During the final stage of the surprise raid, Kyle had long exceeded his physical limits due to massive blood loss from being shot and the prolonged, high-intensity combat. Once he relaxed, he quickly lost consciousness.
Fury had several soldiers carry Kyle and the rescued girl back to the temporary camp for treatment, while he led the remaining ninety-plus soldiers to continue the raid.
Because of the massive explosion Kyle had caused, the large base's defensive mechanisms and organizational systems had already been shattered beyond recognition.
Hundreds of surviving German Soldiers had lost their commanding officers. They had intended to rescue the wounded soldiers in the blast zone, but when a fully armed and battle-ready American force joined the assault, they collapsed at the first blow.
The battle lasted from late at night until five in the morning. Only when daylight began to brighten the sky did Fury lead his troops in completely "cleaning up" the large base. Even in such a crushingly one-sided battle, they still lost twenty-seven soldiers.
Yet the results were astonishing—counting Kyle's individual achievements, their unit had eliminated roughly 1,200 German Soldiers stationed there and completely seized the enemy's large military base.
This was the first time the American military had achieved such a spectacular victory since the war began!
Of course, Kyle knew nothing of this. Once he fell unconscious, he slept for an entire week.
By the time he woke up, it was already the morning of the eighth day.
Kyle opened his eyes and found himself lying on a large white hospital bed. His left shoulder was wrapped in bandages all the way down to his waist, an IV tube was connected to his wrist, and various medical instrument probes were attached to his bare upper body.
He had only been shot once. Was all this really necessary?
Kyle smiled bitterly and realized that he had indeed been unconscious for a long time. After all, while he had been unconscious, his mind had remained trapped within Card Space.
But now, he felt incredibly refreshed. His body should have recovered seventy or eighty percent already.
He pulled off the IV and the instrument probes, pressed his hand against the wound on his left shoulder, and could still faintly feel a trace of pain. Then he leaned comfortably against the headboard.
The tables on either side of the bed were filled with flowers and fruit. A breeze stirred the gauze curtains, and through the window, he could see blue skies, forest, and grassland. The environment outside was quiet and peaceful.
"Where have I been taken?" Kyle was utterly confused. This was clearly neither the front-line combat zone nor the Training Base.
But whatever. It did not matter where he was, as long as he was still alive and healthy.
With his remarkable ability to adapt, Kyle felt a little hungry. He immediately picked up an apple from the table and stuffed it into his mouth, crunching through it to ease the hunger rising in his chest.
When Kyle picked up his third apple, the ward door suddenly opened. With an apple still in his mouth, he instinctively looked up.
The sight left him stunned.
Before Kyle was a delicate face as beautiful as an angel's. Her large eyes were clear and sapphire-blue, her lips pink and soft, and her brilliant golden hair fell in lightly curled waves over her shoulders.
The girl wore a sky-blue knee-length dress. Her not-yet-mature body outlined graceful curves, while the arms exposed to the air were slender and fair.
She was the second top-tier Western beauty Kyle had seen since his rebirth. The first had been Carter at the Training Base, but Carter possessed more of a mature, icy beauty, while the girl before him had a cuter, more captivating charm.
When the girl saw Kyle biting an apple, she froze slightly. Then, as excited as a rabbit, she called out the door, "Doctor, Doctor! Kyle is awake!"
"So it was her." Kyle was startled. Only after hearing that familiar voice did he recognize her as the girl he had rescued from the German military base.
The night had been too dark for him to see clearly at the time. Besides, the girl had been pale and weak then, tied up terribly all over. Compared with how she looked now, she was practically a different person.
"Hey, hey, you can't eat an apple like that. You need to peel it." After notifying the doctor, the girl hurried back into the ward and snatched the half-eaten apple from Kyle's hand.
"Why are you here..." Kyle had barely begun before realizing he had asked the wrong question. He quickly changed it. "Um, where am I?"
The girl answered, "We're at the First Military Hospital of the United States, in New York. You were treated at the temporary base on the front line, and once your condition stabilized, a transport plane brought you here for rehabilitation."
"So that's how it is." Kyle nodded thoughtfully.
"You don't know this, but that bullet didn't just hit your left shoulder. It was less than a few centimeters from your heart. You really scared me during the rescue. Luckily, your physique is exceptionally strong." As she spoke, the girl moved closer to Kyle and reached out to adjust his white bandages.
"What are you doing?" Kyle looked at her in surprise. At this distance, he could faintly smell the fragrance of her golden hair.
"I'm changing your bandages. My parents were both doctors and nurses, so I'm quite skilled at this sort of thing." As she said this, a sorrowful expression appeared on her pretty face.
Kyle naturally understood. Since she had been a prisoner, her family and friends back home had likely been shot dead by the invading German Soldiers as well.
Sensing the atmosphere grow stiff, Kyle forced himself to change the subject. "Well, well, I didn't expect... you could take care of people too."
"Of course. You need to understand that what you risked your life to rescue from the enemy base wasn't just a bundle of supplies."
The girl stuck out her pink tongue. Perhaps she had remembered being tied to Kyle's back that night, because a faint blush appeared on her face. "Also, I have a name—Lucy Jane. Just call me Lucy."
"Got it." Kyle smiled and let Lucy gently and skillfully replace the bandages around his wound.
Very soon, the doctor in charge, who was also the vice director, hurried into the ward to examine Kyle's injuries.
"Doctor, how is he?" Lucy asked nervously.
"He's fine." The attending doctor smiled, pushed up his glasses, and said to Kyle, "I truly didn't expect this. An ordinary person would probably need to stay in bed for a month with injuries like yours, but after one week, you've already basically recovered. In about three more days, you can officially leave the hospital."
"Another three days?" Kyle shrugged helplessly. The physique others considered top-tier was, in his eyes, truly pathetically weak.
After confirming that Kyle's injuries were fine, the attending doctor left the ward. Before leaving, he said, "Oh, right. An officer asked me to notify him once you woke up. I already called him just now, so he'll probably be here to visit you soon."
An officer was coming to visit?
Kyle scratched his head. It was not hard to guess. He knew fewer than ten officers in total, and only one or two of them were close to him.
A while later.
When the officer knocked and entered the ward, Kyle wore an expression that said he had guessed correctly. Still, he pretended to be surprised and asked, "Captain Joseph, why are you here?"
That was right. The officer visiting him was the combat instructor at the Training Base who had allowed Kyle to draw several physique-type Green Cards.
"You brat, why can't I come?"
Captain Joseph laughed and scolded him without any airs, but upon seeing Lucy in the ward, he could not help coughing and straightening into a serious posture. "Oh, there's family here?"
Lucy, who was peeling an apple, lowered her head shyly without refuting him.
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