The First Order

"Did you send me back to the Northwest so you could take Zhou Yingxue to Luoyang City with you?" Yang Xiaojin asked Ren Xiaosu nonchalantly as she sat down on the sofa.

Ren Xiaosu, who had been sitting on the sofa and reading a book, trembled. "I only asked you to return to the Northwest because I care about you. There were no other motivations. I got Zhou Yingxue to come to Luoyang City because her superpower is more suitable for such large-scale battles."

Before this, Yang Xiaojin did not make any mention of this matter. As a result, Ren Xiaosu thought they were already past that.

However, Yang Xiaojin did not mention it because she was considerate of the overall situation and did not want to argue over such trifles during critical moments. However, this did not mean she had forgotten about it.

Ren Xiaosu quickly put down the book in his hand and walked over to ask, "Does your shoulder still hurt? Do you want me to massage it for you?"

"It's OK." Yang Xiaojin waved it off. "Although applying the black medicine on it didn't work as miraculously as when used on external wounds, it still recovered quicker than usual. It doesn't hurt that much anymore."

Someone from the Qing Consortium who was in charge of the security around the villa came in and reported to Ren Xiaosu, "There's someone who'd like to see you."

"Who is it? It must be something very important. I better go handle it." Ren Xiaosu followed the Qing Consortium personnel and walked out.

Yang Xiaojin's eyebrows twitched. She wanted to fire a shot at Ren Xiaosu's back with her black sniper rifle.

The person who came to see Ren Xiaosu was the director of the Public Order Division of Luoyang City. Actually, this was not the only person who had come to pay Ren Xiaosu a visit. After chasing away a group of them earlier this morning, their enthusiasm did not subside.

In fact, authority was something that could make everyone circle around you. As long as you had the authority, not even beating these people with a stick could stop them from flocking to you.

However, the director of the Public Order Division had also heard about what happened in the morning. He was here purely to express his attitude and prove he did come to call on Ren Xiaosu before.

After all, some high-ranking officials were very erratic. If you went to call on them, they might chase you away as though they were very moral.

But if you didn't, they would remember and mark you in their minds.

So actually, driving them away was just an act.

Now that Luoyang City had been taken over by Ren Xiaosu, who knew exactly which type of person he was?

The director of the Public Order Division had been involved in politics for a long time and had seen too many unwritten rules practiced. Therefore, he felt he had to make this trip regardless. It didn't matter even if he got chased away since that wouldn't hurt him.

However, just as he was mentally prepared to be driven away, he saw Ren Xiaosu walking out enthusiastically to welcome him, and he even took the initiative to shake hands with him!

The director of the Public Order Division was a little flattered. "Oh? You actually came out to meet me? I'm a little nervous."

He thought to himself, 'It's just as I thought! The group of people who came in the morning were simply not important enough. That's why they got chased away. As the director of the Public Order Division, of course I won't get rejected! I still carry more weight!'

Ren Xiaosu gripped the director's hand and chuckled, "You must be the director of the Public Order Division of Luoyang City, right? Good job in gathering the surveillance footage."

The director of the Public Order Division felt touched and said, "You're too kind. I'm really ashamed that you had to trouble yourself over such a trivial matter. I heard about you a while ago. You were totally our Luoyang City's guardian angel during the Battle of Wangchunmen Boulevard. Since it's the first time I'm meeting you despite hearing about you for some time, I've brought you some gifts."

Ren Xiaosu's eyes lit up. "You're too polite. What did you bring?"

The director of the Public Order Division was stumped. 'He's even asking what I've brought so directly? What a straightforward leader…'

He smiled politely and said, "It's just some local specialty products of Luoyang City. I won't disturb you further, so I'll be heading back now."

Ren Xiaosu had a Qing Consortium soldier take the gifts from him. Then, when he saw Yang Xiaojin eyeing him with hostility, he hurriedly said to the director of the Public Order Division, "Don't go yet. You must have something very important to report since you came all the way here to see me."

The Public Order Division's director was stunned for a moment before hurriedly saying with a smile, "No, I just came to call on you. There's nothing important."

Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness, "There is!"

The director of the Public Order Division was confused.

'What's the meaning of this?' The Public Order Division's director was dumbfounded.

On this day, the director of the Public Order Division was held back by Ren Xiaosu for over an hour before he was allowed to leave. After he returned, news that the director of the Public Order Division was highly regarded by the new owner of Luoyang City spread throughout the city.

Although it was very agonizing during the chat, the director of the Public Order Division was extremely high-spirited when he got back.

Moreover, he couldn't wait to tell everyone that he was on Team Northwest.

Actually, everyone knew that even though the Qinghe Group had a very powerful business team, if the consortiums were to target this place, the Qinghe Group would not have any chance of resisting them.

Fortress 178 had already gained control of the entire Northwest and become one of the top forces in the entire Alliance of Strongholds. In that case, they were a very good backer, right?

Although Ren Xiaosu and company had said they would leave after killing the enemies, everyone felt it was not possible a consortium would give up such a juicy prize when it was right in front of them. Fortress 178 shouldn't be an exception either, right?

After sending off the director of the Public Order Division, Ren Xiaosu opened the box of "local specialties" and had a look. Wow, there were eight gold bars in it!

Ren Xiaosu even wanted to shout for the morning people to come back and see him. He wasn't in a great mood in the morning, so he did not want to deal with them at the time. But now, he was in a much better mood.

Luo Lan and Zhou Qi went out for a walk before returning with various snacks they had bought on North Avenue. There were chicken wings, fried gluten…

"Xiaosu, Xiaojin, come and have something to eat. The food in Luoyang City is delicious. I heard in the Southwest that Luoyang City's North Avenue is one of the top ten food streets in the Alliance of Strongholds." Luo Lan chuckled.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought of something and asked Luo Lan, "Don't eat yet. Let me ask you about something very important. Do you know of any other organizations that can manufacture nanomachines?"

"No." Luo Lan answered, "As you know, only the Yang Consortium and the Li Consortium had this technology in the past. Later, it was all diverted to the Qing Consortium. Those two consortiums developed this technology because they excavated a research base in the Southwest that happened to have information on the technology. Later, the Li Consortium developed a technology for nanomachines to interface with a person's neurons. Only then did they consider developing the nanomachines for military use. In the past, it served as medical technology to remove thrombuses in blood vessels."

Ren Xiaosu frowned.

But Luo Lan then added, "But I think the Wang Consortium should've gotten their hands on this technology by now too. You know about the nanosoldiers that were abducted a few days ago too. The Wang Consortium's AI is way too powerful. We didn't expect it to be able to directly invade all the networks. We weren't at all able to stop it."

"We can disregard what happened in the past few days," Ren Xiaosu said. If Zero had only recently gotten its hands on the manufacturing process of the nanomachines, the timing of the incidents would not match up, so it should not have anything to do with this matter.

Luo Lan suddenly thought of something and said, "But if you want to talk about who has the nanomachines, there's probably something we can link it to. After we manufactured the nanomachines, we sent a batch to Luoyang City, which you're also aware of. We even sent a batch to the Zhou Consortium and the Northwest as a gift. However, the nanomachines that were sent to Luoyang City and the Northwest did not have a backdoor program installed. Meanwhile, we added a backdoor program to the Zhou Consortium's nanomachines, which I believe they won't discover. Of course, even though they won't discover it, they'll definitely still be on guard against us. They aren't likely to let anyone particularly important use them, I think."

As he spoke, Luo Lan noticed Ren Xiaosu's expression turning solemn.