It was supposed to be a casual game, but the Long March dungeon brought tears to everyone's eye

"Start over!"

"Start over from the beginning!!"

I've never heard of this phrase before.

Even the tens of millions of viewers on Earth in the live stream had never heard of it.

But that didn't stop their blood from burning hot at that moment.

It was a resonance that transcended words and time.

"It's as hard as iron..."

Kuang Ge looked at the seemingly endless black mud at his feet, and at the skeletons around him that had fallen and never risen again.

This road is indeed harder than iron.

But the one-armed old man, the old squad leader who usually tapped them on the head and saved his rations, suddenly shuddered and stopped relying on Brother Crazy Eagle Eye for support.

He was like a red-hot javelin, standing straight at the forefront of the storm.

The old squad leader's empty sleeve was stretched taut by the wind, and his face was covered in tears—from that moment of loss of control.

But at this moment, his eyes were filled with fire.

It's a fire that will evaporate all this icy rain!

"Three in a row!!"

The old squad leader suddenly turned around, his hoarse voice piercing through the rain, exploding in the ears of Kuang Ge, Ying Yan, and Ruan Ruan.

"What are you all standing there for?! Keep up!!"

"Hold out your hands! If you don't want to die in the mud, entrust your lives to your comrades!!"

That was an order.

It was also the last military order for survival.

Kuang Ge and his men shuddered and instinctively sprang into action.

"yes!!"

With a loud shout, Kuang Ge took the unconscious Xiao Douzi from Ruan Ruan's back and bounced him up on his back.

Then he freed his left hand and grabbed the nearest soldier.

In her final moments, Ruan Ruan, who was struggling to carry Xiao Douzi on her back, was almost gone. Her face was deathly pale, and her legs felt like they were filled with lead.

Without any hesitation, Kuang Ge suddenly reached back with his right hand and gripped the soft wrist like an iron clamp.

"pay close attention!"

With this tug, Ruan Ruan's previously unfocused pupils regained a little light.

She gritted her teeth, used all her strength to reach out her other hand, and grabbed Xiao Hu's belt next to her.

Hawkeye silently walked to the outermost part of the group, using the stick to support himself on the ground, serving as a temporary fulcrum for the group.

And so, these few people, like a drop of water, merged into that gray torrent composed of thousands of people.

This is a "human chain" with no turning back.

Once the person in front has taken firm steps, the person behind follows.

The person on the left sank in, and the person on the right pulled desperately back.

No one lives alone.

On this man-eating grassland, lives are intertwined.

"Now we take this step...and start afresh!!"

The roar continued.

Kuang Ge felt his heart pounding wildly in rhythm with that beat.

With each step, one must exert all their strength to resist the adhesion of the silt.

"Pfft—Pfft—"

Flesh and blood are locked in a fierce tug-of-war with death.

The rain poured down harder and harder, as if the heavens were enraged and wanted to bury this team that dared to challenge the heavens' might completely into the mud.

Crazy Brother's left hand was a young soldier he didn't know well.

The young soldier looked to be only sixteen or seventeen years old. He was as thin as a reed, his face was covered in sores, and his hands were as cold as ice.

But he held on very tightly.

Kuang Ge could feel that the icy hand was constantly pulling him out of the half-person-deep mud.

"Hang in there, bro!"

At this moment, Kuang Ge was filled with passion and couldn't help but shout.

"There's hard ground up ahead! See?!"

The young soldier looked up and grinned at Brother Kuang.

That smile was awful, her gums were bleeding, but her eyes shone like stars.

"I know...that's a red flag..."

The young soldier's voice was extremely faint, and the column continued to move.

Sudden.

Kuang Ge felt a sudden weight on his left hand.

The feeling of falling came too fast and too hard. Kuang Ge slipped and almost fell down along with Xiao Douzi on his back.

"Be careful!"

Eagle Eye, who was standing nearby, reacted quickly and plunged the stick into the mud, firmly pressing it against Crazy Brother's waist.

Kuang Ge steadied himself and turned his head in horror.

The young soldier who had been smiling at him just moments before was now half-submerged in the thin, soup-like mud.

That kind of mud is the worst; it looks like ground, but when you step on it, it turns into water and you can't feel any strength at all.

The young soldier's upper body was instantly swallowed up, the mud covering his chest.

"pay close attention!!"

Crazy Brother put down Little Bean and roared, and Eagle Eye quickly caught it.

With his hands free, Kuang Ge clenched them together and grabbed the young soldier tightly.

"Get it right now!!!"

Kuang Ge's veins bulged, but he couldn't budge him.

The mud below looked like it had grown a mouth and was biting the little soldier's leg tightly.

On the contrary, because of excessive force, Kuang Ge's feet began to slide down uncontrollably.

The mud reached above his calves and then above his knees.

The little bean, held between Eagle Eye's fingers, let out an unconscious groan.

The young soldier looked at Kuang Ge's flushed face and at Eagle Eye, who was protecting Xiao Douzi while pulling Kuang Ge with all his might.

Then she looked at Ruan Ruan, who was swaying precariously beside her, desperately trying to pull Kuang Ge back, but with negligible strength.

As long as Brother Kuang doesn't let go, he'll drag all of these people down with him.

This is the law of the swamp.

Either we die together, or...

The young soldier's eyes changed.

That yearning for life transformed into a resolute calm in that instant.

He looked at Kuang Ge, his lips moving slightly.

Kuang Ge didn't hear clearly, but he understood the lip movements.

That is—"walk".

The next second, Crazy Brother loosened his grip.

It wasn't the mud that swallowed him; it was the young soldier who voluntarily loosened his grip.

Not only did he loosen his grip, but he also used the last of his strength to shove Crazy Brother's hand hard.

Using the reaction force from the push, Kuang Ge fell backward and landed on the relatively solid meadow.

And that young soldier, with that push, completely lost his last bit of buoyancy.

"Glug."

The mud instantly submerged his chin, his face covered in sores, and finally his still-bright eyes.

In the last moments before he sank, he was still trying to tilt his head back.

He seemed to be keeping pace with the main group, silently reciting the last half of the words.

"From...the beginning...the... ..."

The mud and water are combined.

Only a few murky bubbles remained, bursting instantly in the downpour.

Crazy Brother lay in the muddy water, frozen in that outstretched hand position.

One life.

It was right in front of me, and it was gone in less than a few seconds.

There was no dramatic separation or death like in the movies, and no epic background music.

It means letting go, sinking, and disappearing.

It was so quiet it was suffocating.

The line paused for a moment.

"What are you standing there for?!"

A loud shout, like a thunderclap, rang in Kuang Ge's ears.

The old squad leader suddenly rushed over.

His face was contorted horribly as he grabbed Crazy Brother by the collar with one hand and yanked him out of the mud.

"Walk!!"

The old sergeant, his eyes red, pointed to the mud pit that had just swallowed the young soldier.

"That's fate! That's the rule of this meadow!"

"Stopping to cry will only cause more people to die!"

"Fix the gap for me! Pull your hands together!!"

"Let's go!!"

The old squad leader's voice was trembling with tears, yet it was as hard as iron.

Kuang Ge trembled all over, tears mixed with muddy water flowing into his mouth, tasting salty and bitter.

Beside him, an unfamiliar soldier silently reached out his hand, which was covered in calluses and trembling slightly.

Crazy Brother grabbed that hand.

Extremely tight.

Hawkeye picked up Little Bean and grabbed Madman's belt.

Ruan Ruan bit her lip and offered her hand to the person in front of her.

The gap has been filled.

The line began to move again.

Every step I took felt like walking on cotton, soft and yielding.

But at that moment, Kuang Ge felt that it wasn't cotton.

That's meat.

The Long March was not simply about walking.

Instead, it was a path paved with lives, one life after another.

Every inch of hard ground beneath your feet may have been the body of a comrade-in-arms.

……

When did the rain stop?

no one knows.

All that Crazy Brother remembers is that it was a mechanical, repetitive action.

Take a step, step forward, and land.

Take a step, step forward, and land.

My mind was completely blank; I couldn't even feel hunger or cold.

All that remained was the sound of my heart pounding like a war drum in my ears, and the ever-straight back of my old squad leader in front of me.

until--

"Hard?"

Hawkeye's hoarse voice murmured.

Kuang Ge lowered his head blankly.

The mud beneath our feet was no longer the dark, foul-smelling mud that seemed ready to devour us at any moment.

Instead, it was a patch of yellowish, solid land.

The feeling of solid ground beneath his feet traveled through his entire body along his nerve endings, causing Crazy Brother's already numb brain to momentarily freeze.

Followed by.

"Wow--!!!"

A howl exploded from the front of the line.

Kuang Ge suddenly raised his head.

The clouds ahead were violently torn apart.

A ray of golden sunlight poured down without reservation.

In that instant, the light was so bright that Madman had to squint.

And in that golden light, he saw the end of the meadow.

Those were rolling mountains, lush forests, cooking smoke, and the vibrant human world.

"I've made it out..."

Kuang Ge opened his mouth, his voice so dry it sounded like he was about to cry.

The little bean on Hawkeye's back seemed to be awakened by the light and moved groggily.

"Brother...is it dawn?"

Little Tiger suddenly pounced on Xiao Douzi, grabbed her leg, and started crying and laughing at the same time.

"It's lit! It's lit! We're out!"

"Little Bean! We're not dead! We made it out!"

He slumped limply on the dry, hard yellow earth, not caring whether the ground was dirty or not, feeling as if all his strength had been drained.

Her face was covered in black mud, and her hair was a messy, matted mess. She looked nothing like a national talent anchor.

But she was smiling.

She was crying while simultaneously grinning foolishly.

"fire……"

She reached into her clothes with trembling hands and pulled out the oilcloth bag from the innermost layer of her clothes.

One floor, two floors, three floors.

The tarpaulin was filthy, covered in mud and ash.

But when the last layer of tarpaulin was removed...

That single, striking red spot made everyone hold their breath.

A single match.

After seven days and seven nights of torrential rain, and after rolling around in this muddy pit countless times, this last remaining match is still dry and still bright.

Its red head, in the sunlight, is as red as blood, as red as a flag.

"Class...class monitor."

Ruan Ruan held the match as if it were the most precious gem in the world and handed it to the old squad leader.

The old squad leader was sitting on a rock, panting.

His injured leg was swollen and shiny, and the empty sleeve clung to his body, soaking wet.

Upon seeing the match, the old squad leader's cloudy old eyes narrowed sharply.

He shakily reached out his left hand and took the match.

The moment his fingertips touched the matchstick, the old squad leader took a deep breath.

It was extremely quiet around us.

Even the chat in the live stream stopped.

Everyone stared at the small wooden stick.

This was earned by Xiao Wu with his life.

This is Ruan Ruan using her chest to protect seven matches, the last one of which is not wet.

The old squad leader, with Ruan Ruan's help, held up a match and gestured to the side of the dry matchbox.

I didn't dare to make a cut on the first try.

My hands were shaking so badly.

"call……"

The old squad leader closed his eyes, steadied his breathing, and when he opened them again, his hand was as steady as a mountain.

"Sizzle—"

A soft sound.

A cluster of orange-yellow flames suddenly shot up from the tip of the thin wooden stick.

The flame was very small, only the size of a bean.

Under the blazing sun overhead, it appeared so faint and inconspicuous.

But in Kuang Ge's eyes, in Eagle Eye's eyes, and in the eyes of all the soldiers who walked out of the grassland.

This flame is brighter than the sun in the sky!

It is warmer than any light in the world!

The old squad leader carefully brought the flame closer to the dried cow dung he had prepared beforehand.

Fire, it's on fire.

Smoke rose and flames flickered.

The smell of smoke filled my nostrils, making my eyes water.

That's the taste of being alive.

The old squad leader looked at the fire, and at Xiaodouzi and Xiaohu, who were wolfing down hot water around it, their faces gradually regaining color.

A smile gradually spread across his deeply lined face.

It wasn't a bitter smile, nor a miserable one.

It's a smile that comes from the relief of a heavy burden, a smile that only parents can have when they see their children finally grow up safely.

"Hurrah……"

The old squad leader patted his thigh, his voice so soft it was as if he were afraid of disturbing the dream.

"We've made it out...we really have."

He looked at Kuang Ge, then at Eagle Eye and Ruan Ruan.

These three greenhorns, who couldn't even walk properly at first, are now covered in dust and dirt, and are so thin they've lost their shape.

But his eyes already had the look of a soldier.

That's the look in the eyes of a soldier who's crawled out of a pile of corpses.

"Class monitor."

At that moment, Hawkeye suddenly spoke.

He pointed to the distant, undulating mountains that resembled ocean waves and asked softly.

"That poem everyone recited earlier... is there more to it?"

Previously, while in the mud, all they could shout was "Let's start over!"

I still feel like I haven't completely exhaled.

Upon hearing this, the old squad leader slowly turned his head.

He squinted, facing the blinding sunlight, gazing at the green hills and fields, and at the setting sun on the horizon that had not yet completely disappeared.

His gaze seemed to pierce through the mountains and rivers, seeing into the distant future.

I saw the new Dragon Kingdom that Lao Li wanted to see.

We have seen that the spark that Xiao Wu protected with his life will eventually ignite a prairie fire.

"Yes, there are still some."

The old squad leader supported himself on his knees and slowly stood up.

The figure with only one arm was stretched very long in the setting sun.

He murmured, as if talking to himself, or as if making a declaration to the land he had just conquered.

"Starting over, starting over..."

The old squad leader's voice became deep and resonant.

"Starting anew, the mountains stretch like a vast sea, the setting sun like blood!"

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Thank you all for the little gifts! Here's an extra 4,000-word chapter!

There are still two extra chapters for the bosses and some small gifts that I haven't written about yet. If I haven't thanked them, it means I'm still writing...

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