IRCDM Chapter 86

Chapter 86: Order: Good luck, my Great General

Although the situation deviated slightly from what he had anticipated, Lu Lian still explained, “After thorough investigation by the military, it has been confirmed that Liang Huan is a fake identity fabricated by Lin Chen. Lin Chen’s own genes have also been identified as a human-heteromorph chimera, meaning he is very likely a pseudo-human who devoured human corpses. He is now extremely dangerous, and we ask for your cooperation with the military to apprehend him.”

A strange silence hung in the air for two seconds.

Li Yao, as if hearing the joke of the century, said in disbelief, “If he was a heteromorph, would he be injured like this by you?”

Liang Huan said, “Secretary Lu, could there be some misunderstanding here?”

Li Yao scoffed, “What misunderstanding could there be? We captured two heteromorph pseudo-humans, and he led people to attack the convoy. Now he wants to slander you as a heteromorph.”

The two sang a duet, acting as if he was being unreasonable. Lu Lian’s temples began to throb faintly. He said coldly, “Whether there’s a misunderstanding or not, we’ll know once we return to the military.”

“If Lin Chen has a problem, go arrest Lin Chen. Liang Huan is the deputy district chief of the Eastern Third District. If he’s going back, it’s to the administrative headquarters. What’s the meaning of going to the military with you?” Li Yao grabbed Liang Huan’s wrist and directly shielded him behind his back.

Standing behind Li Yao, Liang Huan casually placed his hand on Li Yao’s shoulder, a possessive and oppressive gesture. He raised his eyelids and gave Lu Lian a cold and provocative smile.

Lu Lian gritted his teeth. “Li Yao, he is very dangerous right now.”

Li Yao directly aimed his light cannon at him, smiling like a spring breeze. “Lu Lian, hasn’t it been a while since we sparred?”

Lu Lian’s expression changed, and he instinctively activated his personal protective light sphere. Before the light sphere closed, he fired at Li Yao and Liang Huan without hesitation. The surrounding soldiers quickly closed in, and a hunting net specifically designed for elite-level heteromorphs descended from the sky. The humming of the mental power shielding device startled a large flock of birds in the forest.

Smoke and dust settled, and the high-voltage current on the hunting net crackled, but it had not caught any prey.

“Officer, target spotted in the southeast direction!”

Two figures stood on the treetops, more than ten meters high. Li Yao aimed another shot at Lu Lian, looking at Liang Huan with some excitement. “Another flight?”

Liang Huan was happy to grant his wish. He put an arm around his waist, gathered his Qi, and flew with him to another, taller tree.

This time, the position wasn’t easy to stand on, and Li Yao was practically plastered against him. Unfortunately, the mercenary in his excited state didn’t realize anything was amiss and directly used him as a leverage point, aiming the light cannon at Lu Lian again.

Lu Lian sneered, “Still dare to say he’s not a heteromorph? Capture them alive!”

Liang Huan glanced at the lurking figures around them. Li Yao clicked on his virtual lens, and a humanoid figure radiating a pale blue light instantly appeared before them.

“Conservatively estimated, there are seventy people. Judging by their equipment, they’re from the special heteromorph combat division.” Li Yao was a little pained.

The members of this division were very skilled in individual combat. The vanguard team, formed ten years ago by Li Yao, was entirely composed of the best members selected from this division. Back then, the vanguard team only had one hundred and twenty-one members, but their combat power was terrifying. They charged ahead of the main force of one hundred thousand troops.

If Li Yao was still at his peak, he naturally wouldn’t be afraid of these juniors, but now he needed to recover for several days after piloting a mecha once. Trying to leave with everyone and the supplies was tricky.

“No wonder they chose to ambush us here.” Liang Huan quickly retreated with Li Yao, the continuous hunting nets and explosions sounding behind them. The powerful and rough mental power almost wove into a dense web, determined to trap them in this area.

Li Yao urgently equipped them both with shielding devices. He and Liang Huan temporarily hid under a bush-covered slope. Hearing this, Li Yao said, “You knew?”

“I was originally in this department.” Liang Huan skillfully took Li Yao’s wristband and opened the chip inside.

Li Yao asked in surprise, “Then why did you leave?”

Liang Huan said with a solemn expression, “The tasks are heavy, the death rate is high, there are too few promotion channels, and it’s not conducive to cultivating a loyal force. Staying for too long easily leads to excessive feelings of honor and morality.”

Li Yao: “…”

Liang Huan smiled slightly, “Actually, I don’t like fighting and killing.”

If he hadn’t seen him unilaterally slaughtering heteromorphs with his own eyes, Li Yao would almost have believed his lies.

The chip quickly located Lu Biao and the others. Liang Huan looked at Li Yao. “Can we enter the public channel without being scanned by the military?”

Li Yao pulled out two miniature earpieces from who-knows-where, held his chin, and inserted them into his ears. “Theoretically, yes.”

That meant there was no problem.

Liang Huan sent the holographic map to the external exploration team’s public channel. Li Yao fiddled with something, and a few minutes later, the two successfully connected to the exploration team’s channel.

Lu Biao was leading his team and supplies in a hasty retreat. Suddenly, a light screen automatically popped out of the chip on his wrist. In the lower-left corner of the screen, the icon symbolizing the holographic map was flashing.

At the rear of the convoy, Ai Li and Jiang Chuxia exchanged a look and opened the map. The entire landscape of the Western Heteromorph Forest instantly unfolded before them.

At the front of the convoy, Ning Qiang, who was leading the mercenaries to retreat, suddenly raised his hand and looked down at the communication request on the light screen.

Almost at the same time, the entire exploration team received Liang Huan’s public communication.

“Attention all members of the exploration team, the convoy is under attack by the military. The opponents are from the special heteromorph combat division, estimated to be around seventy people, with an unknown number of mecha and heavy equipment.”

As soon as these words were spoken, the entire exploration team fell silent.

Although they numbered close to three hundred, they had lost some people during the initial journey, and many others were injured. The number of people who could be considered combat-ready was at most around two hundred, and the number who could truly compete with the soldiers was only a few dozen mercenaries. Not to mention that their opponents were from the special operations division; pulling out anyone at random could wipe them out here.

“Don’t be discouraged. Although the opponents are strong, we have enough people.” Li Yao’s voice rang out in the channel. “We have a full three large mecha.”

“Brother Li, detected large mecha in the surrounding area, an unknown number of S-grade mecha…” Jiang Chuxia paused strangely, “…fifteen.”

“Haha, fifteen is nothing, a small problem.” Li Yao turned to look at Liang Huan and mouthed, “We’re done for.”

If it were just him and Liang Huan, even without the mecha, they would be confident that the two of them could retreat safely. But now, dragging three hundred people along, at least half of whom Li Yao saw as old, weak, sick, and disabled, in addition to several hundred million worth of heavy supplies, a successful breakout was almost impossible.

“Lu Lian’s target is us. The exploration team should abandon the supplies and scatter. The survival rate will increase.” Li Yao paused, frowning at the calculated survival rate.

“There’s a huge gap in individual combat strength. Once we scatter, we’ll completely lose our absolute advantage.” Liang Huan lowered his eyes, staring at the map in front of him, marking the positions of the two of them and outlining the locations of the mountains on both sides.

In front of so many people, Li Yao was embarrassed to even say the word “advantage,” shocked that Liang Huan could still add the word “absolute” in front of it.

On everyone’s light screens, the mountains on both sides were circled, and the front, middle, and rear sections of the convoy were marked with red, yellow, and green, respectively. The strange and bright fluorescent colors were clearly the unique personal taste of their deputy district chief.

“Although this canyon terrain is suitable for ambushes, it’s too narrow on both sides. Lu Lian’s forces can’t completely surround and annihilate us, so he chose to attack from the front.” Liang Huan paused. “And our biggest advantage is Lu Lian—he himself is not good at commanding combat. Even if you give him the special heteromorph combat division, he can’t bring out the full advantage of this team.”

Li Yao was glad that Lu Lian didn’t hear these words; otherwise, that petty and self-conscious guy would probably burst into tears on the spot and fight Liang Huan to the death.

“Ai Li, switch positions with Lu Biao. You lead the Black Market patrol team, with the Godseal mecha, responsible for protecting the supplies and the wounded and sick, and retreat to the canyon entrance.” Liang Huan circled a spot at the entrance of the canyon on the holographic map, the highest mountain peak on the left.

“Roger.” Ai Li quickly counted the personnel and vehicles and headed to the rear.

“Ning Qiang, Jiang Chuxia, you two each take thirty people with heavy equipment to the middle of the mountains. Lu Biao, take the rest of the people to the front for support. Whoever encounters the special ops team, don’t engage in a head-on collision. Cooperate with each other to buy time.” Liang Huan said, turning to look at Li Yao. “Li Yao, you take Black Emperor and Red Queen to take down their fifteen mecha. We’ll try our best to buy you time.”

Li Yao thought his ears had been deafened by the light cannon. He pointed at himself in disbelief. “Deputy District Chief Liang, would you like to hear what you’re saying?”

He, a critically ill patient who had just been rescued from the brink of death not long ago, with his mental power and physical strength levels stuck at a pathetic D-, needing two days of recovery after piloting a mecha, Liang Huan, that damned person, was actually telling him to take two A-grade mecha to take down fifteen S-grade mecha—even if Liang Huan loved him to death and the filter was set to eight hundred times, he couldn’t say such a crazy request.

Liang Huan closed the public microphone, raised his hand to hold his shoulders, and looked into his eyes sincerely and earnestly. “When you were in space, you could overturn a mecha unit all by yourself, and it wasn’t all because of your 3S+ physical and mental strength. I know you can do it. This isn’t a filter of my affection for you, but the most basic judgment ability of a commander.”

Li Yao was stunned for a moment. He shifted his gaze somewhat at a loss, and then uncontrollably shifted it back, meeting Liang Huan’s dark eyes. He seemed to really see through this young and handsome shell and see an emperor who made decisions decisively thousands of years ago. The other party calmly and indifferently issued orders, but intertwined within them were fervent love and undisguised appreciation, making it impossible to resist.

He raised his hand to cover Liang Huan’s eyes that made people willing to go through fire and water, and said fiercely, “Got it, don’t always say such cheesy things!”

Liang Huan grabbed his hand, smiling and kissing the majestic black dragon wrapped around his wrist. “Good luck, my Great General.”

Passion suddenly rushed to his head, and a bright red color spread from his ears all the way to his neck, but the expression on the Great General’s face was slightly fierce. He moved his lips with difficulty, and in the end, only cursed and spat out a dirty word, grabbing the wristband and rushing into the jungle.

Before leaving, probably out of spite, he didn’t forget to turn around and flip Liang Huan off.

Liang Huan smiled and sent him a small virtual firework.