The First Order

“Bro, what the hell is going on?” Yan Liuyuan asked.

During the period they were living in the stronghold, they did not really have any access to news from the front lines. There was a clampdown on information across the entire stronghold as the radios stopped broadcasting, while the newspapers also did not mention the war.

But Yan Liuyuan realized the tenants next door changed. Usually, the man and the woman who owned the house would head out to work at 7 AM every day, but they did not do so today. This aroused Yan Liuyuan’s suspicions. It was not that he was overly paranoid but that they were currently living in an environment that required them to be cautious. They had to pay attention to all “irregularities.”

However, Ren Xiaosu did not have the time to explain. As the nanosoldiers had already sent a request for help, the “mysterious troops” would probably be arriving very soon. He beckoned to Yan Liuyuan and said, “I don’t have time to explain. Quick, get in the truck.”

The truck was currently parked on the side of the road. No one in the yard said another word and just followed Ren Xiaosu’s instructions. Their luggage were already packed, as though they were expecting to leave at any moment.

Ren Xiaosu jumped into the truck and asked, “Where’s the garment factory?”

“It’s in the west,” Wang Yuchi shouted.

“Then we’ll drive east!”

Li Qingzheng stomped on the gas, and the truck’s engine roared as they sped eastward. Usually, no one drove at such speeds inside the stronghold, so the pedestrians could not help but turn their heads to look when the truck passed by.

Someone muttered, “Are they rushing to get reincarnated?” He then headed home as usual after knocking off. He was wondering if he should buy a bit more rice this evening since the grains in the porridge he boiled for the past two days were so tiny they were almost invisible.

While in the truck, Ren Xiaosu paired a batch of nanomachines for Yan Liuyuan once again. Wang Fugui was holding a large backpack as he asked, “Xiaosu, what’s going on?”

“A battle is going to break out in the stronghold soon. We have to leave this place quickly.” Ren Xiaosu said, “How have y’all been recently?”

“We’ve been doing pretty fine. A lot of people have already run out of food to eat, and since they don’t have much savings, they can’t afford to get any food the moment prices go up. However, our family still has quite a bit of money left.” Wang Fugui said with a chuckle, “So where are we going this time?”

Of the refugees who entered the stronghold, Wang Fugui and company were probably the ones who led the most comfortable life since they were rich.

But for some reason, Wang Fugui felt that he had already gotten used to running around. In order to survive in this chaotic world, it seemed like they would have to keep escaping over and over again.

But they would eventually get tired of running like this. Sometimes, Wang Fugui thought of asking Ren Xiaosu, “Why don’t we just find a place to settle down in the wilderness so that we don’t have to get involved with all the troubles of the outside world?”

Meanwhile, Xiaoyu only wanted to make sure that Ren Xiaosu was alright by checking up on him. She was only able to set her mind at ease after confirming he was not injured anywhere. “Did y’all run into any danger while fighting the war on the front lines?”

Chen Wudi chuckled and said, “Big Sister Xiaoyu, my master is the ‘danger.’ Wherever we go, there will be great danger there.”

Xiaoyu broke into a smile. “Everything’s good as long as y’all’re fine.”

To Xiaoyu, everything would be fine as long as nothing happened to Ren Xiaosu and the others. As for what happened to the rest of the people, that wasn’t her business. A refugee’s most basic thought would only be how to take care of themselves.

But at this moment, a shocking explosion suddenly went off somewhere in the stronghold. Following that, huge plumes of black smoke filled the sky like a big fire had broken out there.

Ren Xiaosu looked outside from the back of the truck and wondered if it was the Yang Consortium or the Li Consortium’s troops that did it. As of now, he couldn’t determine who the culprit was.

The stronghold residents on the streets all stopped in their tracks and looked into the distance. They still did not realize this disaster was related to the war. Most of the people were still thinking it might have been a boiler or transformer that had exploded somewhere.

Although it was wartime, the residents in Stronghold 108 had not been affected by the flames of war. Only the prices of food had gone up.

On most days, the radio and the newspapers would not mention the situation at the front lines either. As such, the stronghold residents thought they would not be affected by the war.

But following the explosion, gunshots rang out. It wasn’t until this moment that the stronghold residents started panicking. Was the war coming here?

Before they could react, they saw a missile with a long trail of smoke flying towards the stronghold from the southern sky. The long and thin missile was zooming through the air and heading east.

As it plunged, another explosion came from the east of the stronghold. That was the direction Ren Xiaosu and the others were heading. Cracks started appearing in the stronghold walls, and a large amount of smoke billowed up into the sky. Someone was bombarding the stronghold walls with artillery fire from outside!

It had to be Li Shentan’s troops. Ren Xiaosu did not expect that Li Shentan had even planned on destroying all of Stronghold 108 as well.

Similar scenes were happening throughout the stronghold. The walls that the stronghold residents had relied upon for survival were starting to get attacked with firearms and explosives. Ren Xiaosu made a mental note of the direction of the artillery firing and determined they should be coming from three different directions.

A second later, the city walls in the east suddenly started to collapse. Large pieces of debris from the stronghold walls came crumbling down. All of the stronghold residents on the streets looked over there in a daze with horror in their eyes.

They were dazed not because they did not care about the walls but because their nerves could not bear the intensity of this event. They did not know how to react when faced with such a great shock.

Everyone looked at the crumbling walls at almost the same time. The people on the streets were petrified like statues. Some people were looking out of their windows while their homes were plunged into an eerie silence.

The wall was a protective circle that the stronghold residents relied upon for survival, and it was the source of their innate sense of superiority and belief. Most of these people were born in the stronghold, so the world they lived in had always been surrounded by a wall.

This was where they lived and worked, and got married and had children as well. Most of them had not even thought about what would happen if the wall were to collapse.

Now that the wall had collapsed, the fundamental values that existed in their lives also crumbled along with it.

Ren Xiaosu yelled in the truck, “Just keep driving east. Since the wall has collapsed, it makes it easier for us to escape. It’s no wonder Li Shentan dared to attack the stronghold with just a single combat brigade. It’s because he’s fucking controlling the artillery!”

But since the east had already been breached, that saved Ren Xiaosu the trouble of blowing up the stronghold gate there.

But when the vehicle drove east, Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt that something was wrong, because the residents from the east were fleeing in their direction!

“No, something’s not right. I must’ve missed something.” Ren Xiaosu thought that even if the stronghold was collapsing, these people should not be running so far away from the walls!

As they were still very far from the east end of the stronghold, Ren Xiaosu could not see what was happening behind the crowd.

The east! What was in the east?

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu yelled at Li Qingzheng, “Turn around! Fuck, I’ve forgotten all about the Experimentals. How could they possibly be absent from this big mess that’s happening here!”

As per Ren Xiaosu’s expectations, the Experimentals had laid an ambush around the stronghold. Now that the humans were infighting, this was their best opportunity to strike.