advance/early chapters : p atreon.com/Ritesh_Jadhav0869
Blake woke to bright sunlight streaming through the window.
He picked up his phone from the bedside table and casually scrolled through the push notifications from various platforms.
Discussions about the Longbow Valley trailer and combat demonstration practically flooded every gaming community he followed. The buzz was even more astonishing than during the Zero Dam release — and that had been insane.
"Just as I expected," Blake murmured, a knowing smile playing on his lips.
In this game-starved world, every appearance of Delta Force was like a nuclear bomb going off. A frenzy of excitement was only natural.
He didn't linger on the praise. Instead, he immediately opened his computer and logged into Horizon Interactive's official accounts across various platforms.
Soon, a carefully edited announcement was drafted:
[Horizon Interactive Game Studio]
[Delta Force Second Technical Test — Vanguard Recruitment Officially Begins!]
Dear Players,
Thank you for your continued attention and enthusiastic discussion regarding Delta Force and the Longbow Valley trailer!
Your passion is our greatest motivation.
To gather broader player feedback and thoroughly test server load and game performance, the project team has carefully decided that the second Vanguard test will adopt an [ONLINE TEST] model!
[Key Test Information]
Test Scale: A total of 50,000 Vanguard testers will be recruited!
Test Time: July 30, 2025, 8:00 AM — August 1, 2025, 10:00 PM
Test Content: Includes Operations mode for Zero Dam and the brand-new map Longbow Valley. More content awaits your personal exploration!
[How to Obtain Qualification]
Lucky Draw: Sharing this post and leaving your expectations and well-wishes in the comment section counts as participation in the draw.
We will randomly select 50,000 lucky players on July 28, 2025, and send test qualifications and client download instructions via direct message.
First Test Direct Pass: All player accounts that participated in the first offline test will directly receive qualification for this test!
Thank you for your pioneering contributions — this qualification is your well-deserved honor and does not occupy one of the 50,000 new slots.
Please log in to the test server directly with your original account at that time.
[Friendly Reminder]
This test is a data wipe test, but you can store any four items in the safe, and items in the safe will be retained.
The test version is still under development and may contain bugs or optimization issues — we appreciate your understanding.
Please strictly adhere to the test confidentiality agreement and do not record or disseminate unreleased game content.
The beacon has been lit — Vanguards, assemble!
The dangers and riches of Longbow Valley, the familiar and unknown of Zero Dam, all await your arrival.
Let's meet on July 30th. Delta Force — see you there!
— Delta Force Project Team
This announcement instantly caused a sensation.
The already-high popularity from the promotional video caused the views, shares, and comments of this post to skyrocket at a visible rate.
"50,000 people online test? Horizon Interactive is awesome! Blake Weiss is awesome!"
"First test players get in directly? That's so cool! Hahaha, thanks Blake!"
"Hey you — I remember your ID, 'RedditHunterMom,' right? First test veteran, please carry me!"
"Fifty thousand slots... a lot, but it still feels like not enough."
"Please let me win! Please let me win!"
"Opens on July 30th, today's the 23rd, still seven days to wait!"
"I can't wait to go to Haavk Radar Station and meet Reis!"
"The test is only three days? So short! Can't it be open for a few more days?"
"Be content, bro. It's probably a server stress test — three days is about right."
"At this rate, I bet the next test or the one after will be the open beta!"
"Shared and commented! Please pick me! I want to go to Longbow Valley and pick up gold bars!"
Blake casually scrolled through the comments, smiling contentedly at the players' enthusiastic and anxious discussions.
Everything was progressing as planned.
Closing the social media interface, he idly clicked over to YouTube, wanting to see more in-depth analyses of the new trailer from prominent content creators.
Sure enough, many creators in the gaming and film sections had released videos, dissecting the information brought by "Longbow Valley" and "Hell Black Shark · Reis" from various angles.
One analysis video's title caught his attention:
"From Operators to MandelBrick: An In-Depth Analysis of the Worldview Prototype of Delta Force"
Blake clicked into it.
In the video, the creator logically laid out their theory:
"Dear viewers, combining the two high-quality promotional videos, we can identify several common threads."
"Firstly, our playable characters are called 'Special Operations Operators.'"
"Clearly, they belong to an organization with a defined purpose, but its specific name is currently unknown."
"Secondly, whether it's the initial Zero Dam or the current Longbow Valley, the core objective of contention points to a mysterious item — the MandelBrick."
"It's worth noting that the two major boss-level characters that have appeared so far — 'Guard Captain Saeed' of Zero Dam and 'Hell Black Shark · Reis' of Longbow Valley —"
"They both seem to have objectives regarding the MandelBrick, but their approaches are distinctly different."
"Saeed is more like its guardian, keeping it casually in his territory. While Reis is more like its plunderer, willing to slaughter Haavk soldiers to find it."
"Of course, it doesn't rule out the possibility that Reis simply enjoys killing — his behavior is significantly more brutal compared to Saeed."
"As for the third party, 'Haavk' — judging from their soldiers' equipment and facilities like the Radar Station, they're an organization with considerable technological strength, and they're also clearly collecting or guarding the MandelBrick."
"So... what exactly IS this MandelBrick that is coveted by various factions?"
"What astonishing effects does it possess?"
The creator proposed a bold conjecture:
"I personally lean toward it being an ultimate item related to life technology."
"In popular sci-fi settings, only an item that can allow people to transcend life and death — heal fatal injuries, or even trigger evolution — would be enough to drive powerful individuals from different factions this mad."
"Perhaps it can bring people back from the dead?"
"Perhaps it can bestow great power upon people?"
"This would explain why our operators are going to such extreme lengths to acquire it."
This video's analysis sparked even more heated discussion in the comment section:
"Holy crap, RESURRECTION? Thinking about it, that really might be possible! Otherwise there's no way to explain why it's so sought after."
"I feel like Saeed doesn't seem to want the brick — he's more like guarding a certain place, and the brick is just something he's incidentally watching over."
"Yeah, you see how he doesn't care about that brick at all."
"Saeed seems to be simply guarding the Administrative Building. The MandelBrick might just be something he finds shiny and pretty?"
"666 — the comment above completely changed Saeed's vibe. If you say it like that, I'd think he's a cute girl lmao"
"Reis seems to know the value of the brick — after all, he's already stormed into the Radar Station."
"But in the video, he acts as if he knows nothing. Is he faking it?"
"Currently, the only ones who clearly know the value of the MandelBrick and are systematically searching for/guarding it seem to be the organization behind our operators and the Haavk organization."
"Yeah, Saeed and Reis are more like wild super-bosses."
"The worldbuilding is getting more and more interesting! Please, official team, release more info!"
Blake smiled slightly as he watched these analyses.
The players' imaginations were very rich, and some guesses were already close to the mark.
But the true core was still hidden deeper.
He wasn't in a hurry to reveal the answer. Let the suspense linger a bit longer — maintain the hype for as long as possible.
He closed the browser and turned his gaze to the Steam developer backend on his computer screen.
The sales of Desert Bus had quietly crossed the 100,000 mark.
[Desert Bus sales have reached the 100,000 milestone]
[Reward: System Points × 1,000]
[Current System Points: 2,000]
"Very good," Blake murmured to himself.
Everything was progressing steadily.