The woman was visibly stunned when Qin Feng called out to her. Realising that she was not mistakenly called, the woman quickly replied. “My name is Shang Xian!”
Qin Feng responded with a nod. Producing an energy blaster, he tossed it over to the woman.
“You will supervise them. You and your team will be responsible for clearing out supplies!”
Shang Xian was shocked by Qin Feng’s decision but she nodded nonetheless.
“Understood!”
Skilfully, she wrapped her hands around the blaster’s grip. Little by little, her posture changed upon receiving the weapon.
Satisfied, Qin Feng nodded his head.
No doubt, Shang Xian appeared as frail as a twig. From the perspective of an observer, Qin Feng’s decision was basically a helping hand reaching out to her. So much for “not running a charity”.
However, there was a perfectly rational reason behind Qin Feng’s decision.
Shang Xian was someone whom Qin Feng had personally rescued from her imminent death. It followed that she would feel a sense of obligation out of pure gratitude toward him.
Such a person would in most cases, show extreme loyalty to Qin Feng and would definitely take her job seriously.
While Shang Xian was no aptitude user, her physique was not weak either. Her rapid recovery from the day before was the best testament to this.
After coming back to camp, Qin Feng made some enquiries and from there, he learnt that Shang Xian ran the store in which she was rescued. Her husband was an aptitude user from Han Town but it was likely that he had met his demise out in the streets.
Considering how depressing her current situation was, Shang Xian must have been a capable person to be able to push forward. At the very least, Qin Feng was sure that her management skills could be relied upon.
The ordinary civilians boarded the huge bus and one of the few who could drive was assigned to operate the vehicle.
There was another group of people, all aptitude users from Fengli colony led by Wang Chen. Their numbers were not something you would boast about, with ten or so team members. This group was the designated reserve team, dispatched in case of any emergencies to rescue frontline teams in distress.
These aptitude users too, boarded the bus. Now that everyone was on board, Qin Feng and Bai Li climbed onto the umbra stallion. They led the way and advanced swiftly into Han Town’s Northern district.
After yesterday’s massacre, coupled with the beast-repelling powder scattered all across the streets, this area was safer than it ever was. Fighting from this spot, there was at least guarantee that the people under Qin Feng would stay safe from any ambushes.
In the fallen Han Town, one night was all it took for the signs of insectoid activity to surface.
Standing in the middle of a wide street, Qin Feng waited patiently for the incoming battle.
Soon, the traces of a hoverboard could be seen hurtling toward him from afar.
Apart from that, in the narrow alleys that branched off of the main street, he could observe shadows dashing here and there–it was Zhou Hao and his men.
Behind them were at least thirty to forty hungry insectoids.
Hot on their tails, these insectoids reached out as far as they could, as if they were about to tear the people into hundreds of tasty morsels.
In order to enhance the effectiveness of their baiting tactic, Zhou Hao ordered his men to bring a piece of fresh meat with them. Though, it was not human flesh which the insectoids were so keen on having. Instead, it was a giant field rat they had just hunted earlier this morning.
The smell of fresh blood caught the attention of these insectoids just as they had planned. Unbeknownst to these buggy critters, they were heading straight into a hellish trap.
Zhou Hao and his team arrived beside Qin Feng, whose position was already encircled by a sea of insectoids.
Without hesitation, Qin Feng unleashed his attack.
“Hellfire Carpet!”
Like a carpet, the ground was covered by a layer of fire, turning the sea of insectoids into a sea of flames.
The frontmost insectoid hurled itself at Qin Feng, thinking that it was about to bring down the mastermind of their demise.
“Asteroid Assimilation!”
“Repulsion!”
Qin Feng’s Asteroid Assimilation created a force field around them, sending the surrounding insectoids flying back where they came from.
Then, countless deadly fragments came raining down, which Zhou Hao and his men shielded the rest of the team against. Lu Meng’s accurate rifle fire also proved to be an incredibly useful asset out on the battlefield.
Hundreds of these insectoids were wiped out within the first few minutes. Some stragglers left around ground zero attempted to escape but were hunted down and finished off by Wang Chen, Bai Li and the other aptitude users.
“The clearing process is complete. Let the ones from the back come over!”
Qin Feng spoke into his communicator.
“Yes, Mr Qin!” Shang Xian replied briefly. Right after that, one of the vehicles was driven into the freshly-cleared street.
“You guys go rescue the trapped ones!” Qin Feng ordered.
Wang Chen, as well as the aptitude users from Fengli colony all looked at Qin Feng with admiration.
They were awed by Qin Feng’s power. Upon witnessing the battle, they had nothing but respect for the man.
If they were to follow him as the leader of their colony, their glory in the future was pretty much guaranteed.
While Qin Feng offered them a hundred thousand yuan as an initial fee for the mission, there were still going to be rewards from rescuing survivors as well as finishing off the occasional straggler or two. That was more than enough to fill up their pockets.
A good analogy for this was Qin Feng having steak while they drank nothing but soup. Even so, this soup was already more than they could ever ask for.
In fact, they felt that the mission that was currently being conducted was not even something that an E-tier aptitude user could handle.
Using this tactic, it was not even half an hour before they had cleared up a main road as well as the surrounding buildings and connected streets.
At this rate, it would only take them at most, another three to four days before the Northern district of Han Town could be declared safe.
In just a day’s time, Qin Feng and his team managed to clear eighty five streets and at least five small community pockets.
One should keep in mind that this was no longer the outskirts of Han Town; this was the heart of the insectoid territory. Their speed was on par, if not, faster than a three to four hundred man clearing team.
Before night fell, Qin Feng’s clearing mission had reached its final stage.
“We don’t need to return to the provisional camp for tonight. Look for a hotel to hole up in. Blow a whistle when you find a suitable one. After all, this entire place’s been cleared!”
Even though Han Town had fallen into the insectoids’ hands for more than ten days, living here was much more comfortable than the dreaded provisional colony!
“Oh God! This feels like heaven! I don’t think I can return to my hardwood bed back at the camp!” Lu Meng exclaimed.
Even the ordinary civilians who participated in today’s mission agreed to stay in the town.
It took just a single day for them to build this level of trust toward Qin Feng.
So what if Han Town had fallen? It would not be long before the day they would recapture their home.
In the team, only Wang Chen was tasked with selling the materials they had gathered earlier today back at the camp. Though, special-grade materials like beast general items were left with the team instead of being sold off. These would, in the future, be stored into Fengli colony’s inventory.
In the ten or more days to come, Qin Feng and his team remained within the interiors of Han Town. Receiving a constant inflow of aptitude users as reinforcement from the headquarters, they managed to turn the tide of war in a relatively short amount of time.
Together with his team, Qin Feng managed to liberate both the Northern district as well as a majority of the Western district.
They had also freed up the Central district where the density of insectoids was the highest.
This territory used to be occupied by a fertile Steel-limb Broodmother, hence the blacksteel ants were nowhere to be found. Now that there were no queen-tier monsters around this place, this area posed little to no threat to the group as Qin Feng wiped it clean.
Instead, it was the anthill of the Eastern district that was a brewing disaster.
On this day, the countdown for the liberation of Han Town had started!
Buzz!
A blinding ray of silver was released as the space stabilising device rose into the air, patching up the spatial rift in a matter of seconds.
The crack hanging in the sky above Han Town had finally gone away!
Everyone around wore a big satisfied smile regardless of whether they were the residents of Han Town or volunteering aptitude users.
The liberation of Han Town had entered its final phase.
The only one with knitted brows then, was the Commander, Chi Long.
On the second day, Chi Long made his announcement. According to his plan, WMDs* were to be used to completely annihilate the anthill.
This implied that after the campaign, Han Town would have a large piece of land which was unusable for hundreds of generations to come!
In the areas surrounding the anthill, a colossal ring was made with beast-repelling powder, accompanied by a team of sappers building fortifications.
“Hurry up!”
The aptitude users urged. There were at least a thousand ordinary civilians, all shouldering sandbags that were used to completely encircle the anthill. The diameter of this fortified ring was a whole three hundred meters across.
In spots where buildings were present, these buildings were integrated into the ring. Where no buildings were present, they built a primitive but sturdy wall using whatever scraps they managed to find.
Aptitude users who possessed earth, metal and wood-based abilities all came in to help reinforce the protective circle too.