Playing the Trump Card

A sudden battle report caused everyone's heart across the entire Azure General Staff to plummet. Dead silence fell as grief began to spread. To the old men present, this was another of their generation—an ace Azure combat general they all knew so well, someone they had known for decades. Just like that, he was gone, reduced abruptly to a single phrase: killed in action. "General Bochen had fought for humanity for decades." "He was once third on humanity's Dome Leaderboard, and even after that, he never stopped progressing. At his age, he adapted to the brand-new super-compressed energy, adapted to the powerful next-generation combat gear, adapted to the combat mode of deploying outside the ship in midair..." "With just himself, a chain, and a Skybreaker Hammer, he once battled over a hundred Great Spike aircraft alone in the sky, locking down the entire airspace by sheer force. Back in the era when humanity had no aerial combat capabilities, he stood planted on the earth and told the Great Spikes: get the hell down from above our heads!" "..." Only after a long while did Chairman Kemore finally ask with a hoarse, strained voice, "How could this happen? How could it suddenly end like this?" "That Puta'er took action." "..." "This is bad." "Battlefield observation indicates it wasn't a head-on duel," the communications officer said, fighting to suppress his grief as he relayed the casualty report. "Admiral Bochen was engaged in combat with a Daie-class enemy ship when Puta'er exited its vessel, appeared atop the massive warship, and struck at him from a distance from behind. General Bochen may not have noticed... or by the time he did, it was already too late to evade." Facing a single-target directional attack from a Puta'er, and from behind at that... among the very top combatants of all humanity, perhaps hardly anyone could have survived. In truth, they all knew General Bochen hadn't failed to perceive Puta'er's attack. At his level, no source energy attack carrying such massive energy fluctuations could escape his senses... The reality was likely that he did notice and tried to react, but he could neither dodge nor block it. Silence fell over the channel. Another wave of silence hung over the conference room. "The trump card! Show us that trump card of yours! What on earth is it? Is it useful or not?!" the chief of staff of the Nielai Front suddenly shouted in fury. "Why hasn't it appeared on the lunar battlefield yet? Has the situation for humanity not deteriorated enough for you to stop hesitating?!" A moment later, the Chairman of the Azure Board of Elders finally spoke on the frequency band. "Are the arrangements for the trump card ready?" He seemed to be asking Chairman Kemore. Or perhaps the other members of the Azure Board of Elders beside him. As the greatest secret in Azure's history, the existence of the "trump card" was something most members of the Board of Elders only vaguely knew about. As for what it actually was, what purpose it served, and how it was to be used, very few members understood, let alone had contact with it. This was the secret of the trump card being disclosed in such detail for the first time. The chairman began to explain. "The trump card is a person. The reason he can serve as a trump card is due to his characteristic, which we call Symbiosis—or Mutual Death..." "..." "So, as long as he establishes a symbiotic bond with Puta'er, he can become just as powerful and fight against it?" "No. According to our research and deductions, although the symbiotic bond does help him grow, it requires a considerable process. Moreover, the ultimate limit of his growth will inevitably have a significant gap compared to the one he is bound to." The chairman paused, then continued, "What is truly and immediately useful is Mutual Death. Our research concludes that under the effect of Mutual Death, even if the bound target does not die, it will inevitably suffer devastating injuries." Therefore, this final trump card of humanity was single-use. Once played, what he actually had to do was bind the opponent—and then kill himself. At first hearing, this sounded somewhat horrifying and cruel. But upon careful thought, for the past century, countless Azure warriors had fought in a manner virtually equivalent to suicide. If this "Mutual Death" characteristic currently had no bearer and anyone could take it up, tens of thousands in Azure today would step forward without hesitation, even with proud smiles, to take it and march to their deaths. "So, does he know about this himself?" Chief of Staff Ding Xinhai pressed. "Previously he didn't know; he only thought he was a low-fusion logistics officer with a slight specialty who had lived a fairly smooth life. He was only told the truth two days ago," the Board of Elders chairman explained patiently. "To be frank, although we had no great certainty, our original dream was to use him against Miwang. Now that humanity's situation has abruptly become this critical, we have no choice but to use him against this Puta'er." "Then how... how did this Sergeant Daputa'er react when he learned the truth?" The Nielai chief of staff unconsciously used the formal title of rank plus name—a mark of respect for a warrior. "At first he was terrified, cried, and had difficulty accepting it," a voice said from the chairman's end. It was not the chairman himself, but likely the actual handler of the trump card. "However, today he has gradually come around. He has begun to feel that this is an honorable mission and the meaning of his life. After all, though he has no actual combat experience, he has watched countless deeds and footage of human battles, and the hot blood of a warrior flows within him. "He only made one request: he said he didn't want to end his life by suicide. He wished his life could also have one desperate charge against a swarm of Great Spikes. In short, he wanted to go to an actual battlefield and cut down a Great Spike with his own hands. We agreed. After all, whether to bind is entirely controlled by his own subjective will; we didn't want to force or constrain him too much on other details," the voice from the chairman's side continued. "Mm, to let him experience the battlefield beforehand and prevent panic when the time comes, we have made the corresponding arrangements..." Antarctica still had a small number of living Great Spikes kept for experiments. According to the Elder Council member, Daputa'er was currently traveling to Antarctica aboard a small source energy craft, accompanied by the only two young Azure geniuses still remaining on Blue Star. There, Daputa'er would enter a real battlefield for the first time, face the slaughter of a Great Spike swarm, and perhaps even be allowed, under completely safe conditions, to step forward and deliver a strike to a dying Great Spike. "Once this step is completed, he will depart on the spot, flying directly from Antarctica to the lunar battlefield." "Right, that is very reasonable." A chorus of agreement rose in the channel. Someone followed up on the topic: "Also, does his binding with Puta'er have a distance requirement? If he is too timid, I'm afraid he won't even be able to get close. As for the lunar battlefield, it would be best to notify Chief of Staff Wen in advance to make the necessary preparations." "That shouldn't be a problem. The binding mechanism will tentatively trigger once he senses a strong surge of life source energy from the opponent. The more powerful Puta'er is, the less demanding the distance requirement becomes." "That's good." People gradually began to emerge from the siege of grief, feeling a glimmer of joy, like being illuminated by light once more in the deepest darkness. If he could deal with this Puta'er... Setting aside the existence of Puta'er, humanity was not actually at a disadvantage in the lunar campaign. In fact, if Major Qing and Pegmont could recover their combat strength somewhat, humanity might even hold the upper hand. If things proceeded according to that hypothesis, humanity would have a high probability of winning this battle, winning all the Yanxiu skeletal remains, and winning the future. Through the narrative, this person who had lived his entire life in a "Truman Show" finally came into focus. He was a seemingly ordinary twenty-nine-year-old young man with average source energy fusion and average combat capability. For years, he had lived quietly in an Azure logistics base. He had undergone training, but had never participated in a single real battle. He had only watched countless battle scenes and heroic deeds over and over on television and in the news... His name was Daputa'er.