51: I’m good at making trouble

"What?" Qin Luming said strangely.

"Nothing... So, have you finished considering? Are you waiting to die, or will you obediently join?"

"Do I even have a choice?" Qin Luming gave up completely; as long as he could stay alive, there would always be a way later.

The squad system had a merge function, meaning two squads could merge directly into one.

As long as Qin Luming applied to Li Xiao for a squad merger, once approved, all members of the Luming Squad would belong to the Xiaoyao Squad.

This could save the waiting period for a squad dissolution announcement and the cooldown period for players leaving a squad.

Qin Luming quickly sent the application, along with a list of merging members. When Li Xiao scrolled to the very end, he was pleasantly surprised to find that the Luming Squad actually had thirty-seven people.

However, when Qin Luming saw the number of people in the Xiaoyao Squad, he nearly spat out a mouthful of blood. This damn squad was even smaller than his own, and they expected to develop to the point of ten thousand resources a day?

Regret came too late; the moment the squads merged, the Luming Squad was disbanded. Even if the old members wanted to leave, it would be a month later.

Through his inquiries, Li Xiao learned that the Luming Squad previously held territory in two towns, so he directly took charge and divided those two towns equally.

Although Qin Luming had many objections, Li Xiao told him that from now on, all resources would be distributed equally. Separately allocating resource zones would only create friction between squad members.

After tossing and turning for two days, Li Xiao found that his resources still hadn't increased much, only growing by a thousand or two each day.

"I still have to fight a war for resources to come in quickly, huh?"

Li Xiao calculated his resources. Relying solely on this small resource income for the hundreds of thousands needed for a Level 8 base would leave him far behind a large number of people.

Therefore, Li Xiao decided to comprehensively seize more resource zones. His first goal was to occupy all resource zones in the north and west of Xi City.

This was a relatively arduous process because they would encounter all sorts of people and squads.

"In short, no matter what method is used, if you want resources, join the squad; if you don't join, then you can only perish!"

Li Xiao said during a four-person meeting with Liu Nian, Yun Dongliu, and Qin Luming, "This is reality. We can't sympathize with others because no one sympathizes with us!"

"Then it can only be like this," Qin Luming said.

...

Over the next week, the Xiaoyao Squad fought almost every day. Relying on the terrifying durability advantage of Li Xiao's meng hu off-road vehicle, they quickly occupied five small towns west of Xi City.

During this period, two squads accepted the merger conditions. One thirty-person squad resisted desperately, so Li Xiao had no choice but to deploy the main force to directly destroy their headquarters.

With the addition of some solo players, the Xiaoyao Squad expanded to one hundred and twenty people in a short time, controlling five large towns and several small resource points.

Originally, the resources supplied by these resource zones would have been enough for the original crew to get over five thousand points per person per day, but the large increase in members reduced this number to around three thousand.

With the membership increasing to this level, Li Xiao's hundred Star Coins welfare was also unsustainable, and he had to announce a temporary suspension of welfare distribution.

The vast majority of the bases in that small squad's headquarters were destroyed by the squad's players. Li Xiao only leveled eight or nine bases, obtaining quite a few resources, but it was still a long way from being enough to upgrade to a Level 8 base.

As the second week of the second month on Hanhai Star was coming to an end, Li Xiao heard important intelligence sent by Yun Dongliu.

"Are you sure that Chemical Plant can provide 80,000 Rare Ore in a single day?"

"Absolutely sure. The Night God Squad used a force of two thousand people to drive back a combined battalion stationed at the Chemical Plant. Now another large squad, Hellfire, is taking advantage of the chaos."

Good grief, has it already reached the level of thousand-man battles?

Initially, two billion players had transmigrated. It sounded like a lot, but after a month of exploration, people found that the land area of Hanhai Star far exceeded that of the Blue Star.

Take Xi City as an example. He now controlled the western suburbs of Xi City and the surrounding territory of several square kilometers, but the number of players he actually encountered was only a few hundred, and the entire vicinity of Xi City only had about a thousand or so people.

Therefore, a squad with over a hundred people was considered a larger squad at the moment. If they hadn't fought any wars, the average troop strength would be over five thousand.

Li Xiao's current squad of one hundred and twenty people could also assemble a force of over three thousand, excluding the home defense troops.

"80,000 Rare Ore... it is indeed very tempting. Then we'll go join the fun too!"

Li Xiao turned off the voice chat, called Zhao Feipeng, and headed straight for the Chemical Plant in the meng hu off-road vehicle.

The coordinates were provided by Yun Dongliu. When they were still two kilometers away from the Chemical Plant in the northeast suburbs, he could already hear intense gunfire and artillery.

Zhao Feipeng drove the vehicle up a small hill. When Li Xiao jumped out, he could see the entire perimeter of the Chemical Plant.

The Chemical Plant in front of them occupied at least two hundred acres. The Night God Squad had mobilized a force of over two thousand people to construct a solid defensive line around the factory. Almost every key area had dozens of light and heavy machine guns; the firepower was incredibly fierce.

The Hellfire squad, acting as the attackers, had directly assembled four thousand troops in the north of the Chemical Plant. Currently, they were conducting tentative attacks.

"Four thousand troops—this is going to be a decisive battle!"

Li Xiao looked at such a spectacular battlefield, deep in thought.

In fact, if the location of either side's headquarters could be found, the battle could end very quickly.

But once a squad's scale exceeded a hundred people, trying to achieve victory by raiding the home base was no longer very feasible.

Because small squads were often composed of a dozen or so nearby players coordinating their defenses and huddling together for warmth. Once such a squad's nest was discovered, it could basically be wiped out in one go.

However, the personnel composition of a large squad was very complex. Although they might all be around Xi City, the members' distribution range could be as wide as dozens or even a hundred square kilometers.

As a result, the possibility of forcing the enemy to back down by raiding their homes was very low, because a large squad would not give up a strategic goal for a single base.

Or you might think you could just bulldoze everything regardless of friend or foe, but then you might become a public enemy and face a siege from a large number of players.

And accurately gathering the base locations of the vast majority of players in a large squad was truly difficult to achieve with their current intelligence capabilities.

It wasn't just a matter of travel distance; the manpower, material resources, and time required were incalculable.

However, Li Xiao thought of an unconventional way.

"Li Le, immediately notify the Transit Yard outpost and have them contact Chang Zhan's Tian Yu Militia Organization. Tell them I have important matters to discuss."

When it came to being most familiar with the terrain and environment, it was definitely Chang Zhan, who had been fighting guerrilla warfare outside. And the Hellfire squad happened to be a squad from the northeast; finding Chang Zhan to go scouting was definitely the most appropriate choice.

Within half an hour, Chang Zhan replied. Li Xiao directly sent Yang Chao from the base to pick him up.