Ge Deng, click-clack.
The sound of the second hand turning softly came from the old pocket watch.
Lying prone on the snow-covered, boundless plain, Su Deben kept stealing glances around as he quietly waited for the minute hand to return to position.
Come to think of it, this was the first battle he had personally led and commanded since being resurrected from the Brain Box.
It would have been a lie to say he wasn't nervous.
In the past, wars had resulted in hundreds or thousands of casualties. He would frown and curse under his breath, then let it go.
But if anything happened to these precious people, Su Mo, who was back in the territory, definitely wouldn't let him off.
Then, looking over at the veterans beside him, who were also lying prone and rubbing their hands, a trace of warmth flashed through Su Deben's eyes.
When he stayed in the territory with a group of young players, he always felt like an obsolete antique that had been discarded.
It wasn't only because the Game Panel had improved the players' physical abilities at an incomprehensible speed, leaving him unable to get a word in during training or restrain them with those outdated methods.
Nor was it only because his identity as a Blue Star person always made him feel separated from the Earth players by a layer.
More than anything, it was because they had never truly been able to connect on a spiritual level.
Perhaps his career, from recruit to veteran and from officer to commander, had simply been too long.
He had witnessed too many brutal casualties and experienced countless farewells between life and death.
By now, Su Deben no longer had much enthusiasm for training new recruits.
To make a rough comparison.
It was like starting