The First Order

Ren Xiaosu had thrown away the remaining rat meat with a swing of his hand. It seemed that he had no intention of sharing it with the others, nor did he feel that it was wasteful to throw it away.

Liu Bu thought to himself, ‘Even if you don’t want the others to have it, shouldn’t you keep the rest for tomorrow?’

However, Ren Xiaosu had a different thought. He would rather search for food again tomorrow or even go hungry than leave this strong scent of blood lingering on him.

At this moment, Yang Xiaojin was quietly looking at the roasted rat meat with a small salt shaker in her hand. Just by looking at her, it was unimaginable that she would be a firearms master who could point a gun at others without warning.

Eh? Ren Xiaosu suddenly remembered that the palace had rewarded him with a Basic Skill Duplication Scroll when he completed the quest in which he had to reject going with them to the Jing Mountains. That scroll had remained unused until now!

There weren’t any targets in town he could learn a skill from. But wasn’t there a target sitting right beside him that he could learn a skill from?

However, the scroll was just a basic one, so it could no longer help him improve his firearms skill. However, someone like Yang Xiaojin would possess other great skills, right?

A basic scroll did not seem that hard to get. Ren Xiaosu felt that he could easily learn a few more lifesaving skills from Yang Xiaojin.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked in his mind, “Can you list all of Yang Xiaojin’s skills to me?”

He wanted to know what other worthy skills Yang Xiaojin had before making his final decision.

“Unauthorized to reveal,” the voice from the palace answered firmly.

“Eh, didn’t I already learn a skill from her?” Ren Xiaosu asked in surprise.

“Unauthorized to reveal,” the voice from the palace answered firmly again.

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and phrased his question in another way. “What’s her combat skill level?”

“Advanced,” the voice from the palace said.

Ren Xiaosu now understood that he could only ask the palace leading questions about certain skills. For example, the palace would only answer him if he asked specifically whether the target had combat skills, medical skills, etc.

But if he wanted the palace to list all of the target’s skills, the palace would ignore him. So this was all about guessing.

“Then what’s the level of my combat skill?” Ren Xiaosu asked again.

“Intermediate,” the voice from the palace said.

The combat skill he was referring to was actually just his experience of being in ruthless fights with others over the years, not something that he had carefully formed a doctrine around. For him, he knew exactly where on an opponents’ body he could deal a fatal blow to. But compared to Yang Xiaojin, what he knew about combat was not “scientific” or “concrete.” He only fought based on his intuition.

Hence, Yang Xiaojin was at an advanced level while he was only at an intermediate level.

But if they really fought each other, it would still depend on their physicality. If Yang Xiaojin’s strength and dexterity were not as good as Ren Xiaosu’s, or if their difference was too great, it would be useless even if she had a higher level of combat than him.

Ren Xiaosu scrutinized Yang Xiaojin and realized that she was not muscular at all. So she shouldn’t be stronger than him, right?

Ren Xiaosu was very tempted by the advanced combat skill because he understood how important this skill was.

With Advanced Combat Proficiency, not only would he be more confident in taking on others in a fight, but he would also be able to use the Master Skill Duplication Scroll if he met someone with a master-level combat skill. Only by mastering an advanced skill could he use the key that was the Master Skill Duplication Scroll.

Without the key, he would not be able to learn the target’s master-level skill even if they had one.

“Use the Skill Duplication Scroll!” Ren Xiaosu waited quietly after he finished speaking to the palace in his mind. He kept praying in his head, ‘Let it be the advanced combat skill! Let it be the advanced combat skill!’

A second later, the voice from the palace said, “Randomly copied target’s advanced jump rope. skill. Do you want to learn it?”

Ren Xiaosu was confused.

Ren Xiaosu stared blankly at Yang Xiaojin. He had not expected that a fine woman like her with Perfect Firearms Proficiency would have a skill like jumping rope.

Fucking jump rope! Why the hell had he copied a skill like that?!

Yang Xiaojin seemed to have noticed Ren Xiaosu’s gaze. She calmly turned around and asked, “When will the meat be done roasting?”

Ren Xiaosu felt outraged right now. When will it be done roasting?! Like I give a dog’s bollocks about that! Could the Skill Duplication Scroll be any more unreliable than this? Never mind the previous incident with the deception and bragging skills, he gained another lousy skill like jumping rope? Besides, why would a skill like this even have a level!

What does an advanced jump rope skill involve? Can I do a backflip while jumping rope at the same time?!

Ren Xiaosu said with a dark expression, “When we eat something in the wilderness, we must roast it a little longer; the same goes for the water. Water must be boiled for longer than ten minutes before drinking it.”

Then Ren Xiaosu saw Yang Xiaojin raise her arm, revealing a watch on her wrist. Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment. He had seen watches before, but he also knew that only the important people in the stronghold wore them.

Ren Xiaosu asked, “Aren’t you afraid that you’ll fall sick from eating something from the wilderness?”

Yang Xiaojin calmly said, “There’s only a chance to fall sick if I’m still alive.”

She then picked up the small salt shaker and sprinkled it over the rat meat. Nearby, Liu Bu and the others were drooling from the sight.

When they were having a conversation earlier, everyone didn’t feel particularly hungry. But now that the aroma of food kept drifting towards them, Liu Bu and the others felt as though there was a vacuum in their deflated stomachs!

“Did anyone bring along any food?” Xu Xianchu asked.

“No.” Everyone shook their heads.

Close by, Ren Xiaosu was amused to hear that. He had clearly seen some of them taking some food, but those who did so were now tacitly denying it.

It seemed that everyone here knew that the food they were hiding could very well save their lives!

How could something that could save their lives be shared with others?

Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu suddenly realized that many of these soldiers from the private army did not have their guns with them anymore. Did they really throw away something that could protect their lives during the chaos just so they could run faster?

How stupid were they?

The stronghold’s celebrity, Luo Xinyu, said unhappily, “How can we survive without food? Why didn’t you all take any of the food with you?”

A soldier sneered and said, “Didn’t you also not take any?”

Luo Xinyu took a subconscious step back. She realized some of the men around her had an indescribable malice in their eyes.

As a celebrity in the stronghold, Luo Xinyu was not only beautiful in appearance, she also had a great figure. She loved wearing short skirts that exposed her thighs openly during summer in the stronghold.

And those people in the stronghold could do nothing but look at her from afar because they were still civilized in there.

But she was in the wilderness now. Many of those in the team had fallen into some kind of despair and wondered if they could walk out of here alive.

Under such circumstances, the evil within them started to amplify.

There was no civility, no law, and no morality here. Perhaps no one would learn about what happened here either.

Luo Xinyu subconsciously inched closer to Ren Xiaosu’s side. She had not expected that she would choose to trust the “refugee” who looked most like a wild animal over her own team members.