The First Order

As the rear of Position 313 was a vast emptiness, Ren Xiaosu drove all the way south to Stronghold 108 without having any trouble after stealing the truck.

When they were going the other way earlier, it had taken them half an hour just to get their identities verified. Now that all of the soldiers had been deployed to the front lines, only the sentries guarding the firearms and logistics remained behind to prevent spies from sneaking in.

However, this frontline head spy of the Qing Consortium was about to leave instead. He did not even have time to inform Tang Zhou about it.

It was all quiet in the truck. Ren Xiaosu just stepped on the gas the entire way while Chen Wudi, Wang Yuchi, and the others said nothing

On the road back to Stronghold 108, Ren Xiaosu nearly broke into a cold sweat when they arrived at a checkpoint, in fear that the soldiers here would stop them.

He straight-up flashed his Office of Special Investigations ID at them. With that, no one dared to stop him from passing through.

Ren Xiaosu realized that his arrest warrant was still under wraps. Otherwise, Li Dingding would not have had to keep his investigations so secretive.

What he wanted to do now was to quickly rush back to the stronghold before the Li Consortium issued orders to go after him. Then he would find an opportunity to take Yan Liuyuan and the others away!

As for where they could go, they could think about it later.

Currently, the flames of war had also engulfed the roads in the north leading to the Yang Consortium’s Stronghold 88. Although the Yang Consortium’s armored brigade had just made headway at Mt. Qingsheng’s front line during the night, they were cut off from the rear by a mysterious group of nanosoldiers before they could stabilize the battlegrounds. This made the battle reach even more of an impasse.

Therefore, even if Ren Xiaosu were to head north, it wouldn’t be feasible for him to go either to the Qing Consortium or the Yang Consortium.

But if there were really no other way, Ren Xiaosu would just have everyone hide out in the wilderness. Although wild animals and poisonous bugs in the southwestern region were rampant, he had the Brambles in his possession now. Who knew if he could trade for other types of seeds someday? If that happened, they would not have to face such tremendous pressure while living in the wilderness.

It only took Ren Xiaosu about four hours to return to the stronghold. If not for the uneven mountainous terrain that was difficult to travel through, he could have driven even faster.

Ren Xiaosu flashed his ID when he reached the stronghold gate. He kept an eye on the guards’ expressions in case something unexpected happened.

However, the garrison soldiers did not say anything. They were very polite and just let them through, and there was nothing unusual about their expressions.

Ren Xiaosu could finally heave a sigh of relief. The Li Consortium would probably not have expected that the person they wanted to arrest would actually return to the stronghold at such a time.

But they needed to be even more careful here. If the Li Consortium discovered them, they would have nowhere to escape to.

After getting into the stronghold, Ren Xiaosu parked the truck. “Change into your own clothes and get some rest. I’ll think about how to locate Liuyuan and the others.”

Chen Wudi calmly got out of the truck. “Blargh!”

“Wudi, what’s the matter?” Ren Xiaosu asked in surprise.

“Master, I’m OK… blargh!” Chen Wudi, the self-proclaimed reincarnation of the Great Sage, had boasted he was not afraid of anything was now only fearful of his master’s driving!

Bullets and whatnot were only physical attacks; his master’s driving was a magical attack. It was different.

Ren Xiaosu said calmly, “Wudi, this won’t do. How can you get motion sickness so easily? Look at the others, they’re all fine.”

He turned around to look and saw one of the students vomiting so hard he almost fainted. With that, Ren Xiaosu did not continue speaking. He asked the palace, “What’s my driving proficiency?”

The voice from the palace said, “Unable to detect any driving skills.”

“…Alright…”

Their plan was to locate Yan Liuyuan first. But after thinking for a long time, Ren Xiaosu still couldn’t come up with any ideas. After all, this was such a huge stronghold. When they were hurrying to the front line, they did not talk about how to contact each other again. So now the only way was to get Hu Shuo to solve that problem for them.

But how was he supposed to find Hu Shuo?

When Ren Xiaosu started asking around for directions on the streets, he flat-out asked how to get to the Office of Special Investigations. However, no one was able to answer. It seemed that the Office of Special Investigations was a really secretive unit.

At this moment, Chen Wudi said, “Master, even though the bullets in them have already been taken out, we don’t know how to set their bones. If we drag this out any longer, they likely aren’t gonna be able to walk normally again.”

Ren Xiaosu frowned. All of Wang Yuchi and the others’ injuries were gunshot wounds. Although Chen Wudi had already helped them remove the bullets and applied the black medicine to their wounds, anyone could easily recognize these as gunshot wounds if they were sent to the hospital. It would be even more troublesome if they attracted the attention of Stronghold 108’s garrison troops!

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment. Since they could not find Hu Shuo, they had to make Hu Shuo find them.

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu heard someone quarreling in a provisions store nearby. “We don’t accept the Qing Consortium and the Yang Consortium’s currency here. Their money is as worthless as paper now. If you don’t have our Li Consortium’s currency, don’t come here and shop.”

A woman got down on her knees in the provisions store and started crying. “My family hasn’t had anything to eat for the past two days. Can’t you just sell me some rice? This is the money my family used for their investments in the past. It’ll definitely appreciate again after the war is over!”

Ren Xiaosu watched all of this quietly. However, he did not say anything.

After the war broke out, all provisions would get supplied to the military with priority. This led to the shortage of food in Stronghold 108, which was closest to the front lines.

Ren Xiaosu realized that even the stronghold residents would not get to lead a comfortable life when there was a war.

Suddenly, the voice from the palace said, “Quest: Help 10 stronghold residents who are suffering from the war.”

Hardy har har. Ren Xiaosu ignored it when he saw this quest. As he was still on the run, how the fuck would he have the capacity to help others?!

But Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment. He turned around and said to Chen Wudi, “Let’s go, I got an idea.”

After he said that, he got in the truck. He stepped on the gas pedal and started driving around the stronghold. He only came to a stop when he found a gold shop. Ren Xiaosu entered the gold shop and bluntly asked, “Do you accept gold?”

The shop owner’s eyes lit up. “Sir, how much gold would you like to exchange?”

Since the war was still ongoing, the most valuable item was gold. Moreover, gold was still appreciating in value. It used to go for several hundred yuan per gram in the stronghold, but the price of a gram now had almost appreciated to over a thousand yuan.

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“Don’t ask me how much I want to exchange.” Ren Xiaosu said as he looked at the shop owner, “Let me ask you this: Do you have any Yang Consortium currency here?”

“Ah?” The boss got overjoyed. The gold shops in the stronghold usually performed some financial services as well. For example, they used to allow businessmen to convert currencies of the various organizations. Some businessmen were willing to convert them here as long as the transaction fee was lower than what the Li Consortium’s banks charged.

Unfortunately, a war had broken out, and he was holding both the Yang Consortium and Qing Consortium currencies with him. Their money was currently even more worthless than paper!

But the young man in front of him actually wanted to trade for the Yang Consortium’s currency at this juncture? Had he lost his mind?

Ren Xiaosu frowned and said, “Do you want to exchange it or not?”

“Yes! Of course I want to! Why wouldn’t I want to exchange it!” The owner of the gold shop had been holding onto the Yang Consortium’s currency for some time now and hadn’t been able to get rid of it. If someone wanted to trade for it now, of course he would gladly accept it.

He did not care whether Ren Xiaosu would suffer a great loss because of this. How many people were already suffering because of the war? One more person wouldn’t make a difference at all!