Chapter 131: Camp

Wei Changan managed to procure the weapons and bombs easily, and he brought everything over the next afternoon.

Meanwhile, with Feng Xiaoqi and Luo Kaiyuan’s help, Chen Chuan coordinated the other things and got everything else ready.

He Nan had given them five SUVs. Along with Ren Xiaotian’s own SUV, they had a total of six cars. This was enough to take them and transport all the necessities and weapons to the wilderness.

At 12:00 a.m. on the day of the mission, all the people involved gathered on the square in front of Martial Valor University.

Chen Chuan’s team had five people including him, while Wei Changan’s had six. With Ren Xiaotian included, they had thirteen people.

Since Lin Xiaodi was too young, she did not join the ambush. Instead, she stayed in Yangzhi City to keep an eye on the real exchange group and to be on standby for any calls from the Foreign Affairs Department. They got themselves two wireless telegraph sets. If the real exchange group showed any abnormal behavior, Lin Xiaodi would immediately contact them via a telegraph.

Before they left, they checked everything once more. Once they were sure everything was in order, they exchanged nods and got into their SUVs to drive down the empty road in the dark.

Everyone in Wei Changan’s team knew how to drive, so they were in charge of driving the SUVs. They did not make use of the drivers offered along with the car fleet.

The SUVs headed east and left Yangzhi City. Then, they plunged straight into the wilderness. Everyone sensed the change in the condition of the road right away.

If they could take the public road to their destination, they would need two hours at most, but guardrails, barbed wire, and defensive trenches from the Great Expansion covered every inch of either side of the public road. Any vehicle that got on the public road could only continue down the public road.

The only place that allowed cars to veer off the public road was near the checkpoint, but due to that, it also had the tightest security. If they wanted to get off the road there, they would have to get inspected and registered, which was really troublesome. There was even a chance they would be detained until their identities were verified, so it was better to just travel through the wilderness from the start.

Since Ren Xiaotian often did missions in the wilderness, he was familiar with the terrain. He had also been to the Rusty Bronze Gang’s base before, so he led the way.

Chen Chuan sat in the backseat of his SUV while inspecting his Fortbreaker Rifle. It was around 1.2 meters long and weighed around ten kilograms, but any martial artist could use it with one hand.

The most unique thing about the rifle was the bullets. He checked one of them. It was around eight centimeters long. The tip was sharp and felt heavy in his hand. Chen Chuan had fifteen shots with him. It might not seem a lot, but it was enough.

The rifle was under strict regulations, because it could tear through regular protective gear like it was paper. The only exception was the protective suit Chen Chuan wore when he attacked Fang Dawei and his gang.

Among Wei Changan’s six-man team, aside from two who were in charge of car maintenance and receiving telegrams, there was one unique member. He went by Ding Liao and was a crackshot.

While he did not have a weapons permit, he had grown up in the Constabulary and often went to the shooting range, which was how he got good with guns. When he heard that they would be using the Fortbreaker Rifles, he loudly proclaimed that he wanted to join, even if he had to pay for it. He wanted to have fun with the rifle.

Chen Chuan put away the rifle and looked through the information Ren Xiaotian had given him. It contained some records regarding the Rusty Bronze Gang.

The leader of the Rusty Bronze Gang was Mitai, whose codename was Desert Eagle. He was a forty-year-old Merkarian mixed-blood. He had hung out at a criminal organization in the wilderness since young, and since he was quite smart, the leader of that gang took him around as his lackey.

Later on, the leader died in a conflict, and the new leader did not trust Mitai, so he was chased out.

But more than just distrusting him because of being the previous leader’s lackey, the new leader did not like the Merkarian blood in his veins.

It was not just all the cityfolk who looked down on him. There was a pecking order among those living in the wilderness, and the Merkarians and Merkarian mixed-bloods were at the bottom of it. Their status was even lower than that of Smoked Hills residents. It was really difficult for them to rise to power.

From then on, Mitai did private jobs out in the wilderness without standing out. But two years ago, he suddenly rose to power and built his own gang.

Based on this, it was obvious that someone was supporting him.

Mitai had a right-hand and left-hand man. One of them was Juan, the Venomous Snake. He was the brains of the gang and a pure-blooded Merkarian.

The other was Yatan, the Rampaging Bear. He was a Merkarian mixed-blood and stood at 2.35 meters tall. He was an outstanding martial artist, whose life Mitai saved. It was highly likely that he was a naturally gifted person.

According to Ren Xiaotian, aside from Yatan, the other gang members were not that strong. They relied on weapons and armor in their fights.

That made sense. Most powerful martial artists could live good lives in the city. As long as they did not break any laws to get a bounty on their heads and had no screws loose in their brains, they would not want to live in the wilderness like hyenas. There were always exceptions, and some people did enjoy that sort of life, but they were few in number.

Chen Chuan pondered over this a little. If the Merkarian government supported this gang, they were bound to have sent powerful Merkarian martial artists as support. This would make it easy for them to monitor this wilderness gang.

He had discussed with Ren Xiaotian and Wei Changan beforehand, and they believed that the martial artists would be around Douma’s level. The possibility of them being stronger was not high.

Merka only had a population of a little over a million. Meanwhile, the population of Yangzhi City, the six counties, the towns, and the villages around the city combined to more than ten million. That was ten times over what Merka had. The average level of a Martial Valor University lecturer was around the Second Limit, though there were also a lot of lecturers and teaching assistants who had yet to reach it.

After all, talent dictated just how far anyone could go as a martial artist. Without talent, no matter how hard they trained, only a few could push past the limit. Countries needed a large population to have many talented people.

Hence, if Merka had people who were more talented than Douma, they would be considered national treasures. Losing one would be a great loss to them, so it was unlikely for them to be sent to another country to participate in such a mission. Besides, if someone like that put on protective gear and held a gun, they would become an incredible force of destruction. The moment they stepped into the Great Shun Republic’s soil, the government would train their eyes on them.

Still, even if someone like that came, they wouldn’t be able to withstand the Fortbreaker Rifle, so Chen Chuan was not too worried.

The road was horrible and they had to avoid wandering car fleets, so it took them more than three hours to reach their destination.

Since the base had a wide field of view and the roar of car engines was loud during the night, the team got out of their SUVs some distance away. They parked their SUVs in a hidden spot and left behind their two technicians to keep watch over them. The others walked to the base with the night as their cover.

The wind in the wilderness was strong and carried with it sand and crushed rocks. All of them wore scarves and masks. As they slowly approached, the base came into view.

Ren Xiaotian and Wei Changan split up left and right to observe the base, just as they had planned. Chen Chuan took out his binoculars to check it from where they stood.

The buildings stood in a messy, disorderly fashion, but since the base was located on higher ground, Chen Chuan could not see the entire place. A few bonfires burned near the passages. There were also some lights powered by algae-fuel generators. They glimmered faintly in the night, like scattered stars.

There were winding trenches around the base. Further inside were rope nets covered in various metal bits. To the north and south were two tall, semi-open sentry posts. In front of the entrance were two lower guard posts. Sometimes, people moved around inside. They were most likely patrols and sentries.

As he continued observing the base, Ren Xiaotian went around the base and came back. “The two armored cars are around. They should all be here. I don’t think anyone left.”

Chen Chuan nodded.

Usually, armed gangs like this were at their most active during the night. They would leave only a few people to guard the base. If that were the case, things would be easy. All they would need to do was attack the base from all sides.

Chen Chuan was not surprised that they were all in the base. Since they had something important to do over the next few days, they were not going to go out to cause trouble. It was normal for all of them to stay in the base.

It was impossible to attack a heavily guarded base directly. They did not have enough manpower for that. They could only get closer, then barge in and start fighting. That was the only way for them to use their strength.

But before that, they needed to get rid of the guards.

Once Wei Changan came back from the other side, Chen Chuan discussed things with him and Ren Xiaotian. Then, they gathered the rest of the team to give them the general details about the base. In the end, they decided that Chen Chuan, Ren Xiaotian, Wei Changan, and Cai Si would be the first to infiltrate the base and get rid of the guards. Then, they would let the rest in.

If everything went smoothly, they would split up and slowly take down people in the base as well as destroy the armored vehicles. Once they were discovered, they would throw smoke bombs and launch a full-frontal assault.

Chen Chuan took a look and said, “Let me handle the taller sentry post to the north. Senior Brother Ren, I’ll leave the southern one to you.”

Ren Xiaotian nodded.

Chen Chuan then turned to Wei Changan and Cai Si. “Changan, Fourth Brother, I’ll leave you two the sentries in the guard post ahead of us.”

“If we can get rid of the people in the lookout, the rest will be easy,” Wei Changan said confidently.

Based on the gait of the sentries, he could tell that they were just normal people. With both Wei Changan and Cai Si’s speed and reflexes, the moment they got close, those people would have no chance of fighting back.

“Let’s get ready,” Chen Chuan said.

They each took out a small box and started smearing themselves with the ointment inside to mask their scent. This was to deal with the possibility of patrol dogs.

Once they were ready, they split up.

Chen Chuan secured the Frost King Saber to his back and took a few steps forward before he charged with his body low to the ground. Due to his powerful mutated tissue, he was practically running at lightning speed.

Even though some of the trenches around the base were wide, he managed to cross them with a single leap. When he jumped over, he could see spikes and smell a foul stench coming from inside them. The gang likely took care of their daily business in them.

While Chen Chuan was getting closer, he made sure that he always stayed in the darkness. As best as he could, he avoided the array of trash on the ground, including shattered glass, nails, cans, and other things. When he could not, he was not worried about getting injured and just planted his hand on them, flipped himself forward, and continued ahead. The only place that posed a bit of a challenge was the innermost layer.

The rope nets intertwined with each other in multiple layers. No space was left uncovered. They were also covered in things that made a lot of noise from the smallest touch. They were located close to the edge of the trenches, so Chen Chuan had nowhere to land.

After some thinking, he decided to just jump over and ram his hand into the wall so that he could hang off of it. Then, he slowly climbed sideways until he reached the entrance. Once there, he straightened his arms and stomped down on the wall, causing a slight tremor that made a bonfire far away sway. During that brief moment, he made it inside without the sentry in the guard post noticing him.

Chen Chuan avoided the bonfires and lights by going around all of them until he got close to his sentry post. He waited for a while, then once he saw the sentries in the southern sentry post look away, he charged up. Within two breaths, he reached the top.

Chen Chuan placed his hand on the door handle and turned it. When he walked in, he found the sentry cutting his nails. The moment he saw the door swinging open and an unfamiliar face come in, he realized what was going on. In a flash, he grabbed the handgun beside him and took aim.

Before he could pull the trigger, Chen Chuan arrived in front of him, grabbed his wrist, and gave it a light squeeze. His wrist shattered. Without giving him the chance to scream, Chen Chuan twisted his head 180 degrees, and the guard fell limp on his chair.

Chen Chuan took a look at the man’s neatly cut nails and remembered the horrible hygiene at the trenches. “Good habit you have there,” he commented.