In an instant, all light disappeared. Boundless darkness swallowed everything, as if the whole world was shaking. Everyone was trembling and huddled together, fearing that the cave would collapse.
Huge sounds kept coming, as dull as thunder, so earth-shattering that it shook people's internal organs almost out of place. Chen Xing held his head and hid in a corner of the cave. He felt bitter and unspeakable. When would he be able to escape the fate of an ant and not be so timid?
Although they may face catastrophe at any time, no one makes a sound. Perhaps this is the ultimate expression of fear - being scared into silence.
When Chen Xing was in the Thunder Light Regiment in his last life, the highest level battles he had ever seen were those at the small lord level, and even though they were several kilometers away, he had never seen any battles at the king level. Because for a mercenary group of the size of the Thunder Light Regiment, the king-level mercenary group would disappear with just a swipe of his little finger, and there was no possibility of participating in the war. Unless a large mercenary group like the Beiqiao Regiment can still play a certain role, it will only be a small corner of the battlefield.
The so-called "king level" means using the power of one person to fight against a country. The Little King level corresponds to the combat power of the Principality, and the King level corresponds to the Kingdom's combat power.
There are very few battles between kings. Once a fight breaks out, it could be global. After humans walked out of underground safehouses and returned to the surface, there was only one world war. The main battlefield is in the central wilderness, where the Red, Blue and Yellow Kingdoms are fighting, and all the countries in the East and West Continent have sent troops to participate in the war.
According to the description in the history books, the war was fought in such a way that the earth was shattered and the sun and the moon were dimmed. Large tracts of land were rolled up, and the mountains were torn into pieces. You can still see the deep marks left by the giant plows, criss-crossing them, like scars on the world.
In the darkness, after an unknown amount of time, the fighting outside gradually subsided. The beams of flashlights lit up one after another, and everyone looked at each other, their faces full of joy at surviving the disaster. Then everyone started to take action, scraping away the gravel and soil that buried the entrance of the cave.
"Wow!"
The afterglow of the setting sun shines in, and everyone's face is golden. After getting out of the hole, the fresh air rushed towards me, feeling as comfortable as being reborn. The whole world was quiet, and the mountain col was filled with locust corpses.
At the end of the mountains, a palm-sized creature was slowly leaving. The Steam Corpse Kun was repelled and everyone was safe. Maybe it was because the shock was gone, or maybe because I had lost several companions, my heart was heavy, and no one cheered.
If you want to completely eliminate Shikun, the little king-level Michael Luoluo can't do it. At least two big kings need to join forces to have a chance. But even the king-level ones wouldn't care about such trivial matters, not even the little king-level ones. Only strong men like Michael Luoluo who are close to the bottom would be willing to take action.
After a moment of silence, everyone began to clean up the scene. They still have food to eat and a place to stay, so there is no time for them to lament.
Da Mao directed the restoration work of the cave, while Chen Xing contacted Gui Hu, Wu Jinjian, and Cassie.
"Boss, I'm fine." "Captain, the golden sword is still there." "Mr Qin, I'm here, I'm fine, I'm a lucky little black man..."
When a familiar voice came from the intercom, Chen Xing finally breathed a sigh of relief. The list of losses came out quickly. Chen Xing's side was protected by a cave and suffered the least losses. Only five people died. The remaining three camps were exposed and more than half of the personnel were lost.
Half of the team of more than 200 people was lost in an instant, which is really sad.
But in fact, if you look at it from the perspective of team building, it is not entirely a bad thing.
First, team cohesion will increase. Disasters can quickly bring people closer to each other, but once they have experienced life and death, the friendship will be much deeper. In addition, the combat effectiveness will also be improved a lot. There is often only one battle between new recruits and veterans. Having been on the battlefield and seeing life and death, you know what's going on. Next time you go to the battlefield, you will be much calmer.
The corpses and relics that could be found were moved together, wrapped in sheets, and placed at the foot of the stronghold. Chen Xing took several squadron leaders and all the members of the master corps to hold a solemn military funeral.
The cemetery was chosen in a nearby valley, and some cold- and drought-resistant shrubs were transplanted around it. Tombstones are made of cut stones, and the names of the victims are carved on the flat side with a carving knife. Although it is very crude, it is already hundreds of times better than the habit of randomly discarding corpses on the Black Death Continent.
When all this is completed, looking at the tombstones standing in the valley, a faint sense of belonging arises spontaneously. Wu Jinjian sighed, saying that if he could be buried here in the future, it would be considered a beginning and an end.
Indeed, as long as a mercenary who wanders around the world and wraps his body in horse leather has a companion who is willing to collect his body and find a place to bury it, and there are still people who remember him after his death, he will feel more peaceful when facing death.
In his last life, Big Cat said more than once that he hoped to return to Dragonstone Town after death and be with his family. As for Chen Xing, he is a rootless person, and it doesn't matter where he is buried. This is the difference between those with roots and those without roots. People without roots will not even know where they are buried after they die. This kind of sadness can often only be understood by those who are in it. Wandering in a foreign land, the fallen leaves are nowhere to be found.
After the funeral, Chen Xing asked Da Mao and Wu Jinjian to sort out the belongings of the victims. As long as their home addresses could be found, all would be given pensions according to the standards of the edge town garrison.
This move moved the team members deeply. Thinking that their families will have a good income after death and their sacrifices will not be in vain, they feel that everything is worth it. Although they are all criminals, criminals are also people, with families and feelings. Thieves also have their ways, and there are only a very few who are truly perverted to the point where they don't even care about their family members. And usually no one wants this kind of person.
Just imagine, if you don’t even care about your family, will you care about others?
Over the next period of time, order in the stronghold was slowly restored. In order to replenish personnel, Da Mao and Wu Jinjian took people to a nearby safe house to recruit people. In fact, there are also exile strongholds nearby, but they are those who cannot afford to live in a safe house, have neither fighting ability nor courage, and survive on a little relief food.
Relief food is a basic survival material distributed by the security department. It is distributed once a month to ensure that the exiles will not die of hunger.
In this world, discrimination is everywhere. These people who survive on relief food are called "wandering rats" and have the dual identity of exiles and beggars. In the eyes of other exiles, their status is lower than that of refugees.
But not long after, Da Mao and Wu Jinjian came back empty-handed. In other survival shelters, they were stopped by local forces. There is an unwritten rule on the Black Earth Continent - the legion can only recruit personnel from the security stations in the garrison.
Since areas 26 and 28 did not have strong forces, they could recruit people there, but there were other areas. In order to avoid conflicts, they did not continue.
There was no other way, so Chen Xing had no choice but to take people to a nearby larger gathering place for stray rats to see if there were any suitable personnel.
