Chapter 66: Second Lieutenant? Brain Parasite?

"The perfect soldier!"

"A perfect soldier should use the perfect weapon!"

"Second Lieutenant, can you tell me your real name?"

Before Buck could say anything, Morgan interjected.

"I'm Zhou, Major General Morgan!" Zhou Yuan saluted in response.

"Wow, Zhou? It seems like that name is very popular in the East. I know a lot of Zhous, but I can swear, you are the best one."

"Zhou, I'll remember you. We will meet again."

Morgan seemed pleased, patting Zhou Yuan's hand like an elder.

"Thank you, Major General Morgan!" Zhou Yuan nodded heavily, but he felt a bit puzzled.

Is the pronunciation of Zhou really that difficult? Why do foreigners always pronounce it as "Chou" and "Cao," even his teammates whom he spends day and night with are no exception.

Morgan fell silent, patting Zhou Yuan's shoulder again before sitting down to rest.

"Well done, Second Lieutenant."

At this moment, Buck saluted Zhou Yuan and then gave him a firm hug.

"I'm a Second Lieutenant, Captain."

Upon hearing Buck's words, Zhou Yuan's heart raced a bit, but he still asked with a hint of doubt, "Before it was."

Buck took off his skull helmet, smiling broadly. "I will send the video of just now to Chief Angus, and he will help you sort it out."

"Wait...video?"

Zhou Yuan licked his lips, even more excited than before. If he could have a video of the battle just now, he could wake up laughing from his dreams. Not even a promotion to Second Lieutenant could compare to that. He would send the video to everyone who knows him—Karl, Rico, Diaz, Campbell, Turner... Not one would be left out!

"Of course, there are many recorders on the transport ship."

"If Steve had returned alone today, he would have needed these videos to prove that he did not abandon us."

"By the way, you just gave me a lesson, I promise, I will watch that video every day."

Buck shrugged.

"Chief, I want a copy too!"

"Officer, if possible, we would like a copy too. We are going to leave once we get on the starship."

"Butcher, congratulations, you're going to be a Second Lieutenant!"

Buck's words triggered a chain reaction inside the cabin, and many people asked him for the battle video of Zhou Yuan and congratulated him.

"Battle video..."

Zhou Yuan thanked them cheerfully, but his mind was still focused on the video. Compared to being promoted to Second Lieutenant, he truly valued the battle video just now. His performance... it was absolutely amazing!

General Zhou, with boundless power, will rule the martial world for generations!

"Boom!"

Suddenly, Zhou Yuan, who was immersed in his thoughts, was awakened by several explosions.

He knew that it was the detonation of those four tactical nuclear bombs.

However, the transport plane had already ascended high and would not be affected by the explosions. Even the sound of the explosions was not too loud, not as loud as grenades exploding.

"I wonder how many soul points I can earn this time."

Zhou Yuan's mind was so focused on killing the bugs just now that he didn't have any other thoughts. It was only now that he remembered about soul points.

On this trip, he used the equivalent of four people's worth of mixed explosives and a total of ten tactical nuclear bombs.

His preliminary estimate was that he should reap between 200,000 to 400,000 soul points.

It's difficult to pinpoint exactly, after all, there are four tactical nuclear bombs overlapping, and we're not even sure if all four hit the swarm. The only ones we can be certain hit the swarm are the two targeted at the mountain valley entrance. So he wasn't too hopeful, to avoid disappointment later on. Of course, it's also possible that all six of the uncertain ones hit the swarm, in which case our yield could be much more than 400,000.

He planned to wait a bit before checking the yield, until after they were on the starship. 

Three minutes later, the transport ship was received by the starship. "Guys, hold on a moment," said Buck. "New orders have just come down from Strategic Command. We won't be able to return to Mars for a few more days, so I need you all to be on standby at all times. That means, aside from eating and using the restroom, we'll need to be ready to move at a moment's notice."

Just as everyone was getting ready to head to the cafeteria, Buck called out to them. However, none of them found Buck's request too difficult to accept. This was what they were here for! During downtime, they went to locate the nests every three days, and during busy times, they didn't even have time to rest. This situation was already pretty good.

"Captain, we need to head out now," Morgan said to Buck, sighing as he shook Buck's hand. He was responsible for the research center, which now had only thirteen research personnel, thirteen defense soldiers, including a few injured. He needed to find the captain to arrange medical matters. "Very well, I wish you all the best," Buck nodded, personally seeing Morgan and the others off the boarding area before turning around to wave at the team members and exclaim, "I'm starving, aren't you guys hungry too?"

"I'm so hungry I could eat a whole cow!" "I'm not as extreme as you, I'm just hungry enough to eat two cows."

Everyone laughed and approached. They hadn't eaten breakfast and had just gone through a major battle – now was the time to replenish their energy.

After showering and eating, when they returned to the boarding area, it was already 10 o'clock. "Captain, can you tell us what Strategic Command has discovered?" asked Zhou Yuan as he sat down beside Buck. His voice was not loud, but everyone present had sharp ears and basically heard him, casting curious glances at Buck.

It had been almost three hours since Pluto fell, and in theory, all tasks should have been assigned already, so why were they being kept back? "Well," seeing that the team wanted to know, Buck nodded helplessly and said, "You'll find out anyway, so there's no harm in telling you in advance." "A team came from Saturn, their mission was to rescue people in Area 3 Mine, but when they arrived, there were no survivors in the mine. However, they did find some unusual corpses..." "The brains of those corpses were completely missing, with a hole about five centimeters in diameter at the top of their heads." "The bodies were piled together, with looks of extreme terror, as though their brains had been sucked dry while they were still alive." "So... you understand, this could be a type of creature we haven't encountered before, and the Federation is taking this very seriously."

"Brain-eating worms?" Zhou Yuan clenched his fist tightly as Buck mentioned this. There were only three types of creatures he knew of that could suck human brains: the Worm God, the Queen, and the Brain-Eater. The Worm God and the Queen were much larger creatures, with suction devices far larger than five centimeters in diameter. So the bodies in the mine were all victims of the Brain-Eater!