The First Order

Not only had the recon company gained experience by strolling through their missions, but they also imparted that experience to their comrades. "Don't worry, that's just how he is. Being a sniper is only his title; his close combat skills are actually even more terrifying. Have you heard how he caught the axe below the Great Wall and threw it back at the enemy? When I turned around and saw the axe, I thought I was dead for sure. But he caught the axe with his bare hands and even killed a barbarian with it….

"So there's no need to worry too much. We can just march forward in peace," a soldier from the recon company said calmly.

Ren Xiaosu probably did not expect the recon company to actually start telling their comrades not to worry.

After seemingly enough barbarians had been killed, and the fact that they had it so easy thus far, the soldiers of the infantry brigade gradually let go of their fear and nervousness.

As Ren Xiaosu detoured back to pick up the axes, he suddenly heard the voice from the palace say, "Quest complete. Awarded two allocatable attribute points."

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He added one each to his Strength and Dexterity. His Strength and Dexterity now reached 17.5 and 17.1, respectively.

"That's strange. Why was the quest suddenly completed?" Ren Xiaosu was still a little puzzled. This was the first time he did not know how he had completed a quest.

As he was picking up the axes, Yang Xiaojin saw he was also taking off the barbarians' helmets. Curious, she asked, "Are you collecting their helmets too?"

"No, those helmets smell of their greasy heads. Who would want them?" Ren Xiaosu said, "I'm just checking out the age of these barbarians."

As a result, Ren Xiaosu realized the barbarians he encountered this time were all their elderly!

At the beginning, only 20% of the barbarians he encountered were their elderly, so it did not make Ren Xiaosu too suspicious. But now that this group of barbarians were all elderly people, Ren Xiaosu realized something must be wrong.

If the barbarians did not have enough manpower and had to send their elderly into battle, why not just retreat? The old barbarians' combat power was way too weak.

It was no wonder the Pyro Company's main forces were able to advance so smoothly until now. So it turned out that it was not that they were strong, but that the barbarian troops had become weaker!

Ren Xiaosu switched on the radio and shouted, "P5092, P5092, answer me if you can hear me."

The soldiers of 3rd Division lowered their heads and did not say anything. This was the first time they had encountered anyone shout at their commander like that. However, they could not afford to offend Ren Xiaosu either, so they could only pretend not to have heard him.

Puzzled, P5092 asked, "What's the matter?"

"I'm in bravo-one-one. Come over here for a moment, I have something to discuss with y'all." As Ren Xiaosu was not far away from the 3rd Division, they arrived very quickly.

P5092 immediately saw a bunch of gray-haired barbarians scattered across the ground. He asked, "What's this?"

"These are the barbarians that I just killed," Ren Xiaosu said.

P5092 took a look at them. The barbarian corpses were all covered in slash wounds, and it looked like Ren Xiaosu had directly attacked over a 100 of them.

His way of putting it sounded really strange. It was as though a person had surrounded more than a 100 people, yet that was just what happened.

Ren Xiaosu said, "Look, these barbarians are all the elderly. I seriously suspect that the reason why they suddenly put on their helmets was to cover up the fact that they're old barbarians."

P5092 crouched down to have a look. "Were the barbarians we encountered earlier the same? Why weren't they equipped with their axes?"

"Uh…" Ren Xiaosu looked around. "I'm not sure either…."

It was not that these barbarians did not carry axes but that they had been taken away by Ren Xiaosu.

However, that was not the main point. P5092 asked, "Did you also check the barbarians that were killed previously? Scouts, quickly go back and check those barbarians that were killed earlier. Check their age and the ratio of the elderly to their total numbers!"

P5092's reaction was very fast. In an instant, he felt something was not right and that he had to analyze the earlier situations along with this discovery.

However, Ren Xiaosu quickly stopped him. "I've already checked. There's no need for the scouts to go back. Among the barbarians that we encountered previously, the ratio of the elderly was either 30 to 70 or 20 to 80. There weren't that many of them in our previous encounters, but it's different this time. These barbarians here are all old."

Ren Xiaosu had to stop the recon company from heading back to the earlier battlefields. Otherwise, they would discover that all the axes had disappeared.

Then it wouldn't be a war incident but a paranormal one.

Ren Xiaosu changed the subject and said, "Why do you think the barbarians did this?"

"I'm not sure." The first thought that came to P5092's mind was that they did not have enough soldiers. However, he gave it some thought. "Something feels off somewhere."

At this moment, a radio operator ran over. "Sir! The 6th Division has announced that they've captured the leader of the expeditionary army's advance guard, Valentin! The main forces of the barbarians have already been defeated and are fleeing back towards the North!"

In all wars since ancient times, capturing the ringleader first before capturing his followers was almost always a shortcut to victory. Once the enemy's highest-ranking officer was captured or killed, the rest of the troops were as good as defeated. On one hand, it was because they would be left without a leader, and on the other hand, their morale would decline.

After all, morale was one of the most important factors in a war.

But now that the highest-ranking officer of the expeditionary army's advance guard, Valentin, had been captured, the defeat of the barbarians in the forest was set in stone.

But P5092 felt that something was amiss. He said to the radio operator, "Connect me with the 6th Division immediately!"

When the call connected, P5092 bluntly said, "This is P5092. I'm looking for P5031."

P5031 was the highest-ranking officer of the 6th Division. However, the deputy commander who answered the call said, "I'm sorry, our commander is currently busy commanding the troops and has no time to answer your call. Why don't you tell me what's the matter, and I'll inform him."

P5092 sneered in his head. He knew full well that 031 was next to the radio and just did not want to answer his call. What speaking authority did a deputy commander have when it came to a confidential call between two P5 commanders? Since this deputy commander dared to say he would help pass on the message, he must have been ordered by 031 to do so. How else would a P4 deputy dare to speak like that?

After the other party captured Valentin, P5031 probably felt that the position of commander-in-chief of the military corps was in the bag. Therefore, he did not intend to care about P5092.

Then, if P5031 were really promoted, this deputy commander would immediately get promoted to become a P5 commander and be on par with P5092. Therefore, he was not worried about P5092 either.

P5092 said coldly, "Don't be in a hurry to chase the barbarians north. Let me ask you: How did you all find out the person you captured was the barbarians' advance guard commander, Valentin?"

The deputy commander sounded a little impatient. "When we captured him alive, he was surrounded by a group of barbarians. After we captured him, we interrogated him, and he admitted it himself! Furthermore, the barbarians also started fleeing back towards the North after he was caught, so how could this be fake?"

P5092 sneered and said, "What if he's lying? I'm warning you all: You're not to continue pursuing northwards!"

The deputy commander replied, "The battle in the forest ended when we captured Valentin. You're no longer the acting commander, so our 6th Division will formulate our own battle plan. There's no need to trouble you. If you're worried that all the credit will go to the 6th Division, why don't you take the initiative and go kill more barbarians instead?"

After that, the deputy commander surprisingly hung up. P5092 muttered coldly, "Idiot."