No one shall know our names
Death is our only reward
We shall hold the line nonetheless
-Corporal #̸̹͎̹̙͙̦̝̜͎͈̫̘͍̏͜ͅ$̵͔̗͔̪̇̏͐͆̿͊ͅ%̵̨̛͉̥̠̲͔̭̞̹̰͚͚̱̫͌̽̍͒̐̒͋̈́̏̿̚̕̚͜͝^̸̨̗̥̞̗̩̰̼̱̮̺͙̰̽͑͊̍͋̈́̉͐̓͊̊̄͜͜͠#̵̧̤̗͍͔̦̝͔͇̟͈̺͇͌͝ 4̴̲̝͍̽̿̇̎̄̈́̂̎́̈̌̚͝9̸̻̩̣̯̹̗̪̠̝͇̽̓̒̓̊̀̍̇̚̚͘8̵̤̜͐͂͋̆̃̎̕ţ̷̧̠͔̺̞͓͎͇̬̞̤̘̼̤́h̸̡̖͚̦͕̹̱͓̤͉̗͇̺͂̈́̐̓̎́̊͜ 557th Division-
A soldier is what we're meant to be.
Nothing more than simple chess pieces upon the board that is a commander's plaything.
Yet, as we lay on the earth which has been ruined by countless bombardments, each one of us contemplates our lives.
Did we really want to go out like this?
We have no one to remember who we were or how we got here.
We're all simply nameless soldiers who became a statistic in the grand scheme of things.
We suppose that's all we can be even if we didn't want to.
As dusk turns into dawn, we're pulled into the embrace of the beyond.
September 28th XXXX
Operation Round Robin
Objective: Delay enemy forces until local civilian population are successfully evacuated
Courage, Duty, Honor
These three words are supposed to define the entirety of the Skæbne Republic military.
For those that signed up for the military, we follow these words to the letter.
Command understands that as well, which is why my division and I have been ordered to hold out in the Argentum Forest that lies between the enemy army and a city that I don't even remember the name of.
What I do remember is that the city holds 300,000 people who have futures, unlike us.
A tired sigh comes out of my mouth as I finish covering the pitfall trap my team built and continue moving forward to do the same to the various other traps which the forest contained.
If there wasn't a looming attack on the horizon, the forest would've made for a great camping place. The trees all have silver leaves which have baffled scientists on how they manage to absorb enough sunlight to survive with no chlorophyll. In fact, all the plant life in this forest has silver leaves which explains the name of the forest.
Unfortunately, the forest had been turned from a great local camping spot to a veritable death trap, the Major General ordered all of us to spread out and construct pitfall traps, tiger traps, tripwire traps that would detonate an explosive and so much more.
Every single one of us over the course of a week had been taught as many guerrilla warfare tactics as our brains could cram in that short span of time.
There were no ways to identify the traps we set. If a friendly stepped on a trap, that was fine. If there were no ways for friendlies to spot traps, then the enemy couldn't either. It didn't matter if we died by our own traps, that was simply one less body to throw against the oncoming horde.
However, my depressing thoughts are interrupted as the voice of the Major General comes out of my headset.
"Chin up lads! Our recon battalion spotted enemy movements heading to the southwest quadrant of the forest," the Major General continued barking orders as I met up with my fireteam, "Lieutenant McCord! Have your platoon move to intercept at Chokeshell Valley–"
"Hurricane Platoon has been flanked by enemy cavalry units, Blacksmith Company is trying to reinforce them!"
"Lieutenant McCord and his platoon have been completely wiped out!"
"Sergeant Carter is down, Corporal Harper is having us pull the enemy armor toward the ravine!"
Those three sentences were what stood out to me as I listened to the radio chatter.
Blacksmith Company fearlessly charged toward enemy cavalry on foot in order to try and save their brothers in arms.
Courage
Lieutenant McCord and his platoon died following orders despite certain death.
Duty
Corporal Harper rallied his squad despite their sergeant's death to become little more than distractions to allow our crumbling lines a bit of reprieve.
Honor
Each one of these valiant soldiers weren't going to be remembered by their name.
The breath which I was holding was let out once I pulled the trigger of my rifle.
Another recon team is going to die here.
As the corpse of an enemy soldier hits the ground and his team tries to find my position, my own team appears from their right flank and opens fire.
As expected the blue-clad soldiers of the Gevallen Kingdom run to the closest pieces of cover.
Fun fact, apparently according to my team leader these trees are as strong as steel which baffles our scientists, but our mages said that it's related to the large abundance of mana pools that the trees slowly absorb.
But the mana that the trees absorb can also be let out, in a rather explosive manner. It just takes one battle mage to bottle up the mana and like a mentos in a coke bottle, the tree erupts.
And guess what each fireteam is required to have ever since we first used magic in warfare.
Oh… I look at the piece of wood that's lodged into my chest. I guess the tree had absorbed more mana than the others.
My comrades turned to look at me, Corporal Fletcher managed to catch me before I fell to the ground.
How unlucky, I was the only one hit.
Our eyes open to the sight of a broken moon.
We- I… am confused. A simple holographic message appears in front of my face.
Profile:
Name: $%# &!
Race: Conceptual Spirit
Title: Nameless Herald
Alignment: Neutral
Strength: F
Endurance: F
Agility: F
Wisdom: F
Mana Capacity: F
Luck: F
Souls Absorbed: 5/365^100000000
It resembles the games that my niece used to play and it also resembles a genre that very same niece enjoys.
"Am I in a LitRPG?" My voice comes out softly.
I turn my head to the side and rush toward a nearby river. I looked at my reflection and let out a small gasp.
I can't feel it, but there's a blank mask covering the entirety of my face. Although my clothes are still the same as when I died.
The top of my head is covered by a tactical helmet and headset combination, which is quite funny as the helmet comes with shaded goggles which masked my mask.
My torso is covered with a bulletproof vest which is underneath plated armor. Despite looking like something out of a fantasy novel, it had been enchanted to become more lightweight and had straps to make putting on and taking off the armor easier.
My legs also had knee, thigh and shin coverings made of plated metal but I also had a comfortable pair of cargo pants.
They were all in forest camouflage patterns as I was fighting in a forest just earlier, but as I moved my gloved hand over the river, the camouflage pattern changed to match the color of the river. As I moved my arm back, it returned to the forested camouflage pattern.
As I took a few minutes to calm down, I looked at the holographic screen which seems to always stay to the right of me and saw that there were tabs on it.
Clicking on the second tab brought me to my traits tab.
Traits:
Instinctive Reflexes:
After 78 cumulative years of fighting you instinctively react to any malicious intent.
Combat Cognition:
You remain calm even in situations of great duress.
Herald of the Forgotten:
No one knows your face, those that did have already perished, those who view your face see you as what they think an average soldier looks like. It's also harder to remember information about you.
Empty Vessel:
You are able to absorb the souls of soldiers who have been forgotten to empower yourself.
"What kind of clusterfuck have I gotten into," A slight chuckle came out of where my mouth was supposed to be, "I guess that explains the soul counter in my profile tab."
"I guess after I check this last tab I'll get to the nearest sign of civilization, I may be what this system calls an empty vessel, but that doesn't mean I can't take things easy after a long period of war." I said after a slight pause to contemplate my current… situation.
The last tab was the inventory, it contained ammo for my rifle and everything else a single soldier could need. Although I noticed I had the stuff of the soldiers I killed before my death as well, seeing as how I didn't carry a submachine gun.
I'll figure out what I am later, I just want to get a drink as soon as possible.