The First Order

The crimson vines were savage and horrifying. These Divine Arms nanosoldiers were resorting to using the strength of their nanomachines to tear themselves out of this terrifying plant’s grasp. But every time they broke free from some of the vines, new ones would wrap around them again. The sharp thorns on the vines pricked into these officers’ bodies and attempted to suck out every last drop of blood from them.

But the most frightening thing about these brambles was the endlessness. It felt as though there was no end to them regardless of how they tried to tear through it all.

None of the private soldiers who caught up dared to go forward and rescue them. The moment they saw those brambles, they started to back off together. Some of them even fell into the snow in their panic.

Only Ren Xiaosu knew that these Brambles were not as strong as they looked. Although they were weakening the Divine Arms officers by drawing out their blood, they didn’t have an infinite number of branches.

At this moment, one of the Brambles had all of its branches completely torn away.

However, Ren Xiaosu had planted four seeds all in the same location just for assurance.

When the officers of the Divine Arms Battalion felt their strength getting sapped, they shouted to the private soldiers, “Come and save us!”

But how would a mob like the private troops be willing to go forward to help? It was more likely they would run away than help!

When Ren Xiaosu saw this, he heaved a sigh of relief. He was most worried that some of the private troops would go and attempt to save them. After all, no matter how strong the four Brambles were, they couldn’t possibly stand up to nearly a 1,000 people ripping at them.

The officers of the Divine Arms Battalion only had themselves to blame as they did not once help the private troops during the entire journey. So everyone watched from the sidelines when they saw the officers in distress. Some people were even gloating in their fear.

Ren Xiaosu blended into the crowd and watched impassively. This incident could be considered a test of the Brambles’ power. He believed they would definitely come out on top if facing a single, lone nanosoldier.

Although the Brambles were effectively fixed to a spot and could only be used as a trap, it was cost-effective enough since it only took one gratitude token to get a chance at finishing off a nanosoldier.

The only thing that Ren Xiaosu was unsure of was whether there were even more powerful nanosoldiers within the ranks of the Li Consortium’s military.

Yes, there would certainly be more.

But in terms of their ranks, these five officers were not high ranking at all. As such, there had to be even stronger nanosoldiers in the Li Consortium.

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu whisper-shouted within the crowd, “Run! Head back to the campsite and take cover!”

Although he did not shout very loudly, it seemed like the “run” he uttered had some sort of a magic to it. It made everyone run back to the campsite as fast as they could, as though they would be safe if they just hid there.

Ren Xiaosu did not hang around since he would have plenty of time to collect the nanomachines later on in the night. As of this moment, he didn’t need to rush things. It would be bad if he somehow revealed his intentions here.

Meanwhile, the GPS device and satellite phone were also being held onto by one of the officers of the Divine Arms Battalion. When Ren Xiaosu collected the nanomachines later, he could take them together and give them to Tang Zhou.

When they got back to their tent, Li Qingzheng was still in a state of shock. “Xiaosu, what the hell was that? It was way too scary!”

Ren Xiaosu panted, “Yeah, I was scared to death too!”

“Do you think those Divine Arms officers will survive?” Li Qingzheng asked.

“I think it unlikely. When I was running back here, I saw them already running out of strength when I turned around to look. It won’t be possible for them to break free from those vines,” a member of the platoon said.

At this moment, everyone was not really concerned about whether the officers of the Divine Arms Battalion survived. Or rather, most people at the campsite couldn’t wish more for the Divine Arms officers to get killed by the brambles. Their relationship had started on bad terms. Furthermore, if the officers managed to survive, they would definitely blame them for not trying to rescue them.

Everyone at the campsite was sticking their heads in the sand. When night fell, some soldiers from the reinforced company went to everyone’s tents to force collusion.

The soldiers from the reinforced company came to Ren Xiaosu and his platoon’s tent and threatened, “When the officers of the Divine Arms Battalion went chasing after the rabbit, they were so fast that we couldn’t catch up to them. After we arrived at their location, it was too late.”

This group of people were afraid of getting punished by the Li Consortium. As such, they chose to collude with nearly a 1,000 other people in grand fashion. Not only that, the soldiers of the reinforced company even threatened them by saying, “If anyone mentions a word about this, it will not end well for everyone here. So if you’re smart, you better keep your trap shut!”

Ren Xiaosu wanted to thank the soldiers of the reinforced company.

The Divine Arms officer who knew Ren Xiaosu’s true identity as a member of the Office of Special Investigations was dead, but the soldiers of the reinforced company were unaware. Otherwise, they would not have dared to threaten him like this.

On the very same night, Ren Xiaosu secretly went to where the Divine Arms Battalion soldiers had died. This time, the amount of nanomachines he harvested was far beyond his expectations. Just from the five of them, he gathered enough nanomachines to complete the armor on two of his arms.

Indeed, the regulars of the Divine Arms Battalion were incomparable with Lin Qi and his group of cannon fodder.

When Ren Xiaosu headed north with the satellite phone, Tang Zhou was waiting there for him. The first thing Ren Xiaosu did when he saw Tang Zhou was to remind him, “Remember to only talk about the Divine Arms Battalion after getting in touch with your HQ. Don’t mention anything about me. I’ll be in deep trouble if the Li Consortium has a spy planted on your Qing Consortium’s side!”

“Yes, yes.” Tang Zhou nodded happily and said, “I definitely won’t reveal anything about you. I still know about the principles of protecting our spies.”

Ren Xiaosu felt that something was wrong with his wording. When did he become a spy of the Qing Consortium?

He reminded again, “Remember to tell your HQ to not kill all of the Divine Arms soldiers. Otherwise, our cooperation ends here.”

Ren Xiaosu could not handle the Divine Arms Battalion by himself. After all, they had a 1,000 people in total. Therefore, if he wanted to get his hands on more nanomachines, he would have to first wear down the entire formation of the Divine Arms Battalion with the help of the Qing Consortium.

This was his true purpose in cooperating with Tang Zhou. As for whether they could continue cooperating in the future, that would have to depend on whether the cooperation with the Qing Consortium goes well this time.

At this moment, Tang Zhou said with some hesitation, “You know that I was banished out here, so Qing Yun might not listen to me. He would wish for nothing more than to kill the entire Divine Arms Battalion since that would bring him great honors. It’s a good opportunity for him to establish his credibility in the military.”

“Then can we lie to him a little?” Ren Xiaosu asked, “Can’t we just tell him that there are only a 100 people in the Divine Arms Battalion?”

Tang Zhou shook his head and said, “If I said it in that manner, there would be Qing Consortium soldiers who would die for nothing. Those soldiers are innocent. And if Boss Luo and Mr. Qing Zhen learned of this, they certainly wouldn’t spare me.”

Ren Xiaosu pondered this before saying, “Or you can just tell me where the Divine Arms Battalion will meet their end in battle?”

Tang Zhou was stunned. “Why do you want to know?”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, “As comrades, I would like to mourn their deaths.”

Tang Zhou was speechless. What nonsense was this? Mourning for his comrades after sending them to their deaths? Tang Zhou was not convinced by what Ren Xiaosu just said at all. He was not stupid!