The First Order

Northwest of Mt. Zuoyun, the nanosoldiers did not travel with Luo Lan to the South. Instead, they headed back to the Qing Consortium via the same route they had taken here.

There was already a convoy 300 kilometers away waiting to pick them up for the return trip.

For the nanosoldiers, they were here to rescue Ren Xiaosu with Boss Luo on one hand and also go through combat training on the other. After they returned, the data related to their battle this time would be fully documented and analyzed by a dedicated team. They would assess the performance of all the nanosoldiers and develop more suitable combat strategies and training methods for them.

The nanosoldiers quickly made their way to the rendezvous point, as everyone was eager to return home.

As they had won the battle, everyone was very relaxed. However, the officer at the front suddenly stopped in his tracks and held up his arm. All of the well-trained nanosoldiers behind him immediately crouched down and got ready to provide covering fire.

"Who are you?" The Qing Consortium's officer asked coldly. "Identify yourself, or we'll shoot!"

The other party looked at them with great interest and said, "The nanomachines this time should be enough to last for the short term. Although they're still a little bad, the factory will be set up soon enough. Then there'll be an endless stream of nanomachines being manufactured."

When the officer heard the other party muttering to himself, he got an ominous feeling. The person who spoke said with a smile, "Let me introduce myself. My name is Zero, and I'm here to take command of you all. I guess I'll put you people in charge of the construction of the factory."

Before Zero was done speaking, the 2,000 nanosoldiers' faces turned blank. Three seconds later, their expressions returned to normal again.

However, they did not ask who Zero was and headed straight out into the wilderness. No one knew where they were going.

At the same time, a convoy of vehicles southwest of the Qing Consortium was escorting a newly manufactured batch of nanomachines to Stronghold 111.

The convoy traveled on the road between the mountains with two armored vehicles leading the way, and eight motorcycles and an armored vehicle behind them.

The entire convoy's defenses were extremely tight, and the nanosoldiers in the convoy were constantly on guard against the sudden appearance of anyone.

But the moment they entered a tunnel, all of the nanosoldiers fell into a daze before returning to normal.

They stopped the convoy in the tunnel, and everyone got out of their vehicles to open up the cargo boxes they were transporting. Then they offloaded the boxes containing the nanomachines one by one.

After that, this group of nanosoldiers abandoned their vehicles and quickly carried the nanomachines into the wilderness.

30 minutes later, a voice from the command center rang out over the vehicle's radio. "Report location."

"Alpha Three, report your current location!"

However, no one answered him as the vehicles were empty.

Not even Ren Xiaosu could directly control the nanomachines in the bodies of others. If he wanted to reset the nanomachines, he would have to wait until the targets were in a coma first.

But even though what Zero was doing at this moment might look similar to what Ren Xiaosu did before, the principle behind it was completely different.

The aftermath of the destruction to the Qing Consortium's secret base by Yang Anjing and Wang Wenyan was much worse than they had imagined.

It was just like the time in Luoyang City when Wang Wenyan only needed to bring a palm-sized device to connect to the Qinghe Group's network for Zero to successfully seize the seven satellites.

And this time, the military system of the secret base was a doorway, and no one knew how much Zero had gained after walking through it.

Zero had gained control of the Qing Consortium's nanomachines through the backdoor program the Qing Consortium had built into the nanomachines. This was the first time the artificial intelligence's godlike ability in the field of computer science was on full display.

When the Qing Consortium's troops realized they could no longer contact the convoy, they immediately informed Qing Zhen of the matter. Qing Zhen's first order was to disconnect all of the military's network coverage.

The Qing Consortium then contacted the nanotroops Luo Lan had taken with him. However, they also lost contact with this 2,000-strong force. It was as though they had evaporated into thin air.

Boss Luo had just called to say the battle was over, so how did the 2,000-strong force suddenly become uncontactable?

This time, many of the Qing Consortium's high-ranking commanders could sense that danger was slowly approaching. They quickly asked Qing Zhen what their next step should be, but the Qing Consortium's head did not say anything. It was as though he was still waiting.

…

On the top floor of Hope Media's headquarters in Luoyang City.

Jiang Xu carefully checked the draft in his hands. He read it word by word and line by line as he was afraid inappropriate words would appear in the article.

Chief editors of many newspaper firms were no longer involved in such trivial matters. They would let their editors handle the job of going through the drafts and not carry out the final review personally. They only controlled the direction of their newspaper firms' reporting and the public's opinion as a result.

However, Jiang Xu was exceptionally attentive when it came to publishing the news.

After he finished reading the draft, he picked up a phone on the table and said, "Have Deputy Editor Zhang come in."

In the past, he would have Ji Yi publish the drafts. However, Ji Yi was still retreating with the Pyro Company's troops at this moment, so another deputy chief editor by the name of Zhang Chentong helped with Ji Yi's job.

Jiang Xu took his overcoat from the coat rack. When Deputy Chief Editor Zhang Chentong came in, Jiang Xu instructed, "Arrange for this to be published on the second page tomorrow."

Zhang Chentong picked up the draft from the table. It was an article about the Northwest Army garrisoned at Mt. Zuoyun and their great victory. He looked up and asked, "We haven't been able to contact Mt. Zuoyun at all. Where did you get this news from?"

Jiang Xu seemed to be in a good mood. "This is the Wang Consortium's firsthand account of the battle. I didn't expect them to suddenly send this to me either. The expeditionary army is about to be defeated, and we've achieved a preliminary victory in the war. The Wang Consortium is going to pursue full victory now. Currently, half of the expeditionary army's forces are still stubbornly resisting at Mt. Daniu while the other half has started retreating north."

This was undoubtedly good news. The defeat of the Pyro Company cast the shadow of war on everyone, and they were afraid news of the Wang Consortium's defeat at the front line would reach them again.

"Where are you going?" Zhang Chentong asked with a smile.

"I have classes at Qinghe University. By the way, tell everyone they don't need to work overtime tonight. We've been busy for a long time, so it's time to get some rest." Jiang Xu said with a smile, "But tell them not to drink either. Before the war is over, we still have many things to report about. Once victory is truly assured, we can arrange for everyone's compensatory leave then."

"OK." Zhang Chentong smiled and nodded. However, he thought of something. "By the way, Chief Editor, the Wang Consortium's people still haven't left. They're staying at a hotel in Luoyang City and drop by here punctually every day. We can't keep turning down meeting them like this."