"Excuse me, is there anything that can help me immediately?"
Hearing Riku's inquiry, Liu Yuan began a professional introduction.
"Immediately? Then I recommend you play Elden Ring. Through this game, you can quickly increase your combat power. Trust me, even in the most Normal Game mode, exercising your combat skills can help you."
God-slaying?
Liu Yuan couldn't guarantee that.
Even the Tarnished in Elden Ring went through battle after battle, over and over again, becoming the only ones to win among countless others under Marika's calculations.
Although Riku could gain great strength after completing Elden Ring in the late stages, Liu Yuan couldn't guarantee whether this strength would be enough to take out the gods in Riku's world.
However, he could guarantee that, aside from the upper ten races, Riku could defeat the remaining five with relative ease—unless Riku made mistakes.
"Elden Ring? May I ask how long I can live?"
"Eighty years. Without any accidents, you'll live to be eighty. You have a lot of time left."
Ten for a day, as long as Riku didn't spend extravagantly, it was still feasible to surf the internet daily at the internet café and play the game for a round.
He started his path to becoming stronger in the game.
He devised a perfect plan for himself: ten out of twelve hours to improve his strength in Elden Ring, and the remaining two hours as a commander in Red Alert, striving to obtain the weapon and equipment blueprints. Liu Yuan had mentioned that the technology here was human-made and could be replicated.
Riku aimed to enhance himself while contributing to the potential technological development of the human race. He was prepared to trade the next fifty years of his life for this purpose. Before playing, he had asked, and the Red Alert series he chose was none other than Mental Omega.
He chose Mental Omega because it was a standalone mod that didn't require completing any other series to play. Unlike Red Alert 3, which had excellent technology but required completing the first two generations to unlock the real difficulty of the third, Mental Omega could be played immediately. Although it was slightly harder compared to the canonical entries, it was accessible.
When Riku actually started playing, he found it wasn't just a little difficult; it was very difficult. Even after spending an hour learning the roles of each unit and how to use various equipment for command, he experienced what real challenge meant when he played himself.
'Act 1: Red Dawn'
Upon entering the game, Riku immediately became a rookie commander in the United States of America.
March 8, 1982, Washington D.C.
Mission Objective One: Protect Washington during the Soviet invasion.
Mission Objective Two: Protect the Pentagon.
The mission was simple and clear, but it gave Riku a bad feeling.
He was in Realism Mode, where in-game time and out-of-game time ratios were different. He was in a command room in the Pentagon, with three intelligence officers, an adjutant, and himself, the commander.
Everything felt real. Giving orders to soldiers to arrive at their designated positions for combat made it seem like these soldiers were real people with flesh and blood. Forced or out-of-character orders could lead to rebellious behavior.
The realism of the battles was also very high. He could observe the situation of each troop site through the projection after personally giving the order. While a large number of civilians in in-game Washington scattered in all directions, Riku was counting the available combat units and designating a battle plan.
Right now, he was a rookie Allied commander with one battalion and some assigned main battle tanks. He needed to intercept the infantry enemy from at least two directions.
"You need to hold your position. Enemy reinforcements are few and far between. Wait for them to arrive. Good luck, commander."
Riku didn't feel anything wrong at this point. With a large number of soldiers plus tanks and multi-purpose infantry vehicles, knowing the functions of these weapons and equipment, and with all the buildings in the city that he could occupy, he felt confident in this mission.
However...
When he saw the tanks and soldiers disembarking from the amphibious ships on the sea, the slowly approaching Kirovs in the sky, and the Soviet base north of the city that had finished setting up in ten minutes, he realized he was in trouble.
"With... these?"
Riku could see clearly that the other side had the ability to build tanks on the front lines, while his side was full of GIs.
After fighting for half a day and scraping together support for a few tanks, they were destroyed by Terror Drones before reaching the battle line. In the end, he watched as the vast army rushed to the Pentagon. Not only was his defense force gone, but the Pentagon and all its defense facilities and construction factories were demolished.
Mobilized soldiers holding PPSh-41s, shouting 'neck right twist', rushed into the Pentagon.
Mission failed.
In reality, only twenty minutes had passed, but in the game, this command lasted for two hours. For two hours, he experienced true powerlessness.
But...
"It is possible to win..."
Riku realized that winning this battle was possible. The first time he had taken command, he hadn't been familiar enough with the tanks, GIs, or heavy GIs. For example, he had entered too many normal GIs into buildings, making it impossible for them to penetrate the armor of the Soviet tanks.
Additionally, the Soviets used a combined arms strategy with infantry, tanks, and attack dogs. A large number of troops invaded from the right while the Navy harassed from the sea, and the left side established a base. By the time his troops held down the right side, the enemy base on the left had grown too strong to defeat.
His eagerness to destroy enemy armored units led to his tanks being destroyed by mines. Without these blunders, the result could have been victory.
In reality, he would already be dead.
But as a game, he had a do-over.
In a world where survival was nearly impossible, Riku had led the human race for several years, reducing the number of deaths from hundreds to dozens annually.
He possessed great leadership skills, empathizing with the deaths of those around him but also able to detach emotionally to achieve perfect command when necessary.
The second time, he failed due to a traitor within the Pentagon. He managed to demolish the enemy base, and the coastline was heavily defended, making it difficult for enemy ships to advance. Armored units that came ashore were effectively countered by his repaired units.
However, a spy within the Pentagon shot him.
Physically tired after a day of playing Elden Ring and two intense command sessions, Riku decided to take a break and see what the others were doing.