61: Chapter 61: The Four Leaders of the Snow Fiend Gang Exposed! How Ruthless is Butcher White Bones?

Two hours later, the parking area's broadcast system issued the final announcement.

"Attention all personnel, Black Rock City-State will start the main engine in thirty minutes. All field vehicles return to position; the hatches are about to close."

The announcement repeated several times.

The mechanical broadcast echoed several times under the steel dome of the parking area before being swallowed by the low-frequency resonance of the boilers.

Lu Chen sat in the driver's seat, with those three handwritten documents tied with hemp rope laid out before him.

Previously, he had only skimmed them overnight, looking only at the framework.

Now that there was a thirty-minute window, he decided to digest them word for word.

Lu Chen untied the hemp rope of the first document.

Snow Shard Gang Main Composition and Force Deployment.

The Fire Rock Totem seal of the Black Rock City-State Military Staff Department stamped on the cover had already been rubbed into a blur, and the corners of the pages were frayed.

He flipped to the first page.

The first line was a general overview of total military strength.

"Snow Shard Gang total population estimated between forty to fifty thousand, with no fewer than twelve thousand combat personnel."

Below that was the organizational structure.

The core layer consisted of only three lines.

"Supreme Commander: Codename Ice Thorn, unknown."

"Deputy Commander: Codename Iron Spine, male, around forty years old, responsible for strategic dispatch and logistics management, rarely participates in combat personally."

"Combat Commander: Codename White Bone, male, around thirty-five years old. All convoys operating outside are directly commanded or authorized by this person. Combat style is extremely ruthless, with a preference for pincer envelopment tactics."

Lu Chen took a carbon pencil and drew a circle next to the name White Bone.

The Combat Commander, the actual decision-maker on the battlefield.

If the Snow Shard Gang's main force came to attack, this was likely the person he would be dealing with face-to-face.

He continued reading downward.

The main convoy composition was divided into three combat groups, with the designations North Ice Group, Ice-Rift Swarm, and Icebreaker Swarm.

"North Ice Group: Stationed at the Roaring Ice Abyss main base, protecting the Ice Thorn Lv.4 Main City and two Lv.3 satellite cities. Strength around four thousand men, over forty combat vehicles, directly commanded by Iron Spine."

"Ice-Rift Swarm: Mobile strike group, strength around three thousand five hundred men, over thirty combat vehicles, equipped with several medium-caliber artillery pieces. Personally led by White Bone, it is the main fist for the Snow Shard Gang's external expansion."

"Icebreaker Swarm: Outer perimeter patrol and search group, strength around two thousand men, over twenty combat vehicles plus a large number of armed snowmobiles. Responsible for reconnaissance and harassment. Commander codename Grey Bee, female, around twenty-five years old, excels in small-scale infiltration and information gathering."

Lu Chen flipped to the second page, which listed the firepower configuration for each group.

He scanned it line by line.

North Ice Group: Twelve 180mm main guns, all fixed onto the walls of the Ice Thorn Lv.4 Main City, mirroring the configuration of Black Rock City-State.

Ice-Rift Swarm: 75mm rapid-fire guns assigned to every Lv.2 combat vehicle, with an additional six 105mm medium howitzers mounted on three modified heavy transport trucks.

Icebreaker Swarm: Primarily light firepower, with a large number of modified rifles and homemade rocket launchers.

The final paragraph was a supplementary note.

"Note: The above data is a comprehensive estimation by the Black Rock City-State Intelligence Department based on contact battles over the past two years and second-hand intelligence from the Merchant Alliance; actual troop strength may have a deviation of ten to twenty percent."

"In the last six months, the Snow Shard Gang has shown signs of purchasing large quantities of scrap steel and ammunition from the direction of the Ash Rift Valley; secret military expansion cannot be ruled out."

Lu Chen closed the first document and tapped his fingers twice on the cover.

The force deployment largely matched what Lin Xiao had said verbally, but the details on paper were much richer.

White Bone.

Grey Bee.

Iron Spine.

Three combat groups, three commanders, with a clear division of labor.

"City Lord, what are you looking at?" Lin Wan poked her head out from the planting area.

"Your brother's homework."

"What?"

"The Snow Shard Gang's files. Don't come over; you wouldn't understand even if you looked."

Lin Wan pulled her head back and went back to tending her Winter Wheat.

Lu Chen picked up the second document.

Snow Shard Gang Activity Trajectory and Expansion Routes Over the Last Six Months.

This one was thinner than the first, but the information density was extremely high.

On the flyleaf, a simplified map was drawn in red ink.

The scale was crude, but the relative positions of major landmarks were clearly marked.

The Roaring Ice Abyss was in the northwest corner of the map, marked with a deep black circle and three skull symbols next to it, representing the Lv.4 Main City and two Lv.3 satellite cities.

From the Roaring Ice Abyss to the east, a thick red arrow crossed a large blank area, pointing toward the Ash Rift Valley.

The Ash Rift Valley was marked with jagged lines, densely dotted with over a dozen small red points, each with a date and a summary of events written beside it.

The red arrow forked at the Ash Rift Valley.

The main line continued to extend southeast, entering the northern part of the Rustwind Wasteland.

The Rustwind Wasteland was represented by an area filled with diagonal lines, with the location of Black Rock City-State marked in the south-central part of the wasteland.

Another fork extended south from the Ash Rift Valley, with the words Pale Shoals marked at its end.

Lu Chen's finger slowly traced along the expansion route from the Roaring Ice Abyss to the Pale Shoals.

The entire route was fan-shaped, spreading from the northwest to the southeast, with the fan face getting wider and wider.

Why expand?

He stared at the map, his finger stopping on the Pale Shoals marker.

Lin Xiao had said that the Snow Shard Gang's base was in the Roaring Ice Abyss, a place with relatively abundant resources; logically, there was no reason to leave their home nest.

But they had expanded outward on a large scale in the last half-year, and the direction and rhythm of the expansion were extremely regular, without any of the chaos typical of random looting.

This was a purposeful strategic advance.

For what?

The file gave no reason.

There was only a single line of annotation from the Staff Department, written in blue ink, different from the black ink of the main text, added later.

"Reason unknown, requires continued monitoring."

The signature was the initials of Zhou Yuan's name.

Lu Chen kept this doubt in mind and opened the final document.

Snow Shard Gang Known Commander Profiles.

The first page was the boss of the Snow Shard Gang.

In the center of the page was a palm-sized piece of white paper pasted on; nothing was printed on it, only a large question mark drawn with a carbon pencil.

The information column next to it was written with extreme brevity.

"Codename: Ice Thorn."

"Real Name: Unknown."

"Gender: Male."

"Age: Unknown."

"Physical Characteristics: Unknown."

"Combat Style: Unknown."

"Historical Record: Unknown."

"Remarks: Has never appeared in public; all orders are issued via encrypted radio waves. The Black Rock City-State Intelligence Department spent three years trying to obtain physical intelligence on this person, all ending in failure. It is even impossible to confirm if Ice Thorn is a single individual or a rotating codename."

He looked at that series of 'unknowns,' his brow furrowing slightly.

The leader of a force commanding forty to fifty thousand people didn't even have basic physical information available.

This meant the person was either extremely cautious or extremely dangerous.

Or both.

The second page was Iron Spine.

The information on this page was much richer, with a blurry telescope snapshot pasted on it. The photo showed a lean, middle-aged man standing on the wall of a certain lv.3 fortress, wearing a heavy fur coat.

"Codename: Iron Spine. Real Name: Unknown. Male, around forty years old. Responsible for logistics dispatch and strategic planning. Rarely participates in combat personally, but commanded a Lv.3 Satellite City in a positional defensive battle during a conflict with the Winter Trade Alliance three years ago, demonstrating very high defensive tactical literacy."

"Assessment: This person is the Snow Shard Gang's chief steward, the final executor of all material allocation and troop movements. Taking out this person will severely weaken the Snow Shard Gang's logistical capabilities."

The third page was White Bone.

The photo was clearer than Iron Spine's, showing a burly man in his prime, bald, with a very deep scar running from his brow bone to his jaw on the left side of his face, splitting the entire face into two asymmetrical halves.

"Codename: White Bone. Real Name: Unknown. Male, around thirty-five years old. Snow Shard Gang Combat Commander."

"Combat style is extremely ruthless, specializing in pincer envelopment tactics for large-scale convoys."

"A signature characteristic is ordering all combat vehicles to advance at full speed without slowing down during a charge, preferring to have the vehicles destroyed and people killed rather than fail to crash into the enemy formation."

"Record Summary: Two years ago, led the Ice-Rift Swarm to raid a medium-sized scavenger outpost in the Ash Rift Valley. Using twenty combat vehicles, he crushed the opponent's seven guard vehicles and all defensive fortifications, massacring over two thousand people in the outpost with no survivors."

"Assessment: Extremely dangerous. This person has extremely strong control over his subordinates, and he himself does not fear death."

Lu Chen stared at that scar for five seconds.

Preferring to have vehicles destroyed and people killed rather than fail to crash into the enemy formation.

This kind of fighting style required extremely strong discipline and absolute obedience, indicating that the Snow Shard Gang's grassroots combat effectiveness was not to be underestimated.

The fourth page was Grey Bee.

There was no photo, only a text description.

"Codename: Grey Bee. Female, around twenty-five years old. Icebreaker Swarm commander, responsible for reconnaissance and infiltration. This person acts with extreme stealth and has successfully infiltrated Black Rock City-State's outer patrol lines multiple times without being detected."

"Descriptions from captured Icebreaker Swarm members are highly consistent: small-statured, taciturn, and an exquisite marksman."

"Assessment: Grey Bee is the eyes and ears of the Snow Shard Gang. Eliminating this person will cause the Snow Shard Gang's intelligence-gathering capabilities to drop significantly."

Lu Chen closed the three documents, tied them back up with the hemp rope, and placed them back into the metal box.

He leaned back against the chair, his fingers tapping rhythmically on the armrest.

Four high-level leaders.

Ice Thorn, a shroud of mystery.

Iron Spine, the logistical brain.

White Bone, the butcher-class battlefield commander.

Grey Bee, the infiltration and reconnaissance expert.

Plus three combat groups totaling nearly ten thousand combat personnel and over a hundred combat vehicles.

This hand of cards was much thicker than he had anticipated.

The vibration coming from beneath his feet suddenly intensified by an order of magnitude.

The iron floor of the Polaris hummed in resonance, and fine ripples appeared on the water surface in the cultivation boxes of the planting area.

The Black Rock City-State's main engine had started.

That kind of deep vibration that only a Lv.4 City-State-class Sourcefire Engine could produce had an extremely low frequency—so low that the ears couldn't catch the sound waves, but every bone in the body could feel its presence.

Lu Chen looked out through the porthole toward the parking area.

The warm yellow industrial lighting flickered once, and its brightness increased significantly.

The crisscrossing steel beams and pipes overhead began to emit continuous sounds of metallic stress; this was the structural adjustment occurring as the entire city began to move under the engine's thrust.

Black Rock City-State was moving.

A steel giant city of over thirty thousand people, an eight-hundred-meter-long mobile fortress, was weighing anchor from the ice of the Pale Shoals and setting sail toward the Rustwind Wasteland.

And the Polaris was parked within the abdominal cavity of this giant city.

It was a bullet pressed into a magazine, waiting for the day it would be chambered.

Lu Chen put the three files into the storage compartment under the dashboard, leaned back against the chair, and closed his eyes.

The thirty minutes of reading were over.

He needed a brief rest.

The road ahead was still very long.