The First Order

Chapter 1001: Bullying with numbers

Translator: Legge

A huge fire suddenly broke out in the garrison base of Stronghold 73. The Zhou Consortium had used a lot of fireproof materials during the initial construction of the base to prevent fire outbreaks.

It was not a natural disaster this time but someone deliberately setting the base on fire using highly flammable explosives. At this moment, the garrison troops in the military base started rushing to the scene of the fires. A soldier had witnessed only five arsonists that he said were responsible for the fire, but all of them were extremely agile and could not be caught by ordinary people.

After the five arsonists set the garrison base on fire, they left while an entire company of troops chased after them.

Outside of the base was a residential area. The five arsonists easily scaled an apartment complex and got onto the roof.

The Zhou Consortium’s troops behind them stared at the five-story residential building in disbelief. Although it was not very tall, they could not figure out how to climb it.

Normally, they would also undergo professional climbing training to cope with complex terrain operations.

But there weren’t even any external pipes on the walls for them to grab onto. They could not understand how those five people had managed to climb up!

The officer in charge of the pursuit shouted, “Don’t bother climbing up. We’ll just pursue them on the ground. We can block them at the small street up ahead. They can’t continue leaping across the roofs.”

As he spoke, hundreds of Zhou Consortium soldiers started running quickly. One of the combat platoons even advanced at full speed just so they could intercept the other party when they reached that street junction.

The street that lay between the five arsonists’ escape route was at least 12 meters wide, so it would be impossible for normal people to leap across the roofs of the buildings to reach the other side.

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The pursuing troops on the ground could occasionally see some figures bounding across the rooftops of the buildings in front of them. To the officer’s surprise, they were moving much faster than expected!

Although both parties were about to reach the street up ahead, the Zhou Consortium’s troops were still unable to close the distance between themselves and the arsonists.

The officer said, “Don’t be anxious. Wait until they’re down on the ground before shooting right at them! We’ll get an angle on them then!”

But the moment he finished speaking, the group of five on the rooftop jumped at the same time when they reached the last residential building facing the street!

The 12-meter wide street was like an abyss, but they crossed it as though they were wild geese soaring over!

The Zhou Consortium’s officer was stunned. Were they still normal people? Could all five of them be superhumans?!

But which organization dared to wreak havoc in Stronghold 73 so wantonly? They even found five superhumans to carry out a mission together?

While they were momentarily stunned, a Zhou Consortium officer rushed out from the side. He had the rank of lieutenant colonel on his uniform.

A soldier exclaimed, “It’s Zhou Lin, the superhuman from the garrison troops. He’s chasing after them!”

This lieutenant colonel of the Zhou Consortium’s troops named Zhou Lin strode forward in large strides. As he passed through the streets and continued his pursuit, he could hear the exclamations of the soldiers behind him. He sneered without looking back.

Zhou Lin plunged after them into the alley across the street. But he suddenly realized he had been followed by a young man who was right behind him.

Meanwhile, the five arsonists he was pursuing had stopped in their tracks and turned around to look at him mockingly.

One of them even smiled at the young man behind him and said, “Qin Sheng, block his escape route so he doesn’t get away.”

“Got it, Brother Qingxi,” Qin Sheng answered.

Zhang Qingxi said to Li Yinglong nearby, “Qin Sheng is really gifted. Ever since becoming a Rider, his physical condition has improved much faster than ours. His martial aura is also more ferocious than ours.”

Li Yinglong lamented, “Yeah, this kid didn’t look like he had any talent back then.”

There was also a difference in strength between the Riders, and this was determined by their individual talent. After they became Riders, some of their physical attributes would be locked at close to a T5 combatant’s level while others might continue getting stronger.

Qin Sheng had already surpassed Zhang Qingxi and Li Yinglong in less than a year after becoming a Rider.

Zhou Lin sized up the six people coldly before asking a very dumb question. “Why aren’t you guys fleeing anymore?”

“We only have to flee if we can’t beat you. But since we can, there’s no need for us to run.” Zhang Qingxi explained with a laugh, “I’m more curious about you. What gave you the courage to pursue us by yourself? Do you think we’re pushovers?”

Honestly, if the Riders wanted to wreak havoc in a stronghold, they would be very tough to deal with.

Standard troops couldn’t catch up to them, and even superhumans could get killed if they went after them in fewer numbers and got outfought.

Nowadays, the 12 Riders always acted together whenever there was a mission. All across the world, there were no consortiums that could keep 12 superhumans stationed in a stronghold to deal with the threat of the Riders.

If it were any other superhuman, they might not be able to freely travel through the city and might even get surrounded by troops on the ground.

But since these people were into extreme sports, traversing across rooftops was almost like running on flat ground to them.

At this moment, another two Riders appeared in the alley. They were Xu Ke and Wen Meng.

However, Xu Ke and Wen Meng were still wrapped up in bandages. Xu Ke had his left arm in a sling, while Wen Meng limped about. It seemed they had been injured while assisting the evacuation of the Pyro Company and the refugees.

When Zhou Lin saw their numbers increasing, he felt a little helpless. More importantly, they were asking each other about the progress of their missions while utterly disregarding him.

Zhang Qingxi said, “I wonder if Wu Dingyuan has completed his mission yet. Should we go and assist him?”

Just as Zhou Lin was about to say something, he felt a brush of wind behind him. Reflexively, he backflipped to dodge the attack. But all the Riders around him suddenly rushed forward and beat him to the ground. It happened so fast he did not even have time to use his power.

Whenever he tried to concentrate on using his superpower, a fist would land on him and disrupt his power!

Even with the Riders outnumbering him seven to one, they still resorted to unorthodox tactics like distracting him and attacking from behind!

How dishonorable!

It wasn’t until Zhou Lin was beaten to death that Wu Dingyuan and Huang Xiaoyu finally rushed over and joined them. The two of them said, “Target eliminated.”

The person they had killed was the highest-ranking military commander, Zhou Yifei.

During this operation, five of them were in charge of starting a fire to distract the reinforcements, while Qin Sheng and two other wounded Riders were responsible for providing support. Meanwhile, Wu Dingyuan and Huang Xiaoyu were responsible for carrying out the decapitation strike on their target.

Li Yinglong nodded. “According to Xiaosu, Zhou Shiji will definitely head to the safe house after receiving news of what happened to the garrison.”

“Where are we heading next? Should we go join up with him? And when should we tell him about what we discussed previously?” Zhang Qingxi asked.

“Let’s deal with the Zhou Consortium first,” Li Yinglong replied.

Before this, the Riders had split from the Qinghe Group completely. Moreover, they sent a warning to the rest of the world that they would fight anyone who tried to target Luoyang City to the death.

Iff they just stuck to their role of defending the stronghold, their strength would be very weak since they could not take on the main forces of the consortiums. But if they were used for causing destruction, no consortium could withstand their attacks.

The reason why the Zhou Consortium paid so much attention to concealing their identity in the assassination of Jiang Xu was that they were worried the Riders would take revenge on them.

Now that the Riders had found out who their enemy was, they had to teach them a bloody lesson to live up to their declaration so others would not dare target Luoyang City again.