Chapter 53: Trapped

"Mayfly trying to shake a tree, truly overestimating one's capabilities."

Lü Bu, who had just broken enemy lines and seized their banners, swung his halberd once more. Three short spears snapped instantly in half. Deprived of their weapons, the foot soldiers let out a cry and turned tail to run.

Following the path cleared by Lü Bu, dozens of Han infantrymen and cavalry closely trailed behind. Seizing the hilltop, they immediately launched downward attacks against the thrown-into-disorder Yellow Waves bandits.

"Fengxian is mighty!"

Wei Xu reached out to hold back Lü Bu, who was posturing to charge the enemy formation again.

"Take care of your health. The enemy is already in chaos, leave the rest to the brothers."

Lü Bu was startled and hurriedly reached up to touch the gauze on his neck. Feeling no blood, his heart settled slightly, and he laughed.

"This brat Su specially called for us to attack together. I originally thought they were some hard-to-crack, formidable enemies, but it turns out they're just mountain bandits and farmers, utterly incapable of a single blow."

Having risen in revolt for less than two months, the Yellow Waves army consisted mostly of rounded-up bandits and robbers, alongside coerced commoners. Their equipment was crude; not only did they lack proper armor, but there were even foot soldiers holding manure forks and kitchen cleavers.

Against a fully armed, elite force tempered through blood and fire, ten such mountain bandits and farmers wouldn't even be a match for a single one of their men.

Therefore, the moment he saw these people still marching in a single, snake-like formation, Lü Bu abandoned all tactical preparations—charging was all it took.

The only thing that puzzled him was that such opponents hadn't been swallowed up directly by Su Suyao himself, but were instead deliberately left for them. Could this kid have suddenly figured things out and learned to play official politics?

Naturally, that was not the case.

However, Su Yao, who was watching Lü Bu display his divine might from the woodland in a ravine on the other side, wore a somewhat hesitant expression.

"Squad leader, Squad Leader Lü has already broken the enemy, let's go!" Cheng Lian said.

"Wait a moment longer." Su Yao gripped his long spear tightly.

"Squad leader, if we wait any longer, the enemy's main force will deploy reinforcements, and I'm afraid it will cause our troops no small amount of trouble."

Su Yao's unexpected behavior made Song Xian frown. Hasn't this officer always been thrilled at the sound of battle and the first to charge into every fight? Why is he acting so strangely today?

No, his superior's behavior was already a bit strange yesterday. They could have launched a surprise attack then, but he had ordered the entire force to return to the city instead. Why?

After making such an elaborate detour and running all over the place, yet doing absolutely nothing, why?

Why?

This was actually the question Su Yao had been asking himself for the past two days.

It was simply because he was currently facing a crisis he had no idea who to share with—

His game refused to log out!

Just yesterday, when he finally discovered the location of this band of Yellow Waves bandits, he had intended to let the troops resupply and launch a nocturnal surprise attack.

However, right around dusk, when he grew sick of eating dry rations and planned to log off to order takeout to improve his meal, a prompt appeared.

[Log out failed]

These four large characters frightened the compressed biscuit in his mouth right onto the ground.

After that, no matter how many times he tried, even failing when calling the in-game customer service, he finally accepted reality.

I've time-traveled!

Wake up, that's completely impossible.

People usually just shitpost and play memes online; nobody would actually be foolish enough to go look for the thrill of a truck-is-coming accident. If so, well, wish you a safe journey, bro.

Besides, he hadn't been brought here by a truck. If playing a game could casually result in time travel, then the alternate world would probably be overcrowded by now.

The most crucial thing was that all his game functions, except for the social tab, were operating completely normally.

Therefore, Su Yao only froze for a tiny fraction of a second before arriving at the "correct" answer.

He was trapped in the game again!

The reason he said "again" was because six years ago, a sensation shook the world and profoundly affected the immersive virtual gaming sphere.

—A major operational accident involving a certain Sword-and-Gun MMORPG.

Countless players, due to the producer's morbid sense of humor, were trapped in the game world and unable to log out.

It was an extreme, malicious case that ultimately resulted in the deaths of thousands, directly causing a massive recession in the global virtual reality gaming sector. The Dynasty Warriors world, which should have been publicly released and launched five years ago, was thus delayed all the way until this year.

Su Yao truly never imagined that he would be trapped in games multiple times. What kind of terrible luck was this?

Then, what was the deal with being trapped this time?

Who on earth manufactured this accident?

Was he collateral damage caught in the crossfire, or a targeted objective?

Su Yao had no way to answer these numerous questions and confusions.

However, this didn't prevent him from knowing what he should do right now.

That was to continue playing the game and clear the Dynasty Warriors world.

This wasn't because there was something wrong with his brain—playing games despite such a major incident happening—but rather a choice made based on historical experience.

The resolution of the previous Sword-and-Gun online accident relied precisely on the collaborative efforts of the players within the game, clearing it and defeating the final hidden boss to resolve the crisis.

Back then, Su Yao was merely a sightseer who went to join in the opening-day excitement. He had zero competitiveness compared to those beta-tester elites and could only honestly act as a juvenile civilian idling around in the main city's safe zone.

And this time, in the Dynasty Warriors world, could Su Yao—already among the tier of high-end players and having inherited his closed-beta attributes—master his own destiny?

Su Yao didn't know, but right now, he had no other choice anyway.

He had only to keep playing. Perhaps when the game was cleared, the answer would naturally be revealed.

Therefore, Su Yao's primary concern moving forward was that he absolutely must not die.

He didn't want to gamble on whether dying would make him restart from the beginning like a normal game, or cause him to kick the bucket directly like the players in the last crisis.

"If I had known, I would have chosen 1/4 damage..."

Fortunately, however, his closed-beta profile was powerful enough.

But first of all, all of this required confirming whether he was truly in a single-player world.

If this were once again the producer's sick joke, would he be dragged into a terrifying death game?

Most crucially, were there any other closed-beta players here who could threaten and kill him?

Logically speaking, though, multiplayer mode shouldn't allow someone to actively drag out the timeline.

Yet under this abnormal circumstance, it was hard to say how much the system had actually altered...

A complete mess, truly a complete mess!

"Squad Leader Su! If we don't dispatch troops now, it will be too late."

Hou Cheng's words brought Su Yao back from his chaotic thoughts.

Lifting his gaze, the Yellow Waves main army and right wing had almost completed their coordination. Thousands of Yellow Waves bandits had surrounded Lü Bu's dozens of Han soldiers on the mountain.

The scales of the battle began to tip. Lü Bu halted his charge and occupied the hilltop to hold his ground, at which point the numerical advantage of the enemy bandits became apparent.

Having caught their breath, the Yellow Waves bandits gathered the hundred or so rare foot archers in their army, driving away the Hu cavalry skirmishing at the foot of the mountain, while everyone else launched a fierce assault on the Han soldiers at the summit from all four sides.

"I knew these Hu tribesmen couldn't be relied upon. Maintain formation and hold the line!"

Seeing the Hu cavalry retreat in scatter without even withstanding a single wave of arrow rain, Wei Yue shouted angrily.

Having lost the Hu cavalry's harassment to cover their flanks, pressure on the hilltop defense line instantly skyrocketed.

Although the Han soldiers held the advantage in equipment and experience, there were simply too many enemies.

One short spear wasn't enough, so they brought two sickles; if two sickles weren't enough, they brought three manure forks.

The right wing of the Yellow Waves still had over 500 surviving soldiers, and the main army pressed forward in full strength, bringing nearly 800 reinforcements in one go. This tenfold disparity in troop numbers completely surrounded the Han soldiers at the summit, leaving them unable to move an inch.

Under the pressure of the bandits' human-sea tactics, the Han soldiers had no choice but to form a tight circular defense, contracting step by step.

"What is that brat Su Yao doing?!"

Lü Bu tightly gripped his Sky-Piercing Halberd and pushed Wei Xu aside. He had to break up the bandits' charge once more, otherwise the Han army would be in grave danger.

"Fengxian!" Wei Xu desperately grabbed Lü Bu.

Wei Xu was furious inside. This brother-in-law of his was simply too reckless, which was why his injuries constantly ripped open after healing, then healed only to rip open again, dragging on for so long. He had even suffered a high fever last time—how could he not learn his lesson after just a few days?!

"Ptooey—I actually got scared for a moment by this small bunch."

Wang Daye spat and cursed angrily, "Don't chase those Hu cavalry anymore, can their two legs catch up to horses, idiots! Call the foot archers back and keep your eyes on that general with the halberd. If he dares to show his head, fill him full of arrows and shoot him dead!"

Holding victory in his grasp, Wang Daye felt much more at ease. What madness had these government troops caught, finding some Hu tribesmen and thinking they could trade blows with them? Truly foolish, throwing away their lives.

Thinking back to how he had been scared enough to almost flee just a moment ago, Wang Daye wanted to wipe out these audacious fellows immediately to forget that incident.

"Just right, cut off all the heads of these government troops and send them to the county magistrate later to persuade them to surrender, haha."

——"Report! Another band of government troops has appeared in the southern valley, charging toward our main army!"

Wang Daye was startled. Fortunately, he still had 600 men in his left wing that he hadn't deployed; guarding against this exact scenario was why. A group of people could suddenly pop out from anywhere in these damned mountains, which was just annoying.

"Order my left wing to fall back and block these government troops."

"There are only twenty-odd cavalrymen coming, Boss, are you sure you want to mobilize the left wing?"

"Get lost!"

Wang Daye kicked his personal guard in the rear.

"Twenty-odd people and you want to mobilize the whole wing? Just have the rear guard turn around. Can your damn self report troop numbers to me first next time?!"

Wang Daye turned back and narrowed his eyes, watching this troop of cavalry inserting themselves toward their right flank, harboring endless contempt in his heart. Twenty-odd people dared to charge his main force of eight hundred? Were their brains damaged?

"Pike the spears, let them charge!"