The First Order

The people at Stronghold 74 had never thought that seven days would feel this long. Usually, a week would fly by, but these seven days felt like seven years.Old Li seemed full of worries these days. He contacted the other Riders to ask if they knew anything else and whether there was any information they might have neglected.

Actually, Old Li and Qin Sheng did not care so much about the battle between Stronghold 74 and the Experimentals anymore. To them, they were simply defending Stronghold 74 out of a sense of justice.

Just as a hero would step in to help when there was injustice, Old Li and Qin Sheng did not intend to sacrifice themselves to save Stronghold 74.

It was not that they were not resolute in facing a common enemy with the entire human race, but if they could not protect the city even after trying their best, they would rather not die in combat here.

Even though everyone said the Riders were kind and good people, it was only because they had helped a lot of people and were remembered fondly.

But the Riders had something more important they needed to do.

That was why they had carved “only faith, the sun, and the moon are eternal” at the top of the mountain instead of protecting world peace.

In the Riders’ opinion, world peace might be important, but it was not as important as what they believed in.

As part of the Riders, they would have to put finding that Rider’s descendant as their main priority.

Old Li and Qin Sheng kept contacting the rest of the Riders as they wanted to verify whether the Experimentals were really looking for the same person as them.

But after asking around for a long time, everyone expressed that due to severe loss of information, they only knew the person they were looking for was called Ren Xiaobei and that he was rather handsome. He was known to be in the Pyro Company’s research laboratory and was definitely still alive.

This information might seem like a lot, but it was actually very vague.

Old Li and Qin Sheng were sitting on a rooftop in the stronghold with no one around. Old Li suddenly said, “Why would the descendant of that Rider be in the Pyro Company’s research lab? Before this, I didn’t quite understand why that Rider would send his son to the Pyro Company as a guinea pig for research, so it didn’t feel to me like that Rider was someone who could be counted on. But now, combined with what that Experimental told me, I figured that Rider’s descendant must’ve also contracted a terminal disease. Hence, as his last hope, he was forced to send his own son to the Pyro Company.”

Qin Sheng nodded in seriousness. “That makes sense, Teacher.”

Old Li continued to deduce, “That Rider said his son must still be alive, so does it mean his son’s fully recovered? So could the Experimentals be looking for the same person as us?”

Qin Sheng nodded again. “That makes sense, teacher.”

Old Li tugged at his own hair. “But what’s the use even if we know all this? Where are we going to look for him now that the Qing Consortium’s Stronghold 113 and Stronghold 112 have been buried? It’s useless even if we know that he’s quite handsome. Why don’t we put out a notice in the newspapers that we’re looking for Ren Xiaobei? If he sees it, he might just come looking for us. If you say that I made sense again, I’m going to beat you up.”

Qin Sheng said awkwardly, “But wouldn’t he be put in danger if other forces with ulterior motives also start looking for him after we put out a notice in the papers? Besides, the Pyro Company has already deviated from their path, so who knows if they might have other ideas about Ren Xiaobei.”

“That’s true.” Old Li looked at the sky and sighed, “This is so difficult!”

The Pyro Company had been pushed into the spotlight again because of the Experimentals. It seemed that everyone had already forgotten the Pyro Company was also involved in guarding the city and started turning their attention to attack them for creating those monsters.

They even speculated that the Pyro Company had ulterior motives for guarding the city. The garrison in Stronghold 74 gradually began ostracizing the Pyro Company members and no longer told them about any important details regarding the protection of the city.

It was both sad and laughable that humans started fighting among themselves before the final battle had even begun.

The residents in Stronghold 74 had run out of food again. In a large pot of porridge, there were probably only several dozen grains of rice. After eating the porridge, the residents would at most feel bloated with water before starting to feel hungry again in less than an hour.

Fortunately, there was still water available in the stronghold. If not, a lot of people would have died.

The greenway and trees by the roadside had already been stripped clean, leaving only bare branches behind.

Some stronghold residents even hoped the Experimentals would attack earlier so that their suffering could end as quickly as possible. No matter which side won, at least there would be an outcome.

Li Ran and the others had also run out of food, but they were in an even more miserable state than the other residents in the stronghold. Not only were they hungry, but they still had to bear with the smell of meat every day. What a terrible feeling this was! They could smell the food, but they could not eat it!

During the past two days, Li Ran harassed Ren Xiaosu both nights. As a result, he did not even go back to the hotel anymore. After that, Li Ran proceeded to harass Zhou Yingxue. This time, she finally managed to get some food from her. After all, Zhou Yingxue was not a heartless person.

When Fang Zhi, who was standing guard at the door, asked her what she was eating, Li Ran wiped off the oil on her lips and replied, “I was only given some potatoes to eat.”

Then Li Ran stuffed about six potatoes into Fang Zhi’s hands. “Distribute these to everyone so they can fill their stomachs a little.”

As Ren Xiaosu walked down the street, he saw some people sitting on the curb. There were some signs placed in front of them: “Will work for food.”

This was a relatively civilized approach. Some people even turned to stealing or robbing.

In fact, there was not much of a difference between the stronghold residents and refugees anymore. When they were driven to desperation, they would resort to any means necessary just to obtain some food.

Most of the time, Ren Xiaosu would just be keeping guard at the top of some high-rise buildings. He was not doing this for anything other than to ensure that the Experimentals would not suddenly crawl out of some hole in the ground again.

He felt this could also be considered as doing his part to defend the stronghold. At this moment, no one in the city would be spared if the stronghold were invaded.

And Ren Xiaosu was thinking about a problem. In reality, it had to be really difficult to find Experimental 001. The Experimentals should also know this since they had already destroyed so many strongholds in the Southwest. Even if they could find him, it would be impossible for Experimental 001 to get to Stronghold 74 within seven days.

Then why did the Experimentals make such a request? They even gave them a seven-day deadline?

Ren Xiaosu was already used to assuming the worst with the Experimentals. After all, their wisdom was already on par with that of normal people or might even have far surpassed that of normal human beings.

Could that negotiation also have been one of the Experimentals’ tactics?

…

At this moment, several refugee workers were slacking behind the defensive fortifications next to the stronghold walls. They had it slightly better than the stronghold residents. At the very least, they still had some porridge to eat while they were locked up in the barracks. After all, the Zhou Consortium troops still needed them to work.

While several refugee workers were chatting and bragging, the area one of them was sitting on suddenly caved in.

The refugee who fell into the pit was shocked. He thought he was done for. There had to be some Experimentals hiding inside of this pit. This had to be an attack by the Experimentals!

After falling in, he realized the tunnel was really leading towards the outside of the stronghold. However, he did not see any Experimentals inside.

He hurriedly got out of the pit and reported it to the Zhou Consortium troops.

A soldier of the Zhou Consortium used a powerful military flashlight and went down into the pit to investigate. But after just walking a few dozen meters forward, he saw something before him covered with a tarp.

When he lifted the tarp to have a look, he saw some military ammunition boxes underneath that were labeled… “TNT”!

The Zhou Consortium soldier started panicking. He yelled at the people behind him, “There’s a bomb!”

This bomb was planted right below the foundations of the stronghold walls.