The game world.
Far across the ocean.
Players on other servers, like Zhang Tianyuan, received the system message at the same time.
"The servers have been merged?"
A somber voice rose from the darkness, and with a snap, the light was switched on.
Howard sat up in bed. The greasy, middle-aged fat man emerged from under the covers, looking just like a piece of pork belly covered in lard.
Several men and women were lying next to him, all with their eyes closed, it was hard to tell whether they were really asleep or just pretending.
Howard didn't care about any of that. He grinned, grabbed someone and casually kneaded them with his fat hands, then opened the newly opened server-wide chat panel and glanced at it. Sure enough, he saw several familiar faction names.
"More trouble is brewing..."
" Andy!"
Howard loudly summoned his butler, an android even fatter than himself, whose bulging fat almost covered his buttocks.
"Your Majesty the Holy and Supreme Emperor Howard, your faithful servant obeys your commands!"
The butler, Andy, immediately knelt down, though perhaps "kneeling" would be a more appropriate word given his size.
Howard, unable to see Andy's legs, didn't care whether the butler was kneeling properly or not. He opened his mouth wide and roared, "Gather all our troops! Also, notify the neighboring Geri Kingdom and tell those cow-dung eaters to call all their troops. We're going to have a fight to the death with them!"
"If those guys who haven't grown any eggs get scared, give them a chance to cooperate. Let them sail all their ships to the Sea of Mist in the east and explore the territories of other servers with us!"
Andy immediately understood his emperor's intentions; this was an invitation to the neighboring forces to cooperate. He promptly replied, "As you command, Your Majesty the Holy and Supreme Emperor Howard!"
Go!
Howard waved one hand away, but his other hand was still kneading the man's body on his thigh.
Andy agreed again and then prepared to get up.
However, given his weight, it was impossible for him to get up on his own, so he patted the floor twice, and soon three burly men in black suits walked in from outside with their heads down.
The three men walked up to Andy, two of them put their arms around his shoulders, and one of them hugged his waist from behind. Then, with a "whoosh," a mountain of flesh was lifted up.
Andy took a couple of breaths, said goodbye to Howard again, then turned his head and was expertly helped out by the three burly men.
Opening the door and stepping outside, the afternoon light shone into my eyes again, revealing a magnificent cluster of castles.
This is His Majesty Howard's coronation "palace," where he now sits atop the highest castle, overlooking the entire capital of the Holy Howard Empire.
The first thing you see are towering chimneys that stand like skyscrapers in the center of the city, from which thick, dark smoke mixed with fine particles rises and flies into the sky, creating thick columns of smoke that connect the earth and the sky.
Although he was already used to the strange smell in the air, Andy still covered his nose and got into the heavy-duty vehicle that had been prepared for him.
One of the three burly men immediately became the driver, while the other two ran alongside the slowly moving vehicle.
On the car, Andy picked up the bulky walkie-talkie and quickly issued instructions to other departments in the palace, ordering them to obey His Majesty Howard's orders and summon all the troops.
Upon arriving at the office area, the three burly men helped Andy back to his office.
Here Andy picked up the phone and, after a few dials, contacted the diplomatic corps in the capital city.
He also relayed His Majesty Howard's orders and instructed the diplomatic officials to carry them out immediately.
Only after finishing all this did Andy collapse, utterly exhausted, onto a seat crafted from a single piece of polished Glazed Wood.
His mission is complete.
Next comes the diplomatic aspect.
Just ten minutes later.
A thousand kilometers away, the diplomatic corps of the Geri Kingdom received the order and immediately reported it.
King Geri, after reviewing the revised diplomatic document, readily agreed to the Howard Empire's request. He then tossed the document to the ground with a flourish.
"The great Geri has decided to grant those little cream puffs their cooperation request."
Now that the servers have been merged, there's no need to get bogged down in a protracted battle with the forces next door. Other servers...
The weaker factions within the vessel could serve as their new colonies.
"Pass the word down! Have our soldiers get the warships, aircraft carriers, fighter jets, tanks, and mechs moving!"
"Yes!"
The messenger, dressed in classic armor, slowly withdrew from the king's council chamber.
Half an hour later, the mobilization order was transmitted throughout the entire country via communication lines.
As the bugle sounded, soldiers from all sides began to assemble.
Naval ships raised their anchors, and one after another, giant vessels sailed out of the harbor.
At the dock, mechs of various shapes and sizes were transported to the shore and then slowly hoisted onto the transport ship by cranes. The unusually tall pilots, clad in silver armor, stood on the deck with their arms crossed, coldly observing the hoisting operation...
This scene is happening widely in both countries, or rather, in most parts of the gaming world.
All factions are eager to cross the old server boundaries and reach the new server's territory, where they can find more resources and acquire more lucrative colonies.
Even some powers still stuck in the age of sailing ships are no exception...
The Mutual Aid Society is based at the No. 0 Spacetime Headquarters.
After talking with Mako Mori, Zhang Tianyuan walked to the window and looked out at the sea.
"Other forces will definitely come to our server soon, so we must defend the server's boundaries."
"I will communicate with other timelines and spacetimes to request that they send additional troops to assist you. I have only one request: destroy any ships, aircraft, or spaceships that are sighted toward us!"
"Yes!" Ke Jinjun stood up and saluted solemnly.
Zhang Tianyuan also returned the salute from the Wandering Spacetime salute, and emphasized again:
" No. 0 Spacetime is extremely important to our Mutual Aid Society; we absolutely cannot give up this position!"
His partially damaged main base is still in this timeline...
If it were destroyed by the enemy, it would be a huge problem.
Thinking about this, Zhang Tianyuan fell into deep thought.
According to the normal game rules, there must be a way to relocate the main base, such as a relocation scroll, otherwise players who are randomly assigned to bad terrain have no potential for development.
However, the players on this server were not capable of threatening his main base, so he put the matter aside.
It now seems necessary to put this matter on the agenda.
With only two nuclear arsenals, it's not very safe to defend his main base.
He'd better move his main base to a safer location, such as...
Let's move to a movie timeline!
That should make it quite safe.
Zhang Tianyuan stroked his chin, thinking the idea was excellent.
Just then, there was a knock on the office door.
After Ke Jinjun responded, a man in camouflage walked in carrying a document:
"Report! The Air Force has confirmed that the drone has successfully crossed the barrier and reached an area previously inaccessible!"
Ke Jinjun took the newly printed paper report and then looked at it together with Zhang Tianyuan and Mako Mori.
Apart from a brief sentence stating the results, the report consisted entirely of photos taken by the drone as it passed through the location of the previous barrier.
Beyond the barrier lay another vast ocean. After traveling hundreds of kilometers, almost reaching its travel limit, the drone finally spotted a green island.
What Zhang Tianyuan and his two companions saw was the state of the island. It was not very large, less than ten square kilometers, and it was covered with lush trees, showing no signs of development.
Ke Jinjun, however, was more concerned about other matters. "The drone's radar did not sound an alarm, which means it did not detect any other aircraft, and the radar on our ship was also silent, which is good news."
This suggests that the players on this server may not have a very high level of technology, making it impossible for them to immediately launch fighter jets to scout us out.
"Of course, it's also possible that their technology is too advanced and we simply didn't detect their fighter jets, but that's unlikely."
Mako Mori nodded, seemingly understanding, though she didn't. She didn't know much about things outside of mecha, especially strategic matters like this.
Although Zhang Tianyuan wasn't completely at ease, he knew that the level of the server next door was unlikely to be higher than his own.
After all, they have already achieved controlled nuclear fusion, which is, in some ways, a more difficult technology than traditional nuclear fusion.
In addition to this
The world's unique characteristics, with its flat land and ocean, have allowed radar to play an epic role at sea.
Unlike on Earth, where radar waves are affected by curvature and can rise into the sky as they fly, other fighter jets are difficult to detect if they fly close to the sea or the ground.
In the game world, radar waves do not have this flaw.
The radar waves emitted by each radar can extend almost infinitely across flat terrain.
Of course, infinite extension doesn't mean the detectable distance can also extend infinitely; it's still subject to hardware limitations.
With these multiple advantages, if the enemy's fighter jets can still secretly enter their territory...
Let them be.
In any case, his main base had already been disguised, and it looked like a lush, primeval island.
As for the other players, they've either hidden themselves in the movie's timeline or are still in the early stages, not even having developed any industry yet. What could they possibly discover?
As long as I'm poor enough, I don't need to worry about others coveting my property!
With this in mind, Zhang Tianyuan discussed future strategies in No. 0 Spacetime with Ke Jinjun, while Mako Mori left at the opportune moment.
They both had the same idea.
They can't just stay at home and play a defensive counter-attacking game.
Historical experience tells them that simply defending without attacking is never a good thing.
If others want to break in, then the Mutual Aid Society also needs to go out. Besides, according to Ke Jinjun's assessment, the resources on their server are really scarce and scattered.
Otherwise, the tons of Meteoric Iron and 200 tons of Radiant Stone needed to build a level 5 training camp wouldn't still be insufficient.
Now that the servers have been merged, it might actually be a good thing for them.
"If we want to expand outwards, the first problem we need to address is communication."
Ke Jinjun arrived at a sand table, which was built according to the server's terrain. The maple leaf-shaped continent stood out against the surrounding ocean.
"We discovered that the atmosphere in this spacetime has a very special composition, the most obvious being the lack of an ionosphere, which can reflect radio waves."
"This has caused us considerable trouble. Now we have to rely on drones to relay signals for long-distance communication, and the command we just received was also transmitted to the border in this way."
Zhang Tianyuan stared at the sand table in a daze; this was indeed a tricky matter.
Radio communication primarily relies on skywaves or ground waves for propagation.
Skywaves are electromagnetic waves that, after encountering the ionosphere, are refracted back to the ground.
Ground waves, on the other hand, are electromagnetic waves that propagate along the ground.
Of these two methods, ground waves suffer too much energy loss and cannot transmit signals far, so sky waves are the primary method for long-distance communication.
The game world currently lacks planetary curvature, making it impossible to launch satellites, which is bad enough, but the fact that it doesn't even have an ionosphere is truly outrageous.
This means that the fleet on its long voyage will be completely cut off from headquarters.
Zhang Tianyuan considered for a moment. "Do you have any solutions for this situation? Relying on drones all the time isn't a long-term solution, is it?"
Ke Jinjun produced a plan. "We are now preparing to use airships as signal relay stations and deploy a small number of operators on them. This way, we can keep them mobile at all times and let communications follow the fleet."
"I suspect other factions on other servers are using the same method."
Zhang Tianyuan also thought this method was good. Although airships were bulky, it was the best and most economical choice under normal circumstances.
"Okay, let's use this method for now. If there's an emergency later, I can open a communication tunnel for you to stay in touch with the front lines."
Ke Jinjun saluted again, then lowered his head and continued talking about the plans for external exploration...
The two stood bent over beside the sand table and talked until dark. Zhang Tianyuan had no problem at all, but Ke Jinjun only realized that his back was really too sore to straighten up after he finished speaking.
Zhang Tianyuan smiled and helped him back to his seat.
"You've worked hard today, Commander Ke. You should get some rest."
They exchanged pleasantries before he left.
Zhang Tianyuan gently closed the door. Before leaving, he could vaguely see Ke Jinjun inside return to his desk and pick up a document...
Shaking his head, Zhang Tianyuan didn't go in to continue urging him to rest. Instead, he opened the system to see if there were any new messages on the chat panel.
As soon as I opened it, a system message appeared at the very top:
[World channel search has ended; current channel count: 7]
Um?
It's become 7 worlds?!