Night's Nomenclature
Chapter 537: Multitasking

Li Cheng continued, "We all have locator chips and micro-bombs on our necks. Shendai can kill us at any time."

But Qing Chen didn't appreciate it. He said it as if he were talking about what to have for lunch, "I've already destroyed A02 Base's independent military system. They can't detonate the bombs on your necks. And I'm not consulting you; I'm ordering you to continue fighting with me as a Secretariat national policy advisor and an independent director of the Li Clan Conglomerate."

Independent director was the position Li Xiurui gave Qing Chen so he could sit at the negotiating table.

Secretariat national policy advisor was the position Li Yunshou, the current head of the family, gave Qing Chen after he arrived in City 10 to make it easier for him to control the Li Clan intelligence personnel within the PCA.

As soon as he said this, Old Li didn't know what came over him. He suddenly stood up straight like a spear, "Li Cheng, First Army General Staff Third Office, Lieutenant, will continue to fight!"

...

...

If the Li Clan's troops marching across the snowfield were like a pack of wolves, then the Qing Family was even more barbaric and brutal.

More than twenty Gene Soldiers were always at the forefront.

Initially, Shendai mainly targeted Qing Mu and the entire Qing Family's northern intelligence system, so the people they captured were of higher rank.

Originally, there were more than 300 Gene Soldiers among those captured, but now only over twenty remained after being tortured.

Qing Ling, the middle-aged leader, walked at the front, like the indestructible bow of a nuclear-powered icebreaker.

Qing Ling cleared the snow as he walked, saying, "I've observed Qing Chen's state and am certain that someone will come to save him. He's confident. But as you know, in this damned place, no one can take all 900 of us away. Even if the Qing Family and Shendai launch an all-out war, it won't reach here in three or five years."

So, from the beginning, Qing Ling hadn't hoped anyone could take him away.

When he saw Qing Chen stop building the stone wall, he realized what he should do—don't let Qing Chen make the difficult choice of whether or not to take them away.

So.

Don't leave the most difficult choices to others; leave them for yourself.

If you have no hope, leave hope for others.

I'll go to the most dangerous place.

I'll take on the most difficult tasks.

As long as we can win in the end, I can dedicate everything to tomorrow.

This is what Qing Family soldiers uphold.

In fact, there were differences within the Qing Family troops. Some armies controlled by the family factions had already been corrupted by power and money.

For example, the troops led by Qing Huai, the Shadow Candidate of the Fourth Branch, were like that.

Other Qing Family factions each had their own armies.

Only this branch, passed down through generations in the Shadow, still adhered to some of the original things.

Qing Chen didn't know why the old man on the top of the Ginkgo Garden and the Shadow wanted to entrust the hearts of the Qing Family intelligence organization and the Shadow's direct line troops to him.

Where this troop is, that's where the Qing Family is.

Apart from this, everything else can be overturned and restarted. The Qing Family never lacked the determination to start over.

At this time, Qing Ling whispered, "That kid Li Cheng ran pretty fast. I was planning to have the Li Clan people shoulder the burden with us, but it seems that won't work now."

He suddenly stopped, raised his right hand high, clenching it into a fist, "This is it, set up defenses!"

This was a narrow mountain pass where the power of automatic weapons was minimal.

Of course, even this place with minimal power was enough for Shendai to kill them all here.

Qing Ling loudly issued orders, "The old, weak, sick, and disabled should voluntarily step out. You will feign defense at this mountain pass and draw fire. Any questions?"

Of the 927 people, 421 voluntarily came before Qing Ling. They were either old, had frostbitten knees, or were unable to participate in frontal combat.

"No questions!" They responded loudly.

Qing Ling then said to the others, "The remaining 27 Gene Soldiers and those who can fight, follow me to take a detour and ambush on the flank. Once the fighting begins, we will charge to their rear from the flank and kill as many as we can. Don't let the brothers at the mountain pass die in vain! Understand?"

"Understood!"

This was a crude strategy—using the lives of half the people to exchange for a chance to charge.

Otherwise, a group of unarmed people would be unable to break through the enemy's firepower blockade.

But neither those who were going to die nor those who were charging said anything because everyone understood that this wasn't about abandoning some and saving others.

Everyone would die.

Qing Ling lifted the stone in his hand and said self-deprecatingly, "This is the poorest battle I've ever fought."

Someone beside him asked, "Sir, Shendai is armed to the teeth, and they may even have taken Level 1 Gene Medicine. Even if we charge out, we'll probably only kill five or six. The casualty ratio is too high."

Qing Ling glanced at him, "Then we don't fight? Those coming to rescue Qing Chen will also have to deal with these Shendai bastards. If we kill five or six, won't they kill five or six fewer?"

Soon, the more than 400 old, weak, sick, and disabled at the mountain pass set up makeshift defenses and picked up thousands of handy stones.

The group hid behind the trenches, jokingly teasing each other. In this day and age, they were fighting with stones.

Just as they were joking, Shendai's troops arrived—a total of 1600 Shendai soldiers, divided into two groups.

One group went to pursue the Li Clan, and the other came to pursue the Qing Family.

Qing Ling quietly crawled in the snow, revealing only half his head to observe.

But the next second, he froze. He saw someone in the Shendai troops holding a black crystal screen.

Qing Ling recognized this thing—it was a positioning system.

Their neck locators and micro-bombs had exposed them all on this screen.

In the past, this thing was used after the winter hunt. Shendai used this positioning to catch all the prisoners hiding in the snowfield.

In the early stages of the winter hunt, this wouldn't make the hunt easier.

Qing Ling breathed heavily. He whispered, "I understand. This time, Shendai isn't here for a winter hunt; they really want to kill us all… It's over. They know we're ambushing here."

"What do we do?"

Qing Ling was silent for a moment, then smiled bitterly, "What else can we do?"

He composed himself, then climbed out of the snow and said, "Charge!"

He rushed out with the stone in his hand, followed by hundreds of others.

Actually, Qing Ling didn't feel at all heroic. It was really pathetic to be a martyr without any decent weapons. But it wasn't shameful.

Qing Ling roared, "Success doesn't have to be mine! Charge!"

But at that moment, Qing Ling suddenly heard someone shouting charge from the 3 o'clock direction!

"Kill!" Someone roared, getting closer and closer!

Qing Ling turned to look and saw Old Li, wielding an automatic rifle, awkwardly wearing Shendai's winter clothes, charging toward the Shendai troops.

The more than 800 Li Clan members roared as they charged out. Old Li shouted, "Qing Ling, I'm here to save you!"

The more than 800 people formed a battle formation, surging forward like a tide, forming an inspiring torrent of steel.

A torrent of fury!

The Shendai troops were preparing to ambush Qing Ling and his men, but unexpectedly, so many people charged from another direction, and they were armed.

They glanced at the tattered uniforms on Old Li and his men and immediately realized that the other troop had already suffered a defeat; those were Shendai uniforms!

On Old Li's side, as they charged, they passed on orders, "Don't waste ammunition. Open fire when you're within range!"

He felt as if he had become twenty years younger. After nineteen years of winter, his life had once again ushered in a long-lost summer!

A blooming summer!

At that moment, Qing Chen controlled Shendai Yunzhi, Takahashi Senchi, and three people, each with an automatic rifle.

The three fired rhythmically, advancing step by step.

The effective range of an automatic rifle is 250 meters. Beyond that distance, it's difficult to hit anyone; it's all luck.

But Qing Chen, from a distance of 600 meters, had already manipulated Shendai Yunzhi and Takahashi Senchi to pull the trigger.

Old Li was completely stunned after just one glance, because every time the three pulled the trigger, a soldier on the opposite side fell.

It was as if the three of them had absolute marksmanship!

Not only were they killing enemies, but they were also shooting down high-speed drones in the sky.

Qing Chen didn't pay attention to the others' gazes. His brain was rapidly calculating.

Wind speed, humidity, angle—data gathered in his mind, forming answers.

Each calculated answer was a life.

He was calculating three trajectories simultaneously!

This was why he had been practicing the third-order Rubik's Cube with both hands after returning—as the number of Marionettes he could control increased, he had to learn multitasking!

Qing Chen never did anything useless. Everything he did had an answer.

This time, he wanted to force himself to achieve absolute marksmanship, no matter how many people he controlled.

He had been waiting for this battle for too long.

Li Cheng, Qing Ling, and Qing Mu had been waiting for too long.

At this time, the Shendai officer on the opposite side realized something was wrong and no longer had the mood to hunt. He hurriedly pressed the detonation button on the crystal board.

But after pressing it, the crystal board didn't show a successful detonation message, but a line of white text: Daybreak Big Rich Man greets everyone.

Yi did more than that. When Qing Chen was fighting another troop earlier, that troop tried countless times to call for reinforcements, but nothing went through.

Yi promised Ren Xiaosu that she wouldn't kill anyone, but what she's doing now isn't killing…

That's right, she wasn't killing.

She had always envied Qing Chen when he said, "Daybreak greets everyone." It was so cool. Now, she finally got to do it too!

Happy!

…