The fleet arrived at the front lines on the morning of the third day.
There was no steel Great Wall as I had imagined.
Outside the porthole, half of the frontline base known as the [Immortal Fortress] had collapsed.
Grayish-purple mist slowly writhed above it, like a giant beast devouring a corpse.
The communication channel was filled with static, screams mixed with sounds of retreat, and shouts of "Hold on!"
Su Xiaoxiao pressed her face against the porthole, her complexion gradually paling. "This... this is much more serious than the battle report described."
"The battle report you know is from several months ago, so some discrepancies are inevitable." Lin Yu stood behind her, calmly watching the scene unfold.
There was no welcoming party at the berth, only a group of wounded soldiers covered in blood.
The old general at the head of the group had tattered armor and was missing one of the four stars on his shoulder insignia; he was none other than Chu Zhen, the commander of the First Legion.
This legion was called the "Zhaowu Legion".
Seeing Lin Yu walk down the gangway, his eyes welled up with tears, and he knelt down on one knee.
"Mr. Lin, this humble general is incompetent, this humble general failed to defend..."
Lin Yu quickly helped him up. "You don't need to kneel. You've done right by everyone."
Su Xiaoxiao's eyes reddened slightly. "General Chu, how many men are still at the front lines?"
Chu Zhen's throat bobbed as he recited a string of numbers.
The Third Legion was completely annihilated, the Second Legion was divided and surrounded, and less than 30% of it managed to retreat; the Zhaowu Legion, being a reserve main force, barely managed to maintain its structure, but it also suffered more than half of its losses.
The entire front line had less than a quarter of its original fighting force, and the command system was almost paralyzed.
Su Xiaoxiao gasped, "How are we supposed to fight like this?"
"Gather the living people first, then we'll talk about how to fight." After saying that, Lin Yu lifted his foot and walked towards the fortress.
"General Chu, as the commander-in-chief, you should be rallying now. Reinforcements have arrived, and they need your leadership to lead them in a counterattack."
Chu Zhen was taken aback.
This young Mr. Lin didn't have the ruthless air of the military, but his overall presence was convincing and inexplicably reassured me.
He straightened up abruptly and gave a military salute. "Yes, sir!"
After Chu Zhen took over command, Lin Yu and his companion learned why the front line had fallen.
A traitor has emerged from among the crowd.
Lin Yu had Chu Zhen bring the recruited soldiers to him in batches, and then he condensed a wisp of golden rule at his fingertips, sweeping it across each soldier's brow.
The puppet, disguised as a wounded soldier and hidden in the crowd, didn't even have time to let out a scream when he pressed down the grayish-purple mark between his eyebrows.
"The seventh one." Su Xiaoxiao stood behind him, gritting her teeth. These people were all heroes, but they had been transformed by the monster into puppets who would turn against their own people.
"Among the first group alone, there were seven hidden."
"So the front lines have fallen." Lin Yu withdrew his hand.
"The most terrifying thing about a puppet is not how strong it is, but that it blends in with the crowd, and you never know when someone next to you will stab you in the back."
He paused, then said, "From today onwards, all troops entering the defensive line will have to pass through my inspection. You are responsible for overseeing logistics and communications. Whoever delivers orders or supplies, if there is even a hint of foreign rules involved, seize them on the spot."
Su Xiaoxiao was taken aback. "Me?"
"Didn't you say you could hold your own against those big guys?" Lin Yu smiled, a rare occurrence for him.
"You need to be given something to do."
Su Xiaoxiao opened her mouth, wanting to refute, but then felt that what he said made sense.
Finally, he could only grit his teeth, slung the knife over his shoulder, and said, "Fine, the group leader is personally supervising you; you should be secretly happy."
Rebuilding the defenses was more difficult than expected.
The foreign land clearly had no intention of giving them a chance to breathe.
On the evening of the third day, a grayish-purple fog suddenly poured in from the gap in the eastern section of the defense line, and the fog was filled with dense, indistinct shadows.
There were assimilated soldiers, mutated ferocious beasts, and puppet legions that emerged from the depths of the fog, dressed in human military uniforms but with expressionless faces.
They seem to have timed it perfectly, specifically choosing the moment when humans are at their weakest to harvest them.
"Eastern section! Eastern section is in dire need of help!" came a roar from the communicator.
"Those monstrous things are back! There are too many of them to count!"
Chu Zhen drew his sword, ready to lead his team to provide reinforcements, but Lin Yu held him down by the shoulder.
"General Chu, you stay; you still need to command," Lin Yu said.
"East section, I'll go."
"Mr. Lin!" "Lin Yu!"
"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing." Lin Yu had already started walking out, his voice drifting back.
When have you ever seen me suffer a loss?
"I mean I'm going too!"
Chu Zhen opened his mouth, but seeing that even Su Xiaoxiao wanted to go, he knew he couldn't dissuade her.
Finally, he clasped his hands in a deep fist salute. "Mr. Lin... be careful!"
A breach has been torn in the eastern defensive line.
In the gray fog, the puppet army advanced with synchronized steps, their movements stiff and their eyes vacant, yet the weapons they held were all made by humans themselves.
The puppets in the front row were still wearing the uniforms of the Third Legion.
Su Xiaoxiao's grip on the knife tightened slightly. "They... are still wearing our military uniforms."
"Hmm." Lin Yu's voice was devoid of emotion.
"That's why we must stop them here. If we let them, dressed in these clothes, reach our heartland, the people's hearts will be completely broken."
He raised his hand, and the golden rules at his fingertips transformed into a chain that drew a dazzling arc in the night sky, piercing straight into the ranks of the puppet army.
Wherever the golden light passed, the gray-purple patterns crumbled inch by inch, and the puppets in the front row, whose strings had been pulled out, fell over in droves.
They stood up again, but this time their knives were pointed at the eerie creature.
"Follow me!" Lin Yu gave the order and charged out first.
The soldiers in the eastern section were stunned for a moment, then burst into a deafening roar, and followed the golden light into the gray mist.
Su Xiaoxiao also moved.
Her broadsword was wrapped in a layer of pale golden light patterns. With one slash, she cleaved through the scales of a mutated ferocious beast, and with a swift turn of the blade, she sliced off the head of a puppet.
"Hey, I'm not entirely useless after all." She licked her lips, grinned, and revealed two small fangs.
The battle situation quickly reversed after the golden light appeared.
The puppet army lacks intelligence and is driven entirely by alien rules, which are precisely Lin Yu's nemesis.
The golden chains, like a vast net, swept back and forth along the eastern section of the defensive line. Wherever they passed, the gray mist dissipated, and the puppets defected in droves.
But at that moment, something unexpected happened.
"Die!" A furious shout came from behind. An officer responsible for flank cover suddenly drew his gun, pointing it directly at the back of Lin Yu's head.
His eyes were filled with an unnatural grayish-purple hue, yet a strange smile played on his lips.
"Clang!"
A large sword slashed down, cleaving the hand holding the gun away along with the gun.
Su Xiaoxiao, holding a knife in one hand, stood behind Lin Yu, her tone languid. "I'm telling you, I'm your supervisor, after all. Did you even ask me before you could touch him?"
The officer screamed and tried to struggle, but Su Xiaoxiao kicked him to the ground. The golden rules flowed into his body along the blade, completely eradicating the last trace of grayish-purple.
"I told you not to be reckless, and look what happened." Su Xiaoxiao sheathed her sword, raised an eyebrow at Lin Yu, and asked, "How are you going to thank me?"
"How about I give you one time? I have nothing to repay you with but my body."
"Hey! You wish! This beauty doesn't want someone like you."
The fighting in the eastern sector lasted for a long time.
In the depths of the universe, no one has a concept of time, and they don't know how long it will last.
When the gray fog finally dissipated, Lin Yu stood on the defensive line for a long time.
Behind them were exhausted but rekindled fighting spirit soldiers, and in front of them were churning, gray-purple clouds.
"We held on! We won!" The soldiers cheered uncontrollably.
"Did you hold on?" Su Xiaoxiao asked softly.
"I don't know, maybe this is just a strange test."
The real thing is still shrouded in thick fog.
"Lin Yu." Su Xiaoxiao walked to his side, her voice unusually serious.
"Tell me, how long will this war last?"
Lin Yu did not answer.
His gaze fell on a certain direction deep within the gray fog, where a faint, enormous vertical pupil was slowly closing.
"I don't know," he said.
"He has come."
"Him?"
"That thing we encountered on that eerie school campus before... things are probably not going to be peaceful from now on."
Lin Yu turned and walked towards the fortress, then stopped after a couple of steps. "By the way, inform General Chu that starting tomorrow, rebuild the fortifications on the eastern section of the defensive line. Now that they've retreated, they won't be coming from this direction again anytime soon."
"Where do they come from?"
"Who knows?" Lin Yu's figure disappeared into this space.
We'll see.