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"Having been promoted to Private First Class, why doesn't anything feel different?" After the initial excitement, No. 0 had a new question. Being promoted to Private First Class meant that she could leave Military Road.
Following the prompt to become a Private First Class, another message popped up on the mission manual: "Do you want to continue the game, or choose to exit Military Road?"
Just as No. 0 hesitated to make a decision, a day earlier, another player had been faced with the same choice in their mission manual.
"Do you want to continue the game, or choose to exit Military Road?" On the tracking screen of the Rand Military District, a related message was also displayed. After one and a half months, finally, a player had officially been promoted to Private First Class.
The first player to receive the game prompt, Player No. 107, couldn't wait and hit the confirm button.
In the tracking room, dozens of eyes witnessed this moment. After more than a month's wait, the lieutenants, who had dared not close their eyes day and night, were about to welcome the first player to leave Military Road, and they could obtain firsthand data.
Several anxious lieutenants were already waiting by the door labeled No. 107. Behind the door, all was quiet; there were no signs of anyone moving. Player No. 107 didn't immediately leave Military Road.
The image on the tracking screen flickered, and Player No. 107 was now in a new setting.
A street-side park under the cover of night, a solitary streetlamp, a fountain, a stone-rimmed pool.
There was no water in the fountain; the dry basin held a moon globe slowly rotating. "Welcome to the 'Crown of the Moon'. Here, your military merits from the main battlefield will be finally confirmed. Your Military Merit Points are 1008, which allows you to be promoted and exchange any remaining merit points for any item. After the exchange, you can choose to exit Military Road."
The dry fountain continued to house the rotating moon globe, as a male voice, fluid like running water, spoke.
Player No. 107 felt nervous, walking towards the moon globe. Like Xia You, he was just an ordinary college graduate, lured by the stability of a job in the military region, so he submitted a resume. Little did he know that he would end up in such a bizarre place.
In the past month, he had been unable to sleep or eat properly. The lodging conditions in the Stone Age were poor, and every night he could hear beasts prowling around the periphery of the tribe. Swallowing food filled with tiny blood vessels and murky water, his only thought was to leave this damned place. After diligently fighting against enemy tribes several times, and by chance helping the tribal chief, he accumulated enough military merit sooner than most.
A shadowy figure followed behind No. 107 like a phantom, half of his face obscured by a mask, with a black cloak covering everything below his chin, and his light-tea-colored hair fluttering in the night wind.
"You??" Player No. 107 looked at the newcomer, having not seen any humans other than Primitive People for a long time.
The man, wrapped in a cloak, bowed slightly, then began tap dancing agilely on the circular edge of the fountain.
Just as Player No. 107 was about to ask another question, the man's hand emerged from the cloak, and with it, a narrow epee. In his indistinctly colored pupils, a sharp light flashed, and by the time the man withdrew his hand, all that was left on Player No. 107's throat was a narrow hole the size of a thumb.
"As the enemy killed, a mental attack was executed, ensuring absolute eradication." Player No. 107's mission manual only managed to display this message.
The brain display went dark. Before that happened, the voice of the man in the cloak, carrying a hint of suppressed laughter, came through the tracking screen and into the tracking room, "I've received his military merit. Thanks for the appreciation, welcome to the real 'Military Road'."
In the National Security Department's tracking room, the lieutenants experienced two completely different emotions within a few short minutes. Everyone was looking forward to the arrival of the first player, but he was unexpectedly "silenced."
"What the hell just happened? That man dressed like the medieval Zorro, why did he kill number 107?" the lieutenant who specialized in tracking 107 was fuming with anger. Over the past month, he had watched number 107, who although timid, was meticulous in his tasks, and it was natural to grow some feelings for him.
"Pay attention to his last sentence. The military merit of 107 is the real reason he was killed." Faced with this sudden event, Lin Yi was also filled with rage. If he were in "Military Road," he would never let such criminals get off scot-free.
Unfortunately, he was not in "Military Road." Without completing the two months of basic experiments, no one is allowed to enter "Military Road" again.
"What a pity, you refused the opportunity to withdraw in the first round." Little Eight couldn't imagine that character 0, after a brief consideration, had actually declined the chance to exit "Military Road."
"I haven't said goodbye to NPC Maggie yet. Since I've joined the Kapa Military District, I should see things through from start to finish, wait until the entire military district is safely evacuated, then make my formal goodbye and departure." Character 0 also couldn't understand, what frame of mind she had when she made the decision to stay on "Military Road" during that exhilarating moment.
In the Multi-species Research Center, the last three ornamental breed pigs greeted character 0 with pleasing grunts when they saw her.
"I'm sorry that you lost your companions." Character 0 patted the glass in front of the breeding chamber. That unfortunate sow came into contact with contaminated soil while out walking and thereby contracted parasitic leech eggs that grew inside her body. She met her tragic fate when the larval leeches hatched.
"Character 0, you've finally come back," Maggie's cheerful voice came through the intercom of the Multi-species Research Center, "My mom heard you've recovered, hurry up and come to the biological research institute—oh wait, it's already midnight. Better get a good rest and come over tomorrow morning. I have an experiment that I need your help with, remember you must come."
According to previous instructions in the mission handbook, after completing the special task with 0 military merit points, one of the hints was to seek rewards from Expert Sofia. Character 0 wondered whether this call from NPC Maggie was also related to the reward.
There were several messages left by NPC Maggie on the voice phone.
"Tomorrow then, there isn't much time left in 'Military Road' anyway," after more than a month of Stone Age life, character 0 knew she had changed from when she first entered the game. Whether she could return to being Xia You in the real world was an uncertainty.
With such doubts, character 0 closed her eyes.
That night, character 0 dreamed of driving a patrol car, behind the dense forest were towering mountains with gentle slopes and rocky hills, with wild land that had never been cultivated by humans. The car sped through the terrain with the untamed spirit of a wild horse.
During the drive, the convertible military vehicle fully utilized its design. Driving in the military style was just as straightforward and rustic as their way of drinking. She felt her body relax like never before; her hands let go of the steering wheel, and her body flew out of the patrol car.
She was like an eagle soaring, overlooking everything from the Stone Age.
"You're back," a voice drifted down from the sky, folding her soaring wings, causing her to fall... fall endlessly. Character 0 suddenly woke up, her body drenched in cold sweat.