The First Order

After Ren Xiaosu ordered Chen Wudi to go and pack up, he went inside an unoccupied house by himself. He was planning on dismantling the nanosoldiers’ weapons he had gained to retrieve the nanomachines within them.

Ever since hunting down the nanosoldiers with the wolf pack, the amount of Ren Xiaosu’s nanomachines had increased severalfold. In fact, he was already able to cover both hands up to his biceps with the suit of armor. So he had been wondering all this while whether he should dismantle the weapons to get his hands on the nanomachines.

The principle behind how these weapons worked was probably by using a program to set the nanomachines to create an incision effect through high-frequency particle cutting action. Even though this concept sounded difficult to grasp, it was actually similar in logic with waterjet cutting.

Most high-frequency particle cutters tend to be heavy machineries. Due to the “blade” not having plasticity[1], these cutters couldn’t be molded into swords.

But the nanomachines allowed the Li Consortium to overcome this problem, and they were able to create even sharper melee weapons for close quarters combat.

This weapon was definitely not better than the black saber for Ren Xiaosu. But if the students could be equipped with the nanoarmor in the future, it might prove useful for them.

But Ren Xiaosu couldn’t afford to think that much about the future right now. He wasn’t retrieving these nanomachines for his own use. They were going to be for Yan Liuyuan!

After resetting the nanomachines, Ren Xiaosu called Yan Liuyuan into the house. Yan Liuyuan asked curiously after closing the door behind him, “Bro, what’s the matter?”

“Put your hand out,” Ren Xiaosu said.

Yan Liuyuan stuck his hand out and watched as Ren Xiaosu grabbed his arm tightly. Following that, a silvery stream permeated out of Ren Xiaosu’s skin and spread over to Yan Liuyuan.

“These are the Li Consortium’s nanomachines. Since you’re slightly smaller in build, this amount of nanomachines might already be enough to form a thin layer of armor around you. It can also help to increase your musculoskeletal strength when it resides in your body. I’m giving it to you so that you may use it to keep yourself alive. Don’t ever reveal them to anyone under normal circumstances.” Ren Xiaosu said, “If the situation becomes dangerous, you can use it to kill your opponents.”

Yan Liuyuan looked at Ren Xiaosu in a daze. “Bro, what are you going to do if you give all of your nanomachines away to me?” He wanted to retract his hand to stop the nanomachines from transferring over to him. However, he couldn’t pull his hand away as he was much weaker than Ren Xiaosu.

Ren Xiaosu held Yan Liuyuan’s hand tightly, gripping him so hard his arm ached. He enunciated each and every one of his words to Yan Liuyuan. “When it becomes necessary, you can use these nanomachines to protect everyone.”

There wasn’t any sentimental talk as Ren Xiaosu only spoke about the most practical of matters at this moment.

Just like Yan Liuyuan was willing to sacrifice his life to make a wish for Ren Xiaosu, Ren Xiaosu was also willing to give away all of his hard-earned nanomachines to Yan Liuyuan in one fell swoop. It was also precisely because of this that they made it through hard times in the past.

Ren Xiaosu did not have a habit of depending on these nanomachines, anyway, since he was already strong enough by himself. Besides, Ren Xiaosu believed there would be plenty more nanomachines waiting for him on the battlefield ahead. After all, the Li Consortium was pretty generous in that sense. He might even assemble enough nanomachines for the eight students after he got to the front lines.

Ren Xiaosu said in his mind, “Palace, pair the nanomachines again.”

The palace replied, “A fee of 20,000 yuan will be charged.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Didn’t he have exactly 20,000 yuan on him right now? Why was the palace even charging a processing fee to newly pair the nanomachines?!

But Ren Xiaosu could only eat the loss at this time. “Hurry up and pair. You can collect the money whenever.”

After he finished speaking with his mind palace, the 20,000 yuan in his storage space disappeared. Meanwhile, the nanomachines that were originally connected to his neurons started disconnecting from him. Ren Xiaosu looked at Yan Liuyuan and said, “Allow the nanomachines to pair with you, then try to see if you can control them.”

When the nanomachines fully integrated into Yan Liuyuan’s body, the veins and arteries in his body turned silver. Yan Liuyuan said with some uncertainty, “They’re really easy to control and seem very obedient to my commands. It feels the same as controlling my fingers.”

Ren Xiaosu let out a sigh of relief. He was most worried that Yan Liuyuan’s synchronization rate would be too low and that he would be unable to put the nanomachines to good use.

But from the looks of it now, Yan Liuyuan’s synchronization rate seemed really high.

“Don’t use them in normal circumstances.” Ren Xiaosu said, “If you use them recklessly, it will definitely attract the attention of the Li Consortium.”

“Alright.” Yan Liuyuan nodded in agreement.

All of a sudden, a cry came from outside. “Where’s Liu Zhaojiang?!”

Ren Xiaosu pushed the door open and went out. “What’s the matter?”

Li Qingzheng looked at Ren Xiaosu with a terrified expression and said with great difficulty, “Liu Zhaojiang took some salt and cured meat and disappeared. He even took a rifle and half of the ammo we had.”

“He disappeared?” Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. This outpost was on top of the mountain, and there was only one path leading to the bottom. If Liu Zhaojiang had disappeared, then it could only mean that he had gone into the mountains.

Liu Zhaojiang was formerly a refugee who had escaped to Stronghold 109 with Ren Xiaosu and the others. As he had no relatives here, he started getting thoughts of running away when he realized he would be going into battle as cannon fodder.

Not only did Liu Zhaojiang run away, he even took some supplies with him for his own survival.

Li Qingzheng turned ashen. “How could he run away! What will happen to the rest of us now that he’s fled!”

Li Qingzheng had only stayed behind because he regarded the soldiers at the outpost as his brothers. But he ended up getting betrayed by one of them.

Chen Wudi looked at Ren Xiaosu. “Master, why are there such people in the world?”

Ren Xiaosu said calmly, “They’re the darkness that’s trying to devour the light that you are.”

“What should we do now?” Li Qingzheng mumbled, “With one less person, all of us are going to get punished.”

Someone suddenly said, “Why don’t we flee as well? We’ll die on the battlefield anyway.”

But someone else started pleading with everyone else. “My wife and daughter are still in town. Please, we mustn’t flee. Who knows, we might escape being punished with only one soldier missing?”

Another man also begged, “Please, everyone, we can’t run away. If you run away, what are those of us with families here going to do?”

Li Qingzheng looked at Ren Xiaosu, and everyone else’s gaze followed his. In reality, everyone understood that the decision maker in the platoon was Ren Xiaosu, not Li Qingzheng.

Ren Xiaosu met their eyes and considered it for a couple seconds before saying, “Let’s go and assemble. I have a plan.”

“Really?” Someone asked, “Platoon Commander, you aren’t joking, right?”

Li Qingzheng felt reassured by Ren Xiaosu. “When has our Platoon Commander Xiaosu ever not been serious? It won’t go wrong as long as we listen to him!”

Finally, Ren Xiaosu became the real leader in everyone’s hearts.

[1] Plasticity: the quality of being easily shaped or molded. See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrasonic _machining