The First Order

Li Qingzheng had expected soldiers to welcome them when they arrived at Position 313. He even thought they would volunteer to serve them warm meals. After all, that was always the treatment they were getting throughout the journey.

But when Ren Xiaosu led the private troops and arrived at Position 313, Li Qingzheng realized that the soldiers in this military camp did not seem welcoming of them. Their attitude was clearly different from those at the FOBs they had stopped by before coming here.

The soldiers in the transport trucks passing by were looking at them coldly. When the private troops reached the camp, not even a single person was there to welcome them.

Li Qingzheng scratched his head at the entrance of the camp. “What’s going on? Are we not welcome here?”

Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, “Anyone but the soldiers at Position 313 would be welcoming of us. Just as Chen Wudi mentioned earlier, if even you could guess that we got sent here to become live targets on the battlefield, surely the commanding officer at Position 313 also reached the same conclusion.”

Li Qingzheng finally realized why they were so welcomed at the FOBs. It was because everyone was looking forward to their upcoming performance here on the battlefield. But they were not welcome at Position 313 because their arrival meant that Qing Zhen would most likely send a large force here.

How could the soldiers at Position 313 be in a good mood when they knew they would probably have to fight their toughest battle soon?

But Ren Xiaosu did not care about this in the slightest. He went straight through the camp entry procedures at the sentry post and strolled in with his force of 500-odd private soldiers.

At this moment, an officer blocked Ren Xiaosu’s path. When he looked at the soldiers behind Ren Xiaosu, he saw them all standing ungainly and without proper bearing. How was this supposed to be a unit capable of participating in a battle?

Although Ren Xiaosu and his men had defeated the Qing Special Forces, the nature of the refugees in the troops remained unchanged. Not only were their postures unsightly, but they were also wearing their uniforms sloppily.

Initially, the officer at Position 313’s campsite had been thinking, ‘Since they’re already coming over, so be it. It’s not so bad if a group of truly elite troops got deployed here anyway.’

But from the looks of it now, this “Heroes” Battalion must have gotten really lucky in their previous battle!

The officer frowned at Ren Xiaosu and said, “You’re Ren Xiaosu, aren’t you?”

“Yes, that’s me,” Ren Xiaosu said with a smile.

“How do you lead your soldiers?” The officer sneered. “They aren’t even standing in an orderly fashion. Don’t you normally drill?”

“Who are you?” Ren Xiaosu said unhappily, “Are you looking down on our Heroes Battalion?”

The officer choked a little before saying, “I’m Ma Kai, the commanding officer at Position 313. I’m a senior colonel! I personally oversaw Position 313 getting built from the ground up, so I know the defensive fortifications here like the back of my hand!”

Ren Xiaosu quickly grabbed his hand tightly and said, “Great job. You’re exactly the kind of down-to-earth person who can get things done that the organization needs!”

Ma Kai was speechless. The reason why Ma Kai had said that was to make Ren Xiaosu understand that he was the one who called the shots at Position 313. Even if the fucking Heroes Battalion had to come here, they would still have to listen to his command. So how did it end up with Ren Xiaosu extending his regards to him?!

Ma Kai said with a dark expression, “Don’t play dumb with me. I don’t know how you managed to defeat the Qing Special Forces, but in my eyes, you people are just pieces of dog shit sent here by the higher-ups to implicate us. I hope that you all will know your place and don’t think that you are really heroes. Adjutant Zhang, bring them to where they will be holding. Don’t come out here and make trouble for us if it’s no business of yours.”

No one in the private troops dared to say a word. Although they had been basking in glory on their way here, they were immediately brought back down to earth once they arrived at this place. But Ren Xiaosu did not say anything. He just observed the surrounding terrain as he followed Adjutant Zhang and walked north.

Position 313 was the general name given to this defensive front. It was a defensive anchor point for the entire front line at Mt. Shuanglong and was located in the northernmost part of the whole battlefield. It was also the closest to where the Qing Consortium’s combat troops were.

The entire defensive front covered an area of over 66 hectares[1] and extended into the hinterlands of Mt. Shuanglong. In modern-day battles, it wouldn’t be enough to just defend the high ground. If anyone were foolish enough to only do that, they would easily die to an enemy’s artillery bombardment.

However, it would be a huge mistake if anyone thought that a defensive front was helpless in the face of modern-day artillery attacks.

Sometimes, normal people in the stronghold would often have conversations over drinks about the “Theory of the Omnipotence of Missile Weapons.” But only those who had actual combat experience would understand that for a missile to hit its target accurately, it would require the sacrifice of many human lives in order to pinpoint the precise location of the enemies.

Additionally, there were also vehicle-mounted short-range air defense (SHORAD) systems deployed at strategic defensive positions that worked very well against subsonic missile weapons such as grenades, mortars, and rockets, which were not guided and would not be able to get past these air defense systems.

Humans did not purely focus on studying the different means of attacks. In the current day, whoever possessed a more advanced defense system would gain a greater advantage with the same level of firepower.

It might be possible for the Qing Consortium to bombard the area with artillery fire, but who could afford to shell an area as large as the whole battlefield? Every single artillery shell cost money!

The purpose of war is to plunder benefits. If the expenditure outstretched the benefits gained at the end of this war, it would not be considered a victory at all.

As Ren Xiaosu kept walking, he looked at the unfamiliar-looking midsize military trucks. They were parked behind the bunkers, but he did not know what their purpose was.

After all, he did not gain any knowledge in this area back when he copied Yang Xiaojin’s skills. As Ren Xiaosu still had an unused Skill Duplication Scroll on hand, he was considering whether he should use it on Colonel Ma Kai to gain some solid war expertise.

Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu said in his mind, “Use the Skill Duplication Scroll.”

The voice from the palace in his mind intoned, “One of the target’s skills will be randomly copied.”

“Randomly copied target’s amateur Morra skill. Do you want to learn it?”

Ren Xiaosu was dumbfounded on the spot. What the fuck is this Morra skill about?

The Five Greats, the Six Obediences!?[2]

Ren Xiaosu felt a pinch in his heart. The Li Consortium’s prohibition of alcohol was not being seriously enforced at all. They even had a Li Consortium officer that played Morra? Was no one going to do anything about that?

Never mind that he ended up copying something like the Morra skill, but it was even an amateur skill? If he were going to depend on this skill in a drinking competition, he would probably end up losing really badly!

However, Ren Xiaosu was already aware that the probability of learning something useful was relatively low when using the Skill Duplication Scroll. Successfully copying and learning Luo Xinyu’s superpower most probably exhausted all of his luck in recent years. So he was not particularly disappointed about not learning any useful skills this time.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu asked the palace, “What is Ma Kai’s proficiency in leadership command?”

“This information can be revealed if it’s for a former target you’ve attempted to learn from. He has advanced proficiency in Army Warfare Leadership,” replied the voice from the palace.

Ren Xiaosu was rather startled to learn that he was actually an expert in this field. It was no surprise then that he was appointed as the commanding officer of Position 313.

In the end, Ren Xiaosu still went ahead and learned the Morra skill.

After all, it would be a waste not to learn it. There was no harm in having more skills.

He had even learned the jumping rope skill, so would it harm him to learn an amateur Morra skill? After all, there was no disgrace in being passionate about wanting to learn something!

[1] 1 hectare is roughly equivalent to a rugby union field.

[2] Instead of calling out pure numbers, they are expressed with longer phrases matching the numbers. | http://benmojo.blogspot.com/2010/06/you -can-be-my-lucky-scar.html