Chapter 12. The Little Prince in The Ossuary (12)
# Unread messages (1)
「ElectronicAnklet: Does this son of a bitch not have a dick? Why did he just let the girl go? I was just getting ready to jerk off! Oh, my poor Johnson, he’s now all crumpled up!」
「Hectopascal_Kick: I srsly doubt he has one lul」
「JongShinHyung: They brought you a girl, but why won’t you eat? Why won’t you? Today was a strangely lucky day…」*
「MillionDollarLoan: lol nice one XD btw, what was the lucky part?」
「No_Memes_For_Your_Nickname: Well, we’re definitely lucky to have found this stream, that’s one thing. There are not many BJs that can make their streams this fun. Without an extremely high TOM level, not even an AI can respond this fast in real-time. His reaction speed is amazing too. If it were some other old geezer, they’d pause at every goddamn moment and say things like “Oh, I need some time to think here, sorry guys.”」
「VanDakHom: Thank you, Captain Obvious!」
[SnowyFox donated 20 stars.]
「まつみん: It was disappointing that they didn’t have sex.」
「ymROCKs: The world is all about sex and violence.」
「pp224: Sex!」
「Onewiththeuniverse: I’m a monk and I’m secretly accessing this age-restricted channel without the head monk knowing. I’ll take questions.」
「Hectopascal_Kick: Yeah right, fake monk」
「Phisherman: I just saw the profile of that guy with a Japanese nickname and it says his nationality is Japanese. Is he really?」
「まつみん: Yes. Matsumin is Japanese. I am using a translator.」
「JongShinHyung: How come a Japanese guy is watching a Korean stream? cuz this streamer isn’t that famous.」
「まつみん: Korean virtual reality adult channels are very popular in Japan. I’m sure there are quite a few Japanese like me watching this channel right now. In the era of virtual reality, Japan is no longer the king of porn. Korea is now competing for the throne. As to why I’m here, I just happened to find this while searching for something that fits my tastes.」
「ymROCKs: It’s pretty weird to hear that from a Japanese since I grew up jacking off to Japanese porn…」
「Phisherman: But are you okay with watching this kind of… stuff?」
「まつみん: What do you mean?」
[SnowyFox donated 20 stars.]
「Phisherman: I’m talking about the old man back in the tent. His talk about Japan was pretty intense. Even I was starting to get sick of his victim mentality.」
「まつみん: It was bad, but I don’t really care. He’s only a virtual character. And most of all, I’m just here to see people having sex. It was rather arousing to think of it as a situational drama. Like an extension of cosplay and BDSM.」
「Oldspice: Indeed, even an international conflict can’t stop a man’s lust! Sex can bring the world together!」
「pp224: Matsumin, you are a real man.」
「まつみん: I’m not a man. I’ll put it in my profile. (笑)」
「ElectronicAnklet: wait wat?」
「まつみん: In fact, I’ve been applying Sensory Synchronization to Setsuna. It was disappointing that he didn’t rape her.」
「Aeduffwhitula: ????????」
「Blackcoke: Holy shit, I’m lost for words. Chaos, destruction, and manga are all here.」
「Ekta: Don’t be fooled! This must be Kaizo’s trap! She’s probably done something to her profile!」
[SnowyFox donated 20 stars.]
# lntermission, Combat Will and Combat Fatigue (1)
If a character is being overwhelmed by enemies, Combat Will will decrease while Combat Fatigue will increase. If the two values reach a certain point, the character will be afflicted with the status effect, ‘Fear’. When under Fear, there will be a temporary downward revision to the character’s overall stats, and they might give up the mission or disobey orders.
The limit for those two values can be increased through several means, such as increasing the character’s Will Power or other combat skills or being affiliated with a member or a leader with leadership skills.
Combat Fatigue will remain active for a certain amount of time after battle, affecting the character. The more fatigued the character is, the slower they will recover from it. If Combat Fatigue reaches a critical level, the character will no longer recover naturally by waiting, and in severe cases, it may lead to semi-permanent mental illness’.
Like any other status, Combat Will and Combat Fatigue cannot be identified with 「Insight」 lower than level 10.
# Journal, Page 37, Camp Roberts
The U.S. government issued a statement concerning a new containment strategy. According to it, they would set up a blockade line along the western border of Idaho-Nevada-Arizona and over Mexico, and conduct both satellite and aerial reconnaissance over the blockade. If any unauthorized movements were detected, aerial forces would be deployed to destroy any potential threat.
For this mission, they announced the deployment of both several manned and unmanned aircraft, as well as several gunships currently in possession of the U.S.
On the refugee’s end, the government’s statement was virtually a threat. The primary goal might have been to provide the residents at the eastern side of the blockade with a sense of security, but they must have also aimed to pressure the remaining survivors at the west of the blockade.
The government’s spokesperson described the performance of the gunships and all the other aircraft that would be used for the mission as if to confirm how heavily guarded the blockade would be. For example, one of the aircraft, named AC-130, was heavily armed with several machine guns and howitzers and could travel around 8,000km without refueling. It was literally a flying artillery unit.
They also announced that the U.S. was currently under partial mobilization and that the regulation on strategic material purchase had been enacted. But the restrictions didn’t seem very tight. Perhaps the U.S. had already secured a sufficient amount of supplies. In addition, both airborne and seaborne trade routes were free from mutants. Although the need for a quarantine might be present, it shouldn’t affect provisioning.
Some of the refugees in the camp seemed to have despaired upon hearing this announcement. They must have been those who were planning to escape to the east.
The refugees needed to delude themselves in order to endure the rigors in their strenuous life. Among the refugees, the eastern part of the U.S. was rumored to be something akin to heaven on earth. This, however, wasn’t entirely wrong. The eastern U.S., where civilization had yet to collapse, must be like a dream world.
If the government’s announcement was true, it was virtually impossible for the refugees to cross the blockade. And even if they somehow managed to reach the safe zone, that wouldn’t be the end to their problems, as they had no way to prove their identity. They’d have to stay hidden, lest they get shot to death. Life would be even more miserable than here.
All things considered, staying at the camp was still the best shot for survival.
# Journal, Page 38, Camp Roberts
Although the mission team had several unsavory incidents in San Miguel, the camp still lacked supplies to survive the upcoming winter. The U.S. military acknowledged that the previous operation was rather reckless and ill-planned, and therefore, tried to come up with a revised plan.
As a result, they announced a newly revised reward system. One of the new conditions was as follows: ‘if the accompanying U.S. soldier fails to return, the refugees of that group will not be given any reward.’ It was probably based on the flour factory incident.
Not only that. It was also decided that they would provide basic training to the refugees who wished to join future operations. Since Camp Roberts used to be a training facility before the epidemic, it could be said that it was regaining its original role.
Lieutenant Capstone voiced a rather skeptical opinion about this decision. He worried whether they’d be able to achieve tangible improvement with only a few days of training. There wasn’t much time left before the coldest season set in. The demand for supplies was urgent, but time was limited.
There was nothing remarkable about the training the refugees received. Rather, it was almost too bland. This was because they had to omit training exercises like live-fire training. As a result, the refugees mostly received indoor education like tactical movement training or mental preparation and some boring physical exercises.
The battalion commander ordered each officer to take charge of training a group of refugees, and the remaining soldiers to assist the officers.
「AI Advice (lvl 8 Insight): You may choose which of the officers you wish to assist. It is highly recommended to choose either Captain Magath or Lieutenant Capstone.
Captain Magath has the greatest authority as a senior officer and is likely to use expedients to fill his quota. Therefore, missions with him should be relatively safer than those of other groups. But as you have already experienced, Captain Magath is a virulent racist. When working under people with 「Racist」 values, you will most likely suffer from mistreatment and insults. No matter how great your achievements are, it will be difficult to win his favor. But if you’re good at flattery and negotiation, there’s a chance you’ll get more than you expect.
Lieutenant Capstone, on the other hand, has moral and upright characteristics, but relatively weaker authority. Because he always tries to carry out his duties faithfully, he is more likely to volunteer for more dangerous missions. Therefore, if you choose him, you can expect fair treatment, but it will be harder to survive.」
「Player’s Choice: Join Lieutenant Robert Capstone’s group」
Obviously, I decided to go with Lieutenant Capstone. Even as a joke, I don’t want to live my life here bullied by racists like Captain Magath. Even if the risks are bigger, it’s well worth it.
Comments