Chapter 116: The Effect

Sneaking back to Huanghua Town, Zhou Liming finally turned on his Communicator to prevent others from mistakenly thinking that some outsider had broken in.

Zhou Liming returned to his room, threw the bag onto the bed, and waved his fist excitedly to express the excitement he was feeling right now. Thirty-five or thirty-six million—a figure he could never have touched in his entire previous life. But tonight, he truly possessed it. Judging by the current rising speed of gold prices, this figure would continue to change.

However, Zhou Liming also knew that thirty-five or thirty-six million was, after all, a deflated value; its purchasing power was merely equivalent to two or three million from before.

The next day, before going out on duty, in the simple cafeteria, Lian Ruixue clapped her hands. Only after attracting everyone’s attention did she say: “The establishment of the X Squadron was rather rushed. Many aspects are not yet perfect, and many mistakes have appeared. On this point, I hope everyone can discover them and report them to me, and I will do my best to correct them.”

She glanced at Zhou Liming with deep meaning, and then added: “Just like the issue of everyone’s salary and treatment, we have been ignoring that you are all human beings and also need a life that matches the cost of living. Judging by current prices, the previous salary system clearly did not match reality. So last night, I already applied to the direct General Staff Headquarters, and it has been approved. The base salary for our X Squadron is 600,000, and with various subsidies added together, it is around one million.”

The people below heard this and immediately started buzzing with discussion; many people had simply never thought of this aspect.

In the X Squadron, a total inclusion system was implemented, providing food, clothing, and housing, and cars to drive. As a privileged department, as long as there was a need, one phone call could solve a problem, so there were not many places where money was needed. If such a privileged department were placed in peacetime, the people coming to curry favor would give money and gifts calculated in millions or tens of millions, so who would care about that little salary?

Now that Lian Ruixue mentioned it, everyone remembered that with current prices, their previous salary was indeed trash; eating boxed meals for a few days would make them broke. Rising abruptly from ten thousand to a million, the leap was about one hundred times, which basically matched the current price level. Living a somewhat comfortable life was still possible.

Lian Ruixue waited for the people below to digest this news before saying indifferently: “By the way, the entire government institution, their current wages are still at the previous level, because the country has not yet extricated itself from this disaster, so naturally it is impossible to consider these things. And among the seventy-one special squadrons that have already been formed, only our X Squadron’s salary treatment has undergone such a change.”

Huang Dazhuang gently bumped Zhou Liming and said with a low laugh: “Was this trouble caused by you, kid?”

Zhou Liming had a look as if it were only right and proper, and said: “Didn’t you say that being a soldier means getting paid? This is my first job; working for free doesn’t fit my principles. What should belong to me, I will definitely fight for; what doesn’t belong to me is another matter. We can’t just flash our badges whenever we want to do something and eat for free, right?”

Huang Dazhuang patted Zhou Liming’s shoulder and said: “You’re awesome!” No one knew which aspect he was referring to.

After breakfast, everyone once again followed their groups and then left in all directions.

Riding on the motorcycle, Zhou Liming even started humming a little tune, while only Huang Dazhuang chuckled foolishly at the side. Apart from the military uniform on his body, he was probably just the material of a middle-aged farmer. This guy was definitely a master at playing the pig to eat the tiger; if placed in a war between nations, no one knew how many people would fall under his foolish smile.

When passing through the checkpoint, they similarly had to have their documents checked, but this time the Lieutenant Platoon Leader’s attitude underwent a 180-degree turn, his eyes filled completely with worship.

Since yesterday’s battle, the entire Frontline had gone crazy spreading the news. Those who previously didn’t understand the X Squadron, or those who weren’t convinced, had all shut their mouths now. Because the people in this X Squadron, in their eyes, were absolutely non-human existences. Think about it, people who could transform into Human-shaped Fierce Beasts and could easily finish off a Level Four Fierce Beast, could they be normal humans?

But this didn’t matter; what was important was that they could kill the Fierce Beasts that brought them shame, and this point was enough. In the army, advocating martial strength was a trend; as long as one had powerful strength, they would gain the recognition of others, and people would admire you. The strong are kings, an unchanging truth forever.

Taking the documents back from the enthusiastic Lieutenant and putting them into his pocket, the motorcycle roared again, leaving amidst the fanatical gazes of the soldiers at the entire checkpoint.

Zhou Liming couldn’t quite figure it out and said: “Brother Huang, don’t you think they are a little too enthusiastic towards us?”

Huang Dazhuang was absolutely incredibly shrewd during battle, but in life, he was somewhat slow, which matched his appearance—foolish. He was also puzzled and revealed a foolish smile, saying: “I don’t know, maybe they know we are a Colonel and a Lieutenant Colonel.”

Unable to figure it out, Zhou Liming stopped thinking about it. The two appeared on the street and familiarly turned towards the city center direction again.

The members of the X Squadron, under the Fierce Beast Genetic Modification, only needed to sleep two or three hours a day to be full of energy. So the time they got up was generally quite early. Like finishing breakfast and going into the city, it was only six-thirty. This was still considering the need to fit in with city affairs; otherwise, going out on duty at dawn didn’t matter, but the key was that there needed to be people in the city, right?

At six-thirty, the newly risen sun released soft morning light, shining on the entire city and casting reflections on the skyscrapers.

After turning a few streets, Zhou Liming seemed to feel something was not quite right. When he stopped at an intersection, this feeling became even stronger. He said to Huang Dazhuang: “Brother Huang, do you feel anything? Hmm, I mean the people here, why do the way they look at us seem so weird? It’s like…” He tugged at his own hair, “Like watching aliens?”

With the keen sensory abilities brought by Fierce Beast Genetic Modification, Huang Dazhuang, however foolish, had also detected something. He shook his head: “I did feel it, but I don’t know if they are treating us like Martians.” Then he asked curiously: “Do Martians really exist?”

The expression on Zhou Liming’s face froze, and then he smiled bitterly and shook his head. These internet terms were something Huang Dazhuang and the others had almost never encountered, so how could they understand the meaning behind them?

By nine o’clock in the morning, the number of people on the streets gradually increased.

The situation remained just like at the beginning; people were all staring at the two of them, pointing and discussing from time to time.

Just as they turned a street corner, two young men standing at the intersection suddenly pointed at Zhou Liming and Huang Dazhuang and shouted in surprise: “Ah, them, it’s them!” As they spoke, they actually disregarded everything and charged up, shouting while running: “Yesterday I saw it very clearly, it was them who killed the Fierce Beasts, it was the two of them!”

It was like detonating something; the other people were only stunned for a moment, then realized what was happening and frantically surrounded Zhou Liming and the other man.

Just now, many people had only heard rumors and hadn’t seen the real people. For these soldiers on motorcycles appearing in the city, they had no way of knowing who the heroes from yesterday were. But now it was different; someone recognized Zhou Liming and Huang Dazhuang, and the consequence triggered was that the people on the entire street surrounded the two of them.

Moreover, people from other places, hearing that yesterday’s heroes were right here, also risked everything to surround them, creating a fanatical star-chasing effect.

At the beginning, when the two young men charged up, Zhou Liming and Huang Dazhuang were both startled, hesitating whether they intended to harm them. But the massive crowd that then moved, and the slogans they shouted, finally let them know why everyone in the city today acted so weirdly upon seeing the two of them. Incidentally, it could also explain why the soldiers in the checkpoint revealed such fanatical worship in their eyes.

The crowd surging from all directions was like a zombie siege.

Zhou Liming, who had never experienced this kind of thing, actually felt a sense of panic. Even Huang Dazhuang, who was used to big scenes, likewise had no experience with this?

Aces in the Special Forces, no matter how powerful or how great their military achievements, could not be public; they were hidden figures. So although Huang Dazhuang had met national leaders and seen foreign presidents, he had no experience with the current situation and also panicked.

If this were in a pile of enemies, Huang Dazhuang believed he would definitely be very calm, snapping the necks of every enemy who dared to charge up and killing them all. But the problem was, the ones surrounding him were not his enemies; on the contrary, these people were his admirers, so how could he possibly bring himself to attack?

“What do we do?”

The two spoke this sentence almost simultaneously, and one could even see cold sweat breaking out on them. After saying this sentence to each other, the two suddenly burst into loud laughter. They never imagined that the powerful two of them would have such a flustered moment.

Seeing that the people were about to surround them, Zhou Liming made a prompt decision and shouted: “If we don’t run now, when will we?”

Under the gaze of countless people, Zhou Liming got off the motorcycle, then directly hoisted the motorcycle up, suddenly exerted force, and with the motorcycle, he sprinted and then leaped five or six meters high. Using the balcony of the building next to him for a rebound, in a few moves, he appeared on the building beside the street, and then fled, disappearing in front of everyone.

Huang Dazhuang’s movements were similarly not slow; with his tyrannical strength, the weight of a motorcycle was nothing at all. Following Zhou Liming, he also vanished onto the buildings by the street in just a few moves.

The people who had just frantically rushed up were all dumbfounded, staring with gaping mouths at the two people who ran away carrying motorcycles. Their brains simply couldn’t turn around; how could humans manage these things? It was simply unthinkable, beyond imagination, and violating many theories.

And this… was this motorcycle made of paper?