Chapter 1091: Chapter 354: Don’t Want to Be Rare? That’s Not Up to You!

"Huang Ban Lai Xuan has officially passed the board of directors’ resolution, and will soon arrive in Night City. His arrival may signify a change in Huang Ban’s stance on Night City..."

"A BBC host claimed to have concrete evidence that the previous Cuban attack on the New American president was a self-directed farce, but did not further report on the matter."

"Multiple European Community online news media companies have jointly established a live-streaming software project, which will cover the entire European territory, and establish a payment treaty with the European Central Bank..."

"Horizon Corporation is struggling in the Cuban battlefield and may have entered a stalemate. Experts claim that Cuba may counter-attack soon, and the situation for Horizon Corporation is not optimistic..."

"Today’s hot topic: Yunding’s new sex doll, codenamed Demon Slayer Asagi, my God, it’s as big as my head..."

What! What! What! What is all this nonsense?

There’s not a bit of useful information, and why on earth is the hot topic in Night City all about a Demon Slayer?

You bastards, what the hell are you up to in Night City again!

Can’t you stop adding these inexplicable elements!

Originally wanting to see if there was any big news in Night City, the Sword Saint, with a darkened expression, closed the news website, stood up from the slope, and brushed the dust off his pants.

"Nephilim, give me a full-recovery shot, my electricity’s dropping to 30."

What he needed wasn’t the in-game HP replenisher, but something closer to a mana or stamina boost.

Nephilim removed a pure white injector from his waist and tossed it over, which the Sword Saint caught and jabbed into his chest.

The injector contained a large amount of high-energy substances, brain-essential nutrients, and water, which after a single dose, could sustain a fully cyber-augmented individual like him for 36 hours of activity, with 12 hours under high power consumption — something Gloria and company had specifically concocted.

Of course, they could also replenish energy through eating; their modified stomachs could digest a lot of organic material, but since they no longer had an organic body, the energy provided was quite limited, only sufficient as an auxiliary means to extend standby time.

Those players who had gone beyond the supply lines deep into combat needed such injections to maintain long-term combat capability.

And for Sword Saint and his frontline troops, following the command post’s orders, they broke apart the unit structure and reorganized into small teams. Each team of five utilized hit-and-run tactics to deal with the enemy’s gradually reinforced defenses.

For regular troops, breaking up units and regrouping might temporarily lower combat effectiveness due to unfamiliarity among teammates and require adaptation, but since the players were always a small group, everyone was already familiar, and mixing teams wasn’t a first or second time experience, so it wouldn’t affect combat effectiveness.

Most importantly, they were a modular army. Each player of different professions had distinct tasks and responsibilities within the team. Players could quickly team up based on their professions, filling in gaps as needed to restore the team’s combat strength.

As his electricity level slowly began to rise, the Sword Saint moved his body slightly, peeked over the hill to glance at the distant sky, where black dots moved—a drone patrol squad, and behind them, a small village.

The village was split by a road running through it, with a dozen houses standing, several bearing explosion marks—clearly remnants of repeated fierce engagements.

To his cybernetic eyes, with high magnification, six kilometers was almost nothing.

"Damn, these Cubans are relentless with the drones. Since yesterday, they’re everywhere—endlessly increasing, truly reckless spending."

In the era of informationized warfare, air superiority has been supplanted by information superiority, now the second most critical battlefield node.

Spy satellites, ground radars, and drones are key nodes in electronic warfare.

The side that controls information has the upper hand on the battlefield.

Nephilim commented helplessly,

"Didn’t the news say the British Commonwealth sold a batch of military supplies the day before yesterday? Could be this batch of drones."

The Sword Saint was aggravated by the opponent’s extravagant tactics,

"Really just spending company assets here, and not even bringing fiber optics. Nephilim, hit them hard—activate the shortwave jamming radar we just received towards that direction. Once effective, launch our drones for counter-reconnaissance."

Nephilim, the Mechanic of the team, was responsible for handling logistics, electronic warfare, and some frontline combat tasks.

Aside from a transport platform equipped with shortwave jamming radar, they also had two small drone transport platforms, two armed patrol gates, and six armed combat platforms, two of which were artillery platforms.

Following the order, Nephilim didn’t slash through Diablo with his Dual Blades, but swiftly activated the electronic counter system, initiated the shortwave jamming radar, and attempted to search for the opponent’s communication frequencies.

"Here it comes."

A setup like this in the player squad, not to mention Tokyo University, would make even the peak-era mold pale in comparison—an iceberg tip of the cyber era’s unleashed productivity, even if most parts and equipment were externally purchased rather than homemade, still entirely within the range players and Horizon Corporation could afford.

As the radar began to tick-tock work and drones carrying fiber optics lifted off one by one, the Sword Saint continued to command,

"Arnold, take your assault team up there on foot reconnaissance to spot their firepower points, I’ll lock down the main highway and cover you." 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

"Okay."

Equipped with the MT-3, Arnold recklessly took action, grabbing his gear and sprinting down the slope toward the village.