376: Chapter 364 Russia Stirs Up Again

Zhang Mu passed through the Portal back to Blue Star and floated over the sea for a while. Taking this opportunity to think for a bit, he decided to visit America first to understand the current situation on Blue Star.

In terms of the completeness of global intelligence collection, America, which had long been keen on planting spies in other countries, was undoubtedly far ahead.

The result was not unexpected.

Zhang Mu transformed into Mr. Gao to find Neo. After inquiring about the progress of the school and the Moon Landing Project, he casually steered the conversation to Russia, saying he had been busy healing recently and would soon go to investigate what actions Seventeen had taken lately.

Neo didn't know why "Mr. Gao" was interested in Seventeen, but since it was a rare opportunity to prove himself and he was still thinking about "rejuvenation," he naturally wouldn't let it pass.

He ordered his assistant to bring the documents and then stood beside Zhang Mu to give a detailed explanation.

The matter of Seventeen's recruitment had caused a global sensation. As the only recently available path to the extraordinary, its level of attention went without saying. Anyone with the capability in any country flocked to it, buying a plane ticket to fly to that distant foreign land.

It was unclear for now how such a massive flow of people would promote the development of Russia's tourism industry, but the airlines that took the opportunity to hike prices certainly made a fortune.

Originally, they were somewhat worried that the excessively high prices would scare off passengers, but who would have thought that even with the price tripled, the demand still exceeded the supply.

However, after guardian calamities appeared around the five wolf bones and a large number of bold tourists died at the hands of those calamities, this grand occasion finally cooled down.

No matter how much one desired the extraordinary, one had to be alive to get it, after all.

Facing the powerful calamities, the tourists felt despair and helplessly boarded planes back home, but Farid, the President, and others had no way to avoid it.

There were five wolf bones in total. Currently, only Farid and the Young Woman held one each, and the ownership of the remaining three was still up for competition.

The Russian public also cherished their lives. Having witnessed the forest filled with tourist corpses, even with the President's repeated mobilization, they still didn't dare to go easily.

This truly distressed the President.

The selection criteria were explained very clearly; it wasn't as if everything was fine once you got a wolf bone. You also had to hunt the calamity guarding the vicinity of the wolf bone alone.

That is to say, even if one were lucky enough to steal a wolf bone under the calamity's nose, it still wouldn't count as passing; one had to face the calamity directly.

According to the strength shown by the calamities, the Russian public had already equated "hunting a calamity alone" with "seeking death."

The people were miserable; the path to the extraordinary was right before their eyes, yet it was tantalizingly out of reach.

The Russian President was even more miserable. At most, the people could actively withdraw from the assessment, but he couldn't.

The connection between Ying Country, America, and the extraordinary was deepening daily. The latter two's spaceships were being manufactured around the clock.

Russia was already a step behind. If it lost the chance to establish a relationship with Seventeen again, it would surely decline in the near future and be abandoned by the era.

The President, so anxious that he had blisters on the corners of his mouth, hoped to receive guidance from Tevan.

He waited bitterly at the entrance of Seventeen, which was next to the wine barrel, hoping Tevan might have private matters to handle or would go out for a holiday. Unfortunately, after waiting for a month, he still returned empty-handed.

Neo gloated a bit: "Mr. Gao, you don't know how anxious he is.

A few days ago, he sent someone to visit America, requesting me to contact Seventeen through you and pass a message to Mr. Tevan.

Oh, I heard he didn't just look for me; he also contacted Ying Country, it's just... sorry, Mr. Gao.

So... the authenticity of the news cannot be verified."

That doesn't need your confirmation.

Zhang Mu muttered to himself. He would check it out later. He asked, "Are there any big moves recently?"

"Very big." Speaking of this, a hint of anxiety leaked from Neo's brow. "Although their second spaceship is still under construction, with just the xuan niao ship alone...

The performance of the xuan niao ship is very strong; it can make a round trip between Blue Star and the Moon once every few days.

The specific progress of the base being built on the Moon is unknown, but based on satellite images, it can be inferred that at least the general framework has been completed.

I believe it won't be long before the base can start operating."

Neo had reason to be anxious.

Once the base started operating, they could mine on the Moon. The mined ore could be traded with the Mountain Gate for supplies, and the traded supplies could be fed back into the base, greatly improving mining efficiency and forming a positive cycle.

As for America, their spaceship would take about three more months to complete.

By then, how much territory would have already been claimed?

One must know that the areas on the Moon suitable for mining and rich in ore reserves are limited. If others take more, you get less, and getting less leads to falling behind in development.

Zhang Mu lowered his head and pondered how to push forward the Russian selection, not noticing the urgency in Neo's tone.

Of course, even if he had noticed, he wouldn't have cared.

Having reached a conclusion, Zhang Mu didn't say goodbye to Neo. He stood up and left directly, heading all the way to the cave base by the NH.

Although the existence of a base here was almost an open secret—the people of Hua Country knew, and foreign countries could guess—the security forces and confidentiality measures showed no signs of loosening.

Internal Soldiers patrolled without blind spots, thick doors were tightly closed, and a whole platoon of Soldiers equipped with heavy weapons stood guard outside.

Zhang Mu did not use the Shadow Technique. He entered unhindered in the form of Immortal Xu. The Director, having received a report from his subordinates, rushed over to welcome him.

He waved his hand to interrupt the pleasantries and briefly asked if there were any difficulties in manufacturing the second spaceship.

The Director said that with the experience gained from building the xuan niao ship, the project was generally smooth, except that the speed hadn't increased much and the material inventory was running low.

The former was because the designers had optimized some structures and needed to test their safety. As for the latter, the Director stated that the supplies to exchange for materials were on the way, and they would need to trouble Senior Brother Zhou to transport them when the time came.

Learning that everything was normal, Zhang Mu didn't linger. He took his leave and headed straight for Russia.

After entering the country, he first went to see the three wolf bones that still had no owners.

The surroundings were exceptionally quiet, with only the low chirping of birds and insects and the "rustling" sound of leaves being brushed by the breeze; no living people were to be seen.

Zhang Mu scanned the corpses scattered messily on the forest grass. A few were relatively fresh, seemingly having arrived not long ago, while most had rotting flesh and were covered in marks from being gnawed by wild beasts.

"How can they be this weak? If I had known, I wouldn't have used Trainee-level magic beasts."

Zhang Mu shook his head helplessly. He had already seriously injured the magic beasts to the point where they could basically be dealt with just by learning how to drive a tank, yet so many people still died.

The exam was at a stalemate. The President was anxious, the people were anxious, and Zhang Mu was also anxious.

Can you guys hurry up? I'm waiting to send you to the Moon to mine!

Zhang Mu spread out his Mental Energy to search for the magic beasts, wondering if their injuries had healed themselves, but then he thought it shouldn't be possible.

He had struck heavily and precisely, ensuring that the magic beasts' injuries could not be repaired by their body's self-healing abilities.

His Mental Energy enveloped a magic beast. Sensing its physical state, it was indeed as he had envisioned.

"I need to lower the difficulty a bit."

After a moment of thought, Zhang Mu acted decisively, worsening the injuries of the five magic beasts.

Looking at the magic beasts trembling on the ground, he nodded with satisfaction: "Their limbs are severely damaged, and their agility is greatly reduced. This should do it.

Hmm, I need to get the word out."

Zhang Mu flew to the outskirts of Mosco and activated the Transformation Technique.

...

The Kremlin Palace, employee canteen.

Farid and the Young Woman sat opposite each other at a dining table.

The Young Woman was peeling a banana with very delicate technique, the peel being peeled into four equal pieces. She took a bite, swallowing half of it, chewed a few times, and swallowed it, sighing, "When on earth will the second stage begin?"

Farid put down his stainless steel fork: "I think you should look at it from a different perspective."

"How so?"

"According to the rules, those who obtain a wolf bone are not allowed to actively withdraw from the assessment."

"Huh?"

Seeing her expression was still confused, Farid explained: "That is to say, once the second stage begins, you must go and hunt the calamity."

The Young Woman finally reacted, memories of two brief encounters with the calamity surfacing in her mind: "Uh, the calamity is indeed very strong. I alone certainly..."

Halfway through, seeing Farid's calm expression, seemingly not worried about the calamity's strength, she asked curiously: "You have a wolf bone too. Why aren't you afraid of dying on the way to hunt the calamity at all?"

"Me?" Farid looked up.

"Yeah." The Young Woman crossed her arms on the table and rested her chin on them. "True, you've had military training and are an employee of the Security Bureau, but facing a calamity, you won't be much different from an ordinary person, right?

Come to think of it, this exam feels like no one could possibly pass."

"It certainly seems that way."

"Then..."

"But I believe that since it's an exam, there must be an answer. There are no unsolvable problems."

"So you found the answer?" The Young Woman straightened up excitedly.

"No."

"Tch." The Young Woman expressed her disdain and slumped back onto the table.

She didn't suspect that Farid might be lying to her, hiding a way to pass.

Not to mention there was no conflict of interest between wolf bone holders—on the contrary, they were in a relationship of mutual aid—the fact that Farid had risked his life to help her find a wolf bone as promised was enough to prove his character.

Thinking that even if the deadlocked assessment entered the second stage, she would likely have no hope of passing, the Young Woman began muttering again.

"Damn it... why is the difficulty so high? It's more torturous than my high school math exams.

How on earth are we supposed to kill the calamity... Sigh... I really miss Tevan. It's a pity he hasn't appeared again since that day. If only..."

"It's him!" A shout came from outside the canteen, extremely sharp.

A scream suddenly rang out in the Kremlin Palace, where loud noise was prohibited. Farid and the Young Woman didn't have to hesitate for a second to conclude that an extraordinary being had appeared.

The two of them ran outside along with the other diners in the restaurant.

Once in the open space, they found it was already crowded with people.

As for the source of the commotion, it was easily found.

Everyone looked up together at the Giant Strongman whose body towered so high his head almost touched the clouds.

"The calamities' injuries have worsened and their strength has decreased. To balance the difficulty, the 'no time limit' rule is now canceled and changed to three months."

As the words fell, the giant man's figure faded and disappeared.

The people who had run out of the buildings slowly came back to their senses.

The crowd's mood was not affected by the giant man's words. They had long since given up on competing for the wolf bones. The assessment had nothing to do with them, so the change in rules naturally didn't matter.

Except for Farid and the Young Woman.

Their exam time was only three months left, yet the solution to deal with the calamities, which was still in its embryonic stage, was nowhere in sight.

"What should we do?" The Young Woman couldn't help asking.

"It's not necessarily a bad thing. He said the calamities' injuries have worsened and their strength has decreased. Maybe they've weakened to a level we can handle." Farid quickly calmed down and analyzed logically.

"He didn't say exactly how much they've weakened. We need to be sure."

"Yes. Let's head out immediately."

Farid ran toward the parking lot, and the Young Woman quickly chased after him.

...

After delivering the news, Zhang Mu left quickly.

The magic beasts' strength had dropped again and again, but this assessment in Russia was expected to take at least another month or more.

Zhang Mu didn't intend to watch the whole time. Once the Director's supplies arrived, he would immediately transport them to Lake.

Currently, the legion in Lake was still very much in need of high-end military weapons.

Although the renovation of Keton City was mostly complete—three schools had been established, eligible students had been enrolled, and factory equipment had been installed—it was still some distance away from the munitions factories being operational and manufacturing enough rifles, ammunition, off-road vehicles, and other military supplies needed by the legion.

The group of students he had scouted were very talented, but no matter how talented they were, learning always takes time.

Moreover, even if all five munitions factories were operating efficiently, their productivity would not be enough to satisfy the legion's consumption.

They were just pilots, intended to train a group of talents familiar with industrialization, laying the foundation for the subsequent large-scale transformation of industrial cities across Lake.

While waiting for the Director to deliver the supplies, Zhang Mu wasn't idle either; he went to America to urge them on their construction schedule.

Of course, he didn't state his intention directly.

The extraordinary persona Zhang Mu had created was one of selflessly helping the countries of Blue Star; whether you could grasp the opportunity and gain enough benefits to strengthen yourselves was your own business.

Therefore, he had to be "subtle."

He transformed into Mr. Gao to find Neo. First, he asked which stage the spaceship construction had reached, and then casually mentioned that he had visited the Mountain Gate to see Immortal Xu and toured the secret base, learning that the completion date for the second spaceship was not far off.

Neo's eyes widened upon hearing this.

America's first one wasn't even ready yet, and their second one was almost done?

How could this be?!

He was terrified in his heart, while Zhang Mu pretended not to care and sat to the side, lost in thought.

After a moment, Neo, worried that "Mr. Gao" would suddenly leave, couldn't restrain the impulse and asked, "Mr. Gao, you... I... I need your help."

"Hmm? What?" Mr. Gao's eyes showed a confused look, as if he had just woken up from his thoughts and hadn't heard what he said.

"The progress is too fast... I'm not implying you're inferior to the Mountain Gate, but the key is that they contacted the Mountain Gate much earlier than we did."

Mr. Gao smiled: "I am indeed inferior to the Mountain Gate. There's no need to be stubborn about it. After all, even Hogwarts has to yield before the Mountain Gate, and I am just a student of Hogwarts.

Oh, and an expelled one at that."

After speaking, Mr. Gao looked at Neo: "The help you mentioned... fine, but it's still the same principle: I cannot provide it for free."

Neo was overjoyed.

He didn't care at all about that small expenditure on weapons. His hesitation was due to the worry that repeatedly asking for Mr. Gao's help would make him look incompetent, which might lead to Mr. Gao choosing another agent.

With his concerns gone, Neo's speech became fluent: "Is it still the same price?"

"Yes."

"Mr. Gao, I hope to get some technical support!"