomaterial known as Living Cement.
The material possessed remarkable self-repair capabilities. It absorbed energy and nutrients from surface biomass, allowing it to physically maintain the integrity of the structural material serving as its foundation.
To use an illustrative, though not entirely accurate, analogy, the microorganisms inhabiting the material were like tiny hermit crabs, while the pores within the Living Cement served as the shells they lived inside. To protect those shells, the microorganisms actively fought off biological factors that threatened the stability of the concrete while simultaneously acting as living binding agents that reinforced the structure.