Chapter 1 Reconnaissance I Completed

[Reconnaissance I completed, you gained 3000 experience.]

Han Xiao was jolted awake by the notification on his interface. He looked out the window and saw that it was dawn. The sky was beginning to brighten, the blue and gray mixing into a color that was almost light.

He had stayed up all night making new machinery and had only slept for two hours. He took out his water bottle, wet his face, and the cool feeling refreshed him. He got out of the cargo container and entered the stronghold.

Lin Yao had been working all night and looked like she was about to die. Qi Pei jia was on the next shift. He was taking a nap on the nearby sofa and was already awake.

"How was last night's haul?" Han Xiao asked.

Lin Yao said weakly, "That bald strongman confessed to other accomplices hiding in the Crow Forest Town. A batch of criminals was arrested overnight, and the specific location of the Dark Crow Valley base was found out. But they were all peripheral members and didn't know any top-secret information, so the haul was just so-so."

Han Xiao nodded. This was within expectations; otherwise, [Reconnaissance 2] would have been completed directly.

"Are they still lurking there?"

"Yes, waiting for orders in Crow Forest Town."

"There's no value there anymore, they can be withdrawn," Han Xiao said.

Qi Pei jia, who was gnawing on military rations for breakfast, rolled his eyes and couldn't help but say, "Did you forget that I'm the commander?"

Han Xiao said in surprise, "Aren't you just here to take the blame for us at critical moments?"

Qi Pei jia choked on his rations, coughing repeatedly, speechless. Just as he was about to retort, Ye Fan walked over.

"Everyone from Bureau 13, our people have obtained the specific intelligence of the Dark Crow Valley base. The mission is complete."

Qi Pei jia was astonished. The He Xia agents had succeeded in less than a day. Their efficiency was a little amazing!

"You really got all the intelligence for the Dark Crow Valley base?"

Ye Fan nodded. "Wen Na and the others also captured a witness. Our mission is over. Withdraw your people and screen and organize the intelligence together, then pass it on to the military."

Han Xiao frowned. There was no notification on his interface that [Reconnaissance 2] was completed. He couldn't help but ask, "Can you be sure the intelligence is real? Can you tell me the details of the operation?"

"Of course." Ye Fan briefly explained Wen Na and the others' actions.

Han Xiao pondered and said, "Don't you think it's too smooth?"

"It is indeed, but there are no suspicious circumstances. It can only be said that the enemy's vigilance is too low. Don't forget, we launched a surprise attack, and they weren't prepared."

"I think it's unreliable."

"Suspicion is a good thing, but suspicion without evidence is going too far." Ye Fan frowned and said decisively, "In short, we're preparing to evacuate tomorrow morning. We'll move together then."

Watching Ye Fan's departing figure, Han Xiao's face darkened. He was one hundred percent certain that the intelligence Ye Fan obtained must be fishy.

But recalling Ye Fan's description of the operation, Wen Na and the other agents were at most a little aggressive, and there weren't many mistakes. Then there was only one possibility: there was something else going on at the Dark Crow Valley base.

Han Xiao had no evidence. Even if he voiced his suspicions, others would not believe him, just like Ye Fan.

Conjecture cannot convince people.

"Looks like I have to go see for myself."

In the morning, Di Su Su and Wen Na's groups returned to the stronghold together. Both sides brought back captured witnesses. Roman was a military officer, and his value was higher than the group of peripheral members Di Su Su captured.

Wen Na had a victorious smile on her face. In her opinion, this operation was a competition between the agents of both sides, and He Xia's results perfectly crushed Bureau 13, giving them a chance to show their strength.

The people of Bureau 13 were angered by the victorious attitude of the He Xia agents. Li Ya Lin said indignantly, "If our tasks were switched, you would be the ones to lose."

Wen Na chuckled. "The result is set. Loss is loss, and win is win."

Han Xiao walked over and said, "Your intelligence may be fake."

Regardless of whether the other party believed it or not, he still had to remind them.

Wen Na's expression changed, and she questioned Han Xiao, "What evidence do you have?"

"Intuition."

As expected of the all-purpose reason. Everyone's expression was as if they had eaten a pound of shit.

Wen Na laughed angrily. "Then shut up. What weight does your speculation have?"

Han Xiao was not angry and asked, "Then do you have evidence?"

Wen Na patted the quail-like trembling Roman. "This is my evidence."

Han Xiao squatted down and carefully looked at Roman, then suddenly nodded, got up, and walked away.

Wen Na thought he had yielded, and she felt a burst of joy in her heart.

…

"It seems there's a powerful guy in the Dark Crow Valley base."

Han Xiao's expression was solemn. Roman's fear and will to survive did not seem fake, proving that this person was not a death soldier deliberately providing false intelligence. Then there was only one reasonable guess: the Dark Crow Valley base never told these low-level officers the real intelligence in the first place. The sentries patrolling the periphery were not only sentry posts, but also bait!

The intelligence Ye Fan hacked was likely to have been processed!

To find out the truth, he could only infiltrate the Dark Crow Valley base himself.

A plan formed in Han Xiao's mind, but he had to wait until nightfall.

Everyone was interrogating prisoners and organizing intelligence, and they would not evacuate until tomorrow morning. He still had one night.

…

Night, the moon and stars were sparse.

Han Xiao said to his colleagues, "I'm going to wait in the truck for a while."

No one answered him. The He Xia side disdained to pay attention, and the others in Bureau 13 were too lazy to answer. Only Zhang Wei said helplessly, "Go if you want to, no one's stopping you."

Han Xiao nodded, walked out of the stronghold, returned to the cargo container, put on Lambert's heavy sniper rifle, brought all the mechanical equipment he needed, then locked the door of the cargo container, looked around, and saw that no one was outside the stronghold, so he turned and walked into the forest, his figure disappearing into the darkness.

He was not going to inform his teammates. Qi Pei jia would definitely not agree and would only add trouble to his actions.

After trekking for the better part of the night, Han Xiao finally arrived at his target location.

He equipped himself with a thermal imaging night vision device and an environmental disruption suit. After confirming that there were no enemies around, he quietly dug a pit in the ground, large enough to accommodate one person.

After digging the pit, Han Xiao took out four palm-sized mechanical spiders from his toolbox, turned on the switches on the ground, and the mechanical spiders stood up, standing in front of Han Xiao, like a team of small scouts waiting to be dispatched.

[Small Arthropod Detector (Spider): Small insectoid detector.]

This was a new blueprint Han Xiao had merged, a practical little tool that served as eyes and ears to be scattered. It was small in size, very stealthy, could be remotely controlled, and was equipped with a thermal sensor. When not controlled, it would automatically avoid heat sources and life forms. It could be called a walking surveillance device. With the spider detectors, he did not need to approach the sentry posts, reducing the chance of being discovered.

Han Xiao took out his tablet computer for remote control. By cross-comparing the images from the four spider detectors, he quickly confirmed the positions of several sentry posts, mostly hidden next to trees, and quickly sketched out a distribution map of the sentry posts in his mind, formulating the most suitable assassination route.

In the dark forest, Han Xiao crept forward with a heavy sniper rifle, including the target in his firing range.

Lambert's heavy sniper rifle had been silenced. While unleashing powerful kinetic energy, the sound it made was only at the level of fingers tapping on wood. In this quiet, dark forest, an elite agent could notice this movement within a hundred meters, but Lambert's heavy sniper rifle had a range of eight hundred meters. This was also the reason why Han Xiao borrowed this weapon. Compared to eliminating the sentry posts one by one at close range, long-range sniping was more convenient and safer, and it was not in vain that he had lit up the [Sniper] branch.

Han Xiao held his breath and concentrated, putting the target into the scope. The distance of hundreds of meters seemed to not exist in his eyes, and a feeling of ease of use welled up in his heart.

Crosshairs, head!

Wind direction, eight o'clock!

Wind speed 1.3, deviation 43mm!

Elevation angle, lead angle, scale adjusted.

Han Xiao suddenly pulled the trigger, and the recoil of the buttstock made his body tremble slightly. His hands controlled the heavy sniper rifle with great strength, without the slightest deviation.

In the thermal imaging scope, the human target hundreds of meters away lost its head in the blink of an eye, and the splashing hot blood displayed an orange-red image.