Atlas of Heaven and Man

The telegram from Outpost 73 was quickly received by the command's war room.

However, upon learning of this news, the personnel in the war room were somewhat taken aback, and then became a little doubtful.

Although there was no need to fabricate such a thing, and its authenticity could be verified with a simple check, the Iron Fiend had indeed plagued them for quite some time.

In the past, they had sent out powerful squads to encircle and suppress it, but the Iron Fiend always managed to escape through loopholes in the encirclement, wasting a lot of manpower and resources without achieving any significant results.

And this time, the Iron Fiend had chosen an opportune moment, precisely when the rear was vulnerable; otherwise, they wouldn't have sent in the only squad that had just entered the Convergence Zone and hadn't fully adapted.

They originally didn't expect this squad to do much, as long as they kept an eye on the Iron Fiend and maintained a threat to prevent them from recklessly wreaking havoc in the rear.

But now, only a few days had passed, and they were saying that they had annihilated most of the Iron Fiend's forces?

They discussed it and decided not to report it immediately, but instead sent a sternly worded telegram back, requesting confirmation of the telegram's authenticity.

Although Advisor Rao quickly replied to the telegram, they still didn't report it. Then, they waited until the evening, when Chen Chuan returned to Outpost 73 with the spoils of war and the Iron Fiend's head, and reported it in the name of the outpost. Only then did they truly confirm this matter and send the news up.

And within a few minutes, it was delivered to Qiao Weiting, the person in charge of the command. He first noticed that this squad had only been there for less than seven days.

Generally, such a squad should be performing adaptation tasks and wouldn't be sent into action at all.

He said to his adjutant, "I remember, this is the squad that Commissioner Liang requested to be formed, right?"

The adjutant replied, "Yes, Commander, that's them."

"So it's them."

Qiao Weiting nodded. This was a squad that had been named by the higher-ups and formed by drawing in capable individuals, and he roughly knew what this squad was for.

He said, "Executive Chen is currently a Level 1 Executive, right?"

"Yes."

Qiao Weiting clicked on the interface and looked at the resumes of Chen Chuan and the other two, mainly focusing on Chen Chuan's.

He said, "Hmm, according to his file, he has accumulated quite a few merits before. Adding them up, he can be promoted by one level. According to the command's reward and punishment standards, he can be promoted to Executive Captain this time, and his two team members can be promoted to Level 2 Executives in order."

The adjutant reminded, "Commander, this Executive Chen has already been promoted by one level as a matter of routine after joining the Defense Plan. It's only been a few days, and he's going to be promoted again... Wouldn't that be a bit too fast?"

Qiao Weiting said, "Merit is merit, there's no such thing as sooner or later. If comrades who have made such contributions are not promoted, then no one will work hard in the future.

Also, for solving a problem that the outpost has been unable to solve for a long time with just one squad, after the procedures are completed, issue a commendation in the name of the command, and have someone bring my sidearm over to them, hoping that they will continue to work hard."

"Yes!"

On the other side, Chen Chuan stayed at Outpost 73 for one night, and then said goodbye to Hai Cheng and the others, taking the Iron Fiend's head and spoils of war back to Outpost 4, where they had first set out.

Here, officials sent by the command had been waiting, inspecting the heads, armor, and documents of the Iron Fiend and others. After confirming that it was the Iron Fiend himself, they completed the handover procedures, and finally shook hands with them, smiling and revealing some news about their upcoming promotions before leaving.

Since they had only attended two days of classes before, and some essential things had not been explained clearly, they took the opportunity to catch up on these courses while resting after returning here.

Besides what they had been told earlier, the rest was mainly some basic knowledge about the creatures of the Convergence Zone. In fact, this was the danger that the garrison in the Convergence Zone had to face on a daily basis.

"I understand."

After hanging up the phone, Yuan Qiuyuan came out of the telephone booth, put on his hat, and walked towards the dining hall. As he walked along the way, the personnel in the outpost would stop to greet him and salute, and he would return the salute in a proper manner.

He was secretly delighted. Although the official order had not yet been issued, it had already been confirmed that he would be promoted to Level 2 Executive. It had only been a few days! Even his old sister didn't get promoted that quickly back then. If he kept working hard like this, wouldn't it be easy to surpass his old sister? Wouldn't it be his turn to show off at home in the future?

When he arrived at the dining hall, he saw that Chen Chuan and Qin Qingque had already arrived. He hurriedly walked over, quickly ordered his meal, and sat down there. After eating only a few bites, he asked, "Captain, when will we carry out our next mission?"

Qin Qingque looked at him and said, "We've already been promoted by one level, it's impossible to be promoted again in a short time."

"Hey, I'm not thinking about promotion, I just want to follow the captain to carry out missions. It's so boring to be cooped up here all day reading those useless things."

Chen Chuan said, "There will be missions, you guys should prepare yourselves first."

Hearing him say this, the two knew that he must know some news, and Yuan Qiuyuan was immediately relieved, and began to eat in big mouthfuls.

After Chen Chuan had lunch, he left the dining hall and went to the corridor. A quartermaster saluted him and said, "Executive Chen, please come over."

Chen Chuan nodded and followed him to a reception room. Counselor Pei was already waiting for him. Seeing him come in, he asked the quartermaster to leave, and smiled, extending his hand, saying, "The order has been issued, someone will come today to officially announce you as the Executive Captain. Congratulations, Captain Chen."

Chen Chuan shook hands with him, "Thank you."

It wasn't that easy to become an Executive Captain. Generally, capable people usually had to be in their thirties or forties to achieve it, because this was a threshold.

In terms of identity, it could be seen as transitioning from a pure combat personnel to a military officer. Here at the outpost, one was qualified to attend military meetings.

And in terms of level, even if one was not here, but was transferred to work in the Central City, one could still directly serve in key positions in some violent institutions.

Although he felt it was very good, at least his salary and benefits had improved again, he knew that all of this was brought about by force, so he was clear that this was the root. Without force, there would be nothing.

Counselor Pei then asked him to sit down, and took a can of tea over, smiling and saying, "Everything here at the outpost is kept simple. It's not easy to transport things up from the rear. This tea of mine is still old tea that I brought when I came here before, and no one has helped me drink it. Today, I'm inviting Captain Chen to taste it."

He personally poured tea for Chen Chuan. As the tea leaves floated in the water glass, a fresh tea fragrance immediately filled the air.

At this time, he said, "Captain Chen, did you know that the Convergence Zone actually has many unique products that can bring us a lot of benefits? Many companies have set up some factories and research institutes in the rear."

Chen Chuan asked, "Do we have any here at our outpost?"

Counselor Pei shook his head, sat down, and said, "Although we are also considered the rear here, it's only relative to the first half. In reality, it's also a war zone. You've also seen that it can't be considered very stable here. Those research institutes are still in safer places, with a much higher level of defense than here."

At this time, he reached out and took a box from beside his feet and placed it on the table, "This time, what Captain Chen and you guys did solved a problem for the higher-ups. This is a special medicine allocated to your team by the command. The higher-ups have spoken and allocated it to you in advance. As for how to distribute it, you and your teammates can discuss it."

Chen Chuan knew that the so-called discussion was actually a tacit agreement that the captain would distribute it. This was the captain's power.

Therefore, within the team, if a team member didn't listen to the captain, they would often have their medicine deducted, or be sent to perform dangerous tasks. In the end, they would either give in or find a way to transfer themselves.

This was still good. Some people would deliberately find excuses to make things difficult for their teammates in order to get more medicine.

However, he would not use these things to target his teammates. Not to mention that he had the medicine provided by the Fusion Boundary Company, even if he didn't, he would not take things that didn't belong to him.

He said, "Thank you, Counselor Pei."

Counselor Pei smiled, and then said again, "This time, your commendation should have come down earlier, but some people insisted on using procedures as an excuse, reviewing and verifying it several times before finally releasing it to you at the last minute."

As he spoke, he gestured towards the box in front of him, "And these medicines, if the higher-ups hadn't nodded, and someone held it up in a certain procedure, you might have had to wait several months to get them."

Although he didn't name names, Chen Chuan knew when he was being urged by certain people that day that there were definitely factions here at the outpost.

Because he was brought in by Counselor Pei, he was naturally classified together. And some people might be deliberately putting pressure on him and making trouble for him. This had nothing to do with good or bad, it was just a matter of standing on the team.

This was unavoidable.

However, he always firmly believed only in his own strength. As long as his strength reached a certain level, external restraints and shackles could be slowly broken free.

Counselor Pei said a sentence and didn't mention this again, and then said, "Also..."

He glanced outside, and the body sitting on the sofa moved forward slightly, and whispered, "Although that person has cleared his name on the surface, he has still been forced to take a vacation. He will pass by here in the next two days, and may stay for a few days. Captain Chen, remember to pay attention..."