As more and more members of the Reunion Movement charged onto the battlefield with superior equipment, the Reconnaissance Squad realized something might have truly gone wrong in the east and beat a hasty, pathetic retreat.
Upon their return, the Reconnaissance Squad members were utterly dumbfounded to hear that the entire eastern front had been broken through, and that the Reunion Movement had not only seized a large amount of military supplies but also captured a High-speed Battleship.
'How am I supposed to play this now?' 'How am I supposed to go back to catching Infected?'
Forget catching them; even if an Infected claimed their own farts smelled like perfume, the squad wouldn't dare to disagree. Fortunately, the High-speed Battleship mysteriously vanished not long after, which provided a tiny bit of psychological comfort to those Reconnaissance Squad members. But this area could now basically be considered a forbidden zone for the Reconnaissance Squad. After all, the Infected here possessed firepower comparable to the military.
With the meager equipment they had, they wouldn't even be enough to fill the gaps between the enemy's teeth. Rather than trying to catch Infected here and being caught by that organization called the Reunion Movement only to be hanged from a tree, it was better to go elsewhere. After all, this job could be done anywhere; it wasn't like this was the only place.
Thus, with the young Emperor's silent consent, the Fourth Legion suffering such a heavy loss that it would take years to recover, and the Reconnaissance Squad not daring to provoke them, the Reunion Movement somehow secured a place for long-term residence here. Because of this, the ones with the most casualties after this battle were actually the Infected fighting the Reconnaissance Squad on the western forest front. On the side fighting the Ursus regular army, there were actually very few injuries or deaths.
After hearing Anto's description of the Reunion Movement's battle based on what the patients said, the Rhodes Island group felt just as dumbfounded as the Reconnaissance Squad.
The main question was: how exactly did the eastern front win? That was a full regiment of the Ursus regular army equipped with a High-speed Battleship! What did they mean by 'two people bombed their way through the air and the enemy just ran away'? And what did they mean by 'the High-speed Battleship sat dead the whole time without making a sound, and when they got there, the people inside were still running out'?
Are these even human words? Is this still Terra? It would have sounded more reasonable if they'd just said the High-speed Battleship grew legs and stood up.
However, the Rhodes Island team, despite their doubts, didn't have time for much rest before joining the busy medical relief efforts. Since neither ACE nor Logos considered themselves the leader, and Talulah was also swamped with work, Rhodes Island's arrival didn't cause much of a stir within the Reunion Movement; the Infected only knew that Rhodes Island had sent more doctors and brought some medicine. No one even remembered Rhodes Island's original purpose for coming to the Reunion Movement.
For the Reunion Movement, although this location was basically exposed after this battle, being exposed had its benefits. For example, Talulah publicly announced that Infected could come here to live; as long as they followed the rules, no Infected would be barred from entering the Reunion Movement's territory. Immediately, many Infected oppressed by Ursus began heading this way, and the Reunion Movement grew significantly larger all at once.
As for Flandre, she waited here for the arrival of Chen Huijie and the second batch of resources from Lungmen.
"If I had known you'd captured so much this time, we wouldn't have brought these weapons."
After a full half-day of Chen Huijie and Talulah recognizing each other as sisters, Chen Huijie sighed as she pointed at the supplies they had brought.
"When it comes to weapons, the more the merrier for us, so it wasn't a mistake to bring them. But the fact that Lungmen could help us get so much grain and medicine is indeed very important for the Reunion Movement right now."
Talulah looked at the convoy that had accompanied Chen Huijie. There were over forty trucks filled with various supplies, most of which were easily storable foods like rice and flour, along with two full trucks of medicine. Don't be fooled by there only being two trucks; these medicines could be sold for astronomical prices anywhere. One could even say that these two trucks of medicine could buy more than half of a mobile district.
It was only because Talulah was Old Wei's biological niece; otherwise, Old Wei would never have been willing to shell out such a generous portion of his family assets. As for the rest, they were daily necessities like clothing and bedding.
After arranging for people to store the weapons, medicine, food, and daily necessities separately, Chen Huijie finally looked over at Flandre, who was not far away, giggling foolishly while holding a camcorder. She leaned over to take a look; it was something that Pink Sausage Dragon had asked her to bring for Flandre.
She had originally wanted to come here too, but was clearly not allowed. Although she cried and made a scene at home, and was almost grounded... in the end, she could only helplessly buy a camcorder to film a video and have it brought over. Thinking of this, Chen Huijie couldn't help but recall how the little tiger had tried to hide in the car on the day of departure, only to be dragged out, and the corners of her mouth curled up.
The arrival of the convoy also caught Rhodes Island's attention. After all, so many supplies weren't something an average person could obtain. At first, they thought it was the work of the young Ursus Emperor again, but when Logos and the others came over to look—well, it had nothing to do with Ursus at all; it was actually a Great Yan team.
The war between Ursus and Kazdel had just ended, and the convoy arrived right on its heels, cutting through the battlefield. This proved that this batch of supplies had been prepared long ago. If it hadn't been for the war between the two countries, they would likely have been delivered much sooner. Just who was this leader of the Reunion Movement to be able to get so much stuff from Great Yan?
One had to know that those two trucks of medicine were directly transported by Talulah to Rhodes Island's medical area here. Seeing that pile of medicine, to be honest, even they felt a bit envious. These were two full trucks of extremely precious Infected-related medicines. With this batch of medicine, the doctors became much more bold in their treatments. And upon learning that the Reunion Movement had medicine, even more Infected came to seek refuge.
Chen Huijie, who was staying here temporarily, volunteered to do her old job from Lungmen, helping the Reunion Movement organize their public security. Although Chen Huijie hadn't studied Ursus law, the most basic values were the same regardless of the country. As an outsider, Chen Huijie was able to be completely fair to everyone. Plus, she was naturally good at solving cases. Several troubles that were very thorny for Talulah were easily resolved after she found the key issues.
Seeing that Chen Huijie had this talent, Talulah decided to have her temporarily join the Reunion Movement's Public Security Bureau as Yelena's deputy. At this time, Yelena was overjoyed by Chen Huijie's arrival. Having followed Buldrokkas'tee for years, she originally disliked managing public security and dealing with trivial matters. But the Reunion Movement's high-level leadership was too small. Although they intended to train a batch of newcomers to take over, it wasn't something that could happen overnight.
So, the old-timers had to step up. Originally, she wanted Red to do this while she continued her work leading the Yeti Squad on hunts. Red directly stated that Yelena, having just recovered from a serious illness, was not fit for the work of traveling over mountains and ridges, so the hunting job was best left to him.
For this, they specifically brought in Doctor Anto from Rhodes Island. Doctor Anto also agreed that Red was right. Even without this major illness, they wouldn't recommend Yelena engage in long-term strenuous exercise. After all, her condition was very poor and required long-term observation and consultation. If Yelena hadn't been unwilling, they would have wanted her to return to Rhodes Island with this batch of Operators for treatment.
With the doctor's endorsement, Yelena helplessly watched as she lost her job with the hunting squad in a vote by the Reunion Movement's high-level leadership by an absolute disadvantage (only she voted for herself) and was forced to take up the public security work. The key was that while this job wasn't physically tiring, it was mentally exhausting. Especially as the population grew, natural conflicts became more frequent.
Fortunately, Chen Huijie's sudden appearance saved her from her misery. She directly handed all authority over the Public Security Bureau to Chen Huijie and then wandered around every day like a vagrant, occasionally acting as a history or PE teacher at the Reunion Movement's school.
As for what Flandre was doing during this time... She, Alina, and the people from Rhodes Island were together researching a treatment plan for that thing inside Talulah's body. The reason she was here was because, besides Talulah herself, she was the only one who had had several contacts with the Immortal Black Snake.
Since the entity had gone back into hiding after the last incident, and Talulah couldn't stay in the medical department for long, Flandre—one of the only two who had contact with the Black Snake—and Alina, who also knew of its existence, had to discuss with the Rhodes Island Operators how to resolve that unstable factor within Talulah.
On Rhodes Island's side were the two Arts masters, Logos and Pith, as well as several medical Operators led by Doctor Anto. They spent several days discussing and came up with a few plans, but all were overturned.
The reason for overturning them was simple. The Reunion Movement lacked the necessary equipment. One must understand that anything involving the soul or the brain requires extremely precise operations. A single mistake could turn the patient into a simpleton or leave them with dementia.
The Reunion Movement had only just begun to develop; neither Talulah herself nor the Reunion Movement would allow her to take that risk. However, based on Flandre's account and the results of Logos and the others' examination of Talulah, they had indeed detected a trace of the entity, but it was hidden extremely deep.
The Reunion Movement's current equipment simply couldn't support a surgery of this level. Even aboard the Rhodes Island landship, the success rate for such a surgery would be less than thirty percent. Thus, the plan to completely eradicate the Kashchey ultimately fell through.
As for sealing the Black Snake, that was even more difficult. After all, they didn't even know where it was hiding; to seal something, you need a target. For a passive seal, in order to ensure the safety of Talulah's soul, extremely strict trigger conditions would need to be set. But what if the Immortal Black Snake happened to bypass those trigger conditions?