It was strange.
Nothing was going wrong which, in of itself, felt like it was wrong considering how my time in the game had been going so far.
Currently we were about as far away from stealth as possible - a purposeful choice as to make sure my public persona was seen as being far away from the dark side of the world. In this case it involved me taking advantage of my inventory. Utilizing a kind of loophole that existed due to my genius.
Usually (obviously) there was a limit on the size of items one can put in their inventory. Completely theoretically, however, if one knew how to build a few dozen armoured personnel carriers (APC) then there was nothing stopping them from dismantling them then putting that in their inventory. There were a lot of moving parts but I also had a lot of inventory slots.
As such I found myself standing over the shoulder of one of my guys; specifically the one in charge of driving at the moment while the rest mostly milled around at a map terminal behind me. Finding myself looking out toward the unpaved road we drove along. Surrounded by thick brush on either side.
Though we weren't alone on the road as in front and behind were even more vehicles that were essentially identical to our own.
A literal military convoy chock a block with my bronze knights.
Each APC was completely white with a nice wax coating that made those things shimmer under what light managed to make it through. Their design being angular with that white plating covering every inch including the doors on the back, top and left side. Though the exit on the top was multi-functional.
These APCs were bigger than your average vehicle with one needing a ladder to get up to the nest at the top which held a heavier version of the REMR5. This one being belt fed rather than using a drum. To be more specific it was HEMR2 and one look at clued in that it did far more damage than it's baby brother.
Having it attached to a very energy efficient vehicle allowed me far more freedom in how much power I could put behind its bullets.
More power meant higher acceleration which meant more death.
We even took advantage of the fact we had plenty of space by rotating who was driving; if everyone only needed to drive for an hour or so then the rest could easily rest for over 7 hours. In turn that would mean we could drive without need for rest. Especially so for those APC with just bronze knights in them.
Even food was easily taken care of with rations of the modern age - a simple pill of concentrated goodness that had all sorts of fancy flavours. Just like chewing chewing gum. A nice satisfying little workout for your jaw while helping you get on with your life.
"How far are we out according to the locals' maps?" I asked while having my gaze fall upon the flickering pair of flags sitting atop the APC in front of us. A soft rumbling made it clear we were moving on rough terrain yet my suspension was far too good for that shaking to be anything more than satisfying.
Since we weren't in active combat most of us had removed the helmets of our power armour; even I had my slung under my arm.
That was the most popular form of carrying,
Sadly the ballistic resistant one-sided glass I used on my APC's proved to be too well manufactured as they offered no reflection; making it impossible to admire my own face. Also it seemed my squad didn't want to give me any face as the girl who should have been resting threw up a hand. "If we can even trust this backward world has accurate maps."
"We work with what we have, it's called estimates, also you are supposed to be sleeping so get to it before I put you to sleep myself." Half heartedly throwing my helmet as the bratty veteran soldier. Getting an "oof" out of her once it landed on her gut due to it not exactly being a light piece of kit.
"So what are we look at?" Turning my attention away from her to instead look toward the captain of this little group who was currently monitoring the three dimensional hologram map. Part of it appeared black yet further ahead was blue as well as being far less detailed with the trees clearly being stock shapes.
This was because this nifty piece of tech I made essentially had scanned maps I could pilfer from the city to create a digital "approximation" by cross referencing the shared data. An average if you would. Then it used the sensors installed on the APC, the knights and our armours to give us more detail.
To say I was proud of my hard work would be a small understatement.
"Well, if the average is correct, the forest should begin to grow spacer over the next hour." For a moment the captain looked over his shoulder towards his subordinate who should have been resting where he simply shook his head with a sigh. "By the second we should arrive at the outskirts of the city."
"Hm… Have you guys figured out a good spot to leave the B-K's? Doubt the capital guards would appreciate us rolling up at full force to the doors of the city even if they don't realise that we can obliterate them from a few klicks out." Chuckling to myself by the end of it.
One may think that the faster and more powerful HEMR2 would be shorter ranged than the REMR5's yet reality was often not as balanced as games.
And this game obeyed the laws of reality.
There was also no way my weaponry would be stopped by a few meters of stone; I assure you that the walls they relied on in this world will do nothing to stop me wiping them off the surface of this world.
"Well, with how the space outside the cities are always trimmed, we can probably just set up camp a few klicks away from the city. Only question is how close we want to do it to the city versus the forest where monster ambushes will become more likely." He announced while making the hologram increase in size.
Allowing all of us to see exactly what he meant by that - causing me to nod as I stroked my chin while turning to rest my back on the back of the driver's seat as I hummed out. "We are also more likely to meet adventurers depending on their habits. At the very least we'll have to go off road."
"With this world's roads we may as well have been going off road for the entire journey." Once again that girl who should have been resting decided to speak up.
Although, considering we only had two hours before we'd have to be active, I decided to overlook it as it didn't really make much sense to force her to sleep for a mere ten minutes. She stood up from the bench where she rested. Grabbing her helm from the ground with one hand while carrying mine in the other.
Lightly tossing mine over to me as she came to lean over the map; obviously I had no difficulty catching my helm as I put it on. Though the face plate swiftly slid away to reveal my face again. "It'll make our tracks far easier to follow even if it'll probably be a smoother ride."
Getting a chuckle for the irony of the situation.
"I think it will be best if we stay as far away from the city as possible - it wouldn't even be bad to say we should camp within the edges of the woodland where it won't be too densely forested. Further away we are the higher advantage we have in combat." So I said while narrowing my eyes at the map.
This instantly got the attention of my men who promptly all turned away from the map in favour of all looking at me. After a second of looking between themselves the captain raised the question they were all thinking about. "So do we expect to run into hostiles within the capital?"
"All I know is that last time I chased after that girl I had to fight off a horde of dragons with a strange elemental magic that appeared to ignore all physical-based defences. As much as it pains me to admit it so openly… Only reason I managed to scare them away was due to the overwhelming fire power provided to me by summoning B-K factories." Accidentally letting a frustrated sigh act as a full stop for that topic.
"So… When do you plan to release your sister?" Asked the annoying squad member who motioned with her head towards a particular corner of the APC - one which had Alice wrapped up in what must have been an entire roll of tape. Specifically focused around that mouth of hers to shut her up.
A necessary sacrifice that I unfortunately had to do to finally get my petulant sister to behave.
As such I tapped my chin a few times while wondering when would be the best time/place to finally unleash that monster of a girl. Tactically ignoring the muffled screams and blood shot eyes that made her reminiscent of an angry wild rabies ridden cat. "We'll just carry her around for now."
For some reason all my soldiers sighed while that growling beast increased in audio; humans really are very confusing as a species.