The First Order

After every big battle, there would always be rewards to reap. Zhang Xiaoman’s men had finished firing all their mortar shells with just a few rounds of artillery bombardment. But it didn’t matter to them as the bandits on Mt. Dingyuan turned out much more well-armed than they had imagined.

These things were not even worth much to an organization like the Zong Consortium.

They had almost finished expending their bullets as well. 7.62 mm bullets were most commonly used here in the Northwest, so plenty of them could be found at the bandit lair.

How much ammunition could be expended in a single battle? That was an incalculable amount. If you included the bullets used in training, it was likely that thousands or even tens of thousands of bullets would be expended just to down one person in battle.

This counting was purely based on data. Most of the time, the number of bullets expended using suppressive fire was probably much higher.

After Zhang Xiaoman and the others brought out all of the ammunition from the bandit lair on Mt. Dingyuan, the soldiers went to retrieve the empty magazine that had been tossed aside during the battle and reinserted fresh bullets.

Zhang Xiaoman sighed emotionally. “How satisfying it is to take this entire mountain fort by ourselves. All the spoils of war are ours to keep. Wait a minute, why aren’t there any grenades here again?”

Everyone only realized it now that the company commander mentioned it. “Looks like it. We only found some individual grenades on the bandits and have not seen an entire box of them yet.”

“The bandits on Mt. Dingyuan aren’t even poor, so why can’t we even find a full box of grenades?!”

When Ren Xiaosu, who was standing a distance away heard this, he felt so guilty he did not say anything. Actually, there were as many as ten boxes of grenades here, with each filled with 20 grenades. But he had already put all of them in his storage space.

All of a sudden, the voice from the palace said, “Quest complete. Awarded five attribute points. You can distribute them as you like.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. As expected, the rewards were much better for a more challenging quest like the one with a progression percentage!

However, he had only completed 90% of the quest in which he had to help his comrades lessen their burden. Why did it suddenly jump to a 100%?

Wait a minute, was it due to the ten boxes of grenades? By putting those grenades into his storage space, it could also be counted as helping his teammates lessen their burden?

Ren Xiaosu, who was always taking advantage of any loopholes in the palace’s requirements, was shocked. It could even be done like that?

He had already stuffed six boxes of grenades into his storage space at Mt. Guan. But since there was no alert for the completion of the quest, he did not notice the quest progression had ticked up. If he did, he would have finished the quest at that time.

Ren Xiaosu was more than happy to help his comrades lessen their burden!

He evenly distributed three points to Strength and two points to Dexterity. His Strength now reached 13.5, while his Dexterity was at 12.1.

OV

From these attributes alone, Ren Xiaosu’s current fitness was already more than four times that of a normal adult male.

However, Ren Xiaosu was looking forward to whether a new skill would emerge when his Strength and Dexterity hit 20 much more. Like the “City Crusher” powerup with a duration of 30 seconds that he had gained after surpassing 10 points in both those attributes. Perhaps there would be a qualitative change every time it exceeded a threshold?

While heading down the mountain, everyone in the Razor Sharp Company had their arms full of supplies. If they could move those two howitzers as well, Zhang Xiaoman would probably have dragged them all the way back to the forward operating base.

Before leaving, Zhang Xiaoman used the TNT to blow up the muzzles of the two howitzers’ barrels. This was to prevent the Zong Consortium’s people from using them again.

Under normal circumstances, they would rather choose to destroy large siege weapons on the battlefield that were less mobile instead of spending great effort to take them away.

On their way down the mountain, a fellow soldier suddenly thanked Ren Xiaosu when he walked past him before continuing on as though it were nothing.

Immediately after, more and more soldiers thanked Ren Xiaosu when they passed him.

They were thanking Ren Xiaosu for helping them take most of the fire in the battle. If it weren’t for Ren Xiaosu taking the risk by himself, it would not be a surprise if half of them were killed in combat.

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. This time, he had not even requested them to thank him! Even so, all of his comrades were really sincere in thanking him.

In just a moment, Ren Xiaosu had gained more than a 100 gratitude tokens. His gratitude tokens had suddenly shot up to around 400.

After just one battle, Ren Xiaosu not only gained ten boxes of grenades, five attribute points, and a 100-odd thanks, but he also earned the trust of his comrades.

Zhang Xiaoman had said that you could only trust the guns and bullets in your hands, as well as your comrades in the trenches who provided covering fire for you on the battlefield.

Ren Xiaosu kept quiet as he looked at his comrades in front of him heading down the mountain.

Then he deliberately slowed down and waited for those who had not yet thanked him to pass him from behind.

They would have to advance all the way northwest now. Zhou Yinglong had ordered the Razor Sharp Company to join up with the Forward Strike Battalion at the forward operating base first. They would have to wait for the rear troops to fully assemble at the forward operating base before setting off to the next destination based on Commander Zhang’s next battle plan.

The strongholds under the jurisdiction of the Zong Consortium were all northeast of the forward operating base, while the vast Gobi Desert was situated more than 200 kilometers north.

As the Razor Sharp Company had to travel more than 80 kilometers to get back to the forward operating base, all of the Razor Sharp Company’s soldiers were dog-tired when they arrived. Even dogs would not be as tired as them! It was mainly because they had carried too many fucking things!

But the moment they entered the forward operating base, Zhang Xiaoman and the others held their heads high and looked really spirited. Fu Rao and Lin Ping’an even carried their rocket launchers on their shoulders proudly. They really couldn’t look any more impressive than they did.

Then they walked all the way to the command post’s tent to be welcomed back by the entire army’s advance guard.

Ren Xiaosu asked, “Captain, is this really necessary?”

Zhang Xiaoman said unhappily, “You wouldn’t understand. Our Razor Sharp Company has emerged victorious, so the entire army must’ve heard about how a company of just over a 100 people wiped out two mountain forts. We have to put on a front to show them the might of our Razor Sharp Company!”

Ren Xiaosu did not know whether to laugh or cry. They had clearly been complaining that they were dead tired before entering the military base.

But when he saw his fellow soldiers around them, they really were looking at the Razor Sharp Company with adulation. Even the soldiers who were setting up the tents in the base had stopped their work to whisper among themselves.

Zhou Yinglong’s loud voice boomed, “Put the fucking RPGs away already. It makes y’all look like you’re coming here to attack the camp.”

With that, Zhou Yinglong circled the Razor Sharp Company. When he saw the seven wounded soldiers lying on stretchers, he shouted, “Where’s the medics? Come and carry the wounded off for treatment.”

“There’s no need for that.” A wounded soldier from the Razor Sharp Company hurriedly said, “Ren Xiaosu has already applied some medicine onto our wounds. We’ve already recovered from our injuries.”

“How can traditional medicine be effective?” Zhou Yinglong said unhappily, “If you’ve suffered any injuries, you should get them treated, so cut the crap!”

Ren Xiaosu realized that even though Zhou Yinglong was harsh with his words, his first reaction when he saw the Razor Sharp Company was to check on the casualties of the company and treat the wounded.

The Razor Sharp Company’s wounded were getting anxious. “Ren Xiaosu, please explain to the Battalion Commander that we’re truly alright.”

If they got taken away to be treated, they would not be able to participate in the next battle. While their brothers were off to fight at the front lines, they would have to recuperate in the medical center. How could they accept that?

Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhou Yinglong and said, “Commander Zhang has also seen the effects of my medicine before. It might be a traditional drug, but it’ll heal all kinds of surface injuries within three days. Nowadays, there’s plenty of magical herbs that can be found in the wilderness.”