Chapter 104 (1/2)

”Perhaps, perhaps he is indeed more intimidating than Zhuo.” Chang lightly pushed Zhizhi's back to get her moving, hinting for her to catch up with the proceeding soldiers. ”Even if that is true, I'm still willing to help him.

”Because I believe in him.

”I believe that he is more human-like than Zhuo.”

Chang was reminded of when he, Qing Shui, and Jing had fled from the jungle, and Qing Shui had decided to return to the abyss to rescue Pangzi. That fist b.u.mp they did in front of the welcome billboard would never disappear from his mind.

Chang felt a surge of tears welling up in his eyes when he thought of that day, but he blinked a few times to hold them back, then sped up so that his group wouldn't be left behind.

In two hours, the three thousand soldiers Qing Shui had brought with aligned into columns. He hadn't brought as many as Zhuo had, but the number of soldiers wasn't the key to triumph. The composition of their enemies was quite special. Once the bacteria bomb ma.s.sacred most of the normal human soldiers, and it was time to defend against Zhuo's special force, more soldiers meant more sacrifices.

The regiment marched from Zhengzhou to irrigation gate of the Yellow River, traveling along the national highway 107 toward the north. They would also have pa.s.s through a small segment of the jungle's edge in twenty kilometers.

The regiment was of an average size, the number of the soldiers even less than the population of an ordinary college. If someone was to take a look from the sky, the regiment wouldn't be noticeable at all. They were soon inundated by the gloom of the thick jungle.

Qing Shui, the fine man, and Chang were the lead of the whole regiment, while Zhizhi and Jing acted as a radar during the march. They walked right beside front.

Chang was in charge of planning out the route on the winding trail while Zhizhi chose the general direction. The fine man, who specialised in deductive reasoning, mapped out Zhuo's formation in accordance to the footsteps and traces, simultaneously briefing in Qing Shui.

The path they took was absolutely safe since Zhuo's formation had already marched through this same route. The special force must have expelled the majority of the predators from this area, clearing out even their hideouts, and thus, Qing Shui's regiment could only focus their energy on marching on the flat road.

The journey was full of peace and tranquility, the regiment almost reaching their destination in three hours.

”Stop,” Qing Shui ordered as he strode to the peak of a slope. ”We're less than ten kilometers from Zhuo's formation, so there's a chance we might expose ourselves to them early if we get too close.”

”You're right, although we are protected by the red fog, we don't know if he secretly stationed some other EMs that we haven't met in the surroundings. The distance is relatively safe here,” the fine man agreed, nodding at Qing Shui.

”Thanks. w.a.n.g, can you roughly estimate their location and how they're deployed for me?”

Gesturing for the regiment to move up the slope, Qing Shui handed a small sketch book to the fine man. He then ordered the soldiers who toted the mortar and artillery components to a.s.semble the weapons on the spot.

Most of the soldiers busied themselves with the a.s.sembling. Because transportation tools were mostly limited by the energy supply and the difficulties of operating with limited vision, they could only transport things by manual labour.

Tens of soldiers would carry all the components for a single artillery, and there were more than 15 of them brought. First, the soldiers who had the parts of the same artillery gathered together and took off their backpacks holding the parts. Then, five of the soldiers from each group would dominate the a.s.sembling process as they were trained in the craft.

While the soldiers were busy, Qing Shui joined the crowd and arranged some positionings. He and some other officers then distributed the special respirators to every soldier on the field.

The a.s.sembling process was long and complicated. It took almost two hours for the artilleries and mortars to be a.s.sembled even with the effort of a thousand soldiers.

At the same time, Qing Shui walked to the center of the regiment, waving his hand to a squad that bore boxes of custom bombs.