Silver Wing Sentinel

Blue Star, Dragon Kingdom, a family compound at a tactical training base.

Late at night, the living room was shrouded in smoke.

Lei Zhen, Thunder King, sat on a battered sofa, pinching a gleaming 7.62mm bullet between his fingers. Across from him sat his old squad leader, Ban Jianguo, now a mid-level operations captain in the security department. Coincidentally, he was an old squad leader in both senses of the term.

"Lei, you called me over in the middle of the night just to watch you space out?" His old squad leader crushed out his cigarette.

"Squad Leader, take a look at this." After thinking for a long time, Lei Zhen decided to report it to the organization. He believed Vanguard Across the Realm's earlier judgment had been wrong, trapped in the mindset of professional players treating it as a game and fighting for personal advantages. Given the current player progression, secrecy was meaningless! Soon, the first batch of players would begin changing classes in large numbers and gain the chance to purchase Titan Blood. News this public could never stay hidden!

He motioned for his old squad leader to watch his right hand. His fingers tensed, relying solely on a flick of his wrist and the explosive force of his fingertips.

"Go."

Whoosh—!

A shrill tearing sound exploded through the room. The bullet shot out as if it had been fired, instantly crossing five meters and embedding itself deep in the mahogany cabinet behind his old squad leader with a soft thud. A wisp of smoke still rose from its tail.

His old squad leader's pupils instantly contracted. Throwing a bullet barehanded? The instantaneous explosive force and finger-joint strength required had already surpassed human limits.

"Fuck... you... did you inject some kind of bioweapon serum?"

His old squad leader's eyes went wide in an instant.

"If I told you I trained it by playing a game, would you believe me?" Lei Zhen spread open his palm, revealing only a faint layer of calluses.

"Bullshit! Tell me the truth!"

Under his old squad leader's uncertain gaze, Lei Zhen's expression turned grave. "Titan: Genesis. Squad Leader, I know it sounds absurd, but over the past few days, my physical abilities have truly been breaking past their limits in the game. And it isn't just me. It doesn't only strengthen us—it can heal people too!"

He briefly explained Chen Feng and Li You's situations.

"Soon, our front line will keep advancing, and a huge number of players will change classes and start scrambling for Titan Blood. Within days, this news will be public."

After a long silence, his old squad leader said in a low voice, "This is too big. I can't contain it. It has to be reported. Before then, you and your teammates need to make something of yourselves in there and stay in the first echelon if possible. If the country needs to intervene, you'll be our advance team."

"Yes!" Lei Zhen snapped to attention and saluted.

In-game time, the fifth day after the third test began.

End of the Bronchioles — Blackstone Fortress.

The players rode the Crimson Boat directly around the enemy's rear. After Vanguard Across the Realm's team beheaded a level 15 Lava Troll, they seized an open area. It was like planting a Respawn Point deep behind enemy lines and piling up a fortress there, advancing alongside the front line.

This had already become a true frontline city. At the very top of the fortress, a meeting that would determine the entire server's landscape was underway.

Vanguard Across the Realm sat at the head of the table, watching the bustling stream of players outside the window. Sitting across from him was Data Maniac.

"Brother Feng, the statistics on where the potions went are ready." Li Zihan adjusted his holographic glasses and brought up a set of data. "The shop has unlocked a total of eight [Titan Blood] so far. Our five core team members each took one, using up five."

"What about the other three?"

"One was taken by the president of the 'Imperial Dynasty' guild, one was bought by 'Dragon Fighting in the Wild,' and the last was snagged by a solo player called 'Blessed One.'" Li Zihan gave a bitter smile. "The forums have exploded. All three people who bought the serum are personally testifying—'healing chronic ailments,' 'surging energy,' 'suboptimal health disappearing.' Those phrases are enough to drive everyone insane."

"Too many wolves, too little meat." Vanguard Across the Realm tapped the table. "I checked. The shop page says the cap for this campaign is one thousand doses. Not everyone will be able to buy the serum; first come, first served. If we want to build a guild, without real-world financial backing, we can only use our in-game advantages to attract people."

"I suggest we monopolize the class-change materials for [Flame Prison Guard]," Brute Force Yields Miracles cut in. "After all, that stuff is a must-have for Divine Guards."

"We can't monopolize it." Li Zihan shook his head. "[High-Energy Amber Essence] is an environmental product. As long as players are willing to spend time creating frictional heat or digging in specific areas, they can always get it. We can't guard the map and kill people twenty-four hours a day."

"Then what do we profit from?"

"Efficiency." Vanguard Across the Realm set the tone. "We won't monopolize materials. We'll use our level and equipment advantage to monopolize safety and speed."

"Establish the Dawn Guild. Build the strongest power-leveling team and class-change mercenary corps, accepting only the best of the best. I've tested it. Group battle experience in this game is awarded based on combat contribution, so we'll never have to worry about clients surpassing us this way. Ordinary players can't beat Elite Monsters? Pay us, and Dawn will kill them for you. Want to dig materials in high-risk areas but afraid of losing levels? Pay us, and Dawn's Divine Guards will take the damage. Want to clear a class-change quest? Pay us, and we'll provide the guide."

"What we want to be isn't the enemy of the entire server, but the biggest service provider on the server. Earn the Bio-Energy of all server players, then race to snatch up the tiny amount of stock that refreshes each round."

High-Dimensional Perspective: Titan Divine Body.

Gu Yuan watched the players enthusiastically building guilds and developing an economy without interfering. The more active the players were, the more Bio-Energy they generated.

[Current Bio-Energy Reserve: 85,000,000 points (eighty-five million).][Heart Core Shield: 0.25%.]

"Finally, I'm wealthy." Gu Yuan let out a long breath as he looked at the huge sum in his hands. Though it was still a drop in the bucket compared to repairing the entire divine body, it was enough for him to carry out a small-scale "immune reconstruction."

"Relying on the players alone is still too slow. Besides, quite a few casual players wandering around have started guessing at the game's background story. Some have even pieced together clues and guessed that this world is a gigantic living organism. I might as well let them understand the true nature of this world more clearly." Gu Yuan turned his gaze toward the depths of the bone marrow. The immune army Titan had once been proud of lay sleeping there.

"System, reconstruct the first batch of immune defenses." "Summon unit: Silver Wing Sentinel, prototype: specific T-Cell/ranger." "Quantity: 5,000." "Cost: 10,000,000 points." "Setting: activate 'high-intelligence interaction mode.'"

Boom! With a sweep of Gu Yuan's hand, ten million Bio-Energy points evaporated instantly.

Blackstone Fortress Plaza.

The players who were setting up stalls and bragging suddenly felt the ground shake. The enormous teleportation gate behind the fortress, the Biological Beacon, suddenly blazed with light, even outshining the surrounding flames.

"Holy shit? Is the city under monster attack?" "No! Green names! Friendly units!"

Under the astonished gazes of countless players, squads of NPC soldiers emerged from the gate wearing streamlined silver-white light armor and carrying twin light-energy blades on their backs. Unlike the clumsy, silent "colossi" from before, they were lean and agile. Their faces were covered by full tactical masks, leaving only a pair of electronic eyes that glinted coldly.

[System Notification: Immune System restored.][Reinforcements arrived: Silver Wing Sentinel (NPC)][Level: LV.15][Quantity: 5000]

One bold player stepped forward and tried to speak to the leading Silver Wing Sentinel captain. "Hey, buddy, where are you from?"

The Silver Wing captain halted and scanned the player with his electronic eyes.

He turned his head, his voice carrying a distinctive metallic texture. "Reading authorization... Identification code: Symbiote—Fourth Calamity sequence."

"Symbiote?" The player froze. "What does that mean?"

The Silver Wing captain raised a hand and pointed at the gloomy dome overhead, the Alveoli wall, then at the ground beneath their feet. "What you stand upon is Titan's Right Lung Lobe. The air you breathe is Titan's breath. We are the guards of this place, and you are Titan's Kinfolk, carrying a fragment of Titan's flesh and will."

"What?!" The surrounding players were all stunned. "We're inside a lung? This is a giant's lung?" "I knew this map had too many strange things! That Crimson Boat couldn't be a Red Blood Cell, could it?" "Then what are all those fire monsters?"

"Those are Lesions." A trace of killing intent entered the Silver Wing captain's voice. "They are viral conglomerates, burning away a god's respiratory organs."

"Assist us. Eliminate the Lesions. That is the meaning of your existence."

This conversation was immediately recorded and posted to the forums, causing an enormous uproar. <Confirmed! We're fighting bacteria inside a giant's body!> <Just how huge is Titan? A single bronchus is already one map?>

This novel world setting amazed everyone. But for players who had already used Titan Blood, the shock they felt was on an entirely different level.

"Titan?! No way!"

Crimson Route — Aorta Mainstream.

While the main force was learning about the world setting through the NPCs in the lungs, a three-person exploration team led by the ID Star River Wanderer had already drifted somewhere completely unfamiliar aboard a Crimson Boat.

This was no longer a narrow blood vessel, but a vast crimson expanse as broad as an ocean. Above them was a dark-red dome with no visible end, while beneath them surged a Blood Sea.

"What... is that?" his teammate Bear Grylls Possession pointed into the distance, his voice trembling.

At the center of the Blood Sea stood a massive black lattice pillar that pierced heaven and earth. It did not resemble biological tissue, but rather some kind of cold metal. It was covered in ancient, obscure runes—actually the texture of some nanomaterial—and currently emitted a faint blue glow as it supported this blood vessel segment on the verge of collapse.

[System Warning: Entering high-risk area "Aorta · Artificial Intervention Point."][Warning: "Ancient Civilization" remnant detected (vascular stent).]

"Artificial Intervention Point?" Star River Wanderer frantically pressed the screenshot button. "This game has sci-fi elements too? That pillar looks like some kind of... super-metal stent?"

"Titan had surgery before?" Screenshot Maniac exclaimed. "This world setting is insanely detailed!"

Before they could get a better look, an [Abyssal Devourer]—a polluted giant white-blood-cell mutant the size of a whale—suddenly swam past the pillar. It opened its enormous mouth and swallowed all three of them, along with the Red Blood Cell boat beneath their feet, in a single bite.

[You have died.]

Though they had died, that screenshot and the NPC dialogue corroborated one another, completely igniting the entire server's enthusiasm. This world was not merely about fighting monsters and leveling up. It was a dying god waiting to be saved.

Back at the A7 District front line.

With the addition of five thousand Silver Wing Sentinels, the advance speed surged once more. These highly intelligent NPCs were not only powerful fighters, but actively directed the players as well.

"Symbiotes on the left flank! Raise your shields! The flames are coming!" "Caster over there, release lightning at these coordinates for maximum conduction!"

Under the NPCs' tactical guidance, the players' casualty rate fell sharply.

"The opportunity is here!" Vanguard Across the Realm stood at a high point, watching the formation thrown into chaos by the NPC charge.

"Dawn Guild, all members, heed my command! Target: every Living Flame and Lava Troll ahead. Leave none alive! The Silver Wing Sentinels said that once we kill these gatekeepers, the Lesion core lies beyond! We'll fight for the first kill on the final boss!"

"Data Maniac, keep an eye on the other front's progress. The moment Titan Blood unlocks, grab it immediately! Charge!"

While twenty thousand troops fought fiercely on the front line, another ten thousand troops launched a full-scale assault under the cover of the Silver Wing Sentinels.

Wondering what the other twenty thousand were doing? There would always be casual players, after all! The flames of war had finally reached the Flame Demon's doorstep.