The group assembled in front of the portal.
Adrian kept glancing at the young woman beside him.
There was something strikingly cool about her, and judging by her age, she was probably a student too.
"What are you looking at, kid?"
Adrian was speechless. Why did everyone keep calling him a kid?
"Uh, I have a name. I'm—"
Just as Adrian was about to introduce himself, the girl pressed an index finger to his lips.
"You don't use your real name here."
Her finger was slender and soft, nothing like the hand of someone who used a gun.
But the pressure against his lips told Adrian that anyone foolish enough to think that would pay dearly for it.
"My callsign is Frost. Pick one for yourself."
She withdrew her hand and began organizing her gear.
Adrian's old gaming ID from his previous life surfaced in his mind.
"No. Way too embarrassing."
He did not even have the courage to say that ID aloud himself. How could he use it here?
"My callsign is Red Ram."
Adrian took his old surname and added red to it, as a reminder of the country he had left behind in his previous life.
"You look like a student. Why become a mercenary?"
"Me?"
Adrian's mind raced. He needed an excuse.
"I've got a serious illness. It takes a lot of money to treat it."
After thinking for a while, Adrian came up with an utterly clichéd answer.
"I see. Then you'd better do everything you can to survive this job."
The girl seemed to recall something, but she quickly forced the emotion back down.
At that moment, the burly man stopped and spread a paper map on the ground.
"I'll lay out the plan."
"Ammunition Depot No. 4 has three levels and three exits: the main gate, the hilltop bunker exit, and the underground passage exit."
With the map spread across the ground, the burly man began assigning tasks.
"The rabbits go in first. Red Ram, you're drawing off the guards at the gate."
"Black Rabbit, pull everyone on the first level away, then come out through the hilltop exit."
"Frost, go straight down to the second underground level, lead the enemy to the third level, then find a chance to leave through the tunnel."
"The rest of us wait until the rabbits have drawn them away, enter the second level to scavenge, then withdraw through the main gate."
"We'll have thirty minutes to loot the place."
The burly man pointed at a junction on the map.
"This is the extraction point. Sync your watches."
Everyone raised their wrists and operated their tactical watches.
Adrian, meanwhile, found himself in an awkward position. As a student, he did not own that kind of professional tactical gear.
With no other option, he pulled out his phone.
"A rookie with no gear at all thinks he can be a rabbit? You should quit now before you get us all killed."
Black Rabbit threw out another jab without warning.
They were being paid the same amount, so why did Adrian only have to lure away two gate guards while he had to draw off everyone on the first level?
Still, he did not argue. In the mercenary business, questioning your employer was a major taboo.
Adrian ignored him and set the time as instructed.
"Here. A friend of mine used to wear this."
Frost pulled a somewhat worn tactical watch from her waist pouch.
The paint on its face had chipped away, and it bore several scorch marks. Its crystal was covered in scratches as well.
"Thanks."
Black Rabbit felt as though he had punched a pillow. His taunt had accomplished nothing, so he could only let it go.
"All right, let's move out."
The burly man took the lead toward the portal.
[Mode: Scavenge]
[Map: Ammunition Depot No. 4.]
The Battlefield World's cold electronic voice sounded.
At the same time, another voice echoed in Adrian's mind.
[Host detected entering the Battlefield World. System activation successful.]
[Beginner's gift pack issued. Support Squad acquired: one standard set of Russian equipment.]
[This System can spend points in the Points Shop to exchange for support from new squads.]
[Points can be earned by killing Instance NPCs or completing missions.]
[Commander Battlefield System activated.]
Immediately afterward, a familiar interface appeared in Adrian's field of view.
"The System's finally here."
The corner of Adrian's mouth lifted. He wanted to claim the beginner's gift pack, but his hand stopped halfway.
No. I came in with no equipment. If gear suddenly appears out of nowhere, there'll be no way to explain it.
The sixteen-person team had entered the map, which was a forest.
They had thirty seconds of preparation time, and everyone was checking their equipment.
Adrian, on the other hand, had no gear at all and simply stood there blankly.
In reality, he was studying how to use the System in front of him.
"That's the crosshair. Once I get a weapon, I should be able to use it."
A crosshair appeared at the center of his vision. Having played thousands of war games in his previous life, Adrian was naturally familiar with it.
In the upper-right corner was a minimap. When Adrian focused on it, the tiny map abruptly expanded to fill his entire vision.
"This is the map for the whole Instance. It even marks the extraction point."
In this world, people could only determine their positions using paper maps and compasses. Adrian, who had only ever played games, could not make heads or tails of paper maps, so this was extremely convenient for him.
At the bottom of his vision was a white bar, followed by the number 3.
"System, what does this 3 mean?"
[The host has three lives per map. After dying, the host will return to the portal outside and reenter.]
"So I've got a safety net."
This had been Adrian's greatest concern. He had never fired a gun or experienced war.
But that was not what would truly allow Adrian to establish himself here.
"System, open the mercenary interface."
On the far left of his vision were his inventory and mercenary interface.
At that moment, a camouflage-colored set of gear—the beginner's set—lay in his inventory.
Below the inventory interface was the mercenary unit available for Adrian to summon.
[VDV Air Assault Support]
[Twelve-man squad, equipped with Russian Level 6 heavy armor: 5 riflemen, 2 squad automatic weapon gunners, 1 medic, 1 general-purpose machine gunner, 1 combat engineer, 1 anti-vehicle gunner, 1 sniper.]
[Upon summoning, the squad will enter aboard an Mi-17. Requirement: open outdoor terrain.]
"Holy shit. A VDV squad?"
The squad reminded Adrian of a saying from his previous life.
There were no cowards in an Antonov.
That alone said plenty about the unit's combat effectiveness.
Strictly speaking, activating the System meant Adrian had already completed his objective.
Even if he died in this Instance, he would be sent back to the portal through which he had entered.
But Adrian did not want to let an opportunity this good pass him by.
He wanted to test the squad's capabilities.
Then another question occurred to him.
"System, is this squad single-use?"
He did not want to waste a valuable support call just dealing with a few hundred people.
[Squad support is a host skill and can be summoned once in every Instance.]
When he focused on the VDV squad support icon, a brief description appeared.
[VDV Airborne Forces: Receive support from a standard twelve-man squad. Cooldown: 1 hour.]
"So it's one of my skills. That's a relief."
The thirty seconds passed quickly, and everyone regained the ability to move.
Their spawn point lay one kilometer south of Ammunition Depot No. 4.
From here, they could vaguely make out the depot's tall antenna.
"Everyone, move out with me."
The burly man took point. The group threaded through the woods and soon reached the depot's outer perimeter.
Ammunition Depot No. 4 was surrounded by a five-meter-high concrete wall, with two sentries stationed at the gate.
"Red Ram, your mission is to draw those two sentries away for an hour, then break contact and head to the extraction point when you get the chance."
Adrian nodded. To be honest, he was not very confident.
Just then, a System prompt sounded.
[The progress bar above an enemy's head indicates how aware they are of your presence.]
"System, you're way too smart."
Adrian was secretly delighted. This feels a lot like Call of Duty.
"Red Ram, you good?"
Frost patted Adrian on the shoulder.
"Yeah. I've got this."
"Hey, Red Ram, if you can't handle it, stay here and wait for us to come back."
Black Rabbit looked at Adrian with an openly provocative expression.
Anyone could see that Black Rabbit was unhappy with the burly man's assignment.
Drawing off two men and drawing off an entire level were vastly different in difficulty, yet the reward was the same.
"Captain Rem, if this kid gets spotted, none of us are getting out alive."
Everyone turned to look at the burly man.
Wait, what was your name? Rem?
The callsign Rem could belong to either a man or a woman.
But the only Rem Adrian knew from his previous life had been an adorable maid, which made the name hard for him to process.
"Ahem. Leave it to me, Captain Rem."
Come on—the System had practically handed him the answer. How could he back down now, with everyone watching?
"Kid, don't try to play tough if you can't do it."
Black Rabbit's mocking voice followed him.
Everyone could tell that Black Rabbit was deliberately targeting Adrian.
"Red Ram, if you can't manage it, I'll take over. Don't throw your life away just to make money."
Frost gave off a clear keep-your-distance vibe at first glance.
But after speaking with her, Adrian could tell that Frost treated him more kindly than the others did.
In truth, Rem was not favoring Adrian. He simply believed that if Adrian were assigned anywhere else, the kid might not even survive a second—and would expose them in the process.
Once they were exposed, more than two hundred NPCs would swarm them.
"Don't worry, Frost. I've got this."
After giving the captain a look that said he could handle it, Adrian turned and left without looking back.
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