The First Order

Before today, all of the violence that occured in the stronghold was more like a form of probing. There were scattered incidents across different locations, but none of them were enough to threaten the foundations of Luoyang City.

Just like the time when Zhang Baogen tried to kill someone, he had only done so as a hired gun.

Something like this probably happened because someone had wanted to see how quickly the garrison troops and the Riders would react.

But it was different now. The entire stronghold looked like it was caught in a premeditated move as chaos erupted everywhere.

This was the moment the slaughter would truly begin.

Ren Xiaosu frowned and said, “There’s nothing in Qinghe University that they’re after, so why did they start a killing spree here in the school? And why did they choose to do it in the daytime? I’m afraid that this is just a move to disrupt the Qinghe Group’s plans. These people are not truly making their move yet.”

Jiang Xu said, “I share the same thoughts as you. There’s still five hours until the sun sets, but the most critical moment is probably still nighttime. Go and save those students. They’re innocent.”

After that, Jiang Xu watched Ren Xiaosu dash off towards where the chaos started.

The students were fleeing in all directions. Perhaps due to what Jiang Xu had said in the lecture, the students in his class started leading the way after the chaos broke out and fled in the direction of the garrison troops. While running, they even called out to the other students to follow them.

However, the enemy’s plan was very meticulous. Before the students could escape to the area where the garrison troops were stationed, thugs rushed out from different directions and chased them around in a disciplined pattern. In the end, most of the students were driven into Teaching Block 11.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly rushed into their encirclement. However, the thugs did not think much of it. They only thought he was a flustered student trying to escape, so they chased him into the teaching block as well.

Ren Xiaosu did not choose to make a move immediately because there were too many students crowded here. If a battle broke out here, a lot of students could get killed in the crossfire. So he decided to wait for a better opportunity.

Roughly a dozen thugs had appeared. They did not seem like they wanted to restrain the entire school’s students either. They only rounded up a few hundred students so it would be easier to control them.

Shortly after, the entire teaching block was seized by the armed thugs. They then steered all the students in and crammed them into a lecture hall where they were kept locked up.

Guns pointing at them, the students did not dare to resist and obediently followed the thugs like sheep.

All the students in the teaching block were squeezed into this lecture hall and were shivering in fear. They did not know when the thugs had entered the school and why the garrison troops were not taking any action.

Some of the students saw through the windows that the thugs outside were all masked. After the thugs had searched the entire building, they stopped killing and just locked them up like this.

As if they had a plan, the thugs immediately dismantled the tables and chairs in the classrooms and piled them up at the four entrances of the teaching block. After these temporary barricades were built, the thugs even set up heavy machine gun nests inside the building!

By the time the garrison troops arrived, the well-trained thugs had already completed locking down the entire teaching block. They had even built a defensive bunker on the roof of the building. Although what was happening in the bunker couldn’t be seen, there were definitely thugs occupying the high ground armed with heavy weapons.

The garrison troops’ commanding officer looked around and realized the location the thugs had chosen to defend was definitely planned. That was because the tallest building on the Qinghe University campus was Teaching Block 11.

The other teaching blocks were only five or six stories high, while Teaching Block 11 was a newly built building that stood eight stories tall.

Therefore, even if the garrison troops’ snipers were to be deployed, all the other suitable sniping spots would be within range of the thugs. If anyone were to take up a position on the roof of another building, they would definitely get targeted by the thugs.

Moreover, Teaching Block 11 was ingeniously located away from the various security posts, so the garrison troops were unable to react in time.

It wasn’t until the thugs had taken control of the entire teaching block that the first wave of garrison troops arrived.

Qinghe University was way too big. No matter how well-defended it might be, it would not be able to cover all the bases unless an entire army was stationed there.

But if a large number of troops were to be stationed here, what would happen to the rest of Luoyang City?

It could only be said that there were too many people with ulterior motives in Luoyang City right now.

The garrison troops’ commanding officer pondered things for a moment. Those people were definitely professional soldiers. If they were not professional soldiers, they would not have such strong coordination skills. He wondered how many people the Xu clan’s relatives had sneaked into the stronghold over the years. This was going to be such a headache.

Once the garrison troops arrived, they evacuated the unaffected students who were not rounded up in the teaching block to a safer location. The entire teaching block was cordoned off from a distance away, with roadblocks and defensive bunkers set up as well.

Suddenly, Old Li’s voice blared over the radio frequency, “There should be a superhuman on our side in the campus at this moment. If he makes a move, you must cooperate fully with him. He’s not a member of our Riders but someone who came from outside to help. With him around, you all should be able to quickly put an end to the crisis there!”

The garrison troops were surprised by this. The way Old Li put it, it sounded like he regarded that superhuman very highly. “Can you tell us if he has any special characteristics, or get him to join up with us quickly? We don’t see any superhumans coming to assist us yet.”

Old Li was obviously taken aback when he heard that. Shouldn’t Ren Xiaosu be at the school right now?

The commanding officer said in a low voice, “Sir, could he have left when the chaos broke out?”

“That’s impossible.” Old Li frowned and said, “Just stick to your original plan and wait until he appears. Remember, if he makes a move, you all must cooperate with him.”

“Roger,” the garrison troops’ commanding officer replied. However, he was a little puzzled as to why Old Li was so confident this external help could successfully resolve the current crisis.

Left with no other choice, the garrison troops could only start formulating a rescue plan. A soldier looked at Teaching Block 11 and said, “Sir, could that superhuman… be locked up in the teaching block as well?”

The garrison troops’ commanding officer was stunned. He looked at Teaching Block 11 and thought there might really be such a possibility.

Before the garrison troops could come up with a detailed rescue plan, a loudspeaker from the teaching block spoke, “Tell the Qinghe Group to hand over control of the seven satellites to us before nightfall. Otherwise, we’ll kill a student for every minute of delay.”

Ren Xiaosu thought to himself inside the lecture hall that these people were truly trying to stall for time. Why else did they not get the Qinghe Group to accede to their request immediately instead of waiting until dark?

Under normal circumstances, the thugs should be making strong demands immediately after taking control of the situation. Yet these thugs were giving the Qinghe Group five hours to give in to their demands.

More and more garrison troops started converging on the various locations where chaos had broken out. There were as many as three incidents of thugs holding a large number of hostages inside the stronghold.

Ren Xiaosu did not know where the other two locations were. He felt that since the other party had meticulously planned this, there must be some hidden purpose behind the hostage situation.

At this moment, everyone in the lecture hall was panicking. Some of the students were already in tears. A female student sobbed softly, “Will the Riders come and save us?”

Ren Xiaosu, who was in the lecture hall, looked out of the window and remarked, “They’ll definitely come and save us. But I heard that they straight-up killed a hostage when they encountered a hostage situation yesterday.”

Immediately, the cries in the classroom got even louder.

Weren’t they being held hostage right now?