Chapter 213: 213, Retrieve nanobots again

The lightning-fast battle had ended as swiftly as it began, and when the wolves behind Li's combat squad launched their ambush, their once-intact defensive formation began to crumble rapidly.

Only the officer remained, darting with desperate agility, but even he could not hold out much longer. As Ren Xiaoxu watched the silver veins—caused by the nanobots—gradually dim, he realized the machines were running low on energy.

Suddenly, the wolf king lunged from behind, sinking its teeth into the officer’s waist. With a violent jerk of its head, the man collapsed like a puppet with severed strings.

Even a beast as mighty as the wolf king favored ambush as its first tactic—this world’s battles knew no justice, only outcomes mattered.

Ren Xiaoxu could hold back no longer: “Um… there’s something I’m not sure whether I should say!”

The wolf king turned, its gaze questioning. Ren Xiaoxu pointed to the other wolf’s jaws, still gripping the officer, and produced a small vial of black elixir: “Trade.”

A flicker of understanding passed through the wolf king’s eyes. The beast dropped its prize. The officer, barely clinging to life, had not suffered mortal wounds—only shock.

When he saw Ren Xiaoxu, he was struck with inexplicable shock. He had not expected the youth to appear here, nor that Ren Xiaoxu could negotiate with the wolves!

Ren Xiaoxu wondered: Was this betrayal of humanity? Trading with the wolves…

After slaughtering the entire outpost, the wolves lingered to tend their wounds, then carried the corpses toward the mountains.

They did not linger. Ren Xiaoxu noted several wolves’ white fur stained crimson with blood—they needed to return and treat their injuries.

When the wolves departed, Ren Xiaoxu crouched beside the officer: “Tell me—how do you replenish the nanobots’ energy?”

He had operated the nanobots many times, yet only now did he realize their power source relied entirely on the body’s own biological energy.

The flaw was clear: after each use, the nanobots required prolonged “charging” within the body, but subsequent activation time was brief.

Thus, after truly understanding the nanobots, Ren Xiaoxu felt Li’s version still had defects—if they couldn’t solve the energy problem, the machines would be useless in high-intensity combat.

Of course, he suspected Li’s forces had other rapid energy-replenishment methods.

Wait—wasn’t Qing Zhen the one most invested in energy research? Nuclear power remained one of the world’s most efficient sources.

The officer’s face was ashen; he said nothing.

“You must’ve been nearly out of energy by the end,” Ren Xiaoxu drawled. “In a real battlefield, no fight lasts only ten minutes.”

The soldier’s eyes snapped open in surprise: “Why do you know so much about the nanobots? You’re just a private soldier!”

He sensed something amiss—even suspected Ren Xiaoxu carried nanobots himself! Wait—they had lost a batch of nanobots, the very ones carried by the two missing officers they were investigating!

But how? Leaving aside whether this youth could kill two elite soldiers, even if he did, the nanobots on their bodies had to be returned to headquarters for recalibration before reuse!

So even if he obtained them, he couldn’t use them!

Why?

Something felt wrong. He longed to report this to Command, but he never got the chance.

“Don’t expect me to violate confidentiality,” the officer gasped.

Ren Xiaoxu sighed: “Fine, I respect you as a man.”

In that moment, he realized he couldn’t underestimate the corporate combat units—it wasn’t just Qing’s forces that were formidable; every conglomerate had its backbone.

Without such elite troops, no conglomerate could stand atop this wasteland.

Ren Xiaoxu waited for the officer to slowly expire, then watched the silver fluid seep from the corpse’s skin. He was well-versed in this process, patiently awaiting the Palace to perform factory resets and other procedures…

The harvest was modest—only one man carried nanobots, so the quantity was half that of the last haul.

The gauntlets remained gauntlets, unchanged. Yet Ren Xiaoxu was in no hurry; Li’s nanobot-equipped officers were surely more numerous—he could collect them slowly…

Suddenly, a thought struck him: If he could reprogram the Palace, could he distribute spare nanobots to the students?

Chen Wudi certainly didn’t need them. Honestly, Ren Xiaoxu struggled to grasp Chen Wudi’s true strength—if it came to a life-or-death fight, whether Chen Wudi could best his own disciple was uncertain…

But Ren Xiaoxu didn’t mind much. After all, in Journey to the West, even the master couldn’t defeat his disciple. With that thought, he felt at peace.

Guiding his shadow to hoist the corpse, Ren Xiaoxu prepared to sink the officer into the lake. Bodies couldn’t be left behind—why would the wolves take everyone yet leave this one?

Moreover, if investigators later found the nanobots missing, that would be a real problem.

Whatever the case, Ren Xiaoxu would never let Li discover he could reset the nanobots—Li would hunt him to the ends of the earth.

An hour later, Ren Xiaoxu stood by the shore of the small mountain lake, melancholy stirring. The lake was tiny—would tossing more bodies into it raise the water level someday?

After disposing of the corpse and erasing all traces, it was deep into the night. Ren Xiaoxu didn’t rush back to the outpost but ventured deeper into the mountains.

Tonight, no wolf howls echoed through the hills. He wanted to see how gravely the wolves had been wounded.