Li Qingyu was genuinely scared. He wasn't afraid of dying – he would resurrect in the Sanctuary – but his weapon would be lost!
The thundering from both sides grew louder, and he wished he could disappear through the ground.
His eye caught a fresh crater full of scraps. A thought flashed in his mind – and he dived in, burying himself among the remains.
Grabbing a severed arm, he laid it on his chest, pulled out his intestines with his other hand and carefully spread them over his stomach. Then he smeared blood on his face, stuck out his tongue, and froze among the corpses.
He managed to finish his disguise just as both sides reached the trench and simultaneously noticed each other.
Without warning, the soldiers opened fire.
The PDF sergeant, armed with a rare lasgun for his unit, burned a fist-sized hole in a rebel's chest with the first shot – he fell immediately, and his insides hissed from the heat.
The other soldiers fired their assault rifles – ordinary bullets no longer penetrated the rebels' organic breastplates, but still inflicted damage through sheer numbers.
The rebels had their own homemade weapons: assault rifles, bolt carbines, shotguns. Chaos, but dense fire. A brutal firefight began, and Li Qingyu, lying in the middle of a pile of bodies, was afraid to breathe.
About fifteen minutes later, after a muffled grenade explosion, the field fell silent.
He waited another five minutes – silence. His heart pounded faster. Had everyone fallen?
Opening his eyes, he cautiously looked around – PDF bodies in green helmets mixed with gray rebels. Death was everywhere.
"A song about a treat..." he whistled under his breath, climbing out of the pile of flesh.
Ignoring the rebels, Li Qingyu rushed to the dead PDF soldiers. The first trophy – a helmet.
Name: PDF Helmet
Estimated Value: 500 fertilizer coupons
Defense Level: 3
Ricochet Chance: Medium
Durability: 30/30
Material: Ceramite
Weight: 2.2 kg.
Then he took the light armor from another corpse.
Name: PDF Light Armor
Estimated Value: 1500 fertilizer coupons
Defense Level: 3
Durability: 45/50
Material: Ceramite
Weight: 6.2 kg.
Next – the assault rifle.
Name: Standard PDF Assault Rifle
Estimated Value: Approximately 3500 fertilizer coupons
Weight: 4.5 kg
Vertical Recoil: 68
Horizontal Recoil: 52
Ergonomics: 52
Weapon Stability: 53
Accuracy: 60
Hip-fire Stability: 72
Effective Range: 600 m
Muzzle Velocity: 1050
Fire Mode: Auto/Semi-auto
Rate of Fire: 750
Cartridge Caliber: 8.9×55 mm
Shot Power: Enhanced.
One of these was worth over three thousand – they'd be snatched up in a heartbeat! He threw away everything unnecessary and started collecting the assault rifles.
One, two, three, four. Four rifles dangled from straps – over twenty kilograms. Breathing became difficult, but he didn't give up. After all, reaching the extraction point was part of the game.
"Today is a lucky day!"
He pulled a fifth rifle from a dead soldier and was about to look for the sergeant's body, remembering his lasgun. In Warhammer 40k, they were nicknamed "flashlights," but that was unfair. On a normal battlefield, they were a terrifying force: two hundred shots from one battery, capable of piercing a twenty-millimeter steel plate and burning through people – the power of old heavy machine guns!
Three months here, and he still hadn't held a lasgun. He had to find it!
He turned over dozens of bodies until he heard a rasp behind him. He turned around – and met the gaze of eyes full of malice.
"Alive?!"
Against the trench wall, bloody, with armor hanging off him, sat a PDF sergeant – alive, with a lasgun in his hands. The barrel was pointed directly at Li Qingyu.
A chill ran down his spine. A thought flashed: "Not this! I don't want to lose my loot!"
"Don't shoot! I'm not a reb..."
He didn't finish – a laser shot seared his chest. A burning wave hit him, and he was already preparing for rebirth...
But his consciousness didn't fade. There was no pain. Only a slight warmth and the smell of burning. Looking down, he realized: the beam had burned through all five assault rifles hanging on him and, having exhausted its energy, had died out on the surface of the armor.
"Damn you!"
Li Qingyu lunged forward, kicked the sergeant down, pinned his weapon-holding hand with his boot, making him cry out.
The sergeant was severely wounded, tired – he couldn't resist. Li Qingyu beat the spirit out of him with a series of blows, pulled a bayonet-knife from the enemy's belt, and pressed the blade to his throat.
He didn't shoot the lasgun – who knew if there was a gene-lock? It was done differently on different planets: somewhere such guns worked in alien hands, and somewhere they were sealed with a biometric lock for the owner.
He raised his hand, ready to kill and leave, when a System sound signal echoed in his head:
Ding! Emergency Mission: Rescue Sergeant Rudolf.
Description: Rudolf is a veteran of the Planetary Defense Forces, promised a promotion to company commander upon successful capture of Trench #2563. But the operation failed.
Objective: Deliver Sergeant Rudolf to the PDF defense line.
Reward: Unlock Extraction Point "Rudolf" – a safe path to the Sanctuary.
Reward: Unlock Rudolf's Contact – a new trader and quest giver.
Reward: PDF Reputation +10.