Life Dungeon Game

Therefore, all they needed was He Ao's 'acknowledgment,' even if it was meaningless, it would still put their minds at ease.

He Ao's admission relieved them of a great weight.

The invisible estrangement and distance that had formed due to 'Mr. Wei'an's' long absence from the public eye vanished without a trace as He Ao walked this path tonight, as his gaze met everyone's, and as the thunderous shouts echoed through the air.

He Ao turned around and walked through the open north gate amidst the surging noise.

Someone will naturally come to relieve these gathered crowds.

Behind Heo, Lina glanced at the crowd that blocked the entire street, stretching as far as the end of the night.

All her worries finally vanished at that moment. She smiled and followed He Ao into the North Gate.

The shouts of the crowd gradually faded and disappeared into the distance.

Beyond the North Gate lies not directly the wilderness; there is a barbican separating the wilderness from the city.

At this moment, a man in a crisp military uniform bearing the emblem of the city of stars stood with a face that seemed...

A middle-aged man with chiseled blond hair stood waiting at the entrance of the barbican.

He glanced at He Ao, then looked at the dense, restless crowd behind the city gate, and laughed, "I've never seen anyone have such prestige in a city. What are your thoughts?"

"My feeling is that the road ahead is fraught with difficulties, and I need to make money quickly,"

He Ao smiled and shook his head. He looked at the man in front of him and asked as he walked forward, "Mr. Fiss, how is the mercenary group doing now?"

"The situation is better than when we last met,"

Fies followed in He'ao's footsteps, standing side by side with him. "The number of miniature mechs has increased. Currently, the light mech Cain and the heavy mech Abel, which are modified from the Adam-type mechs, have been deployed in the mercenary group. However, there are not many of them, only five hundred in total."

"These mechs are very expensive to produce,"

Danny, who was standing nearby, said, "Currently, the entire mecha product line can only rely on investment from other businesses within the group, and you know the group's current cash flow."

"How is the army's combat effectiveness?"

He nodded slightly and looked at Fies.

"very good,"

Upon hearing this question, a slight smile finally appeared on Fez's usually serious face.

"I accept your suggestion. The mercenary group has absorbed many relatives of employees of the Nolanca Group in the city. Most of them are the children and brothers of the group's employees, and their families have basically benefited from the group's reforms."

"These 'good guys' have a strong sense of initiative to protect their current lives. They are very proactive in both training and missions. I am currently working with Danny to replace all the mercenaries with 'good guys' in stages."

"However, the problem now is that although we offer high salaries and benefits, the recruitment of new mercenaries is not going very smoothly."

"The propaganda work, both inside and outside the mercenary group, still needs to be done,"

He Ao glanced at Lina and said, "We need to make the mercenaries understand that they are not only carrying out missions, but also protecting the group, protecting their families' jobs, and ensuring that their families can have enough to eat. At the same time, we also need to make the group's employees understand that our current safe trade routes, and even new markets, were all earned by the mercenary warriors through their hard work."

Fies glanced at He Ao, who always managed to surprise him.

This approach is actually aimed at elevating the status of the mercenary group. Only by raising its status can people know that the Nolanca Mercenary Group is not the kind of mercenary group that gathers fugitives, homeless people, and gang members.

Only then will more decent young men be willing to join mercenary groups.

"Ok."

Lina nodded, indicating that she understood.

Regarding propaganda, He Ao trusted Lina a lot. After receiving a response, he looked at Fies and asked, "Commander, are the units equipped with Caesar and Abel mechs all grouped together?"

"Most of them were together, and I assembled them into an elite commando team."

"Fez replied."

"How is their individual combat capability?"

He Ao asked.

"The commando team is full of elite soldiers and respectable men,"

Fiss glanced at Heo and said slowly,

"When facing ordinary mercenaries with equal equipment, they can probably withstand an enemy force that is 1.5 to 2 times their size."

"If we use miniature mechs, we can basically defeat five to seven times more mercenaries with ordinary equipment in a short time. One high-energy battery can power a mech for five minutes. Currently, our logistical support is three high-energy batteries per mech."

"But it won't work against war weapons of the Seraph level or higher. The advantage of micro mechs is their agility, but their actual combat power is only close to that of ordinary D-level mechs. It would take five to six of them to barely deal with one Seraph-level mech, unless we also bring out the same large mechs to participate in the battle."

"Our mechs are better suited for combat in complex mountainous terrain and narrow urban areas."

He Ao pondered for a moment, then continued forward.

As they spoke, the group had already passed through the barbican and walked out of the outer city.

The cold wind of the desolate night brushed against their faces.

He Ao raised his head and looked at the endless camps outside the city.

Such a large force traversing the wilderness, whether by taking normal trade routes or pre-explored air routes, would certainly be discovered.

I couldn't stay up late last night, so the update will be at noon.

Normally, updates will still occur at midnight. I've been adjusting my sleep schedule recently, and once that's done, the update time should stabilize.

Finally, please vote for this super long chapter.

Chapter 699 The Primordial Fire (Long Chapter, Requesting Monthly Tickets)

"The Nolanca Mercenary Group has decided to conduct a short-term exercise in several cities surrounding Kaya City?"

In the spacious and bright office, as the sun rose from the horizon outside the window, the man in the officer's uniform looked down at his subordinate who came to report.

He raised his hand, signaling his subordinate to leave first, then turned on the computer on his desk and saw the Nolanca Group's exercise announcement through a link sent to him by his subordinate.

"This Nolanca Group..."

He leaned back in his office chair, rubbed his furrowed brow, and looked at the exercise map attached to the announcement.

Typically, major corporations have their own territories in the wilderness, and their affiliated mercenary groups move within these territories.

However, these corporations could not possibly divide up the entire wilderness, nor did they have the ability or the will to establish effective defenses and domination over a desolate wasteland.

Therefore, theoretically speaking, the major conglomerates are not capable of preventing mercenary groups from other conglomerates from entering their spheres of influence.

However, you can't stop people from coming in. You should at least give them a heads-up before they come in. Otherwise, it would be so awkward if one conglomerate was conducting confidential research and mercenaries from another conglomerate just barged in.

To avoid conflict and leaks, each mercenary group issues a notice when they might enter someone else's territory, informing other groups, "I'm coming in."

This is an unspoken rule among conglomerates, but it's unlikely to become an explicit rule, because the division of power among conglomerates is also a vague concept.

It's impossible for conglomerates to establish a clear agreement defining the division of power. First, such a division of territory could trigger a serious public relations crisis. Second, even large conglomerates can rise and fall suddenly, which is quite normal. Their sphere of influence is constantly changing and cannot be fixed.

At this point, it's perfectly normal for the Nolanca Group to issue a statement announcing its upcoming exercise to other major conglomerates.

But the problem lies in...

The man in the officer's uniform lowered his hand from his brow and dialed the internal phone line.

As the image of an elderly man looking at a stack of documents in front of a chessboard appeared on the screen, he spoke slowly.

"Sir, the Nolanca Group in Kaya City has announced that its mercenary group will be conducting a short-term exercise."

The old man paused in his work of flipping through the documents.

However, the man in the officer's uniform did not stop, but continued, "Kaya City and Saint John City are both cities in the southeast. Kaya City is northeast of Saint John City and is not far from us. We can reach it in less than two days by marching."

"A short distance east of Kaya City is the Storm Sea, and to the north is Dawn City, so the main direction of the Nolanca Mercenary Group's 'exercise' this time is the southwest."

"Are they going to pass through St. John's City?"

The old man put down the documents in his hand and asked in a low voice.

"They will pass through an area about 40 kilometers northeast of St. John's City, and are expected to arrive the day after tomorrow morning, but if they travel quickly, they might arrive by tomorrow evening,"

The man in the officer's uniform said, "At this distance, even with high walls and wilderness as obstacles, we can already..."

They had clearly received radio signals from some of the city's broadcast towers, and given the mercenary group's speed of movement, they could arrive in no more than an hour.

"However, if we keep the city gates closed, it will be impossible for them to break through them with the strength of a single mercenary group."

Just as he was speaking, a transparent screen in front of the chessboard lit up, displaying the exercise route announced by the Nolanca Group.

The old man shifted his gaze from the documents in his hands to the exercise routes. After a brief pause, he asked slowly, "Are we mainly focusing our defenses on the east gate now?"

"Yes."

The man in the officer's uniform nodded. "The city hall and most of the superhumans in St. John reside in the East City."

"Draw half of the people from the South City and the West City and send them to the North City Gate. Then, draw one-third of the people from the East City Gate, equipped with mechs and motor vehicles, and deploy them on the trade routes leading to the East and North Gates. If a large-scale army comes, regardless of whose army it is, harass them by flanking maneuvers."

The old man said slowly, "After arranging these things, send a small team to accompany the Nolanca Mercenary Group on their way to the exercise."

"Yes!"

The man in the officer's uniform nodded.

At this moment, the old man raised his head, looked at the city outside the window, and asked thoughtfully, "Is the South Gate the gate furthest from their exercise route?"

"Yes."

The man in the officer's uniform nodded. "Geographically speaking, coming from the northeast, there are only two relatively close trade routes, leading to the East Gate and the North Gate respectively."

"The southeast of St. John City is mountainous, with rugged roads and various strange beasts. If you want to go to the South Gate, you need to go around to the east first, then go further south and then north, which will stretch the distance to nearly 150 or 160 kilometers."

At this point, he looked up at the old man on the screen. "Sir, do you suspect they might have noticed our plans and deliberately took a longer route to attack?"

Upon hearing his question, the old man did not answer, but pondered for a moment before asking, "Who is the leader of the Nolanca Mercenary Group?"

"It's a veteran B-grade Fiss,"

The man in the officer's uniform replied, "This Fez soldier is known for his composure, excels in defensive warfare, and seems to be better suited for prolonged battles."

"Um,"

The old man nodded gently, then said slowly, "Transfer some more people from the west gate to the south gate. The south side doesn't need to be heavily defended; instead, set up sentries along the road and prepare some roadblocks in advance to create minor obstacles."

"If they choose to attack the south gate, their long march will inevitably leave them exhausted. We only need to receive advance warning and then send men to control the south gate, and they will be unable to breach it,"

The man in the officer's uniform pondered for a moment, trying to analyze the old man's arrangements. "The east and north gates are close to each other, so the enemy might launch a surprise attack. These two gates also have the most caravans in St. John City, and the largest number of city defense troops. If the city defense troops get out of control, they might actually be able to cooperate from the inside and outside to break into the city and ruin things."