Chapter 1472: Chapter 1470: Ambition
A dozen minutes later.
After walking quite a distance, Ma Qiu Philip stopped, glanced back, and realized that the father and son they had encountered earlier were no longer in sight.
However, the sunken and emaciated appearance of the duo lingered vividly in his mind.
The pale face, the bloated skin, the feeble steps...
"Compared to me, they have a distinct difference. It seems that not only do I need to get the details right, but I must also fast for a while to make my disguise more convincing, to infiltrate Grey Forest City more smoothly," Ma Qiu murmured.
As soon as he finished speaking, Ma Qiu sighed, "Sigh, it’s really not easy. If I had known, I wouldn’t have chosen this job."
No, he still would have chosen it.
Ma Qiu had just finished speaking when he denied it in his heart.
Yes, even if he had known how difficult it would be, he would still have chosen it.
After all, he has ambition.
He is well aware of his lack of ability, so he is willing to put in more effort than others to achieve a certain goal.
Back at Atlantis University, he went to great lengths to become a temporary assistant in order to stay.
Later, he used a lot of methods to become a real assistant.
If the world had continued to develop steadily like this, he would have been satisfied because he knew that securing an assistant position with his abilities was already quite good, and further progress was too difficult.
But the world did not continue to develop steadily.
Three years ago, blazes of fire ascended densely, countless "Suns" blossomed in the night, and ever since, dawn never appeared on the horizon again, marking the beginning of the New Era.
For many people outside Shalin, the New Era was undoubtedly a thorough Black Era, full of hardships and bitter days, much like the father and son he saw earlier.
But for some within Shalin, especially for those in Atlantis City and its surrounding areas, like him, it’s different, a Light Era.
Shalin’s Black Sun plan did not target the forces attacking Shalin, causing little damage to these people, only surprising them at most.
But then, things quickly took a turn.
The forces attacking Shalin were firmly blocked outside the Atlantis Region defense line, unable to advance under the onslaught of endlessly emerging new weapons. As their provisions were slowly exhausted, and their retreat plan thwarted by Shalin troops returning from the Chaotic Mountain Range, these forces began surrendering systematically.
The first to surrender were the stationed troops of neighboring territories, followed by troops in specially protected zones.
Soron’s direct troops from Reef Rock Castle held out the longest, but after a week, they couldn’t endure any longer.
Because all the provisions were almost entirely consumed, the warhorses nearly slaughtered, continuing to hold on had no meaning.
Many regiment captains instructed their soldiers to lay down their arms and raise the white flag.
They announced that they had sacrificed enough for the Alliance—their soldiers were half dead, they themselves severely injured. If they saw any hope of winning this war, they naturally would have held out, but not seeing any hope, persisting would only lead to their entire regiment’s annihilation.
They felt they had done nothing wrong by the Alliance; they had bled enough, now they just wanted to live for themselves.
In just one day, nearly half of Reef Rock Castle’s troops surrendered.
On the second day, almost all of the rest surrendered too.
However, Soron did not surrender; he gathered the last of the provisions and led his most elite core team, breaking through the blockade in the direction of the Chaotic Mountain Range at great cost, to retreat into the Alliance territory.
Some speculated that Soron would once again train his troops and prepare provisions, waiting for the sky to brighten to return to Shalin and wash away the shame of his first defeat.
But the sky never brightened.
Soron couldn’t gather provisions in the increasingly severe famine conditions, let alone train new troops; in fact, even retaining the remaining remnant soldiers became progressively untenable.
A year later, accompanied by his most loyal subordinates leaving, Soron disappeared completely from everyone’s sight.
Some say Soron was assassinated by killers sent by the Shalin Sect, others say he is hiding somewhere in seclusion, yet some claim he died of illness in a small town.
But regardless, Soron indeed never appeared again.
Soron’s disappearance marked a symbol—a sign of the chaos across the continent entering a new level, with massive population shifts towards Shalin, and once populated areas being continuously abandoned, turning into wastelands.
And after Shalin accumulated enough manpower, it began to rapidly expand, leveling mountains and filling lakes, building new cities at preselected locations, quietly dominating most of the world’s Order.
In this process, Shalin’s demand for mid-level manpower gradually became evident—bottom-level manpower provides the most fundamental productivity, and upper-level manpower conducts research and designs the "superstructure."
But besides bottom-level and upper-level manpower, a sufficient amount of mid-level manpower is also needed to coordinate, manage, and communicate up and down to ensure the efficient and smooth operation of the entire Shalin governance system.
Many seized this opportunity, rising from bottom-level manpower to mid-level, even approaching the threshold of upper-level manpower.
Regarding this, Ma Qiu was a bit envious.
Because compared with those people, his conditions weren’t much worse; perhaps he wasn’t very skilled, but after all, he was a student of Atlantis University, in its first year of enrollment.
Those who leaped across identity levels, many should indeed call him senior.
As a senior, how could he be inferior to his juniors?
He didn’t want to stay in school all his life, so he resolutely came out to strive for a greater future.
Thus, after many twists and turns, he became a low-ranking officer in the Shalin military intelligence system.
Regarding joining the military, he pondered it very clearly—to ensure Shalin’s efficient management for a long span and to face the various challenges Shalin currently encounters, the military would become one of Shalin’s pillar forces.
Therefore, becoming part of the military would offer many opportunities to climb up.
However, to be honest, he was somewhat afraid of death and did not wish to fight on the front lines, so he joined the intelligence system. In his view, this should be an absolute civil servant role, where one only needs to compile some data in the rear to safely progress.
But after joining, he discovered things diverged somewhat.
The intelligence system indeed required personnel in the rear to compile data, but it also needed intelligence officers to infiltrate enemy regions and collect first-hand detailed data—simply put, spies.
After all, compiling data’s premise is having data first.
Unfortunately, he was appointed as an Intelligence Officer, tasked with gathering various intelligence, and now he is carrying out the mission of collecting intelligence in Grey Forest City.
