Market Garden Operation

In the following days, Shen Yi settled down in the slum district.

After selling Dracula's blood, he was left with 2239 bloody points. After purchasing necessities, including a sleeping bag, he had 2000 bloody points remaining.

Shen Yi decided to sell the Wolf Fang Ring to Hong Lang for 300 bloody points.

He then spent 1300 bloody points to add 5 points to constitution and 8 to spirit. This made his attributes: strength 4, constitution 20, agility 7, spirit 30, and will 10, focusing on ranged attacks as his primary combat method. This approach was the most practical for newcomers in Bloody City. Until one's abilities greatly improved, it was best to rely on firearms for missions while significantly boosting constitution.

Shen Yi realized that he was left with only 1000 bloody points.

He dedicated the following days to shooting practice. The slum district had a low-level training ground where one could practice gunplay and skills daily. The training ground was free and could withstand any attack under 80 points of damage.

The advantage of unlimited bullets became apparent here, useful not only in combat but also in training.

Besides gun practice, Shen Yi focused on practicing psychic detection and underhanded medical techniques daily.

After nearly thirty days of practice and usage, Shen Yi's gun skills greatly improved, although he was still some distance from advancing to the next level. However, his psychic detection and underhanded medical techniques each rose by one level.

With the upgrade of the underhanded medical technique, the system prompt read: Underhanded Medical Technique - Skill Level 2, consuming 2 spirit points per use. It effectively treats external and bleeding injuries, restoring 40 points of life each time, and moderately treats piercing, tearing, concussive, and skill damage, restoring 24 points of life. It weakly treats incomplete and toxic injuries, restoring 4 points each time. Ineffective against special attacks. Skill cooldown time 60 seconds.

The upgraded psychic detection simply increased the skill effect priority from 12 points to 14 points. Effect priority determines the outcome when two conflicting skills collide. The higher the priority, the more likely the skill will take effect.

The Vampire's Touch, a weapon Shen Yi possessed, had an effect priority of thirty points, making it almost unbeatable by equipment or skills of the same level. However, as the current scenario world focused on gunfights, it was challenging for Shen Yi to utilize it effectively.

With 1000 bloody points left, Shen Yi saved them for last-minute preparations for the upcoming mission.

After thirty days of rigorous and disciplined training, the mission prompt finally arrived.

Prompt: "Proceed immediately to the teleportation area, preparing to enter the mission world."

Mission Scenario: Market Garden Operation.

Preparation Time: One hour.

This mission was a cooperative assault mode, with no inheritance of property for killing fellow adventurers. Attacks on fellow adventurers had their damage reduced by fifty percent.

The Market Garden Operation was an airborne operation during World War II and the largest airborne operation in the history of human warfare.

The Market Garden Operation was proposed by the famous British commander Montgomery.

By this time, the Allied forces had completed the Normandy landings, and the German troops were retreating to the Netherlands, Belgium, and eastern France.

To end the war completely in 1944, Montgomery proposed an extremely daring plan - the Market Garden Operation. According to this plan, after the British 2nd Army launched a ground attack on Antwerp, a combined airborne force of 35,000 men including the US 101st Airborne Division, the 82nd Airborne Division, the British 1st Airborne Division, and the Polish Parachute Brigade would carry out a series of "leapfrog" drops over 63 miles at Eindhoven, Nijmegen, and Arnhem to capture a series of important bridges over the Rhine and Waal rivers. This would enable the army to drive straight into the heart of Germany from the Netherlands.

The operation was divided into two parts:

Market - the airborne operation.

Garden - the ground operation.

The initial phase of the operation seemed successful. On September 17, 1944, the Market Garden Operation commenced. At 2:15 PM, under the command of General Horrocks of the British 2nd Army's 30th Corps, the Irish Guards Armored Division led the charge, advancing rapidly with powerful firepower. Half an hour earlier, the US 101st Airborne Division had already landed at Eindhoven and, after a tough fight, successfully captured the bridge over the Wilhelmina Canal and the town of Son.

By September 18, the 30th Corps reached Eindhoven and joined forces with the 101st Airborne Division, crossing the Wilhelmina Canal Bridge.

On September 20, the 30th Corps reached Nijmegen, meeting up with the 82nd Airborne Division, which had captured the Waal River Bridge.

However, Major General Urquhart's 1st British Airborne Division and the Polish Independent Parachute Brigade, who had landed farthest north and at the final destination of the 30th Corps at Arnhem, faced fierce resistance from the enemy. They failed to capture the crucial Arnhem Bridge, suffering heavy casualties and retreating under a brutal German counterattack, ultimately losing the last bridge at Arnhem before the 30th Corps could arrive.

From September 27 to 29, the British forces reached the south bank of the Lower Rhine but were forced into defense, unable to secure a landing zone on the north bank. Until March 1945, the Rhine remained an insurmountable barrier between the Allied forces and mainland Germany.

The Market Garden Operation failed.

The performance of the British 1st Airborne Division was commendable, holding out far longer than expected due to the slow progress of the ground forces. In the "Market" operation, the Polish Parachute Brigade suffered nearly 700 casualties out of 1000 soldiers, and the 1st Airborne Division lost nearly 7000 men, either killed or captured, with less than 2000 breaking out of the German encirclement. A battlefield commander of the division lamented in the face of the forever unreachable Arnhem Bridge: "That bridge was too far for us!"

Since then, the Arnhem Bridge has also been known as "A Bridge Too Far."

Narrow terrain and the Germans' destruction of bridges along their retreat significantly hindered the advance of the 2nd Army's ground forces, contributing to the operation's failure. The Highway 69 from Valkenswaard to Nijmegen was later referred to as "Hell's Highway" by the Americans.

Now, Shen Yi was entering the world of the Market Garden Operation scenario.

"Wow, off to the fiery days of battle," Shen Yi thought, almost whistling at the thought of the upcoming combat.