Chrono Deployment

The cacophony and frenzied sounds around me disappeared.

The coldness emanating from my body is spreading.

His body swayed precariously, as if he were being tossed about in a whirlpool, or falling into an endless abyss.

This is perhaps what death feels like.

--Until a sudden force surged from behind, pushing him to the ground.

The ground was no longer the smooth, flat stone slabs of the large square, but a rougher, colder surface. Leonard curled up on the ground, letting out painful cries, and rolled weakly.

He appeared weak, but his hand was secretly groping, searching the ground for stones that could be used as weapons... but he was disappointed.

The former soldier who had infiltrated the Distant Harbor opened his eyes, and the next moment, his pupils suddenly contracted.

The first thing I saw was a pair of high-quality military boots, next to a table and chairs. It was a dimly lit room. How did I get here? Where am I?

After this thought arose, previous memories surfaced, and Leonard recalled his ordeal.

Terrifying speeches, fanatical crowds, helpless, fearful, and manic shouts.

Then a cold, sharp blade pierced his chest and abdomen, and he heard a strange, cold whisper in his ear.

The person said, "Welcome to the start of a different life."

It was as if he appeared here in the blink of an eye.

"Prisoner number 226, charges: espionage, treason, subversion, conspiracy, riot..." the man standing before him said coldly. "Stand up and report to me."

Just as I expected.

Hearing that voice and that string of ridiculous charges, Leonard understood his current situation.

The plan was exposed.

So, Kang De was watching all along...?

The reason I came here was because I was transported here by Kang De's spatial teleportation magic.

What place is this?

Leonard let out a feigned cry of pain, pretending to be still dazed and in agony, rolling on the ground while quickly scanning his surroundings out of the corner of his eye.

But then he heard a sigh from the person next to him.

"The reason for requesting deterrent punishment is that the prisoner has not yet understood his situation, continues to resist with an uncooperative attitude, and is trying to find an opportunity to escape."

The person was speaking to someone else, "Relevant video and audio evidence has been submitted."

Leonard felt a chill run down his spine. Although he didn't understand some of the strange technical terms, as an intelligence chief, his experience and knowledge were enough for him to conclude that he was about to be taught a lesson.

But...

They don't have the authority to punish me directly. Do I need to apply to a superior? That would take about ten seconds, enough time for me to do something, but I'll have to wait for the right opportunity...

With this thought in mind, Leonard gritted his teeth, preparing to accept the punishment to come.

He could have stood up immediately and begged for mercy, but he didn't, because he wanted to find out what form and intensity the punishment was supposed to take.

This will facilitate the subsequent escape operation.

But just then, he heard the man say, "By the way, what I just said was for you, to let you know what the process is like to deal with you. But when I submit an application, I don't need to say anything. I can use the app on my Little Brother Boy to initiate one-click sanctions against you. It's very convenient and fast. In emergencies, I can even bypass the application and punish you directly, but I'll have to submit a report afterward."

"If I accidentally kill you, I'll have to undergo a lie detector test to prove it was an accident and not something I did intentionally or to settle a personal score."

Upon hearing this, Leonard felt a strong sense of foreboding.

Then the man said, "Go ahead and shout."

Leonard then cried out in pain, his expression like that of a twenty-four-year-old student.

It quickly turned into a horrific scream.

He felt as if a foreign object was raging inside him, torturing and ravaging him. The pain far surpassed any punishment he had ever endured, even the endurance training he received during spy training paled in comparison, bringing tears to the eyes of this tough man.

Leonard roared, twisted, and thrashed about. He even tried to tear his stomach open with his bare hands and grab what was inside, but his body seemed to be out of his control, stopping him from self-harm—an indescribable fear rose in his heart.

Because his intuition told him that what controlled his body and stopped his self-harm was the foreign object inside him—that object controlled his hands and feet and whispered a cold laugh in his ear.

It said, "Don't do that, don't hurt... my body."

It's unclear how long this agony lasted, but the excruciating torment finally retreated with a cold laugh. Leonard lay on the ground, like a fish that had just been pulled from the water, drenched in sweat.

His heart was filled with coldness and terror. He pressed his chest and abdomen, suddenly remembering the pierced chest he had been in before, and the purple thorn protruding from it.

The color was exactly the same as the huge prisms above the army formation.

What is that?

"Are you planning to enjoy yourself on the ground for the rest of your life, or are you going to stand up now and obey my orders?"

Even someone as strong-willed, resilient, and stubborn as Leonard obediently got up at this moment, not daring to disobey or resist in the slightest. His lips trembled, and fear still lingered in his eyes.

The young man in front of me was wearing a military uniform, with light blue eyes, blond hair, and a high nose bridge—a typical Goth People appearance. Judging from his accent, he was from the East.

Or to be more precise...

He whispered, "Valentan People."

"Yes." The young man's expression instantly turned solemn, and he earnestly said to the jailer before him, "I come from the sacred and indomitable Valentan, bound by a blood oath forged with the blood of my brethren and elves, to follow His Highness Kang De to the ends of the earth, until the end of life. You are speaking to the most loyal Descendants of Valentan."

Hearing this, even though Leonard was still shaken by the previous pain, his resentment still erupted. Kang De had usurped the country and blinded the hearts of good people.

Leonard gritted his teeth and said, "You should be loyal to the Grand Duke and Goth!"

You're wrong.

The Goth People on the other side calmly retorted, "What we should pledge allegiance to is the path of self-reliance—dignity, defense, protection, and prosperity—and to the leader who led us on this path and ensured that the tragedy of Valentan would never be repeated."

"We still respect Grand Duke Reknos, but we do not believe he can lead us to prosperity, so the Descendants of Valentan have chosen a new king. Our loyalty and duty to Goth have been repaid with the sacrifices, bloodshed, deaths, and battles of thousands in Valentan; you have no right to criticize us."

Even Leonard, faced with this calm statement, was unable to utter a single word of rebuttal.

He knew what Valentan had gone through, what he had experienced, and what choices he had made.

It doesn't matter anymore.

It has already fallen into Kang De's hands.

He had already prepared for the worst.

"Let's go," Leonard said, "Where are you taking me? The legendary Bitter Cave, a mine deep underground? Or the ruins mines of the Broken Isles? Or perhaps Kang De's alchemical experiment base?"

"Let me introduce you to your political commissar. My name is Julian, prisoner number 226. Someone must have told you that you are about to embark on a different life." The Valentan People smiled slightly.

"As the mastermind, you have committed a grave crime against Distant Harbor. Your will is firm and your principles are not something that can be corrected or punished by education, persuasion, or forced labor. Therefore, in accordance with His Highness Kang De's instructions and orders, you are hereby conscripted and will serve His Highness Kang De for ten years, starting today."

Julian looked at the prisoner before him. "Obey, train, fight. Perhaps during this time you will find the true value and meaning of life. Perhaps you will die, perhaps you will live to greet the day of freedom. But in any case, your fate has been rewritten. In any case, you will no longer serve the schemes of a bunch of scum, tragically wasting your life in foolish infighting."

Leonard stood there blankly for a while before he finally laughed.

His smile was full of mockery.

"Conscription? Military service?"

He pointed to his nose and laughed wildly, "I want to serve Kang De? Has the mighty Dragon of Cathay become so indiscriminate that it won't even spare a spy like me? What does it need me to do? Should I take up arms and fight the Council's army to the death, or should I serve as a pacification force to suppress my compatriots, to be his lackey in usurping state power and occupying Goth's territory?"

"None of those."

Faced with Leonard's manic and even provocative questioning, Julian was not angry. He looked at his compatriot with a strange look in his eyes, even with a little pity and sympathy.

"That's not your battlefield; your battlefield is elsewhere."

The young Descendants of Valentan said softly, "This is not the Mortal World; you can no longer Homecoming."

After saying that, he pushed open the door.

The heat surged, and the scorching sun cast a glaring shadow on Leonard's bewildered face.

He saw mountains and land shrouded in yellow sand and scorching sun.

Goth would never have known such scenery and land. According to the sailors, such landscapes could only be found by sailing south to the archipelago... endless yellow sand and a scorching sun.

"Wh... what do you mean?"

Goth People's lips were dry, and his voice trembled almost imperceptibly. "What were you just saying?"

"This is another world, vastly different from the Mortal World you know, a distance beyond human comprehension," Julian said calmly. "We will sign a contract with you, and from then on, you will disappear from Distant Harbor. Those who sent you Distant Harbor will believe you failed your mission and were executed by us. Then they will treat your family well. Of course, we also have the ability to make them believe that you have betrayed us and turned traitor..."

Leonard wasn't angry; he was no longer able to concentrate on being angry about such a "trivial matter."

What truly left him bewildered and deeply shocked was what Julian had casually mentioned.

Another world.

This place is no longer the Mortal World.

He already understood the meaning of those words, but he couldn't accept them or dared not accept them for the time being.

He had received magical training and attended many Arcane lectures. He knew the concept of planes and had heard many mages' brilliant hypotheses about the nature of the world. However, he could not accept that one day these hypotheses would suddenly become reality and appear before him, and be so casually revealed.

Another dimension.

Kang De transported himself to another dimension, where he was conscripted as a soldier. This dimension was probably already under his control, serving as his secret base, supply depot, warehouse, and workshop.

This must be the biggest secret of the Dragon of Cathay.

He just casually told himself about this prisoner.

This can only prove one thing.

No one was worried that he would reveal the secret.

Because—he can no longer Homecoming.

Goth People stood silently like a statue, tears streaming down his face.

Julian said softly, "Let's go."

Leonard was almost stumbled out of the room. He looked around blankly, trying to find any clues or signs that Julian was lying and that this was still the Mortal World. He just didn't want to accept the truth, even though he knew in his heart that he, a mere prisoner, was not worth being deceived.

He saw more and more people coming out of the row of houses next to him; some walked out, some were helped out, and some were dragged out.

Some were crying, some were shouting, some were wailing and pleading, but when they saw the exotic scenery in the distance, so different from Goth's, all their faces were filled with shock and disbelief.

Among those people were many familiar faces; they appeared to be spies who had been captured in one fell swoop during the war speech and were lurking in the Distant Harbor, plotting something.

Leonard watched blankly as one by one, soldiers in uniform approached Julian and saluted.

"It's up to you, Political Commissar."

"Thanks for your hard work."

Such a brief but powerful greeting and entrustment, and then those people left.

Julian stood before all the prisoners.

"Before we begin our first lesson, you must learn to obey, to report, to line up, and to follow the rules," the political commissar shouted. "Now, attention! Line up! Dress!"

As he said this, he held up the DD-Boy in his hand. "Want to relive that feeling?"

Amidst intimidation, commands, and coercion, the prisoners, filled with fear and unease, chose to obey.

Led by Julian, who called himself the political commissar, they walked out of the heavily guarded area.

This should be a military camp, but it's completely different from what people imagine a military camp to be. In the distance, there should be a city, but no one has ever seen a city like this before. The prisoners smelled the scent of war, and some were sobbing softly. Even though they were almost all well-trained and mentally strong intelligence personnel, they couldn't accept this outrageous and absurd fate.

What will we face? What will we experience? What kind of enemy will we fight?

Leonard stood in the queue, his gaze passing over the rows of heads in front of him, looking up at the azure sky, where eerie walls of mist stood in the far four directions.

The world was eerily quiet, yet bustling and vibrant. Along the way, he saw soldiers marching by with their heads held high and eyes straight ahead, as well as warriors in heavy armor sitting by the roadside, removing their helmets, with attendants busy working on their armor with small magical devices that spewed blue flames.

Orcs roared past in bizarre and terrifying vehicles, while numerous small flying machines floated in the sky, carrying not horns and screens, but all sorts of weapons.

These little things darted and danced through the air, as agile as a flock of geese, but to the prisoners, they were utterly terrifying—who could imagine that these little gadgets flying around the Distant Harbor, reminding citizens to obey traffic rules, indicating roads, and even beloved by children, were actually deadly weapons?

They even saw a giant dragon standing in a huge open space, its wings spread wide, allowing a group of people and alchemical golems to climb all over it without complaint.

Leonard could recognize the vehicles parked around the dragon—forklifts, cranes, ladder trucks—all of which he had seen while working on construction sites. Various massive construction vehicles lifted equally enormous metal components and assembled them onto the dragon's body. He could identify what resembled armor, but what he couldn't discern were all sorts of strange objects, though he was certain they were weapons.

From the front, it looked like a honeycomb cylinder, or simply a pointed cylindrical tube, or even something resembling a pipe organ. He also saw two terrifying contraptions, at least six meters long, mounted on the back of the dragon, one on each side, each made up of six pipes.

A fully armed, heavily armored, and weapon-equipped dragon sounds absurd, yet looks so... harmonious, as if it were born to be this way.

--This place is undoubtedly preparing for war.

As the secret base of the Dragon of Cathay, these soldiers, fully equipped and ready for battle, the aircraft circling in the sky, the huge tanks roaring past, and even the war machines being prepared, repaired and strengthened in the workshops are all preparing for the war that is about to break out.

Just then, a sudden thought flashed through Leonard's mind.

--If you want to conquer the world and rule the Mortal World, aren't these armies enough?

Why incite and order the people of Distant Harbor to prepare for war? To incite them to sacrifice their children, to join the army, to prepare for an eternal war?

Dragons donned armor, orcs raced chariots, and humans and elves alike, Goth and Cathay wielded powerful alchemical weapons. With one plane serving as their rear base, was this military preparedness truly, as the adults claimed, solely for the invasion of Goth and the conquest of the Mortal World?

Filled with confusion, the prisoners arrived at the end of their journey.

"Throughout this journey, you must have wondered why His Highness Kang De, with countless warriors under his command, would need to conscript prisoners like you. That's because Mortal World battles are not your battlefield. From this day forward, the training and instruction you receive will have only one purpose..."

Julian turned around, his gaze serene. "I'm going to put you on a completely new battlefield, to face enemies never before seen in the Mortal World. From today onward, you will be prepared for... explosions."

Before the prisoners could react, strange notes suddenly rang out in the distance, seemingly the synchronized footsteps of countless people marching in unison. Then came the rising tide of string and wind instruments, from soft to powerful, from tranquil to fervent. Julian abruptly turned and shouted, "It's beginning!"

Goth border, south of Nar, north of Vanguard Base.

A dense forest of hills rustled in the leaves, birdsong filled the air, and Council scout carrying puppet warhounds emerged from the woods, overlooking the vast plains. The city of Nar was faintly visible, and a thick fog rose over the plains. He seemed to have discovered or heard something, and focused intently...

Amidst the wind and fog, the sound of rapid, synchronized footsteps echoed, as if millions of people were marching in unison.

The music, which transitioned from somber to uplifting, gradually awakened the slumbering earth.

"Situation detected!" the scout alerted the camp via short-range communication device. "Something's about to happen! I hear orderly footsteps and music, like the marching music of the Imperial phalanx, ah! Someone's shouting—I don't understand, it sounds like Zhendan Language! Listen for yourself..."

The natives of this other world did not understand German, but because of Kang De, they began to pay attention to and learn the Zhendan Language. The voice from the clouds was long and clear, and it resounded through the command center and staff tents of the vanguard camp from the short-range communication channel, reaching the ears of every officer.

The scout who witnessed the Chrono Deployment stared dumbfounded at the dark clouds sweeping across the sky.

Amidst the purple lightning, enormous crystal prisms appeared out of thin air.

As shadows churned, the army, descending like gods and demons, revealed its radiant outline.

Accompanied by that shout, the meaning of which was unclear yet clear and firm, Kang De's army arrived at the front lines of the war.

The only human voice in that "Hell March" is a long, drawn-out German phrase that means "take up arms." However, due to pronunciation issues, it is often misheard as a strange sentence by Chinese speakers. But compared to the comical pronunciation of "give him Jin Ke La," Kang De preferred the misheard English version.

Its sound is...

"We want to warn—wake up!"