Chapter 2

He Boqiang woke up from a dream, and the first thing he saw was a blond, blue-eyed man holding a bloody dagger, crouching in front of him, grinning foolishly.

Lying on the grass, he had a splitting headache and tried to struggle to sit up, but his whole body felt powerless. The air was filled with the smell of horse manure and blood. He Boqiang wanted to ask where he was, but for some reason, it felt as if an apple was stuck in his throat, preventing him from speaking, and even causing some spasms.

The man with the dagger spoke a string of strange words to He Boqiang, his face covered in a dark purple, sticky fluid, but he seemed to have no ill intentions.

A huge roar made the ground tremble, and a giant rhinoceros, as big as a small hill, appeared in He Boqiang's field of vision. The rhinoceros had two massive horns on its head, the longest one being over two meters long. Its murky eyes were as big as basins, and its enormous nostrils could fit a basketball. Heavy chains were bound to its body, and large wooden crates hung from the chains like packages.

"Boom... Boom... Boom..."

Watching the giant rhinoceros pass by, its four thick legs left a series of deep pits in the mud.

Only in dreams would one be unable to speak, and only in dreams would one see such bizarre things...

He Boqiang lay on the grass and tried to take two deep breaths. Although his chest felt as if a huge stone was pressing on it, causing his lungs to burn, he still thought it was a dream and tried to close his eyes.

But closing his eyes did not bring darkness, nor did it wake him from his sleep.

He found himself floating in a void, surrounded by countless twinkling stars.

As he floated in the void, looking around in confusion, countless pieces of paper, like snowflakes, drifted down. Each piece of paper glowed like a firefly on a summer night, circling around his body.

He instinctively reached out to touch a piece of paper that drifted in front of him, and a strange sensation, like an electric current, traveled from his fingertips to his brain.

It was... a series of clear or blurry photos, like disjointed film reels. When the images were connected, they formed a moving picture, but the scenes were even stranger.

He Boqiang touched a few more pieces of paper, and they disappeared as soon as they touched his hand.

Each piece of paper contained a short segment of imagery, which seemed to be memories. These memories kept merging into He Boqiang's mind, causing him great discomfort.

He had heard that if one sleeps too deeply, they can easily get trapped in a terrifying nightmare. In such a case, one can give themselves a psychological suggestion to force themselves to wake up.

He Boqiang wanted to slap himself to wake up. He raised his hand and slapped himself hard, but his hand passed through his face, confirming that he was still in a dream.

By this time, many memory fragments had already entered He Boqiang's body. Although he didn't understand everything, he was absorbing the knowledge at an unimaginable speed. The fastest thing he grasped was the strange language. Although the sounds came from his throat, they were clearly different from how he used to speak.

During school, He Boqiang had always struggled with foreign language classes. Now, he was forced to learn a strange language in this bizarre way. The memory fragments flooded his mind, causing his head to ache, but the effect was surprisingly good.

He felt someone patting his face and heard someone calling him in a strange accent.

He Boqiang was overjoyed. The memory fragments in the void gradually disappeared, and he forced himself to open his eyes...

This time, what appeared in his field of vision was a group of soldiers in European medieval armor, including the blond, blue-eyed man...

...

Suldar crouched beside He Boqiang, heartlessly saying to his comrades, "Is he an idiot?"

To He Boqiang's surprise, he understood the man's language.

'You're the idiot, and your whole family is full of idiots!'

He Boqiang wanted to shout this back, but the words got stuck in his throat, and he couldn't make any sound. It seemed that his vocal cords couldn't produce these sounds.

He felt as if he had been hit by a car, with his bones feeling like they were falling apart. Pain surged with each heartbeat, and he felt he might pass out at any moment. This feeling didn't seem like a dream at all.

Yet, the scene before him was something he couldn't accept.

...

Suldar, the old soldier Sam, and ten other comrades belonged to the 57th Heavy Infantry Regiment, 4th Battalion, 6th Company, 2nd Squad.

Sam was the captain of the 2nd Squad.

Suldar, with his excellent skinning skills, stood out among the eleven and became the deputy captain of the 2nd Squad.

Suldar found He Boqiang, who was barely alive, under the corpse of a demon while cleaning up the battlefield in the North Slope Woods.

However, He Boqiang had no identity tag, meaning he had no identity. He wasn't wearing the uniform of the 57th Heavy Infantry Regiment, and he had lost all his weapons and shield. Such a person couldn't be a soldier of the 57th Regiment, so the logistics personnel of the 4th Battalion refused to let him use the limited number of stretchers.

The logistics personnel suggested that He Boqiang be bandaged and left under a tree at the edge of the battlefield. If he had comrades, they might come back to find him... but the logistics personnel didn't sound very confident when saying this.

The 4th Battalion was responsible for cleaning up the battlefield, primarily dealing with the corpses left behind. Each stretcher was piled high with supplies to be transported back to the camp. A wounded person couldn't be placed with the corpses or tied to the back of a thunder rhinoceros like cargo, so the logistics personnel decided to abandon He Boqiang, who had no identity.

After saying this, the logistics personnel looked embarrassed. Seeing that no one in the 2nd Squad objected, he took the opportunity to pat the dirt off his pants and quickly left when someone called him from a distance.

"I knew Gest wouldn't care about this. That stingy guy would rather use the stretcher to carry some valuable wood."

Suldar glanced at Captain Sam, waiting for his decision.

Captain Sam examined He Boqiang's eyes and found that they could follow his finger. When he got close to He Boqiang's eyes, he saw fear, leading him to conclude, "He might be mute, but he doesn't seem like an idiot."

Suldar, while using a skinning knife to cut off He Boqiang's blood-soaked clothes and bandage his wounds, said to Captain Sam, "We don't know which unit he belongs to. What should we do?"

Captain Sam, a veteran with fifteen years of service, sighed after examining He Boqiang's injuries. "He's in such a state. Not taking him back to the camp is no different from killing him. Don't listen to the logistics personnel's nonsense. We just need to know he's from the Green Empire. As for his identity, that's the logistics department's problem. We can't just leave him here to die."

Suldar said, "You're right. I'll make a stretcher."

Sam grabbed Suldar and said, "You stay here and collect demon materials. After we clean up the battlefield, whether we can drink and eat meat or just eat bran and swallow vegetables depends on your harvest. There's still a demon corpse ahead. Go and strip the useful black-striped magic skin. Jeronnan, you go cut wood to make the stretcher."

A black-skinned man who had been squatting silently stood up, drew a short knife from his pants, and cheerfully replied, "Sure, boss!"

The smoky battlefield seemed to gain a bit of human warmth...