Chapter 101: Three Men, One Woman, One Dog

"Ah! A search and rescue dog! So the dog becomes our teammate here?"

About two or three seconds after the screen plunged into darkness, barking sounds emerged from the game.

Accompanied by the barking and the scrabbling of paws against rubble, the German search and rescue dog that had been seen earlier pulled Emile out from the debris.

After being rescued by the dog, Emile then saved a German soldier, from whom he learned some crucial news—Carl had already fled aboard a Zeppelin with Baron von Dorf.

Thus, man and dog now advanced forward, driven solely by the instinct to survive.

The gameplay mode remained largely unchanged from before.

However, what stood out most to Liuliu was the large spoon in Emile’s hand.

"Just like the nuclear-powered flashlight in horror games, this big spoon in Emile’s hand isn’t ordinary at all!"

Controlling Emile to dig a tunnel with the spoon, Liuliu couldn’t help but sigh with emotion.

In the game, the dog would give hints about locations where collectible items could be found.

However, these collected items had no connection to the story—they simply unlocked an achievement, nothing more.

Continuing forward, Liuliu was blown up two or three times by hidden bombs buried underground.

Although these bombs weren’t meant to be guessed at, they were clearly visible.

But the underground tunnels were narrow, and the bombs were extremely sensitive—any slight contact would instantly trigger an explosion.

Combined with the slightly imprecise controls when using the spoon to clear a path, this added a bit of difficulty.

After a couple of mistakes, Liuliu finally used the spoon to carve out a safe passage.

At that moment, the dog beside him suddenly grew excited.

The screen cut to a storyboard shot: in the distance, two German soldiers were repairing a truck. Beside them, on a toolbox, lay two German sausages and a Pretzel.

The dog, without hesitation, dashed toward the sausages, but failed to watch the path and got tangled in barbed wire.

Seeing this, Emile immediately rushed over to help free the dog. But just then, the repaired truck on the slope behind the barbed wire began to slowly roll downhill.

"Oh no, oh no! Is the dog going to die? Dying for food—this is truly ‘dogs die for food’!"

Witnessing this scene, Liuliu was reminded of earlier, when she saw a glowing cross underground and immediately charged forward with her spoon, ignoring the bomb ahead and getting blown up.

Though she knew the dog probably wouldn’t die here, she still felt a bit nervous—what if Nebula Games decided to break the routine?

Just as the truck was about to roll down, the screen turned black, and a line of text appeared: Before this, on the other side of the battlefield…

The scene shifted to a temporary position. The British army had decided to continue their assault on Neuve-Chapelle, and Freddie was among them.

Due to insufficient troops, Britain had to recruit soldiers from colonies like India. Thus, Freddie charged into the front lines alongside Indian soldiers.

This level wasn’t much different from Freddie’s previous ones, but the difficulty was noticeably higher.

At the last possible moment, Freddie rescued Emile and the German search and rescue dog, using pliers to cut through the barbed wire and Emile’s shackles. The two clasped hands tightly—neither had imagined they’d meet again amid the chaos of war.

After a brief conversation, Freddie learned Emile’s story and realized they shared a common goal: stopping Baron von Dorf’s forces. Freddie then declared he would join Emile on his journey.

When the two reached Ypres, they discovered traces of Baron von Dorf’s army. There, the German army used chlorine gas for the first time in battle.

In this section, only the small dog could reach and shut off the gas valve.

The puzzle complexity here was slightly higher than in previous sections.

But compared to dedicated puzzle games, these challenges were still manageable with a bit of thought.

And even if players couldn’t figure it out, they could press the hint button to receive system prompts—making the game quite user-friendly.

Controlling Emile and the dog, they easily disabled the underground chlorine production machine. With the gas cleared from the surface, Freddie and Emile joined the troops in launching an assault.

But overhead, Baron von Dorf’s Zeppelin began dropping gas bombs.

In the chaos, Emile and the dog dove underground, while Freddie remained above.

Just as Freddie had once saved Emile and the dog, now it was their turn to save him.

Using a bone as a lever, they activated an elevator mechanism, allowing Freddie to jump down.

Looking at Emile and the dog beside him, Freddie gave a salute and delivered one of the game’s rare lines of dialogue:

‘thank you my friend’

"No need to thank me—we’re all friends here!"

Seeing this, Liuliu in the game smiled. But she didn’t have long to reflect.

Because the chlorine gas quickly caught up from behind, forcing Emile to dig a tunnel with his spoon.

Finally emerging from the tunnel, they sprinted forward desperately—death by poison gas seemed imminent.

Then, a car’s ‘beep beep’ echoed through the air. In the distance, a blonde woman in a car shouted at them loudly.

The next moment, the game cut to a cutscene.

[Her name is Anna, a Belgian student living in Paris. She has always persisted in searching for her missing father.]

[Finally, one day, fate smiled upon them: they began moving in the same direction.]

[But on the road near Neuville-Saint-Vaast, they were discovered by a German army unit.]

With this, all the game’s main characters had now appeared.

Emile, the French soldier captured and turned into a cook; Carl, the German soldier; Freddie, seeking revenge; Anna, searching for her father; and the search and rescue dog.

Three men, one woman, one dog—these were the game’s main characters.

"Ah! This game actually has a driving level! Anna feels just like me!"

Liuliu in front of the computer lit up as she saw this section.

Driving—she was familiar with this!

Set to the background audio of Hungarian Dance No. 5, the taxi raced forward under moonlight, instantly adding a touch of comedic humor to the game.

Even more strangely, the bombs and strafing runs from airplanes seemed perfectly synced to the music’s beat.

Though perfectly timed, the rhythm made Liuliu a bit flustered when handling the bomb impacts in-game.

The car had started out pristine, but after being bombed and riddled with machine-gun fire, the roof was torn open, the engine smoked heavily, and the license plate was bent out of shape.

Fortunately, they made it through the level unscathed.

"Who said ‘female driver’? I’ll have you know I’m an excellent driver! I just passed Subject Two the other day! My instructor said I have talent!"

Liuliu joked with a laugh, reading the bullet comments.

This was easily the most entertaining moment in the game so far.

Influenced by the game’s lighthearted and humorous tone, the live stream room’s bullet comments began flooding in.

‘Instructor: That wasn’t me!’

‘Honestly, Liuliu really does have talent—she passed Subject Two on her sixth try.’

‘Seriously, what if they replaced Hungarian Dance No. 5 with Flight of the Bumblebee? How would this level play out?’

‘Are you a devil?’

But this joyful atmosphere didn’t last long.

At the final moment, a bomb struck their car, blasting Freddie—who was outside—into the air.

(Daily request for recommendation votes and Monthly Pass… Also, the circumcision wasn’t me…)

(End of Chapter) <>