Those who constantly speak of honor rarely possess any to truly claim.
April, New Era 215, Heting City.
The lieutenant lay sprawled on the ground, clinging to life, his only movement a pathetic writhing like a maggot in the dim confines of the small room.
His limbs were utterly shattered, his meridians blocked—a result of the ‘Jiemai Palm’ or some similar martial art, he couldn’t tell. In any case, he felt not a shred of strength in his entire body. More than the agony of his broken bones, it was this utter powerlessness that tormented the lieutenant.
Yet, he had no one to blame but himself. From the moment he was pinned to the ground, he had already embraced death, just as the Soil Guard Army regulations dictated: ‘Every soldier of the Soil Guard Army must possess the spirit to prefer breaking rather than bending, to prefer death over yielding, to sacrifice one’s life for justice, and to face death as if returning home.’ They had to prove these tenets through action, just as they had shouted these slogans countless times.
Though now held captive, for one who feared not death itself, this predicament hardly registered.
He only wished Vega would execute him swiftly, sparing him endless torment. He possessed no military intelligence, offered no valuable leverage, and believed Vega would not keep him for long.
At the doorway of the small room, a female soldier stood, assault rifle in hand, her gaze fixed intently on the lieutenant’s every movement.
The lieutenant felt the piercing stare. He tried to lift his head, but his prone position rendered him helpless. After much struggle, he finally managed to roll onto his side, using the strength of his lower back, shifting from face-down to facing sideways.
He had seen this female soldier before. During his futile resistance before capture, he had attempted to seize her as a hostage, but the outcome was clear: he had failed.
A bandage was wrapped around her neck, a faint crimson seeping through. Her face was strikingly youthful; she looked not twenty, but perhaps not even eighteen.
‘Has Vega truly run out of people?’
He knew the underlying reason perfectly well, yet he refused to admit it.
Xuanji Star had killed too many of Vega’s people… Malicious killings occurred almost one after another. Initially, the lieutenant could present field martial court documents to arrest those who violated discipline, but as one judgment after another was sent to his superiors for review and met with no response, he could roughly guess the reason for their disapproval: the law never punishes the masses, and the army was no exception.
Those who committed heinous crimes were still executed, but many who merely violated military discipline were let go…
For instance, soldiers who burned down civilian homes… or those who, in a fit of pique, murdered civilians and then framed them as guerrillas…
As for crimes like looting civilian homes or even r*pe, they barely registered as scandals. Even if the judgment papers for such criminals were sent to superiors for review after arrest, there would be no reply. If everyone who committed such offenses were shot, how much combat strength would the army lose? At best, they would be sent to a disciplinary unit or simply ignored—a blind eye turned. Many field martial courts operated this way; no one wanted to offend their superiors by punishing soldiers for such ‘minor transgressions and petty evils.’
As the war progressed, massacres were no longer considered crimes, but rather orders from military command. Soldiers killing civilians was no longer a breach of discipline but the execution of a mission. Field martial courts had even less say in these matters…
‘When Vega finally reached Xuanji Star’s territory, they would likely treat Xuanji Star’s civilians the same way…’
‘War… was it truly a victory or a defeat?’
The lieutenant had been imprisoned for several days. He had no way of knowing how the battle for the Heting Salient had progressed.
A few days prior, he could still hear sporadic gunshots, but since yesterday, even those had ceased. This bore no resemblance to Xuanji Star’s reinforcements arriving, suggesting the battle for the salient had reached its conclusion.
Multi-front warfare always led to overextension. To maintain the protracted struggle against Southern Dipper Star, forces from Cloud Mountain Peninsula’s eastern front had to be diverted to support operations in the south. After all, the southern front was far more crucial than the eastern.
‘Why should I still care about these things? I’m going to die soon…’
‘Once Vega finished counting the prisoners, they would kill them, just as Xuanji Star had done…’
‘I probably don’t have many days left to live… This is a good thing… Far better than enduring torture and suffering.’
The wait for death was excruciatingly agonizing, yet death itself was not something he could choose, just as he could not choose his birth.
The lieutenant shifted his body, rolling back to his prone position on the ground. ‘A prisoner ought to act like a prisoner,’ he thought. ‘Constantly turning about might stretch my body, but it’s hardly proper…’
Though his limbs were broken, the lieutenant’s hands and feet remained tightly bound. Against a creature like a player, any amount of caution was justified.
A figure appeared at the doorway of the small room. The lieutenant glanced sideways, but unable to lift his head, he couldn’t discern the person’s face. Judging by the female soldier’s salute, it was likely an officer.
“It’s not pleasant to be tied up, is it?”
The person stood there, looking down at the lieutenant. Their voice was neither mocking nor arrogant, merely flat, devoid of emotion, much like when they interrogated soldiers who had violated discipline. They were simply speaking.
The lieutenant remained silent. He knew this was an interrogation tactic: first, asking questions about the prisoner’s current situation to lower their guard, then moving on to the main topic.
He had received training in this area and knew how to respond.
‘Silence was always the best way to counter any situation.’
“I’ve read Xuanji Star’s anti-interrogation regulations. They’re exceptionally well-written.”
The newcomer scrutinized the motionless, silent lieutenant, then slowly crouched down.
“That includes the Soil Guard Army regulations, which emphasize ‘preferring to break rather than bend,’ ‘preferring death over yielding,’ ‘sacrificing one’s life for justice,’ and what else was it?”
The lieutenant remained silent. He knew the other party was trying to make him speak by referencing things he was familiar with—even if those things were unrelated to what they truly wanted to know. But the moment he spoke, the other party would gain the upper hand…
The newcomer turned their head, staring into the lieutenant’s eyes—eyes that were sharp and bright, yet devoid of any emotional fluctuation, as if a single glance could reveal the entirety of one’s inner world.
“‘Facing death as if returning home,’ right!”
From a briefcase carried at their side, the newcomer produced a stack of items sealed in bags, displaying them one by one to the lieutenant before returning them to the bag.
“Li Yuyi, joined Xuanji Star’s Soil Guard Army in Longjin Dao in New Era 198. After training, you were assigned to the 5th Corps of the Xuanji Star Soil Guard Army, ranking 7th overall among the 120 players who participated in that training.”
“In New Era 208, you were transferred to the Soil Guard Army’s Military Court, achieving the rank of Staff Sergeant.”
“In New Era 213, you were transferred to the 3rd Field Martial Court of the 4th Corps of the Soil Guard Army, with the rank of Second Lieutenant. This was a recent promotion this year, due to your superior, Gao Zhiyuan, being killed in an airstrike.”
Hearing the other party recite his military history with such intimate detail, as if recounting their own treasures, a flicker of doubt sparked in the lieutenant’s heart. How could Vega possibly know all this so thoroughly?
It wasn’t surprising that his identification had been confiscated, revealing his current rank and position. But his personal information from before the war had never been kept with the 4th Corps. How could the other party have access to such details?
Though he suspected a traitor within Xuanji Star, the thought quickly dissipated. He was on the verge of death; there was no need for such anxieties.
“Judging by your records during your time working at the field martial court, you were exceptionally dedicated to your duty of upholding Xuanji Star’s military discipline. If not for your superior…”
“Stop,” the lieutenant rasped, his throat dry. “I am already in your hands. Kill me if you wish; I will say nothing.”
The lieutenant’s dry, coughing throat emitted a hoarse sound. He couldn’t stand the other party’s incessant chatter, unwilling to hear them continue. What was the point of endlessly repeating his past work experience?
‘Did they intend to humiliate him before his death? Or merely boast about Vega’s effective intelligence work?’
The lieutenant didn’t want to speculate; either outcome was acceptable. He simply wished to die immediately, fulfilling the oath he had taken upon joining the Soil Guard Army.
“But you know nothing! What could you possibly say?”
The newcomer shook their head, their expression growing serious.
“It’s easy to want to die, but will dying like this truly resolve everything?”
They took a stack of sealed photographs from their briefcase, flicking through them rapidly with their fingers like turning book pages, revealing the content of each photo to the lieutenant.
“These were found in the bunker where you were previously hiding. Although you set the bunker ablaze, some things weren’t completely incinerated.”
“These are photographs taken at the scenes when you arrested soldiers, used as evidence for arrests and convictions. We will not kill you. We will keep you alive to identify these locations and verify each crime listed here.”
As they spoke, the newcomer pulled out another thick stack of documents from the briefcase. The lieutenant recognized them instantly: his own interrogation records concerning soldiers who had violated discipline. He had explicitly ordered his subordinates to burn them…
The lieutenant let out a sigh, sinking into a prolonged silence.
“It’s easy to want to die, but living is far more challenging.”
“Consider the Vega civilians you massacred. They didn’t want to die, yet you slaughtered them in droves in squares, on roadsides, and even in warehouses. And here you lie, intent on death, shouting, ‘Kill me if you wish.’ Will your death bring these people back to life? Can the death of Li Yuyi redeem the life of even a single Vega citizen?”
“The dead are dead, becoming a part of history. But the living must forever remember those who died, remember their deaths, engrave them in their hearts, never forget this history, and never allow it to repeat. As long as people remember, they will live forever. Do not let their blood be shed in vain.”
“And you, a Xuanji Star soldier who ‘faces death as if returning home’—we will not kill you so easily. That would be too convenient for you. We want you to witness firsthand how inhumane and utterly depraved your own crimes were. We will utterly destroy everything you fought and died for, everything you held so proudly. We will show you that your so-called ‘glory’ and ‘great righteousness’ are nothing more than self-deceiving rhetoric, a mere trick to fool the world.”
The newcomer’s voice gradually turned ice-cold, like a whisper from the abyss.
“Let the demons confess their demonic deeds, and then judge their sins, just as you once judged others.”
The newcomer stood up and handed a document to the female soldier.
“I’m taking this one. Let him personally witness the calamity wrought by their black sun that scorched the earth, and then send him to where he belongs.”