As soon as the Human Emperor Banner came out, I became the Lord of the Old Ones

Chapter 228 A Brand New Patrol
In response to the deteriorating situation, the Security Bureau has become increasingly important. With the strong support of Dawn Heavy Industries, it has begun to expand the size of its patrol teams and improve its armament.

Originally, with official operators, the Dawn City patrol team's duties were simply patrolling in the literal sense. At most, they were responsible for managing small vendors and maintaining the city's appearance. Their numbers were not too large, and they usually did not use violence. They were completely different from the Rolling Stone Fortress patrol team.

However, with the regular officers busy dealing with various serious cases, maintaining local security largely depends on the patrol teams.

To this end, the Dawn City Security Bureau has begun publicly recruiting patrol members, and expects to expand the size of the patrol team at least five times within three months.

In these difficult times of economic downturn, uncertain prospects, and persistently high unemployment, becoming a patrol officer is undoubtedly the best choice for many ordinary citizens.

However, it is not easy to find candidates who meet the criteria of being physically strong, hardworking, quick-witted, have a special skill, and most importantly, have a clean resume.

The Security Bureau prefers to recruit miners and manual laborers who were recently laid off by Dawn Heavy Industries.

On the one hand, miners work underground year-round, possess various professional skills and a considerable degree of organization and discipline, and are often proficient in using various sealing cards with a certain degree of combat capability.

On the other hand, this was also a condition proposed by Liming Heavy Industry when it heavily sponsored the Security Bureau.

After all, they are our own people, so we should take care of them to alleviate the resentment many citizens have towards Liming Heavy Industry.

A deeper reason is that these former miners are mostly strong, taciturn, and capable of using violence, thus posing a potential danger.

Recruiting them as patrol members, even if they can't catch real criminals, can at least largely prevent them from taking risks and embarking on a path of crime. It's a cost-effective and preventative measure.

However, when the Security Bureau actually began recruiting these former miners and heavy manual laborers according to the layoff list, they found that most of them had participated in the re-employment training courses of the Crazy Iron Club.

This saves the trouble of communicating with each person in person.

The Security Bureau already had a very close cooperative relationship with the Crazy Iron Club.

The cardless style, characterized by physical conditioning and proficiency in unarmed combat, perfectly aligns with the Security Bureau's requirement of "strong control and low damage."

The Security Bureau went a step further and signed a more in-depth cooperation agreement with the Kuangtie Club.

The Kuangtie Club will be responsible for opening short-term training courses to provide simple communication and training to unemployed miners. If they are then joined into the patrol team, they can form a certain combat capability in the shortest possible time.

As the technical director of the Kuangtie Club, Xu Yan was also assigned a task.

The purpose is to prepare sealing cards that suit the characteristics of these former miners and newly recruited patrol members, while also meeting the patrol requirements.

According to the Security Bureau, these patrol members do not necessarily need to use bronze combat cards.

It would be best to use the black iron civilian card that they have been used to for decades, of course, with some enhancements and modifications.

Firstly, the operation of bronze battle cards is relatively complex, requiring high levels of life and spirit.

Many former miners, after years of arduous labor, have undergone varying degrees of physical changes based on the characteristics of their former souls, and even their souls have been influenced by these former souls to some extent.

Forcing them to establish new spiritual links with brand-new guardian spirits, especially powerful battle spirits, could easily lead to various problems.

It would be better to take advantage of the situation and modify their existing sealing cards. Even if a new contract were to be signed, a guardian spirit of the same type should be chosen to minimize the risk of adjustment issues.

Secondly, even with the support of Dawn Heavy Industries, the budget of the Dawn City Security Bureau was still stretched thin. Just providing salaries and basic equipment for the suddenly expanded patrol team was already insufficient, and it was simply impossible to provide high-quality bronze combat cards for so many patrol members.

Of course, there's another reason that's hard to say.

Xu Yan felt that neither Liming Heavy Industry nor the Security Bureau would be completely at ease with these unemployed miners.

They feared that equipping them with bronze combat cards and making them too strong would lead to unexpected consequences.

Based on this need, Xu Yan started with the guardian spirits such as "Bull Warrior" and "Iron Hippo" that the previous miners were used to.

These guardian spirits were the lowest-level animals in ancient civilizations, known for their thick skin, tough flesh, and ability to fight and withstand attacks.

The problem is that most of them are slow to move and their summoning speed is too slow, making them unsuitable for the ever-changing battlefield combat.

After months of honing his skills, Xu Yan had already mastered the classical talisman-making techniques of the Myriad Souls Sect, as well as Dr. Hyde's and Lelena's card-making techniques.

The silver combat card he recently acquired from Sheikh Krat has given him a deeper understanding of the relationship between life magnetic fields and soul circuits.

Xu Yan has developed a completely new approach to enhancing the Black Iron civilian card, one that differs from that of any other card-making master of this era.

However, he has no intention of forcibly increasing the speed of "Bull Warrior" and "Iron Hippo".

Although there are no technical problems, it will greatly increase the difficulty of operation and bring greater mental burden to the previous miners.

Besides, why make these half-baked patrol members increase their speed so much?
If we encounter vicious and ruthless bandits, should we really let them rush to the front and vie to their deaths?
Therefore, Xu Yan will focus his efforts on improving his defense.

After the original miners merged with the "Bull Warrior," they became super strong men with broad shoulders, thick waists, bronze heads, and iron arms.

Thanks to Xu Yan's improvements, they even reached a level of invulnerability to swords and spears to a certain extent for a short period of time.

At least, it can withstand a few bullets from a standard-caliber firearm at medium range without any problem.

Xu Yan's role with these patrol members was to act as human shields.

Being able to block the intersection at a critical moment and delay the criminals as much as possible until the official agents arrive at the scene is enough to justify the Security Bureau's salary.

In addition, Xu Yan also prepared a brand new black iron civilian card for them.

【Phantom Bee】

Its true form is a transcendent being from the Third Age, but it is not a real bee; rather, it is a close relative of the hummingbird.

With their agile flight, intuitive environmental scanning and automatic pathfinding capabilities, and most importantly, their swarm living characteristics, they can transmit a large amount of environmental information and flight path planning information to the entire group in the shortest possible time.

(End of this chapter)