Chapter 146: Chapter 137: Striking with a Heavy Fist and Important News
January 5th. One-third of the time for the eighth rule had passed.
Liu Yuqiang, the head of the logistics department at Qingmei Base, received the latest directive from Administrator Han Ling: recall the external "material collection teams" to the base as soon as possible.
The order was sudden and urgent. While immediately making the arrangements, Liu Yuqiang also pondered the reason behind it.
The base had always sent people out to acquire more supplies.
But to suddenly recall everyone without any warning... something must have happened.
Sitting in his office, Liu Yuqiang thought, ’Could this be related to the Supporter system that’s been spreading like wildfire online?’
Unlike Gu Fei, Chen Na, Jiang Ming, and the others, he—as a former member of the Qingmei Association and the current head of the Qingmei Base logistics department—was authorized to use the internet within the base.
This was because he was already in too deep. Both the highest-ranking Commander-in-Chief and the base administrator, Han Ling, knew very well that if Liu Yuqiang were to leak any secrets, he would be harming not only himself but also everyone connected to him.
Liu Yuqiang himself had always understood this. There was no turning back for him.
However, a recent event at the base sent a chill down his spine.
Namely, the disappearance of Yu Feiwei.
Although he had never liked Yu Feiwei—finding the man too selfish, cold-blooded, and utterly lacking in reverence for human life—he knew Yu Feiwei was loyal to the Qingmei Association and, by extension, to ’Big Sister.’
Moreover, Yu Feiwei had controlled the base’s finances, with millions of Sublimation Coins at his disposal. A man in such a key position shouldn’t have just vanished.
But since the day before yesterday, Yu Feiwei hadn’t been seen, and his duties had been transferred to someone else.
Although Han Ling hadn’t said so explicitly, Liu Yuqiang knew Yu Feiwei was likely dead.
He suspected it was related to the intel on the current rule.
Yu Feiwei had always wanted to raise his single-digit Psychic Power cap, and this rule was the perfect opportunity. All he needed was to have the Resource Bodies locked away on the lowest level tailor some challenges for him.
Liu Yuqiang figured that, given Yu Feiwei’s personality, he must have requested permission from ’Big Sister’ the moment he got the news. The outcome, however, was likely disappointing for him.
Though he’d only met ’Big Sister’ once or twice, Liu Yuqiang could sense that she was a person who appeared friendly and approachable but was bone-chillingly cold underneath.
And ever since he’d seen the thousand-plus people imprisoned in the lowest level of the base, he knew that when it came to disregarding human life, Yu Feiwei paled in comparison to ’Big Sister.’
’The exposure of the Supporter system is a threat to our base, too... Did ’Big Sister’ get some internal intel from the officials? Is that why she issued the urgent order to recall all external personnel and lie low?’
As a former business magnate, Liu Yuqiang had a sharp mind. His guess was not far from the truth.
Meanwhile, having made their decision, the officials quickly launched an internal operation codenamed "Wild Storm."
The operation’s objective was for its forces to strike like a storm: fast, fierce, and wide-ranging, to swiftly destroy their targets.
After the country entered a state of war, a large force was initially needed to maintain public order. But as time went on, the situation in the major cities stabilized.
This freed up a large number of armed squads to be dispatched for external missions.
This time, the officials were determined to dismantle the rogue organizations in the wilderness running Supporter systems. To this end, they dispatched hundreds of armed squads, using collected intel to sweep the areas surrounding the project sites.
Accompanying the armed squads were several Official Teams and their reserve members, totaling nearly one hundred people—a formidable force in its own right.
This time, the officials weren’t messing around. Military airfields across the country were on standby. If any armed squad encountered a powerful hostile organization, they could call for an airstrike at a moment’s notice.
An operation of this scale quickly yielded results.
For several days, the thread on the Ascender’s Home website tracking Supporter-created projects saw constant updates.
Supporters kept posting updates, reporting that the organizations that had coerced them had been eliminated, and that they and the other Supporters within them had been set free.
The ones who eliminated these organizations were described as "fully armed combat personnel." Although these individuals didn’t explicitly state their affiliation, the power they represented was self-evident.
So, even though the officials intended to keep the operation secret, the news spread rapidly: The North Star Country government had begun deploying soldiers to secretly strike down the rogue Sponsor Organizations.
When this news broke, the general public was overwhelmingly supportive, as this action directly protected their interests.
Meanwhile, the organizations that had established Supporter systems were thrown into a panic.
These organizations had operated under the assumption that the officials wouldn’t meddle in affairs outside the cities, allowing them to act with impunity. Now, it seemed, things were changing.
To save their own skins, these organizations were forced to immediately go into hiding, retreat, or even abandon their top-ranked projects, all in a desperate attempt to evade the official pursuit.
But they were far too naive. With the officials’ surveillance and strike capabilities, finding them with even a few leads was a simple matter. And once they were found, annihilating them was even easier than the search.
Even when they encountered larger organizations with more members and a few powerful individuals that an armed squad couldn’t easily defeat, they simply called for long-range support.
