The First Order

The enchanted doorway had been destroyed, but there were still tens of thousands of elderly, women, and children who did not manage to get away in time.

Zero had given the Northwest Army three minutes to disperse the crowd. But the problem was that these tens of thousands of people were all in the vicinity of the enchanted doorway. Three minutes was too tight, so there would surely be some who didn't manage to get away.

After the explosion, the Great Hoodwinker immediately tallied the casualties. He realized hundreds of people had been injured by the shrapnel and gravel in the missile bombardment.

Hundreds of soldiers from the Northwest Army in charge of evacuating the crowd were also injured or killed.

No one had expected such a situation. With the enchanted doorway gone, it meant the elderly, women, and children would have to evacuate to Fortress 178 on foot.

Moreover, the most critical issue was that this group of people were the least mobile. There were women cradling children and mobility-impaired elderly people. The Great Hoodwinker was so stressed his hair almost turned white.

When Zhang Xiaoman, who was elsewhere in the stronghold, heard the explosions, he rushed over anxiously. "What happened here?"

The Great Hoodwinker muttered, "The Wang Consortium's missile troops don't have great range. In other words, they're already very close to us. It's too late for us to evacuate now."

P5092, who had been formulating a battle plan, rushed over as well. Zhang Xiaoman looked at him and asked, "Can we use the trucks expropriated by the 6th Field Division to evacuate these people?"

P5092 shook his head calmly. "No, the 6th Field Division will only have enough mobility with those trucks. Even if these elderly and children get controlled by the AI, they won't pose much of a threat. After all, their physical bodies are far from being able to withstand the intensity of war. Instead, it's more important that we preserve our combat troops now."

Zhang Xiaoman said anxiously, "But they're just children and the elderly. We can't just watch them die while evacuating, right? With their speed, the AI will probably catch up to them within two days!"

"That won't do." P5092 said coldly, "War is war. Future Commander isn't around, so as the commander-in-chief of the 6th Field Division, I definitely can't make decisions based on emotions and morals. There's only one criteria I use to make decisions, and that is how to win the war."

Zhang Xiaoman was speechless. Everyone knew P5092 was right, but they just couldn't accept it emotionally.

P5092 looked at the chaotic scenes in the military-controlled zone. "Hurry up and restore order here. Organize their evacuation by foot. I'm going to continue with the formulation of the battle plan."

With that, P5092 turned around and returned to the command center. It was as though these crying evacuees had nothing to do with him.

Zhang Xiaoman muttered, "Cold-blooded…"

The Great Hoodwinker glanced at him. "Actually, his decision isn't wrong."

Zhang Xiaoman sighed. "I also know he isn't wrong. From a military point of view, I agree with him. It's just that I feel terrible about it. I can only hope the AI won't get here so soon."

…

At the outpost east of Stronghold 144, Zhou Yingxue carried a wooden chair and sat down at the entrance of the outpost, languidly sunbathing.

She narrowed her eyes and hummed a faint tune.

Under her feet, several vines stretched out dozens of kilometers into the distance.

These vines were not densely packed as Zhou Yingxue was only using them to carry out reconnaissance for the time being.

Although Zhou Yingxue's creeper vine power was enough to devour an entire stronghold, the area she had to scout out was simply too large. She had to sacrifice the density of the creeper vines in exchange for covering the area.

These creeper vines meandered on the ground like the veins of a large leaf. Looking down from above, it exuded a strange sense of beauty.

What made Zhou Yingxue a little unhappy was that the people in Stronghold 144 seemed to have gotten very busy. No one had come to deliver food to her yesterday.

Zhou Yingxue used the outpost's phone line to make a call back to complain. However, she was warned by P5092 not to hog the communication lines. Before discovering the enemy's presence, the outpost should remain silent.

Otherwise, everyone would get nervous every time Zhou Yingxue rang back and think that the enemy had already arrived.

All of a sudden, Zhou Yingxue stood up from her chair.

Dozens of kilometers away, a horde of people suddenly surged towards the area covered by the creeper vines.

Zhou Yingxue was no longer a minor character who could easily be manipulated by others. She tried to use the creeper vine to attack the horde, but the creeper vines were not dense enough to cause any damage to them. As a result, the horde was able to tear through the creeper vine's blockade before it could even kill a few people.

After the enemy encountered the creeper vines, they suddenly split up into three groups and headed towards Strongholds 144, 145, and 146 respectively. There were probably several million humans in that horde alone.

Zhou Yingxue frowned. Her mission was to scout the area, not fight the enemy.

Before Ren Xiaosu left the outpost, he made it very clear that even though she was very powerful now, this enemy was not an opponent any superhuman could defeat in a duel. Therefore, she only needed to report back the enemy's situation and did not have to put up any resistance.

Zhou Yingxue turned around and went into the outpost to make a call back to Fortress 178. "The enemy has arrived. They're still 67 kilometers away from the outpost. They've split up into three groups and headed out in three different directions."

After that, Zhou Yingxue quickly retracted the creeper vines and fled in the direction of Stronghold 144.

In the stronghold, the Great Hoodwinker was worried before he heard that. But now that Zhou Yingxue had reported the enemy's situation, he became much calmer.

It was pointless to be worried. They could only try to think of countermeasures for now.

P5092 said to the Great Hoodwinker, "The 6th Field Division will take charge of delaying the enemy using guerrilla warfare. Evacuate everyone as quickly as possible. The 6th Field Division won't be able to hold them off for long."

The Great Hoodwinker asked, "How much time can you buy us? The outpost is more than a 100 kilometers away from Stronghold 144. With the AI's march speed, it should be able to catch up to the group of evacuees within a day and a half… or two at most."

P5092 said, "I can't guarantee how long the 6th Field Division can hold them off for. You also know full well the kind of enemy we're facing. What the 6th Field Division can do is ensure that the evacuees who left earlier don't get caught by the horde. I don't think we should hold too much hope for the group that's still here."

Actually, P5092's intent was very clear. It was impossible for this group of elderly, women, and children who were stranded in Stronghold 144 to survive.

The Great Hoodwinker sighed. Was there really no other way?

But at this moment, Xun Yeyu suddenly ran out of the barracks and shouted, "This is bad, this is bad! A group of enemies have entered from the northeast and into my detection range. I sense probably thousands of superhumans in that group."

Everyone was stunned. Didn't the future commander say the artificial intelligence should be incapable of controlling superhumans? Why were there suddenly so many of them then?

And the problem was that there shouldn't even be that many superhumans in the entirety of the Alliance of Strongholds, right?!

Zhang Xiaoman said to Xun Yeyu, "Can you stop looking so shocked? Are you sure you sensed it right? How can there be so many superhumans?"

"My detection is definitely not wrong." Xun Yeyu said, "Those thousands of superhumans are escorting tens of thousands of ordinary people as they rush over. I think they'll only take four hours before they reach our stronghold. No, there's another superhuman who's extremely fast. He's broken away from the main group and is running over here alone."

"He's coming here alone?" The Great Hoodwinker wondered what that was about.

P5092 suddenly said, "Who knows, this might be a turning point for us."

He turned around and got a soldier to drive, and the group of them headed in the direction of the incoming party. P5092 suddenly felt that this group of people who had suddenly arrived were friends and not enemies.

P5092 said, "Do you all remember that we also encountered a situation like this on Mt. Zuoyun? Back then, everyone also thought that thousands of superhumans had arrived."

The Great Hoodwinker's eyes lit up. "You mean that wolf pack from the grasslands?!"

"That's right." P5092 nodded.

Slightly more than half an hour later, they saw Hassan riding a warhorse in the wilderness appearing in front of them. The horse's towering presence was like a column of dark clouds and looked extremely handsome.

The Great Hoodwinker had heard about how the warhorses in the grasslands had all evolved. If such warhorses were bred with warhorses from the Central Plains, the Central Plains species would definitely have a laborious birth.

Hassan sat on his horse and said loudly, "I'm here on Master's orders to pass you the news. Tens of thousands of warhorses and cows are being herded over by the wolves at the rear for everyone to use as transportation. Master mentioned that you all should be worrying about the evacuation right now."

Translated by: Legge

Edited by: /book/the-first-order_14219251705674005