The First Order

The night was like an overcast cloud hanging over the entire stronghold, and under this dark cloud, many people were making their way over to the East Lake Tunnel in a hurry.

In the dark of the night, the pitch-black East Lake was like a giant magnet drawing in speckles of iron dust inside the stronghold.

Ren Xiaosu had guessed many underworld criminals would turn up this time, but he did not expect so many.

But upon further thinking, it rather made sense. Ignoring the other forces that had turned up, just the A-rank hitmen from the Anjing House alone would already number in the dozens. After all, only those who successfully killed members of the Pyro Company this time would qualify for the Anjing House trials next year.

Ren Xiaosu reckoned that at least half of all the Anjing House’s A-rank hitmen had shown up this time.

However, the closer Ren Xiaosu got to East Lake, the more he felt that something was off. According to Zhou Yingxue, the Pyro Company was not an organization that was easy to deal with. How else could they control eight strongholds in a place like the Central Plains?

Would a large organization like them allow their plans to get disrupted so easily?

Furthermore, why did this research laboratory have to be located in an abandoned tunnel of all places?

There were originally three entrances to the East Lake Tunnel. But according to the mob bosses at the spa center, two of these entrances had been sealed off. Hence, it was impossible to get in without resorting to a violent skirmish.

There was only one tunnel entrance left, after all, and it was even in an airtight space and at the bottom of the lake.

If the tunnel were to collapse, it would be hard for those who went in to come out alive since there would be nowhere to escape to.

Looking at the fanatical eyes of those who were making their way towards the East Lake Tunnel, Ren Xiaosu slowed down.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu heard someone whispering a short distance away, “Isn’t that the young man who went for those nightly jogs?”

Ren Xiaosu spun around and was surprised to see a man in a cleaner’s uniform he’d seen before. After all, it was rather eye-catching to see someone wearing an earpiece while doing cleaning.

Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled at that time. He wondered which organization this person who was pretending to be a cleaner was from. Did he really think no one would notice he was wearing an earpiece?

But Ren Xiaosu simply ignored them. Rather, he was surprised when he turned around and saw a man wearing a director’s vest leading about a dozen people with cameras and equipment on their shoulders. They were also rushing towards the East Lake Tunnel like the others.

He was probably what they called a “movie director,” right?!

The director was running and shouting at the same time, “Move quickly! Don’t miss out on capturing the most exciting scenes. When these scenes get edited into a documentary about superhumans, I’ll be famous!”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Someone was even trying to film a documentary on superhumans?

A moment later, Ren Xiaosu saw a familiar figure running extremely quickly in front of him. Ren Xiaosu felt that he looked quite familiar, but he could not remember who it was.

Wait a minute! Wasn’t that fucking Wang Congyang? How could he forget someone so important? He had copied the Steam Locomotive power from him, after all.

But what was this guy doing at Stronghold 73?

By the time Ren Xiaosu wanted to catch up to him and give him a good thrashing, Wang Congyang was already nowhere to be seen. Ren Xiaosu didn’t know where he had gone.

When Ren Xiaosu reached the entrance of the tunnel, he was greeted by the sight of overgrown wild grass everywhere. As it was already late fall, the vegetation here was starting to wither.

Ren Xiaosu lay in the tall grass and did not rush in rashly. However, he saw the underworld criminals flick on their flashlights one by one and rush straight into the tunnel.

When the people at the back saw those at the front rushing into the tunnel, they didn’t think much and followed in right behind them.

It was beginning to get very chaotic as hundreds of people gathered from nearby. Nobody had much time to process what was happening, and most of the people were only thinking about the astronomical prices they could get if they managed to get their hands on even a page of laboratory data.

Only a minority could remain calm like Ren Xiaosu.

However, Ren Xiaosu did not lie idle either and summoned his shadow clone. But he was cautious this time and manipulated the shadow clone into putting on his clothes. After pulling the hood over its head, it even put on a white mask for additional security.

Yang Xiaojin had reminded him about this in the past. Since he did not want to expose the fact that he had a shadow clone, he had to disguise it as a person.

At this moment, the shadow clone looked just like a normal human being with the clothes and mask on. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu pulled his own hood over his head and lay quietly in the grass.

Then Ren Xiaosu saw the film crew he had left behind earlier finally arrive at the tunnel entrance. These people were really bold. Was this a place normal people should be coming to?

The director said, “It’s right here! Set up the equipment quickly!”

The dozen-odd members of the film crew got down to work. Some of them set up the cameras while others laid out the dolly tracks. Someone even brought a camping chair for the director to use.

A person in the film crew said, sounding somewhat afraid, “Director, will it really be safe here? My wife’s about to give birth. I don’t want anything to happen to me….”

The director barked, “Hey, don’t jinx it! Don’t you know that you shouldn’t say such things in our line of work?”

Ren Xiaosu was speechless.

Nearby, one of the crew members said hesitantly, “But the people here are all very dangerous.”

The director said scornfully, “This is art! Do you know what art is? Without the spirit of dedication to art, how are we supposed to make a wonderful documentary?”

“Director, you never said anything about making a documentary before. We’ve always been shooting commercial films,” a crew member muttered.

“Great ideas are often born in a split second.” The director said proudly, “Think about it. The world has already started changing, hasn’t it? Has there been anyone who’s made a documentary about real superhumans before? At the most, we’ve had real superhumans getting cast in movies! But think about what we are doing now! We’re going to present this magical, wild world to the audience to show them what the real world of superhumans is like! Don’t you guys think this idea is so exciting it’ll make people sleepless? Once the documentary is completed, my name will go down in history!”

Off to the side in the grass, Ren Xiaosu curled his lips. He could only hope the film crew would stay away from him and his shadow clone. As for filming the documentary, they would first have to survive before they could talk about that.

Watching more and more people heading into the tunnel, Ren Xiaosu stayed stationary. After all, his goal was to capture a member of the Pyro Company for Zhou Yingxue to complete her mission, not get his hands on some laboratory data.

Right now, Ren Xiaosu only wanted to help Zhou Yingxue join the Anjing House. He would be happy just to achieve this goal.

Furthermore, while the laboratory data was probably worth a lot of money, those who managed to get their hands on it would still have to make their way out from the only exit, wouldn’t they?

As such, Ren Xiaosu felt that there was nothing wrong with him biding his time out here.