"Good lad! Are you a soldier who made it back from the Fourth Mobile Unit? We have over a hundred soldiers from the Fourth Mobile Unit here too. I heard the soldiers from the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Mobile Units are all new recruits, right? Yet, your movements are smoother than any veteran's... Alright, kid, most of the senior NCOs in my unit are dead, and I'm still short one Sergeant Major... You'll serve as a substitute until you die, Zheng Zha. Organize the troops and keep advancing!"

Lieutenant Lai Qi of the Iron Hand was the commander of this unit. Immediately after Zheng Zha obliterated the giant fire-breathing beetle, he ordered a soldier to pull Zheng Zha back from the swarm's edge. Then, he commanded the unit to fire while retreating. Only when everyone was several dozen meters clear of the wormhole did he order the soldiers to attack it with a micro-nuclear bomb. With a tremendous roar, a small mushroom cloud billowed into the sky, and the wormhole instantly collapsed.

Zheng Zha was not in good shape; one of his arms had been pierced clean through by the insect's sharp mandibles, penetrating right through the main humerus bone. His right arm would be completely immobilized for a short time. Even with his incredible recovery rate, if the bone itself was damaged, he wouldn't fully recover quickly; such an injury would require at least a full day to heal completely.

Lieutenant Iron Hand, however, had an extremely good impression of Zheng Zha. He had stepped forward during such a crisis, not only eliminating that huge fire-breathing beetle but also saving this loose military organization from immediate dissolution, ensuring everyone survived. Therefore, as soon as he destroyed the beetle, he immediately assigned the acting Sergeant Major post to Zheng Zha and promoted him to Corporal. However, it was a pity that Zheng Zha wasn't very adept at large-scale troop deployment and organization. He was more suited to being a special forces captain, skilled in commanding skirmishes of ten or so people. Matters of organizing large formations were entirely left to Chu Xuan, Wang Xia, and Ba Wang—it had to be admitted that these three personnel from military backgrounds were far better at the intricate details of troop management than he was.

"Truly idiotic."

Chu Xuan constantly sneered in derision. He held utter contempt for this so-called Earth Alliance Army. To fight an alien insectoid race that relied on physical combat, those idiotic politicians and officers actually sent infantry to engage in ground combat, and this was done with virtually no heavy firepower or mechanized ground units. No coordination between infantry and artillery, no aerial fire superiority, no high-tech weaponry whatsoever—such an army was nothing more than trash clad in the skin of advanced future civilization. Those politicians and high-ranking officials had merely sent them to their deaths!

"...If it were only this, it would be bearable, but they don't even adhere to some basic rules of military conduct... This is unbelievable. An army like this existing in reality seems highly improbable. There must be some unknown element in this world's history. When we get back to the spaceship, you should be able to access the network with your Corporal status. I need to properly investigate why all of this has occurred," Chu Xuan murmured, resting his chin on his slender hand.

"While that may be so, we still need to get through the immediate situation first. How about it? What did the Sixth Mobile Unit say?" Zheng Zha asked with a wry smile, feeling helpless against Chu Xuan in this state.

Chu Xuan stated flatly, "Over eight thousand six hundred people remain, but the rear three thousand or so are basically entangled with the ground bugs of the main force. At most, five thousand can link up with us, and most of those five thousand are wounded or deserters lacking the will to fight... If we encounter another bug siege, our chance of death rises to over eighty percent, unless we use the Green Devil Skateboard to escape."

Zheng Zha nodded and then looked toward Zhan Lan beside him, "Have you located the other team? Since they can use psychic shielding, they shouldn't be too far from us, right? Unless their psychic controller's power is vastly superior to yours, though that seems unlikely..."

Zhan Lan nodded. "They are about twenty kilometers away from us, positioned over another underground area I can't probe, roughly five hundred meters deep. But outside the shielded zone, there are many bugs closing in on us... Zheng Zha, you aren't actually thinking of running over there to engage them, are you?"

Zheng Zha chuckled, rubbing Zhan Lan's hair. "Don't worry, I'm not that reckless. If I weren't injured, if they were close to the surface, and if they weren't surrounded by bugs, I might take the Green Devil Petal to go meet them... But where are there so many 'ifs'? Heh, right now, we should be running away from them. Don't worry, I won't go throw my life away. Before I return alive to the real world, I have no interest in dying..."

Ba Wang had been meticulously examining the gruesome wound on Zheng Zha's right arm. The bleeding had stopped, but the laceration went right to the bone. Ba Wang shook his head. "There's no helping it—a comminuted fracture penetrating the bone. Based on your current recovery speed, if your bone isn't stabilized within twelve hours, unless we re-break and reset it, your regeneration will fuse the bone back into a deformity. Haha, Zheng Zha, looks like you're going to feel the pain again."

Zheng Zha offered a bitter smile but remained silent, allowing Ba Wang to wrap his arm tightly with medical tape.

After Zheng Zha received the Sergeant Major rank, he essentially began commanding the entire force. Although it was only a remnant unit of just over a thousand men, under Chu Xuan's reorganization, their marching and troop distribution saw significant improvements. Not only did the entire unit's speed increase, but the rate of casualties among the rear guard, which had been constantly diminishing, also dropped. Especially when passing several rocky slopes, the timely detonation of micro-nuclear bombs placed by him and Wang Xia not only blocked the paths but also killed a large number of bugs. What surprised them was that these bugs killed by the explosions were counted towards the Reincarnation Squad's reward points, although the average amount each person received was quite small.

Regardless, the army's combat effectiveness and marching efficiency were improving. The senior commissioned officers saw this clearly, and after a few successful ambushes on the slopes, Lieutenant Iron Hand Lai Qi made Zheng Zha's acting Sergeant Major status official. That provisional title was finally removed.

Then, about an hour later, the group rendezvoused with the remnants of the Sixth Mobile Unit’s advance party. Speaking of an advance party, it was really just soldiers who had discarded their firearms; they were running much faster, which is why they had outpaced the main body. Some of them were already hysterical. They completely ignored the shouts and attempts to stop them by the soldiers of the Tough Guy Unit, merely continuing to run forward blankly until Chu Xuan directly ordered a squad of soldiers to open fire, killing at least a hundred of them. Only then did the soldiers of that advance party finally calm down—or rather, they began to feel fear.

Luo Gan Dao stared at the hundred mutilated corpses and the blood slicking the ground; the young man trembled uncontrollably. Trembling, he mumbled, "Is this man a demon? Doesn't he feel hesitation or fear? Damn it, he just gave the order like that—these aren't bugs..."

Zheng Zha gently patted his shoulder, a touch that almost made the young man jump. Only when he clearly saw it was Zheng Zha did he look away with a complicated expression. Zheng Zha then slowly said, "He is like that. Actually, he is much better now than he used to be... Heh, I can't describe exactly how much better, but at least now he won't treat our team members the way he used to. Previously, besides treating us the same way, he even treated himself the same way... Uh, I swear, he is certainly already plotting how to deal with you in his mind right now—maybe setting up a conspiracy for you to fall into, or laying a trap to get rid of you, all while making it look natural. Heh, the moment you aimed your rifle at us, he must have already started planning."

Luo Gan Dao instantly jumped in fright, almost shouting, "Impossible! He saved me back then!" As these words burst out, everyone nearby turned to look at him. Luo Gan Dao finally let out a breath and continued speaking in a low voice.

"That guy is not human. There were only minor signs before, and he immediately analyzed so much, along with his utterly cold-blooded planning—to kill everyone present, kill them all... Zheng Zha, I didn't do anything to betray the team, did I? Aiming my gun at them before was just a subconscious reaction. I fought hard for the team before, didn't I?"

Luo Gan Dao was clearly terrified of Chu Xuan. When he realized his past actions had made Chu Xuan harbor murderous intent toward him, the young man began to tremble violently. He grabbed Zheng Zha's right arm and urgently said to Zheng Zha.

Zheng Zha felt a sharp pain in his right arm but did not pull away from Luo Gan Dao's grip. He just reached into his chest pocket with his left hand and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, offering one to Luo Gan Dao. After lighting his own cigarette, he slowly said, "Luo Gan Dao, I won't say much else. There is only one thing you must remember: we are partners standing side by side; we are comrades who share life and death. Perhaps you cannot fully grasp what I mean right now, but think about it yourself. If you live just to survive, willing to abandon everything, willing to betray everything—won't you feel lonely and weary?"

"So, regardless of whether Chu Xuan considers you the biggest instability in the team, I still believe this... Even if you were an orphan, wouldn't you still feel lonely and weary when injured?"