No Beast Girls on the Western Front

Page 1

No Beast Girls on the Western Front

Author: Blue Army Ant

Summary:

Front row tips:

1. Depressive wind

2. World War I, but not a fictional world, purely another world.

3. There are many animal girls, but no main heroine (guess why).

4. Non-hardcore setting route

5. The system is purely for fun and has no practical function.

-

Grenades, machine guns, trenches, tanks, poison gas, animal-eared girls, barbed wire, flamethrowers...

It seems like something strange just got in.

This is the current situation in the other world that Payne has traveled to.

In this place where technology is only at the level of Earth during World War I, the biotechnology of the country he lives in is extremely advanced. Not only can they create beast girls, but as the war intensifies, beast girls are even being pulled to the front lines to participate in the battle!

At first, Payne was quite excited about commanding a group of adorable beast girls who obeyed him without question.

But he soon discovered that no matter how strong the beast girls' physical abilities were, they were still just flesh and blood, and were still vulnerable in industrialized warfare.

In order to increase his and the beast girls' chances of survival on the front lines where arms and legs were flying everywhere, he had to do missions to earn extra money, even though the system he was bound to was practically useless.

Hey, do you know where Peter is?

Answer 1: "He was just burned to death by a flamethrower." (+0)

Answer 2: "What, is he someone you know?" (+50)

Answer 3: "He has become a good person who burns himself out, shines brightly, and illuminates and warms others." (+200)

Payne: "Phew... let's see what we can exchange for the merit points we lost this time."

Online store: One can of chicken costs 3000

"Zhao! You just want to hear me tell a joke, right?!"

Chapter 1. I. Awakening, Searching for People

When Payne regained consciousness, the first thing he felt was something warm and wet rubbing against his face.

It looks like... a dog's tongue?

Besides that, he could hear heavy breathing, and gusts of air brushed against his face, making him feel itchy.

His brain was gradually reactivated, his senses expanded in all directions, and he regained control of his body. He quickly realized what had happened.

This is probably the first time I've been knocked unconscious by a cannonball since I transmigrated.

Before transmigrating, he was just an ordinary, fragile college student. After a year of being battered by war in this world, his flesh became chewy and elastic—he even survived being hit by a cannonball.

It is now June 1922—not 1922 on Earth, but a strange world that Pine has traveled to, a world he has never seen in any of his works on Earth.

However, the technological level of this world is not much different from that of Earth in 1922.

And... they're also fighting a world war.

Payne swallowed hard, opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a word immediately.

"Ah! You're awake! Waaaaah, why did you only wake up now? I was so worried, waaaaah..."

The tongue on his face disappeared, and a girl's anxious voice came from behind. Then a furry head burrowed into Payne's chest and rubbed against him.

Payne felt as if his whole body was falling apart, he couldn't muster any strength, and he couldn't even lift his eyelids.

But thankfully, after clearing his throat, he finally managed to utter a hoarse voice: "Lassie?"

"exist!"

"Are you OK?"

"completely fine!"

"Where's Ruby?"

"She's alright!"

"What about Troy and Norma?"

"Troy is alright, Norma, she..."

Lacey's brief pause immediately brought more memories to Payne's mind:

Because of his good academic performance on Earth in his previous life, after transmigrating to this world and becoming an orphan, he was always called a "genius" throughout his schooling, constantly skipping grades to attend higher levels.

If nothing unexpected happens, he, born in 1900, will be able to begin his peaceful yet busy scientific research career after being admitted to the Empire's top university in 1918.

However, a year after the outbreak of the world war that swept the entire world at the end of 1919, before he could figure out anything, he ultimately could not escape being conscripted.

The bastards in the conscription department even had the audacity to say, "Your research project can also be done on the battlefield"...

Therefore, after six months of military training, Payne was sent to the battlefield in June 1921, where he spent a full year in the trenches alongside his research project.

In the battle that broke out earlier today, Payne and his men were attacked while retreating.

Before he was knocked unconscious by the shell, it seemed that Norma tackled him to the ground...

As if struck by lightning, Payne shuddered violently, his body suddenly regaining control. He immediately sat up from the bottom of the trench, opened his eyes, and stared intently at the person in front of him, asking, "What's her condition now?"

The girl in front of him wore a slightly oversized military uniform and had long, dark brown hair. Her bright black eyes, however, dared not look directly at him, instead glancing at the ground beside her. She whispered:

“N-no… I don’t know… The enemy was chasing us very closely, and Norma was too far away from me, so… so I had no choice but to drag you back first…”

To be fair, judging solely from her appearance, she should be the kind of girl with striking good looks. It's just a pity that the reddish-brown smudges on her face greatly diminished her beauty.

Moreover, she is currently in a very low mood. Not only is she not in the mood to wipe her face, but the two fluffy brown triangles on her head are also drooping at a visible speed.

Lacey, without a surname, is a comrade-in-arms who has been with Payne for a whole year. She is a canine soldier in the first generation of bio-engineered beastmen project of the Dexter Empire and also his research subject.

In short, they are what Payne's world before he traveled to was commonly known as "Beast Girls".

Although "bio-engineered beastmen" sounds incredibly high-tech, compared to the world Paine lived in before his transmigration, this world's technology tree can't be described as balanced; it's more like it's completely off-track.

They're still fighting with non-automatic rifles—the kind where you have to pull the bolt back after each shot, no different from weapons on Earth at the same time.

Payne wiped the mud off his face, picked up the rifle lying beside him, and slowly peeked out to cautiously observe his surroundings, asking, "How long have I been unconscious?"

Lacey didn't take anything; she simply pressed her ear close to her hair and, mimicking Payne, slowly peeked out, saying, "About ten minutes. I've checked; you're not hurt."

All that could be seen was a gray mist, and after a dozen steps, nothing could be seen at all. But within sight, there were many corpses lying haphazardly on the ground, some wearing brown military uniforms and others wearing blue military uniforms.

Several flames burned quietly in the thick fog, and gunshots and shouts of battle seemed to come from afar.

“What happened while I was in a coma?” Payne asked again.

Lacey said, "After we retreated to this trench, the enemy charged several more times."

"Fortunately, artillery support came in time, and the enemy retreated. As a result, the officers ordered a counter-offensive, and the soldiers rushed out again, intending to recapture the first trench."

"I stayed behind to take care of you, while Troy and Ruby went to attack with the main force."

No wonder this trench is so quiet; I haven't seen a single person...

"...In other words, no one should be bothering us now."

Payne rubbed his head as he spoke, then kicked off the trench and tumbled across the cratered battlefield. "Lassie, get a shovel."

"But the orders from above are..."

"Screw orders! I'm in charge of you now! Take this!"

Startled by Payne's growl, Lacey stopped talking, pulled an entrenching tool from a dead body, and followed closely behind Payne.

"If you see an enemy, just smash it in their face, understand?"

"I understand...I understand..."

Lacey answered weakly, but before she could finish speaking, a sharp whistling sound came from the air. The fear, almost etched into her genes, made every hair on her body stand on end in an instant—

“Get down!!”

Almost the instant Payne gave the order, the man and the beast immediately threw themselves into the embrace of Mother Earth.

The next second, a shell whistled and exploded on the ground a few meters away, and the spray of mud nearly buried the two alive.

Fortunately, because the man and the beast were positioned low enough, not a single shrapnel hit its intended target.

Mother Earth once again saved them from the clutches of the deadly shells—if only she weren't so sticky and wet.

It's been raining for seven days straight, the trenches are practically turning into sewers, when will this ever end...?

If their faces were still somewhat presentable before, now their entire faces are completely covered in mud. Once it dries a little, they'll look like terracotta warriors.

But there was no time for that now. Payne simply wiped the mud off his eyes, and after confirming it was safe, said to Lacey, "Where was the last time you saw Norma? Lead the way."

Poor Norma, she let the others lead me to retreat, but chose to stay behind herself. She must be seriously injured. We need to find her quickly.

Hopefully, she can be a little more clever and use the feigning death technique I taught her to get through this ordeal.

The enemy was probably busy charging at the time and didn't have time to pay attention to the people lying on the ground... right?

The good news was that less than a minute later, Lacey pointed to a crater ahead with her shovel and shouted, "That should be it! Come with me!"

The bad news was that the two of them could hear a groan, like the neighing of a wounded horse, from a great distance.

I am alive, but I don't know how I am living.

Payne's heart tightened, and he shouted, "Medic!!" before rushing over.

Lying there was indeed Norma, her long, light blue hair covered in mud, her small horse ears trembling weakly, her face contorted in pain as she pressed her hand against her tattered military uniform...

Norma, without a surname, was a comrade-in-arms who had accompanied Payne for more than half a year. She was a Marco soldier in the first generation of bio-engineered beastmen project of the Dexter Empire and was also his research subject.

"Lassie! Bandages!" Payne cried, kneeling before Norma. "Where are you hurt?"