Chapter Twenty: No Guns, No Cannons

Aside from not letting everyone make one final charge on the wave, the overall battle was so perfect it felt like a dream. For a moment, the ragtag guard unit at Outpost 12 all thought they were dreaming. Over the past three days, they had fought four battles against unknown alien insect creatures, suffering heavy losses and exhaustion. Their commander was dead, they had been forced to abandon their base, and they were sinking into self-doubt, mechanically obeying the orders of the "Lunar Man."

And then, they suffered zero casualties... It wouldn’t be surprising if the enemy were still those primitive barbarians armed with crude weapons. But the key was that the opponents now had cannons and even tanks!

The soldiers were elated and held Yu Lian in deep respect. Yet he showed no joy at all, expressionless, quietly ordering everyone to clean up the battlefield.

Cool! That’s what a good man looks like! Miss Belinda gazed dreamily at the stoic and thoughtful Yu Lian until Dr. Banks nudged her to get to work, at which point she blushed deeply and hurried off. If not for her plain looks and average figure, this might have sparked a side story.

But Yu Lian truly saw no reason to celebrate. Even if barbarians had tanks, they didn’t become a modern army. Otherwise, the prince’s troops back home, equipped with predatory hawk planes and rabbit armored vehicles, wouldn’t have been repeatedly beaten by guerrillas. Moreover, these barbarians weren’t the brightest species—strong and keenly perceptive bodies, but relatively low intelligence. That was the balance of life. More importantly, lacking the accumulation of history and civilization doomed them to remain unwise.

More than the dozens of barbarians and their mounts they had killed, Yu Lian cared more about the spoils. After all, ammunition had been running dangerously low after this battle. Those crudely made bio-batteries were no longer reliable; a few more minutes and the vehicles might have caught fire.

Now, the solution was simple—just strip the batteries from these patchwork tanks and install them. Vehicle power packs aren’t necessarily interchangeable, but if I’m already using crude bio-batteries, why worry about that? Back in the day—or rather, in the future—I even participated in a massive project converting luxury cruise ships into battle cruisers.

Sergeant Miss soon returned, her face lit with a rare smile. It was the first time Yu Lian had ever seen her smile. Admittedly, although she carried a youthful, boyish style and could be called a tomboy, her smile was genuinely beautiful and feminine.

“We’ve captured twenty Type 67 White Crow rifles and fifteen crystal battle axes and swords. We...” she began.

“Throw them all away,” Yu Lian interrupted.

The White Crow rifle was designed by the Imperial Firestorm Design Bureau over seventy years ago and was among the most widely issued firearms in the universe. Its strengths lay in simple, durable construction, low cost, and ease of manufacture. Its weaknesses were insufficient kinetic energy, mediocre power, and only passable accuracy. The Empire no longer even equipped local militias with it. However, these rifles were still widely used in second- and third-tier countries and by various underground groups, making their origins impossible to trace.

In short, these were common, generic weapons for militia use—less effective even than the C10 rifles currently in use.

“Gather their bullets,” Yu Lian added. The only value lay in the fact that the White Crow fired 9mm steel nails, which were barely compatible with the C10.

Ina nodded, adding, “The tanks are heavily damaged, but Uncle Karl said the power packs can be removed to use in our Black Panther vehicles. Also, the last tank can be repaired and made operational.”

See? No need for me to intervene—among my comrades are some skilled engineers. And we even captured a tank, though it’s a patchwork domestic model, its ion cannon is no fake.

“Oh, don’t throw away those homemade batteries when dismantling! We’ll need them later.”

“Yeah, we won’t. I want to study their structure. They seem like they could be turned into bombs with a few tweaks.”

So you’re already interested in these crudely made volatile devices?

“Besides, there are twelve prisoners.”

“Oh?” Yu Lian frowned, wondering why they refused to die rather than surrender. Didn’t these barbarians swear never to be slaves?

“I already executed them all. Sorry, sir, without your orders.”

Though he expected her to be a ruthless type from the “future,” Yu Lian was still taken aback.

“Sir, I’m just a lowly guard, my future is here. Executing prisoners is no big deal in this outer colony. But you’re different. You’re a Lunar Man with a bright future; you can’t stain your record over a small internship.”

Yu Lian thought to himself: that may be true, but your attitude treating me like a naive rookie who hasn’t been through the harshness of life is maddening! If I told you of my past life, you’d be terrified.

“...Once you finish cleaning the battlefield, get ready to move out. We’ll pass through the canyon and rest if we find any open spots.”

“Don’t worry, no one will be chasing us anytime soon,” Yu Lian added. He really didn’t know what else to say.

The canyon was narrow; it didn’t look like there would be any open spaces ahead. The barbarians might still send a second wave of pursuers. Yet somehow, Ina instinctively trusted Yu Lian’s firm confidence.

What she didn’t know was that, just after they departed in the captured tank and the Black Panther vehicles fitted with new batteries, a nearly transparent liquid slowly seeped from the solid rock walls. Like an army of ants following a single command, the liquid swiftly enveloped the remains of the velociraptors, barbarians, and the abandoned vehicles, silently breaking them down, dissolving them into the tiniest particles, which the liquid then absorbed completely.

Soon, the ground returned to its former quiet state; the liquid gradually vanished into the rock, leaving no trace.

Ina was also unaware that the mountain pass they had just entered—the “mouth” of the ridge Yu Lian referred to as “fat like a lucky cat”—became indistinct after a breeze swept through.

It remained an integral part of the mountain wall, unchanged through the ages.

However, Yu Lian, sitting amid the small clearing in the canyon and nibbling on rations, knew that all of this had already happened.