Chapter 1 An Unprecedented War

This was an unprecedented, colossal war.

Never before in history had there been a conflict comparable to the one that erupted in the southern archipelago of the Ylothar and Atlantis continents in the year 4438.

It was an exceptionally frigid winter. A relentless frost, surging from the southernmost reaches of the world, froze the entire sea, binding tens of thousands of islands of various sizes scattered across the southern waters into a single, temporary, ice-bound continent.

Unsurprisingly, this unusual celestial phenomenon caught the attention of both the Continental Alliance and the Atlantean nations. Scouts and reconnaissance troops emerged from their respective island strongholds, cautiously investigating the situation.

Previously, the Southern Sea, being composed entirely of islands, and despite being divided between the two powers, rarely saw conflict due to the separation by seawater and the treacherous reef coasts. However, with the formation of the ice-bound continent, as soldiers stationed at the strongholds began exploring the surrounding areas, conflict naturally arose.

The first issue was the dispute over 'border boundaries' – a debate that was meaningless when dealing with islands since the only area each side could effectively control was the islands themselves.

But with the creation of the continent, the newly formed icy territory between the islands became 'territory,' and neither side was willing to concede an inch, leading to significant conflict.

Provocations were the first to occur.

To decide the boundary line of their respective occupied areas, the Atlanteans proposed a 'card duel' method, which was agreed upon by both sides. More than three thousand officers and soldiers, including crew members from both fleets, signed up for this grand dueling competition.

Monsters and creatures from other worlds were summoned through songs and sacred hymns, their battles momentarily dispersing the ice tide. This collective duel, so magnificent that it should have been recorded in history, deserved a memorable conclusion.

However, before the Duel King could emerge, an accident occurred: some Atlanteans accused the despicable Continental Alliance pigs of cheating during the duel. They claimed that the Alliance used forbidden cards that had been jointly banned by various powers. According to the rules, these individuals should be disqualified.

The Continental Alliance members retorted indignantly, accusing the deceitful Atlantean Federation dogs of cheating as well. They claimed that the Atlanteans not only used forbidden cards, but even printed cards on the spot, conjuring cards out of thin air to solve problems and overcome difficulties during the duel.

Each side stuck to its story, offering excuses such as, 'My card is part of my strength; am I not allowed to use it?' and 'The strongest duelist can even create the cards themselves!' These justifications obviously failed to satisfy the other party.

Soon, the simple dueling competition escalated into armed conflict, and the situation rapidly deteriorated.

First came skirmishes between small squads, followed by coordinated elite infantry armor assaults, then large-scale mechanized legion battles, and finally, even aerial armored fleets joined the fray.

It is worth mentioning that even during the large-scale armed conflicts, both sides displayed a remarkable sense of chivalry. They would agree on the time, method, and duration of the battle beforehand. If no victor emerged by the agreed-upon time, the side with the higher score would win.

The squad combat method involved controlling mobile melody armor and engaging in shooting battles within specific maps such as 'Ashes 2,' 'Purgatory Town,' 'Desert Mirage,' and 'Ice Hell Castle.'

There were also methods where three-person squads dueled in arena-like environments.

As for the elite infantry armor coordination, it was even simpler. Most of the time, it was similar to squad combat, but during the battle, both sides might summon their respective Titan armor for combat. Of course, there were also larger-scale infantry armor coordination battles, which were somewhat similar to battlefield operations from a thousand years ago.

The subsequent large-scale mechanized legion engagements and aerial armored fleet battles followed the same pattern: seizing territory from each other, with fierce and stimulating point-capture battles occurring dozens of times each day, using 'fortresses' as 'points.'

The two sides engaged in fierce combat on this ice-bound continent. This continuous, high-intensity conflict, lasting over three months, resulted in the destruction of 14,800 remotely controlled modulation machine armors, 37 Glory-class battleships, 12 Overlord-class aerial carriers, and caused a reduction of three logistics chefs and one severely wounded soldier.

They left behind complaints like, 'These pampered lords are so damn hard to serve,' 'They want hot cocoa during an ice tide? Let them eat ice blocks themselves!' and 'We're the only ones actually working in this godforsaken place!' Then, they resigned in indignation – a truly tragic loss. From then on, the待遇待遇 of military chefs steadily increased, even surpassing that of miracle chanters, but that is another story.

As for the disabled soldier, his fate was even more tragic – he was allergic to seafood but ate two large bowls of spicy crab. By the gods, he had to be rushed to the Continental Alliance Central Military Hospital to save his life.

In short, it was a shocking and terrifying loss. One must know that almost all war losses in the four thousand years of the Third Era combined probably did not exceed those of this war. Just the twelve destroyed fourth-generation aerial carriers (the current latest is the eighth generation), even one of which, after retirement, would cost more to maintain than the funds for a past war.

As for other scattered, near-retirement machine armors, experimental new warships, cutting-edge tactical systems, and new miracles and magic that had never been put into practice, those were another matter entirely.

In any case, for the native residents of the Southern Sea, they rarely had the chance to witness such a grand spectacle. Just the fiery rain that fell from the sky like shooting stars, the lightning that summoned the power of miracles and tore through the sky and clouds, the massive aerial ships that could trigger magical tides just by their existence, the melody warships that were like mobile islands – each was enough to make them cheer in admiration and eat three large bowls of rice.

"This is the first time in thousands of years that we have seen such an evenly matched and intense battle!"

When interviewed by a frontline reporter, an elderly native of the South Sea, sucking on coconut juice and eating clams, replied with a cheerful smile, "This must be a blessing from the gods! So many soldiers are here on vacation, and the village's coconuts are selling so well!"

The great battle lasted for half a year. The Continental Alliance and the Atlantean Federation fought to the edge of the world in this place, even grinding away the continental shelf.

For the soldiers on both sides, it wasn't exactly easy – after all, they had to personally control those remote-controlled weapons one-on-one. And if a remote-controlled weapon was destroyed, it was equivalent to staying up for a week straight, exhausting them. If anything, some might even prefer to actually go to the battlefield and kill all those 'enemies.'

However, for the civilians on both sides, this was perhaps the most promising period since the invention of remote magic wave reception and manifestation equipment (referred to as magic television) in 1249.

Accompanied by melodious notes, the 'Daily War Report,' which aired promptly after work, stirred the hearts of all the entertainment-deprived, young and old, in the Melody Great Universe.

Miracles! Magic! Giant melody armor! Mountain-like floating warships! Island-like giant seaships!

These were things that ordinary people might never see once in their lives, let alone witness these behemoths, these never-before-seen machines fighting and destroying each other. And most importantly, there were no casualties. They didn't have to worry about their children in the military dying in battle and could wholeheartedly enjoy the fun brought by the conflict.

What could be more fun than a game where 'everyone kills each other, but no one dies'? At least, humans hadn't found anything more enjoyable yet.

The Continental Alliance and Atlantis both cleverly divided each different combat method into specific channels for live broadcast, with highlights edited into videos.

Undoubtedly, those soldiers and commanders with outstanding control skills and individual abilities were all worshiped by everyone.

But similarly, as the live broadcasts became more in-depth, all sorts of chaotic phenomena began to emerge.

First, it must be said that this live war broadcast did ignite the dull atmosphere on both continents, completely exploding public opinion.

Even more than anyone, including the high-level officials of both sides, imagined, this live broadcast program greatly promoted the exchange of public opinion between the people of the Alliance and the Federation, even completely breaking down the barriers between them.

Of course, it wasn't always good, and most of it was probably bad.

Putting one down to praise another, objective evaluations, racial discrimination, regional attacks, fan groups huddling together for warmth, the sense of superiority brought by the achievement contempt chain... and so on, and so forth.

The Atlantean and Continental Alliance viewers' praise and devaluation of their respective camps' excellent commanders and hunters had become an indispensable topic of daily conversation, and discussing who was stronger, who had what fraction of whose strength, had become a daily greeting among the beast-fighting enthusiasts.

"I think 'The Steadfast' has at least the strength of a Grand General!"

"Grand General? Commodore! He's just a conservative who likes to occupy advantageous terrain and hold it. He won a few games thanks to luck, all relying on the terrain and defense to drag down the enemy. That's Grand General level? General is already a stretch!"

"What did you say! (Angry) I demand you apologize to the Steadfast's forty-game winning streak!"

"Don't even think about it!"

And the most regrettable thing was this – the disputes and quarrels caused by the public's praise and criticism of their favorite commanders and soldiers, and the subsequent brawls, resulted in a number of injured people that was one hundred percent higher than the war itself... but how could this be avoided? Even without this, these people would find other ways to fight.

Secondly, there were the Pioneer Space Explorers.

The existence of these explorers not only brought live broadcasts, video editing, and all sorts of new technologies, but also special techniques like personal terminals, which everyone held in their hands. Their words and thoughts themselves were taking root in this fated world.

Exploration, battle, desire, pursuit... If the era when the gods existed was just a stagnant pool, then the Melody Universe now had ripples. The arrival of the explorers brought about gusts of wind and warm ocean currents, destined to transform into raging typhoons, blowing through this world.

And before the typhoon struck, there were also many fragmented changes in the world.

For example, as this war continued and developed, some fanatical fans even went to the Southern Sea to visit the commanders.

This was obviously unstoppable fanaticism, so why not comply with them?

The Alliance and the Federation tacitly launched a real-world tour program. Those fans who were willing to pay a sum of money to support the war could personally come to the front lines to face every process of the 'war.' If they were willing to pay more, wealthy fans could even personally control melody machine armor or even flying shuttles to fight on the battlefield!

Not only could they reap a large amount of wealth, but they could also discover control geniuses among the fans. It had to be admitted that there were indeed many experts among the common people. Many people were not without talent, but their talent lacked the opportunity to be discovered. This war allowed many people to find the direction in which their talent could truly be displayed.

In the autumn of 4438, as the hype brought about by the Southern War intensified, simply watching live broadcasts and occasionally visiting in person could no longer satisfy the public's appetite. Everyone wanted to get their hands dirty and enjoy this extremely 'engaging' war.

After all, in the past, ordinary people could only be forced to pay, never experiencing how the war related to them... But now, they not only didn't have to pay, but they could also experience the instinctual belligerence and competitiveness inherent in their bodies.

In response, the Alliance and the Federation didn't have many good solutions and could only suppress the hype through public opinion and related regulations.

But then, the emerging force, the Radiance Church (Xi Guang Jiao Hui), emerged out of nowhere and solved the source of all related problems.

Relying on the Candlelight Daylight (Zhu Zhou) spirit's inherent 'soul linking' technology and the 'spiritual network' technology derived from a Holy Light demon in the Pioneer Space, coupled with the hard work of many engineers in the Melody Great Universe…

— They invented the 'Virtual Reality Game'!

Undoubtedly, this was the greatest, most anticipated, and most incredible invention of the millennium – with just a personal terminal in hand and the large magical power hubs that were bound to exist in every city, this power constructed in the subconscious soul network of all living beings could be tamed and shaped, forming a 'materialized dream realm'!

Yes, unlike virtual reality games in the technological world, the Melody Great Universe's virtual reality game was a materialized 'dreamland.' In essence, as long as one could dream, one could connect to this dreamland, freely travel through the technology shared and left behind in the dream by others.

Even participate together in the dream… Participate in a game!

Although the Radiance Church's technology was still rudimentary, just a few promotional CGs and a little bit of technology release made the high-level officials and people of the Continental Alliance and the Atlantean Federation focus their attention – ordinary people could see the extraordinary entertainment, the future that would drive away all boredom, and people with another perspective could also be shocked to realize that this seemingly virtual dream had the potential to change the entire material world!

"Perhaps!"

The Federation Leader and the Alliance Chairman thought in unison: "Future wars... can also be fought in here?"

At the same time.

Above the heavens.

[DECEPTION!!!]

A God-King's roar resounded through the chaotic spacetime, His tone filled with irrepressible rage: [I issued a divine decree and bestowed blessings and technology... and they use this 'war' to deceive me?!]