The First Order

Chapter 265 Previously kept secret

The pedestrians in Stronghold 108 were all rapidly walking down the street. There were no signs of prosperity in this place anymore. Instead, a depressing atmosphere had set in.

Some noodle shops on the sides of the streets were already closed for the night. A lot of people were lining up in jewelry shops to purchase gold bars. However, the price of gold in the stronghold was already skyrocketing.

Military vehicles often drove past on the roads, as if the atmosphere of war was still not distinct enough.

A curfew had already been implemented in the stronghold. After 10 PM, any pedestrians found on the street would get sent to the Public Order Division to be detained without room for negotiation.

In peacetime, the stronghold residents liked relying on “connections” to get things done. If someone committed a misdemeanor, everything would be alright if they could find an acquaintance to sort out the matter.

But it was different now. It would be tough for those who got sent the Public Order Division to get out until after the war was over.

Connections had suddenly become useless.

Before the curfew time, a thin girl wearing a cap went into a hardware shop. As her hair was short, her long and beautiful neck could glimpsed under her shoulder-length hair that covered it. She was dressed in well-fitting athletic wear. When she raised her arm, the attire emphasized the outline of her slim waist.

She gently knocked on the roller shutter door six times in a row, then paused for two seconds before rapping harder once more.

Someone immediately raised the roller shutter, and the girl bent down to get into the shop.

The owner of the shop was balding. He smiled and said, “You came from the north?”

“Mhm.” The girl said, “Update me on the current situation.”

“Nothing special has happened. It’s rumored that the Divine Arms Battalion suffered a disaster while retreating from the Qing Consortium’s territory. They were attacked by a mysterious sniper on their way back,”

“Next piece of news, I already know about this incident,” interrupted the girl before the shop owner finished.

The shop owner was surprised to hear that but did not probe further. “There’s something else. A battalion of private troops wiped out the Qing Special Forces at Mt. Tantou’s front line yesterday. That was quite sensational news. After all, everyone knows what the private army is capable of. Who would have expected them to defeat the Qing Special Forces? And there’s something else. I haven’t gotten my hands on the Li Consortium’s defensive deployment map yet. Once I have it, I’ll send it in to the higher-ups immediately.”

Half of the girl’s face was hidden under the shadow of her cap. She replied, “There’s no need to update me about things like the defensive deployment map, I won’t be participating in this war. Right now, I need you to help me look for a young man called Ren Xiaosu.”

“OK, I’ll keep it in mind.” The owner said softly, “Do you have any clues on where to start looking?”

The girl thought for a moment before answering, “You can start with wherever something unusual has happened.”

“Unusual?” The owner said, “Nothing unusual has happened recently.”

“That can’t be.” The girl seemed to remember something and said, “Bring me the list for that group of private soldiers.”

The shop owner was stunned. Did this girl suspect that the young man named Ren Xiaosu was among these private soldiers? Because it was somewhat unusual that these private troops were able to defeat the Qing Special Forces? Who was that young man? Why was this girl placing such a great deal of importance on him?

Concurrently, in the Li Consortium’s Research Facility 613, a middle-aged man in a white coat came out of a research laboratory. He said, “Bring in the next batch of samples.”

With those words, the pretty secretary immediately called the sample storage room to inform them. Then the manager of the sample storage room checked on the time the samples were delivered here. He counted out a 100 bottles of nanomachine samples before sending them over to the lab.

One of the bottles was labeled with a note: “Nanomachines started behaving abnormally after tested on a candidate with 0% sync rate.”

Elsewhere, several operators were looking at the corpses of some nanosoldiers in a nanomachine reclamation factory. They were preparing to reclaim the nanomachines in these corpses before proceeding to unlock and reset them.

Huge robotic arms hovered over the bodies as the operators controlled them. The operators were already numb from facing corpses like these all day long.

Outsiders might not know what experiments the Li Consortium was carrying out, but the staff here had been doing the same reclamation operations on a large number of corpses every day. They were not concerned about how these corpses came about, where they came from, or where they would go.

They were only concerned about whether too many corpses would get delivered here tonight and affect the time they finished their shift.

Of course, they were only allowed to return to their closed-door dorms after work since this was a top-secret job. There was even an entire company of soldiers that watched over them.

But it was still much better than having to face these corpses. At the very least, they could still drink free beer or watch videotapes or the like after returning to their dorms. In a way, their daily lives were not exactly that boring.

At this moment, the robotic arm buzzed and vertically descended to a corpse lying flat on a stainless steel bed. There was a needle-like catheter attached to the front of the robotic arm that could be inserted under the skin.

The operator pressed a key on the control panel. But a second later he was stunned. “Why isn’t it reclaiming the nanomachines?”

A coworker next to him said calmly, “There could be some problems. Try again.”

“OK.” After that, the operator on the control panel tried to extract the nanomachines again. But still, nothing happened. “Should we manually operate it? Team leader, please authorize me. I need permission for the manual operation process.”

A middle-aged man came over and entered a long password into the control panel. He instructed, “Try using the C2 remote access protocol.”

When the robotic arm remained motionless, the middle-aged man frowned and said, “It’s still not working? There’s only the C1 remote access protocol left to try? But I don’t have the permissions to access it. I’ll need to seek approval from the Board first.”

But the operator froze. “Team leader, nothing’s gonna work. The nanomachines in his body… are gone!”

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The military trucks were humming noisily as they made their way north on the mountain roads. Li Qingzheng sat in the driver’s seat and roared in high spirits, “Xiaosu, you’re amazing. How did you end up becoming a major in the Li Consortium’s regular troops in the blink of an eye? You’re gonna have such a bright future! Do you know that being a regular soldier of the Li Consortium is completely different in status from being in the private troops?”

Ren Xiaosu pulled a long face next to him. “Enough bullshit, I’ll take over driving for a while…”

“That won’t do. There are still other soldiers in the back of the truck, and we’re driving next to a cliff as well.” Li Qingzheng turned down his battalion commander’s request as he was really afraid of an accident happening. It would be alright to let Ren Xiaosu drive on a flat road, but he did not dare to let him touch the steering wheel while they were traveling on a mountain road. This was even after Ren Xiaosu had been promoted to battalion commander.

Their lives were more important!

The private troops had had their weapons upgraded. Although their total strength had been reduced to 511 people after the previous battle, everyone was now equipped with automatic rifles. Moreover, they were also given plenty of ammunition and even had four heavy machine guns attached to the battalion.

Although their equipment was still inferior to the Li Consortium’s combat troops and they were not even given any rocket launchers, it was much better than what the other private troops had.

Li Qingzheng rubbed the steering wheel as he said with a chuckle, “It wasn’t until today that I finally feel kinda like a soldier! This feels just like a dream. I never could’ve expected we’d wipe out the Qing Special Forces!”