Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 236 Source of Soldiers
"Missionaries?" Ye Jiu couldn't help but frowned. "Missionaries and the trafficking of cultural relics... these are two things that have nothing to do with each other, right?"

"That's where you're wrong," Zhulong corrected him. "In the early years, many Westerners, under the guise of doing business, preaching, and cultural exchange, secretly smuggled our Xiazhou antiques and cultural relics back to their own countries... In the British Museum, there are many of our national treasures on display, but unfortunately, those things may never be brought back."

"So, this Judra also has a thief?" Ye Jiu asked angrily.

"I'm not sure. The federal government can't find any criminal records of Judela." Zhu Long shook his head. "But he would hang out with people like Shang Dalin, so they are probably birds of a feather."

Just when Ye Jiu wanted to ask something else, a field operator ran over, saluted him, and said loudly: "Report to the team leader, in the branch tunnel, we have found a total of 197 artifact-like strange objects and 15 infected people with severe body deformation. In addition, according to the request of Researcher Yang, we also found 15 bronze figurine lamps with body characteristics corresponding to the infected people. How should we deal with them?"

"Why are you asking me? I'm not a researcher!" Ye Jiu glared.

"But, you are the leader of this operation..."

"That was when we set off. After arriving at the mission location, the command authority will be fully handed over to Researcher Yang. Okay, don't bother me anymore!" Ye Jiu waved his hands repeatedly.

"Understood!" The field operator saluted again and trotted away.

"These guys are quite spirited." Zhulong glanced at the back of the field operator. "They are much better than those bad-tempered, stubborn, and idiot guys in Chunming City... To be honest, what I hated most before was dealing with the field department of Tianshu Tower. They only made things more chaotic when I was working, and after the work was done, they would say that they had made an indispensable contribution... Tsk tsk tsk tsk."

"These people were just promoted from the Abnormal Investigation Bureau and the City Defense Guard. They only had less than two weeks of training." Ye Jiu sighed. "That old man who was addicted to smoking gave them a promise that if they performed well, they would have a chance to be transferred to the Tianshu Tower... These people were immediately like chicken blood, and they worked harder than each other during the training."

"Is the position in Tianshu Tower so popular?" Sun Hang asked with some doubt. "The cake drawn by the old man in the wheelchair is probably a trap. They thought the Tianshu Tower was the Tianshu Tower in Chunming City, but it was actually the construction site above our heads. I wonder if these guys will be disappointed after knowing the truth."

"They know." Ye Jiu said, "But this still won't dampen their enthusiasm. Being able to join the Tianshu Tower, no matter what job or where one works, is considered a social leap for ordinary people - and it's a leap of several levels. The benefits are many times better than those of civil servants, and there are all kinds of security measures... Not only the individual, but also the spouse, relatives, next generation and even the next generation can enjoy it. Do you think people won't fight over this quota?"

"Come to think of it, are these people all new?" Zhu Long narrowed his eyes. "Didn't the field department of the Tianfu City Weird Things Research Institute expand its recruitment twice when the Eternal Night first descended?"

"Before the Eternal Night, the Tianfu City Weird Thing Research Institute had a total of 155 active operators in the field department. Now, including me as a temporary helper, there are only 97 of them." Ye Jiu sighed, "The trapping operation of Chimera No. 17 directly caused us to lose eight fully staffed field teams. In addition, those who retired due to serious injuries or disabilities... During the period before you came back, there were only about 40 people left in the entire field department, and more than half of them were civilian operators sitting in offices facing computer screens... Damn it, during that period, I was almost split into eight people. I was simply an extreme cow and horse."

"I think we can recruit more people." Sun Hang said calmly, "Chimera 17 will come back, and by then, more people will die."

"I also want to recruit more people, but the city defense guards and other armed departments are also short of manpower." After finally finding an opportunity to talk, Ye Jiu immediately began to complain to Sun Hang, "Sun Hang, you don't know, in order to snatch these people, I quarreled with the heads of those departments every day. Don't you think my neck is several times thicker now than before?"

"You're still wearing a neck brace, how can I tell anything?" Sun Hang complained.

"Do you know what the heads of those departments said to me? Damn it, they said that if they want to dig, then don't come alone, or if they want to dig, then dig the entire department... Damn it, the abacus beads are about to jump into my face!" Ye Jiu cursed.

"Then just dig them all up." Sun Hang said indifferently.

"What I'm lacking now is a strong man who can carry a gun and shoot monsters. The average age of those people who quarreled with me is over 55 years old, with a big belly. What else can they do besides sitting in the office drinking tea and reading newspapers? If my father knew that I recruited such people, he would scold me. Besides, the number of places approved by the higher-ups is limited. I can't guarantee that even these people can join the Tianshu Tower. If those old guys take advantage of their power and take up a group of places, the pie I painted for them will be completely ruined... Who will be willing to work hard for them then!"

"This is an easy question." Sun Hang took out his pistol and loaded it with a click. "Just kill those guys who are just sitting there doing nothing."

"Are you crazy?" Ye Jiu rolled his eyes at Sun Hang.

"It's not broken." Sun Hang said, "I usually call this way of handling things efficient."

"Even if the Tianshu Tower protects you...ah, damn it, I don't want to mention those people anymore. The more I mention them, the angrier I get. I'm really afraid that I won't be able to help but pick up a gun and shoot them all." Ye Jiu slapped his head hard, and the collision of his gauntlet and helmet made a crisp "bang bang" sound.

"Damn it, I will be infected by you sooner or later and become a lunatic." Ye Jiu muttered.

"You're pretty crazy right now." Sun Hang looked him over. "You want to fight me right after we meet. You're probably just itching for trouble."

"This young master is called a martial arts fanatic!"

"Wu didn't see it, he just saw that he was stupid." Sun Hang's middle finger suddenly popped up, "A child like you will drool even if you are cured."

“Pfft… Hahahaha.” Wang Xiyi, who had not said much at the side, suddenly burst into laughter. While laughing, she covered her stomach and shook her hands at Ye Jiu, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to make fun of you… It’s just… I couldn’t help it… It’s too funny… Hahahahahahaha, I’m dying of laughter…”

"Fuck!" Ye Jiu kicked a small stone on the ground. "I'm almost going crazy from being nagged by those old guys all the time. I finally have a chance, so of course I have to vent..."

Before he could finish his words, the small stone he kicked bounced off the rock wall and the dome several times, and finally hit his helmet accurately, making a crisp sound.

"It's not very harmful, but it's extremely insulting," Sun Hang commented.

Wang Xiyi on the side suddenly laughed even more wildly, and even the usually steady Zhulong couldn't help but slightly raise the corner of his mouth.

“Damn it.” Ye Jiu crushed the stone that fell back to his feet into powder with his foot. “You can laugh if you want, but Sun Hang, you have to think of a way for me… Two hundred, no, one hundred people. The field department now needs at least one hundred field operators to barely fill the gap in the work. No matter what, you have to find a hundred cattle and horses for me, no matter what method you use…”

"We should be able to recruit people from the reinforcements coming from other city-states, right?" Zhulong suggested.

"I tried it. As soon as I poached a few people, the leader of their original unit immediately called me and scolded me." Ye Jiu smiled bitterly, "He also threatened that if I dared to poach more people, the next time he sent reinforcements, he would only send cleaning staff."

"The sweeping monk is good, haven't you seen in those martial arts novels that the inconspicuous sweeping monk is usually the most powerful one in the whole temple?" Sun Hang laughed. "I'm not kidding you." Ye Jiu stamped his feet in anger, "Be serious, you f*cking monk!"

"Okay, okay, okay." Sun Hang stopped smiling. "I do have an idea... There must be a place with sufficient soldiers. The only problem is that you need to train them from scratch... But I can guarantee that these people will definitely work harder than your current group of men."

"Which place?" Ye Jiu asked immediately.

"The refugee resettlement camp on the outskirts of the city," Sun Hang said. "It's filled with young people who have lost their loved ones and are displaced. They are filled with fear and hatred for the monsters, and are full of pessimism and confusion about the future... If you go to them and tell them that you will give them a chance to take revenge on the monsters, and also give them a chance to join a legendary organization like Tianshu Tower... what do you think they will do?"

"Hiss..." Ye Jiu couldn't help but take a breath of cold air, "Now that you put it that way, it seems to make some sense... It's just a matter of training..."

"The comprehensive talent training base will be built soon. By then, you can let them perform some simple tasks while taking time out to receive systematic training at the base... Believe me, the best soldiers are trained through actual combat."

"There is a second half to this sentence." Zhulong said, "Those soldiers who failed the actual combat training should have died."

"Oh, yes, speaking of death, there is one more thing." Sun Hang patted Ye Jiu's shoulder, "If those orphans who have no relatives die, you can save a lot of pension money."

"Fuck...how can you say such cold words with your mouth at a temperature of 37 degrees?" Ye Jiu was stunned for a moment, looking at Sun Hang in astonishment.

"Because that's how you treated me when I just woke up." Sun Hang said expressionlessly, "Whether it's a war between people or a war between people and monsters, human life is just a consumable... or to put it another way, human life is a kind of currency. Only decision-makers who calculate carefully and make good use of every single one can gradually tilt the balance of victory towards themselves."

"That's right." Zhulong nodded and said seriously, "It's the same for us, except that our face value is a little higher than that of ordinary people."

……

……

Tianfu City, west of the city, No. 6 refugee resettlement camp.

Among a group of blue and yellow tents with disaster relief slogans printed on them, a dishevelled middle-aged woman and a few children were sneaking around. They carefully avoided the city defense guards patrolling the perimeter of the camp, bypassed two central heating towers that were being watched, and trotted into a ruin not far from the camp.

This piece of ruins was once an old neighborhood built ninety years ago. During the Longyanlei incident, the buildings that had long exceeded their service life collapsed like paper models... Fortunately, before the community turned into ruins, most of the residents had evacuated to the open space outside, and only a very few unlucky or clumsy people were buried in the ruins.

The middle-aged woman did not wander in the ruins, but walked quickly towards the pile of rubble with a clear goal. She picked up a tile from the ground and started digging in the rubble.

Soon, she dug out a bronze statue of Guanyin Bodhisattva from the ruins.

The middle-aged woman muttered "what a sin" to herself as she took out the statue with both hands, placed it upright on the ground, and bowed her head.

Her children stood not far away, staring at their mother's behavior in a daze.

“What are you standing there for? Come over here and worship Guanyin Bodhisattva!” The middle-aged woman turned around and said to the children in a stern tone, “Your old man hasn’t woken up in almost a month. He must have offended the gods and Buddhas in heaven! Come over here and kowtow to the Bodhisattva and pray for her blessings…”

The middle-aged woman did not notice that the oldest boy did not come over to kneel with his younger brothers and sisters, but instead lowered his head and slipped behind another pile of ruins to search - his purpose was clear: food, clothes, shoes, socks, and those daily necessities that looked still usable. Every time he found an item, he would carefully sweep off the dust on it and then stuff it into the woven bag tied around his waist.

"Your mother and your brothers and sisters are all worshipping the Buddha. Don't you want to go over and join them?" A pleasant female voice suddenly came from above his head. The boy was startled and immediately raised his head.

He held his breath for a moment.

He had never seen such a beautiful woman since he was born.

Even the stars on TV can't compare to this woman sitting on top of the ruins.

Her long snow-white hair and equally white skin looked like a bright moon emitting a faint fluorescence under the night sky, which was completely unlike anything that should exist in the human world.

"Don't you want to come over and worship with us?" the woman asked again, her voice as clear as wind chimes. "Or do you not believe in gods and Buddhas?"

"I...I don't believe it." The boy took a deep breath and replied.

"But your mother seems to believe it," the woman asked. "Look, her hands are bleeding from digging out the statue."

"If gods and Buddhas really exist in this world, how could they let my family suffer such a disaster... and how could they let those people die inexplicably? Why has the world become so terrible, and they are too lazy to even care about it?"

The boy became more and more angry as he spoke, and his dirty fists clenched tightly. "If praying to the Buddha for protection is effective, why does my mom chant Buddha's name every day, but the day never comes?! Why can't my dad wake up?!"

"Have you ever thought about this question: why do gods and Buddhas have to protect mortals?" The woman's eyes moved from the boy to the ants crawling by his feet, and she opened her red lips slightly, "What does the life and death of mortals have to do with gods and Buddhas?"

The boy was stunned. He stared at the woman who was as beautiful as the bright moon and murmured, "What does the life and death of mortals have to do with gods and Buddhas..."

(End of this chapter)