The First Order

It was a really strange sight at the campfire next to the outpost’s entrance. On one side, there were people barbecuing meat and enjoying themselves. On the other side, five people were kneeling in a row and too afraid to move a muscle.

How pathetic! These five people were way too pathetic.

When Ren Xiaosu got out of the truck and went over to have a look, it was just as he had expected. Those five people all had a small logo of the Pyro Company embroidered on their clothes.

In reality, there wasn’t any problem with the direction of the Pyro Company’s investigations. They speculated that the disappearance of those two nanosoldiers might have something to do with supernatural beings, so they came here to try their luck to see if they could find that person. This speculation was extremely accurate.

Ren Xiaosu was not wrong either. After Li Shentan informed him about the situation with the Pyro Company, he rushed back during the night as he was worried they would harm the students at the outpost. There wasn’t anything wrong with that either.

The only surprise that neither the Pyro Company nor Ren Xiaosu had expected was that Hu Shuo was powerful beyond measure.

The reason Hu Shuo was surprised when he saw Ren Xiaosu was because he would have to teach Ren Xiaosu again now that he was back. It was just like how office workers finally had the weekend off only for their bosses to suddenly demand they work overtime. This immediately spoiled the mood.

Ren Xiaosu explained, “Can’t you see that I really missed all of you? That’s why we rushed back to the outpost. So what’s going on here?”

In truth, Ren Xiaosu already knew Hu Shuo was definitely not a simple person from the beginning. How could a normal old man head up to the mountains alone in the middle of the night to investigate a case? Wasn’t he afraid of getting killed by the criminal as well? So he must have had something that gave him the confidence.

Moreover, Chen Wudi mentioned he was the Earth Deity. Based on Ren Xiaosu’s deductions, what Chen Wudi probably meant was: This man has a superpower.

Perhaps mental patients possessed some sort of unique perception that enabled Chen Wudi to identify the true nature of someone simply by their appearance, as he was spot on in his observations.

Hu Shuo looked at Ren Xiaosu and said with a smile, “Quickly come and have some meat.”

All five of the Pyro Company members looked back at Ren Xiaosu, but none of them dared to speak. Hu Shuo said, “They’re from the Pyro Company. I was searching for them some time ago, but they managed to hide themselves really well. As some other disturbances were going on at that time, I haven’t been able to locate them at all. Who knew they would actually send themselves to our doorstep just as I was planning to spend the New Year here….”

Ren Xiaosu thought to himself, ‘So you are really here to spend the New Year! You really don’t consider yourself an outsider, do you?’

However, now was not the time to think about that.

Ren Xiaosu had realized most people would usually be afraid or disgusted if they encountered members of the Pyro Company. But when Hu Shuo encountered these five members of the Pyro Company, he got a vague sense of surprise.

“What are they doing here?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

Hu Shuo smiled ambiguously at him and said, “These are probably the main culprits in the killing of those two Li Consortium officers.”

When the members of the Pyro Company heard that, they started panicking. “We’re also here to investigate this case. They weren’t killed by us!”

“Did I say that you all could speak?” Hu Shuo said as he stared at them.

The five Pyro Company members quickly shut their mouths. Ren Xiaosu asked the people around him in a whisper, “Who witnessed their fight?”

The students shook their heads and said, “Only Big Brother Wudi was outside at the time. We were all studying by ourselves in our houses.”

As such, Ren Xiaosu asked Chen Wudi, “What happened between them just now? Can you describe it to me?” He was trying to deduce how strong Hu Shuo was based on the description of the battle with this question,

When Chen Wudi recalled the battle, he could only say, “Holy shit!”

Ren Xiaosu was speechless. As Ren Xiaosu waited for him to relate the rest of the incident, he realized Chen Wudi had already lowered his head back down to eat. So Chen Wudi’s description of the entire battle was simply “Holy shit!”? ‘Can’t you be more cultured!’

Ren Xiaosu was saddened. How could he judge the strength of Hu Shuo through a description like that? However, the little information he could get from this was that when Hu Shuo made his move, his strength even surprised Chen Wudi.

“Is he stronger than you?” Ren Xiaosu asked Chen Wudi.

Chen Wudi thought for a while. “No, he’s not.”

“You seem quite confident in yourself,” Ren Xiaosu lamented. Asking Chen Wudi about such serious matters would probably just make himself even more confused.

During this recent period, he had always seen Hu Shuo getting up early to practice tai chi. Could his boxing really be that powerful?

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu looked at Hu Shuo and asked, “They were the ones who murdered those two officers?”

Hu Shuo said earnestly, “That’s right. The Li Consortium has given me until tomorrow as the deadline to investigate the case. Since we’ve been searching extensively for the murderer and were still unable to capture anyone even though we have been working so hard, they must be considered the murderers.”

Ren Xiaosu was surprised. When did Hu Shuo ever work hard while he was here? He was obviously just here on vacation to eat meat. This old man had never seriously gone after the murderer at all!

However, Ren Xiaosu was definitely glad this Pyro Company team would be made the scapegoat. It was fine as long as he did not get himself caught.

But Ren Xiaosu somehow felt that Hu Shuo had already made some discoveries. Neither of them were fools. Just the fact that he had the runs for six hours when Hu Shuo first arrived was unacceptable. Moreover, the Wolf King had been sending all that game to them. Even an idiot would notice that something was going on between this outpost and the wolves.

Ren Xiaosu was not going to assume he had gotten lucky. The two of them just had a tacit agreement with each other for now.

But when Ren Xiaosu thought of this, he suddenly wondered what Hu Shuo’s motives were. Was it just so that he could eat all the meat he wanted without worry? But how could that be!

“But there should definitely be an interrogation process, right?” Ren Xiaosu wondered, “What if they would rather die than admit to the crime?”

“If they die, they wouldn’t be able to not admit to it.” Hu Shuo said calmly, “Isn’t that what ‘rather die than admit to it’ really means?”

When the soldiers of the Pyro Company heard that, they knew they had no chance to survive! How could they be willing to stay here and wait for their deaths when they possessed strength that surpassed normal humans?!

In that instant, those five people got up at the same time and fled down the mountain. They had never thought about fighting against Hu Shuo and Ren Xiaosu. They couldn’t even defeat Hu Shuo alone, and now, there was another unknown factor in Ren Xiaosu. Therefore, their only way to survive was to escape.

While the Pyro members escaped, Hu Shuo sat there without moving. When Ren Xiaosu saw that Hu Shuo did not make a move, he also stayed still.

Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “Aren’t you gonna pursue them?”

Hu Shuo was amused. “How can I pursue them with these old limbs of mine? Why don’t you go after them instead?”

“The members of the Pyro Company are all supernatural beings. Why would I go after them when I’m just a normal person?” Ren Xiaosu said with a grimace.

They watched as the members of the Pyro Company got further and further away.

The two of them sat there with neither giving chase. When the members of the Pyro Company turned around and saw this, they were overjoyed. They were so surprised no one was pursuing them!

When they ran down to the hillside, a part of the turf on the mountain path suddenly shifted. In the blink of an eye, an entire platoon rushed out from the shadows of the forest as gunshots rang out from trenches. The five exhausted people were caught off guard!

When Ren Xiaosu heard those gunshots on the hillside, he realized he didn’t even know when the ambush was laid.