“Samuel Carter, come here quickly, Liam Brooks... oh, Ethan Brooks isn’t dead.” The skinny monkey supported Liam Brooks while shouting loudly into a tent. It seemed he still remembered that Liam Brooks had changed his name to Ethan Brooks.

Soon, a burly man ran out. At a glance, Ethan Brooks saw that this man was several times his own size, broad and muscular. Ethan Brooks remembered now—this Samuel Carter and the skinny monkey supporting him had always treated him the best. The three of them could be considered close friends.

But he just couldn’t recall the skinny monkey’s name. However, with someone as big as Samuel Carter standing next to him, and the skinny monkey even skinnier than himself, Ethan Brooks was sure that if they performed on the Spring Festival Gala, just their appearance would make them half-famous.

“Ah, Xizi’s been shot! Brian Cooper, I’ll carry Xizi back, you go get some medicine for his wounds.” From what Samuel Carter and the skinny monkey said, Ethan Brooks learned that the strong man was called Samuel Carter, and the skinny monkey was Brian Cooper.

Samuel Carter and Brian Cooper really were good to Ethan Brooks, and he quickly felt that these two were friends worth having.

Fortunately, both Samuel Carter and Brian Cooper were straightforward types, and Ethan Brooks was very cautious. The three of them spent two days together without revealing any flaws.

During these two days, Ethan Brooks had already figured out the situation.

The country Ethan Brooks was in, Zheyun, had gone to war with Liujin. The specific reason was unknown to low-ranking soldiers like them; they only knew that fighting had been going on here for a month or two. Originally, there were five of them together—Ethan Brooks, Samuel Carter, and three others—all good companions, but two had already died in battle, leaving only the three of them.

This was already Ethan Brooks’s third day here. The two armies still hadn’t resumed fighting, but Ethan Brooks felt increasingly uneasy.

Chapter 003: A Difficult Mission

After two days, Ethan Brooks also learned that the leader of their fireteam was Samuel Carter, but now there were only six people left in their fireteam, and only thirty-one in their entire squad. It seemed that the soldiers in their squad were all the worst of the bunch, though Ethan Brooks still didn’t know why.

The squad leader was a bearded man in his thirties named Edward Foster. Ethan Brooks had met him once—a guy who wasn’t afraid of death. But as a person, he wasn’t much; maybe because he didn’t fear death, he didn’t care at all when his subordinates died.

As for backgrounds, Liam Brooks’s was the best—he came from a minor family. Samuel Carter’s father was a servant of the Wang family in Xucheng, and Samuel Carter had joined the army as a substitute for the Wang family. Brian Cooper, on the other hand, was just a nobody from a tiny mountain village called Dingjia Village.

Only someone like Liam Brooks, with no status and even targeted by his own family, would be sent to the army. Normally, even the worst-off family disciples would have servants sent in their place.

Or, if these family disciples had to serve, at least they’d be given some minor leadership role in the rear. Someone like Liam Brooks, charging at the front lines, was almost unheard of.

But after learning all this, Ethan Brooks didn’t feel much resistance. After all, he wasn’t the original Liam Brooks. When he heard about the military structure here, Ethan Brooks originally thought this was a period similar to the Sui or Tang dynasties, but later realized this wasn’t Earth at all, but a place called the Nine Gods Continent.

Nine Gods Continent—it sounded strange, but according to Ethan Brooks’s thinking, this was just another planet with humans, like Earth. At least, the people here didn’t know any better, so they called it Nine Gods Continent.

Just like how Earth wasn’t always called Earth—people only named it that later. Now that he knew this wasn’t Earth, Ethan Brooks felt relieved. No wonder he hadn’t heard of so many things.

But as for Zheyun, Ethan Brooks felt no sense of belonging. He just wanted to leave the army as soon as possible. With his talents, he figured he could make a small fortune somewhere on the Nine Gods Continent and live as a wealthy man.

Through chatting with Samuel Carter and the others, Ethan Brooks also learned that the Nine Gods Continent was actually very chaotic. There were countless countries, big and small, but it was a place where the strong preyed on the weak. However, Samuel Carter and Brian Cooper only knew so much. So, if Ethan Brooks escaped the army, his next step would be to train his body back to its former strength. He believed that with his old military skills, he’d have no problem surviving on the Nine Gods Continent.

But reality quickly made Ethan Brooks abandon the idea of secretly deserting. Here, if you deserted, not only would your family or clan be implicated, but you’d also be wanted everywhere. Even if you fled to a neighboring country, you couldn’t escape being hunted—unless you ran tens of thousands of miles away, so no one could find you.

But Ethan Brooks knew nothing about the Nine Gods Continent, so how could he dare run that far? If he accidentally ended up in some cannibal tribe like in Africa, he’d be in real trouble. Besides, with his small frame, where could he run? And his political status didn’t seem low either—this time, he’d only been framed by someone in his family who disliked him. Even though he felt no sense of belonging to his clan, deep down, Ethan Brooks didn’t want to harm the cousin who had treated him well.