Chapter 114: What If?

Orc Camp in the Wastestone District of the Outer City.

After nearly an hour of rapid movement, Yingzhou and the 5 Catachan toughs had arrived at an Orc Camp; the other Catachan toughs had been retracted by Yingzhou.

"This camp has about 1,900-plus Orcs. Aside from the Patrol Squads and Search Squads that go out daily, there should be about 1,400 to 1,500 Orcs inside the camp," the hat-wearing Catachan tough said beside Yingzhou, relaying the intelligence here to him.

"Where are the cages where those Orcs hold the Human survivors?" Yingzhou asked.

"Reporting to the Emperor, these Orcs generally keep the Human survivors in a position closer to the center of the camp, as it is convenient for them to eat."

Upon hearing this news, Yingzhou had already crossed the plan of having the Krieg Artillery shell the Orc Camp off his mind; he had come to save the survivors, and if they were wiped out by the Krieg Artillery, then what had he come for?

Right, hadn't he previously redeemed a Krieg Commissar? He could let him command the Krieg soldiers to fight head-on, while he himself followed the Catachan toughs inside to rescue the survivors.

Thinking of this, Yingzhou summoned the Krieg Commissar he had previously redeemed.

The Krieg Commissar, wearing a high-peaked cap and a gas mask, was dressed in a black Commissar uniform and draped in a black greatcoat; a Laser Pistol was tucked at his right hip, and in his left hand was a Power Sword.

Upon seeing Yingzhou, the Krieg Commissar's body was visibly trembling with excitement; he saluted very formally, "His Majesty the Emperor, I salute you. I will complete your orders at any cost! I offer you my Loyalty!"

"Very good. I need you to take the soldiers, lure the Orcs out of the camp ahead, and drag them out into the open. Unless necessary, do not let the soldiers charge," Yingzhou said, handing his own Krieg Charge Whistle to this Krieg Commissar.

The Krieg Commissar took the Charge Whistle Yingzhou handed him with slightly trembling hands, "His Majesty the Emperor, I will certainly follow your requirements and complete the Task!"

The hat-wearing Catachan tough beside Yingzhou twitched the corner of his mouth, looking at the Krieg Commissar before him with a slightly furrowed brow, mainly because he was a Commissar.

He prayed internally: May the Emperor protect us, I hope the Emperor won't assign us a Commissar in the future.

Yingzhou naturally noticed the expression of this Catachan tough and roughly guessed what he was thinking, finding it amusing; clearly, this Catachan tough was overthinking it—how could he possibly assign a Commissar to these guys? Was he wasting points?

After moving away from the camp, Yingzhou summoned 200 Krieg soldiers and handed them over to this Krieg Commissar.

Yingzhou then summoned 12 Krieg Artillery units not far away; although he couldn't fire into the camp, once the majority of the Orcs came out, he would wipe them out!

Yingzhou returned to the ruins where he had just observed the Orc Camp, waiting for the Krieg Commissar to lead the Krieg soldiers to begin the attack.

Fang Yue had previously been a worker, but after the Orcs invaded the Outer City, he had escaped the initial Orc massacre; however, the day before yesterday, the place where he was hiding was found by Orcs, and just like that, he was captured.

When Fang Yue arrived at the cage where the Orcs kept the Humans, he immediately felt a strong, putrid stench rush toward him, making it almost impossible to breathe.

The scene before him left him feeling shocked and desperate: the ground was covered in maggots, emitting a pungent odor; and the survivors held here were in a truly horrific physical state.

Large chunks of flesh had been gouged from the bodies of some survivors by the Orcs, and their wounds were already festering, emitting a foul stench.

Even with insects crawling on their wounds, these people seemed to feel nothing; they had already lost the desire to live.

Some survivors had even become incomplete "puppets," their bodies shattered and broken, only able to lean against the edge of the cage or other companions, waiting for death to arrive.

The entire scene was filled with despair, making Fang Yue feel that his own mental state was not doing well either.

There were also some survivors who, although they hadn't turned into that state, didn't look like they could hold on much longer, though there was still a glimmer of light in their eyes.

Fang Yue was pushed into the cage by an Orc and fell onto a young woman; Fang Yue hurriedly got up, "Sorry, this wasn't something I could control."

The woman looked up at Fang Yue, her haggard eyes full of exhaustion; she seemed not to have spoken for a long time, and after opening her dry, cracked lips and brewing for a long time, she said, "It doesn't matter, our fate is no longer in our own hands anyway."

Although Fang Yue felt that what this woman said was right, he still spoke to comfort her, "Don't give up hope, at least we are still alive."

Fang Yue's words made the surrounding survivors sneer; a middle-aged man snorted coldly, "Hmph, I've never seen anyone who was caught and brought here actually get out. No one cares about us cattle and horses of the Outer City; you're counting on those noble lords in the Inner City to save us?"

"We are just leaves on a big tree, blowing with the wind, using all our strength to grab onto the branches, but no leaf will hold onto the branch forever; the final outcome is just the leaf being blown off, blown wherever the wind takes it," an old man muttered, a trace of sorrow appearing on his aged face.

After hearing these words, Fang Yue sat silently beside the young woman and said in a very low voice.

"What if someone really does care about us?"

But no one responded to his words; even the young woman beside him closed her mouth.

In the days that followed, Fang Yue saw new survivors being dragged in, and some survivors being dragged out by Orcs, never to return.

Those Orcs would also put some leftovers into the cage; those survivors who still had a glimmer of light in their eyes would scramble for that swill like madmen, not caring about the source of the food inside.

Originally, Fang Yue didn't want to do this at the beginning, but until he was so hungry that his vision blurred, hunger made him lose his reason; he endured the psychological discomfort and the stench, ate the first mouthful of swill, followed by the second, the third...

By the time Fang Yue's reason regained control of his brain, a wave of nausea surged up; he vomited for half a minute before recovering, saliva still stringing from his mouth; he wiped his mouth and leaned powerlessly against the side of the cage.

At this time, the young woman beside him said slowly, "You'll get used to it. Everyone here has gone through this stage, it's just that some were later dragged out by Orcs and never came back. And some, in the end, became puppets."

Fang Yue felt his stomach churning, his breathing becoming rapid, and he replied, "There must still be hope, there must still be someone who cares about us."

"Someone else said similar words before; later, he was dragged out by the Orcs. He was the survivor who resisted the most fiercely, but the result didn't change," the young woman said after hearing Fang Yue's words.