I summoned the Fourth Scourge in Warhammer

Chapter 35 Ragged and patched up

In a corner of the chemical refinery, boisterous cheers and the crisp sound of dice hitting the ground drifted from afar, as most players were immersed in the rare post-war entertainment.

But Ruan Wenbo did not join them. He sat alone on a relatively quiet container, a semi-transparent system store interface floating in front of him, his gaze slowly moving over the dazzling array of goods, lost in thought.

A soft footstep sounded, and Ruan Wenbo looked up to see a player walking towards him. It was the player with the ID [JK]. Ruan Wenbo remembered him; he was a clever and observant guy.

"Why don't you go and watch the running games with them?" Ruan Wenbo asked casually.

JK shook his head, sat down in the empty seat next to him, and looked tired: "Company Commander, you didn't go either, did you?"

He sighed, his voice low and somber: "I saw some things, and after coming back, I really didn't feel like going to watch the role-playing games anymore."

So he told Nguyen Van Bo everything that he had just experienced in Zone C-1.

After listening, Ruan Wenbo fell into a long silence. Looking at his carefree, shouting comrades in the distance, and recalling the image of the child JK had described, a strong sense of separation and heaviness weighed on his heart. In the end, he could only utter a weak and feeble sentence.

"You're right, all we can do is win the war. Maybe...maybe their lives will be better after the war ends."

“I’m afraid that what led to their predicament wasn’t just the war.” JK shook his head again, his tone tinged with doubt.

Ruan Wenbo reached out and patted JK on the shoulder, the force of his hand conveying an undeniable determination: "At least on Peditia Star right now, what has led them to this state is war! Let's focus on what's at hand first."

His voice grew stronger: "Be brave in war and lively in rest, aren't we doing a good job now? More than that is not something we should be thinking about at this stage."

JK was silent for a moment, then finally nodded: "Company Commander, you're right. I may have been overthinking things."

As he spoke, he turned his gaze to the panel in front of Ruan Wenbo and changed the subject: "Company Commander, are you... thinking about buying something with your merit points?"

“Yes,” Ruan Wenbo also used this opportunity to bring his thoughts back to reality, “My merit points have exceeded 10,000, it’s time to buy some things to improve my overall combat strength.”

Upon hearing this, JK asked in surprise, "Over 10,000 merits? Company Commander, you haven't been promoted yet?"

“Theoretically speaking, I’ve already been promoted,” Ruan Wenbo said. “Commissar Walter just spoke to me in a consultative tone. He clearly considers me a peer officer. After all, it’s too astonishing to hold a position with only a hundred men, kill a Chaos Wizard, take down a chemical refinery, and even have a pureblood cunning thief.”

He paused for a moment, then added, "But in reality, where would I get so many troops to be transferred to my command and upgrade our [Death Squad] to a regiment level? I guess we'll have to wait until the third closed beta test for that."

Speaking of organization, Ruan Wenbo thought of another problem. The organization of the Astronautical Forces was somewhat chaotic. Warhammer was a British invention, and the Astronautical Forces' organization seemed to inherit the tradition of not separating regiments and battalions in British military history. He even considered whether to proactively create a "battalion" level organization within the player forces. After all, both Germany, which swept across Europe during World War II, and the Soviet Union, which ultimately defeated Germany, possessed mature and efficient battalion-level tactical units. Ruan Wenbo didn't think he was any smarter than the General Staff of the German and Soviet armies.

But the game's realism also gave him pause. What if the Astral Army's peculiar organizational structure actually had its reasons for existing in this brutal Warhammer universe?

After all, most imperial systems are like this: the feudal system, the high lord system, the tithe system—each system is not reasonable or even normal, but together they somehow manage to function.

As we all know, when you don't know why a system works, the best option is not to try to fix its bugs...

JK nodded knowingly. He hadn't thought much about it, and excitedly suggested, "Company Commander, why don't you buy a Leman Rustank and drive it? Your current merits should be enough, right?"

“It’s enough,” Nguyen Van Bo did not deny that his merits were enough to exchange for a main battle tank, “but there’s one problem: do you know how to resupply the Leman Russ with ammunition?”

He looked at JK and said seriously, "The tanks we bought come with a basic load of ammunition. What happens when they run out? We can't expect them to regenerate, can we?"

“Uh…” JK was stumped by the question. He scratched his head and said uncertainly, “Didn’t we just take over the chemical refinery? They should be able to produce artillery shells there, right?”

Ruan Wenbo shook his head, rejecting his presumptuous guess: "The chemical refinery only produces explosives and promethium, not a machining plant. Tank shells are not just a lump of explosives; they also require a finely processed shell body, primer, and propellant. We can solve the explosives problem, but we can't make the shell."

JK was dumbfounded: "It's that complicated? Does that mean we have no way to resupply except by using merit points to buy artillery shells?"

"That's how it is. Without the support of foundries or skilled technicians, the tanks we bought, once they ran out of ammunition, became nothing more than expensive scrap metal." Nguyen Van Bo shrugged helplessly. "We can't even make the most basic shell casings."

“It seems so…” JK wholeheartedly agreed, “That’s true… Buying an iron coffin to use as a disposable cannon would be such a waste.”

Ruan Wenbo then posed a second question: "And have you ever considered whether there are any players in our community who can drive tanks?"

Seeing that JK was about to speak, Ruan Wenbo interjected, "I'm not talking about the kind of 'tank driving' where you just move forward, backward, and fire. With the assistance system, that's easy for any player. I'm talking about a different kind of 'ability'... For example, how to use the terrain to avoid potential enemy anti-tank fire? There are psychic guys in the cult who can use psionic abilities. What do you do when we're driving a tank in open terrain and the enemy suddenly fires a psionic missile from a corner you can't see?"

Seeing JK's thoughtful expression, he softened his tone: "I'm not criticizing players for not knowing how to drive tanks. Asking everyone to become an ace crew without any experience is asking the impossible. What I mean is, this is clearly a program that requires paying a lot of 'tuition.' We'll have several, even dozens, of tanks easily destroyed by the enemy before we can slowly cultivate an excellent tank crew through countless deaths..."

JK finally understood what Ruan Wenbo meant, and he exclaimed in realization, "At this stage, we obviously can't afford this tuition fee."

“Yes.” Nguyen Van Bo nodded and concluded, “Moreover, the shells that tanks fire cannot be produced at present, and we can only purchase them with merits, which is another huge expense. In short, we absolutely cannot afford such a luxury as driving a tank right now.”

(End of this chapter)