Several days later.
Early morning, in front of a newsstand.
A crowd stretched out in a long line.
"The war's started! The war's started!"
"Do you think we'll be able to reclaim the area around Ningzhou this time?"
"I wouldn't count on it!" The speaker lowered his voice. "It mainly depends on the Barbarian God. If we don't deal with him, reclaiming Ningzhou won't do us any good."
"I heard they used a nuclear bomb last time, and still didn't kill the Barbarian God!"
"Ugh, I hope the fighting doesn't reach us here!"
The occasional fighter jet roared in from the east. Chen Shouyi looked up and saw that all the weapons mounted beneath it had been expended.
The frontline air force supply base was in Hedong. Over the past two days, hundreds of sorties had flown between Hedong and Ningzhou every day.
"One copy, please."
Chen Shouyi handed over the money, took the newspaper, and shook it open. The headline on the front page read:
"The Reclamation War Sweeps Forward, Barbarian Forces Driven Back!"
"To resist the invaders from another world and reclaim our homeland, all officers and soldiers have fought bravely. In just half a day, the frontline has advanced twenty kilometers, and at two o'clock yesterday afternoon, our forces entered Ningzhou's urban district..."
Chen Shouyi skimmed through it at a glance. He realized that he felt calmer than he'd expected. Perhaps he had already grown used to this chaotic age; he could now face it with equanimity.
He tossed the newspaper into a trash can and turned toward home.
Five days later.
Chen Shouyi felt power surging through his body.
"My strength has finally reached a thousand kilograms!"
He hadn't gone to the other world at all these past few days.
With the war underway, Hedong could