Chapter 1964 - 1963: Heading to Trollon

Boom——

One roaring mecha after another slipped from the sky, with the massive airflow blowing away the temporary tents around.

The mecha with a red and white paint job in the front landed directly in the center of the camp, squatted down, the cockpit opened, and the middle-aged man standing inside the cockpit jumped onto the mecha’s knee, then jumped down to the ground in a series of leaps.

He then crossed the collapsed signal tower and rushed into the command tent.

The entire panorama of the tent unfolded in his field of view.

None of the facilities were damaged, the computers were still on, flickering with numerous dots of light, and several young soldiers were huddled in the corner, nervously looking up at the middle-aged man who had burst into the tent.

"What’s the situation?" Es turned his head and looked at the soldiers in the tent.

"Someone just barged in wearing exoskeleton armor," the leading soldier said nervously, "He opened the computer as soon as he came in, and I don’t know what he did."

"What did that person look like?" Es asked quickly.

"Couldn’t see clearly; the exoskeleton armor covered his whole body," the soldier replied nervously, "But his mecha looked very expensive."

"It was Bod," as the soldier said this, a young officer walked in, pausing slightly as he glanced at the soldier, "When did he leave?"

"Just now," the soldier said nervously, "He left just before you came back."

Upon hearing this, Es immediately turned around and dashed out of the tent, looking up at the sky.

In the dim sky above, there were faint flickering dots of light, quickly moving away.

"Let him escape." The young officer also rushed out, looking up at the flickering lights and shouted loudly, "Where are our anti-air missiles?"

"We can’t catch up," Es shook his head, "His aircraft is better than ours, and his altitude is higher than ours, as well."

He glanced at the mecha parked nearby, "When we just returned, he should have been watching us from above the clouds,"

He frowned slightly, "But why weren’t they attacked by the exotic beasts above? Could it be that the sky overlord has already left?"

Upon hearing this, the young officer’s expression changed rapidly, then he looked at Es and quickly said, "Your plan went awry; Bod didn’t go to Vissen but ambushed our base. Now, with the equipment and personnel damage, an explanation is needed. I will email the board and relay everything to them thoroughly."

Hearing this, Es was slightly stunned, he lifted his gaze and glanced at the young officer, "We are still carrying out our mission, if you want to stir up trouble, there will be plenty of time to do so once we return to the city."

This made the young officer’s face darken.

But Es no longer looked at him and instead walked into the tent.

The young officer saw this and quickly followed inside.

He only saw Es walking to the computer.

At this moment, the computer program box was constantly flashing with commands, and most of the computer files had been deleted.

"This central control computer is infected with a virus," the young officer glanced at Es, "This is another loss. You were allocated so many people and so much equipment, you accomplished nothing, and yet so much equipment was damaged. You should be prepared to face inquiries from the board."

Es acted as if the person next to him wasn’t there, turned around, and walked to the soldiers, quickly asking, "What did Bod look at when he came in just now?"

"Don’t know," the soldiers looked at each other, and the leading soldier hesitantly said, "We couldn’t see the screen clearly."

"I saw him looking at the radar and monitoring screens, but he was too fast." One of the soldiers cautiously said.

"Radar and screens." Hearing these two terms, Es slightly raised his eyebrows, lost in thought.

Just then, the young officer beside him pulled out a handgun, aiming it at the soldiers, "Those outside are heroic warriors who died in battle, while you hide here to survive."

"No, officer," several soldiers were frightened and raised their hands immediately, "We didn’t do anything, we couldn’t beat him, we’ve only been enlisted for less than two months..."

"Doing nothing is even more hateful," the young officer raised his hand, pulled the trigger, chambering the gun, "You don’t think about the group. If you had held Bod for another minute or two, we could have caught him in the act when we returned. The entire mission failure, you bear significant responsibility, according to military law, I should execute you now."

The soldiers were all stunned, only seeing the young officer’s finger reaching the trigger.

"Enough," a cold snort came from the side. Es raised his head and looked at the young officer, "Here, I am the commander, and it’s not your place to apply military law."

The young officer was taken aback, he lowered his head, looked at Es briefly, and finally put away the gun, biting his lip, angrily saying, "Fine, fine, I just hope you can remain this confident when explaining to the board."

Es didn’t care about him, only kept his head up, looking at the soldiers, "Your surrender isn’t entirely your fault, but you did violate the group’s military discipline. You’re fired, I will process your payroll normally, you should receive the past two months’ wages by next month. A vehicle will leave for the city tomorrow morning, you can leave with it."

"Okay, okay." The soldiers looked at the young officer’s gun barrel, hurriedly saying, "Thank you, Captain, thank you, Captain."

Es waved his hand, signaling them to leave.

The soldiers bypassed the young officer, stumbling and running off to Es’s side, dashing out of the tent.

"I know you came with me, hoping to earn a merit, so you could reasonably succeed as the deputy captain of the Second Mercenary Corps," at this moment, Es glanced at the young officer by his side and continued before the other could retort, "But this mission hasn’t failed."

The young officer’s words of mockery were stuck in his throat, swallowed forcefully, as he looked at Es, "How so?"

"I know where Bod went." Es turned his head and walked out of the tent.

——

Inside the fighter jet

"Mr. Bod, I don’t know how to express my astonishment," Mark piloted the plane, turned to glance at He Ao, and said with some shock, "How did you know their base was unattended, and that their main force wouldn’t return for a while?"

"That commander is capable," He Ao removed his mecha and placed it back into the box, then glanced down at the distant lights of the base below,

"He knows that simply pursuing us won’t catch up, so he must intercept us ahead. This is why he uses a large number of drones behind us, disguising them as a large force to ’chase’ us into a predetermined path, then leads the mecha unit through the forests, taking a shortcut to intercept us."

He withdrew his gaze, walked over to the side of the sofa, sat into the soft, old leather, and said slowly, "This is actually just a simple ’lure the enemy into the trap’ strategy."

"That’s not simple," Mark shook his head, "If it were me, I’d fall right into his rhythm. You actually guessed that what was chasing us were drones disguised as warplanes. That’s incredible."

"To be honest," He Ao shrugged, "his disguise was actually done very well. The only flaw is, I know the Consortium wouldn’t send so many troops just to hunt me down. That’s his only loophole."

As he said this, He Ao slightly raised his eyebrows and glanced outside the window, "However, this guy is also remarkable, noticing something’s off so early and rushing back."

"Is there something wrong with him rushing back?" Mark was slightly taken aback.

"Under normal circumstances, there is no signal in the wilds," He Ao said as he paused slightly, then smiled, "Where do you think he would show up to intercept us?"

Mark was slightly stunned, then quickly realized, "He should be setting up an ambush on the trade route to Vissen for us. Even if he received the signal of our attack, relayed through the drones, it would at least be tomorrow morning before he returned."

At this point, he fully realized, speaking with a bit of shock, "So how did he manage it, purely based on instinct, to come back and catch us? What if we hadn’t attacked his base? If we had followed that trade route normally, wouldn’t he miss us completely?"

"He didn’t rely solely on guesswork," He Ao shook his head, "In fact, he used a dull method. He simply placed drones all along the outskirts of the trade route to Vissen, so if our warplanes passed by, those drones would head to the forest to find their troops and send a signal."

"What if we didn’t pass through?" Mark asked.

"Then he wouldn’t receive any signal." He Ao shook his head.

"But there’s a chance his drones could be attacked by exotic beasts en route," Mark added, "and he wouldn’t receive any signal."

"That’s certainly possible," He Ao shook his head, "but he should have explored the entire terrain long ago and designed the drones’ flight path. Those drones would suffer losses but not be completely wiped out, so as long as he doesn’t receive a signal, it’s likely that we really didn’t take that route."

"Did he already know we were headed to Vissen?" Mark asked, "So he made arrangements in advance?"

"I think another possibility is more likely," He Ao looked at the forest outside the window and smiled, "There aren’t many trade routes near Keskein. He pre-explored most of the surrounding terrain and made similar arrangements at every important spot."

"That must have taken a lot of effort, even with drones helping him explore," Mark said with some admiration, "It’s not an easy job."

"He might have been here before," He Ao shrugged, raised his wristband and glanced at it, "so he was prepared a long time ago."

"Indeed," Mark nodded slightly. He turned his head to look at He Ao, "Mr. Bod, where are we headed next?"

"Just fly straight along this route." He Ao glanced at the darkness ahead and said slowly.

"Ahead is the Great Gobi Desert," Mark was momentarily stunned, "There are many vulture-like exotic beasts there that may attack us."

He tentatively suggested, "If you’re heading to the city on the other side of the desert, you can take the flight route that goes around the desert. Although there is a speed limit, the time is short; you could arrive by noon tomorrow."

"That’s too long," He Ao shook his head, "I can’t wait that long. You just go straight ahead."

He looked at Mark, "If you’re worried, you can use my mecha to leave."

"Of course not," Mark shook his head, "Then I’ll follow your route."

He paused slightly, then turned his head again and looked, "I wanted to ask earlier, do you need any medical supplies?"

"No need," He Ao shook his head, smiling, "I am a transcendent in the medical field, so don’t worry about me."

"Alright." Mark obediently withdrew his gaze and looked forward.

And He Ao raised his wristband, glancing at its content.

Back in the city, Eve sent an inquiry to Roger via the intelligent system, but He Ao hadn’t received Roger’s reply until he left the city.

From the Dream Weaver’s memories, it was the Life Church people who took Mr. Bod’s daughter.

And the issue lies here: the place within the Federation that harbors the most Life Believers is Qiming Medical College, which has almost become the nest of the Life Church.

But He Ao had hardly heard of the Life Church having any powerful organized structure.

According to Roger’s description, while the Life Church has doctrines and a relatively large organizational structure, it resembles more of a loose community of scholars, together researching medicine and biology. When those fields can’t solve things, they turn to mysticism for help.

The Life Church in the dungeon world has a Pope, but he’s been missing for a long time. There are a few Archbishops, but most are in seclusion, with one currently serving as the honorary dean of Qiming Medical College.

Such an organization, lacking internal restraints and strong power structures, doesn’t seem like one that would capture people under the name of the Church.

But the matters of this world are unpredictable.

He Ao put down his wristband and closed his eyes slightly.

An invisible connection was surfacing in his mind at this moment.

It came from his clone in the Main World, a clone carrying a strand of his residual soul.

It’s unclear if it’s because he successfully promoted to a complete Usurper God or because he restructured the clone’s bodily structure, but now he can faintly sense the state of the clone.

Now, even entering the dungeon world, He Ao’s clone in the Main World will not entirely fall into slumber but rather perceive the world in a state similar to instinctive reaction.

And this perception can smoothly transmit to He Ao.

He Ao can rely on this to roughly sense the state of the Main World, see whether the Holy Master bypassed the God of Machinery and descended from Heaven.

Judging from the current situation, the state of the Main World is fine.

In fact, He Ao thought, given the personality of the Holy Master, if he suffered losses at the God of Machinery’s place, it’s very possible he might change tactics and trouble He Ao in the dungeon world, looking for a breakthrough point.

He Ao opened his eyes, rolled over, lifted his gaze, glanced at Mark piloting the warplane, leaned back on the sofa, and ’slept’ over.