Chapter 1 The Beginning

In the enormous, circular stadium, gongs and drums clashed, firecrackers popped, colorful flags fluttered, and the crowd was a sea of people.

Spectators of all shapes and sizes waved the banners of different racing teams, enthusiastically shouting slogans and creating waves of humanity that were truly spectacular.

The Pelican descended, hovering five meters above the racetrack.

The guide opened the hatch and, with a "heave-ho," jumped straight down. Li Ang and the others followed closely behind, landing nimbly on the ground.

Around them were the racers, who had already assembled their war chariots and were leaning against their uniquely shaped vehicles in groups of four.

Because each vehicle had to accommodate four drivers while also balancing weaponry, armor, and speed, almost every war chariot was one or two sizes larger than an off-road vehicle in the real world.

The weaponry was also varied, including metal hooks, tank barrels, serrated blades, flamethrowers, harpoons, missiles, and giant fly swatters.

Seeing Li Ang and his group appear, some racers cast curious and probing glances at them. In their eyes, Li Ang and the others were just ordinary bank clerks, their data strength even weaker than the guide's.

These randomly generated passersby are here to compete?

Aren't they afraid of dying?

Despite their curiosity, the racers, each the center of their own game world, were all reserved and arrogant.

None of them bothered to come over and mock Li Ang's group.

"This is the place."

The guide led Li Ang and the others to an open space, where a blue glowing cube and a large pile of parts were placed on the ground.

"In the Death War Chariot Race, contestants need to use materials provided by the organizers that are easy to cut and assemble to build their war chariots."

The guide explained, "If the war chariot's armor is too heavy, the speed will be slow.

If the armor is too thin, it will be easily penetrated.

Engines, tires, shock absorbers, water tanks, weapons..."

Racers must have a deep understanding of every component of the war chariot and balance all the factors.

Of course, you can also use some standard models provided by the official organization.

Standard models may not pursue the extremes in certain aspects like war chariots built by engineering-specialized racers, but they excel in balance, ease of operation, sturdiness, and reliability."

The blue cube in the open space came from the sandbox simulation game "Besiege,"

and it was the so-called basic building block.

Like building blocks, various components could be pieced together around the basic building block to form a complex machine.

Li Ang and the others had never participated in the Death War Chariot Race before, and they didn't have enough time to explore it thoroughly. After a brief discussion, they applied to the guide for a standard war chariot model.

Anyway, they could destroy other people's war chariots on the track to obtain parts and modify their vehicles.

They could observe how other racers operated and learn slowly.

Soon, the guide had staff drag a war chariot over.

The appearance of this war chariot was somewhat similar to an American Stryker wheeled armored vehicle. The overall color was gray, the shape was relatively flat, the armor was extremely thick, there were four explosion-proof tires on each side,

the top had a 25mm cannon and a 12.7mm heavy machine gun, and there were light machine gun firing positions in the rear and on both sides.

It was worth noting that there were many screw holes and grooves of various sizes on the armor, which seemed to be used for adding other parts.

"Wow."

Sunset Melting Gold's eyes lit up, and he patted the front armor of the war chariot, making a muffled banging sound. "Not bad, the armor strength is more than a notch higher than that of a real-world main battle tank."

"It's just data."

The Witch said calmly, "This script is different from the others. You can't take anything with you."

The Witch's tone sounded subtly displeased.

Earlier, in the train carriage, the players had discovered that the items in this world could not be put into the backpack column, but could only be carried on their bodies.

"Just now on the plane, I used my spiritual sense to detect the internal structure of the Pelican."

Li Ang said casually, "There are indeed engines and thrusters inside the plane, but its mechanical structure is very rudimentary, completely insufficient to generate the thrust matching the plane."

"Because it's just data in an isolated sandbox, you only need to set some parameters to make the object move, without fully replicating all the details..."

Sunset Melting Gold sighed regretfully, unwilling to give up. "The technological level of this world is at least a hundred years ahead of reality. If we could bring the technology to the real world..."

"Don't even think about that kind of thing."

The Witch shook her head. "The system wouldn't be so kind as to let you take away a bunch of future technological creations.

Do you know about that saying on the forum?"

Sunset Melting Gold's eyes twitched when he heard this.

In recent months, a viewpoint has become very popular on the forum—that the direction of the mainstream technology tree in the real world will affect the judgment of the Killing Field game.

If the mainstream in the real world is technology, then the Killing Field game will actively restrict the spread of future technological creations;

If the mainstream in the real world is magic, then the Killing Field game will actively restrict the physical spread of magic items.

For example, limiting the types of scripts players can access, secretly increasing the difficulty for players carrying special items, making it impossible for players to return to reality with special items, and so on.

All of this is just an unconfirmed conjecture—the purpose of the Killing Field game doing this is likely to avoid the progress of science and technology in the real world being too fast,

allowing the achievements of the human collective to overshadow the efforts of individual players,

violating the system's original intention of selecting the most adaptable extraordinary individuals.

"If we can't take the technology, then we won't take it. There's a more pressing problem now."

Li Ang shook his head indifferently, looked at the other three companions, and asked casually, "Which of you drives?"

Li Ang was naturally not asking if they had a driver's license.

Players above Lv15 are basically versatile jacks-of-all-trades, and driving is not a problem for them.

The difficulty lies in whether they can drive well.

"This war chariot seems to be idiot-proof. The driving system is not complicated,"

Li Ang looked at the steering wheel in the war chariot and scratched his head. "But it probably won't be easy to drive well.

Which of you can do it?"

His gaze turned to his three companions, and Sunset Melting Gold immediately waved his hand and said, "Don't look at me, I just graduated from driving school."

"...I can't either."

The Witch said calmly.

She used to learn how to drive for a while in the Syndicate,

but after learning how to fly on a broom, she had to step on the sweeping robot when she went out. She gave all the remaining driving skills to her teacher.

Driving a bumper car is fine, but driving such a big war chariot...

She would rather decline politely.

The three players looked at each other and turned their attention to Twilight Knight, who had been silent all along.

"...I can drive,"

Twilight Knight suddenly opened his mouth and said in a low, hoarse voice, "I learned how to drive tanks and armored vehicles in Hawaii.

The principles should be similar for war chariots."