“Bang!”
“What is the true mission of your military observation mission in Seville?!”
Morin came fully awake only after taking a solid punch to the face.
As the scene before his eyes gradually cleared, he looked at the tall white man in front of him, dressed in some kind of old military uniform, his expression vicious and ferocious, and fell into complete bewilderment.
“Where the hell have I ended up… Did I finally get time off, come back, grind the tech tree, and fall asleep doing it?”
That thought surfaced in Morin’s mind, but the waves of sharp pain coming from his cheek and jaw made him realize he did not seem to be dreaming.
He really had just been punched hard by someone!
Immediately afterward, the vicious white man in front of him rattled off a long string of words in a language Morin had never heard before.
Yet strangely enough, Morin found that he understood him as easily as if he were listening to his mother tongue.
He could even tell that the man himself did not seem particularly fluent in the language he was speaking.
Now Morin was utterly confused.
He was clearly only a cadet. When had he become a second lieutenant?
Even if they were using the ranks from that Slavic Genshin, he should have been a level 98 lieutenant general instead.
And this “Seville” or whatever was a place he had never even heard of—
No, wait!
As Morin thought of that place name again, a cold electronic female voice suddenly sounded in his head.
【Current information collection progress: 5%】
【Intelligence Management System activating】
Morin felt the scene before his eyes flicker, and then an interface resembling some kind of game UI appeared in his vision.
The main body of this interface was a huge map. Judging from its outline, it resembled a map of Europe, except that most regions were currently unexplored.
The only place with any degree of exploration was a large town at the very center of the map. Judging from the text label, it was the “Seville” the officer had just mentioned.
Morin estimated its location. It was roughly in the south of the country he knew as Spain.
He tried zooming the map down to the smallest scale, and saw a simple street map, along with a golden star marker—presumably representing himself.
On the left side of the map were many buttons resembling “tabs.” At present, the interface was stopped on the “Map” tab.
Below “Map” were “Information,” “Intelligence,” and several tabs marked with “???”
Morin tried using his mind to click the “???” tab, but all that popped up was a prompt: “Current information collection progress insufficient. Unable to unlock.”
He turned his attention to the “Information” tab instead, and sure enough, something new appeared.
The large map on the right switched to an interface resembling a document, though at present there were only a few sparse lines of content.
【Seville, capital of the Andalusia Autonomous Region, with an urban population of approximately 110,000. It is the fourth-largest city in the Kingdom of Aragon.】
【The Saxon Empire, a dual-monarchy federal state located in central Europa, a powerful empire ruled by the Saxon House of Wettin.】
“Fuck, what Aragon and Saxony? Isn’t this just Spain and the Second Reich?!”
After reading this information, Morin opened the “Intelligence” tab with his mind. This time, there was even less content inside—only a single line of text.
【The military observation mission you belong to was attacked. You are currently in a captured state, detained in the cellar of a private residence in Seville.】
Looking at this information, a chain of related details rapidly filled Morin’s mind, gradually sketching out a somewhat vague memory.
The owner of this body was also called Morin, and came from another country bordering the Kingdom of Aragon—the Saxon Empire.
His specific identity was that of a young officer candidate who had just graduated from Richterfeld Central Military Academy.
Oh, ten days ago, he had already been awarded the rank of second lieutenant and was supposed to report to his assigned unit.
【Current information collection progress: 7%】
Morin sorted through the messy memories in his head. Just as he was about to switch the tab back to “Information,” he, who was tied to a chair with his hands bound behind him, took another swinging punch.
“Smack!”
This time, he and the chair were knocked over onto the ground together.
The interface before his eyes was also forcibly shut down, and his normal vision returned.
【Dangerous state detected. System interface temporarily closed】
“Hey, what the fuck… This system doesn’t have a time-stop effect?”
“Thud!”
A military boot stomped heavily into his lower abdomen, leaving Morin able only to let out waves of pained whimpers.
He could not understand no matter how he thought about it. He had clearly been playing a game just moments ago—how had he ended up bound backward to a chair and beaten to a pulp in the blink of an eye?
“I mean, I finally got time off, came back, secretly played Air Realistic like a paramecium, never climbed, took every zone… but that shouldn’t warrant this, right…”
Immediately afterward, the vicious white officer roughly hauled his chair upright again, then walked over to a table at the side, picked up a towel, and wiped the sweat from his face.
Only then did Morin have time to quickly observe the place he was in.
It was more or less as the map had shown just now. This seemed to be the interior of some building. The ceiling was low, there were no windows around, and the only illumination came from a few oil lamps.
In the dim area farther away, beyond the oil lamps’ reach, there was the faint outline of something resembling a wooden staircase.
Morin guessed that this was probably somewhere like a basement or cellar.
Behind the table where the white officer was wiping his sweat sat two other soldiers dressed in uniforms of the same style as his.
And to Morin’s left, another elderly officer in a different uniform had also been tied with his hands behind his back. The field-gray uniform on him, however, was in the same style as the one Morin himself was wearing.
Now Morin more or less understood his situation.
If this was not some heaven-defying prank, then he had most likely encountered the ever-popular transmigration scenario—and had landed directly in the hellish opening of “captured by hostile forces.”
The white officer casually threw the damp towel back onto the table. The sweat and bloodstains on it looked especially glaring under the oil lamp.
He turned around and walked back to Morin in a few strides. His heavy breathing sprayed against Morin’s face, carrying an unpleasant stench mixed with tobacco and sweat.
“Bang!”
Another fist came smashing over, striking Morin squarely on the left side of his face. His ears rang from the blow, and his mouth filled with the taste of rust.
“I’ll ask you one more time. What is the true mission of your Saxon military observation mission in Seville?”
The officer’s roar exploded beside his ear.
“Are you Saxons trying to tear up the agreement and formally intervene in the civil war of the Kingdom of Aragon?!”
Morin grimaced in pain. Inwardly, he had already greeted the man’s ancestors for eighteen generations.
Are these people sick?
I don’t even know what you’re talking about, bro!
He badly wanted to roar that back, but reason told him that if he opened his mouth now, there would be no good outcome besides another beating.
The original owner’s memories were a complete mess. As for that so-called “mission,” his mind was utterly blank.
The only thing he could do now was keep his mouth tightly shut and play the part of a gourd with its mouth sawed off.
The other two officers sitting behind the table merely glanced over, then continued puffing away at their cigarettes, indifferent to the violence taking place here.
“What skill is there in venting your anger on a second lieutenant?”
A hoarse yet vigorous voice came from the side.
“If you have questions, you can direct them at me.”
Morin turned his head with difficulty and looked toward the source of the voice.
It was the elderly officer wearing the same field-gray uniform as him.
There was blood at the corner of his mouth as well, and his face was bruised blue and purple, but his back was still ramrod straight, without the slightest wretchedness of a prisoner.
When the white officer heard this, he slowly released the hand that had been gripping Morin’s hair, and a sinister smile appeared on his face.
“This is the first time I’ve heard such a request…”
He turned around, walked slowly to the elderly officer, and without another word, threw a punch straight into his face.
“Bang!”
The chair legs scraped across the rough floor, producing an ear-piercing sound.
The elderly officer’s head was knocked to one side, and blood soon seeped from the corner of his mouth, but he stubbornly did not make a sound.
The white officer still seemed unsatisfied and raised his hand, preparing to strike again.
At this moment, the two officers who had been sitting behind the table finally moved.
They stubbed out the cigarettes in their hands, stood up, and walked over.
One of them, an officer who seemed to hold a somewhat higher rank, raised his hand and stopped the colleague who was about to continue the assault.
He walked up to the elderly officer, circled him once, and carefully examined the field-gray uniform on his body and the epaulets on his shoulders.
“August von Mackensen.”
The officer spoke, his voice much steadier than the previous man’s.
“Lieutenant General of the Saxon Imperial Army… I truly did not expect to capture such a big figure as yourself here.”
Morin’s heart gave a violent twitch. He had not expected that the old man beside him was actually a general.
No wonder he had sounded so confident just now.
Wait, why does this name sound so familiar too?!
Before he could figure out why the name was familiar, a new question surfaced in Morin’s mind—how had a tiny second lieutenant like him ended up captured together with a general?
On the other side, the general called Mackensen slowly raised his head. Though his face was battered, the arrogance emanating from his very bones had not diminished in the slightest.
He even tugged at the bleeding corner of his mouth, forcing out a contemptuous expression.
“Since you know my identity, you should understand the nature of a military observation mission.”
Mackensen’s voice remained steady.
“We came at the invitation of the lawful ruler of the Kingdom of Aragon, Fernando VII, and possess diplomatic immunity. Your open attack on our military observation mission is an open provocation against the Saxon Empire. Can it not also be understood as an act of war?”
“Diplomatic immunity?”
The officer who had come over later let out a soft laugh, as though he had heard some colossal joke.
“General Mackensen, this is Andalusia, not the capital, Madrid. Given the Kingdom of Aragon’s current state, the king’s orders may not necessarily count for anything here.”
He paused, and his tone softened, no longer as aggressive.
“We have no intention of making an enemy of the Saxon Empire. But Your Excellency, you and your subordinates appeared in a place where you should not have appeared, so we merely wish to know why.”
He spread his hands, putting on an air of reasonableness.
After hearing these words, Lieutenant General Mackensen stared seriously at the officer who had spoken for a while, then let out a cold laugh.
“Heh… You say we appeared in a place where we should not have appeared.”
“Then why have your Britannian troops appeared here as well?”
It’s my birthday today, so I’m releasing a new book~