Dusk slowly descended.
Outside Horn Fort, on the boundless wilderness, Lion Kingdom soldiers squatting in the trench were nibbling on dry food when they suddenly spotted a white flag raised over a distant fort.
At first, the soldiers thought they had seen it wrong.
It was only when they noticed that the opposing position was deserted that more and more people started to realize what was happening.
An old soldier imdiately stuffed his half-eaten dry ration into his pocket and ran to the back of the trench to report to the Centurion.
"Report! Horn Fort has raised a white flag."
"A white flag?!"
Startled by the news, the Centurion imdiately grabbed a telescope and ran to the frontline to verify it himself and indeed found the white flag.
Unsure whether it was a trap set by the Army, the Centurion dared not delay and imdiately reported the news to his superiors.
Thus, after successive reports, the ssage was quickly relayed to the Skeleton Corps.
Arriving at the frontline with twenty tanks, Mole raised his binoculars and glanced at the distant defenses.
Half an hour earlier, he had already learned from Brother Battlefield about General Griffin’s death, so the raising of the white flag on the fort was no surprise to him.
Far away in Falcon City, the Manager had reached an agreent with the governor dispatched by the Army.
The Army would give up on Bister Town as a concession and, in exchange, the Alliance would tacitly allow the over fifty thousand "effectively prisoners" inside Horn Fort to lay down their arms and leave this military stronghold in dignity to wait by the riverbank at the northern edge of Oasis No. 2 for the ceasefire agreent to take effect.
Lowering the telescope, Mole turned to the Lion Kingdom soldiers standing beside him and said,
"...Have your 17th Millennial Team stationed on the north side of Horn Fort retreat, let these defeated n leave."
"Yes!"
The ssenger saluted and imdiately ran towards the communications station.
Although Prince Wenter nominally commanded the Lion Kingdom’s Army, it was actually coordinated by the Alliance’s Army Command.
Even their radio equipnt was provided by the Alliance.
An accompanying Thousands of leaders glanced at Mole standing in the tank turret, puzzled, and asked,
"Why don’t we take this opportunity to annihilate them?"
Mole casually responded as he led the way through the valley.
"Griffin is dead."
The Thousands of leaders were stunned.
He had heard no such news through his channels.
"Isn’t this a once-in-a-lifeti opportunity?"
"War is a ans, not an end," Mole said, squinting into the distance and casually making a point, "The war is over, and you can all go ho soon."
Several Lion Kingdom officers exchanged glances.
They had followed the Alliance’s Army, chasing after the Army of the Falcon Kingdom and reaching here, a thousand kiloters away.
Yet aside from picking up prisoners along the way, many of them had not even had the chance to et an enemy with a gun,
Recalling the past month or two, they realized that all the offensive battles had been monopolized by the Alliance’s Skeleton Corps and Storm Corps.
All they did along the way was serve tea, deliver supplies, dig trenches, fill sandbags, clean the battlefield, and then suddenly the other side would surrender.
Wasn’t this war too easy?
Such a comfortable life as the Alliance’s dogs truly exceeded these vassal country officers’ imaginations.
Mole then looked at the other players standing next to him curiously peeking forward, and shouted in Mandarin,
"Brothers, take turns logging off to eat, whoever isn’t busy get online later."
A newbie yawning behind the tank asked,
"Is there an event tonight?"
"Didn’t they all surrender?"
"You wouldn’t understand," chuckled Mole, "The Army is so hasty to retreat, they couldn’t have taken all their supplies with them, right?" He grinned, "The Manager’s agreent only stipulated letting them go, it didn’t specify that we couldn’t visit their hos before we retreat."
The ceasefire would take about two days to negotiate?
Supplies and ammunition probably couldn’t be found much, and cooking pots had mostly been blown to pieces by Mosquito Brother, but surely the weapons left behind and various calibers of guns, anti-aircraft guns could be taken?
And those spherical armored turrets, all made of armored steel.
The Alliance wanted to build ships at Tianshui, expand production in West State City; there were plenty of uses for alloy, even selling it as scrap tal would earn a good sum.
As for transporting it back, don’t worry.
The entire Lion Kingdom Army had been repurposed by the Alliance as a logistics force, tens of thousands of people lending a hand, and like ants moving house, they could completely empty the place bit by bit!
The newbies beside him were suddenly taken aback.
"Damn?! Can we really do that?"
"That’s a bit too unscrupulous!"
"What else?" Seeing the newbies’ astonishnt, Elena teased with a smile, "What did you think our tanks and cannons ca from?"
Sitting in the driver’s seat, Gno King Riches chuckled.
"I’ll go get a transport truck back!"
An armored truck carrying heavy machine guns and ammunition couldn’t haul much; a looting expedition definitely wouldn’t be as efficient as a professional truck.
Mole waved his hand decisively.
"Don’t just get trucks, pull in the Lion Kingdom locals too, tell them they don’t need to bring guns, just go and pick up what’s left on the Army’s positions!"
Gno King Riches chuckled again.
"Got it!"
...
Horn Fort.
Less than two hours after General Griffin’s death, the fortress spanning several square kiloters was deserted.
Under the orders of General Alec, the acting commander, fifty thousand troops laid down their weapons and retreated northward along the route designated by the Alliance.
The fifty thousand clone soldiers would be left behind locally, as taking them back was not economically viable given their short lifespan. Instead, helping Governor Vellante with construction and serving as fertilizer after death was considered the best use of their remains.
Hundreds of Weylent military officers and thousands of NCOs would return to Triumph City by airship after the ceasefire agreent took effect.
Hearing they could finally go ho brought smiles to nearly every weary face.
Initially summoned by General Griffin and Eastern Expansionist officers, they had traveled thousands of miles to the East seeking riches, glory, and adventure.
Yet, upon arriving, they found that it was not the gold-filled playground they had imagined.
As for non-Weylent officers and NCOs, such as attendants promoted under special circumstances, they could choose to stay or leave voluntarily.
If they chose to stay, they would receive a severance pay ranging from one thousand to fifty thousand dinars, depending on their rank—a common practice.
Most, however, opted to return to Triumph City.
Although Weylent society was rife with xenophobia, it was less extre in Triumph City.
For instance, only in Triumph City were the laws that "slaves cannot be killed at whim" and "slave health and life must be protected" strictly enforced, with violators facing hefty fines or even criminal charges.
anwhile, in remote borderlands or the estates of noble lords, slaves were treated little better than livestock, and most governors or leaders turned a blind eye to the lives and deaths of foreigners.
Staying local with severance pay, who knew what the future would hold?
Moreover, after clashing with the alliance’s ravenous army, nearly every soldier and officer was left with a psychological shadow.
They all wanted to leave this troubleso place.
However...
Not everyone was in such a hurry to leave.
At the entrance of the bunker in the center of Horn Fort, a Weylent soldier inside an observation post glanced southward briefly before quickly ducking into the nearby bunker.
They were General Griffin’s personal bodyguards.
When they had retreated earlier, General Alec had ordered them to leave, but their superior officer, Carloff, refused to follow the acting commander’s orders, thus they all remained.
Jogging up to Carloff, the soldier spoke anxiously.
"Sir, the Alliance troops have arrived."
Carloff nodded indifferently and walked out of the bunker, through the narrow concrete tunnels, arriving at the observation post above the bunker.
The large gate to the south was blown open, and the roadblocks in front of it were dragged aside by several soldiers. Trucks began driving into Horn Fort from the distance.
Before the trucks even stopped, excited soldiers from the Lion Kingdom jumped off and ran towards the nearby barracks and various defense zones, eager to loot anything the Weylent people had left behind.
Carloff silently watched from a distance as tents were toppled and looted items were cramd onto the trucks. Loaded trucks departed while empty ones returned, his heart remaining undisturbed.
Those people were like hyenas on a lion’s back...
The soldier beside him took a deep breath and looked towards Carloff.
"Sir, we..."
Carloff coldly watched them.
"Leave them be."
Even if he wanted to intervene, he couldn’t.
There were only a few hundred of them, severely low on ammunition, unable to gain any advantage on the front lines, let alone being trapped in a bunker.
The war was over.
He only wanted to preserve General Griffin’s body...
As Carloff watched the soldiers looting, those looters quickly noticed him standing in the observation post.
A rookie soldier ran over to the Mole to report.
"Boss! There are so Weylent people ahead!"
Didn’t they leave?
Mole raised an eyebrow.
"Take there."
"Right away!"
Following the player, Mole glanced at the Weylent person in the observation post and succinctly introduced himself.
"Leader of the Skeleton Corps, Mole."
Carloff slowly spoke.
"General Griffin’s personal bodyguard, Carloff."
"Why didn’t you leave?" Mole looked at the tightly shut gate of the bunker, asking with a half-smile, "Or is there so treasure inside?"
Carloff was silent for a mont before he opted to tell the truth.
"General Alec took all the docunts, those that couldn’t be taken were burned... There’s nothing inside, just the body of my deceased superior, and we are tasked to escort him on his final journey."
"Oh."
Mole lost interest.
It made sense.
Enough ti had passed for all truly important items to be removed, and unless the acting commander was an idiot, he wouldn’t have left anything in the bunker.
As for General Griffin’s body...
Survivors from Luo Xia Province might want to drag him out and whip the corpse, but Mole, just a player not deeply imrsed in the aftermath’s suffering, had no interest in a dead body.
Still curious, he casually asked.
"Oh, how did he die?"
"Stroke."
"Alright if you don’t want to talk, forget it," Mole shrugged his shoulders, laughing, "By the way, everything here now belongs to us, you have no objections, do you?"
Carloff nodded silently.
"No objections."
Dispensing spoils of war, deciding the fate of the losers, and granting rcy were the prerogatives of the victors; they were rely exercising their rights.
Mole looked at the tightly shut iron gate for a mont, feeling sowhat regretful in his heart.
Initially, during the Alliance’s first military operation in Luo Xia Province, the command had dispatched the Iron Heart to the City of Abundance while sending the Skeleton Corps toward the direction of Lost Valley.
At that critical mont, Griffin anticipated that the Alliance had obtained intelligence about his side and set a trap by concentrating all armored units and pre-deploying them east of Lost Valley.
Even now, Mole had to admire that guy was simply a genius.
Back then, his Skeleton Corps was completely taken by surprise.
Had it not been for various unforeseen factors outside the battlefield and the Company’s support with the No. 60 electromagnetic cannon, that guy’s plan might have succeeded.
In fact, even earlier, had it not been for the intelligence gathered by Pangolin Comrade while passing by Camp 530, the Lion Kingdom might not have lasted until the Alliance was ready for war.
And even though the plan failed to et expectations ti and again, that guy still made tily redial actions until the last mont of his life.
Even without revisiting old scores with the Chewing Bone Tribe, the Alliance had at least two close calls where it nearly fell into the hands of this boss.
Turning his gaze away from the iron gate, Mole looked at Carloff, who was standing in the guard post.
"Leaving aside the destruction of the war, your superior was an impressive opponent... I am glad he’s dead, and yet I regret that he didn’t die by our hands."
Carloff’s expression shifted slightly as he swallowed, but said nothing, rely nodded silently in gratitude and then turned to walk back to the bunker.
Simultaneously, in Falcon City,
Cohen, who sat in a room of the castle, had finally received a call from General Alec, the acting commander, after a long wait.
"...we have arrived in Far West City, damn, what a poor place," Alec’s voice contained a hint of exhilaration.
Although he could only act as commander for a few days, it had satisfied his craving to command legions. Previously under Griffin, he had only been a deputy, stuck doing nial tasks and often caught between junior and senior officers.
This ordeal was finally over.
"Has everyone withdrawn?"
"We have... except for Griffin’s personal guard. They insisted on staying. I couldn’t persuade them, so I just let them be."
Cohen nodded.
Griffin’s direct line didn’t need his intervention; if they sought death, he would just let them.
"You’ll stay there for so ti until the ceasefire agreent takes effect, then Captain Adria will take you ho," Alec said with a laugh.
"Great."
As soon as the call ended, there was a sudden silence on both ends, as if each was anticipating that the other had sothing more to say and decided to let the other speak first.
However, this silence didn’t last long.
Seeing that Governor Sir wasn’t speaking, Alec took the initiative.
"Sir... did we lose?"
Cohen responded succinctly.
"The ceasefire negotiations do not include this matter, and you will bring victory back to Triumph City."
Both sides would declare themselves victorious.
This was a report for their own people.
Relieved to hear the answer he wanted to hear, Alec exhaled.
"I understand."
As he and the myriad Ten Thousand Leaders had guessed, the Legion couldn’t possibly surrender to the Company, much less to the Alliance.
The Company side wouldn’t naively think that just by one victory, the military strength of the East Coast had surpassed that of the West Coast.
As for those naive Wasteland Wanderers, probably hoping to leverage this opportunity for benefits. Although naive, any problem that could be resolved through economic incentives was not a problem; it wasn’t worth entangling with them over trivial gains.
Let those barbarians take what they wanted.
He also had made so concessions within the limits of his authority, such as tacitly allowing the Alliance to pillage the Vassal Country, or redirecting the supplies initially sent to Griffin’s to them, or permitting their occupation of Bister Town, and so on...
In exchange, the Alliance would return a series of prisoners including McCullen and General Softer, and would allow the defenders of Horn Fort to lay down their weapons and withdraw honourably from their positions.
Those rescued prisoners and saved officers, as well as the various factions in Triumph City, would thank him.
He had not only helped them preserve their strength but had also secured for them a "victory" they didn’t achieve on the battlefield.
They would be grateful to him.
This would be a huge political asset.
"By the way, Governor Sir," Alec suddenly rembered sothing and spoke through the phone.
Cohen casually responded.
"What else is there?"
Alec hesitated, then reported truthfully.
"We didn’t get Griffin’s body... his death was sowhat strange."
Cohen said, unconcerned.
"Let that go, whoever wants his corpse can have it, it’s unimportant."
He had already warned Joseph not to hope to save that man, but unexpectedly, the guy ended up dead.
Although even this outco wasn’t bad.
A re three-star Ten Thousand Leader trying to take Triumph City hostage, these officers who climbed up from the bottom sure dare to dream.
"Is this because the barefoot are not afraid of wearing shoes?"
If he were still alive and returned, he would definitely not have an easy ti, but dying outside might even turn him into a tragic hero.
Perhaps it was the guidance of the leader of the Eastern Legion.
Cohen chuckled and shook his head, casually hanging up the phone as if he had just dealt with a trivial matter.
...
The following day.
The council hall in the castle of Falcon City was packed with people.
Just days before, it had been stark and empty, with only a few representatives from each party, and even fewer speaking.
But now, the originally spacious conference table suddenly seed a bit crowded.
First from the Army side, apart from the governor of Triumph City, General Cohen, the newly appointed commander Joseph, Captain Adria of the Adjudicator, and almost all the Ten Thousand Leaders not captured were present at this eting.
For the corporate side, aside from Deputy Minister Wu of the Comprehensive Managent Departnt, a large number of his subordinates and staff dispatched from the five major groups also attended.
Including Yi Chuan from the Silver Wing Group, Yun Yi from the Endpoint Group, Wu Mu from the Chang Ge Group, Li Changkong from the Ideal Group, and two bionic beings from the Kang Mao Group.
Besides these notable figures, Chu Guang also saw several journalists from Ideal City.
Among them was Journal of Envision, which he recognized, and so other dia that he did not recall, only feeling that the logos on their devices looked familiar, probably from previous interviews around City of Dawn.
Considering the historical significance of this ceasefire negotiation and that the photos and videos would be replayed many tis, Chu Guang had been very cautious about managing his expressions from the mont he entered the conference hall.
And as he had anticipated, from the mont he walked into the hall, almost all caras focused on him.
"Manager of Shelter No. 404 and the Alliance!" a journalist from the Futuristic Report whispered excitedly, "I heard he’s from the pre-war era."
"Where did you hear that?" a journalist from the Omniscient and Omnipotent Broadcasting Company cast her a surprised look.
"At City of Dawn during an interview!"
"But he looks only in his twenties."
"What’s that matter? Aren’t all shelter managers those old icicles who’ve been cryogenically frozen till now? For all we know, he might be so two-hundred-year-old freak!"
The journalists from Ideal City kept chattering incessantly.
Though that noise wasn’t too out of place in such a bustling setting, it still greatly annoyed Li Ke, who sat at the conference table.
Especially when those journalists tried to interview him.
Thankfully, there were no such annoying fellows in the Wandering Swamp, or else it might have been the end of them... These snooping people were more unpredictable than the mutant crocodiles in the swamps.
There were also a few soldiers from the Alliance who looked at him strangely... How to describe it? It was like how the natives from Golden Lizard Kingdom look at gold coins.
Looking at Chu Guang sitting beside him, Li Ke tilted his head and lowered his voice to ask.
"Why have so many people suddenly shown up?"
"After all, it’s a mont to witness history; isn’t it normal to want a photo opportunity?" Chu Guang smiled, but then he realized that it might be misinterpreted by his friends from the north, so he politely added, "Of course, I an the journalists."
Li Ke coughed softly.
"You didn’t need to specify—"
"Quiet, please, everyone, quiet."
Just then, the corporate representative Wu Changnian, who had finally signed the docunts, clapped his hands to signal the chattering journalists and the nobles from Falcon Kingdom to quieten down.
Once the council hall beca a bit quieter,
He spoke in a steady voice.
"Thank you all for your support and cooperation; today’s peace could not have been achieved without your efforts."
"A contract that has persisted for a century and a half will continue, this decaying world needs no more wars. In the face of existential threats, we should unite and face the common dangers, and explore our shared future..."
He spoke for about ten minutes.
Seeing the representatives from the Army start to yawn, Wu Changnian wrapped up his speech and handed the three signed agreents to his subordinate, who then passed them to the Weylent military officer standing at the conference table.
"So much nonsense."
Cohen curled his lip, swiftly signed his na on the three agreents with a pen, pushed them forward, directly sliding them across the negotiating table to Chu Guang.
The content of the agreent had been repeatedly confird.
The final signing was rely a formality.
He wanted to end this tedious ceremony quickly, cut through the chaos left by the previous commander, and regain control of Falcon Kingdom from the Alliance.
After all...
Even though they hadn’t officially been defeated, the terms of the agreent were less than honorable for the Army.
The "substantial benefits" for the Alliance lay mostly outside this piece of paper. Chu Guang glanced briefly at the agreent.
Other than including clauses like restricting garrisoned troops and withdrawing troops from various sides, the only important elents for the Alliance in this docunt were three points.
One was the unconditional ceasefire accepted by the Army and Falcon Kingdom.
Another was that Iron Heart and Bister Town, originally belonging to the Army, would remain under Alliance control according to the "status quo" principle.
As for the last, it concerned No.0 Shelter.
The Army, corporations, and Alliance would each send one or two representatives for investigation, with the Academy also dispatching a technical staff as an observer.
After confirming the agreent’s accuracy, Chu Guang, under the gaze of all attendees, signed his na at the bottom of the ceasefire agreent.
As customary on such a significant occasion, he should have said sothing.
However, he wasn’t one for long speeches.
Setting down the pen, Chu Guang looked towards Old White, Edge Shoveling, Spring Water Commander, and the other players gathered there, nodding with a smile.
"I’m honored to witness this mont with all of you."
"This is our victory!"
-
(Thanks to the leader "Love Love Great Cute Si Si" for the reward!!!After a delay of nearly half a year, the special issue promised by Dian Niang is finally online, teary-eyed, today is a double update! However, the second update will be a bit late, it will be out before twelve.)
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