Distorted Military Logic

The target, and its source, is that majestic, silver-white Warship.

There were no cries of pain, no surprises, and no one could react.

The reflected laser beam was no longer highly concentrated, but instead appeared as a thick, chaotic beam of light filled with turbulence, sweeping fiercely across the Warship.

First it melted.

The heavy armor, forged from aerospace-grade alloys, silently melted away in the face of the insane light and heat. The intricate internal structure, energy pipelines, weapon modules... everything was evaporated in an instant.

This includes Dylan, who had just given the order, and the dark figure preparing to leave.

The instant most of Dylan's body disappeared, the Near-Death Teleportation mechanism was forcibly triggered, and the Survivor and his Sanctuary —the wrecked Warship— vanished from the spot.

The dark figure couldn't even put up a fight before being completely Annihilation in the pure storm of light energy, as if it had never existed.

[Region Two has been eliminated; all remaining areas receive +2 points]

The grey-robed man, standing silently outside the storm, had no idea what was happening when he sensed the instantaneous death of his summoned creature, followed by the breakage of his Talent link and the decline of his power.

The feeling was like having your hip bones suddenly removed from your lower body, leaving you feeling completely limp.

When his summoned creature dies, his Talent becomes ineffective, essentially rendering it useless on the spot.

What happened?

The gray-robed man was stunned.

Although he didn't know what had happened, it didn't stop him from decisively turning around and running away.

They had only gone half a mile when a suffocating heat wave came from behind them.

A meteorite wreathed in Black Flames arrived with overwhelming divine might.

[Talent: Blade Deflection:]

Effect 1: With extreme focus and precise timing, one attack aimed at the user can be blocked and deflected. Cooldown time, maximum damage, attack strength, and the user's own strength are all related.

Effect 2: Automatic Blade Deflection. When faced with an attack powerful enough to kill you, the Automatic Blade Deflection once. Cooldown time is at least three days.

This is Shi Yong's Talent.

"The timing was perfect." Su Luo looked at the micro-management master Guizishi.

It was the Talent's inhuman precision that allowed the rebound to occur the instant the laser touched the Meteorite, so precise that even the life-saving effect of the Talent was not triggered.

Without Guizishi's near-predictive combat intuition and absolute control over timing, it would be impossible to complete such a precise guidance and rebound at the instant the laser was fired, dozens of kilometers away.

Even a slight deviation in angle could cause the reflected beam of light to miss the Warship.

Anyway, Su Luo couldn't do that kind of micro-management.

"It's all thanks to the master's profound Spell..." Guizishi, still a little embarrassed.

There's a guy standing outside, let's take care of him while we're at it.

Su Luo sensed the edge of the storm and saw a guy who had been standing there casually suddenly become weak and then turn around and fly away without hesitation.

Although she didn't know what had happened, it didn't stop Su Luo from decisively striking a blow when the dog was down.

A Black Flame Meteorite emerged from the storm, accompanied by a system notification sound.

[Region Ten has been eliminated; all remaining areas receive +3 points]

Within a short period of time, both regions were eliminated.

The original intention of Zone 76 was to hold out strongholds and focus on defense.

But look, oh dear, how did we manage to wipe out two districts so carelessly?

Both were acts of self-defense.

"What a pity about my Warship." Su Luo's gaze swept over the airspace where the Warship had been hovering, and she muttered to herself.

"I don't know why, but I have a feeling something's off about this Warship." Xi Ji frowned slightly, feeling a slight itch in his lungs.

Su Luo sat to the side; the Laboratory wasn't very big, and he didn't dare smoke, afraid of being hit by Meteorite.

"The Warships ' offensive capabilities are too weak," Su Luo said without looking up, maintaining the operation of the storm.

"This laser is still weak?"

Just then, a mostly melted Meteorite drifted to the side of the Laboratory, and a mangled figure jumped back into the Laboratory from it, unable to help but speak upon hearing this.

Although he deflected the terrifying laser beam completely, the ionized matter piercing through its edges carried temperatures of at least hundreds of thousands of degrees.

Even though the hot substance was cooling down at an alarming rate, and the surrounding elements had gathered in advance to protect it.

But the airflow still propelled the hot material, now reduced to 10,000 degrees Celsius, onto him, scorching him mercilessly.

Shi Yong didn't utter a sound and fainted on the spot. He was only woken up by Su Luo on the way back with the Meteorite.

"Laser attacks are an exception. Haven't you noticed that Warships primarily use missile swarms? Their role on this kind of battlefield is mostly harassment and containment," Xi Ji said.

"But if it happened to us, we'd be stunned in one shot and taken out in two," Shi Yong complained while receiving treatment from Jing Yunxin.

"He means that, disregarding the laser main cannon, the Warship's conventional attack capabilities are probably comparable to its hull defense level," Su Luo said.

"Yes, yes, that's exactly what makes me feel uncomfortable," Xi Ji said.

"Is something wrong? I feel normal," Guizishi asked.

"No nuclear or hydrogen bombs," Su Luo reminded her.

"Aren't his missiles nuclear-armed? They seem so fast, so accurate, so advanced..." Shi Yong asked doubtfully, thinking about the missile swarm that exceeded five times the speed of sound.

"No, if it were equipped with a nuclear warhead, those two people outside who were using golden light would have been dead long ago," Xi Ji said with certainty.

"Is Captain Xi a military enthusiast?"

"Um... I usually like to chat online." Xi Ji was still a little embarrassed.

Su Luo continued, "That's the source of the incongruity. In the logic of real-world military development as we know it, the basic principles and technological thresholds of nuclear weapons are very low."

"From our global development perspective, guidance systems, Deep Space Mothership, single-ship cluster missile swarms, hypersonic reconnaissance aircraft, super-large laser main guns, energy systems... the technological difficulty of these is many times greater than that of nuclear weapons."

"Is it possible... that they don't have the materials to manufacture them?" Shi Yong asked cautiously.

"I've examined missile debris. The microscopic world is similar to our own—molecules, atoms, atomic nuclei... In the process of exploring the universe and the microscopic world, nuclear Fission and nuclear fusion are inevitable. Nuclear bombs and hydrogen bombs are extremely simple, cheap, and efficient weapons." Su Luo shook his head in Negation.

"But the enemy's futuristic Warships didn't use this kind of weapon, which means..." Xi Ji seemed to be deep in thought.

"This indicates that the development of its power system did not entirely follow the natural evolutionary path we are familiar with, based on technological accumulation and the exploration of physical rules."

"We have no prior experience with or expertise in the Mana system we currently use, so we have no say in it; however, we do have a basic understanding of the 'technology' that we once relied on for survival."

"In the reality we know, offensive capabilities are easier to develop than direct defensive capabilities. Defense relies more on interception and Intimidation, and countries are developing positioning and interception capabilities. But here, the effectiveness of offense and defense should be constrained within a relatively Balance range."

Su Luo said a lot.

"Their technology developed abnormally, it was granted by a direct system upgrade. The upgrade system is not based on technical difficulty, but only on expressiveness." Xi Ji had already understood.

"Uh..." Shi Yong was a little confused, just like when he heard Jun Lebao bragging about how awesome it was before.

Su Luo nodded slightly.

It's not just about the Technology Side.

Even Su Luo discovered this during her self-study and research of the Mana system.

Survivors upgrade their skills through the system's mechanics. Attack skills and defensive skills of the same level have the same upgrade difficulty, resulting in a Balance performance.

However, Su Luo relied on learning, understanding, and research to discover that, despite being of the same level, defensive Spells were much more difficult and consumed more energy than offensive spells!

Destruction is easier than protection.

However, in Survival Systems, the realistic military logic of "attacking high and defending low" is distorted, just like in many fantasy works.

Perhaps, in the Future, we can glean insights into the underlying design logic of the system from this.