You're Starting Already?

"What's the exact situation right now, Captain Lao?!" The moment Han Qingyu jumped down from the vehicle, he asked urgently. He had always been extremely sensitive to battle merits—especially the source energy blocks they represented. To be specific, although he currently had quite a few metal blocks and source energy blocks on him, he couldn't just sit around and deplete his stockpile... Trying to cut back on spending was out of the question, as pinching pennies would hinder their progress in strength. That left only expanding sources of revenue, which was the most critical thing right now. Once Squad 1777 reached the point where they were equipped with a helicopter, they would be rolling in wealth. Back when they touched down at the airport and heard the Rejecters' alert, Han Qingyu had already sensed that this sudden mission was extraordinary in both value and significance. Otherwise, he wouldn't have rushed over in such a hurry. Lao Jian looked up at him, silently swallowing the words of concern that were already at the tip of his tongue. "They didn't say... but the fight probably isn't over yet. Only eight of them came." Having not seen him in quite a while, Lao Jian scrutinized him from head to toe twice while speaking. Seeing no major changes and no signs of injury on Han Qingyu, he finally felt at ease. Then, seeing Shen Yixiu step out of the vehicle behind him, Lao Jian stared blankly for a second. He was just about to say that Shen Yixiu's iron armor looked different. Right beside him, Han Qingyu beat him to the punch: "Then why are we still standing around here?!" "Well... to maintain perimeter security! This is a city," Lao Jian said, looking away to mask his helplessness. "Oh, true." Han Qingyu turned his head to scan the people present. He called out a cheerful "Captain Milla!" and waved in greeting to everyone, then said without missing a beat, "Here's the plan: Captain Lao, Captain Qin, let's go." With that, he turned and directly activated his device, charging into the mountain at the lead. Following silently behind him were Shen Yixiu, He Tangtang, and Wu Xu... blue light flashing. Wen Jifei and Liu Shiheng sensibly stayed behind of their own accord, hurrying over to Milla to tell her how much they had missed her. They had even brought her gifts this time. Neither Lao Jian nor Qin Guowen recognized Wu Xu, of course, but there was no time to ask about it. After stumbling along for a few paces in confusion, they finally managed to ask, "Go... what are we going there for?!" "To snatch merits!" Han Qingyu replied without looking back. His voice wasn't quiet. When the veterans and recruits heard it, their feelings took a strange turn... What had Captain Qin said just earlier? He seemed to have said that color Erasers and the top-ranking squads in the corps racked up such massive battle merits every year precisely by snatching them like this. So... they were starting already?! Squad 1777's first battle was going to be snatching battle merits right from Golden Eraser?! Qingzi has really let it get to his head. "You're starting already?!" On the other side, Qin Guowen blurted out what everyone was thinking. "A rare opportunity!" The voice drifted away into the distance. "Well, all right, then let's go lend a hand. But we don't have any coordination with them. When we engage..." Halfway through his sentence, Lao Jian froze, thinking, *Wait, we don't even have any coordination among ourselves! How are we supposed to fight?!* "No need for coordination. We'll just take one off their hands." That was the last sentence of Han Qingyu's that could still be heard at the scene. "What did he say?" "He said snatch... take one." As the people around them buzzed with discussion, Milla's anxious and puzzled gaze turned urgently toward Wen Jifei and Liu Shiheng. Wen Jifei gave an easy smile. "Don't worry, Captain Milla. Honestly, even without Captain Lao and Captain Qin, the three of them could probably take down one on their own right now." Ahead, Lao Jian and Qin Guowen pushed hard to catch up. "Just the six of us?! Directly take one?!" "Yeah. Watch out for your safety, and Tangtang, you stay safe too." Among those Han Qingyu told to stay safe, he didn't include himself, nor Shen Yixiu, nor Wu Xu. Lao Jian didn't notice this in the moment. The sounds of combat ahead were already faintly audible. Drawing his battle blade, Captain Lao began laying out assignments: "Then in a moment, for the frontal assault, I'll—" "Rusty Sister takes the front. Wu Xu, find your own opening." In his eagerness to snatch the merits, Han Qingyu didn't mind formalities in the heat of the moment. Drawing his blades with two crisp rings of steel, he called out, "Brothers from Golden ahead, don't be afraid! We're here to help!" *...My frontal assault!* Captain Lao was practically crying inside. *** As the leader of Golden Eraser's eight-man detachment this time, Zhao Feng, leading four of his squad members, was eager to quickly finish off the black-armored Great Spike before them, which already had three wounds cut into it. Afterward, they could link up with the other three brothers who were currently keeping the other Great Spike occupied and complete the mission... This was Golden Eraser's standard operational procedure: somewhat difficult, and it took considerably longer to wrap up the battle, but almost every time it could be pulled off without a hitch. At this moment, the shouting reached them. At first, Zhao Feng thought he had misheard. What did he mean by "don't be afraid"? Help... help with what?! Unable to get distracted in the middle of a hard battle, Zhao Feng kept his back turned and snapped, "Wait, what are you doing here? Perimeter security—" "There are enough people on the perimeter," a voice answered him. Zhao Feng was familiar with Qin Guowen's voice. He stole a glance over his shoulder. Five... six? "With just this many people, what can you do? Without squad formation and coordination, you..." Zhao Feng was getting anxious, wanting to tell them that without coordinated squad tactics, they absolutely shouldn't go and cause trouble for his three brothers over there. "We've never coordinated before either. How about you three brothers rest on the side for a bit?" On the other side, a voice cut in politely before he could finish. Zhao Feng heard it clearly. So the six of them wanted to take over the other Great Spike?! Were they crazy? Did they think they were a color Eraser?! "Fall back right now! Qin Guowen, do you want to get your teammates killed?! Quick, fall—" In his distraction, Zhao Feng nearly lost his footing and hastily leaped aside to dodge a strike from the Great Spike. At the same time, *boom!* In his field of vision, something suddenly seemed to crash into a tree and knock it down. What the hell was that?! Zhao Feng blinked. *Am I seeing things? The Great Spike was knocked back?!* Yet the fact was, the Great Spike was falling back. Rusty Sister's overall strength was naturally still no match for a Great Spike, but there was a difference between gathered momentum and being caught off guard, not to mention angle and timing. She had just spotted an opening: taking advantage of the moment when the Great Spike finished a sweeping blow and its momentum was spent, she slammed directly into its flank with a shoulder check. A young girl had boldly unleashed the most brutish maneuver on the battlefield. *Whoosh... crack...* In the next second, still within Zhao Feng's line of sight. A black spear tore through the air, darting like a streak of lightning straight for the throat of the momentarily off-balance Great Spike. Its momentum was ferocious and domineering, like a brilliant rainbow piercing the sun, yet the person who struck didn't even utter a shout. At the same time, another figure had already used the trees to spin in midair, vaulting over behind the Great Spike and slashing down with twin blades. *Hey, don't jump...! Wait, could this be Han Qingyu?* As a member of Golden Eraser, Zhao Feng naturally knew of Han Qingyu; Captain Shao held him in very high regard. Then who were the other two? While Zhao Feng was left stunned, Lao Jian and Qin Guowen exchanged a glance. In this situation, should the two of them still charge in? ...They had to! How would it look if they didn't?! One was the captain, and the other represented goodwill from Golden Eraser; to some extent, Qin Guowen had come along with the intention of lending Golden Eraser's martial prowess as poverty relief. *** The Great Spike before them was already on its last legs. What should have been an optimistic situation made Zhao Feng rather anxious, because behind him right now, people were watching... About ten-odd seconds ago, the fight on Squad 1777's side had already concluded. They had already slaughtered the other Great Spike. And seemingly, only one of their squad members had sustained a minor injury. "Maintain formation! Don't lose focus!" Afraid his teammates would get distracted, Zhao Feng called out a reminder. But he himself was actually rather distracted... because this feeling was simply awful. Golden Eraser was being spectated. If Captain Shao found out about this... Tightening his grip on his battle blade, Zhao Feng threw himself forward. It felt so blissful, so exhilarating. In this moment, the minion from before stood there like a wealthy landlord... Captain Lao stood savoring the feeling and marveling for a moment, then cast his gaze upon Wu Xu. This guy used a spear, a custom-made weapon—he should already be covered in battle merits, right? Yes, definitely. This guy was so strong... In the fight just now, his performance had been barely inferior to Han Qingyu's. And looking specifically at his fighting style, it was too fierce, too reckless. Lao Jian had never seen someone fight with such sheer unyielding grit in combat against a Great Spike. This fellow had just clashed head-on against the sweeping blow of a Great Spike's column sword with his spear! Could you believe that?! Having Han Qingyu alone in Squad 1777 had already been the foundation for Lao Jian, Regimental Commander Li, and the others to secretly let their ambitions swell. And now another one had arrived? And Shen Yixiu—how had Shen Yixiu also seemed to grow so much stronger?! As their captain, Lao Jian suddenly felt a bit dizzy. He had never commanded squad members like these before, let alone three of them at once... But he could never show weakness; he couldn't panic. Right, I'm the captain. I have to remain completely unfazed... pretend I've seen it all. "Hey, and you are?" Captain Lao lifted his chin and asked. "This is our Captain Lao," Shen Yixiu quickly prompted. "Hello, Captain Lao. My name is Wu Xu." When Wu Xu turned around to speak, a smear of blood was at the corner of his mouth... He hadn't yet learned the proper way to fight a Great Spike; that head-on collision just now had taken its toll after all. "Spit out the blood," Han Qingyu reminded him. Wu Xu looked at him, nodded, and obediently spat a mouthful of blood onto the ground: *Pfft.* Lao Jian: "..." *He wants to join the squad!* After his inner surge of excitement subsided, Captain Lao nodded with all the calmness he could muster, adopting an authoritative air. "Hello. Young man, your strength seems decent enough?" "Yeah." It should have been just that single syllable, but on the way here, Wu Xu had been repeatedly reminded by Wen Jifei that he had to be polite to Captain Lao and had to speak up. So he made an effort to say more: "Wen Jifei said I can rank in the top three of the squad." "...Oh." Top three? Lao Jian counted in his head. "Ahem. Han Qingyu." "Present." Han Qingyu was also behaving very obediently. On one hand, it was because of that inexplicable fondness after not seeing him for so long; on the other hand, he was about to ask Captain Lao for a favor. Wu Xu's enlistment vetting was still up in the air. Whether he could stay in the squad once they got there depended entirely on whether Captain Lao was willing to turn a blind eye. "Come here for a second." Pulling Han Qingyu aside, Lao Jian whispered, "Where did you kidnap this guy from? Which squad was he originally from? Is he a veteran? Have his transfer procedures been processed?" Han Qingyu's expression hesitated for a moment. He confirmed that the corps hadn't notified Lao Jian about Wu Xu beforehand. Should he lie to him? But Wu Xu didn't even have a service serial number, so how could he lie? Han Qingyu thought about it and helplessly confessed, "He... right now... temporarily... hasn't joined Azure yet." Lao Jian: "..." *Boom... crackle, crunch!* A grating, spine-chilling sound came from behind them. On the other side, the remaining Great Spike and the shuttle craft finally began self-destructing simultaneously. The battle was over. "Let's talk about this when we get back, okay? Right now, merits first, Captain Lao." Han Qingyu stealthily gestured toward the Golden Eraser members and said, "They're coming over to talk... Whatever you do, don't back down. We're going to hold firm: fifty-fifty." Lao Jian nodded. "Don't you worry about that... They're just a color Eraser."