Chapter 76: Echoes of the Last Wish

Ding! Received a necklace (Oath) [Blue].

Ding! Triggered Special Mission: Last Wish.

Last Wish:

Find the origin of the Ruins Battlefield and resolve the incident. Special rewards await upon completion.

Almost as soon as Yenir finished reading, two system notifications rang out in succession. The mission details were simple—there wasn’t even a hint.

But for Yenir, no further explanation was needed.

Slowly rising to his feet, Yenir cast a troubled glance at the necklace in his hand.

The necklace looked unremarkable, with a silver-white chain and a simple round clasp. When opened, it revealed only a small photograph cut out from a larger one.

The photo showed a young mother and daughter sharing a radiant smile.

Though the details had blurred with time, Yenir deduced from the note that this was the memento of a records officer.

For the first time, he chose not to inspect the item’s attributes or compare it to what he remembered from his past life.

All he felt now was a tightness in his chest.

“Take me home…”

He murmured softly.

Yenir instinctively watched as doomed soldiers streamed past him, sprinting toward the City Wall. They did not notice him, as if history were repeating itself.

This place felt like two separate worlds.

In the distance, he could barely make out the Chen siblings whispering to each other. With soldier phantoms drawing enemy fire, this battle was almost irrelevant to them.

Dying and chatting at the same time, the two—well-acquainted with the Ruins Battlefield—observed the scene as if it were a mere performance.

With a flash in his eyes, Yenir silently observed soldiers clinging to mutants like ants.

Even though in his past life he had witnessed equally brutal scenes—even at the end of human civilization, the images were even more tragic.

Yet seeing his predecessors charge to their deaths decades ago stirred something different within him.

He had only read a few glorified snippets in textbooks, mostly about the Third-Stage Awakened.

Sixty years had passed; the new generation of survivors had long forgotten their history. No one would record the countless nameless soldiers slain on an obscure battlefield.

Too many. All too ordinary.

Instead of an unremarkable defensive battle, people preferred to remember those Third-Stage Awakened warriors with top-tier strength who could turn the tide—after all, that was far more thrilling than mere casualty numbers.

“Last Wish…”

Clutching the necklace tightly, Yenir exhaled deeply and carefully pressed it to his chest. He had a rough idea of the cause behind this peculiar incident and how it should be resolved.

But he still needed to verify his thoughts.

……

“Ye Lin, are we ready to move out?”

Noticing Yenir’s sudden return, Chen Yong blurted out instinctively.

Although he had momentarily doubted whether Yenir was a Third-Stage, his respect and regard for him remained unchanged.

He pointed toward the soldiers who kept ‘reincarnating’:

“Ye Lin, these soldiers’ endurance is nearly up. Once a Third-Stage Mutant appears, this group will only hold on for a short while before vanishing. We need to leave before they disappear—otherwise, attracting a Third-Stage Mutant will be a huge problem.”

He flashed a slightly ingratiating smile.

Chen Yong was already scheming about how to approach Yenir once they were out, eager to test if he truly was a Third-Stage.

Beside him, Chen Yao kept her head down obediently while secretly sizing up Yenir. They didn’t want to deal with a Third-Stage, not even when soldiers were around.

As for whether Yenir would proceed, in their estimation, probably not.

To kill a Third-Stage Mutant, the optimal plan was to wait until the very moment it appeared and then awaken the soldiers. That way, there’d be ample time to use them to drain the monster’s strength.

However, to their surprise, after a brief silence upon his return, Yenir spoke up:

“Do you know how the Ruins Battlefield ended? What became of these soldiers in history?”

Hmm?

Chen Yong was momentarily stunned, unsure why Yenir was asking about something from so long ago—back when he hadn’t even been born.

After a moment of thought, he furrowed his brow and said:

“I seem to recall my grandfather mentioning it. He said the battle was dreadful and ended in failure, didn’t it?”

“Apparently, a Third-Stage Mutant emerged, completely shattering our defenses.”

“They say no one survived.”

After a brief pause, Chen Yong shrugged and added:

“Ye Lin, you saw it too. The soldier phantoms here can only reach up to Second-Stage. Back then, they were certainly no match.”

“But they held out long enough to allow the Safe Zone to evacuate. My grandfather was among those who survived in the Safe Zone back then…”

They held out for a long time… then evacuated…

With a determined glance at the countless soldier phantoms—whose death toll he could no longer count—Yenir asked again:

“Then…”

“Do you know what your words that awakened the soldiers truly mean?”

“mA RANZ… Ma Ranz…”

“How many times have you used this method?”

Repeating the awkward phrase once more.

Chen Yong opened his mouth in surprise; this time, he honestly didn’t know. Strangely, he felt a cold glimmer in Yenir’s eyes.

“Meaning? Ye Lin, this phrase has been passed down within our circle.”

“Honestly, we’re not exactly sure what it means.”

Without further thought, Chen Yong chuckled awkwardly as he tried to recall more details:

“It seems to be some local slang or dialect. I heard that those soldiers were temporarily recruited from Guangxi. That phrase is probably from their language.”

“Anyway, we know that as soon as this phrase is shouted, the soldier phantoms appear immediately.”

After saying that, Chen Yong added:

“You’d best keep this trick to yourself. It works like a charm—almost free loot for an entire round. Strictly speaking, it’s military secret.”

“As for how many times it’s been used…”

After a brief hesitation, he finally replied:

“Probably a few hundred times…”

“Typically, we use this method to farm equipment. Each time, it forces the soldiers to expend an entire round battling mutants.”

“However, each person can only use it once. If the same individual shouts it again, the effect fails.”

Chen Yong’s eyes flashed as he hinted that revealing this method to Yenir was a significant favor. Usually, strategies like dungeon tactics, event tricks, and exploiting mutant weaknesses

are never disclosed outside; they circulate only within the Military and major factions.

A trick so effective on the Ruins Battlefield could fetch several thousand—or even tens of thousands—of Credit Points if sold externally.

Unmoved, Yenir’s once cool gaze suddenly turned icy.

A few hundred times…

He silently clenched his fists.

After a long pause, with Chen Yong feeling a creeping unease, he quietly asked the final question:

“Have you ever helped these soldiers kill the final mutant?”

His expression froze.

Sensing the sudden shift in the atmosphere, Chen Yong grew uneasy. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he had misspoken.

After a brief hesitation, he shook his head and said:

“No…”

“Usually, only Second-Stage types come here. People in the Military Department and a few other major factions, who know about this, seem to have an unspoken agreement that their Third-Stage types won’t show up here.”

“So… essentially, you must be the first Third-Stage to arrive here.”

In that instant, upon hearing the answer, a flash of murderous intent surged through Yenir’s heart.

He thought that he now understood the true ending of the Ruins Battlefield.

Last Wish…

Heh.