A vast and barren world.
A tracked infantry fighting vehicle traversed the sea of sand, occasionally encountering Zerg workers searching for solid ice.
The three men mercilessly mowed down the Zerg with their machine guns.
They were surprised to discover that killing Zerg actually earned them something called Merit Points.
After inquiring, they learned that, to incentivize players to complete missions assigned by their commanders, Merit Points were awarded for missions and for killing ordinary enemy units.
Merit Points were exchanged for Contribution Points on a one-for-one basis, with one Merit Point equaling one Contribution Point.
Once Merit Points were exchanged, their accumulated value remained the same.
Reaching a certain accumulated value would increase a player's rank.
The system features a variety of officer ranks, including Recruit, Veteran, Elite, Corporal, Sergeant, Staff Sergeant, Second Lieutenant, First Lieutenant, Captain, Major, Lieutenant Colonel, Colonel, Senior Colonel, Major General, Lieutenant General, General, Senior General, Rear Marshal, Grand Marshal, and Marshal of the Empire, for a total of 20 ranks.
Upon reaching the rank of corporal, promotion is no longer based solely on merit. Instead, a certain number of merit points must be spent on command missions appropriate to the rank. After completing three missions, the total score must be at least 150 points to advance.
Officers are divided into regular officers (scores below 200), elite officers (scores below 250), and ace officers (scores between 250 and 300).
Elite and ace officers receive discounts on merit points spent on missions: a 20% discount for elite officers and a 30% discount for ace officers.
If rank only signifies leadership, the privileges granted by higher ranks are truly astonishing. Non-commissioned officers can purchase their own mecha fighters or spaceships. Lieutenants can purchase torpedo boats or battleships, starting at one hundred meters. Field marshals can purchase destroyers up to one thousand meters long, and generals can purchase battleships, giant vessels measuring ten thousand meters.
Isn't that much more powerful than a statue?
As for the marshal.
Hehe... The Titan battleships are your vehicles, each measuring hundreds of thousands to several hundred thousand meters.
Just imagine riding a Titan—everyone would be envious!
"Ahem... I just saw what looked like a horde of Zerg to the left,"
Monkey said with a dry cough. "Although we're here on a mission, the earth Star humans will eventually join the Empire. Attacking and killing those Zerg directly will help relieve some of the pressure on our future comrades."
Aozaki glanced at John, whose eyes were almost blazing with fire. If he dared to refuse to believe it, he might have grabbed the steering wheel.
Thus, the three of them immediately accelerated their infantry fighting vehicles toward the hundreds of ordinary Zerg soldiers pursuing them from the left.
Based on the system atlas, they concluded that these Zerg were merely cannon fodder, and the infantry fighting vehicles' firepower should be enough to deal with them.
Both sides shared a deep jealousy, and without further ado, they attacked.
Only after the actual engagement did they realize the absurdity of their plan.
The IFV's armor-piercing incendiary rounds had difficulty hitting the insects. The enemy's biological armor was so strong that the IFV had to aim and fire for more than two seconds to kill a single insect.
Although this was a good result, the IFV's machine guns had limited ammunition. After more than ten minutes of mowing down the insects, John, the loader, felt his scalp tingle at the sight of his limited ammunition.
"What's wrong, John? Reload quickly! What are you doing?" Monkey,
the gunner, pulled the trigger, but found no ammunition. He looked down at John with dissatisfaction and urged him.
"Brother Monkey, aim better! We're almost out! I see you wasting so much ammunition!"
The Monkey glared at him.
"Just try it! Aozaki drives like he's flying, it's amazing how he can aim!"
"How much ammo do you have left?" Aozaki, the driver, asked without looking up.
"Two basic rounds. That's all we have left."
"Gosh! That's so fast!"
The Monkey was shocked.
They had only killed about a dozen, and they only had two basic rounds left.
You have to remember that the vanguard troops were so enthusiastic when they launched their assault vehicles, loading their infantry fighting vehicles with over a dozen rounds of ammunition. After spending almost a day, they only managed to kill about a dozen.
Could one round of ammunition be enough to kill a bug? How ridiculous!
Less than three minutes later, all the ammunition was gone. With no other choice, John climbed down from the roof of the vehicle, raised his tactical rifle, and opened fire.
The power of the laser rifle was incredible, each shot effectively piercing the insect's biological coating. Its only
drawback was that it didn't hit vital points,
making it even less effective than a machine gun. While a machine gun couldn't kill, it could still injure; a laser rifle with its incredible penetrating power was still less effective in this regard.
It didn't take long for John and Aozaki to exhaust their reserve energy magazines, leaving all three of them completely exhausted.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...
As their firing ceased, several long-range attack insects, hidden among the insects, suddenly appeared, their biological stingers, as hard as tungsten steel, piercing John's arm.
"Damn it!"
John pulled his head back in pain, his face pale.
"Damn it, there's an old silver coin among these insects!"
This made the three of them realize once again how terrifying these insects were.
They were ugly, but they weren't stupid. They know how to hide their strength, waiting for a quiet moment to strike.
[Neurotoxin Detected... Life Shield Activated!]
"Ouch!"
The life-shielding system in the suit detected John's injury and immediately released a tube containing disposable nanoworms to cleanse the poison and heal the wound.
The process was extremely painful, and John screamed with a contorted face.
"Hey, idiot! Didn't you know this system can adjust the pain threshold?"
After hearing Monkey's reminder, John realized the system had this feature. He immediately lowered the pain threshold, and the intense pain immediately disappeared, leaving only a slight tingling sensation.
"Convert all your military merit points into contribution points and transfer them to me."
"Why?" Monkey looked at Aozaki in confusion.
He explained, "I checked the system's storage interface earlier, and most of the equipment and weapons were gray. I just noticed that the airdropped drone supplies have changed color."
"The system information states that repurchasing supplies or items requires contribution points, but many items cannot be purchased directly outside the mothership.
Orbital airdrops are available, but each summoning requires 100 contribution points. Custom ammunition is cheap, but summoned supplies are expensive!"
Hearing this, the two immediately opened the system store to check.
Sure enough, they exchanged their military merit points for contribution points and transferred them to Aozaki. Without a word,
The other party immediately purchased a batch of ammunition.
"The airdrop drone is arriving soon, prepare to receive it!"
A system notification dinged in their heads.
A few seconds later, a rumbling sound rang overhead, and a swarm of objects, trailing long trails of fire, shot toward them.
The ion-propelled drone finally ignited and hovered a hundred meters above them, slowly descending onto the roof of a speeding infantry fighting vehicle, carrying a one-ton ammunition load.
"Warning: You have one minute to retrieve supplies, then the supply drone will return to the mothership!"
Monkey and John, feeling nervous, quickly took turns carrying the ammunition overhead.
They were only halfway there when the drone left without a word, their hearts pounding.
"What a terrible system!"
John and Monkey cursed inwardly.
This wasn't the system's fault; if their tanks had docking ports, they could load ammunition directly.
But they didn't.
According to his principle of not wasting ammunition, Leon wouldn't just leave the ammunition somewhere and leave.