Chapter 102: Thunder Strike

"Strategic errors have nothing to do with the soldiers' combat effectiveness!" Lucas gave a flat reply, blocking Zhao Li's question right back.

Personal ability indeed could not influence the battle situation of millions or even tens of millions of people—a very interesting rationale, yet one that made Zhao Li extremely uncomfortable. Perhaps this was the difference between higher-ups and ordinary officers, but this was not Zhao Li's primary objective.

"General, then what about my operation?" Although the general had explained the status and justification of the fringe planet to Zhao Li, Zhao Li did not abandon his operational plan because of it. That soldier could not die in vain like that.

"The military will not support dark forces, but neither will we suppress them at this time." Lucas looked at Zhao Li, who wore a persistent expression. "I believe you already know the reason. Do you still want to continue?"

"Yes, General!" Zhao Li no longer cared how those people in other regions lived, but the debt of his subordinate's life had to be recovered.

"I won't interfere with your operation. As the local military commander, you have the right to formulate and execute the operational plan that is best for your soldiers and base!" Perhaps tacitly approving Zhao Li's persistence, General Lucas did not stop him. "But one thing: for the reasons both you and I understand now, you will not get any reinforcements from me!"

"Yes, General!" After General Lucas explained so much to him, Zhao Li knew that allowing him to attack without authorization was already the absolute limit. Wanting more conveniences was almost certainly impossible. Having this tacitly approving attitude was already the best outcome Zhao Li could hope for.

"Also." Just as Zhao Li was about to disconnect the communication, General Lucas called him back. After a moment of silence, he gave an earnest instruction: "Take care of your own safety!"

"Thank you, General!" Zhao Li was deeply grateful. General Lucas was undoubtedly executing the orders of the military high command and could not possibly change them for a mere lieutenant.

"If you need the weapons in that underground classified armory, you may use them, but you are not allowed to let the soldiers know." In the end, General Lucas still gave Zhao Li an insurance policy. If the weapons in the classified armory could be used, the safety factor would increase by at least half.

The considerations of the military higher-ups were probably based more on so-called strategic levels. But for a specific location like Star Gold Five, appropriate leniency was granted; at the very least, while there was no support, there was no restriction either.

With General Lucas's authorization, Zhao Li could finally unleash his efforts without worry. Of course, he understood the necessary limits: he must not disrupt the strategic balance of the entire region.

Relying solely on the base's fewer than two hundred soldiers, Zhao Li did not dare to make any guarantees. If time permitted and Sanders trained those soldiers for a while, there might have been an even greater chance.

"Demanding those people hand over the murderer will likely further infuriate them and lead to an assault on the military camp!" Christine calmly analyzed the possible consequences of the action Zhao Li was about to take.

"Before the operation is completed, no one is allowed to leave the military camp without orders!" Zhao Li issued the command. With the defensive gun turrets surrounding the camp, those guerrillas would never be foolish enough to charge in. Killing a soldier outside could still be pushed off as an individual act; if they dared to use heavy-duty weapons, it would truly be armed confrontation with the military, and there would never be a good outcome.

"Sanders, where is James? Take me to him!" Expecting military strike operations to come soon, finding any helper at this moment was better than none, even if their identities were extremely awkward.

Regarding this, Zhao Li also had quite a headache. When he first entered the prison, he always believed these people deserved to die; leaving aside anything else, the blood debts on each of their hands were enough to send them to hell. However, after getting along with them for a long time, he realized that those imprisoned in the Montgomery Planet Special Prison all had many other reasons, which left him unsure of what to do now.

Furthermore, the military camp was currently harboring an old man Kang who seemed to be eating idle rice yet possessed profound political skill. Since the man had openly stated he was turning himself in, Zhao Li truly had nothing to say.

Hand him over to superiors? Zhao Li was not a fool; there was definitely a reason why he was being hunted down. Handing him over had nothing to do with him, but his own life would probably come to an end around then. Why did Old Man Kang dare to come before him alone if not by calculating these things?

Forget it. Whoever it is, dragging James over to help with the action is what truly matters. Whether they deserve to die or not will be decided by a court; Zhao Li didn't want to care too much. Aside from anything else, the strength of these people was formidable and they were definitely good helpers.

"Here?" Zhao Li looked at Sanders beside him with a face full of doubt. According to the intelligence, this was the territory of the local militia in the Star Gold Five region. Once you entered this jungle not far, it should be the militia camp. James was here?

"Let's go!" Sanders took the lead and walked in.

Sanders wore a pair of wear-resistant military uniforms without any obvious insignia. Carrying a rifle, he looked very much like a local guerrilla. Yet Zhao Li wore a crisp military uniform with rank insignia displayed, young and extremely eye-catching. Soon, someone came out on the road to intercept and question them.

"We are here to find Black Jack. Please inform him," Sanders calmly stated his purpose to the two militia members who flashed out from behind a tree. "Just tell him the warden is here to visit!"

Both militia members were young. One had a cigarette dangling carelessly from his mouth and a rifle slung diagonally across his back. The other held a rifle with the muzzle pointed at the two of them, wearing an incredulous expression.

However, as soon as Sanders dropped Black Jack's name, both of them seemed a bit surprised. They looked at each other, and the one with the cigarette stepped forward, spat out the cigarette butt, stamped it out with his foot, and twisted it a few times. Only then did he size up Zhao Li and Sanders from top to bottom, dropped a "Wait here," and turned to plunge into the dense jungle.

Ignoring the other militia member who was still vigilantly aiming his weapon at the two of them, Zhao Li asked Sanders in a low voice, "Who is Black Jack?" In the military camp's intelligence reports, he had never heard of this person. How could he be among the militia? Judging by the reactions of the two militia members, Black Jack seemed capable of holding his ground. This could only indicate one thing: the military's intelligence was severely outdated.

"You'll know when you see him." Sanders didn't answer directly, leaving Zhao Li in major suspense.

"Black Jack wants to see you, but military people are not welcome!" After a long while, a rustling sound came from the dense jungle, and the militia member who had just returned appeared before the two of them again.

Sanders looked at Zhao Li. Zhao Li smiled slightly, reached up to pull off his rank insignia, and shrugged, "I have no other clothes to change into, sorry."

The other person looked at Zhao Li, seemingly very surprised that he would do such a thing, but surprise aside, his expression improved a lot. "Leave your weapons here and follow me!"

No one would bring firearms; they were all left behind. However, Zhao Li's stun baton was allowed to be brought along after a brief inquiry. Sanders shook his head continuously beside him—militias were militias, and in this regard, they could not compare to regular armies. What difference was there between letting Zhao Li carry a stun baton and letting him carry a weapon?

Following the militia member into the dense jungle, they walked along a winding path for nearly ten minutes before arriving at a small outpost with a dozen people. There were communication equipment here; presumably, the militia member who had just led the way had returned here to report.

Zhao Li was also constantly observing. The impression the militia gave him was roughly the same as what the intelligence described. Their weapons could only be considered conventional—neither advanced nor particularly backward. But this dense jungle was extremely troublesome; completely eradicating them would probably be very difficult. These local farmers might not be stronger than regular soldiers in overall quality, but in the dense jungle, they were no worse than well-trained combatants.

"So it's our little officer! I thought the old fogey had come!" A hearty laugh rang out. Zhao Li was already too familiar with this voice; it was James.

Hearing this voice, Zhao Li couldn't help frowning. An officer is an officer; why tack on the word "little"?

"Looks like you've got quite a life!" James walked out surrounded by a group of people, looking like he was the man in charge based on the retinue around him. "Not out looking for your assassin, how do you have time to come to my place?" A single sentence revealed that not only did James know about Zhao Li being assassinated, but he also knew about what had just happened. "Was it done by your people?"

"Oh? Here to exact justice?" James didn't care about Zhao Li at all, especially under these circumstances. His eyes casually glanced over, lingering on the stun baton at Zhao Li's waist, then turned to look at the guiding militia member with a flash of severe glare. "How did you allow him to carry a weapon? Go take your punishment yourself!" With that, he turned his head back to face Zhao Li.

"If it was done by your people, then I'm here to question them. If not, then that's a different matter." Zhao Li didn't speak in absolute terms; he couldn't fathom what James meant right now, nor did he know why James had become the Black Jack peasant emperor here.

"Rest assured, my people aren't that bored." James welcomed both of them into a wooden cabin. This cabin was built in the jungle, concealed by the canopy-blocking forest, making it impossible to discover from above that this was a camp.

"Why are you here?" Zhao Li couldn't help asking after sitting down.

"Nowhere else to go!" James casually replied. "As for you, what brings you to my place? And Sanders, why aren't you playing in your own territory instead of running over here? Trying to steal my turf?"

"Bored. Found something fun and rushed right over!" Sanders and James seemed to have a tacit understanding; neither of them said anything heartfelt.

"What fun thing? Don't tell me you're here dragging me to help you deal with the murderer you mentioned?" James didn't face Sanders, turning instead toward Zhao Li, as if Zhao Li was the one he found interesting.

"This fellow is conducting special training in his small military camp, whipping those military ruffians into shape. Just yesterday, he was playing survival training over at my place!" Sanders seemed to summarize all of Zhao Li's recent actions in a single sentence. "Also, guess who I found in the military camp?"

"Who?" James was curious. "Who could be worthy of your attention?"

"Old man Kang Hongyuan. Looks like he's doing pretty well in the military camp," Sanders replied quickly, sounding almost jubilant as he spoke.

"That old fogey? He's actually in Star Gold Five?" James also seemed somewhat surprised, stroking his chin in thought for a moment. "What's he doing coming to find me? Looking for helpers?"

Zhao Li nodded. This was his affair; Sanders was, after all, just a helper.

"Have you confirmed the targets?" James asked another question.

"If you can guarantee your people didn't make a move, then it definitely wasn't you." Zhao Li replied responsibly.

"What's in it for me?" James suddenly transformed into a shrewd businessman, starting to negotiate conditions with Zhao Li.

"What do you want?" Zhao Li didn't answer directly, throwing the question back. At the very least, he needed to know James's demands before he could bargain.

"The same treatment as Kang Hongyuan." James blurted it out quickly, as if within just a few sentences he had already determined his own demands, making people feel that following that fellow Kang Hongyuan meant one wouldn't suffer any losses. "Also, barring any special reasons, the military cannot arbitrarily strike my men!" James was formerly a military special forces instructor, so naturally, he knew the weight of the military. Tolerating them acting up here didn't mean there was no way to sanction them; it was just that the military couldn't be bothered to act.

"I can only restrain my soldiers. If the higher-ups want to take action, I can't stop them!" Zhao Li shook his head. He couldn't agree to conditions that he had no power to control.

"You're the boss here. I only need your promise. The higher-ups won't spend mental energy on a few hundred militia members." James curled his lip, seemingly thoroughly understanding the considerations of the military higher-ups.

"Deal!" Zhao Li extended his right hand. James looked at it, reached out to shake it, and Sanders joined in, shaking it as well. "Count me in!"

"How do you plan to do this?" The three looked at each other, laughed heartily for a moment, and then James brought up the specific question.

Zhao Li had originally thought there was only James, but now it seemed not to be the case. Adding these militia members, the chances of success seemed even greater. "Do you have any reliable forces left here?"

"These people won't be of any use." James watched Zhao Li's gaze wandering around the outer camp and immediately knew what he was plotting. "Besides, the target is too big, and it will saddle you with the crime of colluding with bandits. I still have a secretly trained elite squad of twenty people. I'll bring them along when the time comes!"

"Do you have intelligence on other factions?" This was a surprise; the personnel trained by James might not be bad. Amidst his joy, Zhao Li did not forget the accuracy of the intelligence. From the fact that James was here and had become the leader of the militia, it was clear that the military's intelligence was simply too poor—they didn't necessarily know as much as these natives.

"Of course I do. Otherwise, how could I gain a foothold here!" James smiled. From his gaze, Zhao Li also saw a trace of excited anticipation.

Thunderous Strike 102

Wen Tianming, the leader of the Black Prison Mercenaries, never expected that after he instructed his urban liaison to ruthlessly mock the military's incompetence, it would attract such a terrifying strike.

After the provocative military notice was broadcast across the entire city, the informants planted in the city by various guerrilla forces quickly forwarded this data to their respective leaders.

Without exception, after reading this, everyone was engulfed in a frenzy of surprise and anger. In Star Gold Five—or rather, the military forces of the military on the fringe planets—had always been strictly limited by local laws to a small scope. Moreover, the people sent over were basically those who had offended others or committed faults; everyone walked on thin ice and was extremely cautious, afraid of offending the local underground armed forces.

If anything wasn't too excessive, those garrison troops would just muddle through. Even when these guerrilla forces went over to provoke them for no reason, those military ruffians would carefully accompany them with smiles and then let them do as they pleased. This time, this young officer was actually making such a big fuss, not only demanding the perpetrators be handed over, but also threatening what would happen if they weren't delivered by a deadline?

What kind of place was this? Star Gold Five! This was the domain of drug lords; did this fellow not know how to spell the word "death"? How many years had it been since such a thing happened? It seemed that if they didn't give those soldiers a lesson, they wouldn't know who called the shots around here!

Except for the militia controlled by James, all the other factions gave their replies at the very first moment. On this point, these arrogant-accustomed fellows seemed to have a tacit understanding. Each faction claimed that those people were their subordinates and took responsibility for those matters. In the end, all of them coincidentally and arrogantly warned that they would launch large-scale retaliations against the local garrison in the near future—simply because of Zhao Li's provocative words.

As long as someone admitted it, Zhao Li didn't care which faction had done it; all he wanted was a public justification. As for evidence, those fellows had all admitted it on screens in front of countless people—did he need to look any further?

The intelligence on the local factions obtained from James and that preserved by the military had a difference as vast as heaven and earth. After reading it, Zhao Li wished he could throw the person in charge of local intelligence collection straight into prison. Was what they collected even intelligence? How many years old was it? It was hardly even as timely as city news.

The current major factions—Tiger Army, Black Prison, and Black Dragon Society—were basically large organizations in name only. Under each organization, there were many guerrilla forces scattered across various regions, controlling local drug planting and production. In reality, the headquarters of these organizations didn't have many personnel, nor were they concentrated. After all, controlling tens of thousands of square kilometers of land with one or two thousand people was quite difficult.

Yet this also provided Zhao Li with a wonderful opportunity. Among the three factions, Black Prison was the weakest, with just over two hundred people at its headquarters, and it wasn't a heavily fortified stronghold like a military camp; instead, it was a mobile camp. Overall, its defense was more than a tier lower than the military camp's. Moreover, through James's intelligence, Zhao Li could basically conclude that those people were indeed acting on behalf of Black Prison, whose territory wasn't very far from the military camp.

Zhao Li did not dispatch his entire army. He only brought the elite squad along with Li Mengdie, as Christine was worried and followed along as well. James and Sanders acted as reinforcements, alongside twenty of James's subordinates.

The warship was piloted by James. Compared to the pilot in the military camp, his piloting skills were vastly superior. Aside from retaining the seats for personnel, all the weapons on the warship were replaced with machine cannons, and a large batch of artillery shells was loaded up. Being hit by such machine cannons, even a Level 8 expert would suffer terribly and could never emerge unscathed.

Having arranged all this, on the eve of departure, Zhao Li still pulled James and Sanders aside into a quiet corner: "James, Sanders, can I trust you?"

Facing Zhao Li's exceptionally serious question, both of them cast aside their previous frivolous demeanor. They looked at each other before James spoke: "Well, can we?"

Trust was mutual, just like the action and reaction forces in physics. Zhao Li reviewed the days he had spent getting along with these two former prisoners like a movie playing in his mind: "Since the prison no longer exists, you have left that place, and the military temporarily has no records of you, strictly speaking, you are free men. I suppose that if you don't commit past mistakes again and pose no threat to society, I wouldn't mind having two more friends."

Zhao Li knew from Ban Yunchan that everyone here harbored some secrets. Their crimes might not have truly warranted death, or perhaps the military wanted to know their secrets, and those who raided the prison probably did so for those reasons. Zhao Li had considered this problem since taking in Old Man Kang: when encountering other prisoners, should he capture them or not?

The military no longer had records; aside from Old Man Kang, practically none of the others existed. The identities of the prison raiders remained unknown, and their motivations unclear. Even if Zhao Li captured them, it would bring him no benefit other than putting himself in the spotlight. Rather than antagonizing them, it was better to temporarily unite these forces.

"I don't have many friends here; count me in as barely one!" Sanders leaned against the wall, smiled at Zhao Li, and said nothing more.

"Perhaps, with your status, we can do some other business!" James nodded as well, though what he said left Zhao Li a bit perplexed. That didn't matter; what mattered was that they were now in the same boat as Zhao Li.

Before setting off, Zhao Li hesitated for a long time before pulling Li Mengdie out to retrieve several weapons from the classified armory: two hand-held laser kinetic cannons and one ship-mounted particle assault weapon.

Even Sanders, the weapons and firearms expert, stared wide-eyed with disbelief upon seeing these three weapons.

"How is this possible?" The first to cry out was Sanders. "How could such things exist in a place like this?"

"What's so strange about it? When your soldiers were undergoing evaluations here, weren't they all resupplying ammunition from the local military camp?" James nearby showed no surprise, casually expressing disdain for Sanders.

"But those were only conventional weapons!" Sanders muttered a small grievance, reached out, and cautiously stroked the barrel of the hand-held laser kinetic cannon with exclamations of praise. The laser cannon was made quite compactly, roughly equivalent in size and weight to a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher. For someone of Sanders's physical strength, it was a handy weapon.

"With such good things, if everyone had one, sweeping away those factions today wouldn't be much of a problem!" Seeing Zhao Li motioning for him to pick up the laser cannon, Sanders picked it up with a mixture of shock and delight, awkwardly fiddling with it for a moment. True to his reputation as a firearms expert, he quickly grasped the principle and usage method.

"Easier said than done. If this new-type energy weapon could be mass-produced and deployed, the rebels would have been pacified long ago. The military folks aren't fools!" James seemed to know more about this, his words revealing the tone of an insider. Zhao Li noted it mentally; it seemed he could find an opportunity later to chat with James about this aspect.

"Christine, follow Sanders and learn how to use this." Zhao Li motioned to Christine, then turned to James: "Mount this onto the warship!"

Relatively speaking, ship-mounted weapons were much simpler—standard interfaces meant as long as they were plugged in, there was no need to specially learn how to control them; once installed, corresponding control interfaces would naturally appear.

Whether or not Zhao Li could be considered a student of Sanders and James, their communication methods were basically identical. The elite squad's hand signals were identical to those used by James's men, which was great since it saved trouble in communication.

Piloted by James, the warship quietly landed a few kilometers away from the Black Prison Mercenaries' headquarters, dropping off all the combat personnel. Immediately afterward, the warship took off once more. Next, the warship would shoulder the primary strike force. With James at the helm, equipped with the particle assault weapon, the small warship was practically a terrifying ground-attack fortress.

"Sanders, Christine, you must closely monitor their anti-air weapons. Once spotted, destroy them immediately!" Being just a small warship, it couldn't compare to an attack ship. James carefully instructed the two holding laser cannons, as this was the key to the operation's success.

The attack was still chosen to take place at night, specifically in the second half of the night when ordinary people were most exhausted. Although everyone might not need much sleep due to practicing their respective cultivation techniques, people could not maintain vigilance every second; the time of relaxation was the best moment for an attack.

The lightning strike arrived at this very moment. The two hand-held laser cannons aimed first at two anti-air gun turrets. Red light flashed without any sound or recoil, but the two turrets instantly turned into two balls of exploding flames the moment the two pulled the triggers.

Immediately following that, the strike from the sky descended in succession. Thirty-millimeter caliber machine cannon shells blanketed the entire camp like a torrential storm. The terrifying roar of artillery made those awakened by the explosion wish they could treat the hellish scene before them as a nightmare and immediately wake up.

James truly lived up to his title as a flight expert, and his piloting finally made Zhao Li understand why this fellow had been able to slaughter over eleven hundred people while piloting a warship that retained only a fraction of its ammunition. This fellow piloted the warship almost with the precision of a well-trained sniper controlling his sniper rifle—incredibly accurate.

The camp, measuring roughly a kilometer in radius, had practically every gathering place bombarded by the fierce machine cannon fire. Places resembling dormitories and lounges were spared not even a bit. It was as if within a matter of seconds, the entire camp had been plowed through by machine cannon shells.

Sanders and Christine didn't rest either. Wherever large-caliber weapons were installed, they visited them all. This type of small hand-held laser cannon, boasting the ability to shoot down a small warship with a single shot, was truly living up to its reputation.

What surprised Christine even more was that when she had fired only three times, Sanders had calmly fired at least eight, or even more, rounds without a sound. Although Christine was not a combatant at the Genius Academy, placed in the military, she would still be considered above average in overall strength evaluation. Yet compared to Sanders's weapon control, she lagged behind by more than a level.

Where on earth did Zhao Li find these two people? Not just Sanders; the level of piloting displayed by that fellow James surpassed anyone Christine had ever seen. Although the Genius Academy primarily focused on personal cultivation, such basic military qualities were also extremely important. When comparing single categories, even the instructors at the Genius Academy wouldn't dare claim they could match these two fellows.

And then there was that old man. Normally he didn't seem like much, but whenever a major event occurred, his insights were by no means inferior to those of an outstanding politician. Supposedly, the environments where Zhao Li could interact with outsiders were confined to the prison. However, the prison had vanished, and all those in the know had disappeared—so these people?

Christine preferred not to think any further. In that brief moment of distraction, the camp in the darkness had transformed into a hellish landscape.

The thirty-millimeter machine cannon shells were absolute grim reapers when landing on human bodies. Apart from a few fellows with relatively high cultivation who could use footwork to dodge quickly, anyone grazed by the shells instantly turned into a mass of minced meat. Through the night-vision goggles, clusters of bursting red light spots revealed not just bomb shrapnel, but even more of the flesh and blood exploding from human bodies.

The two individuals from the Genius Academy—Christine and Li Mengdie—were witnessing such a cruel scene for the very first time. Li Mengdie was slightly better off, having participated in the previous operation and personally gunned down a few people, whereas Christine had at most witnessed the scenario of Zhao Li being assassinated. For a moment, this shocking scene instantly stunned her, and her hands involuntarily stopped moving.

"Don't lose focus! Continue the attack!" Sanders shouted aloud over the comms, having noticed the weakening firepower of his own side from not far away.

The timely reminder snapped Christine back to the current situation. The laser cannon in her hands began to roar once more, sweeping across patches of suspicious areas.

Scattered counterattacks finally began to emerge from within the camp, but against the fierce machine cannon fire and small laser cannons raining down from above, these resistances were utterly feeble. The moment gunfire erupted, within less than two seconds, a cannon shell would blast over, impossible even to block.

The elite squad also began firing at the occasional figures popping up within the camp. The dense firepower left the enemy with no way to lift their heads. Especially since these fellows belonged to the local underground faction and hadn't spared bullying them in the past, venting their anger now made it all the more fatal.

After ten consecutive minutes of dense firepower saturation coverage, not a single intact building remained in the camp, not a single large-caliber weapon capable of normal use survived, and even under repeated scans by night-vision goggles, not a single standing figure could be seen.