Chapter 112: The Truth Behind the Undead (Part Two)

"I told you to go wild, I told you to act on your own, I told you to show off!" In Guo Lang's room, Ye Zhiqiu and the others stared blankly as Guo Lang grabbed Alice and gave her a sound spanking. Everyone wore a strange expression.

Laura, feeling heartache, finally couldn't help but step forward to shield Alice: "You only know how to hit a child. Didn't she take those risks for your sake?"

Alice looked at Laura with a pitiful expression, clearly seeking comfort, which only made Laura feel worse. Guo Lang curled his lip: "You only know how to spoil her!"

"Honestly, this guy isn't without his merits..." Jiang Liuying swallowed hard and said, "At least as a father, he has quite a bit of authority!"

"Yeah... yeah, yeah!" Everyone, including Sister Cang, nodded in rare, unanimous agreement.

"I say..." Guo Lang looked at the group, his face cold. "When someone is handling family matters, can't you onlookers steer clear? Where is your basic etiquette?"

"Well... we did want to avoid it at first." Jiang Liuying rubbed her hands, looking a bit embarrassed. "But this scene is quite rare, so we were just... we were just a bit curious!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah!" For the first time, everyone was surprisingly in sync regarding their interpretation of this guy!

Guo Lang clutched his head, feeling that bringing Jiang Liuying into the team was a mistake; the group's atmosphere had become increasingly ridiculous.

At this moment, Brother Xie stepped forward, looking serious: "I don't think there's anything wrong with this. Alice is an assassin; such a profession is inherently filled with gambling and risk-taking. Restricting her too much will only waste her exceptional talent. Besides... domestic violence is bad!"

"Yeah!" Brother Xie's words were filled with positivity, and the group looked at Guo Lang with solemn expressions, straightening their backs immediately.

Guo Lang rolled his eyes: "It's easy for you to talk when you're not the one being a father!"

"Is your back hurting already?" Jiang Liuying gave him a look of disdain. "It seems the Night Elf bloodline isn't all that great. Your vital capabilities haven't improved. When I look for a man in the future, it’ll definitely be a Beastkin!"

Everyone: "..."

"Alright, let's talk business..." Xie Lin found a chair, sat down, and looked at Guo Lang, naturally shifting the topic. "What now? All military regions are OVER!"

Guo Lang secretly admired this guy's ability to naturally shift the topic in any situation. He sighed and returned to the main point: "What else can we do? We have to move the decapitation plan forward. This guy’s methods still exceed my imagination!"

"My eyes have truly been opened, too!" Ye Zhiqiu rubbed his bald head. "I think of my hundred or so pathetic believers in that plane; they’d been developing for a year and were still just a small tribe. Look at this guy—how long has it been? The entire plane is almost conquered. That's pretty badass. In the future, if we arrive at a new plane and there are a lot of people, I’m definitely taking out that undead first!"

The others nodded in agreement. In fact, it was the same in their past lives; whenever they reached a new plane, especially those low-magic planes with high technology, they would always prioritize focusing fire on the undead before doing anything else. If one were to blame anything, it was that the undead were too broken in the early stages, making them easy targets for jealousy.

Therefore, for newcomers, being undead wasn't actually that easy.

"Moving the decapitation action forward now carries huge risks!" Xie Lin shook his head. "For this operation, we wanted to use the military regions to test the enemy's strength, but we didn't find out anything, and three main bases were GGed. How were those commanders taken out? How were the passwords leaked? What methods did the enemy use? We know nothing. Moreover, Alice, our trump card, is exposed. I believe the enemy will definitely tighten their defenses after learning about her. And frankly, in terms of assassination, no one here is more skilled than her."

"Didn't Alice say it?" Jiang Liuying asked, puzzled. "There's a type of monster that can transform into other humanoids. Guo Lang mentioned it earlier—what was it, a Skinner?"

"Not quite!" Xie Lin shook his head. "If the passwords had been obtained early on, like at the Eastern Base, and the commander had been replaced long ago, they wouldn't have needed the subsequent show of force. I suspect they only acquired those passwords when the defense missile systems were activated." He paused. "Which means, without you knowing, alien creatures infiltrated the control rooms of the other two bases, seized the passwords, and slipped away right under your noses!"

Jiang Liuying lowered her head, embarrassed: "Well... I didn't expect that. And Guo Lang had already given the order to retreat, and I'm not like Alice, so naturally, I ran away first."

Ye Zhiqiu was stunned: "Uh, I... I completely didn't think of that. Anyway, when Guo Lang said missiles were coming and told me to run, I ran!"

"I don't mean to blame you..." Xie Lin shook his head. "My point is, we don't know the enemy's background. Besides the one Alice killed and the one that escaped, how many more alien creatures are there? What kind of abilities do they have? How strong are they? We have no idea!"

"Can't we just fight them and find out?" Ye Zhiqiu's thinking was simple and crude. "And the guy Alice killed in seconds couldn't have been that strong, right?"

"You can't say that..." Guo Lang shook his head in opposition. "First, the combat power gap between mutated creatures of the same level is huge. The one Alice killed was clearly functional, not combat-oriented. Combat-type alien creatures are very strong. Second, Alice is an assassin. For her, even against an opponent of similar strength, a battle from start to finish might only last a few seconds. So you can't calculate the enemy's combat power that way!"

"Ah!" Ye Zhiqiu looked excited upon hearing this. "That means they’ll be very strong then!"

The others' faces darkened, realizing it was difficult to communicate with this big guy. He wasn't meant for discussing strategy; they just needed to call him when it was time to fight. They could consider giving him a sweet potato and telling him to go play somewhere else.

"Brother Xie, what do you think we should do?" Guo Lang looked at Xie Lin very earnestly. There was a significant reason he invited Xie Lin to join the team. Xie Lin's combat power ranking in his past life wasn't very high; although he was an Epic, he wasn't known for his fighting ability. There was a huge gap between him and Jiang Liuying or Cang Mingyue. He could have chosen other teammates, but the main reason he prioritized bringing him was his planning ability. As a Water Warlock, Xie Lin had always been famous for his coordination skills—General Chief of Staff for the Federation's Central Asian region, one of the top three intellects among humans. That was the reason Guo Lang invited him!

"I think... we need others to test the waters!" Xie Lin smiled.

"Test the waters? Who else is there to test them?" Jiang Liuying tilted her head. "Are you counting on those small military bases? Or are you going to cross the ocean to find the Red Eagle Nation's army?"

"No..." Xie Lin shook his head. "Although the three major military regions suffered missile devastation, it's impossible for everyone to have died. It wasn't a nuclear bomb. Without radiation damage, mere explosive power couldn't have wiped them out completely. I estimate at least a quarter are still alive!"

"You want to send them? Would they be willing?" Guo Lang asked.

"They will!" Xie Lin smiled. "They are soldiers. Although not all of them will go, at least a portion will. Among soldiers, there is never a lack of people loyal to their country and their people. For the killers who destroyed their country and their families, they hate them more than anyone. Once they know the truth, once they know this was man-made, and that the one inside New Newton is the mastermind, this hatred can make many people willing to pay the price of their lives to make the enemy pay!"

"But the top brass found out about this a few days ago, and I didn't see them having much of a reaction!" Ye Zhiqiu asked curiously.

Xie Lin smiled at this: "High-ranking military officials in peacetime are politicians, not soldiers!"

"Even so, you're openly sending them to their deaths. Others aren't stupid; wouldn't they see that? It’ll make people think we have ulterior motives." Guo Lang frowned.

"No need for ulterior motives..." Xie Lin shook his head. "We tell them squarely that this is a suicide mission. We tell them that if they go, it's a mission of certain death. We make it clear that they are fighting only to provide us with data."

"Are you sure saying that..." Everyone looked at Xie Lin, "won't get us killed by them?"

"They might be a bit agitated at first..." Xie Lin habitually rubbed his chin. "But they will compromise later, because they will know that we are their only hope for revenge, and the only hope for rebuilding their homes. As long as we make them believe these two points—even if we only make them believe that we have the possibility—they will compromise. They will hand over their lives!"

Xie Lin's words were gentle, but Guo Lang felt a bone-chilling cold. He could see that the man's calm expression wasn't a facade; it was genuine. To be so indifferent to life to this degree—no wonder he ended up so successful later on. Perhaps such a person was better suited to survive in that era of survival of the fittest?

Guo Lang glanced at the dagger at his waist, which reflected his silhouette. Others couldn't see this dagger; only he and the Shadow-speaker could. He originally no longer had a shadow, so Guo Lang hadn't looked in a mirror since, but on this dagger, he had a reflection. Yet, eerily, the shadow was no longer mimicking him; it was watching Xie Lin with an appreciative expression, as if it had found one of its own kind!