Translator: Legge
The front line at Mt. Dashi was not where the front was. To be precise, it was north of the front line at Mt. Dashi that the Pyro Company would soon engage in total war with the northern tribe.
There was a mountain path that lay within Mt. Dashi that acted as the Pyro Company’s supply line to the north, which was also known as the lifeline.
As the main forces of the Pyro Company were deployed to the North a little late, the northern defensive line was established in a hurry. No one knew when an enemy force of nearly a 1,000 troops had infiltrated.
The barbarians from the North had been hiding in Mt. Dashi for several days already. It wasn’t until the main forces of the Pyro Company started deploying north that they began intercepting the Pyro Company troops in the mountains and hindering the transportation of their supplies.
It was these nearly a 1,000 barbarians that made the Pyro Company suffer heavy casualties here.
It was not that the Pyro Company had bad combat effectiveness but that there were too many complex factors that led to the current situation.
On one hand, the Wang Consortium did not share the intel they had received beforehand with the Pyro Company, leading to the Pyro Company’s main forces being concentrated in the South. They were not expecting there to still be enemies coming from the North.
By the time they found out, it was a little late.
On the other hand, the Pyro Company had not really fought their opponent before this, so they did not know what kind of battle strategies to expect.
The northern barbarians relied on their strong physical fitness to easily finish off the Pyro Company troops in the mountains.
The terrain in the mountains was complicated, but the northern barbarians seemed to have already figured it out and knew this place better than the Pyro Company did.
It seemed the Pyro Company had never expected such an intense war to break out in the North, so they never placed much emphasis on the northern lifeline that was Mt. Dashi.
On second thought, no one ever expected there to be so many enemies in the North! Not even the nomads had expected it!
During the battle on Mt. Dashi, the Pyro Company even felt like it was not their home field they were fighting on but the enemy’s.
After a few days, the Pyro Company had more or less figured out the situation. Almost all of the northern barbarians had the physical fitness of a T3 combatant, and some were even occasionally comparable to the T4s. This made them extremely difficult to deal with.
Even though the Pyro Company had been operating in this territory for a long time, the bulk of their main forces were made up of T1 and T2 combatants. The majority of their officers were also mostly T3-ranked combatants.
It was not that the Pyro Company was so poor they could not afford to produce enough of the genetic modification serum, but it was as they had admitted in the past. Whether you ended up as a T1 or T5 combatant, the ceiling was written in your genes at birth. As such, their combatants’ fates were decided long ago.
Genetic serums were not omnipotent. It was just that most people could only be enhanced into a T1 or T2 combatant. Furthermore, there was a price to pay for it.
There was a secret in the Pyro Company—genetically modified super soldiers had their lifespans slightly shortened. The higher their T-ranks, the more it was so.
Until now, no one had ever seen a T5 that lived to the age of 40. Most of them had died of cancer before that.
This was probably the imperfection P5092 had mentioned to Ren Xiaosu.
How did cancer come about? Cancer stems from genetic mutations in human cells.
Cells in the human body divided and replicated at all times. In the process of mitosis, errors could occur. When the human body’s immune recognition function was normal, the body would rectify the error and naturally eliminate the cancer cells. However, there was a chance there might be a faulty immune response that led to the immune system being unable to identify the cells that have replicated wrong, and over time, a tumor would form.
Due to genetic modification, a T5’s immune system would become unable to identify the faulty cells in the body, so it made it extremely easy for cancer to occur.
And the reason why the Pyro Company wanted to locate the No. 001 Experimental was that it was the most perfect specimen of a cancer patient who had been cured.
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The T1s roughly had a physical fitness that was 1.5 times that of the average adult. According to Ren Xiaosu’s palace, the average adult was a 3, so a T1 was a 4.5, a T2 a 6, a T3 a 9, a T4 a 15, and a T5 a 21.
Therefore, Ren Xiaosu, whose Strength was only rated at 13.5, had to rely on Old Xu to face the T5 combatant as he would definitely not be able to defeat him in a direct battle.
When they were in the Sacred Mountains, Old Xu’s Strength was rated at 27. At that time, it basically took only 10 minutes to end the battle when he fought against the T5 combatant. The situation was as good as an adult beating up an adolescent.
But now Ren Xiaosu could also try to fight against a T5 combatant by himself if he encountered one.
Of course, this did not mean Ren Xiaosu would really go and search for a T5 combatant to spar with in the midst of a big battle. It was just a comparison.
Initially, Ren Xiaosu was wondering where he should go to kill the enemy. In the end, the P3 commander warned him not to go to the front line at Mt. Dashi.
This was, of course, a kind reminder by the P3 commander, but to Ren Xiaosu, it was no different from pointing out the direction to him…
Under the gaze of the P3 commander, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin left the forward operating base and walked into the darkness of the wilderness.
…
The next afternoon, dozens of platoons had fanned out to conduct a carpet search in the mountains.
P5092 was looking at the monitor in the command vehicle at the rear. The monitor was split into a dozen screens, and every screen displayed the real-time situation captured by the cameras attached to the platoon commanders’ helmets.
“Turn to your 9 o’clock and advance. Be careful to remain concealed. Another group of forces fell into battle two kilometers up ahead with some barbarians yesterday. I suspect we’re getting close to their hiding place,” P5092 said calmly. His words were immediately transmitted to the earpieces of the P3s in the mountains.
Due to the importance of the supply line at Mt. Dashi, the main forces led by P5092 decided to stay behind here. They planned to clear out all the barbarians in the mountains in case any remnants turned into a potential threat in the future.
After the platoons in the mountains received the order, they immediately headed in the 9 o’clock direction. The 30-member platoons advanced silently in the mountains with their safeties off. Furthermore, four members of every platoon were equipped with grenade launchers.
Normal firearms might not be able to kill a barbarian if they were fired from a distance. So they needed to be equipped with heavy firepower.
At this moment, a platoon entered one of the smaller mountains, looking warily around. However, they were still caught by surprise when two burly figures jumped down from above.
This was a straight cliff that stretched nearly 20 meters above the ground. If a normal person jumped down, they would either die or be left crippled!
However, the two northern barbarians did not seem bothered. They descended from above and slashed down their huge axes.
When the platoon heard the noise, they looked up. But it was too late. They could only watch as large axes swung down at them!
When P5092 saw this, he frowned. That was because when the platoon commander looked up, it was as though the giant axe were slashing at him.
However, P5092 did not panic. He immediately instructed the frontline commanders of the dozens of platoons to assemble and prepare to corner the two barbarians to kill them!
The P5 commander sighed. Although the two barbarians would definitely be killed, the platoon that was attacked would probably be sacrificed.
But right at this moment, a bloody mist suddenly exploded from the chest of the barbarian who was getting closer and closer on screen. After that, his huge body was seemingly pushed by some kind of force as he crashed straight into the face of the cliff.
The power that came out of nowhere forcefully disrupted the barbarian’s slashing motion.
P5092 wondered on the radio, “What’s happening?”
“Sir, we’ve got snipers. Two snipers shot the two barbarians at the same time.” The frontline commander answered, “We only heard the gunshots. It should be a large-caliber anti-materiel rifle, but we don’t know where they’re positioned!”
“Snipers?” P5092 was a little puzzled. Before he had a clear understanding of the terrain, he would not send any snipers out. Otherwise, it would be a disaster if the snipers and barbarians encountered each other. Therefore, the two snipers were definitely not from the Pyro Company!
How strange! Where did the snipers come from? And… they were even very powerful too!