"Achoo!"
Gazing out the car window at the boundless dunes bathed in the glow of the sunset, Battlefield Atmosphere Group sneezed without warning from his seat in the jeep.
Korwei, sitting beside him, spoke up. "This is already the northwestern corner of Sunset Province. It gets a bit chilly at night. Do you need a blanket, my friend?"
"No, I'm fine."
Battlefield Guy squeezed out a forced smile, casting his gaze back toward the distant dunes. Far off, an overstretched column and physically and mentally exhausted soldiers could be seen.
At the moment, they were marching at the rear of the 2nd Millennium under the 5th Myriad, bound for Oasis 2, where the Falcon Kingdom lay.
Before reporting to the officer corps directly attached to the 5th Myriad, he still had to march alongside Korwei's unit for a while longer.
The crushing defeat of the 4th Myriad had stripped them of the ability to maintain the defensive line at Oasis 3. Now, the Legion's entire troop deployment in Sunset Province was contracting westward into the desert to consolidate its defense.
Fortunately, Korwei's direct superior was a smart man who decisively ordered a redeployment the moment he received the directive.
Because of this, they had fled all the way to the edge of Oasis 2 almost without ever catching sight of the Alliance.
By contrast, the 7th and 8th Myriads were not nearly as fortunate.
Word had it that just yesterday, the 8th Myriad encountered the Alliance's Skeleton Corps on the gravel plains a hundred kilometers away. Stripped of armored support and fortified cover, the engagement turned into a one-sided slaughter—they hadn't even held out for half a day.
Patting Pangolin on the shoulder, Korwei raised his binoculars to peer into the rolling yellow sand ahead, dimly making out two-man-tall cacti and swaying sea buckthorn.
Vegetation was appearing in abundance.
They were not far now.
"Oasis 2 is just ahead..."
Though they were about to reach their destination, not a trace of joy showed on his face. His furrowed brows were clouded with grim sobriety.
They had successfully escaped the Alliance's encirclement and pursuit.
Yet they had also lost everything won over the past several months...
He was certain the Legion surpassed the Alliance in strategic deployment and tactical execution, yet the intensity of the Alliance Army's offensive still exceeded their wildest imaginations.
Those people were like immortals who simply couldn't be killed.
Had they not acted so intelligent and actually bled, he might even have suspected they were clones or synthetics...
Even more frustrating for someone who prided himself on analytical reflection, he was completely at a loss as to where they had actually lost this time.
Even if logistics was a major issue, they possessed an army a hundred thousand strong. How could they possibly be hounded and routed by just over ten thousand men?!
"Do you have any plans once we reach Oasis 2?" Battlefield Guy asked, looking at the worried Korwei.
"The plan is that there is no plan," Korwei said after a long silence, lowering his binoculars. "I heard total chaos has broken out at headquarters... We expected to hold Oasis 3 at least until next month, but we abandoned the position at least half a month ahead of schedule. That means we have to fight for another month relying entirely on our allies' backward infrastructure and limited industrial capacity."
"That sounds tough," Battlefield Guy offered conservatively, against his own conscience.
"Tough doesn't begin to cover it..." Korwei narrowed his eyes, squinting through the swirling sand and wind. "Never mind that. Bister Town is just ahead."
Bister Town was not inside the oasis; rather, much like Petra Fortress to the Camel Hump Kingdom, it stood just outside it.
Yet unlike commercial Petra, this frontier town was purely a fortress city.
Built by the Falcon Kingdom with assistance from the Wilants, rows of concrete triangular pylons encircled the town like a moat, backed by concrete pillboxes.
At the center of the town were anti-air positions, a logistics hub, and an airfield.
There were no civilian facilities, nor did any families or ordinary civilians live here. Aside from a small garrison, the majority of the population consisted of conscripted laborers.
If the terrain rating of the perimeter line at Oasis 3 was a 3 and its fortifications a 1, then the situation here was the exact opposite—roughly a "1 in terrain, 3 in fortifications."
After passing through the outermost checkpoint, a pitted, muddy stretch and a relatively straight dirt road came into view.
On either side of the dirt road stood native laborers with sun-baked, waxy-red skin holding shovels, most of them inhabitants of nearby hamlets.
Battlefield Guy noticed them staring over at their convoy.
Those malnourished faces were lifeless, their pupils dimmed as if coated with a layer of gray dust. Though whip scars crawled across their bodies, neither resentment nor fury showed in their eyes.
Only numbness.
To his surprise, Battlefield Guy caught a glimpse of vindictive schadenfreude in the eyes of one laborer—carefully concealed though it was.
It seemed there were clever folks even among these servants who were barely better off than slaves.
They had already sensed that the war was nearing its end.
Battlefield Guy could not help thinking of the nobles within the Falcon Kingdom.
Long since squeezed dry, they naturally lacked the power to resist Wilant rule, but at this critical juncture where anyone with eyes could see the Wilants were on the verge of defeat, what would they be thinking right now?
He suddenly looked forward to seeing the looks on their faces.
At the end of the dirt road stood a checkpoint.
The guards on duty had spotted them long ago; after confirming their unit designation, they raised the barrier to let them through.
As Battlefield Guy gazed toward the distant concrete structures, lost in reverie, a man dressed in luxurious attire approached from the roadside.
He had a straight nose and slightly curly hair, bearing the features of a desert native, yet his status was clearly far superior to the laborers encountered earlier.
Korwei waved, signaling the driver to pull the jeep over, and ordered the rest of the troop and supply trucks to keep rolling ahead.
The nobleman walked up to the vehicle of his own accord and spoke deferentially:
"...Honorable Lord Korwei, I am Widlier, Mayor of Bister Town. Please allow me, on behalf of Bister Town's three hundred soldiers, to extend my warmest regards to you."
However, Korwei wasted no pleasantries on Widlier's deference, merely tossing a manifest into his hands.
"I need the supplies on that list, especially fuel for the trucks. I want to see them before sundown."
The bottom of the manifest bore the signature of the logistics office.
Hearing the latter half of the demand, Widlier wore a troubled expression.
"B-but... the sun has already set."
"Then within two hours," Korwei said impatiently.
He had no desire to waste time here.
"Yes, yes, my lord!"
Widlier nodded nervously and immediately urged his attendants to see to it, then looked at him with an ingratiating smile.
"Ah, honorable lord, might I ask how long you plan to stay? That way I can prepare appropriate—"
Reading his intentions at a glance, Korwei cut him off bluntly.
"Until tomorrow morning. The barracks will do fine for me."
He did not fear a decisive battle against the Alliance.
However, it had to happen after his men secured sufficient weapons and ammunition.
Otherwise, it was no different from throwing their lives away.
Hearing this, a flicker of disappointment crossed Widlier's eyes. It seemed these men wouldn't stay to help him either.
With only three hundred-odd defenders, they stood no chance against the Alliance.
Yet he dared not say a word, let alone complain, and could only bow his head meekly.
"Understood, Commander."
...
Under Korwei's lead, the 3rd Millennium billeted in the barracks in the northeastern corner of Bister Town.
Morale in the camp was somewhat depressed. After finishing their rations, soldiers gathered in small clusters of three and five, whispering in hushed tones.
"Have you heard? General Griffin has disappeared..."
"Disappeared?! How could that be?!"
"Are you tired of living, spreading rumors like that?"
"Disappearing is impossible... but things have definitely been weird lately. The whole way here, we haven't seen any Alliance troops, nor have we seen any other units."
"What the hell is headquarters doing?"
"Who knows... Maybe General Griffin is plotting some major move. I believe that once he gets serious, the Alliance won't stand a chance!"
"Shh... quiet down."
A soldier pointed at Pangolin walking past, and the others shut their mouths in unison.
Everyone knew he was Korwei's trusted confidant.
Though rumors circulated that he had been transferred to the officer corps directly under the Myriad to serve as an advisor, nominally he remained Korwei's direct subordinate.
Nobody wanted to be reported to the superiors.
Battlefield Guy, however, couldn't be bothered with them.
While he was curious about Griffin's status, he doubted a few grunts could possibly know the movements of the Legion's supreme commander in Sunset Province.
That would be ridiculous!
Finding an empty latrine pit with no line, Battlefield Guy—having just finished dinner in-game—logged off to grab a quick breakfast in the real world and check the forum to see how far his bros had advanced.
According to info provided by I'm the Darkest, his original post at Position G53-7 had already been captured by the Storm Corps.
Perhaps because he, the Centurion, had been transferred away, the decurions promoted from the Falcon Kingdom offered little resistance before decisively surrendering.
Likely fearing retaliation from the Alliance, those men racked their brains to pin all their past combat achievements solely on "Pangolin."
The unit that took over Hill G53-7 and the captives was the Lion Kingdom Army under Prince Winter.
Now Pangolin's name had spread by word of mouth all the way to the Lion Kingdom, where he was depicted as a demon who ate children in the dead of night.
Reading I'm the Darkest's vivid descriptions on the forum, Battlefield Guy was utterly speechless.
He was dead certain this rumor had been wildly embellished.
And what exasperated him most was that those bastards hadn't even bothered to draft a script when bragging on his behalf.
How had everything become his doing?!
"Damn it, my legs are completely numb from squatting..."
Cursing under his breath as he hitched up his trousers, Battlefield Guy, who had spent quite a while in the latrine, pushed open the wooden door only to run right into a busty beauty with a high-bridged nose.
"Hi." Seeing Pangolin finally emerge from the latrine, Penny hadn't figured out how to start a conversation, so she could only make small talk: "You were in there a long time."
Any other topic would have been fine, but bringing this up made Battlefield Guy flustered. Still, he cleared his throat and acted composed.
"Afraid of tearing my wounds... I didn't dare push too hard."
That was the truth.
The shell that had nearly blown him to kingdom come last time had left several shrapnel fragments stuck in his body that still hadn't been extracted.
Penny's cheeks twitched as she suppressed a giggle, but she quickly realized laughing at this was bad form and forced it back down.
"Sorry... I didn't mean to laugh, but..."
Seeing how hard she was struggling to hold it in, Battlefield Guy sighed.
"It's fine. Laugh if you want."
Throughout this flight, the two of them had chatted quite a bit. While they weren't sharing every secret, they had at least become friendly enough to talk.
Naturally, to maintain his persona as a "stoic, taciturn expert," Battlefield Guy spent most of the time keeping his mouth shut and listening to her, chiming in only occasionally.
As for any mutual affection, that was just him bragging on the forum.
Nobody was going to verify it anyway—as long as the dog dev didn't expose him, he could boast however he pleased.
"No, I won't laugh." Penny coughed a couple of times to stifle it, then looked at him earnestly and took a deep breath. "My father wants me to go back."
"Your father?" Battlefield Guy looked at her in surprise.
Although they had spoken several times along the way, this was the first time he had heard her mention her family.
Penny nodded solemnly.
"Yes. He said I must leave this place."
"Congratulations. You can get away from this troubled place."
Battlefield Guy smiled faintly. Yet to his surprise, Penny suddenly made an unexpected proposal:
"Could you come with me?"
The moment he heard those words, Battlefield Guy froze. Seeing that she wasn't joking, he knitted his brows slightly and asked, "What do you mean..."
Penny avoided his gaze.
"It's nothing... It's just that I can't travel so far alone. Although headquarters promised to dispatch a century to escort me, none of them make me feel as safe as you do. So I'd like you to escort me back."
What kind of excuse is that?!
Battlefield Guy felt both amused and exasperated.
He could clearly sense she wasn't telling the whole truth, so he looked her straight in the eye and said, "I took an oath to fight for His Excellency the Marshal until my last breath. To realize that lord's ideals, I won't go anywhere."
Anxiety flickered across Penny's face, and she finally couldn't help saying, "Your loyalty is moving, but this isn't a war sanctioned by His Excellency the Marshal... Besides, do you really think there's any hope of winning this war?"
Battlefield Guy looked at her with a solemn face. "We haven't lost yet! As soon as the weapons reach the front line, we can launch an immediate counterattack!"
"I know you're brave, but... one person cannot alter the outcome of a war. What's more, you're injured! Wake up!"
Seeing that the man before her remained stubbornly unmoved, Penny gritted her teeth. She glanced left and right, stepped beside him, and lowered her voice:
"I'll tell you something, but you must not tell anyone else... including your commander."
Joy surged in Battlefield Guy's heart, but he kept his expression neutral.
"Speak."
Penny stared intently at him.
"Swear to me first."
"In the name of Pangolin, by my faith in the Great Horned Deer God, and on my loyalty to His Excellency the Marshal, I swear... I will never tell another soul about today's conversation." Battlefield Guy raised a finger to his temple, looking into her eyes with solemn gravity.
A blush rose on Penny's cheeks. Embarrassed, she averted her eyes from his "burning" gaze and looked to the side.
That touch of shyness shone dazzlingly under the moonlight, making Battlefield Guy—who was spouting complete nonsense with a straight face—feel a twinge of guilt about deceiving her further.
Collecting her thoughts for a moment, Penny said in a low voice, "Triumph City has sent a governor."
Battlefield Guy paused slightly.
"A governor?"
Penny nodded gently.
"Yes. A governor to oversee the Falcon Kingdom. He brought orders from the Marshal's Manor... an edict issued directly, bypassing the commander of the Eastern Legion."
Battlefield Guy swallowed involuntarily.
"...What are the orders?"
Penny offered a bitter smile and shook her head.
"I don't know... All I know is that it might be related to armistice negotiations."
Hearing the word "armistice," Battlefield Guy was stunned.
"An armistice... Can His Excellency the Marshal accept losses like this?"
Penny sighed softly.
"That's not for me to guess. Besides, it has nothing to do with whether he can accept it or not. The Legion's core interests were never in the east to begin with. Starting this war was entirely the unauthorized initiative of front-line units and the indulgence of the Expansionist Faction... Saren, commander of the Eastern Legion, could not accept the failure of the expedition against the Great Rift Valley, so he incited the marauder tribes in River Valley Province and vassals in Sunset Province to plot a second expedition."
Battlefield Guy looked at her in disbelief.
If this was true, it was monumental news that could potentially impact the Alliance's next strategic moves.
To make sure, he asked cautiously, "Did you... figure this out on your own?"
Penny shook her head.
"My father serves as a civil official in Triumph City. Not high-ranking, but... it was thanks to his help that I was able to come here. Only after arriving did I realize that all the news sent from the front to the rear was doctored—and doctored once before even reaching the Triumph Gazette. Progress here was never as smooth as Griffin claimed."
"Triumph City can accept Griffin and Maclen maintaining the status quo in Sunset Province; the Legion's core interests don't lie in the far east anyway. But whether one belongs to the Expansionist Faction or not, no one can accept the Enterprise snatching a Legion vassal out of our hands."
"In fact, it's not just Triumph City that finds it unacceptable; the Academy also cannot accept Sunset Province falling entirely into the Enterprise's hands... If things really develop to that point, and the Alliance occupies the Falcon Kingdom with Enterprise backing, do you know what this place will end up becoming?"
Watching the grave expression on Penny's face, Battlefield Guy's Adam's apple bobbed. He asked cautiously:
"...What will it become?"
Penny continued solemnly:
"Triumph City will declare war on the Enterprise. It will be a total war spanning the entire Mid-Continent, a reckoning for the history of a hundred and fifty years ago... The Academy may dislike us, but they will grant us passage, because they detest the people of the East Coast just as much."
A sudden dawn of realization struck Battlefield Guy's mind.
"Wait... Is that why Griffin contracted the defense line here?"
Come to think of it...
He had been wondering about this earlier.
While retreating to Oasis 2 was a sensible move, Griffin's abandonment had been far too decisive—or rather, too fast.
It was decidedly abnormal.
Penny shook her head.
"I don't know... Maybe he didn't intend it initially, but he has clearly been cornered to this point. From his perspective, even the best outcome is the worst ending."
"Only by taking the most extreme measure—sacrificing these ten myriads along with the Falcon Kingdom, letting those Wilant officers be captured or even executed by the allied forces of the Alliance and the Enterprise—can he possibly unite their families, unite the factions behind them, and forge a consensus on the controversial proposal for a second expedition."
At this point, a faint look of dread and unease surfaced in her eyes.
"I hate to think this way, but that is the reality..."
"That man has gone mad."
...
At the same time.
Aboard the Heart of Steel.
Chu Guang, who was attending to official business, suddenly received a communication request originating from the direction of the Golden Lizard Kingdom.
On the holographic screen.
A middle-aged man wearing a silver-gray robe trimmed with blue stripes nodded slightly to him in greeting and introduced himself in a mild tone:
"Greetings, honorable Administrator. I am Li Ke, a Class-B Researcher from the Academy's Department of Foreign Affairs, Special Projects Group."
Looking at the Class-B Researcher before him, Chu Guang couldn't help showing a hint of surprise.
Just a few days ago, his side had dealt them a covert setback, yet not a ripple of emotion could be seen on the man's face.
It was as though nothing had happened at all.
Seeing that the other party had no intention of bringing up Beacon Squad, Chu Guang certainly wasn't going to mention it either. He smiled as if nothing had happened and asked:
"Is there something I can do for you?"
"Indeed. Were it not an urgent matter, I would not presume to disturb you so abruptly." Li Ke smiled faintly, though his next words caught Chu Guang off guard.
"We are here to save you."
Chu Guang was taken aback, then chuckled.
"Save us?"
"Precisely," Li Ke nodded gently. "Not just you, but the entire Sunset Province and even the survivors in southern River Valley Province are facing an existential crisis. If this regional conflict escalates into the Legion's second expedition, everything you have built over years will be reduced to ash."
Chu Guang narrowed his eyes slightly.
"Is that a threat?"
The man in the hologram shook his head and said softly, "Not at all. For the peace of those innocent people, I hope you can sit down and talk."
Chu Guang laughed, speaking in a joking tone:
"An amusing way to put it. I'd like to ask you instead—where were you when a certain big-nosed fellow delivered a nuclear warhead to Lost Valley?"
As if expecting the topic would be steered toward that nuke, Li Ke let out a soft sigh and said:
"We were also surprised that they would resort to a nuclear weapon. But things being as they are, what we can prevent is a second or third warhead being sent here."
"The oases of Sunset Province are among the few legacies left to us by the Era of Prosperity. This declining civilization can afford no further losses."
"We did not instigate this war. We merely stand as a third party, hoping you will quit while you are ahead for the sake of the greater good."
"Naturally, we will not ask you to surrender what you've gained for nothing."
Chu Guang did not speak, quietly waiting for him to continue.
Li Ke paused before going on:
"I hear you have a fusion reactor, yet your power output has remained at the bare minimum... From this, we deduce your helium-3 reserves must not be plentiful, correct?"
Chu Guang wanted to say it was actually because they couldn't use up that much electricity, but he certainly wouldn't expose his own hand like that.
Seeing that Chu Guang still hadn't spoken, Li Ke assumed he had guessed right. A faint smile appeared on his face as he continued:
"One thousand cubic meters of liquid helium."
Chu Guang replied dismissively, "What would I want that for?"
"I meant helium-3."
The instant he heard those words, Chu Guang's pupils constricted slightly.
How heavy one thousand cubic meters of liquid helium-3 was, he did not know, but he knew full well that one thousand cubic meters of liquid helium weighed at least 127 tons!
What did 127 tons of helium-3 mean?
If completely converted to electricity via nuclear fusion, even accounting for energy conversion efficiency, that immense energy was enough to power a city of a million people like Singapore for 127 years!
And globally, it was enough for seven billion people to squander for an entire year!
Such terrifying energy—let alone him, even Ideal City would be sorely tempted!
Ever since Earth-Moon flights had ceased, fusion fuel had become virtually non-renewable.
Though the Alliance had no immediate need for such immense energy, he happened to hold a black box capable of producing fusion power cells!
Be it large aircraft or powered armor, as long as they secured enough nuclear fuel, the Alliance could manufacture them.
Yet what baffled Chu Guang was why the Academy was willing to gift such a virtually non-renewable strategic resource to the Alliance.
Weren't these people the most averse to "waste"?
As though reading the confusion in his eyes, the researcher named Li Ke continued:
"...Of course, we will not deliver this energy directly to you. Instead, we will provide you with coordinates where this 'cargo' can be found."
Well, well.
Turns out it was a blind box.
The moment he heard they had to fish it out themselves, Chu Guang's interest waned considerably. He leaned back in his chair.
"It's been two hundred years. How do I know it's still there?"
Li Ke spoke in a confident tone:
"It is definitely still there. We have means of confirming that the facility's security systems are still active. It is simply that recovery presents a certain difficulty for the Academy... After all, it's quite a distance from the marsh."
A distance...
Meaning south of River Valley Province?
Although Chu Guang had previously guessed that the wasteland likely held surviving nuclear reserves, he had never imagined there would be so much!
Chu Guang looked at him impassively.
"Is Sunset Province worth 127 tons of helium-3 to you?"
Li Ke replied in a very soft voice:
"Whether it is worth it is our concern."
Tapping his index finger on the desk, Chu Guang did not give an immediate answer.
This concerned the Alliance's future strategic direction and the situation in Sunset Province.
He needed to discuss it with others before making a decision.
"I'll think about it."
Seeing that this young leader had not rejected him outright, Li Ke felt relieved inwardly, a gentle smile spreading across his face.
"Please do."
Chapter 485