I double click the desktop shortcut with a black plane icon and red diamond background. The main music theme fills my ears before being overshadowed by my Spotify playlist. Various boosters roll across the monitor as I receive my daily login number 129. It then stopped on a 10% booster for all allies which got a smirk from me. I select the research tab and remind myself how many research points left before I have to purchase a new stock tank. The vision of grinding a new tier all over again pained me as I picture an anti tank guided missile flying towards me with an ammo explosion in mind.

I click the research button again to minimize the tech tree tab and click to battle. My vision turns black, I reach and try to feel for my keyboard or desk but all my hands are met with is hand full of air. My breathing quickens as I try and figure out what was happening. Did I happen to die in that moment, but from what? I just wanted to grind rank V.

My eyes seemed to open again as grass was the first recognizable thing from my returning sense of sight. The shade was the most prevalent aspect of the surroundings, sunlight not being able to reach all the way down the crevasse I resided in. The space in between the mountains was wide enough from a rough estimate to house a four lane street with little room so spare. The dreadful part about my surroundings was the fact that it's path continued as far as I could see, with fog so far away I doubt it covered anything different.

Judging from the shade, the sun should pass over me in the coming hour if it was close enough to begin with. I curse aloud when I realized that I was probably in hell. I only had the clothes on my back, but no phone, food or water.

This landscape spoke of death now, and looking down either direction didn't ease my nerves. I close my eyes and breathe in before picking the direction I thought was west and watch my back occasionally.

The temperature drop was also noticeable, add the wind to that and we get very uncomfortable weather for shorts and a t-shirt. When I saw something shiny on the ground in front of me, that object gave me hope as fast as it took it away.

Imbedded in the dirt and rock, was a skeleton in plate armor that was forced into the side of the mountain with so much momentum cracks were visible along the rock. I step closer to the corpse, well, doesn't something have to have some flesh on it for it to be considered one? Eh, doesn't matter, grass was growing in between the gaps in the armor, so it didn't look like it was moving anytime soon.

There was a marking on the chest piece, but due to the major dent it was hard to read. I move in close but a menu screen makes me weirded out.

"Lost Warrior of Nako, Lvl. 59, Trial 99/100"

Oh I see, this pile of bones and metal gave me some lore. Yippi kai yay, so since this guy was number 99, I am magically number 100? Well I'm fucking screwed. The other menu that pops up brings a look of utter disbelief that I wish I could have seen.

"Hello JustAhJawsh, on behalf of the Gaijin support team, we have realize that your previous profile data has corrupted for War Thunder, since you have purchased premium time/vehicles which gave us a reason to inform you. Resigning in to the Gaijin game launcher and relaunching the game should fix all issues. If problems still occur, visit Support.Gaijin.net for more info."

A fucking Gaijin message. Talk about snail mail. So they inform me but don't provide a solution to the problem, classic Gaijin. A second menu pops up launching war thunder in it's little window. The loading screens finishes the loading process and I am required to select my starting nation. I smirk before selecting the United States flag which extends the research tab.

The crew slots were empty, so I played along and added the first tank you get when starting out, the M2A4 rank 1, battle rating of 1.0. Reload rate of 3.7 seconds, a 37mm M5 cannon. Max load of 103 rounds of M51 shot. 72mm of penetration at 100 meters and below. The 5 M1919A4 machine guns with 24,000 rounds shared amongst them. That fire 7.62mm armor piercing tracers so be more specific. The other vehicle you get for free the LVT(A)(1), battle rating 1.0. also rank 1. Was the other reserve tank that boasted a 37mm M6 cannon with 104 max shells. The same reload rate. But only 3 M1919A4 machine guns with 9000 available rounds. I ignored the weight, crew, and armor statistics, since they hardly mattered when a round ended up inside the tank either way.

The questionable thing I did after that was clicking the to battle button again. This time however, I found a match, and the minimap that loaded didn't surprise me. Showing the playable area consisted of a single long valley pass with a glitch map name of "Passage of Distronem." I select the M2A4 and load all 103 rounds of armor piercing and click to battle one last time. In that moment, the sound of an idle engine behind me left me speechless. Well there it was, the little reserve tank, unmoving and well, looking quite idle.

The muffled sound of voices did escape through the semi open driver hatch which prompted me to just wait it out. After a minute, the commanded hatch groaned open with a thud and a women in an American tanker helmet locks eyes with me before smiling. Damn the tank was tall in person.

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

"Hello Mr. Hanco sir, I am a tank commander from the 1st Armor Division sir."

"Uh yes hello, do you find it fine if you move your tank a little more to the right for me, there is another tank that needs to be present."

"Right away sir, driver line up on the right side of the cliff."

Oh that's right, there are no infantry in this game, only vehicles and their crews, I doubt this won't be too much of a problem. Oh wait that's right, I can only spawn in one tank at a time I totally forgot. I check the loadout screen again with doubt, and to my luck, the to battle button was not greyed out when I selected the LVT(A)(1). Though this one spawned a little bit off the ground so the sound of the collision with the ground was loud enough to echo a little bit.

"Oh heavens laugh another summoner. By the gods I have lost count the amount of them we have slain during this trial, no matter how sacred or powerful the beast, the summoner always perishes first."

"But guildmaster, I know our orders are to find a noble soul from a different realm to fight for us, but this trial, it's proven way to difficult for the past 99 participants. So many of them were just children, or elderly. They couldn't stand a chance against the stoned beast of slades, I fear our lack of results with end in our death from the king. Maybe they could come up with an alternate-"

"Silence apprentice, our world will be overrun with the beast of slades unless we find anyone who can kill them. Do you think we are the only kingdom sacrificing our people to try and stop their threat. Our methods aren't even cruel compared to the Slaughter of Guildstoff or the at the Battle of Sinco. I fear our efforts here will be in vain, after this boy's trial, we move further inland and report our findings."

"Hey LVT crew, are you shaken up a bit?" I get a chuckle in response.

"That woke us up commander, are we the only ones left?"

"What are you talking about."

"About the War of Thunder, you are the Supreme Allied Commander after all. You gave us two great victories at Normandy and Kursk. And don't forget the engagement at the abandoned factory. We could all see your defeat wasn't in vain. The enemy only one due to us losing the air battle, it wasn't your fault. Or the fact that nations switched sides in the middle of combat, boy it was a mess."

"Did you make it out of there alive or...?"

"We returned to the hangar like we always do, hey M2, how's it going?"

"Oh hey LVT, we are doing alright, but those stukas really gave my driver a scare."

"Oh shut up, it was the fact that I couldn't hear your orders that made me panic in that moment."

"Do any of you guys have room to spare?"

"I'm sorry sir, but we are currently at full capacity at the moment, you can still ride with us though, hop on the our roof machine gun."

"Alright I'll climb aboard." I place my foot on the track and grab onto the engine cover and lift myself over. I grasp the gun handle and peek over the top of the turret

The exhaust kept me warm as I relay my first order. "Ok both tanks in first gear, side by side let's get moving."

"Copy that sir." The tanks took a while to line up, but we set off without a hitch. The grassy dirt path didn't provide a smooth ride and I was forced on my ass to keep myself from sliding off.

"Contact 6 o clock!" The rear machine gunners opened fire, bullets visible bouncing off whatever was approaching. The 2 30 cals continue to spit lead but weren't looking confident while shooting. The LVT and M2A4 were turning forcing me to jump off the and watch from there.

"Another beast that shoots fire, this is not even worth the spectacle, we can leave now, saving some time for our main journey."

"Load armor piercing!" "Up and ready sir."

"Firing, hit confirmed."

The round soared through the, striking against the grey covered entity shaped to mimic a fast predator. It struggle to walk, before replacing it torn off limb with a newly grown one. Though the other round made it's mark as well, launching the beast back with a critical hit notification blocking my vision.

"Keep firing, it's immobile." The 30 cals were relentless, already firing hundreds of rounds into whatever that thing was. So many hit notifications popped up that they became overlapping. With the fact that I was earning 20 silver lions and 5 research per hit.

The armor piercing rounds ripping away the rock like matter from the constant blows. When I closed the notification tab, I could see that the beast had no fight left in it. Motionless on the ground, taking the same punishment over and over till we ceased fire.

"Move up first gear." The tank rotated their hulls slowly before both facing frontally. I ascend up the LVT this time and find a comfy rag to sit on while the rear machine gunners, stays silent at my sides. We halt as the kill feed shows up eliminating a stoned beast of slades, whatever the fuck that was.

"My god, the boy has done it, he is a hero. Servant, alert the king this instance, we have a savior after all these years. I must speak with immediately."

The rock to my left splits open, which makes the turret face it down immediately. A man in blue and white robes, with a shaved chin and bald head steps out with an eager look and grin bows his head.

"Oh great summoner, you have shown me that you can help our people from suffering any longer, the Kingdom of Ecoshina will reward and assist you greatly in your endeavors. We guarantee that if you secure lands in our house name, our noble lord will offer you one of his daughters, a castle in your name, and a seat at the round table."

Wow all of that just for killing a single beast, not to mention this was the earliest stage of tank development in the tree.

"Where are my formalities, I am Guildmaster Sir Albert Bines, if you would please come with me to let your actions be known, they will cherish you in the kingdom I swear it to you."

"What about this mountain pass, it seems to go on for an ungodly distance."

"Oh ignore that troublesome thought in your head young sir, I can carve a path out of this trial arena."

The earth and rock move again revealing an opening big enough to fit a Maus. The makeshift passage leaves enough room for us to travel single file out of it. The set of 3 carriages trot forward at a painfully slow pace. We had to constantly stop at 2nd gear to avoid collisions.

It remained dark inside but sunlight at the end of the tunnel obscured what lay past it. The 3rd carriage in line dipped down the path at the opening and the great vast wasteland was not the sight I was expecting. An abandoned camp with tattered tents and broken barricades lay still with not even a smoke cloud left.