Those unknown terrifying cylinders were unimaginatively named "gravity bombs" by the Earth side.

After the second gravity bomb exploded at the front of the enemy camp, although the allied forces' reaction was a bit slow, they quickly recovered from the setback. Several dozen giant ships quickly launched a charge, and when the other side had no time to fight back, they pushed forward with heavy weapons regardless of cost, opening up a full-scale fierce and chaotic battle.

If one word had to be used to describe the battle that day, it would undoubtedly be "close combat".

Of course, Fu Luo didn't know about these things anymore.

When she woke up in the intensive care unit of the space fortress, everything had settled. She squinted from the light, and it took a while to adapt. Then she heard a sound like a mouse tearing wrapping paper beside her.

Fu Luo narrowed her eyes and turned her head, catching sight of Ye Wenlin with one arm in a sling. This gentleman was holding a box of tin foil wrapped milk wafers, eating with great relish - After all, he was the only 'god' she knew who would visit the sick just to scrounge a meal.

"Hey--" Ye Wenlin greeted her cheerfully, "Welcome back to the world of the living."

Fu Luo didn't feel very well. The wounds had already been treated, but the accelerated healing drugs would intensify the pain.

Of course, pain was secondary. As she gradually woke up, Fu Luo's gaze swept across the intensive care unit. The white expanse of the care room inexplicably reminded her of the detention room on the star system warship, and her nerves tensed as she frowned.

Ye Wenlin: "It's okay, the bullet in your body has been removed, handled very standardly, and the freezing was very timely. I just asked the doctor, with your current condition, staying here for a week will be almost enough to recover."

"What happened to your arm?" Fu Luo asked hoarsely with some difficulty.

Ye Wenlin crunched on chocolate crisps, wantonly destroying his "genius male god" image, and said casually, "It's nothing, the warship was grazed by a missile and hit when it broke apart."

He said it lightly, but it stirred up Fu Luo's endless imagination. She had experienced a real battlefield, and finally had a sense of awe for the "front line" she had previously imagined.

Closing her eyes, she seemed to be able to relive the trembling and tension that made her scalp stand up.

This is... living on a knife edge.

At this time, there were too many questions in Fu Luo's mind, all crowding together, making her not know which one to ask first.

So, she was back at the space fortress?

Was it the friendly man with a very strange Chinese name that brought her back?

Was that madman really a visiting friend from the European Union?

What happened afterwards?

And... what exactly was that terrifying cylinder?

Also...

"Where's my phone?" Fu Luo suddenly asked out of nowhere.

"Wasn't it confiscated by the enemy?" Ye Wenlin asked back in bewilderment.

The two stared at each other for a moment, and Fu Luo's numb and confused mind gradually woke up.

"Oh right," she thought glumly, "Forgot about that."

At this time, something touched her lips. Fu Luo subconsciously held it in her mouth and found that Ye Wenlin had fed her a milk wafer. The milk wafers here tasted different from those on Earth. In addition to the strong milky aroma, there seemed to be unknown special ingredients. Her dry throat was instantly moisturized.

"Space fortress special," Ye Wenlin said, "It's okay to eat more, it won't dehydrate you."

Fu Luo rarely ate a piece of his candy and asked in surprise, "Where did you get it?"

Without batting an eye, Ye Wenlin replied, "Your patient ration. The Second Department is really a big spender."

Fu Luo: "..."

She definitely asked too much.

"But you're too bold."

The old notion that one shouldn't bite the hand that feeds them never seemed to apply to Captain Ye in the slightest. He occupied the only soft sofa in the care room like a lord, not only eating and drinking comfortably, but after saying a few words with a kind face, he even put on a stern face at this moment.

"Do you really think that doing some odd jobs for Wang Yansheng can turn you into a space agent? Going alone on a large star system warship, you can actually think of that - real agents have to submit plans in advance, and need at least one superior to respond. Are there any as random as you? Let me tell you, student Fu Luo, the fact that you can come back alive with all your arms and legs this time means you must have used up a chance to win 5 million."

Being rather money-minded herself, Fu Luo didn't want to discuss lottery probabilities with him and stiffly changed the subject: "How is Shi Duowei doing?"

"Huh?" Ye Wenlin's expression was a bit tangled, "Did you hit your brain?"

Fu Luo blinked: "Isn't that the name of the detective who brought me back?"

"You mean Yesi?" Ye Wenlin laughed, "Forget it, only you can believe his nonsense. The first time I met him, that guy even shamelessly told me his name was 'Sai Diaochan' - you're lucky this time, if he wasn't nearby, no one could have saved you in that situation."

"Is he French?"

Ye Wenlin paused and said vaguely, "He's one of us."

After experiencing an enemy ship tour, Fu Luo inexplicably grew a bit of wit - for example, at this time, she, who had always been careless, heard the subtle wording of "one of us", not "our army", not "our country", but "us"... She turned a corner in her heart and tasted a bit of special meaning.

Ye Wenlin glanced at her lightly: "Alright, you little rascal, don't overthink it. Just lie down properly."

"What about the front line?"

"The front line is very complicated."

Ye Wenlin adjusted the IV drip rate, then bent down and stuffed a pillow behind Fu Luo's neck so she could sit up a little. He did these things casually, but very skillfully, as if he was used to taking care of patients.

He seemed to be organizing his words and didn't make a sound for a while.

"I can give you a general idea," Ye Wenlin said slowly after a long time. "After the Allied Forces started the order for a full counterattack, they engaged in a head-on firefight with the enemy, with both sides going all out... The battle lasted for twenty-eight hours. In the end, our side couldn't hold out and withdrew our forces first. Although the other side's strength was unknown, they were probably also at the end of their rope. They followed suit and didn't pursue us relentlessly."

After listening, Fu Luo pondered for a moment and asked, "So basically it was a draw?"

Her clueless appearance made Ye Wenlin smile bitterly, "More like both sides suffered losses. Do you know how much money this battle cost?"

Fu Luo had no concept of this aspect at all.

"The first gravity bomb - well, you know what I mean by gravity bomb, right? The first gravity bomb destroyed fifteen Japanese giant warships and several medium and small escort ships. That shot alone caused at least 2 trillion global currency units in direct losses." Ye Wenlin's voice lowered, "Do you know how much Japan's annual GDP is?"

"Don't give me that blank look with your ignorant big eyes." Ye Wenlin sighed, his voice lowering even more, almost to a whisper, "Listen to me carefully, things don't look good for us in this battle - at the time, I was ordered to command the vanguard troops and actually sensed something unusual about the enemy forces. I had requested to temporarily hold off the attack to the superiors, but it was rejected."

"Why?" Fu Luo blurted out.

Ye Wenlin's face looked a bit grave. He was talented and aloof and used to think, like many outstanding young people, that the old fogeys in the high command were all good-for-nothing, just coasting on seniority and connections.

It wasn't until he followed Zhao Youxuan for a while that he understood many things were not as self-evident as they seemed.

"The generals will definitely think of what I can think of. The UN appears harmonious on the surface but trips each other up in private. If our troops withdrew at that time for no reason, the US would immediately make a fuss and revoke our country's right to speak within the Asian Alliance. Do you understand what I'm saying?" Ye Wenlin gently rubbed his brow, "I'm not very clear why the 'peace talks' mission ended up being shouldered by our country, but the complex economic and political issues between UN countries are more complex than you can imagine - it wasn't until your light signal was transmitted back that we found an opportunity to retreat."

Fu Luo seemed to half understand yet have a realization.

"The dispatch of troops was because of the remote mining project," at this time, a voice suddenly came from the door, inserting into their conversation, "Too much of our country's funds were tied up. We couldn't strangle private capital from the start, and financing checkpoints were not well controlled, constrained by American and European Union capital giants. Due to illegal operations by some in our military for personal gain, many warships were involved as collateral. Plus there were trap clauses in the treaties... Anyway, because of this, we have secretly dealt with a large number of high-level officials."

Fu Luo struggled to crane her neck and look, "Colonel Yang."

"Mm, don't move." Yang Ning softly instructed, politely nodding to Ye Wenlin.

In Fu Luo's impression, no matter when, Yang Ning always seemed to have that hypocritical and gentle demeanor. But now, there wasn't even a hint of a smile on his face. His eyes contained a slight bloodshot, his complexion haggard and tired, actually making him look more sincere than usual.

Yang Ning glanced at Ye Wenlin's shameless freeloading behavior and was momentarily shocked by the thick-skinned Dagger Captain. He inconspicuously pulled over a chair to sit on the side, slightly protecting his injured new soldier who couldn't move.

"I will report to the superiors and suggest increasing the rations for the special forces." Colonel Yang said with righteous words.

Ye Wenlin chuckled, pretending not to understand, but at least showed some verbal mercy.

"At the time, our military did not reveal the source of the information you transmitted back," Yang Ning thought for a bit and used a rather euphemistic phrasing, "This caused great controversy at the frontline international Alliance meeting. Opinions were divided among the countries. Led by our representative, 49% of the total votes were in favor of withdrawing troops. Australia abstained and the Americans instigated in secret. The Japanese made a scene - no meaningful result could be reached in a short time, leading to the situation at that time."

Yang Ning had a solemn air about him that was not clamorous but strict with himself. After he walked in, even Ye Wenlin appeared more well-behaved.

Ye Wenlin, "I heard the Japanese side is demanding compensation from the UN?"

"Yes," Yang Ning let out a low sigh, "40 trillion global currency units."

"The UN doesn't collect protection fees, where would the money come from? Don't tell me to have all member states split the bill for them?" Ye Wenlin's expression slightly distorted, "That's too much."

As he lamented, he once again reached his claws towards the specially-supplied milk biscuit box. But Yang Ning casually took the box away first, gently placing it beside Fu Luo's hand. He then naturally continued worrying about the country, "The sixth meeting is underway now, but they still haven't reached a conclusion. At a time like this..."

Ye Wenlin, "..."

Yang Ning turned his head and gave him a bitter smile, his tightly furrowed brows not relaxing. He softly reminded, "What's said today, just keep it between us privately. Don't spread it."

Ye Wenlin had an inexplicable feeling, as if facing Colonel Yang, if he didn't obediently nod, he would seem very unreasonable.

Bro, when did we get so close?

He looked longingly at the milk biscuit box that left him, smiling extremely insincerely without saying anything.

"Right," Yang Ning seemed to remember something. He took out a new civilian mobile phone from his pocket, the same model as the one Fu Luo used before. He considerately said, "I used your ID to have the carrier remotely restore all your data, transferred it to a new memory card. Since you ran here alone, your family must be worried. Contact your parents more often."

Fu Luo never expected Colonel Yang to be so thoughtful. She took it in a daze, almost forgetting to say thanks, not knowing how she felt in her heart for a moment.

Yang Ning smiled at her hesitantly, leaving her with a "get some good rest" before walking away.

Ye Wenlin observed coldly from the side, marveling: "Why are our military conscription orders always just a cold, official document? If we asked him to record a video, the issue of gender imbalance in the space forces would have been solved long ago."

Fu Luo hadn't yet recovered from being overwhelmed with the honor when Ye Wenlin reached out his hand and messed up her hair into a bird's nest without ceremony: "Let's not rush to be moved, okay? Here, let me give you a reality check."

Fu Luo turned to him, a head full of question marks.

Ye Wenlin bent down slightly and whispered in her ear: "From our perspective, you deserve special merit for this, but on the surface, the United Nations can't justify it, so you'll have to accept being unacknowledged. The result may just be a bland promotion to C-level soldier. Can you accept that?"

Otherwise, how could they explain the source of the information to outsiders?

When the United Nations was playing dead and the Japanese side was jumping up and down in anger, giving her a special merit... would the reason for the commendation be pushing the Japanese army to become a scapegoat for our military?

Ye Wenlin sneered coldly. Damn the United Nations, he really wanted to take out all the troublemakers with one missile.

Unfortunately, his point was completely lost on her.

Upon hearing this, Fu Luo was greatly surprised: "What? Really? I can get promoted just like that?"

Ye Wenlin came back to his senses and silently stared at her for a moment before calmly taking away her chocolate bar.

"Why did I bother to talk to you so earnestly about this, you airhead?" He mocked himself, "Wasting my damn feelings."