Chapter One: Thanks for the invitation—I'm in the trench, under artillery fire!
“Andreosha, Andreosha! Wake up, are you alright?”
In the haze, Andrei felt someone shaking him, and a violent headache surged through his skull, forcing a groan from his lips.
“Ah, stop shaking me, my head hurts! Is there any water?”
Driven by pain and an unbearable thirst, Andrei murmured instinctively. At once, he felt someone pressing a canteen to his mouth.
Without hesitation, he took two gulps, and the pain in his head eased slightly. As soon as he opened his eyes, he discovered he was curled up in a cramped space resembling a foxhole.
Wide-eyed with surprise, he saw beside him a blonde girl dressed as a nun, kneeling and supporting his head, pouring water from the canteen into his mouth.
Meanwhile, several soldiers in steel helmets and gray uniforms, rifles cradled in their arms, watched him nervously.
“Captain Vorontsov, you’re finally awake! Damn, I nearly lost my life dragging you into this hole!”
A bearded veteran cursed a bit, then looked at him with worry and asked, “How are you? Did the shell shake your brains loose?”
For a moment, Andrei didn’t know how to respond. In truth, he hadn’t yet figured out what had happened; his mind was a fog of confusion.
He remembered only that last night he’d attended a school reunion, seen his first love from high school now married, drank a few too many in his melancholy, and passed out on the way home.
When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in this foxhole, surrounded by dirt-streaked soldiers and a nun.
Looking down, he realized he was wearing the same gray military uniform as the others, with a pistol strapped at his waist.
Through the pain, fragments of memory surfaced. Perhaps the concussion had scattered his thoughts, leaving only broken pieces that refused to fit together.
He vaguely recalled having crossed into another world, and the body he now inhabited was named Andrei Konstantinovich Vorontsov.
Piecing together his limited memories and the situation before him, he realized he seemed to be the officer in charge of these soldiers.
He immediately understood that now was not the time to show signs of amnesia!
Otherwise, if the soldiers thought he’d become an idiot, they surely wouldn’t obey him, and, worse yet, might abandon him here as a useless burden.
---
“Gentlemen, what’s going on? Has the enemy assaulted?”
Listening to the thunderous bombardment outside, Andrei forced himself to suppress his fear and asked, his voice trembling slightly.
He had to admit, the racket outside was far louder than any New Year’s fireworks, certainly more than those banned in recent years.
Hearing Andrei’s question, the soldiers in the hole let out a sigh of relief.
The veteran spat and said, “Boss, don’t worry. The enemy hasn’t rushed us yet. They’re just preparing with artillery fire!”
“Damn those Black Hawk bastards. Before the battle even starts, they never make a peep, only sneak attacks—a bunch of cowards!”
Black Hawk? What was that?
Was it the name of the opposing country?
Andrei tried to think, but the relentless artillery outside hammered his head, making it ache.
He touched his scalp and found his hand covered in blood.
Before he could say anything, the nun beside him quickly wrapped his head in bandages, speaking softly, “Andreosha, don’t move, be careful with your wound!”
No sooner had she spoken than the soldiers in the foxhole began to tease.
“Oho, Andreosha! Captain is truly a veteran of romance. Why doesn’t Yelena ever speak to me like that?”
Yelena blushed, seeming to want to retort, but just then the shelling outside abruptly stopped.
Andrei was still stunned by the sudden silence, but the bearded veteran had already grabbed his rifle and leapt ahead.
“Get out, the artillery prep is over! The enemy’s about to charge!”
Only then did Andrei snap to attention, recalling the combined arms tactics he’d seen in documentaries, quickly realizing the enemy was about to storm the trenches!
Without wasting time, he instinctively grabbed the whistle at his chest and blew it loudly!
Hearing the whistle, the other dazed soldiers rushed out, and even Sister Yelena drew a pistol from her waist, nervously watching outside.
---
“Hurry, hurry, get up there, hold the line! The enemy’s cans are coming!”
Andrei had barely followed the others out of the foxhole when he saw, not far away, another officer in a peaked cap beckoning to them.
At the same time, not far away, the heavy machine gun extending from the position was firing furiously, operated by two gunners.
Andrei didn’t understand—what were “cans”?
Driven by curiosity, he climbed the earthen steps before him and peered out through the gap between sandbags.
What he saw stunned him: a strange, large iron container the size of a jeep, with three mechanical legs, was crawling rapidly toward their position.
On either side of this iron beast, two turrets extended twin-mounted machine guns, swiveling in sync with the main body, spraying suppressive fire at the trench’s edge.
Behind this iron monster, a squad of infantry in Prussian-style spiked helmets, breastplates, and rifles hurried forward.
Even more bizarre, a hulking, gorilla-like infantryman with arms long enough to reach the ground marched behind, carrying a rocket launcher on his shoulder.
The machine gun nearby, still firing desperately, instantly became the gorilla-soldier’s target.
A rocket soared over, blasting both gunners and the machine gun itself into the air.
While Andrei was still reeling, elsewhere on the line:
A green magical array suddenly flared in the sky, and a rain of emerald fire poured down, drenching a segment of trench, setting it ablaze amid screams of agony.
Listening to the cries, watching the multi-legged armored vehicles crawling forward, the modified heavy artillery soldier, and distant magic—
Andrei could only clutch his head in despair, doubt written all over his face.
“Damn it, where the hell am I? What kind of ridiculous world is this?”
Just then, a mechanical voice echoed in his mind:
“59 seconds until the closed beta begins! Developers, please prepare!”