The First Order

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At this moment, a Pyro Company fighting force was convening a meeting to analyze the battle at Stronghold 73.

An after-action review was an extremely important process for all military commanders. It was just like how students specifically kept a notebook to record their mistakes to remind themselves not to repeat the same errors.

In the dark conference room, everyone was sitting upright.

This place did not really look like your usual conference room. It felt more like a prison instead.

One of the attendees said, “We’ve successfully gotten our hands on the lab data this time. I have to say that Commander’s plan of creating a diversion to secretly make our move was a wonderful strategy. Furthermore, Commander has also established our Pyro Company’s dominance on that filth out there. They probably won’t even think about going against us again in the future. I feel that this is really down to the great contribution of Commander!”

The commander glanced at the person who spoke, then calmly said, “This is not the time to bootlick. I want a detailed report of the casualties we suffered.”

His adjutant next to him said, “We have 43 dead, 4 seriously injured, and 17 others who suffered minor injuries.”

The commander frowned and said, “The casualties are much worse than we expected. One-third of our casualties during this operation came from the elite Dusk unit.”

“It was mainly because of that person in the white mask that we suffered so many casualties,” the adjutant calmly encapsulated. “But compared to the casualties, HQ should be rewarding us for our success this time instead of punishing us.”

Everyone’s eyes lit up. This meant they could obtain access to better gene mods as well as greater authority.

The concept of authority within the Pyro Company was a measure of one’s status. Currently, their commander only had P3 authority, with the P4 and P5 personnel outranking him. If he wanted to become a big shot like them, there was still a long way to go.

The commander read through the battle summary and asked, “Who fought against that person in the white mask that day?”

His adjutant replied, “This is where it gets a little strange. Those who fought against him are all dead, so it’s difficult for us to even find out what the opponent’s superpower is.”

Silence fell over the conference room. Anyone who had fought that person directly was dead? So that made it difficult to find out anything useful about the other party?

The most useful information they had was that the other party was a masked male, with his gender determined via his height and physique.

“Designate this person as a T4 threat.” The commander said, “Report this information to HQ.”

Just as P1 to P5 represented the Pyro Company’s internal authority levels, “T” represented the combat power of an individual, or the threat that they posed. The previous person designated as a T4 threat was Li Shentan from the Southwest.

As for T5, no one was assessed to be at that threat level yet.

However, the Pyro Company firmly believed that such a person would definitely appear in the Era of Gods.

…

At the same time the Pyro Company was conducting its after-action review, the Anjing House was also having theirs. In a residential area, several people had gathered around a dining table and were discussing as they ate. “We still have much to learn from our experience this time. Based on our assessment, the Pyro Company has already obtained the lab data with the help of the Riders. However, the Riders still haven’t found what they wanted and have already returned to Luoyang City.

“What was unexpected that day was that the Pyro Company’s infiltration methods were even more brilliant than we knew. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have made the wrong assessment of how many people they had in the stronghold. Therefore, we must be more careful in the future. The Pyro Company is an extremely strong opponent, so don’t underestimate them.

“Another thing is, someone kept using different cell phones to receive the rewards for the mission that day. This led to us getting the wrong impression of how many people had responded to our mission that day. We only learned later on that a person in a white mask that came to mess things up had stolen a bunch of C and B-rank hitmen’s cell phones before the battle broke out. Therefore, he was the one who killed over 20 of the Pyro Company members.”

Vanilla frowned as he listened to this. Only now did he say, “He killed so many people single-handedly? Just how godly is he? Why is he so powerful? Do you have any more detailed information about him?”

“His identity is unknown, but his height is estimated to be between 182 to 185 centimeters. According to the A-rank hitmen, he has an extremely strong physique, so it’s very likely that he’s a superhuman with extreme physical strength.” A girl at the dining table touched her newly regrown canine teeth and said, “Our A-rank hitmen didn’t engage in combat with him directly, so the Pyro Company should have more information about him.”

This girl’s canine teeth were a little strange-looking. They were much longer than the other teeth she had and made her look like a vampire.

Vanilla sat in his chair with his arms crossed and said, “You have to keep an eye on this superhuman. Moving in and out of the chaotic battlefield so casually, it’s like everything is just a game to him. The strength of a person like that is truly terrifying.”

The girl with the long canine teeth said, “However, that person killed many of the Pyro Company’s members for us. So the boss intends to pay out all the rewards so we can foster this relationship and continue observing him.”

Playing with sugar syrup next to them, the old man pursed his lips and said, “How are we going to keep an eye on him? We don’t know what he looks like, and he owns so many cell phones as well, so how are we going to track his movements? Do you know which cell phone he’ll be using for the next mission?”

“Wait a minute.” The girl with the long canine teeth was stunned. “There was also a D-rank hitman in Stronghold 61 who liked to steal the cell phones of the other hitmen. The boss even went down to Stronghold 61’s town specifically to investigate. Could he be that person?”

Vanilla was at a loss. “Do you really think that guy has nothing better to do and became a D-rank hitman? Why do I find it hard to believe…”

In fact, the Anjing House had also suspected Zhou Yingxue before. After all, when she went to Stronghold 73 to kill Zhou Xilong, the D-rank hitmen over there were similarly wiped out.

From the looks of it, the suspicions on Zhou Yingxue could be eased for the time being as they had temporarily identified the suspect to be male. After all, Vanilla had seen Zhou Yingxue before. With her figure, there was no way she could disguise herself as a man even with a mask on.

In that chaotic battle, the man in the white mask had become the focus of the Pyro Company and the Anjing House after they sat down to analyze the situation. Everyone wanted to find him, but there weren’t any good leads on where to start.

The radiance of that white-masked man even concealed the role that Ren Xiaosu’s original self had played on the battlefield. Just like that, Ren Xiaosu’s participation that night had been ignored.

Vanilla asked, “Can we investigate those anonymous accounts? As long as he tries to withdraw the money, we can find his whereabouts.”

“We’re already on that, but what I’m most worried about is that he’ll go to the casino at the Qinghe Group to get the money out. If he does that, the last lead we have will be cut off.”