Chapter 27: Spoils from the Village

Just as a necromancer controls the undead, once Boris shot down that soldier, the two skeleton soldiers brought to life by that rifle also froze, standing motionless as if they had been disconnected from a server.

Seeing this, Andrei breathed a sigh of relief and quickly wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. Although these things moved sluggishly, he had to admit that he had been genuinely frightened when those skeletal remains—with green ghost fire burning in their eye sockets—came closing in on him. Having been exposed to his fair share of online games and fantasy movies, he had a certain mental framework for such things, which kept him from panicking too severely. He could only imagine how terrified a standard grunt would have been if they had seen this for the first time.

Unfortunately, neither the players he had summoned nor the rough-and-tumble soldiers around him bothered to comfort him, completely ignoring the fact that he had just been shaken. The soldiers who rushed over either charged at the skeletons formed from the fallen soldiers or sprinted toward the distant necromancer soldier who had been taken down. Most of those running were players, as they still had a mission to complete.

Several players converged at roughly the same time. After a brief, silent negotiation, one of them snatched the rifle from the necromancer soldier's hands and pulled off a conspicuous glove. Compared to a standard glove, this one was significantly larger and embedded with shimmering green crystals, clearly marking it as a piece of special equipment. Sure enough, once the player obtained it, the item displayed a brief description, much like the other captured weapons:

[Necromancer's Gauntlet: Can command necromantic units within a small radius. Necromantic magical equipment.]

At the same time, the other weapon, which resembled a Necron Gauss Flayer, revealed its own description:

[Necrotic Ray Gun: Can convert hit enemies into skeletal undead. Necromantic magical equipment.]

Upon obtaining these two weapons, the players’ faces lit up with jubilation. Andrei didn’t even need to check their chat logs to know what they were thinking—they wanted to keep these two sets of gear for themselves. However, that was out of the question; Andrei needed to hand these items over. Their unit wasn't a band of bandits, and they couldn't just keep everything they seized.

Andrei hurried over and, after much persuasion, finally convinced them to hand the equipment over to him instead of hoarding it. Of course, mere verbal persuasion would have been meaningless. But by framing it as a task where turning the items over to him would increase his favorability rating by 20 points and marking the items as "plot-essential," with the promise of unlocking special gear in the future, the players were willing to comply.

As for what that "special equipment" might be, Andrei had no idea—he had simply made up that announcement on the spot. He had been researching the system’s generation capabilities and discovered a vast array of chaotic weapons and gear. While these items required preliminary research conditions, unlocking them would surely allow for the creation of many bizarre things. Among the list, Andrei had even spotted a Necron Gauss Flayer, though the complexity of the research and the massive amount of influence points required to unlock it were truly despairing numbers. Even so, Andrei wasn't worried about breaking his promise; if he wanted to provide the players with some special gear, it would be easy enough.

Under the merciless joint assault of the players and the other soldiers, not a single one of the more than 100 Black Hawk soldiers in the village was left alive. Andrei had originally intended to leave one survivor for interrogation, but neither the players nor the outraged Cambu soldiers had any intention of holding their fire. Before Andrei could even shout for them to stop, the Black Hawk soldiers had all been slaughtered. With no other choice, Andrei let it go and began searching the village to see if anything useful remained.

While searching, he found a map in the house where the officer had been staying. He took a look, but between the unfamiliar terrain and the messy, hand-drawn markings, he couldn't decipher what the map was depicting. Simply put, however, it seemed to show enemy troop deployments, indicating that the enemy was concentrating multiple units to launch a massive pincer attack against a Cambu army.

"Tsk, the more I look at this, the more it feels like the unit currently under siege is the one I was with earlier," Andrei muttered. Recalling the previous battle, he couldn't help but click his tongue; he knew there was something suspicious about that artillery strike that had started early.

He carried the map back and handed it to Major Yuri, having also swiped several items from the officer's quarters. A pack of cigarettes of unknown origin was tucked into his pocket. He didn't smoke, but cigarettes were vital social tools; offering one to someone could make getting things done much easier. Beyond the cigarettes, what really interested him were two cans of rations. Though he couldn't identify exactly what was inside, canned goods on the battlefield were almost always valuable, especially those designated as officer supplies.

The other Cambu soldiers were busy examining their own spoils, and the players were acting like bandits in a village, rummaging through every cabinet and box looking for items. Curiously, these antics didn't seem to surprise the Cambu soldiers at all; they looked on with indifference as the players ransacked the place. Andrei couldn't help but think that perhaps the discipline of the Cambu soldiers wasn't as good as he had imagined.

The Cambu soldiers checked the large transport wagons outside and discovered that, in addition to weapons and ammunition, there was a batch of Black Hawk soldier uniforms. Weapons and ammo were one thing, but these soldiers held a deep-seated hatred for the Black Hawk uniforms. Just as they were about to find some gasoline to burn the clothes in an act of vengeance, Andrei rushed over to stop them.

"Wait, stop! Don't touch those uniforms!" He looked at the pristine sets and beckoned the surrounding soldiers. "Everyone, these uniforms could be incredibly useful to us. Don't forget where we are! We’ve broken through to the enemy's rear. If we continue to walk around in our original uniforms, we’ll definitely be wiped out by the enemy! If we put on these Black Hawk skins, we can walk down the road in broad daylight—at least until we’re less conspicuous."

Andrei wasn't entirely sure if this disguise would fool the Black Hawk forces' inspections, but he felt it was a gamble worth taking. The Black Hawk army was in the midst of a full-scale offensive, and logically, they should be in total chaos. Even if they had strict inspection protocols, no one would have the presence of mind to think of this right now. Furthermore, how many Black Hawk troops would expect the enemy to have slipped behind their lines and be strolling around brazenly, disguised as their own men?

Andrei decided to exploit their inertia of thought and simply roll the dice. If the gamble paid off, all would be well; if it didn't, it wouldn't be any worse than their current situation. At the very least, changing their "skin" would provide much better concealment than their original uniforms. Hearing his reasoning, the other Cambu soldiers nodded, abandoning their plan to burn the uniforms in anger.

Just then, Andrei noticed a dialogue box pop up in the chat window:

King Jiji: [Holy crap, look at what I found?!]