David felt a sense of gravity in his heart as he noticed the wrinkles on Victor's face; the old man was at least seventy or eighty years old.
Generally, anyone who could live to such an age on Cadia was definitely no ordinary person.
"Stranger, I can tell at a glance that you are definitely not a soldier."
Victor stepped forward, scrutinizing David from head to toe without any pretense of hiding it.
"Normally, I would never let someone like you in. But now..." He looked around at the groaning wounded in the camp.
"The situation is urgent, and I can't afford to be so picky. I must gather every force that can be gathered."
Hans stepped forward and saluted. "Sergeant, what exactly happened at Tyrok Bastion? Is the situation really that bad?"
"Bad?" Victor looked at Hans. "Kid, it's not just bad; Cadia might be facing its most dangerous moment in history."
"You know about the betrayal of the Voskani Ironclad Regiment, right?"
Hans nodded.
"They picked a good time," Victor said sarcastically. "They struck just as Pylon was holding a welcome banquet for them."
"That banquet gathered eighty percent of the senior Commanders and staff within Pylon, along with thirty percent of the unsuspecting Kasrkin elites."
Victor clenched his fists. "They're all dead. The traitors were clever; as soon as they succeeded, they seized most of the defense control systems and key nodes of Pylon."
"Now, that steel fortress that was supposed to protect us has become a ridiculous cage that protects the traitors and shuts us out."
Victor paused and took a deep breath, suppressing his surging anger.
"Fortunately, there are still some tough nuts that haven't been cracked. Some Kasrkin and Imperial Guard units reacted quickly, retaking several areas and resisting tenaciously inside. The bastards haven't fully controlled Pylon yet."
Victor's gaze returned to them. "We need to fight our way into Pylon to help them, but it's too difficult. It's just too difficult; Tyrok Bastion is too sturdy."
Victor was an aging veteran.
He knew the sturdiness of Tyrok Bastion better than anyone, which was why he felt despair and at a loss for how to proceed.
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"Perhaps we could dig a tunnel," Hans spoke up.
Dig a tunnel? Victor was clearly stunned for a moment, and then a look of displeasure appeared on his face.
"Are the New Recruits these days all so full of fanciful ideas?"
"Setting aside how much manpower and time digging a tunnel would require..."
"Tyrok Bastion was designed from the beginning with the possibility of an enemy attacking from below in mind."
"During construction, the soil used was specially treated; trying to dig through it is almost impossible."
Old Victor waved his hand. To even think of digging a tunnel, he assumed Hans was just desperately grasping at straws.
One must know that even for the Iron Warriors, the Space Marines best at siege warfare, capturing a bastion was no easy task.
"What if the person digging the tunnel possesses power beyond your imagination?" Hans remained persistent despite Victor's mockery.
Power beyond imagination. Victor followed Hans's gaze and looked toward David.
David had stopped listening halfway through Old Victor's rambling and was currently wandering around the camp, familiarizing himself with the place.
He felt that this camp was quite good.
If he encountered this kind of naturally generated structure in Minecraft, David would sometimes just use it as a home to save himself the trouble of building one.
With food reserves nearly depleted, David walked to the edge of the camp.
He took out an iron hoe, tilled a small patch of farmland, and placed a block of water.
He also made some wooden fences to surround the farmland and prevent it from being trampled.
Then he sowed wheat seeds and potatoes. This time, he didn't use bonemeal to speed up the process, letting them grow naturally.
"Are you growing vegetables?" Bella, the Abhuman Sniper, stood on the high fence, watching David's actions with curiosity.
"I should warn you, the soil here is notoriously barren... Wait, it's already growing."
Her eyes widened as she watched a seedling sprout from the ground right after David had sown the seeds.
Bella jumped down from the crates in surprise, landing nimbly and leaning in to carefully pinch a leaf of the seedling.
"Heavens, are you a Psyker? Is this your ability? Hey, does that mean you get to eat fresh vegetables every day?"
David could see it now; Bella was a complete chatterbox.
Through her conversation with Bella, David learned that Cadian soldiers' rations were strictly rationed.
They were collected from a central distribution center and were far from delicious, let alone fresh, hot meals.
This had really frustrated Bella. "I've already complained to those tall Political Commissars."
Bella said, "I told them they have no idea how important a fresh, delicious meal is."
"Once, while out on a field operation, I scavenged a few rats that had been blown apart and a raw cabbage, and boiled a pot of stew." Bella's gaze drifted away.
"Can you guess the expressions on the faces of those soldiers who had been fighting all day when they saw that steaming pot of soup? They actually smiled."
"We sang songs, accompanying ourselves by tapping our mess tins with spoons, and happily ate our fill."
"Everyone ate, and everyone smiled. That night, no one mentioned the brothers who had died, and no one thought about tomorrow's mission."
Bella's thoughts returned to reality, and she sighed. "Unfortunately, that tall Political Commissar said a whole lot about how supplies couldn't keep up and such."
After a few seconds of silence, Bella seemed to remember something and glanced around sneakily.
She carefully pulled a small, neatly folded block out from an inner pocket close to her chest.
She unfolded it layer by layer, revealing several seeds inside that were still plump.
"Here, cabbage seeds." She said with a bit of pride. "Stolen—I mean, borrowed—from a cogboy."
"You help me plant them, and afterward, I'll give you ten percent. How about it?"
"Ten percent?" David was almost moved to angry laughter. "The thickness of your skin is directly proportional to the accuracy of your marksmanship."
Bella sheepishly scratched her scruffy chin.
"It's possible, but you have to teach me some cooking techniques."
David made his demand, using a strategic retreat to advance.
"Cooking techniques?" Bella scratched her beard again. "That's fine, but I want to add these as well."
Her hand circled half of the land David had just tilled.
"If your height were even half of your greed, you'd probably be the tallest person on all of Cadia."
David mocked Bella in his heart but still agreed to her request.
He wasn't short on crops anyway.
And he could see that Bella wanted so much food not just for herself.
"Then it's a deal," Bella said, clapping her hands. She handed the cabbage seeds to David, who then planted them for her.
"As a gesture of friendship, here's something delicious I just made." Bella seemed to be in a good mood as she handed a steaming pot to David.
In the pot was a slightly viscous liquid with some suspicious dark spots floating on the surface.
[Bella's Mold Soup]
[Bella's Mold Soup: Provides 0 Hunger, 2 Saturation]
A healing artifact! David was a bit surprised. 0 Hunger meant he could keep eating it, and 2 Saturation probably restored about 2 health points.
Don't look down on it for not restoring much; this was soup, and the value displayed by the system should be what's restored per sip.
David took the mold soup and had a sip. The texture was unexpected—the liquid was warm, a bit like oatmeal, and the taste was actually okay.
*Gurgle.*
A rumbling sound came from David's abdomen, followed by a sharp, twisting pain in his stomach.
"Oh, right, I forgot to warn you. Drinking this soup causes a bit of an upset stomach." Bella's warning came a step too late.
"Why didn't you say so earlier?" David's expression changed, and clutching his stomach with one hand, he sprinted toward an unnoticed corner of the camp.
David now understood why it didn't increase Hunger; given that it came out as soon as it went in, it would be a miracle if it could increase Hunger.