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General Chen: "When did I..."

He stopped, seeing four faces blossoming with smiles. Depressed, he pointed at them one by one. "You actually dared to trick me... Forget it. I was going to have Grey Eagle return to the unit anyway. Otherwise, did you think such a little stunt could fool me? You bunch of overconfident bastards!"

Let him say whatever he wanted. Having achieved their goal, the few rogue soldiers all flashed broad grins. "Where's Brother Eagle? We haven't seen him for half a month—we really miss him. He's not some young lady. Do we have to carry a bridal sedan to invite him?"

They were asking for a beating, so Qin Meng, who had come in behind them, naturally did not hold back.

At first, Qin Meng pinned them down and beat them senseless. Later, the four joined forces and gave their boss, who had secretly "faked his death," a brutal beating instead!

Did he still consider them brothers who stood together through thick and thin? He had not even mentioned it, just went off to play lone hero, then got himself blown to pieces... Deep down, they believed their boss was too badass to have really died; he had to have faked his death for the mission. But the entire Federation had announced it—what kind of mission was worth going that far for? So although these guys acted carefree and joked around, they had secretly shed tears more than once. They had even agreed that they would wait at most one month. After that, even if it meant violating military regulations, they would go avenge that bastard!

Then they received the "summons."

They had a hunch, so they casually tested it to confirm their suspicions. They had not expected it to work so well—just as they thought, with their boss's freakish capabilities, there was no way he could have died so pathetically!

Once the touching reunion between brothers ended, all five men had bruised, swollen faces. Qin Meng had it worst of all. That handsome face that had captivated countless boys and girls across the Federation was now swollen into a pig's head. It was obvious just how "beloved" he was... Damn, this was definitely settling old scores under the guise of public duty!

General Chen sat at the head of the room with a smile, deeply moved. Being young was wonderful! Back when he was young, he had also had a group of lovable brothers!

With the emotional exchange over, it was time for business.

After humanity entered the interstellar age, some anti-government armed groups, ruthless bandits, and wanted criminals gradually gathered together, forming more than a hundred pirate crews of varying sizes.

Some pirate crews were comparatively "merciful." Their slogan was, "We want money, not lives." They merely robbed passing spacecraft, looted valuables, and demanded ransoms. Though they were still greatly hated, their good "reputation" for rarely harming lives meant they did not quite count as the worst evil.

But many more pirate crews operated with extreme cruelty. News often broke of them slaughtering everyone aboard the ships they raided. Some even moonlighted as terrorists, massacring civilians on planets to threaten the government. They were nothing less than a massive cancer.

The various military regions periodically launched campaigns to wipe out pirate crews. Unfortunately, the universe was too vast. As long as those criminals scattered and hid, they could easily vanish without a trace. As a result, although the overall scale of the pirate crews had not expanded, they could not be eradicated either... It was truly a headache.

Some time ago, Qin Meng accidentally discovered that Reverse Order, one of the most notorious pirate crews, had actually made contact with the X-Star people!

The X-Star people supplied them with weapons and resources, while Reverse Order accepted everything offered and developed at a frantic pace. By now, they had secretly destroyed and absorbed several small and medium-sized pirate crews, clearly intending to become the king of the pirate crews—and everyone understood that if they truly became that king, once their strength crossed a certain threshold, they would become a Sword of Damocles, constantly threatening the Federation's security!

Reverse Order was a group of lunatics who preached cult doctrine and had been brainwashed by it. Their hands were stained with blood, and their crimes were too numerous to record. There was no reasoning with a group of cult-crazed madmen. They had to be eliminated at the source!

Qin Meng decisively infiltrated them, intending to obtain the coordinates of Reverse Order's bases. Later, he was discovered, so he simply appeared to "die together" with the enemy while actually assuming another identity and continuing his infiltration. He had already obtained the coordinates of one of Reverse Order's three major bases. Next, he needed to use that as a breakthrough to find the precise coordinates of the other two. Then the military could strike them all at once, so that large numbers would not slip through the net. Otherwise, not only would the operation accomplish little, it would provoke those lunatics—and no one knew how much damage that would cause.

General Chen had Qin Meng explain the general situation to the others, then added, "Qin Meng is too famous. When he was discovered after infiltrating them, those people recognized him immediately. Faking his death was a good move. At least until now, Reverse Order has not discovered that the coordinates of its base have been leaked. If news of Qin Meng's fake death gets out before Reverse Order is destroyed, they will certainly become wary, retaliate, and relocate. Then all the previous hard work will have been wasted. To avoid alerting them, Qin Meng will continue to fake his death. The few of you will join him in completing this mission. Once Reverse Order is finished, Qin Meng can 'come back to life.'"

After finishing the serious talk, General Chen blinked and offered a teasing "incentive." "Hehe, with such a huge contribution, you'll be promoted at least two ranks. Qin Meng becoming a colonel is a sure thing! As for you lot, some are lieutenant colonels and some are majors. At this rate of promotion, you're even more impressive than I was back then!"

Promotion was not what these lunatics cared much about. What excited them more was that this new mission sounded incredibly thrilling! They had disliked those sons of bitches in Reverse Order for a long time! The only reason they had not wiped them out was that they hid like rats, and they could never find their rat holes. Now their boss was amazing—he had actually dug up one of them! This made things easy... There was no way they would fail to dig out the rest!