Chapter 1866 - 1865: The Attack (Major - , Seeking Monthly Votes)

"Of course not!" Anke shook his head hurriedly.

He pointed to the power level of the truck, "Ilotan is far from here. Relying on the truck’s electric power and fuel cells, it’s simply not enough to reach Ilotan, and it’s impossible for the people inside to stay hungry all the way to Ilotan."

Then he minimized the map, which showed special marked points, "This map is clearly customized internally, showing supply points. If we were a normal transport, resupplying at these points would be just fine, but we’re not. Following this road to the supply points could get us discovered by the mercenary corps."

"So, what’s your idea?" He Ao asked with a smile, "Leave them in the wilderness and walk away?"

"Look, this first supply point ahead, I remember I’ve been there. It’s a Wanderer Camp," Anke pointed at a spot on the map, speaking slowly, "I remember here—"

He scrolled down the map, and a junction below the supply point appeared, "See, here’s a fork in the road. You can go east directly through this road. I did the math, based on the truck’s power and fuel cell, they only need to refuel once in the middle, and they can reach Kailante City."

"Kailante City?" He Ao asked curiously.

"It’s a small city in the mid-east, right at the front lines," Anke nodded, continually zooming out the map, "Currently, this city is controlled by Yilan City, and it’s close to West Carter."

"Yilan?" He Ao whispered, "That name sounds familiar."

"You’ve heard of Yilan City?" Anke was slightly stunned.

"Not Yilan, but Yilanser," He Ao recalled, "It’s a relatively large independent city-state in the mid-east of the continent, a bustling trade city similar to Kovotra. I’ve stopped over there."

"That should be Yilan City, or its predecessor," Anke slowly said, "Yilan City is also in the Federation’s mid-east, it’s the fourth largest city, anyway, very large indeed, and it’s currently on the rebel side, and their City Defense Army is formidable."

"From your description, it seems like the rebels aren’t entirely unified?" He Ao asked somewhat puzzled.

"They seem to coordinate actions together," Anke shrugged, "and also help each other, but they seem to have their own territories as well. It’s complicated, but it’s the same on the Federation side really. The regions dominated by West Steel and other consortia have clear boundaries."

"Your Federation is quite interesting," He Ao laughed, "Seemingly unified the continent, but internally, there are all sorts of partitions."

"Well, that’s the business of the lords," Anke sighed, "We just want a bite to eat."

He continued to flip through the map on the car’s navigator, finding a crossroad on the map, "There should be a neutral Wanderer Camp here where they can resupply, and then they can continue their journey. With luck, they might reach there tonight."

He shrugged, "Since they’ve been identified as followers of K, there’re only those places truly believing in ’K’ to go. Hopefully, they won’t become sacrifices to K or fuel for Christos’s mind control."

"Is that Christos that terrifying?" He Ao asked curiously.

"The propaganda used to be quite normal," Anke withdrew his hand, "But as the war started, it got increasingly bizarre. News now says he eats children,"

At that, he subconsciously glanced back at the three children behind him, "Hopefully, they won’t treat their own ’K’ believers so harshly."

He reset the navigator to the original position, slowly driving forward, "But ultimately, it depends on their own decisions. If they want to go back, or go to another city, I can’t stop them. Changing cities should greatly reduce their risk."

"And what about you?" He Ao asked curiously, "You only have one vehicle. If they drive away, what do you do?"

"I’ll walk," Anke laughed, "I’ve made my way half-walking here. Anyway, this crossroads isn’t far from the Wilderness Wanderer camp, it won’t take long for me to walk there. Maybe I can even find a caravan willing to take me home. If they hadn’t marked that camp as a supply point, I’d have driven directly there, but since it’s marked, there’s likely mercenary corps there, so driving there would be too dangerous."

"You’re quite optimistic indeed." He Ao smiled.

"That’s just life," Anke laughed, "Did the old gentleman ever have such experiences? Crossing the wilderness alone, like a wanderer."

"Yes," He Ao spoke carelessly, "When I was young, I was being hunted, running all the way to Xiqilelan."

"Xiqilelan, sounds a bit familiar," Anke curiously asked, "Where is it?"

"I don’t know if you still have such a city now. At that time, Xiqilelan was already quite north," He Ao seemed to fall into memories, "From Kovotra to Xiqilelan, I almost crossed half the continent."

"That was tough for you," Anke sighed, "Were you being hunted by enemies?"

"Sort of," He Ao lightly nodded, "But as the ancients say, misfortune and fortune are interdependent. It was in Xiqilelan that I met my wife."

"So you must have loved her very much." Anke widened his eyes curiously.

"Why do you say that?" He Ao laughed.

"Because you consider meeting her a very fortunate thing, a ’fortune’," Anke said seriously.

"Hahaha," He Ao nodded and laughed, "So, do you have someone you like, kid?"

This question left Anke slightly stunned, then he thought for a moment and shook his head, "I don’t know if it counts."

"Not knowing if it counts means you do, so you’re eager to go home to see her?" He Ao laughed softly.

"No, I want to go back to see my family," Anke shook his head, paused, and continued, "My family is very poor, my mother is seriously ill and needs constant medication, otherwise my elder brother wouldn’t have let me become a mercenary. There are only two kids in our family, being a mercenary gets a one-off settlement fee of five thousand."

He took a deep breath, "Everything was fine, but the other day I heard from comrades from Vissen that my brother broke his leg while working, and my sister-in-law is not well either, can’t do much work, and they have a son."

"What about your father?" He Ao asked softly.

"He passed away a long time ago, when I was young, also fell from the building while working. The company claimed my father damaged their equipment, deducted his salary, and my mother went to ask for compensation but got no response,"

He shrugged, "As time passed, it just went unresolved. People ultimately have to live. A bad life is better than no life."

"So you want to go home eagerly?" He Ao asked slowly.

"Yes, there’s no strong labor left in our family. I can help them by going back," Anke took a deep breath, "In fact, it’s already been delayed for a long time."

He looked at the map, "From here to Ilotan, normally it takes a caravan three to five days. That stupid Federation locked the airspace nearby, so we can’t take an airship, but once in Ilotan, things get better. I searched in the city earlier, and Ilotan’s airspace isn’t locked, so we can take an airship then."

"Is that the balloon flying in the sky you mentioned?" He Ao asked.

"Yes!" Anke nodded, smiling, "That’s the big balloon."

As they spoke, he raised his gaze and glanced ahead.

A wide junction appeared in his field of view. He stepped on the brake, fixing the vehicle, "We’ve arrived!"

Then he turned, pushing open the car door.

He walked towards the back of the car, raised his hand, and opened the trunk.

Crack—

With a loud sound, sunlight poured into the dark cargo hold.

The people inside the cargo hold were all slightly stunned, instinctively shielding their faces, but soon, they adapted to the sunlight, lowered their gazes, and looked up at Anke standing at the cargo hold opening.

Sitting at the edge of the truck bed was the man who had been knocked out by Anke. He had woken up and, upon seeing Anke, immediately lunged at him, "I’ll fight you to the death!"

"No! No!" His wife quickly stopped him, and several others around them extended their hands to hold him back together.

Anke glanced at him, "Brother, sorry about that, but your wife saw it too. If I hadn’t acted, you’d have died right there."

The man was slightly taken aback, raised his head, and looked at his wife.

"Yes," the woman nodded, "A mercenary was about to shoot just now."

The man paused a bit, looking at Anke, unsure of what to say for a moment.

"Your daughter is in the front cabin," Anke said directly, looking at him.

Upon hearing this, the couple was momentarily stunned.

And at this time, Anke had already looked up, looking into the truck bed, "Is there anyone who can drive, who has driven in the wilderness?"

After a short pause, two people raised their hands, "We can!"

They looked at Anke, "So, what are you planning to do?"

"Time is tight, so I’ll keep it short," Anke opened his mouth and quickly explained his plan to them.

After speaking, he shrugged, "Anyway, given the current situation, you guys from West Carter definitely can’t go back now. If you’re not afraid of dying, you can give it a try. Exactly where to go is up to you. I’m in a rush, so I need to go. There are three kids up ahead, remember to claim them."

The crowd was stunned to hear this, and after a while, someone quickly asked, "Is there a little boy, about this tall."

"Yes, he’s also in the cabin," Anke nodded.

The crowd glanced at each other.

At this point, they seemed to finally be starting to believe him.

That man who had just been about to charge at Anke looked at him, stammering, "Are you really a good person?"

"I’m not," Anke shook his head, "In normal circumstances, I definitely wouldn’t save you guys. It’s just that this situation is special."

He certainly couldn’t say that he was currently carrying an old man with a powerful aura hanging with him.

"Anyway, that’s it," he patted the inside of his jacket, felt the strap of his shoulder bag, confirmed that he had his things, and turned around, "You guys figure it out yourselves."

Whew—

At that instant, the sound of speeding vehicles arose not far behind him.

He turned around and saw modified off-road vehicles quickly closing in.

On the off-road vehicles, some people in mercenary clothes could be vaguely seen.

"Oh shit!" Anke suddenly reacted, looking at the people still confused inside the truck bed, "Close the door! Close the door!"

While speaking, he directly stretched his hand to close the truck bed door, latching the clasp.

He turned his head to look at the mercenaries sitting on the off-road vehicles, waved his hand, and spoke, "Hey, brothers—"

Bang—

A gunshot interrupted his words, a bullet splattering mud just in front of him.

Bang bang bang—

"Oh shit oh shit!" Following immediately was a barrage of bullets hitting the armored steel plates of the truck, making a crackling sound.

Anke immediately ducked his head, crouching down, and rushed through the side of the truck bed amidst the rapid gunfire, running back to the side of the driver’s cabin.

"Oh shit, have we run into bandits?" Anke quickly grabbed the nearby radio, turned it on, and searched the frequencies. Soon, the radio connected.

"Oh shit, ’friendly forces’? Going crazy? How could they appear here?"

Anke pressed the communication button on the radio, quickly shouting, "Friendly! Friendly! Do not shoot! Do not shoot!"

But in response, there were still dense bullets.

The bullets splattering on the bulletproof glass made a crackling sound.

At this point, Anke no longer tried, he turned off the radio and started the vehicle, "Looks like we’ve been exposed. Fortunately, this truck is bulletproof."

He floored the gas pedal, the massive off-road truck sped up.

He glanced at the side mirrors, and the off-road vehicles behind were very close.

Whack—

A stray bullet hit the side mirror, shattering it.

No problem, the truck is bulletproof at least; they shouldn’t be able to do anything to me for now.

Anke kept his foot on the gas, watching the road ahead.

Bang—

At that moment, the bulletproof glass on the driver’s side shattered with a bang, a slender high heel stretched in, followed by a leg wrapped in black long legwear, gracefully long like a sculpture, passing by Anke’s eyes.

A kick that shattered the bulletproof glass, what kind of deity is this?

This sudden change startled Anke so much that his hand trembled, causing the whole vehicle to shake violently. He quickly turned the steering wheel, slightly decelerating to stabilize the vehicle.

By this time, the leg had already withdrawn. Two long ponytails hung down from outside the window, and a beautiful face that looked only eighteen or nineteen appeared outside the window.

Anke finally managed to control the vehicle, stopped it, and just happened to turn his head to see that unusually beautiful face.

This was the first time he had seen such a beautiful girl, causing him to be slightly stunned, as if losing his mind.

"This girl," an old voice sounded in his ear, waking him from his daze, "looks a bit familiar."