BOOM!
It was as if a real nightmare had been compressed, then burst apart, blasting everything to smithereens.
Han Su's head felt heavy and muddled. Darkness surrounded him.
Then the darkness began to flow, peeling away strand by strand. The scene before his eyes grew faint, and the smells of reality began seeping into his nostrils.
The smell of burning gasoline, the scorching, rusty-metal stench of bullets tearing through the air, the smell of a bullet ripping through a wound, and the odor of corpses fermenting in the stifling air—Han Su's instincts kicked in, and his eyes flew open.
"Captain, we can't hold out..."
A soot-black figure rushed up to Han Su, curling into a ball as his voice broke into a whine. "Those bastards up top said we'd only need to hold out for half an hour, but it's been three hours already, and the enemy's fire hasn't let up at all!"
"There's no way we can finish the mission... Our teammates are almost all dead, too. We... we should retreat, right?"
"Mission... retreat?"
Han Su's muddled mind felt oppressed as countless pieces of information flooded into it.
It was information of an unprecedented freshness and volume. It squeezed Han Su's brain until it spasmed, and blood immediately ran from his nostrils. Even the man making his report was stunned. He grabbed Han Su's arm and shook it hard.
"Captain, Captain, what's wrong? Oh God, the Captain's been concussed by the blast! We have to retreat..."
"..."
Then a series of shouts rang out. "The Captain's been injured by the blast! He said we should retreat..."
"The Captain's been killed by the blast! His dying words were to tell us to retreat..."
"The Captain's been blown to bits! He came to me in a dream and told us to