Chapter 21 The Secret of the Ghost Army

The black steel hammer has begun to burn due to the high-speed friction with the air, dragging a long red tail flame. The weight of the hammer's 100,000 tons combined with the speed has produced an impact force of nearly 10 million tons. Anything that dared to stop it from returning to the earth was easily overwhelmed by this irresistible force.

Just like a tow truck rushing into the crowd at full throttle, the steel pillar came into contact with the rising ghost army and went down without any pause, forcing the large amount of ghost army to be smashed back to the ground. From our side, we can see that the steel battering ram sank into the ground, and then a shock wave centered on the impact point immediately spread out in all directions. Although we were well prepared to withstand the impact, our people were still knocked upside down by the shock. All the remaining buildings in the city that had survived the recent attack could not escape the catastrophe. Walls collapsed wherever the shock wave passed, and there was nothing that could be spared.

Seeing the rolling waves of earth rushing out of the city and spreading outward, our formation was swept by the shock wave one after another. The giant mosquito outpost shook for a while, almost knocking me off the top. The middle city where Matsumoto Masa was located was not spared, and the shock wave rushed all the way to their city wall. Although the distance was too far and the shock wave no longer had the initial power, the city wall still shook violently, and many soldiers standing on the edge of the city wall fell down. Matsumoto Masaru's feet also shook for a while and he almost fell.

After the shock wave ended, the loudspeaker on the Spider Fortress immediately sounded a loud voice: "Get up quickly, rush, rush, rush."

The soldiers scrambled to their feet and rushed towards the impact point. Spider Fortress and Army Ant Fortress quickly followed, but they did not see any enemies except a few wounded soldiers. The ram created a huge impact crater with a radius of 100 meters and a depth of 400 to 500 meters near the impact point. There is a large hole in the center of the pit, which extends downward like a well. This big hole is caused by the air pressure around the ram, and the well in the middle is caused by the ram itself. The high-speed rotating ram drove the ghost army manufacturing machine deep into the ground like a pile driver.

Everyone was surrounding the ground looking down, but suddenly the ground began to shake. Taking advantage of their longer legs, Spider Fortress stood directly on top of the large well and looked down. As a result, they only saw a red thing under the dark deep well. We also saw this scene simultaneously at the Giant Mosquito Outpost here. A player was still asking stupidly: "What is this?"

Sumei suddenly jumped up and shouted at the crystal communication machine: "Flash! It's magma!"

The loudspeaker of the Spider Fortress sounded a warning sound that had changed its tone, and all the soldiers dispersed and ran towards the direction of the formation. As soon as everyone arrived outside the city, there was an immediate boom in the big hole in the middle of the city, and a fountain-like red lava flew up more than 300 meters high, almost knocking down the giant butterfly city that was descending.

Ying looked at Rong and shouted in surprise: "Holy crap? How did you hit the magma layer? The earth's crust is not that thin, right?"

I explained naturally: "South Korea is also in the Pacific Ring of Fire and Earthquake Zone. There are several volcanoes here, and it is normal to have a shallow lava river. That big guy drilled at least a kilometer deep, and must have drilled into the lava layer. .”

"Then why did it erupt now?" Eagle still didn't understand.

"Because the ram blocked the exit." Su Mei explained: "The ram was melted just now. So it didn't start erupting until now. Looking at this posture, the volcano is still erupting. We are completely erupting now. It saves trouble."

The heavy hammer attack was too powerful. Although it successfully destroyed the manufacturing machine, the heavy hammer also indirectly destroyed the city. The billowing lava erupted for half an hour before it ended. The large amount of lava gradually cooled, and the city no longer existed. A piece of semi-condensed volcanic rock with a pungent sulfur smell replaced the city. Masa Matsumoto and Shota Tanaka looked at this huge volcano and were speechless, and we were almost the same. I didn't expect such a result at all.

"I know we are losing money this time!" Rose looked at me and said.

"Loss money?"

"The materials and transportation costs for that battering ram are not cheap. It looks like there is no possibility of recycling it. Hey! One hundred thousand tons of raw steel! What a pity!"

"If it's gone, it's gone. Anyway, we have a lot of steel. It costs almost as much to transport it back, and recycling may not necessarily save money."

"But there's that way over there!" Rose pointed to the side.

I slapped myself on the forehead: "Oh my God! How could I forget them!"

The city where the Korean guild is responsible for attacking has not achieved any results so far. The Japanese ghost army and the Korean guild troops started a tug-of-war on the city wall. One moment you snatch it away, the other moment I snatch it away, it’s all a waste of people. According to the production speed of the Japanese ghost army, the only result of this war of attrition is the complete collapse of Korean players.

Ying asked the operator to turn the display lens to the battlefield over there. Looking at the tragic battle on the screen, even we felt distressed. Hongyue couldn't help but ask: "How many of the three billion crystal coins the Koreans bought this time are left in the heavenly army?"

Rose took a rough look at the battlefield and said: "No more than one-third. They don't have our war fortress to suppress the enemy's firepower. And they are unwilling to destroy the city wall. This kind of strangulation battle is the most labor-intensive! Damn Japanese ghost army, what's the matter? So many?"

"Speaking of the ghost army, do we need to find out what's going on with this Japanese thing?" Ying took the message sent from Japan by Ling Yuanchui and said: "According to the analysis, this machine also seems to consume some The ghost army can only be made with stuff, which means it is not made for free. Why did the Japanese create such a large army? Are they using their own money to fight for ours? It doesn't look like it!"

I thought about it and suddenly came up with an idea. "You guys wait a minute, I'm going to ask an acquaintance to help me check." He took Rose and said, "Go offline with me."

Eagle asked curiously: "What acquaintance are you asking for? How do you check this?"

"You will know when we come back. Don't worry, it will be almost done in an hour. You first let the team gather to count the damage."

I quickly got off the line and took off my helmet, and I directly took Rose with me and ran to the general management office. Rose asked me curiously: "What on earth do you want to do?"

"Check the accounts." I said as I pressed my hand on the identification terminal.

The electronic voice rang quickly: "The highest level access permission is passed. What do I need to do for you?"

"Query Longyuan's capital flow status in the last 10 hours, showing the status of fund remittances in all Asian regions."

The data on the big screen was displayed in a mess, and it was too fast to read. I immediately narrowed the scope again and said: "Check the fund flow situation of the online game "Zero" and search for the remittance."

"374.4 billion operation records were found. Do you want to display them all?"

"Retrieve the section from the Bank of Japan."

"1.2 billion records remain." The electronic voice quickly answered my question.

"It's still too much!" I shook my head worriedly.

Rose already understood what I meant. She walked to the screen and said on my behalf: "Search, according to the transaction party identification, filter the five trading units with the most frequent transaction records."

"Warning. Voiceprint capture is not allowed. Please verify when using the service." The resource computer does not have the intelligence of the central host, and the service is relatively rigid.

I pulled Rose's hand over and pressed it on the recognition screen, and at the same time pressed one of my own hands on it: "High-end authorization."

"Passed. Welcome to the high-end resource computer system."

I gestured to the rose and continued. Rose immediately repeated what she just said. The computer immediately replied: "The highest frequency trading account retrieved 700 million records. 99.99% of the 'operation' records originated from the same transaction item."

“What’s the name of this project?”

"The production cost of ghost army soldiers."

Rose and I laughed face to face. I am afraid that no one else can cheat at such a high level as me, and we have all found out.

Rose looked at the screen again: "Randomly select some items and display them on the screen. Just fill the screen. Don't scroll the screen."

Hundreds of records immediately appeared on the screen, and each line was quite clear. Rose pulled me and pointed at the screen and said: "Look here. The transaction records of the Ghost Army, the number of units is the formation. The Ghost Army is not produced according to the number, but is produced in formations. No wonder it is so fast."

"The unit price of a formation is only 1 crystal coin. No wonder Japan is so willing to pile up soldiers with us. They are all such cheap soldiers."

Rose also frowned and said: "According to this calculation, if we use artillery shells to attack them, it will be a loss. The soldiers killed by one artillery shell are not as expensive as the artillery shells. It is a big loss."

I clicked on one of the items and it said: "Show this item separately. The most detailed record is required."

The screen suddenly filled the screen with this display, and related information filled the screen.

Rose pointed at the data on the screen in surprise: "Look, the base number of a formation is twenty, and one soldier is worth five silver coins!"

I said again: "Change the operation. Display the trading time of ten consecutive operations."

The screen changed again, and the ten records that came out were consecutive, and they were all purchase records.

Rose counted down the time: "The first one is twenty-seven minutes fifteen seconds three-three-six, the next one is three-three-seven, and the next one is three-three-eight. The interval between each transaction is only 0.001 seconds, so That is to say, this manufacturing machine can create 20,000 ghost army soldiers per second. No wonder they are pouring out like a fountain. That machine can spawn more than one million troops in one minute. It’s surprising that they can be beaten in!"

"Wait a minute, look here." I pointed to the record below: "The transaction numbers of these two are different. This is not the same machine. The Japanese have two ghost army manufacturing machines, so the time is separated. It should be able to create 10,000 ghost armies per second instead of 20,000."

"Ten thousand is a lot. Really, how could such a perverted thing appear? What will we do soon? The Koreans themselves must not be able to handle that city. If we have to send troops, the losses will be too great. If Wouldn’t it be too expensive to make another heavy hammer?”

I looked at the screen and said: "The Japanese can get such a powerful thing. We can't let it exist. It must be dealt with. Fortunately, this time the Japanese only used it for defense. If they released the soldiers and ran all over the mountains and plains. Our troops can’t stop them even if they want to.”

Rose suddenly looked at me and said: "That's not right! Since the Japanese have such a powerful army-making machine, there is no reason for them not to send out troops to sweep them away? The combat effectiveness of these ghost armies is very weak. Instead of fighting a defensive battle with us, , wouldn’t it be more advantageous to release them to engage in mobile warfare? The Japanese must have a reason for doing this, unless..."

"They can't get out at all." Rose and I said at the same time.

Rose said with certainty: "Everything in the game should be balanced. Since there is such a powerful machine, it must have shortcomings. The soldiers made by this machine must not be able to leave the machine too far, otherwise there will be other restrictions. .”

I nodded: "Have you noticed that there are not many ghost troops in the city before our team enters. Normally, we fight in large groups. The Japanese have discovered us long ago, but why didn't they make some in advance? Why do the ghost army have to wait for us to attack before starting to create?"

"I think it's not that they don't want to build it, but that they can't build it." Rose deduced: "This machine may only be activated when the city is under attack. It may be similar to our guild's point-of-war array. It must be activated before the city is attacked." It is only allowed to be activated in critical moments.”

I suddenly thought of another question. "Do you remember what Park Yin said about their first counterattack?"

"Is this your first time to fight back?"

"According to Park Yin, when they first launched the attack, there were no ghost troops participating in the battle. In other words, the ghost army could not be created in advance. In the background, they encountered the ghost army only after they invaded the city, and there were more and more of them. This shows that the ghost army and The enemy's attack situation is directly related. Think about it, what happened when we entered the city later? When we first entered the city, the refresh speed was not fast at all. In the end, weren't we 'forced' to the vicinity of the refresh point little by little? But What happened later? Later, the speed simply got out of control, and troops were sent out like a blowout, which was simply abnormal."

Rose said: "We'd better go back and discuss it. Su Mei may be able to analyze some clues. This girl's brain is very shrewd."

"Okay." I turned around and closed the terminal to connect back and get online again.

After Rose and I appeared inside the Giant Mosquito Outpost, we shared our intelligence and analysis results with everyone, and everyone immediately agreed with our point of view. After Su Mei finished listening, I asked her: "Can you analyze anything?"

Su Mei thought for a while and said: "First of all, we can be sure that this machine will definitely change with the changes of the attacker. The harder we attack, the faster it will work. If my guess is correct, it may be using the will to fight. The more we attack, the faster it will work." Be brave. The stronger it becomes. In addition, there is a result that can be concluded from what you said."

"What's the result?"

"This machine has a maximum number of people."

"The upper limit? Do the soldiers produced still need energy support?"

Su Mei shook her head: "I don't know why. Anyway, there is a limit to the number of soldiers this thing can produce. Although its manufacturing speed will change depending on our fighting will, it cannot exceed the upper limit of the number. When the number of soldiers reaches a balance After this point, every time a soldier dies, this machine can create another soldier. If no ghost army dies, it cannot continue to produce soldiers."

Rose immediately said: "That is to say. If we have a way to keep all the ghost armies out of the machine without killing these ghost armies, then we can go in and destroy the machine, right?"

"That's the case in theory. But in practice it's almost impossible. It's very simple to keep the enemy out and prevent them from getting close to the machine, but it's another thing not to cause harm to them in the process. Once you kill If a ghost army soldier dies, the internal machine will create another soldier, so the siege plan will be in vain." Su Mei looked at us and continued: "In addition, your analysis that the enemy cannot leave the city is also wrong. South Korea There have been several situations where the ghost army launched counterattacks and came out, so they can leave the city. The reason why they don't use the strategy of attacking all over the mountains and fields you mentioned is because this machine has a support limit. The number of soldiers that appear at the same time They are restricted to death. If the ghost army has no advantage in combat effectiveness and has no advantage in numbers, they will die if they go out. On the contrary, if they stay in the city, they can play a time difference and just gain a local advantage."

"Sure enough, it's our Zhiduo Xing. This has been analyzed."

Su Mei shook her head and said: "It's a pity that the analysis is useless. If you can't block the enemy from the machine, you can't destroy the machine. But if you block these people, there will inevitably be casualties. Once there are casualties, it means that you have not blocked it."

When everyone heard this, they immediately fell into deep thought. Only I laughed. Everyone was confused by me. Rose looked at me: "Why are you laughing?"

"I laugh because I have a solution."

"Tell me quickly." Ying couldn't wait to hear the solution.

"Actually, it's very simple. Isn't the ghost army very weak in combat effectiveness?"

"Of course we know this." Hong Yue said impatiently: "They killed more than a billion ghost soldiers in one night and only killed tens of thousands of our heavenly soldiers. They are not on the same level at all."

"That's very clear." I explained: "Let the heavenly soldiers bring ropes, and when they find the enemies, they can tie them up and tie them back."

"You mean to take prisoners?"

"Yes. The captives captured alive are still members of the ghost army, and they still have to occupy the population limit of the machine. As long as we catch them slowly, we can always capture the population limit. By then, the machine will only have one soldier. If you can’t brush it out, you can smash it as much as you want.”

"That's right! Why didn't you think of such a simple solution earlier?" Eagle complained.

Sumei smiled and said: "Without the information brought back by Brother Ziri, we would not be able to analyze the principle of the machine at all, and naturally we would not be able to think of a solution. It seems that this machine is actually rubbish. The combat effectiveness of this kind of ghost army is extremely poor. It's easy to capture prisoners, and it won't take long to capture them all. By then, the machine will be useless. It's just that we have been getting the tactics wrong, that's why it's so troublesome. Everything in the game is basically balanced Yes, there won’t really be such a perverted thing. Just like our war fortress, it looks amazing in combat effectiveness, but the cost is even more amazing, and it can’t be mass-produced.”

Ying said: "Then let's do this for the remaining city."

"Don't worry, at least wait until the Koreans are satisfied with the fight." I smiled and pointed at the Korean command: "Don't forget that we still have a bet. If they don't let them understand, we will They won’t appreciate the help.”

After determining the combat strategy, we began to wait for the Koreans to finish the battle. We did not want to touch the city in the middle where Matsumoto Masa was stationed for the time being. Our troops also need a break. The backbone of the Korean people is so strong that they were beaten from dusk on the first day to dawn on the second day. Our troops are standing nearby, but they refuse to admit defeat. Anyway, we have agreed that as long as they don't ask for help, we won't reach out. The Koreans went back and forth on the city wall, killing dozens in and out. They were beaten back every time, but they did not ask for help.

We simply let the team rest on the spot. The NPC army is also tired. In the past, it didn't matter that they were undead. Heavenly soldiers are living creatures, and staying awake for a long time will affect their combat effectiveness. We rested until around 10 o'clock in the morning. Finally, the Korean army was out of support. Players were kicked out of the game after their fatigue levels reached their peak. The NPC army was almost exhausted by them. We raised the price of those 3 billion crystal coins. I couldn't buy many heavenly soldiers, and after spending the whole night, I could barely get a tenth of them.

When it was almost lunch time, the Korean troops finally withdrew one after another, and the presidents who were very aggressive at first all quietly gathered together for a meeting. Rose and I stood outside their military camp and watched them. If you have the ability, keep fighting, but in the end you are going to ask me for help?

Perhaps out of embarrassment, those guild leaders waited for more than an hour before finally walking back toward my camp step by step. Rose smiled and turned around and said, "Tell the troops to get up and have something to eat. It's our turn to perform."