The gun muzzle flashed as the bullets rained on the sharp claws, piercing through their flesh.
Lu Yong drew a pistol from his waist. He only had time to fire three bullets before he was assailed.
The claws pierced through his exoskeleton, but he didn’t feel a thing.
When he opened his eyes, he took off his helmet and sat up from the chair. He saw his teammate also awake.
Tian Yuping: “You died?”
Lu Yong looked at the helmet in his hand and thought back to the feeling of the machine gun in his hand. He nodded silently.
“Yeah.”
Tian Yuping: “How many did you kill?”
Lu Yong: “27.”
As the team marksman, he was using a machine gun, thus he had the highest amount of firepower.
Of course, even then, he could only empty half of his magazines before he was “killed”.
The aliens’ teeth and claws were just like in video games, just more violent and fierce.
Sun Zhu was sitting next to him. He couldn’t help but exclaim, “Not bad! I died as soon as I landed!”
As the team long-range marksman, he was the worst-equipped in short-range combat.
Even though one of his bullets could kill one alien, he could not get into an advantageous position.
“F*ck! Isn’t this thing supposed to be a training exercise? When are we ever going to fight against aliens in real life?”
“It’s pretty fun as a video game.”
The group of soldiers still hadn’t recovered from their shock.
Suddenly, the team sniper spoke, “Did you guys notice that?”
Tian Yuping looked at him and said, “Notice what?”
Meng Donghai paused for a second and said, “Before, the sounds we heard in the virtual reality world came from headsets, but this time was different.”
Lu Yong nodded and spoke.
“Yeah… There was also a sense of smell, taste, and even heat… It almost felt like reality.”
Sun Zhu sighed and leaned back on his chair.
“Regardless, we were slaughtered.”
“They are aliens, we should still be proud of how we did.” Tian Yuping patted his teammate on the shoulder and said, “We’re probably the only people on this planet who have fought against aliens.”
“We didn’t really fight against them, it was just an exercise, plus we were dominated.”
“Exercise… How is this an exercise? We were annihilated.”
This resonated in everyone’s mind.
This wasn’t an exercise at all.
They were aerospace paratroopers, not cruise missiles.
Sending them directly into the middle of the battlefield was the same as suicide!
In fact, Li Gaoliang felt the same way.
When he heard Lu Zhou’s “mission score”, he spat out the water in his mouth.
“Mission of 1.76, that’s pretty low,” Lu Zhou said as he looked at Li Gaoliang, who was holding the helmet in his hand.
“Out of 10?”
“No, out of 100,” Lu Zhou said. “Unfortunately, you guys didn’t even pass the first mission. I thought that with such good equipment, you guys could at least reach the outpost. The traps and other alien species didn’t even come into play.”
The power of the soldiers’ equipment was somewhat equivalent to the level of Winter Soldier from the Marvel movies.
But the soldiers all died too fast, so Lu Zhou was slightly disappointed.
Li Gaoliang was furious, and he lashed out at Lu Zhou.
“What the hell kind of battle is this? So many enemy targets on the battlefield, throwing us airborne soldiers into the middle of the fight? What’s the point? Not to mention the useless equipment, might as well give me an AK instead, I would have killed way more targets.”
Lu Zhou awkwardly smiled and patted him on the arm. “Calm down, it’s just a game, not a real fight. If there are no enemies when you land on the battlefield, where’s the fun in that?”
Li Gaoliang: “…”
He felt like he wasn’t having fun at all.
Lu Zhou looked at him and changed the subject. “So, how was the equipment?”
Li Gaoliang thought for a second and said, “It feels strange… But interesting.”
Even though he wasn’t used to the equipment, he believed that there was nothing wrong with the equipment itself; he just needed more practice.
If he had time to familiarize himself with the equipment, he was certain that he could be twice as effective in combat.
Lu Zhou: “Do you want it?”
Li Gaoliang paused for a second and looked shocked.
“Isn’t that a simulation? You… can really make it?”
Lu Zhou: “It can easily be made in real life, but I doubt if it will be useful in practice. Actually, I talked about this with Minister Qin. The virtual reality exercise isn’t only for reducing training expenses, but also to test the technical feasibility of new weapons.
“The military equipment experts might not know what you guys need, but through the virtual exercises, they can easily observe what you lack on the battlefield.”
Li Gaoliang said, “… Thank you.”
If I had the exoskeleton on my body…
I wouldn’t have lost my legs.
Even though his legs were already gone, if this technology could really come to life, it would hugely benefit soldiers fighting on the front-line.
It wouldn’t entirely save them.
But, it would reduce casualties.
Lu Zhou looked at how serious Li Gaoliang was and smiled as he said, “You’re welcome, it’s my responsibility to support our country’s defense. In fact, I didn’t develop this for military purposes, I was just interested in the technology.”
“And now, your mission has successfully concluded, it was an honor to work with you guys.” Lu Zhou shook Li Gaoliang’s hand and said, “Congratulations on completing the mission, you can return to your base tomorrow.”
Li Gaoliang paused for a second and said, “Wait a second, you’re saying we’re finished here?”
“Correct, that was the final test, the VR system is finished. Thanks to your help, we were able to simulate the sound and touch brain signals.”
Lu Zhou looked at Li Gaoliang and asked, “Is there anything wrong?”
Li Gaoliang scratched his head and spoke.
“Actually… It’s not anything big.
“It’s just that, I’m still thinking about the battle just now… I want to try it again, can I try passing it?”
Lu Zhou paused for a second and said, “That was just a small test program, it’s not a video game.”
Li Gaoliang smiled and said, “I’m saying, I can’t stop thinking about it. Give me another chance, my people can definitely get to the outpost!”
Lu Zhou: “…”
Looks like the VR system is not perfect yet.
I need to add some kind of anti-addiction mechanism…