Hans waited near Building One's entrance with four Conscripts, checking his phone every so often. It was almost six in the evening, and the parking-lot team should have been back by now.
He was about to send someone out when hurried footsteps finally reached the entrance. Kenji and Ravi opened the doors, and Dmitri's group came through in a tight cluster.
Hans's relief disappeared when he saw their faces. Several were pale and sweating heavily; Nadia still looked unsteady, while Adam and Ryan were breathing harder than a normal return from the parking lot should have caused.
"Commander." Dmitri saluted. "Something happened on the way back."
"Everyone's here?"
"Yes, Commander. No casualties."
"All right. Get some water, clean yourselves up, and sit down for a bit."
Hans glanced toward the wrapped corpse that Adam's group had delivered earlier. "Was it because of that thing?"
Dmitri's expression changed. "Something worse than that, Commander."
Hans left the rest of the questions alone until the others had gone to rest. "Tell me upstairs after they settle down."
...
Hans sat at his desk while Dmitri explained the manhole encounter and what had happened near Building Three.
The corpse from the parking lot was ugly enough on its own: long limbs, dense muscle despite the starved body, red eyes, and a clear dislike of sunlight.
"If there are more of them underground, we're not going down there blind," Hans said. "We don't know how many there are or what they can do once the light is gone."
"They were strong enough to move the manhole cover from below," Dmitri added.
"Then we leave them alone for now. Mark anything that leads underground and keep people away from it. I'm not sending anyone into a sewer just because we're curious."
The meteorite fragments bothered him more. Dmitri described the pressure from the rooftop, then the stronger effect when the team passed Building Three, with Rex's howl breaking the worst of it.
"So they don't even need to touch you?"
"No, Commander. I recommend treating Building Three as restricted until we know more."
Hans looked toward the rough map on his desk. "Can the fragments be destroyed?"
"Unknown."
That left the System.
"System, can meteorite fragments be converted?"
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[ Meteorite material is eligible for resource conversion. ]
[ Conversion Rate: 1 gram => 5 Gold. ]
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"Five Gold per gram?"
Hans read the prompt again. That did not make the fragments safe, but at least removing them might solve two problems at once.
"Will the mental effect work on me?"
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[ Commander is protected from the meteorite's direct mental interference. ]
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Hans stared at the answer until the obvious finally caught up with him. The System had already pulled him out of panic and mental pressure before.
"I actually forgot about that."
Dmitri looked at him. "Commander?"
"Nothing. It just means I can get closer without having my head scrambled. When we reach Building Three, I'll go with you. Until then, nobody messes with those shards."
"Understood."
Before they finished, Hans asked to see the soldiers who had promoted during the parking-lot operation. Alexei had reached 2-Star.
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[ Name: Alexei Novak ]
[ Unit: Conscript | Tier: 0 ]
[ Star Promotion: 2-Star | 80 / 900 ]
[ Primary Weapon: MP5 Submachine Gun | 9mm | 30 rounds per magazine | 5 magazines ]
[ Grenades: 1 fragmentation grenade | Refreshes every 48 hours ]
[ Promotion Effects: +20% marksmanship | +20% reload speed | +50% CQC effectiveness | 10% lower fatigue loss ]
[ Melee Weapon: Combat Knife | 15 cm steel-alloy blade | Indestructible ]
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Hans's eyes stayed on the grenade line for a moment. "So 2-Star Conscripts finally get grenades."
The extra magazines mattered too, especially after watching how long the parking-lot sweep had taken. A promoted Conscript could stay useful much longer than the version he had trained only a few days ago.
Ryan gave him something to compare it with.
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[ Name: Ryan Keller ]
[ Unit: Army Soldier | Tier: 0 ]
[ Star Promotion: 0-Star | 420 / 1,200 ]
[ Primary Weapon: M16A4 Assault Rifle | 5.56mm | 30 rounds per magazine | 3 magazines | 400 m effective range ]
[ Secondary Weapon: M1911 Pistol | 7 rounds per magazine | 2 magazines ]
[ Grenades: 1 fragmentation grenade | Refreshes every 48 hours ]
[ Attachment: Variable Combat Sight | 2-4x magnification ]
[ Equipment: Basic first-aid pouch | Multi-tool | Short-range radio transceiver ]
[ Helmet: Mk-I combat helmet | Command-channel receiver ]
[ Remarks: Standard frontline infantry with stronger accuracy, durability, and flexibility than Conscripts. Additional equipment may be gained through research. ]
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"Still worth the four hundred Gold."
Ryan had the better rifle, sight, sidearm, and base accuracy from the moment he was trained. Alexei, meanwhile, had become much more capable after only a few days of fighting and now carried more ammunition than Ryan.
Hans opened his blue notebook and wrote the comparison down, though he was not ready to turn it into some grand military rule. The obvious part was enough for now: cheap Conscripts could hold places they had already cleared, while Army Soldiers and the better-promoted men could go with Dmitri when the next building was opened. If that arrangement turned out to be stupid, tomorrow would probably tell him.
In a game, Hans could drag units around with a mouse and fix a bad formation in seconds. Here, every stupid decision had to be carried out by someone who could actually die. That difference kept bothering him whenever he tried to plan beyond the obvious. Dmitri and the Army Soldiers knew far more about clearing rooms than he did, so for now Hans was happier giving them the goal, asking questions afterward, and learning from whatever went wrong.
The city had more than enough infected for promotions anyway, but Building Two, the manager's office, the meteorite fragments, and the underground threat were already enough to worry about.
A knock came from the door.
"Come in."
Kenji, Ravi, and another Conscript entered carrying three bags, and jewelry clinked inside when they set them down.
Hans's attention went straight to the bags. His Gold balance was still 221, so whatever the System accepted from the parking-lot haul would decide how much he could train before the next operation.
Dmitri caught the look on his face and almost smiled. "I'll leave you to it, Commander."
"Good night."
The Scout left while Hans pulled the first bag closer. "Time to count today's gains."