NoveLight ™
“Let’s start the debriefing. Everyone, sit down.”
As the cutscene filled my view, the viewers erupted into cheers.
Even I didn’t realize it later, but the cutscene held a significance more important than expected. Especially in the Incursion mission, it was even more so. To be specific, as I had mentioned before, the Incursion mission was a massive story mission that linearized my past, and to move forward, I had to clear the previous missions.
Here, the cutscene reappeared. In short, when this appears, it means that I have cleared the Incursion mission in a suitable manner or achieved all the given detailed objectives—of course, the easiest way to do that was to obtain a clear rank of A or higher.
Conversely, not having a cutscene meant that the next Incursion mission had not been unlocked.
The viewers had been struggling in this mission for more than a month since I cleared the Lost Archive. While it was generally expected that the first clear would happen within 3 to 4 weeks... well, it seemed everyone had less time to devote to the Incursion mission because of the main event.
Thanks to one of the viewers kindly summarizing the related information in my Tricky personal community, a lot became clear.
Anyway, I remembered this situation as well.
Who would be coming out for the debriefing, where the location was, when it was, who the members were… All the briefings and debriefings that had been conducted more than hundreds of times were all in my head.
And as I scanned the surroundings, I immediately realized.
‘Operation Chariot will be the next mission.’
Of course, only four people here noticed that fact.
ISO added, a smile he couldn’t hide on his face.
“To get to the conclusion, Operation Bluefield was a complete success. In fact, it even advanced the operational timetable HQ had painstakingly set by at least two months.”
“Hmm.”
“Originally, we were supposed to invest at least three weeks in gathering intelligence, inputting the coordinates of key Russian military buildings, and launching a large-scale offensive. This is the current troop deployment situation, moving from Florida, Norfolk, and New Jersey toward the Boston area.”
A hologram floated in the air.
Blue arrows indicating friendly forces moved northward along various roads in the United States. Not only that, but some of the mainland defense fleet was also advancing north. They must have put a lot of effort into this operation, and thus HQ’s goal was likely to completely pull out Russia’s last fang.
But we had ended it in less than three days through an incredible method.
Even hearing it now feels absurd, but it was indeed quite ridiculous in the past. In terms of the scale of the offensive, at least several divisions had been mobilized, equivalent to a corps, and that plan had turned to ash in an instant.
The Icarus support operator added, seeming incredulous.
“In the operations document, we predicted three difficulties for this operation. The first was the difficulty of urban wide-area reconnaissance, the second was the breadth of the main state, and the third was the personnel and material transport capabilities that matched the name of the aircraft carrier and its operational execution capabilities… Therefore, your goal was to gather information in the main state and transmit as much of it to HQ as possible.”
“Indeed.”
“Yet you all came back after destroying that aircraft carrier. Good heavens.”
With a nearly bewildered expression, the support operator let out a dry laugh. It couldn’t be said to be a bad expression, but it didn’t seem like he had completely regained his senses either. He was accepting a result that was impossible to comprehend.
Chuckling continuously, he opened his mouth.
“As you all know, aircraft carriers are strategic weapons in and of themselves. Although the escort fleets have mostly fallen, it is assumed that the Russian military, thought to be nearly destroyed, has sent its last remaining capacity to the northeastern U.S....”
“And we smashed them all to pieces.”
“You should be thankful that you’re part of the U.S.”
After a while of laughing, he finally stopped.
His next words.
“Thanks to this, we’ve completely destroyed one of the two forces that landed in the U.S. Now we can shift all our resources to the Western recovery.”
“You seem to have something in mind.”
“That’s correct.”
At that moment, a stack of papers came up onto the table—Operation Chariot. The next Incursion mission. Of course, since this was a game, in the playing cutscene, everyone, including me, wore expressions as if they knew nothing about the content.
The presentation began. A map of the entire United States was displayed and then gradually shrank. However, it didn’t shrink that much. This operation was a mission crossing a vast area that couldn’t even be compared to the Bluefield operation.
The U.S.-Mexico border and the cities scattered at a suitable distance from it were all stained red. This directly represented the expected influence of the enemy, but because of that, it looked as if red paint had been spilled all over the map of the southern U.S.
The southwestern U.S. was suffering due to the cartels.
“If Russia and China are real threats, these are the recently emerging threats. Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Albuquerque, Phoenix, San Diego, and even Los Angeles… It seems that tens of thousands of Mexican cartel members are taking advantage of the weakened border patrols to rampage.”
“Can we handle all of that…?”
“You wouldn’t be able to get around with just vehicles.”
“Of course, you will be flying in helicopters at all times. HQ has made it clear that if necessary, they will mobilize transport planes and fleets, so don’t worry about transportation.”
“Then what should we do?”
At that moment, the area of the southern U.S., which looked like it had been drenched in red paint, regained its original color. Only then did everyone in attendance nod their heads. In short, like the Bluefield operation, our job was to color the red-stained map blue.
At that moment, he tapped his wristwatch. Suddenly, the watch began synchronizing with the support operator, and while everyone wore dumbfounded expressions, he continued speaking.
“This is a skill newly developed by the Technical Bureau. It’s the Field Support and Link System. The former helps allies within the skill range through nanomachines. It can produce ammunition and heal status ailments and injuries. As for the latter… You’ll have to try using it yourself. You might hear about it later when you return safely from the operation.”
“Let’s do that. So, when is the operation start time?”
“Let’s gather here again in a week. I hope you prepare well.”
Then, dismissed.
With that word, the cutscene ended.
It was the moment when Operation Bluefield was completely wrapped up.
“...Seems everyone has a lot they want to ask.”
Operation Bluefield, the actual time spent in gameplay was... just two hours based on VR.
If we hadn’t skipped the time spent moving in vehicles, it probably took about four hours in total. Clearing a mission with an 18-hour deadline in just four hours was likely something no one here could have imagined.
There were no proper questions. Everyone was just spewing out primitive curiosities. If I were to summarize it roughly, it was only questions about how and why this was happening—however, those inquiries could be separated or made a bit more specific.
If I had been streaming alone, I might have been able to answer those questions a bit more calmly and logically, but at least the fact that I brought up such hypothetical scenarios implicitly suggested that such an event had simply turned into an IF.
Now I wasn’t alone, and calm, logical answers wouldn’t come out.
It was just the core being roughly poked at from someone else’s mouth.
“Ah, seems there are many curious people. For me, I’m more puzzled about how I didn’t come up with this approach.”
“Most people don’t even have the authority to attack such enormous ships, and they lack the experience of training for it.”
“Hmm, I see. I apologize.”
Today, the instructors and such weren’t observing, but a multitude of unspecified general public viewers were watching. Logan, with his pro-gamer experience, understood the dynamics of this side well enough, so he didn’t bother saying anything, and Owens didn’t say anything at all because he didn’t know anything about this side.
But Laurentina spoke without any care.
“Well, okay. I’ll have to tell you a story that’s quite interesting for you.”
“Eugene, get ready. If it goes wrong, cover your mouth.”
“Understood.”
“I’m only going to talk about common sense, so I wonder why everyone is making such a fuss.”
Talking about common sense, her common sense was precisely the type not to be trusted the most.
In any case, it hadn’t been closed yet since she hadn’t said anything, so aside from Dais and Harmony, who couldn’t grasp the situation, the other three were watching Laurentina’s mouth with interest.
“To put it bluntly, I’m not really interested in how you all played this mission. Focus on the objectives. For example, if the destruction of the aircraft carrier is the goal, you should consider how much destructive power is needed to achieve that objective and think about how to meet that.”
“That seems like a jab.”
“Indeed.”
“And remember, the watches on your wrists aren’t just decorations. Just considering that we can utilize the firepower that the enemy has will significantly expand your tactical and strategic choices.”
…Is this a straight talk?
Of course, she surprisingly gave a coherent answer.
But how many people would fully understand the meaning behind that statement? Most people would likely react with, “How could anyone but you do that?” After all, I don’t think the viewers would take it seriously.
In any case, several other questions came up. Of course, I couldn’t answer most of them. There are many pieces of knowledge that shouldn’t be revealed to the world, and questions regarding who Laurentina and Officer Owens were also fell into that category. Viewers can indeed be unnecessarily curious.
Fortunately, however, several high-quality questions lay hidden like gems in the mud.
<CerberusH has donated 10,000 won.>
“Yes, that’s correct. You’ve grasped it well.”
Everyone nodded.
That was the operational framework and behavioral principle of Task Force Dagger.
Even if the price of the hundreds of missiles on the wristwatch equals a conventional weapon’s firepower, it’s still difficult to keep up with the firepower of conventional weapons, and the firepower that the task force team of just ten could carry had its limits. Unless you were carrying a nuclear bag or something.
As I mentioned before, the U.S. had suffered from a fundamental manpower shortage since the Dark Winter incident. Of course, Operation Bluefield was a result of our rampage, but practically other missions are not significantly different. The operational radius was at least from brigade to corps level, or even more.
Of course, as seen in the large-scale offensive plan that had turned to scrap paper, that wasn’t originally our job… In any case, the principle of utilizing enemy firepower was derived from such a background.
“If you have the fundamental principle of utilizing enemy firepower, the preparations naturally align with that. You’ll paralyze networks, neutralize jamming signals, gather accurate coordinates, and infiltrate conventional weapon depots. In today’s case, the aircraft carrier served that role.”
Saying this, he glanced at the chat window.
Then I smiled briefly.
“...But depending on the mission, that action guideline might not work, and you don’t seem particularly interested in that.”
Just as he said.
While many present were indeed curious about that, in conclusion, they just didn’t want me to end the broadcast early because I finished all the content today.
At this point, I might have become quite suited for being a streamer. Thinking that, I turned my head to look at Team Dagger and Dais and Harmony.
“Does everyone have time after this?”
Of course, there was no refusal.
And—
“KYAAH—! Eugene! Help me!”
“Our cute Harmony has gone like this. See you next round.”
“Kueek!”
Harmony exploded.
In an escape game inspired by the once-popular movie Cube, Harmony was grabbed by a mechanical arm extending from the ceiling, screaming all kinds of things before being ejected into the observation window.
“Let’s all have a moment of silence.”
“Moment of silence…”
“I should press X to show my condolences.”
Of course, what followed was Harmony’s voice shouting from the observation window, “I’m not dead yet!”
Part 2 of the broadcast began like that.
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