The first two pages of Li Nannan's report detailed the engagement with the Mil people and an analysis of the defeat.
The entire text was filled with unfamiliar technical and military terms, as well as some words that seemed like slang. Jiang Ye read it twice, trying to understand, but it was utterly incomprehensible, and he had to give up.
It felt like a Qin Dynasty warrior trying to read a naval fleet's combat report; it would be a miracle if he could understand it.
However, after the first two pages, Li Nannan wrote about her experiences after arriving on the Mil people's planet, and some fragments were understandable.
"At four-thirty, the deputy team leader called me. The left flank had entered an annihilation trap. We went to investigate. The deputy team leader's more than three hundred subordinates had already turned into annihilation trees, extending a kilometer high into the air, spinning and emitting various phosphorescent colors, at least a hundred thousand lumens. The entire night sky was as if painted with colorful aurora borealis. We fired at the phosphorescence, carrying out a cleanup operation, but it was too late. The Mil people's ground forces had already seen the light beams and arrived ten minutes later. We then engaged in a final resistance."
"The two thousand people on the right flank formed the first line of defense. They were all bombed to death within five minutes. I, along with the command, covered the division commander's retreat, but he was hit by shrapnel in the leg. He bled to death before he could receive treatment. Staff Officer Liu stayed behind to operate the dark box, preparing to perish with the enemy. I never saw him again."
"The Mil people triggered a magnetic storm, and the invading army surrounded us. The deputy staff officer asked me, 'We can't get out, should we surrender?' I wrote 'Death' for him to see, and then he went to notify all units to prepare for self-destruction. But the Mil people didn't give us the chance to self-destruct; they launched a time rain. The anti-time equipment in the unit was all broken, and all our remaining personnel and equipment were captured."
"When I woke up again, I was in a prisoner-of-war camp. The camp was built inside a mountain, and as rumored, it was filled with countless transparent crystal coffins. One tube was inserted into my stomach, and another tube was connected to my rear, sustaining my life. The space in the crystal coffin was so small I couldn't even turn over, only move my limbs slightly, but my feet were stuck by a puddle of snot from the Mil people."
"I looked out from the corner of my eye and could see countless crystal coffins, one next to another. Most of the crystal coffins already contained people, all wearing the unit's combat uniforms. It was impossible to count exactly how many people there were, perhaps five thousand, perhaps fifty thousand, or perhaps five hundred thousand. I didn't know how many people were below me, possibly more."
"In the crystal coffin next to me lay an old man with a white beard. He tapped on the coffin wall with his finger, incessantly. At first, I just cried, not understanding his signal. Later, I realized he was tapping in the unit's code, an old version from many years ago. So, I quieted down and listened, trying to translate. Finally, I understood what he was repeatedly tapping."
"He said, 'Don't cry. Don't let the enemy hear you cry.'"
"I also tapped on the coffin wall and asked why."
"He said, 'The people stored here are all lab rats. Whichever lab rat cries indicates a better physical condition and will be taken by the Mil people for experiments.'"
"He also said that he had been lying here for twenty-eight years, four months, and 12 days, and he had figured out all the rules here. Trusting him would not be wrong."
Jiang Ye turned a page and continued reading.
"An hour later, the Mil people arrived. A large room opened up amidst the countless crystal coffins, and they conducted experiments right there."
"The first round of experiments was likely a gas experiment. About two hundred people were taken inside, men, women, old, and young, including some of my subordinates. They were all stripped naked and washed clean with water. Some of the injured were even quickly healed."
"Then, they released the poisonous gas, an orange-red gas that quickly filled the entire gas chamber. The people inside initially tried to evade it, but then they greedily inhaled it with all their might, shouting and yelling excitedly, their faces flushed with color."
"One man suddenly vomited and had explosive diarrhea. Both his vomit and excrement were bloody. Then, others also began to vomit and have diarrhea, but they still maintained happy expressions, singing and shouting joyfully, unable to stop laughing. This scene lasted for an hour."
"Several Mil people watching from outside had bodies that turned an angry purplish-black, indicating the experiment had failed. After all, in such a sealed and narrow gas chamber, people could not be killed for an hour, so a gas with this effect was far from being usable for military purposes."
"The humans in the gas chamber had exhausted all their strength from laughing, running, and jumping, and they all fell onto the smooth floor, making crackling sounds. Their skin was covered in a yellowish-red viscous liquid, and they twitched like half-dead fish. Some people finally showed expressions of despair and pain, their eyes bloodshot, bulging as if about to pop out, their mouths twitching upwards from time to time."
"The Mil people observing lost their patience. They pulled a switch on the room, and the entire chamber began to shrink, finally crushing all the half-dead people to death, squeezing them into a perfectly sealed block of human flesh flowing with fat and yellowish-red liquid. The block was then pushed away by machinery, presumably to be disposed of as garbage."
"This gas experiment was repeated four more times within a day, each time faster than the last, as the Mil people continuously altered the composition of the gas. During the last experiment, as soon as a small amount of gas was released, the more than two hundred people in the gas chamber collectively collapsed, blood gushing from their mouths like fountains."
"I witnessed every experiment. I wanted to close my eyes, but I couldn't. An irresistible force compelled me to keep my eyes open and watch my compatriots. I shouted in anger and cried in despair, fainting twice. I continuously felt like vomiting, but there was nothing in my stomach, only stomach acid came out."
"The old man in the adjacent crystal coffin tapped on the coffin wall again and said to me, 'Don't be sad. Everyone has to die. It's just a moment of discomfort.'"
"He also said that humans who are filled into the crystal coffin fields can never leave alive."
"He said that he had been lying here for twenty-eight years, four months, and 13 days."