Counterfeit Hero

Chapter 9 - Revised: Chapter 9 Simulated War Network

Day by day, time passed, and everyone in the laboratory was full of discussions about the situation on the ground, with rumors aplenty. The TV news, transmitted through the super network, reported the victories of the Federation Army one after another every day, as if the situation was improving.

As the only person in the lab with real combat experience, Tian Xingjian kept silent about it. He knew that while there were certainly local victories, the overall situation remained a severe test for the Federation. After all, the Gazalin Empire, a country that prioritizes its military above all else, had a very strong army—strength that the Leray Federation Army, long out of practice, could not match. This war was destined to be a protracted tug-of-war.

National power and equipment were only important factors in determining the outcome of the war, but they couldn’t fully decide it. Sometimes, a commander’s inadvertent mistake could doom even the most elite fleet, whose weapons and equipment might represent the nation’s total production for several months.

Tian Xingjian continued to search through the central computer for any skills that could enhance his survival abilities. Watching vibrant lives vanish instantaneously on TV filled him with worry about his own future; this worry tortured him but also spurred him to invest more effort into all kinds of useful and useless training.

Mecha Battle Examples, Alternative Mechanical Control Technology, Battle Situation Simulation, Human War History, Art of Survival, Warship Commanding Study, Space Fighter Combat Techniques, Enemy Rear Assault Strategy, Hand Speed Training, Keeping Distance, Booster Research, Precision Strike, Poison Recognition, 6th Sense Training, Bedroom Skills, Making You Last Longer, Top Ten Sensitive Areas of the Female Body, Seventy-two Sex Positions...

Aside from some miscellaneous content privately collected by some unscrupulous individuals with strong desires, the other professional courses were unavailable elsewhere. Many tutorials were marked with confidentiality levels, and some military tutorials had never even been seen by ordinary professors in the academy.

Fatty dedicated immense enthusiasm to these courses, and his determination and perseverance in learning left everyone in the lab in awe. His rigorous efforts even surpassed those of the most fanatic worker, Boswell. He used the gravity laboratory, which simulated the environments of various planets, for constant training in hand-to-hand combat and mechanical control. Milan called it self-torture.

Six months passed, and the battlefield situation had not fundamentally changed as the Federation President had promised in his nationwide mobilization speech. The ground fights remained in a stalemate on Miloke Star. However, with the arrival of reinforcements, the Gazalin Empire could no longer surround cities at will. They started to rely on a handful of occupied cities and had shrunk their fronts. The earlier spot attacks were halted, and over twenty attack units that were easily encircled by the Federation air mobility forces had been completely withdrawn. Troops were redistributed to several non-urban strategic points to form a line of defense and prevent the Federation Army from penetrating the gaps between cities.

Fatty’s time for bizarre training began to dwindle because Professor Boswell’s research entered a critical phase. This was a simulated war network designed to develop a multitude of military talents by mimicking real-world data, thus addressing the severe lack of practical military command experience at the Leray Federation College.

The importance of this simulated war network was self-evident for both Gallipalan Military Academy and the Leray Federation. Fatty, responsible for data calculations and the production of simulation cabins, was deeply fascinated and conquered by this unprecedented system.

The massive central data of the system astonished everyone involved. In this simulation, the realism of every mecha, fleet, planet, nation, and even the terrain and weather’s impact on warfare was indistinguishable from reality. However, luck and individual differences of opponents still led to discrepancies between the simulations and reality. This was unsolvable, but its functionalities were already sufficient as a training system.

This system received significant attention from the Military Department and the President’s Office. In the final phase of the study, twenty high-level research laboratories, including those from the Capital Military Academy and Steel Combat Academy, participated in its perfection.

Finally, on the first anniversary of the Leray Federation Guard War, the simulated war network, named Real War, was completed and opened to the three major military academies and the army. Some simulated battles within the system became assessment projects for graduates at the military academies, and promotions in the army could even be revoked if one failed to achieve the required simulation scores.

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Fatty’s mouth twisted in a smile... he was tormenting someone. His opponent was a Federation Fierce Tiger Special Soldier ranked 5 stars by the system, with the scenario being mecha combat in the mountains.

Within just a few minutes of the start, the outcome was already decided. During close combat, Fatty gradually retreated to a cliff, appearing as if he could no longer withstand the opponent’s fierce attacks. Then he activated his mecha’s booster, propelling it into the air with great force. The opponent’s mecha had no time to react before a massive rock, weighing tens of tons, crushed it into pulp. This was a trap Fatty had set long ago, using a remote-controlled engineering mine to precisely blast down the protruding rock from the mountain.

”Sigh...”

The viewing room echoed with sighs.

”Seriously? That worked?”

”SM01314 is really too sleazy, too despicable, too shameless.”

”Which academy is this guy from? Does anyone know him? Let’s apply for a human search engine.”

”Indeed, so shameless. If I ever find out who he really is... huh...”

”Three hundred matches, what other tricks does this guy have?”

”Sleazy God Sect, eternal and unparalleled. SM Sect Leader’s prowess is unmatched, his blessings bountiful, his longevity equal to the heavens!”

”Damn it! This guy clearly has skills! Why can’t he just fight fair and square? Every time it’s like this.”

”What skills? This guy is odd. Whenever I fight him, I feel flustered.”

”Very odd. Last time, I saw him right in front, but he came out from behind me.”

”Me too. Last night, he was my last opponent, and I searched the whole map but couldn’t find him. I thought he left, but as soon as I exited, the system declared his victory. Damn! This morning, I asked him, and he said he went to sleep then.”

The viewing room of the simulated war network was buzzing with discussions, primarily focused on Fatty, the undefeated SM sect leader with a three hundred match winning streak.

This character, named SM01314, fully showcased his shameless tactics on the simulation network, where he didn’t have to worry about retaliation. Everyone who fought him shared the same feeling: indignation! And a sense of being toyed with and SM’d. They all felt that this guy’s victories were never achieved through his own strength and honorable means.

As this resentment accumulated, Fatty became the target of public ire in the simulated war network. From the two hundredth match onward, everyone hoped someone would take down this shameless guy, but no one succeeded so far.

To Fatty, this simulation network was simply a godsend. Here, he didn’t have to worry about casualties, and it greatly enhanced the targeted practice for his training, such as Psychology and Assassin’s Invisibility Technique. With countless opponents of various types in the simulation network, Fatty no longer had to use Milan or the lab staff as training partners.

”Fatty, so you were hiding here!”

Tian Xingjian had just emerged from the simulation cabin when he saw a beautiful female pilot glaring angrily at him.