This was a book related to war.
He quickly regained his senses and scanned the area, soon spotting Qin Yue crouched among the pile of bodies.
Gu Zhan hurried over and pulled Qin Yue out. “Are you still alive?”
Qin Yue was still dazed from the experience of entering the story and blinked in confusion. “W-Where is this?”
“Look for yourself.” Seeing that Qin Yue was alright, Gu Zhan pushed him aside and continued searching for An He Yan and the others.
Holding his head, Qin Yue looked down and was horrified to find a corpse next to him. He froze, then scrambled away from the pile of bodies in a panic.
The trenches twisted and turned, and aircraft occasionally flew overhead, making this place extremely dangerous. Gu Zhan couldn’t locate An He Yan and the others at all.
Could it be that they had been transported to a different location?
The battlefield was clearly nearing its end, with most people already dead...
At this point, it was either hold the line or retreat.
As Gu Zhan and Qin Yue were at a loss for what to do, a figure crawled toward them from the other end of the trench.
Upon seeing Gu Zhan and Qin Yue, the person appeared surprised. “There are still people alive here? We’ve already been ordered to retreat! Our operational plan was leaked, and this position has been abandoned. You need to leave quickly…”
He pointed to a trench behind him. “If you head north from here, you can find our temporary camp. You need to hurry; otherwise, if the camp moves, you won’t be able to catch up with the main force!”
Gu Zhan asked in return, “What about you? What are you going to do?”
The man looked troubled. “I’ve received orders to go to the next position to track down a spy. He has taken away a lot of our military information. If he escapes, our country will be doomed.”
He raised his eyes to the sky, where a plane flew by.
The man cursed angrily, “Damn invaders! They just want to annihilate us… Anyway, I can’t chat with you for long. I’m off. Good luck!”
Watching him disappear into the distance, Qin Yue looked as if he were dreaming. “Is this what war is like? Why does it feel so unreal?”
Gu Zhan understood that feeling well. Both he and Qin Yue had grown up in peaceful times, with their biggest concerns revolving around their own lives and deaths. War was only present in textbooks and on television, so far removed from their reality.
Moreover, this was just a book; the war within it might only represent a fraction of what the author had witnessed.
Gu Zhan said, “Let’s head back to the camp first. We can figure out the rest later.”
The book and the war might both be fictional, but death was undeniably real.
They couldn’t remain in this bombing zone; lives were too fragile beneath falling bombs, with no room to struggle.
Qin Yue said nothing further and followed Gu Zhan as they ran toward the camp.
The camp was not far away. The two crawled and sprinted, finally spotting a few tents set up.
Here, no planes flew overhead; everything appeared calm and serene.
In the camp, many wounded soldiers lay on mats outside the tents.
Nearby, several nurses in white uniforms were tending to them.
Among them, two individuals stood out; they were dressed in immaculate military uniforms, completely free of dirt.
It was An He Yan and Xu Ke.
The two spotted Gu Zhan and Qin Yue as well. An He Yan sighed in relief. “I was worried you wouldn’t make it.”
Gu Zhan approached them. “Where did you come in from?”
An He Yan replied, “We opened our eyes and found ourselves in the camp. Apparently, we’re some kind of… snipers in this army??”
Gu Zhan frowned at this revelation.
An He Yan spread his arms, showing Gu Zhan his clean uniform. “We look nothing like we’ve been in battle, right? But I did receive a mission to find a spy. I was about to go alone if you didn’t show up soon.”
Just as An He Yan finished his sentence, Gu Zhan suddenly heard the system’s announcement.
【Congratulations, you have accepted the side quest <The Escaped Spy>. This is an evil war, and the poor people are trapped in the flames of conflict. If you cannot capture the fleeing spy and destroy the military information she carries, everything will become even worse. You are a kind person and will surely not sit idly by, right?】
Gu Zhan: “…”
Noticing something was off with Gu Zhan's expression, An He Yan asked, “What’s wrong?”
Gu Zhan replied, “We just received a mission.”
He had accepted quests from monsters and NPCs, but this was the first time he had received one from another player.
An He Yan was also surprised, and after a moment, he said, “Maybe it’s because we have a mission? Just now, a superior told me to find two people to deal with the spy issue.”
He turned to Qin Yue. “You got a mission too, right?”
Qin Yue nodded.
An He Yan said, “In that case, it’s perfect. There are four of us. I have some information about this spy; we can discuss it as we go.”
“My superior told me that this spy has infiltrated their camp for nearly half a month. Initially, he was just a minor player, but as their forces dwindled, he was involved in several battles. Due to his outstanding abilities, they intended to promote him, but unexpectedly, he sold military information to the enemy via telegram.”
As An He Yan spoke while walking, he continued, “We know that all areas here are blocked off; only a place called Henghe Crossing is still accessible. He’s likely to escape from there, having fled during the attack from the opposing side this morning. If we hurry, we should still be able to catch him… But we have to make it before he crosses the river. On the other side of Henghe is enemy territory, and once he crosses, it will be too late.”
Upon hearing the urgency, Qin Yue immediately said, “Then let’s move quickly.”
Xu Ke had already reached a vehicle. “Get in.”
They actually had a means of transportation. The three of them got into the vehicle, with Xu Ke driving.
With a roar of the green military vehicle’s engine, they left the base.
The roads had been nearly destroyed by the bombardment, making the ride extremely bumpy.
They had originally planned to exchange information on the way, but the rough terrain made it impossible to utter a single word.
Henghe Crossing was not far away, and soon they arrived at their destination. Before they could get out of the vehicle, they saw someone ahead boarding a boat.
However, they were still far away from the riverbank.
“This is bad; we can’t let him get away.” An He Yan immediately jumped out of the vehicle. “We don’t have anything to cross the river; if he gets into the water, we’ll never catch up!”
But there was still some distance to the riverbank, and the path ahead was too narrow and bumpy for the vehicle to go through.
If they had walked over, the person would have already jumped into the water and run away.
At this moment, An Heyan's expression was serious as he set up his sniper rifle.
Right now, the fastest way to eliminate this spy was to shoot him from a distance.
The view from here to the riverbank was unobstructed; as long as An Heyan’s marksmanship was good enough.
Qin Yue, standing nearby, whispered, “Are we really going to kill someone?”
After all, he had just entered this game and had not yet detached himself from the rules of reality.
However, An Heyan smiled lightly and said, “This is just a game. The characters here are all virtual. Moreover, in this story, this spy is the intruder. As soldiers on our side, we should complete our mission from our superior.”
Qin Yue couldn’t help but look down at his outfit.
Indeed, after entering the world of the book, he had changed into a new set of clothes.
Gu Zhan also remained silent.
Although he didn’t believe that everyone in the instance was fake, it was indeed a world from a book…
The content of the book was surely fabricated by the author.
“Hmm.”
Just as An Heyan was aiming, he suddenly let out a strange murmur.
His reaction at this critical moment immediately attracted everyone’s attention, but An Heyan said nothing. He had already zeroed in on the spy’s head, and a moment later, he pulled the trigger.
The recoil from the gun made him shudder slightly, but he quickly stepped away from the sniper rifle and said, “Hit.”
“Ah.” Qin Yue was astonished. “You actually can do it.”
An Heyan casually clapped his hands and said, “I practiced before I came to this broken game.”
Qin Yue: “…”
Being a student among such extraordinary players in the same game felt completely out of place.
Xu Ke jumped down from the driver’s seat and said, “Let’s go take a look.”
The group ran toward the riverbank.
The spy’s small boat had already drifted away from the shore, but without anyone rowing it, it floated freely.
At this point, it was not far from the shore. They found a branch and pulled the boat back to the bank.
The spy lay in the boat, half of the body hanging over the water.
To everyone’s surprise, this spy turned out to be a woman.
She was indeed wearing their military uniform, looking as if she had been undercover for a while, but her physical features were unmistakably feminine and could not be mistaken for a man.
“Something feels off,” An Heyan said, looking at the person in the boat.
There was a bullet hole in her head, and blood was gushing out.
Gu Zhan frowned deeply.
He felt that this matter was not just a little off.
Everything felt completely wrong.
Next to the woman lay several pieces of paper.
An Heyan bent down to pick up the documents but found them completely blank, with nothing on them.
“Wait.” An Heyan was even more puzzled. “Why are they empty? Is it because this is a book? The author didn’t include any content about stealing information??”
“That doesn’t make sense either,” Qin Yue said. “Could it be that this whole thing was fake from the start? She’s not really a spy? Or did we get the wrong person??”
A moment of silence fell over the group.
If this was not a real spy, then where had the real spy gone?
An Heyan picked up the “documents” and said, “I have an idea. Let’s take these back to my superior. If we complete our side mission, it means this person was indeed a spy. If not…”
Then things would get bad.
They might very well miss the critical time node for completing the side mission and end up trapped in this book.
The idea of being trapped in a book was far too terrifying, and none of them wanted to face such a possibility. They unanimously agreed to head back and consult their superior first.
Xu Ke drove them back toward the camp.
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