"Yes, what's wrong?" the young man replied.
"Look, look!" Kuang Jie exclaimed excitedly.
The young man was somewhat puzzled, but he still clicked on the section for inspectors in the personnel composition.
Soon, a list appeared before them.
The list had twenty people per page, but it spanned dozens of pages. Clearly, those included were not only the original inspectors, but also the students from the Martial Academy.
For this reason, the list only shows names and no other information.
The first one was Shen Heng.
"Oh, it's not Instructor Wang or Instructor Liang!" Kuang Jie with some regret.
"Instructor Wang and Instructor Liang?" the young man asked.
"It's Instructors Wang Hu and Liang Yanhao, isn't it?" Kuang Jie said, looking at the young man with some surprise. "What, you don't know them?"
"Oh, them!" The young man nodded in realization. "What, you really want him to be your leader?"
"When you go out to fight, don't you want to be with someone strong? Isn't Instructor Wang Hu the strongest among the base inspectors right now? Instructor Liang seems to be second only to Instructor Wang, right?" Kuang Jie said.
The young man suddenly understood, and nodded with a smile.
Looking at him, Zhao Ming asked with some confusion:
"Classmate, don't you know anything about Teacher Wang and Teacher Liang?"
"You know?" the young man asked.
"Uh... I wouldn't say I know, but back when there was that exploration ranking, weren't their teams always first or second? And when defending against the attacks of the Calamity Beast, weren't their performances the most outstanding?" Zhao Ming said.
"Hey, it's not the base yet! If the base hadn't kept quiet about the data from each beast tide attack, we wouldn't be guessing like this!" Kuang Jie said indignantly.
"Perhaps they're worried that the strong will always get stronger, which could cause some conflicts!" the young man said.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
Kuang Jie was somewhat puzzled, but Zhao Ming seemed to understand something.
He said, "You mean the base is worried that when the data is released, the same few people will always get the top spots and receive the most resources, which will cause resentment among others?"
The young man nodded.
This time, Kuang Jie understood. "It's their business if they have the ability, what's there to be dissatisfied about?"
"Hmm... Announcing it might at most inspire a sense of competition and motivate people to cultivate harder, but given the threat of these Calamity Beast to our lives, that kind of motivation doesn't seem entirely necessary," Zhao Ming said, bowing slightly. "In comparison, not announcing it might indeed be better."
"What nonsense!" Kuang Jie frowned as he listened.
The young man, however, seemed to glance at him with an appreciative look.
Just as the two were about to start a conversation, an elderly man in military uniform walked over.
The old man glanced at the two men's left arms, then turned his gaze to the young man.
"Your friend?"
"Just now..." The young man paused, then looked at the two men, "What are your names?"
" Kuang Jie!"
Zhao Ming!
The two replied somewhat nervously, as this was their first time meeting someone who was clearly a high-ranking leader of the base.
How do you know?
Because someone that age shouldn't be here!
"Yes, hello, my name is Shen Heng!" The young man smiled and nodded, then turned to the old general, "Now we've met!"
"You brat!" The old general chuckled, annoyed, then said, "Are you done talking? If you are, there's something I need you to handle!"
Shen Heng nodded and turned to look at the two of them.
"I have to go now, let's chat again later!"
The two nodded, watching the young man leave with the old general.
"Holy crap, I know this person..."
The conversation abruptly stopped, Kuang Jie stared wide-eyed at Zhao Ming.
"Wait, what did he just say his name was?"
"It seems his name is Shen Heng?" Zhao Ming said slowly, watching the two figures leave.
"No, is this... the same as what I thought?" Kuang Jie asked, still somewhat incredulous.
"I'm afraid so!" Zhao Ming said slowly, glancing at the left arm of the figure he had just been chatting with.
There, there was a slightly different armband!
"Cough cough!"
After coughing twice, Zhou Zhenguo slowly opened his eyes from his seat.
He glanced at the still dark sky outside, then looked away.
The young man heard him making a sound and looked over.
"Won't Elder Zhou sleep a little longer?"
"No, I'm too old to sleep for that long!" Zhou Zhenguo slowly shook his head. "Besides, the journey has been so bumpy that even if I did sleep, it would only be half-awake and hazy!"
Shen Heng nodded slowly.
"But you, kid, don't you need to take a nap?" Zhou Zhenguo looked at Shen Heng.
"No need. After reaching Fourth Tier, mental strength will increase significantly, and not sleeping for a few days won't cause any problems," Shen Heng said.
Zhou Zhenguo chuckled and said, "I still envy those of you who can cultivate!"
Shen Heng looked at Zhou Zhenguo, hesitated for a moment, and asked:
"Are you not allowed to cultivate?"
He had noticed that some officers in the base did not emanate Origin Power, clearly indicating that they had not cultivated.
"No, so that we can focus all our energy on dealing with the invasion of the Calamity Beast, and also to prevent us from embezzling Origin Crystal!" Zhou Zhenguo smiled.
Shen Heng nodded, without offering his own opinion.
"So, where are we now?" Zhou Zhenguo glanced out the window again.
"It's about a two-hour drive to our destination!" Shen Heng replied.
Zhou Zhenguo nodded.
After a moment, seemingly feeling a bit bored, he asked:
"Do you even know why we need to build cities outside?"
"Isn't it because of the reasons mentioned in the previous meeting?" Shen Heng turned and asked.
"That's because of those reasons, but why are you talking about building a city?" Zhou Zhenguo asked.
Shen Heng lowered his eyes and pondered for a moment, then said, "Because in ancient times, we always fought around cities?"
"You really are as insightful as Daoist Master Li said!" Zhou Zhenguo looked at Shen Heng with admiration. "That's right, that's why we named it Jiancheng."
"But the Calamity Beast are not the soldiers of ancient times." Shen Heng seemed to have grasped another aspect of this strategy.
"Indeed, but it's not entirely without similarities." Zhou Zhenguo nodded and continued:
"The attacks by the Calamity Beast are mainly low-level Calamity Beast; first, second, and third-level Calamity Beast account for over 97% of the beast tide!"
"These Calamity Beast, despite their physical abilities far surpassing those of normal humans, can still only run and walk under normal circumstances!"
"In other words, they can be considered, to some extent, as ancient soldiers."
"And the gap in physical fitness can be made up for by firearms and missiles."
"But there are still a small number of high-level Calamity Beast," Shen Heng said.
"I know that!"
Zhou Zhenguo nodded slowly, a glint of shrewdness flashing in his eyes.
"This is also why cities can't be built arbitrarily..."