Shaun was extremely alert, taking a step and pausing for a split second each time, practically checking every situation around him. Only after confirming there was nothing unusual did he quickly finish the task at hand.

Then.

He swiftly switched locations.

Next.

He changed positions again.

Just like him, his two teammates were doing the same thing.

The originally laid-out line had been completely altered under the three of them constantly adjusting and changing it. The girl among them was one of the designers of the transmission signal line. The initial design and the actual current layout were now totally different. Even if you handed her the old blueprint and had her follow the marked coordinates, she might not necessarily find where the real cable was buried.

After finishing all this, Shaun was very satisfied.

Shaun clasped his hands behind his back, kept tapping his own head, and asked, "How many minutes has it been now?"

The girl said, "Just passed 15 minutes."

Shaun narrowed his eyes, his gaze resting on his competition wristband. From the moment he entered the field until now, there had been no anomalies at all. The band seemed only responsible for recording a person’s Life Value; no other data or text appeared. Nor had a single signal been actively transmitted to it. Which meant—no one from the 6th Battalion’s Commander on down to Shaun’s immediate superiors had taken the initiative to contact him.

Shaun was already very displeased about this.

In his view, even if there was no comms on the battlefield and the Commander couldn’t issue orders directly, they should have at least sent a Communication Soldier to handle all the comms and liaison needs for the entire camp. Yet Shaun had received neither personnel nor signal.

What did that say?

Shaun believed there were two possibilities.

First, the Commander had yet to complete personnel integration, so no orders or directives had been issued at all.

Second, the Commander didn’t care about a grassroots squad leader like him.

Either way, Shaun was not happy.

If it was the first, it meant the Commander of his camp was incompetent. Following a Commander like that, it would be hard to have a good ending.

If it was the second, then Shaun was even more upset, because that meant his own capability was lacking; he hadn’t done enough to make the Commander, or even his direct superiors, value and rely on him.

If he wasn’t important, it meant he and the squad he led were expendable pieces.

Once the two camps went to war, his group would be the cannon fodder pushed to the front.

...

Countless thoughts flashed through his mind, and suddenly that short girl’s bright, piercing eyes surfaced in Shaun’s heart, along with the words she’d hurled at him, each one striking like a hammer:

—Are princes and generals born noble?

—Is a Commander something you’re born as?

—Just because someone’s strong as an individual soldier, does that mean they’re definitely suited to be a Commander and lead a whole camp?

Of course not!

"Squad Leader, it’s been 15 minutes," the girl reminded him again when she saw that Squad Leader Shaun seemed not to have heard her.

Shaun’s eyes flickered. Then he forced all his thoughts down into the depths of his heart, raised his hand, and said, "Wei Yun, you stay here and wait for the signal to officially connect. Xu Chen, you come back to base with me right now."

Wei Yun was the only girl among the three of them. Hearing the Squad Leader’s instructions, she nodded and said, "Don’t worry, I’ll hide myself carefully."

Shaun: "Mm."

Then.

Shaun set off first, and the other boy, named Xu Chen, quickly followed.

When the two of them returned to the base, everything there looked normal. Seeing this, Shaun finally let the heart he’d been holding up drop back into place. Taking Xu Chen with him, he didn’t bother greeting the others and hurried straight to where the signal tower had been set up. By now it was fully built, exactly as designer Wei Yun had envisioned. The four teammates guarding the tower looked up the moment Shaun walked in, and the boy in the lead immediately said, "Squad Leader, everything went smoothly."

Shaun said, "Send a burst of signal to Wei Yun."

The boy: "Yes, sir."

Then they followed the standard procedure to transmit the signal, though they were still somewhat flustered and pressed for time... Still, after some clumsy fumbling, they managed to send the signal out successfully and promptly received Wei Yun’s feedback.

The whole group was overjoyed:

"It worked."

"It actually worked."

"We did it."

In a terrain that was basically untouched wilderness, where there was nothing and everything had to be built from zero, they had managed to construct a complete set of signal transmission equipment.

The sight was genuinely thrilling.

Shaun was deeply moved as well. Although it had been the girl in the team, Wei Yun, who first proposed building a signal tower, and Shaun had even rejected the idea twice, after weighing it all, he had finally been persuaded and had made the final decision.

They’d done it.

Shaun felt he deserved the greatest credit. Because no one else had the nerve to make this call. It was an idea that had only a direction with no clear path, a plan that was almost impossible to realize—exceptionally bold.

But he had chosen to attack it. And he had succeeded.

How could he not be pleased?

Even as he was rejoicing, Shaun began thinking about other issues. Now that the most important method of communication was in place, he no longer had to play it safe and keep his forces idle. Which meant he needed more manpower.

The original staffing at the signal tower was two boys, but midway he’d also summoned Bai Hui and Li Yun, who had been guarding and simultaneously watching over Ji You’s group, so there were four people here now. On top of that were the two he had taken out with him, the two manning the walls, Shaun himself, and Jiang Sen who had gone to scout the enemy camp...

Ten people in total—far from enough.

So the timing of Ji You’s group’s appearance was very fortuitous.

Shaun thought to himself: as long as Ji You’s group proves they’re reliable enough, they’ll definitely be heavily used by him.

Just as this thought crossed his mind, the receiver on the signal tower suddenly flickered, and a low female voice came through: "Squad Leader, I’ve spotted something. Someone is heading this way."

Shaun’s heart stirred. "Report the situation in detail."

Wei Yun had a simple telescope with a narrow lens. She squinted, carefully distinguishing the figure. As the person in front got closer and closer, she finally made out the face.

This was—

"Wang Rumei." Wei Yun blurted out the name.

"Who?" Shaun asked. "She’s alone?"

Wei Yun nodded. "So far I’ve only detected one person. Haven’t seen anyone else."

Wang Rumei had gone on the mission with Jiang Sen. Now she was coming back alone, so where was Jiang Sen?

Dead?

That was not news Shaun or any of his teammates wanted to hear. Shaun frowned and said, "Take another careful look and see if Jiang Sen is hiding somewhere else and just can’t reveal himself yet."

Wei Yun nodded. "Mm, I’ll keep watching."

Shaun said, "Report immediately if anything changes."

With that, Shaun left the signal tower with his two teammates. Since Wang Rumei was about to reach the base, he had to appear in front of everyone at once.