The task of awaiting orders at Settlent No. 10 wasn’t an official deploynt; the main forces of the Storm Corps were still stationed around the City of Dawn, guarding against internal and external threats to the Alliance, and occasionally guiding newcors. Therefore, Spring didn’t bring many people.
Among the corps mbers who had already arrived at Settlent No. 10, besides the 300 or so veteran players, about 200 were newcors who had only joined the group for a couple of months.
After eting the Manager, the Spring Commander returned near the save point, preparing to save his progress first, then log off to discuss the next steps with everyone in the group.
Like how to play out this act of luring the snake out of its hole.
And then, coincidentally, he bumped into I Max Black, who had just returned from completing a task outside, and his eyes lit up, stepping forward to stop the unlucky guy.
"Old Black! I have an amazing set of power armor here, want to try it on?"
Stopped, I Max Black looked bewildered, unable to figure out what kind of shenanigans Spring was up to again.
However, seeing the eager expression, he instinctively beca cautious.
"... No."
Seeing that Old Black had wisened up and didn’t fall for the trick, the Spring Commander quickly tried to persuade him.
"Co on! It’s the sa power armor as the Manager’s! This thing is not for sale, a rare opportunity you’ll miss if you don’t seize it!"
I Max Black chuckled coldly, swearing.
"MMP! When have you ever thought of for sothing good? It must be another goddamn trap."
The Spring Commander replied in feigned indignation.
"You’re saring ! When have I ever had sothing good and not thought of you?"
I Max Black remained unmoved, laughing.
"Haha, when?"
The air grew silent for a mont.
The Spring Commander scratched his head for a long while, finally offering an awkward smile.
I Max Black sighed, raised two fingers, and gave him a way out.
"... 2000 silver coins."
The Spring Commander instantly replied.
"Deal."
I Max Black: "..."
MMP!
Feels like I asked for too little!
...
In a half-collapsed building in Rock Mountain City, a dozen Weilante people dressed in urban camouflage uniforms were ticulously busy in front of the terminal.
Since Wyatt stationed in the Rock Mountain City area, the Southern Legion General Staff brought in equipnt and also steadily dispatched many people, transforming this abandoned building into the "Guillotine" operation group’s temporary base, crafting more detailed operational plans.
With the support of the local Looters, the entire plan proceeded smoothly.
However, that alone was not enough.
They not only had to distribute weapons to those robbers wielding iron pipe rifles but also teach them how to use them and how to fight more effectively.
And these matters required the assistance of "professionals."
Fortunately, the Eastern Legion’s Eastern Expansionists’ undercover network in the Free State ca in handy.
With the funds provided by the Southern Legion, Commander Condra easily t their requirents, sending not only weapons but also a group of experienced instructors.
So of them were Eastern Expansionists who participated in the Battle of Falling Leaves, while others were officers from the Expeditionary Army period who had drifted to the Free State.
It’s unrealistic to expect Looters to attain regular army combat power in such a short ti; however, they can at least fulfill the role of Cannon Fodder.
Ideally, if they could eliminate the Alliance Managers just with their help, that would be perfect.
If not, they had weapons of mass destruction as a last ace in the hole.
For this, the General Staff prepared two action plans.
The first plan was to disguise the Looters as refugees, smuggle nuclear warheads into the enclave, and then have two additional thousand-teams attack Settlent No. 10.
As for the second plan, it involved striking when the Manager left Settlent No. 10, shooting down the transport plane with a portable anti-air missile.
Both plans had their advantages and disadvantages, but Wyatt was still not satisfied.
He hoped to make the plan foolproof, striving to leave no potential issues.
The operational eting lasted the entire morning.
After the eting, Wyatt walked to the broken window, lit a cigarette, and put it in his mouth.
Just then, an intelligence officer sitting at the terminal suddenly pushed back his chair, standing up with excitent.
"We have news!"
Hearing the commotion behind him, Wyatt imdiately extinguished the barely smoked cigarette, rushing over to the intelligence officer, and spoke urgently.
"What’s the situation?"
The intelligence officer, with an excited expression, handed the headset to his superior while reporting aloud.
"We’ve intercepted news from the broadcasting station of Settlent No.1! According to the news, Settlent No. 10 plans to build a new outlying district in the northern forest! The Alliance Manager intends to personally inspect the area, with the inspection scheduled for tomorrow morning at nine!"
Standing next to Wyatt, the heavily armored deputy officer Ogg frowned.
"Building a new outlying district? In that enclave with just over 2000 people?"
The intelligence officer excitedly nodded.
"That’s right! According to the news, the new outlying district is ant to address the ongoing influx of Poluo and Vellante refugees... I’ve recorded the content! Put on the headset, and I’ll play it for you!"
Settlent No. 10 didn’t have its own broadcasting station; the news signal originated hundreds of kiloters away at Settlent No.1.
As he spoke, the intelligence officer tapped twice on the touch screen, replaying the recording he had just heard.
Wyatt, wearing the headset, listened to the recording from beginning to end with a frown, his stern expression gradually transforming into delight.
A mont later, he handed the headphones to Ogg with a smile on his face.
"It seems even the heavens are on our side... The two previous action plans are no longer applicable. Gather our operatives imdiately, I need to hold another eting!"
Ogg, who took the headphones, looked slightly hesitant.
He didn’t put on the headphones right away but rather looked at the animated Wyatt and quietly said.
"I always felt sothing was off... We’ve eavesdropped on news from No. 1 Settlent before, but we never heard anything useful."
"There’s nothing off about it. No. 10 Settlent rarely appears on No. 1 Settlent’s news channel."
Seeing the worry etched on Ogg’s face, Wyatt smiled and said.
"Also, that arrogant guy was wandering everywhere when he was in Weifu City. It’s reasonable to assu that there’s nothing worth seeing in No. 10 Settlent, and the local officials drew him a grand plan to coerce so budget... It makes sense logically."
Ogg let out a wry smile.
From what he knew about the Alliance, this seed more like sothing that would happen within the Southern Legion.
But seeing his superior so certain, he had nothing more to say.
After all, it was the sa in West Sail Port.
He always felt it was unreliable to stake everything on a bunch of ingrates, but the outco wasn’t bad.
Even if they didn’t bet right with Absek, they still managed to take over West Sail Port from the civil official group, and made a legitimate claim to fight in Poluo Province.
Perhaps he was overthinking things...
Seeing the new deputy still unsettled, Wyatt placed a hand on his shoulder.
"...Listen, Ogg, we can’t wait for 100% certainty before making a move. If you’re worried about losing the cooked duck, we can send an air defense unit to the west of No. 10 Settlent and ambush the essential route to No. 9 Settlent, keeping a close eye on their transport planes."
Ogg let out a wry smile, nodded, and said.
"Understood."
...
At dawn the next day, the north gate of No. 10 Settlent suddenly opened.
A total of six military off-road vehicles poured out from behind the gate, heading discreetly towards the northern wilderness.
Despite their low-key departure, they still couldn’t escape the notice of the Looter, who had been stationed outside the settlent on watch all night.
Kicked awake by his companion, the lackey hiding behind the dirt slope woke with a start and quickly grabbed his binoculars to look at the convoy.
The off-road vehicles were filled with soldiers clad in exoskeletons, even in the machine gunner position on the roof.
Their heavily ard appearance naturally struck fear into the heart.
Normally, this ragtag group wouldn’t dare target such a convoy, but these weren’t normal tis; they had the backing of the Southern Legion.
This was a sure win!
The cars and equipnt would all be theirs!
Two pairs of greedy eyes focused on the convoy as the Looter whispered behind the dirt slope.
"In the middle! The fourth vehicle from the front! Do you see it?"
"Let see... Blue power armor!"
"It’s him! That’s the one!"
"Call the boss quickly!"
After confirming the target, one of the Looter quickly pulled out a walkie-talkie, babbling and reported his findings to their boss lying in ambush at the rear.
anwhile, about twenty kiloters away near the forest area.
Hidden in an abandoned small town, Claw wore a sinister grin on his face.
While ambushing here last night, he stumbled upon a few mutated tigers and with his modified combat body, easily eviscerated them.
At that mont, he was like a humanoid Claw of death, eagerly anticipating the upcoming battle.
If it weren’t for the Southern Legion’s financiers insisting on forming a battle plan, he would’ve charged into the settlent last night for a glorious slaughter!
"...That guy is mine, no one touch him."
Observing their boss’s bloodthirsty deanor, the small leaders standing nearby couldn’t help but shiver, imdiately smiling and replying.
"Don’t worry, boss, we won’t contest you!"
"We’ll help you hold his arms down!"
Claw let out a cold laugh, his hoarse voice said.
"No need for you to act, I want a one-on-one!"
This would be a battle to make him a legend.
Clenching his right hand, watching the claws erge from the back of his hand, a blissful smile crossed his face.
anwhile, on the off-road vehicle speeding north, I Max Black, encased like a tin can, struggled to move his neck, cursing loudly.
"Damn... Does the Manager wear this crap? What bullshit!"
This damn thing isn’t even the Manager’s suit!
No way!
To be precise, this thing couldn’t even be called power armor! It’s just a reskinned exoskeleton!
And that’s indeed the case.
The standard for power armor is a nuclear-powered battery; this disposable hunk of iron naturally wouldn’t have one.
And given soone’s frugal nature, it’s unlikely they’d use their own gear for such a decoy plan.
Although power armor has NBC protection, there’s no saying any power armor could withstand a nuclear hit.
Being wealthy doesn’t justify such waste.
Since Weifu City, Chu Guang knew soone was targeting him, and had already arranged for Huge Rock Military Industry to use the K-10 "Iron Wall" exoskeleton as a frawork to imitate a downgraded version of the P-10A "Order" power armor.
And the so-called imitation was basically just the appearance.
Including four "Raptor-1" turbocharged engines and a "Hippo-1" portable fusion reactor, all components related to power elents were removed, replaced with tallic hydrogen batteries, and then coated with a layer of Klein blue paint.
The entire armor set looks exactly the sa as what Chu Guang usually wears, though performance-wise, they are completely different and not on the sa level at all.
Listening to I Max Black’s complaints over the communication channel, the Spring Water Commander grinned and said.
"Who cares if it is or isn’t, you can’t tell from the outside anyway."
The bumpy ride made him uncomfortable, and I Max Black grimaced as he complained.
"So what exactly is our mission?"
The Spring Water guy was silent for a mont, then sighed and said.
"...You’ve co this far on this mission, and you still can’t tell?"
While speaking, I Max Black suddenly noticed that the brothers in the sa vehicle were all wearing the Alliance’s classic "Type Five" exoskeleton, with Guards Corps’ paint and insignia on them.
Wait—
The sa as the Guards Corps!
He had been so focused on this lousy armor that he didn’t notice what others were wearing at all.
It wasn’t until now that he suddenly realized.
"Damn! Could it be—"
Seeing that he had already guessed, the Spring Water Commander chuckled, revealing the answer.
"No biggie, when the fighting begins, just focus on drawing fire; try not to die too quickly, that’s all... Of course, surviving is the best outco."
I Max Black: "...@#%!"
Hearing the swearing, even Spring Water felt a bit guilty and coughed slightly before speaking.
"Alright... if you drive a bit further, you’ll reach the combat area. We’ve detected traces of Looter activity nearby, starting radio silence now."
"Good luck!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Spring Water cut off the communications for the entire team, and Old Black’s cursing was cut off abruptly.
At the sa ti, a hundred kiloters away at the Rock Mountain City Action Base, an intelligence officer sitting in front of a terminal suddenly frowned.
He stood up from his seat and reported to Ogg, who was standing by the window a short distance away.
"We’ve detected a segnt of radio signal..."
Ogg imdiately looked at him and asked.
"Can you decipher the content?"
The person showed a troubled expression.
"I can... but I can’t understand what they are saying."
"..."
Ogg was montarily speechless, directing his gaze out the window.
A sense of foreboding lingered in his heart, but there was no ti to make adjustnts at this critical juncture.
Wyatt had already led all combat personnel to the vicinity of the ambush point.
Including the nuclear bomb they had purchased from arms dealers.
At the sa ti, a container ship loaded with 20,000 soldiers was on its way to Potato Harbor.
Regardless of whether this "Guillotine" operation they planned could proceed as expected, a new war was already on the precipice.
Hope everything goes smoothly.
He silently prayed in his heart.
anwhile, on the coastline west of No. 10 Settlent Point, a man who shouldn’t have been there was inspecting under the guard of a group of Guards.
This man was Chu Guang.
After assigning the task of eliminating bandits to Spring Water, he headed outside the settlent with Lu Bei early in the morning.
After all, no one could guarantee there weren’t any Looter or Southern Legion spies in the settlent.
Before the plan to lure the snake out of the hole succeeded, it was best for him to remain unseen.
And honestly, there wasn’t much worth seeing inside No. 10 Settlent Point, but there were quite a few noteworthy landmarks outside.
For instance, on the beach not far from the settlent’s enclosing wall, a beached derelict ship hung with seaweed was stranded.
The ship was quite intact, with the anti-rust paint not yet peeled, only a huge breach at the bottom.
This ship nad "Golden Coast" was precisely the one sunk by the Torch Church from the South Sea Union.
At the ti, this ship intended to land in the northeastern coastal area of Haiye Province to establish an observation station to study the so-called "Heaven" of the Torch Church, but before it could reach the shore, it was sunk by aquatic variant humans.
Later, with the Alliance’s developnt of the Death Coast and the rise of sea salvage business, the ship was lifted out of the water by scavengers from No. 10 Settlent Point and dragged to the shore.
The South Sea Union initially planned to buy it back and convert it into a museum to warn future generations, but considering the island’s small size, they ultimately decided to build the museum at No. 10 Settlent Point instead.
This also fulfilled the wish of the Golden Coast and its crew.
Currently, workers from No. 10 Settlent Point were cleaning algae and shells from the spaceship, and the construction of the museum would likely begin after this task was completed.
Apart from the remains of the Golden Coast research ship, heading southwest from here for dozens of kiloters lies a stretch of Glowing Sea coast.
Chu Guang learned from Li Jinrong that the place was called the Luminous Sea, allegedly a crater left by so radioactive weapon during a strategic bombing mission against the Mutant mucor mother nest.
It was said that two hundred years ago, the glowing sea was even more spectacular, its endless light filling the entire Death Coast.
However, nowadays, the radioactive materials there have decayed considerably.
According to investigations by a scientific expedition, the glowing phenonon in the Luminous Sea is mainly caused by the aggregation of mutated mollusks attracted to radioactive elents.
Research on these mutated organisms has already been initiated at the Alliance’s Biological Institute.
Initially, upon hearing the news, Chu Guang was a bit disappointed.
He expected to retrieve sothing like pre-war equipnt or helium-3 fuel from that place, but all they found were shells.
Perhaps soday in the future, Heya’s team at the Biological Institute will bring him new surprises.
But those are stories for another ti.
Walking further down the beach, Chu Guang spotted a small cabin situated by the shore.
The owner of the cabin had constructed a rain shelter with wood and set up a simple fishing pier.
This seed to be a place where local fishern took refuge from storms or sothing similar.
Next to the cabin, Chu Guang saw an old man drying fishing nets.
Just as he noticed the old man, the old man clearly saw him too and looked quite startled.
Seeing he had been noticed, Chu Guang didn’t make a deliberate effort to hide but walked straight over.
The expression on the old man’s face was sowhat anxious, yet held a bit of excitent and curiosity.
"Sir... are you the Manager?"
Chu Guang smiled and replied.
"I didn’t expect you to recognize ."
The old man smiled sheepishly, scratching the back of his head with his dry hands.
"You’re kidding, who around here wouldn’t recognize you."
Chu Guang continued to ask with a smile.
"You must be from Poluo Province."
The old man nodded and said with a smile.
"From Liuxi Town, right on the coast. Half a year ago, while fishing, I fiddled with the radio and heard the broadcast, ca here to have a look, and then moved my family here."
Chu Guang spoke in a casual tone.
"How do you feel now that you’re here? Compared to your previous place?"
The old man spoke sincerely.
"It’s much better here, at least the fish caught are ours and don’t have to be shared with the mayor’s household. The market beside the highway sotis has trucks that co to buy them, so there’s no worry about sales."
"It’s not just about the fish; my two grandsons and granddaughters are also going to school in the settlent, and every day there’s a teacher to teach math and writing without charging money. Sotis I feel a bit embarrassed... textbooks should cost so money, right? We’re not without ans."
Looking at the old man’s genuine deanor, Chu Guang smiled and said.
"Don’t feel bad about it; your grandchildren are the pillars of the Alliance’s future, and we rely on them for our future. Charging them money would make us feel bad."
"Ah, you’re joking again," the old man smiled with a hint of blush, "my little rascals at ho don’t have that much potential. It would be enough not to add trouble to the Alliance."
"You never know, life’s journey is a long one," Chu Guang replied with a smile, then continued, "By the way, old man, is there anything inconvenient in your life here?"
"Inconvenient... I honestly can’t think of any," the old man furrowed his brows and pondered for a mont before saying, "but I did hear so drivers complaining at the market; recently, quite a few Looters have migrated from Poluo Province, so now they need to take two guards when they drive."
Chu Guang was intrigued and asked.
"Do you know where they’re hiding?"
The old man shook his head.
"Honestly, these guys are like cockroaches, everywhere and not just in one spot... finding out where exactly they’re hiding is not easy."
At this, the old man chuckled awkwardly and said.
"But speaking of which, those bandit folks are everywhere on the Wasteland, not just here... compared to other settlents, ours is already pretty safe!"
Seeing the satisfied smile on the old man’s face, Chu Guang chuckled and said.
"You might think it’s enough, but it’s not enough in my eyes. But don’t worry, old man, we’re here this ti to solve this problem!"
As he spoke, Lu Bei suddenly approached from not far away, reporting solemnly.
"Sir, we’ve discovered an unidentified ard group to the west... they’re equipped with unidentified Exoskeleton models and have off-road vehicles with missile racks installed. Based on the radar shape on the missile launcher, they seem to be anti-air missiles."
Chu Guang’s expression turned sowhat peculiar.
"How many of them are there?"
Lu Bei replied solemnly.
"About a company has been discovered."
Chu Guang pondered for a mont and said.
"Take over to have a look."
Lu Bei hesitated but seeing Chu Guang’s resolute look, finally nodded and said.
"Yes!"
anwhile, about 20 kiloters north of the settlent, the off-road vehicle carrying I Max Black finally arrived at the edge of the ambush point.
Players from the Storm Corps had already reached their combat positions, and I Max Black, clad like a can, grumbled as he got out of the vehicle.
Watching the guy’s wobbly appearance, Wyatt, hidden in the shadows, suddenly furrowed his brow.
According to rumors, the Alliance’s Manager was almost inseparable from that Azure Power Armor during daily outings, and presumably accustod to its operation.
Yet, the guy in the blue power armor in the distance walked with an unfamiliar gait as soon as he got off the vehicle.
The previous excitent was suddenly replaced with a sense of foreboding.
But there was no ti for further thought.
As the Alliance’s Manager made his appearance, soone impatiently sounded the attack horn.
Gazing at the prey within reach, the suddenly excited Claw loudly hollered.
"That’s the guy!"
"Charge and crush them!"
"Except for that blue can, leave it for !"
——
(Thanks to "Li Huo Ah" for rewarding the alliance leader!!!)
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