Already exhausted, I dragged myself back to my room, brushed my teeth, and collapsed directly onto the bed, forgetting to even turn off the light.
Before I knew it, my consciousness slipped away, and I drifted off into sleep.
Rustle, rustle.
I could feel myself being lifted, my head resting on a pillow.
I turned over, trying to open my eyes to see what was happening.
A small girl crouched beside my bed, the little raccoon ears on her head trembling uncontrollably.
“Mm… Hai Shi?”
“Mm.”
“You’re here. Get in.”
I weakly gestured to Hai Shi, and she immediately climbed onto my bed, slipping into my covers.
Her entire head was buried under the blanket, with only the raccoon ears on her pajamas poking out.
That pajama set seemed to be a favorite of Hai Shi’s, holding a status similar to her black coat, I’d say.
When I’d asked earlier if she wanted to change into something else, she’d firmly refused.
Still, it was pretty cute on her, and after all these years, it didn’t seem to have become too small.
“Mm?”
Hai Shi seemed to notice that I was playing with the ears on her pajamas, so she poked her head out from under the blanket.
Her clear blue eyes stared at me, filling me with an inexplicable calm.
I placed my hand on her hair.
Her deep purple locks, so dark they almost looked black, wrapped around my fingers, bringing a sense of comfort.
Hai Shi shifted her body closer to me, pressing against my chest, wrapping her arms around my waist and holding me tightly.
Though she usually seemed spacey, she actually had just as much emotion as anyone else, and she craved a sense of security.
And I wouldn’t hold back in giving her the security she needed.
I stroked her head, my hand moving to her back, patting her gently, over and over, like a parent soothing a young child to sleep.
I wasn’t her parent, but for what I could do, I had to take responsibility.
“Captain, today… tired?”
“Not really. Everyone was in good shape today. Maybe it’s because we haven’t had any large-scale operations recently, but the team’s condition has been pretty stable.”
“That’s… good. Captain, if you’re too tired… you don’t have to push yourself.”
“Having you care about me like this gives me endless energy. It’s because of your expectations that I can keep going.”
“Then… rest well when it’s time to rest.”
Hai Shi rubbed her head against my chest, tickling, but carrying a warmth.
Gradually, the little raccoon in front of my chest stopped moving, comfortably leaning against me as she fell asleep.
Every time I saw Hai Shi’s sleeping face, the pains of the world didn’t seem so big anymore.
“Sleep well.”
I was about to drift off myself, but the moment I closed my eyes, my phone on the bedside table started buzzing and screaming.
I quickly answered it before it could wake Hai Shi.
“Whatever reason you have for bothering me at one in the morning, I want to go over there and chew you out.”
“That’s perfect. I need you to come to my office right now. There’s something I have to tell you.”
“No.”
“It’s the Marshal’s orders.”
“…The Marshal isn’t there with you, is he?”
“He left some materials and took off. Seems pretty busy—he’s leaving soon.”
“Fine, fine. I’ll be there in a bit.”
What’s going on?
Why would the highest military commander of the continent come to our little city that’s only good for its economy?
Can’t he just leave quickly?
But I probably won’t have to meet him.
I’ll just take a detour from now on.
Reluctantly, I put on my shoes and headed straight to Yuan Xinghe’s office without even changing my clothes.
“Finally here. If you’d taken any longer, I’d have fallen asleep.”
“Aren’t you nocturnal? Shouldn’t this be your most active time?”
Ha ha ha.
Yuan Xinghe clearly knew his own habits.
“So, what’s the matter?”
Yuan Xinghe pulled up a file and placed it in front of me.
Let me see…
A map?
And there are a few lines drawn on it.
The direction… from City of Change to City of Hope.
Is this Leng Qiongling’s route here?
That can’t be right—the route bypasses almost every city, winding through wilderness.
Could this be…
“Don’t tell me this is the Giant Mad Beast’s movement path.”
“That’s what the Marshal said. Their scouts have been tracking it ever since it breached City of Change. According to their estimates, that Giant Mad Beast’s target is City of Hope.”
After breaking a city, it doesn’t hide itself, nor does it continue attacking nearby cities.
Instead, it detours around cities and crosses nearly a quarter of the continent to reach City of Hope?
What kind of bizarre behavior is this?
Could it be… coming after Leng Qiongling?
“The exact reason is unclear, but the immediate problem is that we need to start preparing to deal with that Giant Mad Beast. The higher-ups have officially named it ‘Cleos.’ Its size and destructive power are beyond comparison with ordinary Giant Mad Beasts.”
Indeed, the data sheet also specified the details of this Giant Mad Beast—“Cleos.”
It’s eighty meters tall just standing, with a maximum movement speed of one hundred sixty kilometers per hour.
If it charged the city walls at that speed, it would definitely shatter them.
We’d have to keep it confined to the wilderness.
“So, is there anything else? You look like you have something important you haven’t said yet.”
Yuan Xinghe gave me a lecherous grin, as if choosing his words carefully.
“The Marshal also said there’s going to be a large-scale operation soon. To coordinate, they need you to clear out some of the surrounding threats first, so they don’t interfere.”
“Oh.”
“The operation target is located in the E’er Basin, surrounded by the Walian Mountains and the Kandisi Mountains. It’s a developing egg, with Mad Beasts constantly gathering around it.”
“That’s pretty close to us.”
City of Hope is about four or five hundred kilometers from the E’er Basin.
If I drove there, I could get there in a few hours.
Yuan Xinghe pulled up a picture of that egg.
Judging by its size, it wasn’t anything too special, but the patterns on its surface were different from anything I’d seen before.
I couldn’t see any surface blood vessels or a beating heart.
Instead, it was pitch black—you couldn’t see anything on its surface.
“It’s a bit unusual, but is that all?”
“Now look at this.”
Yuan Xinghe switched to what appeared to be a close-up shot.
You could clearly see the Mad Beasts wandering around it.
There had to be several thousand of them—that wasn’t a small number.
A gathering of this scale was already an emergency.
But the Beasts gathered there didn’t seem to be planning anything; they were just aimlessly drifting.
One figure caught my attention.
It was a person—or rather, a humanoid creature.
“What’s that?”
“An individual recently detected. ‘Nameless’—that’s what we’re calling it for now. In all the years we’ve been fighting Mad Beasts, this is the first humanoid individual we’ve discovered, so the higher-ups are very interested.”
“Does it have any special behavior?”
Yuan Xinghe shook his head.
“So far, there are no records of ‘Nameless,’ and no reports of it participating in any attacks.”
“So we have no intel at all?”
Yuan Xinghe nodded, looking helpless.
I crossed my arms and thought for a moment.
No intel meant it could be a newly born individual.
Evolving a humanoid form—that was a startling fact.
But for now, we didn’t know if it was just a hollow shell or if it actually possessed intelligence similar to humans.
Better stay cautious.
“And then? What does this operation want us to do? If it’s a direct elimination, couldn’t we just deploy some missile vehicles?”
“Well, I hear the recent battles have been pretty intense. The Mad Beasts’ attacks in all aspects have been fiercer than before, so they can’t spare the vehicles. The Marshal said so—don’t take it out on me.”
I put down the fist I was about to throw at Yuan Xinghe’s face.
“So it’s basically just us going?”
“If you want some soldiers, I can transfer some over.”
No need.
I waved my hand.
In operations like this, ordinary soldiers were almost useless.
Not only was it a matter of life and death, but even whether they could deal any real damage was questionable.
Over the years, many Mad Beasts had evolved some resistance to bullets.
Standard rifles could hardly hurt them anymore; it basically took several people focusing fire to take down one.
“So, are we agreed on this?”
“Alright. What’s the deadline? I’ve got a new member I need to train.”
“The deadline isn’t tight. Just get it done before next year’s Disaster Anniversary. The egg isn’t expected to make much progress before then, but sooner is better.”
“I see. So the Marshal wants a gift for the Disaster Anniversary.”
“Exactly. I’m glad you understand.”
It was October now, so we had about three months.
Not urgent at all—I could put it aside for now.
“Fine, fine. We’ll take it.”
“As expected of the Captain who leads the Madman Squad—always reliable.”
After deciding to take on the job, I hurried back to my room to sleep.
I was dead tired.
On the way back, my doubts began to surface.
From what I knew, the Marshal had already gathered a significant portion of the Central Continent’s military.
For that scale, where was he planning to attack a Mad Beast stronghold?
We hadn’t observed any large Beast nests anywhere.
And he’d explicitly said only our squad would go.
So where was he deploying the rest of the army?
With that question lingering, I climbed back into bed and fell asleep immediately.
***
Midnight.
The girl who had been sound asleep stirred.
She poked her head out, her soft ears flopping as she shook them.
She pulled out the knife lying beside her, striking in one blow, severing Wu Yin’s spine cleanly, before he even realized it.
‘This way, he won’t feel any pain. I don’t want the Captain to suffer.’
The girl thought this as she stabbed the knife into the sleeping Wu Yin.