The First Order

When the Pyro Company’s special forces appeared, it was as good as announcing that the encirclement on Mt. Dashi was coming to an end. The barbarians in Longtan Canyon were either dead or wounded, while this last group of barbarians who had infiltrated Mt. Dashi were also heavily surrounded by T5081 and his subordinates now.

In fact, these special forces consisted entirely of T4s. Even in terms of average strength, they still had an overwhelming advantage over the barbarians.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were secretly observing the battle with their spotting scopes. They were about 700 meters away from the campsite, with the Qingyan River standing between them.

Before this, Ren Xiaosu had also guessed the barbarians might stake everything on this attempt to attack the camp. After all, this was a typical tactic that suicide squads would carry out after infiltrating enemy lines. So it was no surprise they did that.

However, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were a step too late. By the time they arrived, the machine gun position had already been taken out by the barbarians. Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin quickly searched for the most ideal sniping position to settle down at. But as soon as they found a spot, the T5 combatant suddenly came killing out of nowhere.

Ren Xiaosu was a little surprised by this turn of events. He had thought P5092 had no other way out, but he would never have expected the barbarians to be unable to threaten him at all.

In the battle on Mt. Dashi, P5092 resorted to conventional tactics and adopted a careful and steady approach in the early stages. But as they neared the end, he suddenly diverged from those methods. This was very exciting to watch.

Thinking about it, P5092 should be a rare talented commander among the Pyro Company troops.

1

To be honest, Ren Xiaosu even had the thought of copying P5092’s Army Warfare Leadership skill since he still had a Basic Skill Duplication Scroll with him.

However, the distance was too far for him to use the scroll as they were about 700 meters away from each other. Moreover, if he really wanted to learn a skill like this in the future, he could look for better candidates like Qing Zhen or Zhang Jinglin after earning enough Skill Duplication Scrolls.

When Yang Xiaojin saw Ren Xiaosu in a trance, she asked, “What are you thinking about?”

Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, “Even without us, they would still have been able to clear out the barbarians on Mt. Dashi. It might take a day or two longer, but the outcome would be the same.”

He was lamenting because he realized his role in this battle was only the icing on the cake rather than being someone who provided them with timely assistance.

Faced with the invasion of tens of thousands of barbarians that were headed south, war was looming for the entire Central Plains against a whole other nation.

At that time, the Central Plains might eventually end up as the victor. But that would be the result of everyone fighting hard together, and definitely not the credit of only one or two individuals.

An individual’s strength would appear insignificant in the face of the expeditionary army’s barbarians that numbered in the tens of thousands. In this war, they needed more people like P5092 to step forward and display their intelligence to fight the barbarians to the end.

There was also a need for more Pyro Company soldiers to fight for the survival of mankind.

So what this war needed was many heroes, not just one or two.

Yang Xiaojin glanced at Ren Xiaosu. “Didn’t we come here to take the pressure off the doctors? Why are you thinking so much? It’s good enough that the doctors at the medical center won’t have to overwork anymore.”

“You’re right.” Ren Xiaosu chuckled, “We’ve also fulfilled our duties as doctors by coming here. Let’s go, it’s time to retreat!”

After that, they got up and headed back to the forward operating base.

The sun had already risen in the east. Golden-red rays of light shone through the layers of clouds from the distant sky. It seemed like today was no different from any other day as before.

But the barbarian corpses in the mountains, the dust on the soldiers’ faces, and the blood on their bodies all reminded everyone that the real war had only just begun.

The battle at the camp was gradually coming to a stop. P5092 just stood on the sidelines without any intention of helping out.

He was deep in thought as he looked at the other side of the Qingyan River. The soldier next to him asked cautiously, “Sir, is something wrong?”

“If I’m not wrong, the snipers who killed the barbarians previously are on the other side of the river.” P5092 said, “But they didn’t make a move this time. I wonder who they really are and if we’ll meet again on the battlefield.”

1

“Now that our battle with the barbarians is over, why don’t we send some more people to investigate the snipers’ identities?” a combat staff officer off the side asked.

“There’s no need for that.” P5092 shook his head. “It’s better not to complicate matters. Go and write a detailed report of this battle. I’m going to submit it to the higher-ups. It will be an important reference for our future dealings with the barbarians.”

During the battle at Mt. Dashi, the barbarians had revealed their shrewdness, craftiness, and fearless fighting style that did not match their bulky appearances.

This gave P5092 a feeling that the upcoming war might not go very smoothly. They would have to first understand their enemies before they could defeat them.

T5081 walked over slowly to P5092 after all the barbarians had been taken care of. “Now that the Battle of Mt. Dashi is over, it’s time for us to head north. As such, our collaboration with the main forces will also end here for now.”

In the command structure of the Pyro Company’s ORBAT, the special forces led by T5081 were not under the direct command of P5092. This was only considered a collaborative relationship. So when the mission was over, it was also time for T5081 and his troops to rejoin their unit.

P5092 nodded. “Great job. We’ll meet again on the northern battlefield.”

“Take care,” T5081 replied.

Just as T5081 was about to leave, P5092 suddenly asked, “By the way, there’s something I’d like to ask you. If you had to face over 40 barbarians by yourself with a sniper providing you cover from 600 meters away, are you confident of killing them all?”

T5081 shook his head. “No, some of these barbarians are nearly as strong as T4 combatants. It’s not difficult to kill a T5 combatant if there are over 40 of them.”

P5092 said with a sigh, “If you put it that way, I’ll have to reassess the snipers who helped us kill the barbarians this time. I wonder if it’s a good or bad thing for such experts to suddenly join the battlefield.”

…

Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin returned to the forward operating base that evening carrying their field packs. When they entered the base, the soldiers at the gate did not even check their IDs and just let them through. They even saluted them and watched until they left their sights. This left Ren Xiaosu feeling happy.

Wang Jing received the two of them at the entrance of the medical center. “Did you manage to gather the herbs?”

“It’s all in here.” Ren Xiaosu patted the field pack on his back and said with a smile, “The herbs that I need could be found in the vicinity. It’ll be ready after I’m done brewing it this evening.”

Actually, Ren Xiaosu only had some very ordinary medicinal herbs in his field pack. As for concocting the black medicine, he just had to put on an act later.

“Did everything go well with the herb gathering in the mountains?” A nurse, who was standing at the side, asked in concern, “We heard that there was a battle on Mt. Dashi. The two of you didn’t go there, right?”

“Hahaha, how can we go to such a dangerous place like Mt. Dashi?” Ren Xiaosu laughed it off and said, “Someone warned us of the danger before we left. By the way, did any wounded soldiers get sent here in the past few days? Quick, bring me to them for treatment.”

Ren Xiaosu had not earned any gratitude tokens for several days already. Now that the source of the black medicine could be explained, he should quickly get back to earning more gratitude tokens!

But when he said that, everyone smiled and explained to him, “For some reason, there have barely been any wounded soldiers sent to the medical center for the past two days. We didn’t even get a single wounded person today. Since you’ve just returned, you should rest well. Don’t worry, we’ve already treated all of the wounded.”

With that, Ren Xiaosu was dumbfounded on the spot. He had only been worried that the doctors at the medical center would be overworked, so he decided to go out and kill some barbarians to reduce the number of casualties.

But what he did not expect was that by killing so many barbarians in one go, there ended up being no wounded people getting sent here the entire day.

He was too careless!