Grindbone Ambush Shooters.
They were Landbreaker combatants equipped with basic ranged weapons.
Even though they'd only received rudimentary marksmanship training and their aim was terrible, plenty of people still died to their crossbow bolts.
Together with several Grindbone Marauders, they set up a roadside camp and ambush in the under-construction zone, successfully catching an Elafia union worker—and humiliating him without restraint.
Fortunately, he was rescued in time.
"Thank you… This is so embarrassing. To think I got grabbed and mocked by a bunch of petty thieves."
The Elafia uncle—antlers on his head—thanked them with a face full of shame.
He seemed to believe that as a union worker, he shouldn't be getting pushed around by Landbreakers.
"Petty thieves? Landbreakers are pretty dangerous for regular people," Chen Qianyu said, exasperated.
In her eyes, union members were workers, not soldiers. There was no need to act tough over something like this.
Of course, she wasn't saying all union workers were ordinary—there were certainly capable individuals among them.
This brown-haired, antlered guy just clearly wasn't one of them.
"Huh… from the looks of you, you're Endfield people?"
The Elafia uncle noticed the Endfield emblem on their clothes and spoke in surprise.
"Then the Anchor situation's been handled?"
"The base is safe for now."
Perlica nodded lightly. "But the Landbreakers' incursion was unexpected. We're here to deal with that problem."
Hearing that, the Elafia uncle fell silent for a moment—then blurted out something startlingly hardline:
"Kill all the Landbreakers?"
"Ahem… I'm not against that," Chen Qianyu cut in quickly, "but the urgent priority is making sure the route is safe. The base is full of wounded—we need to restore operations as soon as possible."
"…Right."
Humiliated and running hot, he still understood what mattered most, so he didn't keep pushing the "wipe them out" line.
"I've already lost face once. I can't be trouble again… Once I confirm the facilities are okay, I'll head back immediately. If you run into my other two brothers on the road, tell them to come find me."
"Two brothers?"
Hao Fan, who'd been searching bodies, heard that and immediately thought of the Perro uncle they'd rescued earlier.
"We saved a Perro man too. He said if we saw his brothers, we should tell them to bring their tools and help him repair the facilities."
"Then that's definitely my brother!"
The Elafia uncle hurriedly replied.
"Then I'll go help him first. You all be careful too."
"Yeah. Stay safe."
Watching him leave, Hao Fan noticed his gait was a bit off—his leg had probably been injured by the Landbreakers.
But the road had already been cleared, so he shouldn't run into danger again.
"Alright, let's keep moving."
Hao Fan stood up. Search complete.
These Landbreakers were poor beyond belief—aside from Grass Seed Powder, they didn't even have a single folded-gold bill on them. It killed his motivation to keep looting.
Perlica, however, was genuinely interested in the Grass Seed Powder.
She really did seem intent on using this canned powder—mixed with fragments of grass-seed shells—after everything was over, following that recipe they found earlier, and cooking a Seshka-style meat steak herself just to taste it.
Honestly, Hao Fan felt like this Liberi girl was basically a pelican in human form—ready to try anything.
Even if it turned into some cursed dish, she'd probably still eat it without blinking.
He didn't understand it, but he respected it.
From there, they continued clearing Landbreakers along the way—killing one Grindbone Marauder after another, along with Grindbone Ambush Shooters.
And beyond that, they encountered a new enemy—more accurately, a beast:
Grindbone Rending Fangbeasts.
These were small war-beasts controlled by armed Landbreakers.
They were far more vicious than the wild fangbeasts native to the valley—and absolutely loyal to the Landbreakers who raised them.
To be honest, Hao Fan would rather duel a Grindbone Marauder than face a Rending Fangbeast.
Those things ran fast. With his awful aim, he couldn't hit them with the handgun—nor could he hide from their sharp sense of smell.
Which almost got him bitten.
Luckily, he had Wave in hand. When the handgun couldn't land a shot, he could just drive a sword through the beast and end it.
"Seriously… I never expected the first blood on the sword Andre gave me would be spilled on a beast," Hao Fan sighed, helpless. "And the most annoying part is—aside from the meat on its body, it had nothing on it."
He realized he wasn't good at dealing with agile enemies, because handguns were useless when you couldn't hit what you were aiming at.
That said, compared to the beginning, he was gradually adapting to combat. He no longer felt sick to his stomach at the sight of corpses.
Of course—even so—
He was still a weak nobody, and he was fully aware of it.
"Huh? Another union worker?"
At that moment, Hao Fan saw another green dot on the map.
But the scene this time was different from the previous two.
The Landbreakers who should've been lording it over people were already knocked out cold on the ground.
A brawny man with horns—wearing sunglasses—had just finished a one-versus-two fight. He was panting as he rested, and then noticed someone approaching.
"Hm. I thought it was those two… You Endfield people?"
The Forte uncle stood up, sounding tired.
"Yes. You're hurt… Did you do this?"
Chen Qianyu looked at the unconscious Landbreaker at the foot of the steps, and the other one knocked out by the fence, and couldn't hide her surprise.
This uncle had skills—way better than the Elafia guy from earlier.
No wonder. A Forte, after all.
"More or less."
The Forte uncle answered calmly.
"Can't handle Angels, but these drifters? All brawn, no technique. Not even as good as the guys I used to fight bare-knuckle against on Ashbore Atoll."
Even so, fighting armed opponents with bare hands was bound to leave injuries.
So Perlica stepped up with a suggestion:
"We'll make sure there's a relatively safe route back to Hub Base. You can return and receive treatment."
The Forte uncle didn't object.
He really did need somewhere safe to recover, so he planned to head back first—back to Workers' Home beside Hub Base—and then find Dr. Miguel to check his wounds.
"Oh, right. Before this guy passed out, I asked him a couple questions," the Forte uncle said, glancing at the unconscious Landbreaker. "He could barely talk, but it sounded like they came from the north."
"The north… I can kind of see something over there, but I'm not dealing with it right now. Landbreakers—tch."
Hearing that, Perlica couldn't help sinking into thought.
"The north… There is a refugee settlement over there trying to integrate into the Union Workers' League. But these Landbreakers are also coming from the north?"
Valley No. 4 was broadly divided into six regions:
Hub Zone
Valley Corridor
Aberly Quarry
Originium Research Garden
Ore Vein Source Region
Power Supply Highlands
The "north" the Forte uncle mentioned likely pointed toward the Valley Corridor or the Power Supply Highlands. It seemed worth investigating.
Perlica filed the information away.
Meanwhile, beside the unconscious Landbreaker, Hao Fan discovered a storage crate.
"There are some supplies in there provided by the Tower-Ring Chamber of Commerce," the Forte uncle added casually before leaving. "If you can use them, take whatever you need."
Everyone knew the Union Workers' League had logistical support from the Chamber of Commerce.
Union workers weren't short on supplies.
"Thanks, uncle… Oh, right—your two brothers are looking for you. They're getting ready to repair the facilities."
"Got it. I'm going."
They watched the brawny Forte uncle leave.
Then Hao Fan eagerly opened the storage crate—only to find, to his utter disbelief, a Howling Guard handgun identical to his own.
"…Uh. Anyone want this?"
He bent down, picked up the handgun, and asked.
The rest of the crisis response team all shook their heads.
One was skilled with swords. One was skilled with arts. One was skilled with both.
And all of them, without exception, were terrible with guns.
So Hao Fan had no choice but to keep it himself.
"Dual pistols… not impossible, I guess."
He figured using two handguns at once would double his firepower.
The downside was switching back to a one-handed sword would be awkward—easy to expose an opening.
Aside from that, he also found several Weapon Inspection Units in the crate.
He'd heard Andre mention these before.
They were disposable micro-units built with integrated industrial tech—capable of automatically inspecting parts of a weapon, repairing hidden damage, and even slightly improving performance.
In plain terms: materials for weapon enhancement.
"Administrator, you hold onto these. I don't have Protocol Originium yet—I can't carry them."
"No problem. If you need them, just ask."
The Administrator took the Weapon Inspection Units and stored them directly inside the Protocol Originium on her wrist—like it was some kind of storage ring.
And right then, faint Landbreaker voices drifted from the distance:
"Cut the wires! Smash the switches! Break the box!"
....
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