0p0 Chapter 253 Profile
Chapter 253 Profile
Having been spared the arduous journey, Howard wasn't idle either. He had more time to observe his surroundings. The nun's combat helmet was surprisingly useful. For example, when Howard couldn't see things farther away, his pupils would focus, and the combat helmet would detect the changes in his pupils, automatically zooming in and out of the target area, allowing Howard to see farther and more clearly. This was just one of the functions Howard discovered right after starting. In fact, according to Howard, the combat helmet's functions included but were not limited to infrared imaging, route planning, and assisted aiming.
I wonder what it would be like to connect Ohm Messiah to this.
This thought popped up in Howard's mind, but it was just a thought. Regardless of anything else, he was still being held by the nun, and it would be difficult for her to not discover if he activated the Om Messiah. Although he, the nun and May were undoubtedly in a cooperative relationship at the moment, he did not intend to reveal more things to them. Howard also knew that they must have something they had not told him.
Howard looked at the dead humans and orcs, then began to count.
According to the nun, the missing equipment was enough to arm a battalion, with one squad of ten people, one platoon, three squads, one company, three platoons, and one battalion, four companies, so Howard temporarily set the total number of people at 500.
After taking a quick look, Howard felt a bit overwhelmed. The so-called counting of corpses was not as easy as he thought. The dead people would not be lined up neatly for him to count. The corpses might be scattered here and there, or mixed together to form a disgusting ball of blood and flesh, or even turned into a paste and spread everywhere, not to mention those corpses that might have been completely digested.
At this time, the nun's combat helmet seemed to sense Howard's thoughts and began to work.
Although the nun was unable to ascertain the identities and affiliations of these dead soldiers with her authority, they were still classified as friendly forces in the information database. Each friendly soldier had an identity code specifically used to distinguish between friend and foe. By testing these identity codes, she finally obtained a number: 182.
Howard didn't know whether the dead oil men and the mechanical servants were counted in the list of 182 casualties, but what was certain was that if the soldiers who died here really belonged to the missing unit discovered by the nun, then they had lost at least one-third of their manpower here.
The number of casualties among the orcs was equally staggering. Most of the orc corpses had melted, making it even more difficult to tell their number. However, in most cases, the universe still had to obey the law of conservation of mass. So just look at the swamp under your feet and you will know. The melted orc corpses formed such a huge colony cluster. Howard estimated that the number of dead orcs was at least ten times that of humans.
The traces around also indirectly reflected the cruelty of the battle. All the stalagmites on the top of the cave broke and smashed into powder on the ground. The few that were not broken also fell straight down, with the tips inserted into the ground. The cave walls were covered with huge and hideous scratches and bullet holes.
Howard's eyes scanned everything around him, then his eyes swept from the nun's left to the right, then he froze for a moment and fixed his eyes on the middle, which was the nun herself.
Because according to the display on the helmet, there are two identity codes in the direction where the nun is, but the signal of the other identity code is very vague, sometimes appearing and sometimes not, and the format of these two identity codes is also different from the identity code of the Astra Militarum.
"Strange." Howard chose to directly ask the person involved about this strange phenomenon: "Why does your helmet show that you are carrying two ID codes?"
The nun suddenly stopped and Howard was almost thrown out because he had no seat belt.
"What are you talking about?" The nun's expression was more complicated and unbelievable than Howard had ever seen before.
"Uh..." Howard was surprised by the nun's reaction. Before he could continue, the nun roughly pulled off the helmet on his head and put it back on her own head.
There was a flash of blue light, and the nun's helmet was reconnected to the power system, then it went out.
The nun scanned herself while wearing the helmet, but found nothing unusual, so she took off the helmet and put it on Howard's head.
"You're seeing things, maybe the system is malfunctioning," the nun said coldly.
Howard didn't ask any further questions. The nun's answer was clearly not enough to convince him. But everyone in this universe has their own little secrets. As long as they don't interfere with others, that's all that matters.
So Howard continued with his unfinished work. He closed his eyes and could imagine what the battle would be like.
In this place, a fierce exchange of fire broke out between human troops and orcs. In the semi-enclosed underground space, humans could not use heavy firepower at all, so they could only use guns and cannons to fight. These soldiers were veterans selected from thousands of people. Even if there was no hope of survival, they would not be afraid or retreat. Their marksmanship was sharp and they never missed a shot. A few bullets could take down an orc.
But the orcs were as endless as the tide. When an orc was killed, its body was trampled under the feet of orcs rushing up from behind before it even had time to fall. The distance between humans and orcs was getting shorter and shorter. Finally, the axe wielded by an orc was finally able to chop off the head of a human soldier.
Howard felt a sudden twinge on the side of his brain, but it didn't interrupt his thoughts.
The orc rushing in the front raised his axe and chopped at the weak human in front of him, but the soldier burst out with amazing courage. He pulled out his tactical dagger and faced the orc's giant axe, actually blocking the orc's attack. His comrades beside him also seized this opportunity to embed a bullet into the orc's heart.
But the two soldiers had no time to celebrate. More sharp blades fell from all directions, and the soldiers' bodies were shattered and dismembered. The intestines of one of them were hung on the rusty nails of the orc's huge machete. When the orc swung the machete upwards again, the piece of intestines was thrown into the sky.
Beads of sweat oozed from Howard's forehead and trickled down. But he still didn't give up on recreating the scene. He closed his eyes tightly, his pupils spinning wildly beneath his eyelids.
Or perhaps, his thoughts had inevitably been trapped in it and he couldn't easily break free from it.
Humans and orcs came into close combat, and it was a complete massacre. Even the most skilled human veterans, without undergoing transformation surgery and without the protection of gods, could not match the physical fitness of ordinary orcs.
The human troops were scattered, torn apart, and devoured by the orcs. Finally, the Mechanical Priest came. His servitor stood in front, absorbing the heavy fire for his master. The Mechanical Priest hid behind the servitor, his six mechanical arms pouring fire on the orcs. At the same time, his right hand held the weapon loaded with anti-psychic bullets and fired continuously. Each blow could knock an orc to the ground.
But the orcs still broke through the last line of defense. Then... then an orc, taller and stronger than any of the orcs, appeared. It swung its giant hammer at the last Mechanic Priest. This tiny human wasn't even as big as its hammer. So the Mechanic Priest was swung high like a baseball and embedded in the stone.
"Aha!"
Howard suddenly woke up, gasping for breath, and then he found that his head was completely wet, as if a bucket of water had been poured on him.
His collar was also wet with cold sweat.
"What's wrong with you?" The nun noticed that something was wrong with Howard and asked back.
Howard didn't want to answer the nun's question. He suddenly felt suffocated. The combat helmet he had once found novel and interesting now felt like a wet plastic bag wrapped around his head, making it hard to breathe. Every time he exhaled, the helmet's display screen misted up. His breath swirled inside the helmet and finally entered his ears, making him shiver all over.
So Howard wanted to take off the combat helmet. He held the helmet with both hands and lifted it up. But maybe because he was too impatient, it got stuck on his chin or the back of his head, so he couldn't take it off the first time. So in a hurry, Howard pulled hard and finally took off the helmet.
"call--"
After taking off his helmet, Howard took a deep breath of the air filled with orc spores. The air was cold and choking, but Howard felt it was so refreshing. Then he wiped his sweaty face and shook his head to try to make himself more awake.
"Damn it, you threw sweat in my face!"
The nun's curses were heard in the darkness.
Howard still ignored the nun. After taking a few breaths, he calmed down. Then he felt a burning pain at the base of his ear. He reached out and touched his ear. It felt a little sticky. He licked his finger. That's right, it was blood.
Just now, when he was in a hurry to take off the nun's helmet, he used too much force and scratched his ear.
The nun was about to get angry after being suddenly slapped in the face and continued to be ignored by Howard, but she immediately noticed that Howard was different, so she swallowed her words of blame and said another sentence instead: "What's wrong with you? What happened?"
"Mr. Howard, you look very bad." Mei also came over at this time. Unlike the nun, this elf expressed her concern for Howard without any concealment.
"I..." Howard was about to explain, but he froze.
Wait a minute! Was I just... profiling?
Howard was shocked by himself.
Profiling is a real-world ability that involves reconstructing past scenes through minute details, often used in criminal investigations. It's a natural talent, and while some people can develop it through practice, their accuracy is far less than that of someone born with it.
Howard knew even better that he couldn't profile... or rather, he had never considered the question of "whether he could profile". In his original world, there was no need for him to use this ability... He just didn't know if it counted when he was a kid taking exams and guessing what his neighbor wrote by glancing at the shaking of the pen cap... Of course, this bad habit disappeared when he was in higher grades, because at that time, it was usually others who glanced at his papers.
And there was no doubt that he was just profiling, and it was very clear.
"Ha ha……"
Howard gave a puzzled laugh and then looked straight at May. His pupils seemed to be sparkling in the darkness.
"Miss Mei...Miss Mei, if...if I hadn't forced you out...perhaps one of your people would have died here."