401: Chapter 388 Support from the Sniper

Zhang Mu found Soren's new department and took a casual stroll inside, looking around.

Many staff members wearing uniforms similar to modern ones were walking around the small courtyard; they didn't pay much attention to the unfamiliar face of Zhang Mu, who had suddenly appeared, and went about their business.

Don't misunderstand; it wasn't because they lacked vigilance or that the department's discipline was lax, but because everyone had already learned through special channels that a VIP was visiting.

As for the specific method, Zhang Mu didn't ask Soren when he walked out of the office; it was likely nothing more than miniature earpieces or something similar.

The first thing Soren said upon seeing Zhang Mu was that the espionage equipment he brought was very useful.

The Saul Continent also had magic items with similar uses, but one drawback was that they couldn't be mass-produced, and the second was that the fluctuations of magic power couldn't be hidden from the perception of top-tier Professionals.

After a while, Mihe, who was leading the training, returned from outside.

The three of them gathered together to summarize the progress made today in establishing the intelligence department.

Currently, the intelligence department had enough personnel; what was lacking was the improvement of reconnaissance quality and the tempering of their will.

After all, they were doing intelligence work and often walked on the edge of a knife; being captured by the enemy was bound to happen. If their will were weak, leaking secrets under even slight interrogation would lead to disaster.

As for the hardware, both of them stated there were no shortcomings and they weren't in urgent need of anything.

After listening, Zhang Mu was generally satisfied; after all, starting from scratch and with the two main leaders having no prior experience, they had done their best to reach the current level.

Having understood the situation here, Zhang Mu felt that training alone wasn't very useful and they needed to improve through practice; the Coalition Forces and the Gangnuo Empire were very suitable training targets.

So he told the two of them to immediately begin collecting all information on the Gangnuo Empire and the Coalition Forces for analysis and summarization.

Afterward, he walked all the way to Avril's palace with his hands behind his back.

Avril was sitting at her desk as usual, her head slightly lowered as she handled official business, her icy blue hair draped over both shoulders.

"What are you busy with?" Zhang Mu walked into the study casually, and Mora, standing nearby, tactfully backed out.

Avril looked up and smiled, "Developing some incentive programs to try and keep the citizens from fleeing."

On the front lines, news of victories for Lake kept coming; however, even the most brilliant victory couldn't stop the citizens' determination to flee.

Ultimately, it was because the majesty of the gods was deeply ingrained in the hearts of the people of the Saul Continent.

In the eyes of the citizens, and even most city lords and High-tier Professionals, Lake's current string of great victories could not save them from their destined defeat.

There was no need for the gods to descend again; as long as a certain distant empire took action, they could easily wipe out Lake.

Therefore, after the war began, there was a constant stream of city lords leaving without saying goodbye, Professionals fleeing to neighboring countries in groups, and townspeople moving their entire families.

Naturally, the latter group accounted for the largest number, as they were the most numerous group in the population structure.

Supported by such a large base, this result was not surprising.

In fact, the nobles and the royal family didn't usually value the commoners, who made up the majority of the kingdom's population; there were plenty of them.

But once the loss became significant, Avril was surprised to find that the impact was very negative.

Cities became empty, and there was no one to consume goods, leading merchant caravans to stop coming, which caused the kingdom's tax revenue to plummet.

One must know that Lake was currently deep in war and undergoing extensive internal reforms, with money needed everywhere; it would be disastrous if the kingdom's treasury ran dry.

Avril had been pondering countermeasures for the past few days.

Zhang Mu smiled and closed the documents on the desk. "The things giving you a headache cannot be reversed by incentive policies alone."

Avril rested her chin on her hand and looked up at him slightly. "Then what should we do? We can't just let it happen, can we?"

"Yes and no."

"What do you mean?"

"Lake's pace of expansion will not stop; it will only get faster.

As long as the speed at which we capture cities is faster than the pace of the citizens' flight, the problem will solve itself."

Avril was somewhat stunned; after reacting, she raised her hand and slapped his arm. "I have a headache, don't joke around."

"Who's joking?" Zhang Mu pulled over a wooden chair and sat down beside her. "The reason the front line is advancing slowly now isn't because we can't push forward, but because we want to train the troops.

The troops are mostly trained now, so naturally, we won't continue to tangle with them at the border."

After Zhang Mu finished speaking, he thought for a moment and then continued, "The only thing we'll likely need to worry about later are the governance issues caused by the rapid territorial expansion."

"Since it's what my junior said..." Avril blinked and stuffed the half-written plan into a drawer.

Zhang Mu stood up and stretched his arms high. "Mhm, let's do as I said for this matter.

By the way, I came to ask you something: do you know much about the Gangnuo Empire?"

"I went there once with my father when I was young."

"How is their military capability?"

"Hmm..." Avril recalled for a moment, "Ganno barely qualifies as an empire because they only have one Epic.

As for their legions, I remember they have five legions composed entirely of Professionals, while the rest are a mix of commoners and Professionals."

"Domit told me he heard the Gangnuo Empire has wyverns. Are those things strong?"

"Wyverns are the offspring of dragons and other monster races. They inherited some of the dragons' magical abilities, so they can cast magic. However, because the dragon bloodline is thin, their magic isn't very strong."

"So, besides being able to fly, they have no other advantages?"

"Flight is already a huge advantage."

Zhang Mu thought about it, and indeed it was.

Even on the Blue Star, which possessed various anti-aircraft methods, gaining air superiority mostly meant one could dictate the outcome of a war, let alone on the Saul Continent, where no one except High-tier Professionals could pose a threat to aerial units.

Zhang Mu thought of the anti-aircraft guns gathering dust in the First Army's armory and said cheerfully, "Wyverns aren't a big problem. Senior, I'll be going now."

"In such a hurry?"

"Ah?" Zhang Mu walked to the door and looked back at the slightly dissatisfied Avril, explaining, "The Gangnuo Empire sent a legion our way, and they could arrive at any time. I need to be at the front lines."

"I see. Go then."

Zhang Mu continued walking out, and from inside the room, he heard Avril's voice drifting out: "Next time you come back, remember your senior's green pepper shredded pork."

"Okay."

...

The front line.

Under the devastation of Lake's multiple rounds of artillery fire, the Coalition Forces' Green Valley defense line quickly collapsed.

They tried to use Magic Crystal Cannons to counterattack, but to little effect.

The power of the Magic Crystal Cannon shells was not weak, and their accuracy was acceptable, but the deficiency lay in the firing rate. Compared to the eight rounds per minute of the 155mm gun-howitzers equipped by the Laike Legion, it was as slow as a snail.

Lake's Assault Teams began to climb the mountain peak. They encountered sporadic attacks along the way, but after the Soldiers returned fire with a burst of bullets, this bit of resistance quickly vanished.

Upon reaching the summit, the Assault Team Soldiers set about clearing out the enemy forces.

The Professionals of the Coalition Forces finally recovered from the daze of several rounds of bombardment. They raised their wands to cast magic or swung their longswords to ambush the Lake Soldiers.

The Soldiers of the new legion were only equipped with original firearms and lacked the means to deal with Professionals, so casualties began to occur.

The captain contacted the ground, hoping to retreat temporarily and reorganize the climb after a few more rounds of artillery shells.

He felt the commander would surely agree; after all, Green Valley would definitely be taken, and a half-hour difference didn't matter much.

However, the commander refused directly.

Crouching behind a rock, the captain asked in shock, "We can't withstand the Knights' charge; they've already closed in on the squad. If they get into close quarters, even retreating will be a luxury!"

"Support is heading up the mountain; they'll handle the Professionals."

Support?

Where?

The captain poked his head out from above the rock in confusion to look around, just as a fireball happened to fly toward him.

"That was close!" The captain's hair stood on end as he pulled his head back at the last second.

The Soldier beside him leaned out to shoot and kill a Coalition Soldier, then was forced back behind the rock by a mage's fireball.

With lingering fear, he ejected the empty magazine, and while replacing it with a full one, he asked, "Captain, are we still not retreating?

I just saw that the Knights have already rushed very close."

"How close?"

"Right in front of you." A voice came from above.

The two were stunned and instinctively looked up.

A Knight was standing on top of the rock, his shadow covering their faces.

Their spines went cold as they instinctively raised their guns and pulled the triggers.

"Da da da—"

This Knight seemed to be high-level. He was completely unafraid of being shot at point-blank range; a disdainful curve appeared at the corner of his mouth as he swung his longsword to deflect the bullets.

"Click—" The two emptied their magazines, and the bolts gave a heavy warning sound.

The Knight's eyes turned cold, and he raised his longsword to strike down.

The fear of death enveloped their hearts. The captain had an illusion that time had slowed down—or perhaps it wasn't an illusion; he even had a moment to see the Knight's face gradually turn grotesque.

Then, an oddly shaped bullet blew that face apart from the front.

The Knight's head exploded like a watermelon, and hot blood splattered onto their faces.

They were probably still dazed by everything before them, staring blankly at the headless corpse until they were startled awake by the "thud" of the body slowly falling backward onto the ground.

"Huff— huff—" Their stalled breathing resumed, and the captain slumped to the ground, panting heavily.

"Who... who saved us?" The Soldier who had just escaped death didn't know if he had forgotten to be afraid or if adrenaline was at work; he didn't bother checking if his body parts were intact and instead cared about who had fired that shot.

The captain seemed to have some idea; he waved his hand to stop the Soldier's searching gaze. "It's the First Army, the legendary First Army."

"The First Army?"

"Yes, I heard the commander mention it during a casual chat. The First Army has Snipers who can take down Professionals."

The Soldier was very curious about what a Sniper was, but unfortunately, the captain didn't know much either.

So the two were puzzled: they were both using guns and bullets, so why did the Sniper blow the Knight's head off with one shot while the Knight had swatted away all of their own bullets?

However, it wasn't the so-called First Army Snipers—meaning Damu and the others—who had come; a war of this level didn't warrant sending a Special Squad.

The ones who came to support were the Sniper Corps of the Fifth Army.

Having gone through the tempering of the plains, they were fully capable of handling Sniper missions against anyone below High-tier Professionals, especially against Professionals who had never faced them and lacked vigilance.

With their help, the Assault Team regained its footing and began to advance again.

The Coalition's field commander quickly noticed something was wrong. After all, his own Professionals were fighting the enemy to the death, yet their heads were suddenly and strangely exploding; anyone with eyes could see it.

He frantically scanned the surroundings—bushes, sparse woods, rock piles—but he couldn't find the source of the ambush.

The Snipers' picking off of targets continued, with mages and Knights falling at a steady frequency. He knew he couldn't hesitate any longer, or they would be wiped out.

"Retreat!"

The Coalition Forces tried to retreat toward the rear of Green Valley. The Lake Assault Team, their morale boosted by the support, naturally wouldn't let them have their way and pursued them frantically under the cover of the Snipers hidden in the shadows.

The Professionals among the retreating Soldiers had already clashed with the Assault Team and knew they were just commoners. Being chased like dogs by a group of commoners they usually ignored made them feel naturally aggrieved.

Some Professionals couldn't restrain themselves and disobeyed orders to turn back and charge the Assault Team, only to have their heads blown off by a bullet from nowhere.

Under the threat of death, their minds, which had fallen into a frenzy, instantly cleared, and they immediately turned around to keep up with their companions' retreat.

One side pursued while the other fled, and finally, the Coalition successfully retreated from the mountain peak at the cost of leaving corpses everywhere.

The Assault Team captain stood at the edge of the cliff and poked his head out, ignoring the Professionals who jumped directly down the mountain and instead aimed his gun at the common Soldiers of the Coalition sliding down iron cables toward the foot of the mountain.

The team members followed suit; since their bullets couldn't kill high-level Professionals anyway, they might as well kill more common Soldiers.

Their marksmanship was decent, and Coalition Soldiers were constantly being hit, screaming as they let go of the cables and fell.

After ten minutes, all the Coalition Soldiers on the cables had vanished from sight, and the captain lowered his gun. "Cease fire."

A team member grinned, "Captain, I've earned enough military merit!"

The captain's military merit was also enough for a promotion, but he wasn't as joyful as the team member, instead scanning the surroundings on his own.

The team member was misled by his actions, mistakenly thinking there were still hidden enemies nearby. He couldn't help but grow tense, raising his gun again to aim around.

Noticing their odd behavior, the captain was stunned, then realized he was the cause and smiled, "There are no more enemies."

"Uh, then what are you looking for?"

The team member who had been with the captain earlier realized, "Is the captain looking for the Snipers?"

"What is a Sniper?" a team member who didn't know the inside story asked in confusion.

"It's just now..." He gestured wildly, vividly relaying the captain's introduction.

"Soldiers of the First Army?!" The team member's expression was a mix of surprise and curiosity as he emulated the captain, looking around in hopes of seeing the true form of a First Army Soldier.

"Stop looking." The captain waved his hand and started walking toward the other end of the summit. "The first lesson for a Sniper is how to hide themselves. If you could find them, they'd be dismissed when they got back."

"So strict!"

"Otherwise, how would they have such strong combat power?" said a team member who had noticed the enemy Professionals strangely falling during the earlier battle.

The captain stroked the rifle hanging at his chest, his tone envious, "If only I could also be a snip—"

"Beep— beep—"

The notification tone for a communication request sounded in the earpiece, and the captain answered with a solemn expression.

"Supplies have been transported to the summit. Replenish ammunition and the Assault Team is to continue the advance."