Ark Simulator, Don't I Have No Physical Form?

Su Rui made tactical arrangements for the already prepared Reunion Movement forces. FrostNova nodded, but she had some doubts about certain parts of his plan:

"You don't seem to have arranged any attacks on the Ursus military camps in the city?"

"Of course I have. That's Patriot's task. I just didn't mark it out for you to see."

As Su Rui spoke, he showed FrostNova an inconspicuous route. "This is Patriot's route of action."

"...You're sending him out alone?"

FrostNova's tone carried concern. Although she knew her adoptive father was strong, it still seemed unsafe for him to act alone in such a serious large-scale operation.

"Of course I know. Though it's a bit of a pity, I've arranged for rapid-response units to follow Patriot."

As Su Rui spoke, he highlighted the units assigned to cooperate with Patriot along the route he had planned, including Caster squads, crossbowmen squads, and assassination units.

"He usually acts together with the Shieldguards." FrostNova still had some doubts about Su Rui's arrangement.

"But this operation needs to be as fast as possible. The Shieldguards can't actually keep up with Patriot's speed. The cumbersome Shieldguards only need to surround the outer perimeter and prevent anyone from escaping."

FrostNova wanted to refute Su Rui, because in her view, Patriot was not particularly fast either.

After all, with his massive frame and heavy armor, there was no way Patriot could possibly move nimbly.

But Su Rui said, "Patriot being slow is just a stereotype. A large body doesn't mean slow speed. You'll see soon enough. The elevator is down now. You can go in."

As he spoke, Su Rui instructed FrostNova and the others to begin moving.

Although she still had doubts about the deployment, FrostNova led her team into Chernobog.

Things had already reached the point where there was no turning back. Su Rui had always been reliable, and this time should be no different.

With that thought in mind, FrostNova gave the tall Patriot beside her one last once-over and unexpectedly noticed that his armor seemed somewhat different.

"Has your armor become newer?"

FrostNova asked uncertainly. Patriot nodded, but said nothing.

Su Rui instead spoke privately to FrostNova through her earpiece:

"I secretly upgraded Patriot's armor. Note that it wasn't just repaired. Compared to before, only the appearance is still exactly the same."

"Mm."

FrostNova nodded. She did not understand the true significance of Su Rui's words, and Su Rui did not mind.

When the massive elevator at the edge of the city carried Patriot and FrostNova's team to the surface, Su Rui's lips curled up sharply.

"Ready?"

"Mm."

Patriot gave a deep, muffled response, then strode to the very front of everyone. His armor heated up, and in the frigid air beneath the city lights, it seemed to emit scorching steam.

In reality, it was merely the moisture in the air evaporating. After all, Patriot's armor was not water-cooled.

"Then let's go! Main systems, combat mode activated!!!"

Su Rui cheered as he linked into Patriot's tactical visor and watched the massive figure suddenly burst forward.

FrostNova froze for a moment, watching Patriot accelerate from zero and surpass even a car within three seconds, charging like a speeding tank. Then she quickly called for her own team to move as well.

At the same time, she muttered softly, "No wonder he told me to wait for the signal before moving. So that was why."

FrostNova's quiet mutter went unnoticed by Su Rui, because he was already excited.

There was no thirty-meter-tall super mech like he had hoped for, but Patriot's towering build and heavy armor were already enough to make him happy.

Su Rui directly switched to the first-person perspective of Patriot's tactical mask. Watching the tall "mech" shake with the force of its rapid run while everything around it shrank and swept past behind him, his heartbeat kept accelerating.

At first, Patriot had been concerned that the mobility granted by Su Rui's modified armor might cause him to crash into innocent pedestrians during his charge.

But Su Rui had specifically arranged a dedicated route for him, using the network and traffic signals to turn the places Patriot needed to pass through into pedestrian vacuums ahead of time. That way, there was no need to worry about smashing roadside cars while charging.

Because Patriot's mobility was so terrifying, and because Su Rui had directly cut off all communications while even disguising everything to appear normal, Chernobog's forces still believed they were the only unit under attack until every squad had been assaulted by the Reunion Movement.

"We are under attack by unidentified hostile forces! We need support!" Communications like this flooded Chernobog's channels, but none of them received responses from actual allied troops.

Su Rui intercepted all communications and sent disguised responses:

"Message received. We will provide support as soon as possible. Please maintain formation until reinforcements arrive."

Naturally, those so-called reinforcements did not exist. Every unit was already within Su Rui's calculations. Telling them to remain calm was merely to ensure that no fish slipped through the net.

Of course, the most important target—and the one Su Rui cared about most—was the largest military camp in Chernobog, which Patriot was about to deal with.

There were at least some worthwhile opponents inside, such as heavily armored crossbowmen and drones.

They posed little challenge to Patriot with his modified armor, but Su Rui thought it would be fun.

With the enemy's communications silenced, Patriot charged alone with the momentum of an unstoppable steel torrent, as though he were an entire army.

The heavy wall shattered before him. Patriot burst through it, ignored the startled sentries, and charged straight toward the armory within the camp.

Although most soldiers kept their weapons with them even while sleeping, more powerful heavy weapons were generally stored in the armory.

The sentry on the watchtower who noticed Patriot's charge tried to sound the alarm, only to find that it would not respond no matter what he did. When he tried to pull out a loudspeaker and broadcast directly through the camp, he was struck down by a crossbow bolt fired from the darkness.

Every device using electronic components was merely a toy within Su Rui's domain.

In fact, if the soldier had not been struck down by the crossbow bolt, he would have discovered in despair that the loudspeaker in his hands would not work either.

Fortunately, a massive figure like Patriot made quite a commotion while charging. Before long, soldiers awakened by the noise began to move about in scattered groups.

Su Rui did not bother with them. Instead, he directly cut off their power, forcing the soldiers to stumble about in darkness.

Meanwhile, both Patriot and the small units cooperating with him had means of seeing in the dark.

After easily taking the armory, Patriot finally encountered one or two opponents worth fighting.

After all, no matter how lax a base was, it would still have patrol units.

Su Rui displayed the enemy formation on the tactical visor: two Shieldguards at the front, two Ursus Elite Crossbowmen in heavy armor, and two lightly armored drone operators.

Relying on his extensive combat experience, Patriot intended to quickly close the distance, but Su Rui directly blacked out the two drone crossbowmen in the rear.

That was their agreed-upon marker, indicating presumed death.

Patriot did not know why, but he still followed Su Rui's mark. He charged forward, then used his exceptional mobility—utterly mismatched with his enormous, heavy frame—to reach the Shieldguards' rear and engage the two heavily armored elite crossbowmen at close range.

His halberd swept out. Nothing hindered the blade as it cleaved both crossbowmen in half at the waist.

Amid the cries of alarm from the Shieldguards and the drone-operating crossbowmen, Patriot turned his gaze toward the two Shieldguards.

The Shieldguards were still urging the drone operators to act quickly:

"Where are your drones? This guy isn't easy to deal with. Damn it, he's so powerful—could he be a Wendigo?"

"How could a Wendigo be here? Aren't they all on the border of the snowfields?"

Their argument was pointless, because as the Shieldguards struggled to block Patriot's overwhelmingly powerful attacks, the drone operators suddenly discovered that five or six drones were already approaching them without needing their control.

Had reinforcements arrived? The drone-operating crossbowmen were delighted. As they retreated, they did not forget to encourage the Shieldguards in front of them. "Reinforcements are here! Be careful!"

The two Shieldguards seemed to regain their spirits. Working together, although their shields were being chopped apart piece by piece, they could at least temporarily withstand Patriot's sweeping halberd.

"That's why I hate those shield guys. They're way too interactive."

Su Rui complained unhappily, completely ignoring the fact that Patriot himself carried a huge shield. He directly activated another function of the halberd.

The thermal blade activated. Golden light lit along the edge of the halberd, and with Patriot's next swing, the Shieldguards' shields were cut apart almost without resistance, like butter beneath a hot knife.

Their arms and the armor on their chests suffered the same fate.

With only one sweep after another, the two Shieldguards lost all protection, and one of them even lost an arm.

Patriot did not even give them a chance to surrender. With another swing, the thermal halberd cleaved the heavily armored Shieldguards in half at the waist.

The two drone operators had also been blasted into fragments across the ground by the drones' shells.

Before they died, they were probably wondering why their own drones had bombarded them.

Su Rui also noticed someone nearby aiming a rocket launcher at Patriot, so he marked him on the tactical visor.

"Careful. Raise your shield. No need to dodge—the field above it can block all attacks."

If the rocket launcher had been a little more advanced, Su Rui could have directly prevented its internal electronic components from functioning.

But this rocket launcher's manufacturing method and firing mechanism were extremely old-fashioned. It still used basic ignition, then aimed and fired through the launch tube.

There were no electronic components inside, so Su Rui truly had no way to control this rocket launcher for the moment.

Still, it was not a problem. Even without raising his shield, the rocket launcher could not actually penetrate Patriot's armor.

At Su Rui's reminder, Patriot swiftly turned around. The heavy door-like shield in his left hand rose before him, white patterns lighting up across its surface before an all-encompassing protective field formed.

Rockets fired at Patriot from both front and back, but they only threw up a few sparks against his protective field and failed to leave even a scratch on his armor.

"Woohoo, awesome! Once the shield is raised, even my back gets defense checks. This feels so good! Still talking now?"

Su Rui cheered smugly in Patriot's mind. The battle-hardened Patriot had already rushed before one of the rocket launcher operators, swinging his halberd and taking his life.

Then he turned around. He did not throw his halberd, because his armor had its own long-range attack methods.

Taking endurance into account, although Su Rui had equipped it with solid ammunition warheads, most of the armament consisted of laser or shockwave turrets.

A turret extended from Patriot's upper right arm and aimed at the rocket launcher operator in the distance. Then, just as the man made an evasive move, it fired a laser and directly melted the brain of the man who was still rolling across the ground.

"Real-life rolling doesn't come with invincibility frames~"

Su Rui said something incomprehensible, but Patriot did not pay it any mind. Instead, he urged:

"How many places in this base have not yet been taken?"

Su Rui marked them out on Patriot's visor, then noticed Patriot's voice.

"Looks like you're recovering quite well. You're speaking more smoothly too."

"Mm."

"If that's the case, you can live a little longer."

Su Rui was happy that he could experience piloting a "Gundam" a little longer. Patriot did not know that. He merely felt that Su Rui was concerned for him, expressing his care through jokes like a child worried about an elder.

Though he was really only a middle-aged "old man," Patriot could not help smiling. Unfortunately, no one could see the smile beneath his mask and across his grim face. Then Patriot charged once more.

This time, he did not use a charge to close in on the enemies attempting to resist.

He directly used the laser and shockwave turrets mounted on his body to attack the enemies from afar.

Previously, he had only fought at close range because he noticed that Su Rui seemed to enjoy it, so he had accommodated Su Rui's preferences.

This "old man" was actually quite open to new things. He quite liked the turrets Su Rui had prepared for his armor.

Unfortunately, there were only four high-explosive warheads, and Su Rui had specifically stressed that he should not use them unless he encountered an especially powerful opponent. Otherwise, Patriot would have liked to try that kind of solid-ammunition weapon as well.

Wearing his heavy mech armor, Patriot moved swiftly through the base while using the turrets on his body to lock onto opponents in different directions. With Su Rui's assistance, he eliminated every soldier attempting to resist without missing a shot.

In barely more than ten minutes, all resistance had been eliminated. The rest had either been disarmed or captured in their sleep.

Aside from a few people who failed to understand the situation, tried to resist, and were killed, the entire base was now under control.

"How is the progress elsewhere?" Patriot looked at the prisoners gathered in the square after being disarmed and asked Su Rui about the situation in the other areas.

"The other areas naturally aren't moving as fast as your mech."

As Su Rui spoke, he displayed the general situation on Patriot's visor.

"But things are going very well. With me cutting off communications, possessing the enemy's intelligence, launching a surprise attack, holding a numerical advantage, and having the weapons prepared in advance, if we still couldn't win, then all I can say is that we don't deserve to win."

Although it was not a good thing to make flippant remarks about military matters, Patriot still let out a deep, hoarse laugh at Su Rui's words.

His laughter even made the terrified prisoners watching him tremble in fear. A few even believed Patriot intended to execute them for amusement.

Patriot's next task was simply to ensure that this largest base remained stable and that the weapons inside would not be used to support other enemies.

Su Rui had originally wanted to deploy the drones, but Patriot stopped him. "Since we already hold an absolute advantage, do not expand the damage to the city."

"Fine. We've already won anyway. Since you'll be living here afterward, consider it a way to leave a good impression on the local civilians."

Su Rui reluctantly agreed to Patriot's request. Although refraining from using drones might not make the civilians think more favorably of the Reunion Movement, indiscriminate bombardment would certainly lower their opinion.