Chapter 17

"Nia?" the fat guy exclaimed in surprise.

"Of course it's me! Who else could it be?" Nia rushed over, and with a lightning-fast move, her slender and fair hand grabbed the fat guy's ear. She said coquettishly, "You dead fatso! Meiduo and I have been looking for you for ages, and here you are hiding!"

"Ouch, ouch, be gentle. What do you want me for?" The fat guy shouted, while secretly thinking with glee, "Two little girls looking for me? Could they be in love with me? A double date... That's the way to go!"

"Slap!" Nia kicked the daydreaming fat guy several meters away. She said harshly, "This is why we're looking for you! You lewd and shameless dead fatso!"

It seemed that the words "lewd and shameless" reminded Nia of a scene in the jungle during their escape. Her fair face immediately turned bright red. In her shame and anger, she saw the fat guy lying on the ground, refusing to get up, with a silly and reminiscent expression on his face. This made her so angry that she almost burst with rage. She stamped her foot hard and then turned around and ran out.

The fat guy got up, dusted himself off, only to see Milan standing there, hands on her hips, glaring at him. The fat guy looked innocent and said, "This is really a huge injustice. I don't even know how I offended this woman."

Without hesitation, Milan drew her Broomhandle Mauser with a more skillful and valiant motion. She sneered and said, "Fat guy, keep acting. Nia is my best friend. Who do you think I'll believe?"

Amid the fat guy's wailing, the laboratory was in a state of chaos again.

Before the fat guy could escape from Milan's clutches, Nia appeared at the laboratory door with a group of military police. The fat guy was completely stunned...

Seeing the military police approaching him, the fat guy hugged Milan's leg and cried, "Help! I don't want to die! I've shed blood for the Federation. I was wounded in the Galileo Galaxy. I'm not a deserter!"

Thinking he was about to be executed, the fat guy wailed loudly. His pitiful appearance and heart-rending cries were enough to make anyone who saw or heard him feel sad.

Milan didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She kicked the fat guy, who was making a complete fool of himself, away and asked Nia, "You mean this guy is the federal hero who single-handedly wiped out the entire headquarters of the 3rd Mecha Division of the Gacharin Marine Corps, including a lieutenant-general division commander and a major-general chief of staff, seven high-ranking officers?"

Nia nodded a bit awkwardly, looking like she wanted to laugh but couldn't.

"Hero?" The fat guy looked around, then turned his head and pointed at himself in disbelief. "I'm a hero?"

A military police captain walked up to the fat guy and asked, "Are you Corporal Tian Kaiwen from the 1st Squad, Logistics Squadron, 3rd Armored Battalion, 5th Armored Division of the Federal Marine Corps?"

The fat guy nodded blankly.

The captain made a gesture of invitation and said, "Please come with us, Corporal Tian Kaiwen."

It turned out that after Meiduo and Nia arrived at the front-line command post, they were taken to the hospital for physical examinations and quarantine. After they were released, the federal officers in charge of the interrogation told them that the fat guy was missing. So, they couldn't return to their original units for the time being. They had to wait until the fat guy was found and the situation was verified before any further action could be taken.

So, these two innocent female soldiers stayed at the academy. Every day, when they had nothing to do, they searched everywhere for the fat guy's whereabouts.

Their battlefield recorders had been taken away by the imperial army when they were captured. The fact that these two female soldiers, who had no experience in ground combat and wilderness survival, not only escaped the enemy's strict surveillance but also miraculously crossed thousands of kilometers of the war-torn area from New Rome to Galiparan was hard to believe. And the key figure, Tian Kaiwen, had disappeared inexplicably. The front-line command post was already being lenient by not regarding the two of them as imperial spies who had defected.

The only hope was to find the fat guy, because only the battlefield recorder on his arm could explain everything.

Three months ago, Milan, who had been deeply engrossed in the construction of the simulated war network, met her high school classmate Nia when she went out to buy personal daily necessities. The two good friends were very excited. Such a reunion was especially precious during the war. However, at that time, they didn't talk about their own situations. One was in a hurry to return to the laboratory, and the other was busy looking for someone. The two made an appointment for the next meeting and then parted ways.

It wasn't until a month later that Milan, who had managed to find some free time, met Nia again. They spent a whole day together, and their conversation covered a wider range of topics. Finally, Nia told Milan about her experiences.

As soon as Milan heard Nia's description, she immediately confirmed that the fat guy in the laboratory was the one Nia was looking for, and the names matched. But the construction of the simulated network had reached its most critical stage. The fat guy played a very important role in it. Not only was he in charge of making the No. 1 simulation cabin, but he was also responsible for part of the data-deduction and calculation work. Moreover, no one could match his familiarity with the mechas and various weapons of both the Federation and the Gacharin Empire. Many simulation data had to go through his review. After all, he was the only one in the laboratory with actual combat experience.

For a person like him, even if the front - line command post wanted him or even if someone from the president's office came, Professor Boswell wouldn't give in.

Since they were very good friends, Milan almost immediately told Nia about the situation. This unexpected news made Nia overjoyed. She immediately found Meiduo. After some discussion among the three of them, they decided to talk to Professor Boswell first. Even if they couldn't get the fat guy out, they had to get his battlefield recorder first.

Things went smoothly. Boswell, who was busy with his work, readily agreed to their request, but only after the construction of the simulated network was completed. And getting a small battlefield recorder from the fat guy was very easy for Milan, who was used to having her way in the laboratory.

Soon, the computer at the front-line command post read the fat guy's battlefield recorder. Due to the Federation's half-year-long retreat, no department had carried out the work of extracting information from soldiers' recorders during the war. When this work was finally carried out smoothly, the fat guy had become a temporary off-staff member because his unit had been completely wiped out, and he remained so until now.

So, when the recorded information was displayed on the computer screen, the twenty-one resignation records made several black lines appear on the faces of all the officers. This was the most outrageous soldier information they had ever seen.

At the same time, the things contained in these desertion records also surprised the officers at the front-line command post. This guy had actually managed to accurately find escape routes from such tight encirclements. His escape methods were not only strange but also involved the production and use of so many different types of transportation. The thrilling scenes of each escape could almost be made into a war-suspense action movie called "Run, Fat Guy.". The gimmicks of the fat guy's narrow escapes at critical moments would surely make the audience cheer.

Even more remarkably, there was a large amount of actual data on the imperial army's various weapons and mechas in this information. Just this alone made everyone feel like they had found a treasure.

Finally, when they saw the fat guy setting up that remote-controlled energy cannon at the southwest of the imperial army's forward base outside New Rome, all the officers jumped up.

They waved their arms excitedly and shouted, "We've found it!!!"