SCOM - Chapter 102
Chapter 102
Having not rested for several consecutive days, Zuo Luohuan's body carried a rare warmth, giving Ji Yuezhi the illusion of being slightly burned. He didn't care about being embraced in front of everyone, and leaning on her shoulder, he responded earnestly, "I missed you too, very much."
Zuo Luohuan came to her senses, released Ji Yuezhi, and glanced at the fallen second-generation robot dogs covering the ground. "Let's go back."
This time, the main force defending the border against the enemy was the Exoskeleton Legion. The Western United Army contributed less, so they were subsequently responsible for most of the battlefield cleanup.
After returning to wash up, Zuo Luohuan collapsed and fell asleep. Although Ji Yuezhi was fatigued, he wasn't quite so exhausted. He sat beside her, watching quietly, and gently reached out to hold her fingers.
"Captain..." Jiang Hong came in and whispered, "The three of us won't be back tonight. We'll be patrolling outside the border wall."
Ji Yuezhi nodded to show he understood.
Jiang Hong came in to grab Yan Yan's and Ding Wuming's jackets, then quickly left.
Ji Yuezhi lowered his head, pressing his cheek against their clasped hands, and gazed silently at Zuo Luohuan. Her eyes and brows were heavy with exhaustion. According to An Yingjing, they had to be constantly vigilant for traitors mixed in with the crowds in the city, and Zuo Luohuan had barely closed her eyes.
"Jiejie..." Ji Yuezhi called her softly. Zuo Luohuan was deep in sleep. This was the first time since they confirmed their relationship that she hadn't heard him.
Usually, whenever she heard him call her that, her gaze would always turn fierce and sharp.
Thinking of Zuo Luohuan's gaze, a faint smile touched Ji Yuezhi's lips. He took off his jacket, carefully got into bed, and lay down beside her to rest with her.
Zuo Luohuan was truly exhausted. She slept straight through until the next afternoon. During that time, Ji Yuezhi woke up, leaned over to kiss her on the lips, and then gently withdrew his hand and left.
All the second-generation robot dogs outside the border wall were dismantled and handed over to the students from the weapons department. Everyone was busy.
When Zuo Luohuan got up and came out, she didn't see a single idle person.
"Luohuan!" In the distance, Jiang Hong ran towards her, opened his optical computer, and showed Zuo Luohuan a video. "A video Ren Pingbo released to the public half an hour ago... It's for you."
Zuo Luohuan expressionlessly clicked on the video. An incomparably handsome man smiled at the camera.
【This is a fourth-generation robot dog. Consider it a gift for the Federation's number one youth. What do you think? Isn't it interesting? Something so small can instantly slit a person's throat, the warm blood splashing on your face...】
Ren Pingbo rested his hands on the desk, a meaningful smile on his face: 【Zuo Luohuan, I look forward to your future. By the way, if you want your things back, find me.】
"What of yours fell into his hands?" Jiang Hong asked with a frown.
Zuo Luohuan's gaze fell on the red box on the right side of Ren Pingbo's desk. "Nothing."
Jiang Hong was stunned. "You really have something that Ren Pingbo took?"
"Perhaps you should focus on something else," Zuo Luohuan said expressionlessly. "Ren Pingbo is within the Federation, and... he was in the city a few days ago."
Jiang Hong: "What? How do you know? Luohuan, did you fight Ren Pingbo?"
On second thought, he felt that wasn't right. If Zuo Luohuan had encountered Ren Pingbo, Luo Shaoyuan and the others would have said so long ago.
"Has the video spread everywhere?" Zuo Luohuan asked Jiang Hong.
"Anyway, it has spread throughout the Federation's military districts and the military academies. The public hasn't received it; we intercepted it." Jiang Hong scratched his head. "What's going on? How did you get entangled with Ren Pingbo again?"
Zuo Luohuan watched the video again, the displeasure in her heart reaching its peak, but her face showed nothing. She only said, "Your Jiang family's information gathering needs to improve its standards a bit."
With that, she walked out.
Jiang Hong turned to look at Zuo Luohuan's back and asked Guan Xue beside him, "She's unhappy, isn't she? She must be unhappy."
Everyone in the military district had seen it, so naturally, Ji Yuezhi had also seen the video Ren Pingbo released. He was inevitably drawn to the last sentence Ren Pingbo said.
So when Zuo Luohuan walked over, for a fleeting moment, Ji Yuezhi wanted to ask what had fallen into Ren Pingbo's hands. In the end, however, he didn't ask, only saying, "Did you sleep well?"
Zuo Luohuan took his hand, their fingers intertwining. She laughed. "I slept very well. Last night... you slept next to me?"
Ji Yuezhi lowered his eyes without a word, thinking about how he had secretly kissed her cheek and lips.
"When I woke up, your scent was all over me," Zuo Luohuan said with a raised eyebrow.
Ji Yuezhi's eyes shot up as he denied it, "No." He had kept his pheromones well under control, afraid of disturbing her rest.
Zuo Luohuan lowered her head and kissed Ji Yuezhi's knuckles, going along with him. "Alright, no."
In reality, as long as she wanted to, she could smell even the faintest pheromones.
"Did you see the video Ren Pingbo sent?" Zuo Luohuan asked him.
Ji Yuezhi nodded. "I saw it."
"I suspect he was in the city before," Zuo Luohuan said. "He picked up something of mine."
Ji Yuezhi was taken aback. "He picked up something of yours?" What Ren Pingbo said in the video was actually true.
"Mhm." Zuo Luohuan didn't explain what it was. "I will find him."
There were many damaged sections of the outer border wall, and the Western United Army was preparing to start repairs. This time, the number of second-generation robot dogs was too large, so the Exoskeleton Legion and the Western United Army split the materials. The most ecstatic were the military academy students from the weapons department; they were all on the verge of going mad. They melted down these second-generation robot dogs and obtained an extremely large amount of Silver-Blue material.
"I feel like Ren Pingbo has gone crazy," Jiang Hong said while tapping on his optical computer.
"He only does things for the thrill," Zuo Luohuan said coolly, leaning back in her chair with one arm resting on the back. "This time, his purpose was likely twofold. One was to test the strength of the Exoskeleton Legion, and the other was to see blood, to see the panic of the city's populace."
"Psychopath," Luo Shaoyuan cursed, her face ugly. Just because this person was seeking excitement, countless people had died or been injured on the northern border, and orphans like them had lost their parents and families.
"The compression technology possessed by the fourth-generation robot dogs is unique to our Federation. A traitor in the Federation has passed secrets to the Gashiro people," Cha Lili analyzed.
Spies were unavoidable. The Federation was so large that some Gashiro people would always manage to infiltrate. What was more serious was when Federation citizens were turned and became lackeys of the Gashiro Empire.
Ji Yuezhi waited for them to finish before speaking. "It's highly likely that Ren Pingbo manufactured the fourth-generation robot dogs within the Federation. Even with compression, it wouldn't be easy to sneak in a thousand fourth-generation robot dogs from the outside. I'm more inclined to believe they were manufactured within the Federation and then transported to the city."
The Federation discovered spies every year, but they could never be completely eradicated. Some spies were buried too deep for too long, making them very difficult to uncover.
"Is there any news from the capital?" Zuo Luohuan asked Ji Yuezhi.
"They're not making a move." Ji Yuezhi raised his hand and moved the light screen to the center of the conference. "This is the video to be sent over. Take a look."
The six-minute video was a compilation of footage Ji Yuezhi had collected from the city. When integrated, it allowed one to observe the entire process of a fourth-generation robot dog, from landing and transforming, to leaping to a person's neck, and then swinging its blade to slit their throat.
Of course, it also included surveillance footage of various Exoskeleton Legion members fighting the fourth-generation robot dogs.
From Luo Shaoyuan and An Yingjing to Xiang Chengping and Zuo Luohuan, the differences in their strength could be seen in their on-the-spot reactions.
The first three were by no means slow; in fact, their reactions were very fast. They were just hindered by the crowd, which was precisely why more people died.
From the moment Zuo Luohuan saw the fourth-generation robot dog, her entire body entered a combat state. Every muscle, every movement was aimed at killing the new type of robot dog.
"Aside from the compression technology and another increase in speed, the fourth-generation robot dog doesn't have many innovations. It's just that because its size is so small and its targets were civilians, our hands were tied," Ji Yuezhi analyzed. "The weak point is in the head. A single shot from a light gun can make its chip explode completely. The difficulty lies in the timing of the shot."
"Not everyone is a sniper. It's hard to gauge the right moment to act. We can only act before they land or before they leap onto someone's neck," An Yingjing said.
Ji Yuezhi nodded. "There's one more thing. I don't think the Gashiro people will only use fourth-generation robot dogs to attack us in the future. I'm more inclined to believe that while attacking with other generations of robot dogs, they will use the fourth-generation for sneak attacks."
"I'm afraid the popularization of skeletal mechs needs to be accelerated," Cha Lili said. "When encountering fourth-generation robot dogs, one can at least withstand the first wave of damage."
Zuo Luohuan leaned back in her chair. There was probably one more thing Ji Yuezhi hadn't said. Given the size of the fourth-generation robot dogs, the compression technology was almost useless, at most serving to conceal their shape.
If the Gashiro people succeeded in compressing larger robot dogs in the future, it was highly likely they would attack from within the Federation, leading to the Federation's fall.
Ji Yuezhi sent the video to the Capital Military Committee and then dismissed the meeting.
He stood up and looked at Zuo Luohuan across from him. "It's time to go."
Zuo Luohuan smiled at him. "Don't feel pressured. We won't lose."
Ji Yuezhi reached out and took Zuo Luohuan's hand. He was not only worried about the Gashiro people attacking from within, but even more worried about her.
Ren Pingbo had his eyes on Zuo Luohuan, and this time he had even released a video, which was almost equivalent to a declaration of war.
He didn't want anything to happen to Zuo Luohuan.
"Alright." Zuo Luohuan's peripheral vision swept across the conference room. Everyone had left. She reached out and gently pressed the gland on the back of Ji Yuezhi's neck, leaned in to sniff, and suddenly asked, "Have your pheromones been leaking out recently?"
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