Chapter 281: Prophecy
“Sounds nice, but do you dare not to give it?”
Wang Yi sneered.
Mister Shu did not argue with her, turned around and walked towards the building next to the theater. Before the supplies arrived, neither he nor Wang Yi could leave this plaza area.
“What are you going to do?”
Wang Yi kept chattering and asking.
“Of course, ask their families for ransom. If I go easy now, I’ll really be the one in trouble later.”
Wang Yi raised her eyebrows, with a bit of realization, “You want to use them to make up for this loss, how much do you plan to get from them?”
“Ninety percent.”
The nasolabial folds hidden in the darkness on Mister Shu’s face became even deeper.
……
The outline of the distant mountains faded in from the horizon, with a hint of night color at the edges.
A huge metal flood dragon sprawled across the asphalt road from Yan Bei Pass to the theater, the ground cracked inch by inch under its weight, mechanical arms like piles nailed to the ground on both sides to reinforce the body, and the cultivation pod at the rear connected to more than a dozen carriages still floating on the water.
At the front of the train position, they had already begun receiving a steady stream of rescue supplies from Black Kite personnel.
The hospital beds in auxiliary carriages 13, 14, and 15 were already occupied by wounded soldiers.
In the auxiliary 16 medical carriage, the original disinfectant smell was replaced by thick smoke. A strong man who looked like a bear-like figure lay on the bed, his chest wrapped in white cloth with dark red bloodstains seeping through.
At this moment, one hand held a cigar, the other roughly flipped through the battle report handed in by Licking Rabbit and Qu Hang, his face already as black as charcoal.
“Over one hundred twenty dead, more than eighty wounded, meaning in one battle, casualties exceeded two-fifths?”
Lin Xia stood slightly timidly to the side with two doctors, watching Pangtu teach them how to do surgery.
“This is how you tie knots for large-scale trauma wounds. I admit your bow tie is nicely tied, but is that stuff proper? Learn properly, so you don’t end up tying a bunch of bow ties on me later.”
Licking Rabbit’s complexion was tense, “It was okay at first, but when the enemy counterattacked later, the formation got disrupted. The soldiers lack experience, panicked and got counter-killed quite a few…”
“Okay my ass!”
He Jie slammed the report into the other’s face, cursing loudly, “If it weren’t for military law before the apocalypse, I’d have shot you myself!”
“Xiao Ba ran out of energy, didn’t you know to contact the left and right flanks to coordinate encirclement? Relying solely on frontal assault? If Lu Xiao and his wife hadn’t held the line, everyone would’ve been let go!”
“Beating a drowning dog and making it this messy, did you learn battlefield command from a dog?”
“…”
“Cough cough…”
Due to excessive agitation, half the cigar was inhaled in one puff.
His chest cavity heaved, large patches of bloodstains seeped out.
But He Jie was completely unaware.
Qu Hang was just about to say something when he saw a slender, powerful hand reach from behind He Jie, accurately pinching the glowing end of the cigar. Accompanied by sizzling sounds, gray smoke rose.
“Tsk, such a big temper.”
Qu Hang’s complexion changed slightly, and he looked up to see the Train Conductor standing by the bed with a smile.
In the corridor outside the carriage, Han Qin was leading He Zhenzhen and the others walking this way.
“Train Conductor.”
Respectful voices rose from everyone in the carriage.
“Colonel He is seriously injured and needs to rest for a while. Don’t bother him with this kind of thing. You two handle it yourselves.”
Su Huan waved his hand, and the two looked as if granted a great amnesty.
Seeing their appearances, He Jie snorted coldly, feeling relieved inside. After all, it wasn’t the era of communal pots anymore; everything depended on the boss’s mood. If the job was done too poorly, as the one in charge, if he didn’t curse a couple times, when the boss got angry, he wouldn’t be able to protect his subordinates.
“This time it was my problem. If I hadn’t been injured and stepped down…”
“I’m not here to talk about that with you.”
Su Huan stepped aside and picked up a little one who had been tugging at his pant leg.
He Xiaoxiao saw He Jie and wrinkled her little nose, “Daddy, did you smoke?”
He Jie’s tense face instantly softened. He flicked the half cigar in his hand onto the sole of Qu Hang’s foot and badmouthed Qu Hang right in front of him without guilt, “It was all him smoking. Don’t learn from him. So young and full of bad habits…”
Qu Hang’s mouth twitched, pretending not to hear.
He Zhenzhen at the side rolled her eyes repeatedly, but with so many people here, she couldn’t say anything.
“Anyway, this carriage isn’t occupied by many people. You all stay here and watch him.”
Su Huan gave a straightforward instruction and turned to leave.
The big battle had just ended, and there were endless things to do everywhere, each requiring him, the Train Conductor, to personally handle.
He was just here to check around. As long as He Jie wasn’t dead, it was fine.
A person like this couldn’t die and would eventually reach the heights of his previous life.
As for ordinary soldiers, it was just a matter of basic resources. Once he got this war indemnity, what he’d worry about wouldn’t be too few resources, but too many and how to handle them.
Qu Hang and the others followed up, wanting to submit data. Su Huan waved his hand, “I’ve already seen this. The logistics group is working on the reward scheme. You can first comfort the soldiers, do battle summaries and such. No need to show me. Just have it clear in your minds for the meeting in a couple days.”
“Yes.”
With He Jie down, Licking Rabbit, as the frontal battlefield commander, definitely had to do a summary.
As for Qu Hang, he was currently the highest on the armored train besides Yu Yue, so he definitely had to handle some daily tasks on behalf of He Jie.
Including arrangements for soldiers’ daily training and such. Only by quickly returning to daily life could they wash away those messy war sequelae.
Before the words here were finished, they ran head-on into Secretary Shu Wei who had come hurriedly looking for him.
Last night, Shu Wei had earned a certain degree of trust from the Train Conductor through her performance, formally becoming a core member of the armored train, starting to assist Su Huan in handling some things alone.
Position on par with the Purser, but actual status slightly higher than the Purser.
“Director Xu requests you over there.”
“What’s the matter?”
“During research last night, the High Priestess gave a prophecy.”
“Prophecy?”
Su Huan was slightly surprised.
Shu Wei’s complexion was grave, “The content is bizarre; we couldn’t really understand it.”
“Interesting, let’s go see.”
……
On the third day, a steady stream of supplies crossed the wasteland and gathered in the abandoned city where Yan Bei Pass was located.
On the fourth day, the seriously injured Golden Kite Man and the butler were sent back first for treatment.
Zhong You was temporarily promoted to Captain, leading a group of Black Kite Special Operations to carry out cleanup tasks around, collecting supplies.
“Captain, Captain!”
The soldier outside the window patted the car window of the armored off-road vehicle, startling Zhong You awake from his nightmare.
He rubbed the stubble growing on his face until the slight stinging sensation woke him up.
He rolled down the car window, sandstorm rolled in, but was all blocked by an invisible water curtain behind the car window.
“We there yet?”
“Those few Tier 1 sand armored beasts have energy levels close to Tier 2; we can’t break their defense.”
“I’ll handle it.”
Zhong You patted the driver’s seat in front, and the soldier immediately sat down to drive.
Accompanied by the roar of the engine, the armored off-road vehicle roared into the battlefield. Faint gunshots mixed in the sandstorm, and sporadic cannon sounds like the roar of giant beasts.
“Boom—”
Vibration came, sand hit the car window rustling down, even inside the vehicle there was a faint smell of dust. Zhong You lowered his head to look at the short spear in his hand. Though wiped clean, it still seemed to glow with faint lightning.
He still hadn’t recovered from that big battle.
The soldier glanced at Zhong You’s dazed eyes in the rearview mirror, “Are you not in good condition?”
Zhong You took a deep breath, unlocked the locked exoskeleton joints, put on the mask, and said muffledly.
“Like a dream.”
He yanked open the car door, thrusting the short spear in his hand fiercely at two boxes of mineral water on the vehicle.
Pure water waves instantly gathered into a water wall amid the sandstorm.
With a bang, it blocked a huge sand armored beast that looked like a pangolin.
The giant beast was two meters tall, over six meters long, somewhat like a mutant giant lizard, but covered in rock-hard armor shells, a pair of dark yellow eyes greedily overlooking Zhong You.
The soft water splash, like an enraged lion, instantly enveloped the sand armored beast.
The sand armored beast looked puzzled at this clean water source, instinctively sticking out its slender tongue to lick.
The water smoothly rolled into the sand armored beast’s mouth and nose.
Its originally slightly enjoying vertical pupils instantly contracted into an extremely thin line, opening its mouth to spit out the water.
But Tier 2 Manipulator’s water wasn’t that easy to spit out.
All the swallowed water mixed into Zhong You’s general energy, and under his manipulation, instantly turned into sharp knives, piercing into the mouth, rushing down the throat, tearing the soft internal organs.
The sand armored beast immediately wailed in pain, plunging headfirst into the ground sand layer like a crocodile, rolling madly, kicking up waves of crazy sand.
But with a wave of Zhong You’s hand, the moisture gathered in the air attached to the sand, sinking it to the ground.
Leaving only the sand armored beast rolling muddy on the ground.
The special operations personnel in battle watched this scene and all breathed a sigh of relief.
Zhong You looked down at his feet, inserted the short spear in his hand into the ground, took a few steps back. In the next instant, a huge fanged mouth drilled out from the sand, snapping empty in mid-air, while the other struggling sand armored beast viciously bit towards the dodging Zhong You.
This beast had always been looking for a chance to counterattack.
Zhong You just retreated one step, his right hand naturally extending back, detaching a short spear from the exoskeleton, remotely aiming at the biting sand armored beast ahead.
The air quickly became humid, sand dripping with water.
As if a light rain had fallen, a thick fog risen, countless thick white water mists gathered behind Zhong You, condensing into a translucent water body.
The water body condensed a pair of over three-meter arms behind him, together gripping the short spear in Zhong You’s hand.
Faint waves surged over the howling sandstorm.
“Bang—”
The water body friction with air emitted a deafening demolition sound.
The arm contracted a full three circles.
The short spear vanished in the air in an instant, invisible to the naked eye.
The sand armored beast with its giant mouth open seemed unscathed, but on closer look, the light in its eyes was gradually dimming.
Inertia faded, crashing heavily onto the ground sand.
Rolled several circles, kneeling before the handsome young man.
Zhong You’s slightly hollow gaze passed over the corpse, looking towards the distant fleeing sand armored beast.
“Crack”
He drew two spare short spears, twisted them together with both hands, and repeated the process.
“Bang, bang…”
After two sounds, three near-Tier 2 sand armored beasts lay dead on the spot.
A foul wind blew, dispersing the water vapor in the air.
Replenishing the drought-stricken land anew.
Without multiple vehicle-mounted cannons that heavy firepower, even a company wouldn’t be enough for three sand armored beasts to ravage.
And the cost Zhong You paid was just two boxes of mineral water.
The off-road vehicle drove over, the soldier eagerly opened the car door, “Captain, get in the car and rest. Leave the rest to us.”
Zhong You withdrew his gaze, looking at him with slight confusion, “Why so happy? The spoils of war don’t belong to us anyway.”
The soldier’s face stiffened, his mouth turning down.
Once Zhong You sat in the back, the soldier said aggrievedly, “Then after brothers worked so hard for so long, wouldn’t it be working for nothing?”
“If you can’t beat them, you naturally have to pay a price.”
Looking at Zhong You’s silent appearance in the rearview mirror, the soldier’s eyes were full of confusion.
“Is that Train Conductor really that powerful?”
……
“Not powerful, that can already be called a monster. If Xiao Shui hadn’t reacted quickly, we’d still have to pay a large ransom to get out.”
The lanky man said with lingering fear.
“Yang Ruoyu, in a meeting, what are you spacing out for?”
Sitting opposite was a man in his thirties, wearing a dark blue suit. What stood out was that he wasn’t even wearing a shirt under the suit, collar wide open, two full-volume pectoral muscles bulging against the fabric, hard to look at directly.
The woman who had taken off her work clothes exuded the lightness unique to youth, pushed up the thick-rimmed glasses on her face with her pen, came back to her senses and said, “If we can’t go all out to take him down, then don’t offend him.”
The man couldn’t help rubbing his palm, somewhat excitedly, “You saying that makes me even more interested.”
“If you show up in front of him now, only two outcomes: he’s in a good mood, the company pays ransom and you slink back; bad mood, he snaps you in half, electrocutes you into a blackened ape.”
Facing the boss of the company’s executive department, Xiao Shui retorted without holding back.
The man didn’t mind, “Only battling such a strong one deserves to be called evolution. Sitting in the office every day, my ass is about to grow calluses. Tell me, what way to make him willingly fight me.”
“Pay money.”
“I’m at least Donghuang Heavy Industry’s top expert; isn’t that a bit too pathetic?”
“He’s probably Donghuang’s top expert right now. In a few days, even the directors of major forces further north will have his data on their desks.”
“But the real shock has only just begun. From now on, dual gene primordia will become even hotter commodities. You need to prepare.”
“One person ushering in an era, truly enviable…”
“You envy it yourself. The survey mission is done; I’ll head back to headquarters after two days rest. Even if the sky falls then, don’t think of dragging me out.”
Yang Ruoyu yawned, leaning back, her slender waist like a newly sprouted willow branch.
“Then go rest. Someone, print this photo data and spread it throughout the entire branch. Make sure everyone sees it, not even the one cleaning the toilet can be missed!”
