Chapter Fifteen: The Hidden Basement

‘Drip.’
Thick, viscous blood slid down the gently curved blade of the Nepalese kukri, pooling on the ground. The bodies of six German soldiers, strewn from the back of the truck to the outside, collapsed one after another, lifeless on the earth.

“Whew—” Kyle let out a long breath, his heart still pounding in a feverish rhythm. Adrenaline and blood surged through his veins, sweat streaming down his brow. To ensure not a single German soldier could raise an alarm and alert the troops within the base, Kyle had pushed his robust physique and the full extent of his lethal combat techniques to their absolute limit during those five seconds of slaughter.

He dared not relax for even a moment. Hastily, he scanned his surroundings, confirming that no other German soldiers had been disturbed. With a swift motion, he wiped the kukri clean on a dead man’s uniform, removing the blood before sheathing it in the leather scabbard at his waist.

Next, Kyle dragged the three bodies lying outside back into the rear of the truck. As he worked, the rescued young girl peeked out from the wooden crate. The blonde girl, staring at the six bloodied corpses piled before her, was no longer gripped by fear. Her gaze shifted to Kyle, unscathed amidst the carnage, astonishment shining in her wide eyes.

German soldiers—valiant, well-equipped, and disciplined—were seen by civilians as killing machines. Yet six of these formidable men had fallen in a mere instant, never even managing a cry for help, struck down by the young man’s blade. Who would believe such a feat without witnessing it themselves?

“Um…” The girl summoned her courage and spoke softly to Kyle, “Thank you.”

Kyle shrugged, still catching his breath. “It’s a bit early for gratitude. We’re still deep inside a major German base.”

“Huh?” The girl looked at him in bewilderment, clearly unaware of their current predicament.

“There’s no time to explain. Stay here, keep quiet—I’ll come back and get you out.” With that, Kyle swiftly exited the truck’s rear compartment and shut the iron door behind him.

It wasn’t ideal, leaving a delicate young girl locked in with six corpses, but he had no other choice. Delayed by his infiltration, only about twenty minutes remained before the scheduled start of the assault mission.

Once the time elapsed, even if their own unit didn’t attack, the other four squads would commence assaults on four enemy camps. The large base would be alerted, making the element of surprise meaningless.

“Stealth mode—begin.”

With the kukri in hand, Kyle slipped into the shadows, entering his Night Stalker state. He moved silently, weaving toward the buildings deeper inside the base.

—

He slipped past a patrol, keeping to the shadows a mere five meters away. None of the enemy soldiers noticed a thing. The base was punctuated with lights and patrols at regular intervals, but as long as the whole place wasn’t ablaze with illumination and teeming with men, Kyle could glide through the darkness unnoticed.

Mastering his sense of distance within the night, stealth became more effective than mere invisibility. Kyle crept along, soon stopping at the corner of a wooden building. Unlike the others, this house was guarded by twice as many patrols, and a sentry stood vigilant at the door.

“Is this the officers’ quarters? The command post?” Kyle wondered, noting that the door was merely ajar, not locked. If he could take out the base commander first, his solo infiltration would be half a success.

The question was—how to get inside.

He frowned, then a sly smile curled his lips as an idea occurred to him.

In front of the large building, the sentry stood as rigid as a poplar tree, weapon in hand, his vigilance unwavering. Even within the safety of his own base, he dared not lower his guard—the items within had been ordered by the officers to be watched with utmost care.

“One more hour and I’ll be relieved,” the sentry was thinking when suddenly a dark creature swooped from above, flapping its wings and colliding with his face.

“A bat?”

Stunned, he reached up to snatch it away, but the bat was ferocious, sinking its teeth into the corner of his eye and refusing to let go.

“Get off!” With a cry of pain, the sentry squeezed his eyes shut, stumbling back against the door, clawing at the bat in fury.

In that brief moment, as he flailed, a blurred figure darted past him, slipping through the doorway.

“What’s going on?!” A patrol squad rushed over, only to see the sentry fling the dead bat to the ground with disgust, spitting, “Nothing, just a bat.”

The patrol exchanged bemused glances at the farcical scene.

—

The door swung shut behind the sentry. Inside the darkness, a human silhouette gradually took shape—Kyle, still in stealth.

“Creature cards are even more useful than I expected,” he murmured. Even a humble white-rank creature card could work wonders in such a situation. The secret lay in the card’s inherent trait—obedience. Summoned creatures would faithfully obey their master’s commands, eliminating unexpected mishaps and turning them into true biological weapons.

“All right, let’s see what this place is for.” Kyle surveyed the room. He knew at once it wasn’t the command post or officers’ quarters. The layout resembled a supply warehouse; shelves lined the vast interior, stacked high with crates of every shape and size.

He didn’t need to open them. As he focused, information about extractable item cards began to appear above each crate: [German Rifle], [Rifle Ammunition], [Anti-Personnel Mine], [Detonator Grenade]…

An armory.

Kyle’s eyes gleamed. This was a far greater prize than the command center. Capturing the latter might threaten the commander, but seizing the armory meant holding the base’s very lifeblood in his hands.

He moved deeper into the building, extracting weapon cards every three seconds as he went.

Reaching the far end, he suddenly stopped and knelt, tapping the floor with his fingers. A hollow echo sounded—thud, thud, thud.

Well, well. There’s a hidden basement beneath the armory.

A smile touched Kyle’s lips. Such tricks couldn’t fool him. Quickly, he found the concealed floor panel and descended the staircase. Contrary to his expectations of pitch darkness, the basement glowed with an uncanny blue light.

Fully inside, the first thing that caught his eye was a crate filled with cubic blue energy cells, their exposed forms radiating a palpable, immense power.