Günter's camp had been rather dull lately, since the failed assassination attempt on Schneider and the effort to retake the heights from Mondstadt there had been no significant clashes between the German Army and the army from the distant castle. Things had gone from stifling silence to ridiculous boredom.

  "Good morning Otto! What's new today?", Hans walked out of the dormitory, tiredly greeting.

  "Do you want to play cards and drink coffee until evening?"

  "Again!?"

  It was so boring! They had already played all the games, the equipment had just been serviced last week, there wasn't much to do lately.

  A sudden idea popped into Hans's head to free him from this boredom, he turned to Otto and said:

  "Hey, how about... following the hunting party outside the camp?"

  "You're crazy Hans!"

  "Just volunteer...! Everyone inside is free anyway."

  "...", he raised his eyebrows slightly, blinking several times, as if he looked very surprised. According to Otto, that was fine, to a certain extent, but it was not certain that the superiors would approve since the food reserves were still abundant. "That's right.", he said softly.

  "Agreed, right?"

  This guy wasn't like that normally, it was true that he was a talented leader in battle, but normally he was no different from an idiot, this guy's mind must have been stuck at the age of three.

  "Yeah but..."

  "Let's go! What are you waiting for!", Hans grabbed Otto's hand and pulled him towards the Günter camp. Otto was completely in awe of this guy, only he could think of things that no one else had thought of.

  .

  .

  .

  "Hey, Demian, what do you think if our names were suddenly transliterated into Sino-Vietnamese?"

  Demian's jaw suddenly froze, the question was both silly... and curious enough to be funny.

  "Uh... Off topic or what?", he didn't understand what the Lieutenant General was saying, "Did you eat the dish your wife made?"

  "Hey Duc Me An!"

  This time, he really didn't know what to answer, Demian quickly ran to find a Chinese dictionary.

  "C... Cuong Sat?", embarrassed, he clearly felt the awkwardness in his words.

  "Forget it, it sounds awkward!", Demian continued.

  Hans stepped inside, shouting loudly like a child greeting his parents after coming home from school.

  "Günter!"

  The old man was startled, turned around embarrassed.

  "Hey Han, Ao Thac, what are you two doing here?"

  "???", today is crazy, Otto thought.

  "Who is Ao Thac? Where did you learn that from?"

  Without bothering to answer, he turned back to the radio and whispered to Demian.

  "I told you, Duc Me An, a normal name translated into Sino-Vietnamese is very strange!"

  "You're the one who started it, Günter."

  "Okay.", Günter leaned back, turning towards the two soldiers standing there, bewildered. "So what do you two want?"

  "We volunteer to go with the hunting squad today."

  "You and Otto?", he stared, "You two know how to hunt too? Did you forget about the 100m shooting competition that you almost missed?"

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  Hans sighed, rolled his eyes, "Only Otto.", he corrected.

  Günter glanced, then laughed, "pft! Oh right! Ao Thac almost missed, not you."

  "Who the hell is Ao Thac!"

  "Alright! Food is lacking! Try to hit the target so I can record the score!", then he laughed to himself.

  Hans shook his head, embarrassed, his lips pursed, "Should I laugh along?"

  "Do it."

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  .

  .

  At the corner of the camp there was a shady tree canopy, below was a spacious land, the conditions were quite good, the technical team chose this place to store military equipment. From there, the team would occasionally spend an afternoon maintaining weapons.

  From afar, the Panther G looked mighty, like a guardian deity keeping the Empire's flame burning for centuries.

  And the Panther F looked no different from the illegitimate child of Panther G and Tiger II.

  "Hey, brat! What are you talking about?!", the engineer shouted.

  But looking closely, it doesn't look like the turret of a Tiger II.

  "Go on, Otto, you're good at talking nonsense.", Hans pushed Otto forward.

  Oh well, let's go. Anyway, we're outside now.

  The vast steppe enfolded the eyes, a gentle breeze shook the souls that had faded because of war, blowing in a bit of life, Hans stopped, how long had it been since he let his soul wander into the blue sky like this?

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  .

  .

  Hans crouched down in a nearby bush, his right thumb poised on the crossbow trigger, waiting for the prey to no longer caution the danger lurking around it.

  "...", he pursed his lips, his eyes fixed firmly on the prey. Hans held his breath, raised the crossbow, held it tight, then gently pulled the trigger, "whoosh", the arrow shot out, piercing the boar's chest. It roared in panic, staggered, and fell to the ground.

  He had loved shootings since he was young, to the point of being surprisingly proficient. Hans often stole his father's hunting rifle and took it to the fields to shoot cans with the children in the neighborhood. When he grew up, he followed his father's footsteps as a soldier with marksmanship that was second to none.

  In contrast to Hans, Otto was just a greener who couldn't hit anyone, and his jungle skills were almost non-existent. Even so, his psychic abilities and alertness proved to be very good in the critical moments.

  "Ouch! The Slime! Hans! It bit my leg!", he screamed, as if it was about to bite off his leg.

  A brief introduction to Elemental Slimes, their common characteristics were that they were mindless creatures, with no internal organs except for their core, no teeth, only two pupils that sparkled like drops of water in the sun. The small ones were hardly a threat, but the larger they grew, the more dangerous they became, capable of swallowing and suffocating humans, or they would activate their corresponding element to injure the organs they clung to.

  "Calm down, you can take it off, right?", Hans reached out to take it off, but the entity was like a flexible water balloon - touching it bounced off, using force would penetrate inside, unable to do anything to it. He tried tearing the slime apart, the slime was torn in half, and its slime pool seemed unable to recover.

  "What the... I heard that thing would revive?"

  "Did you tear off its core?", Otto pointed at a bright red gem that was glowing like a torch.

  Its slime gradually disappeared into the ground, evaporating into a hot stream of air, and the fire quickly caught on the grass. Seeing that it was not good, the two of them quickly ran away.

  "Oh no Hans, what if the forest caught fire??"

  "The one just now was red, right?"

  Otto was confused, "Huh? Then?", what does that have to do with the fire?

  "Get me a blue one, these guys must have more elements than fire.", Hans immediately jumped to the other races, if there was a Fire element, there must be a Water element around here.

  "Here, there's the blue slime you asked about.", Otto pointed at it, it looked just as slimy as the Fire, but it felt cool to the touch as if his hand was soaked in spring water, extremely comfortable.

  "Throw it into the fire."

  "But...", Otto hesitated, who could bear to throw this cute creature into the fire?

  "Oh, I'll apologize to this little friend first.", Hans took it, and threw it straight into the fire.

  Miraculously, it quickly extinguished the fire, and was still safe and sound, however, it seemed to have shrunk significantly compared to before.

  "So it has the ability to spread water too?"

  "These guys are really interesting."

  "Hurry up and find some more!"

  The two of them went deep into the forest, the ecosystem here was extremely rich, it could be said to be on par with Earth, there were strange creatures that they had never encountered before.

  "A green one!", it was a Dendro Slime, growing plants quickly when near, and when people were near them, their wounds would also recover quickly.

  The nature here was truly rich, and the species were diverse, just one slimy, inanimate thing alone had so many types.

  "Purple! How strange!", the lightning type had the ability to strike lightning indiscriminately when near and when they attacked, and even before they died, their lightning was not fatal, but it was very painful if they were accidentally hit. At a certain level of maturity, their lightning could be life-threatening.

  The two people were so engrossed in playing that they forgot their duty to hunt. After all, the thing that had constrained them had now been freed, and a moment of carefreeness was rare.

  They kept walking, not knowing that they had accidentally crossed the entire forest and were closer to the Mondstadt castle than ever before. There were still remnants of the previous campaign, scattered in the grassy trench were empty ammunition boxes, arrows stuck in the ground, and even rotten shell casings.

  They took a detour to avoid encountering the SS guarding the bridgehead, the two of them walked along the forest, and when they got to the back of the castle, they discovered some girls washing clothes and playing in the water.

  The two men didn't think much, they turned to look at each other, and immediately understood each other. Hans and Otto took off their outer clothes, leaving only their shirts and Y-strap belts, according to their perspective; handsome, elegant, and very stylish, fashionable, any words that can describe a gentleman.

  "Okay, let's go Otto."

  "Hans! You're crazy! How are you going to swim across?"

  "You'll see.", he turned to look at the slimes, his intentions sinister.

  Will their upcoming appearance make the bored girls excited, or scared and run away?

  —to be continued—