He changed Tiwat

Given the strength the other side had displayed, killing or dismembering them was entirely up to them. Despite his pride as a member of the Fools, Anton's priority was still protecting his brothers. They were not in a fighting condition and should not be needlessly lost in such a conflict.

Danila couldn't stand Anton's behavior. He abruptly stood up: "'Small'? 'Glitch'?! We're fighting amongst ourselves! We're watching the Liyue people defeat our comrades!"

"Otherwise what? Are you planning to fight them?" Timor's tone was sarcastic, but his hand was already reaching for his robes. If Danila really charged in, then he too...

The fat man, Radomir, who had been silent even at the "tea party," let out a heavy sigh.

“Antoha, don’t downplay it… Our command network has been destroyed, we’re finished. All officers above the rank of lieutenant are either killed or missing… We have no choice but to retreat.”

“I know, of course I know… but…” Anton looked at the unconscious Mashkov and the others, “What about Vovka and the others? And Katarina… Many people are unwilling to retreat; they would rather guard their commander’s belongings and fight to the last man!”

“It’s about starving until the last person is gone…” Danila shook his head. Now that things were out in the open, he had no more reservations.

"According to the cooperation agreement, we were supposed to receive food and orders from above, but we haven't received any messages from them for a long time."

Timor interjected, “Our loyalty to the Fools and the Executor is beyond question, but we're not fools either... In this situation, evacuation is the only option. Remember when the Captain was still around? We sent a few comrades up to request supplies…”

Anton pursed his lips. "But they haven't come back, and now even Romansky... We can't afford to take another risk."

He looked around at his comrades, and this time, these guys who usually didn't respect each other reached a consensus and all nodded to Anton.

Chapter 223 It's the Company Commander! [4k] (Bonus Chapter 11/20)

"It seems you've already made your decisions?" Han Fulai asked with a smile.

Behind him, "Old Jiang" and "Xiao Lan" stood like two door gods on the left and right. Although they did not speak, they exuded an undeniable sense of oppression.

Anton pressed down on his hat, a resolute look appearing on his square face: "I know I have no right to question your identities and purposes... but whether you believe it or not, our mission is solely aimed at the source of the disaster in the Layered Rock Abyss."

"Go on," Han Fulai nodded slightly. In fact, he still admired Sergeant Anton quite a bit.

Anton is a model soldier, possessing the courage and perseverance of a soldier, as well as the responsibility and commitment of a non-commissioned officer. As the "acting company commander" of this surviving squad, even though it was a self-proclaimed title, he earnestly fulfilled his responsibilities as "company commander," silently shouldering the greatest pressure.

When the conflict broke out with Mashkov, Anton was the first to step forward and mediate. After Mashkov and his men were defeated, Anton was also the first to see the situation clearly and, enduring humiliation, begged Han Fulai for forgiveness. And now, he has also taken on the task of negotiating with Han Fulai single-handedly.

It's important to understand that Han Fulai and his two companions are powerful, their identities and motives are completely unknown, and they could turn on you at any moment. If a single wrong word is said, or any problems arise during the discussion, Anton will bear the responsibility. Moreover, ultimately, the responsibility for bringing these three into the camp—"inviting wolves into the house"—mainly lies with Timor, who was tricked by Han Fulai and Yelan. However, despite Timor constantly causing trouble for Anton, Anton uncomplainingly cleans up Timor's messes.

Besides, Anton was quick-witted as well. He saw through Han Fulai and his two companions' concealment of their identities, yet they had been carefully avoiding the topic, using the "tea party" to keep them calm until Mashkov and the others returned, thus gathering all the forces of the Fools. If Mashkov hadn't been so impulsive, and if Jiang Xue and Ye Lan hadn't been so strong, Anton's strategy of "concentrating superior forces" could have given the Fools the initiative.

Even now, Anton is still avoiding finding out Han Fulai and his men's identities and purposes. He understands that if he knows something he shouldn't, he and his comrades will never escape this abyss. Moreover, if their conversations after the conflict between Han Fulai and his men and the Fool's Army soldiers are suspected of being "colluding with the enemy," he, as the "acting company commander," will bear the consequences.

Therefore, in Han Fulai's eyes, An Dong was absolutely deserving of the title of "acting company commander".

"The cataclysm five hundred years ago was merely the prelude to war. The war against the Dark Enemy has been ongoing, and one of the battlefields is right beneath our feet," Anton said in a deep voice. "Our Ninth Company's mission is to investigate and eliminate the source of the anomaly in the Laminar Abyss. The Liyue people are not our enemies, at least not the enemies of our Ninth Company in this mission."

"What are the 'mutations' and 'dark enemies' you mentioned?" Han Fulai continued to ask.

“‘Black Calamity’,” Anton said, “or ‘Dark Calamity,’ originating from the great catastrophe five hundred years ago. We are here to fight against the monsters that emerged from the black mud, monsters from the ‘outside.’ In short, they are the eternal enemy of us Winterborn people, and we believe that… for five hundred years, the calamity has been lurking, and we will always remain vigilant.”

Han Fulai remained calm, but his mind was already racing.

According to Anton, what they were fighting was probably something like the "Beast Hounds" that had mysteriously appeared in the Deep Rock Abyss. Five hundred years ago, the invasion of monsters brought immense disaster to the entire Teyvat, and the Fatui signed the "Protection Agreement" with the six kingdoms, ostensibly to prevent the disaster from happening again.

From this perspective, Anton was telling the truth.

The unusual activity of the "Wishing Stone," the appearance of the "Abyss Order," the proliferation of black mud, and the ley line disruption mentioned by Dain—the existence of three different forces. In addition, there are "Star Mushrooms" that shouldn't be in the Layered Rock Abyss, the increasingly ferocious "Mushroom Beasts," the inexplicable earthquakes, and the terrain changes mentioned by Zhiqiong… all these signs indicate that the anomalies in the Layered Rock Abyss are having a growing impact.

It is highly likely that there is an entrance at the bottom of the Layered Rock Abyss that connects to the "Abyss". In the great war five hundred years ago, the Layered Rock Abyss was barely defended thanks to the valiant efforts of the immortals and the Thousand Rock Army. However, five hundred years later, the power of the Abyss has probably been leaked again, and this time the "Abyss Cult" is also acting as an accomplice.

"How exactly did you carry out the mission?" Han Fulai asked another key question.

According to Anton and his men, the Fools' Ninth Company only had 64 men at full strength. Even if they were all elites with "evil eyes," could 64 men really resist the "dark calamity" they spoke of? Han Fulai was very skeptical.

Moreover, a year has passed, and at least eight of the sixty-four men in the company are still alive—it looks terrible, but it's amazing that they weren't wiped out. Anton also mentioned that they had sent people to request reinforcements from higher command, but the people sent out never returned. This means that when that "captain" was still around, the company must have had at least a dozen or twenty men.

Anton's previous words and Romansky's log both prove that this Fool's Company is hostile to the "Abyss Order." They lost ten men in just one battle with the "Abyss Order" at the ancient ruins... There were only sixty-four people in total. How did they survive the combined attack of the black mud, monsters, and the "Abyss Order"? And even hold out for a year?

Anton hesitated for a moment; this question had already fallen into the category of "confidential."

Seeing this, Han Fulai seized the opportunity to tug at his collar.

"Recognize this uniform? I'm an agent dispatched by Yujingtai. These two..." He pointed to Jiang Xue and Ye Lan, "are both captains in the Thousand Rock Army, accompanying me on this investigation mission. Our targets are you, the Fools. Whether you're plotting something in the Layered Rock Abyss is what we're investigating. Understand?"

He believed Anton understood him; they were officials. Official status meant they acted according to rules. Rules meant they wouldn't act arbitrarily, and the Fool's soldiers were similarly protected by those rules.

Anton quickly nodded to indicate that he understood—but his colleagues behind him did not.

"What ulterior motives!" Danila shouted, waving his fist. "We're fighting for you! We should be allies!"

"Idiot, we have no 'allies' left!" Radomir roared back, but he was yelling at Danila. "Why do you think there's been no contact from above, no supplies? Something must have happened. We've severed ties... to be precise, we, as the 'Fatalists,' have severed ties with Liyue!"

"This is betrayal! We've been betrayed by the Liyue people!" Timor even drew his flaming twin blades, as if he were about to pounce and fight to the death at any moment.

In an instant, Jiang Xue's bladeless sword was drawn, and with two clear ringing sounds, blood spilled from Timor's tiger's mouth, and his twin swords fell to the ground.

They couldn't see Jiang Xue's invisible sword energy at all.

"Enough! Shut up, all of you!" Anton turned around and slammed his fist into the ground, the wind pressure stirring up a cloud of stone chips and dust.

The three fools and their soldiers immediately fell silent.

"Perhaps it's the opposite for the people of Liyue? It is we, the 'Fatalists,' who have betrayed them..."

All three of them saw the bitter expression on Anton's face.

Danila cried out in protest, "What a joke... We're here to protect the people of Liyue! Do you remember what the Captain said before we set off? This expedition has nothing to do with any petty schemes or conspiracies!"

Timor was silent for a moment, then picked up his twin swords from the ground and put them away.

His voice was filled with sorrow: "But we couldn't stop the scheming and plotting that had taken hold of us... This is something we can't control, Brother Danila."

He had already thought about some things. As an elite "debt handler" of the Fools, he had some understanding of the working style of some executives before being assigned to the Ninth Company.

“Okay, I understand. Whew…” Anton took a deep breath. “I’ve made up my mind. We need to get out of here, the sooner the better. So we need to cooperate with them, understand?”

“But…” Radomir hesitated.

“It’s alright, I’ll take full responsibility.” Anton patted Radomir’s broad shoulder. “If there are any deserters among us… if any deserter brings shame to the Ninth Company, that deserter is me, only me.”

"No...no!" Radomir shook his head frantically. "Danila is right. We are here to protect the people of Liyue from the Black Catastrophe. We can't just leave like this."

“Mirka! This is not the time to talk.” Anton stopped Radomir from speaking with a look.

Then he turned around and asked Han Fulai in a calm tone, "Excuse me, can you tell me what exactly happened up there?"

“In January of this year, your Winter Fools’ executor, ‘Young Master’ Tartaglia, broke into our Liyue’s Golden House. At the same time, the Fools’ forces invaded Ningguang’s ‘Jade Pavilion’. Furthermore, ‘Young Master’ also freed ‘Whirlpool Demon’ Oser, who was suppressed by the Geo Archon, and nearly destroyed Liyue Harbor.”

"Following that, the Yuehaiting Office issued an emergency document..."

Han Fulai repeated the contents of the document, since he had handled it before.

"...Given the egregious nature of this incident and the urgency of the crisis, it has proven the dangerousness and untrustworthiness of the 'Fools' organization..."

"...The cooperation agreement with Winterlands is hereby nullified. The exploration work in the Lava Abyss will now be fully undertaken by the Liyue Septate. The 'Foolish Ones' advance force is ordered to leave Liyue within a specified period, and seventy-six Winterlands diplomatic officials will be expelled..."

"...The Thousand Rock Army must no longer speak with any member of the 'Fools'. If they are seen doing so, they must be arrested on the spot without exception!"

"above."

Anton and the others simply listened quietly to Han Fulai's retelling. Their expressions, from doubt to anger to sorrow, were all observed by Han Fulai and the others.

After a long silence, Anton finally spoke up: "So, the Thousand Rock Army withdrew several months ago, and they ran out of supplies, but no one told us."

“This is what your executives should do,” Han Fulai replied expressionlessly.

“Heh…heh heh…yes, we’ve been abandoned.” Anton gave a bitter laugh. “To assist in a more meaningful adventure, Lord 'Rooster' will naturally abandon relatively low-value assets; that’s his rationality. As his direct subordinates, we can completely…understand, completely…accept…”

The three comrades behind him remained silent.

With his back to his comrades, Anton growled, "The people of Liyue don't need our protection, and they don't welcome us! They even defeated our complacent comrades! We fought hard, but we failed. We should retreat!"

“But there are still some missing comrades… The captain said we came here prepared to never go home. We should at least…” Radomir hesitated.

Anton retorted without turning his head: "The captain said the same thing, he won't let anyone's sacrifice be meaningless! The captain said the same thing, he doesn't want me to lose the company! There are still seven men here! At least we're still alive, which means the Ninth Company's number still exists, understand?"

After a moment of silence, three resounding replies rang out: "Yes, sir!"

"In order for us to go home, we need to cooperate with them, including leaking classified information. I, as the acting company commander, will take full responsibility. You know nothing about it, understand?"

The response came in unison: "Yes, sir!"

“Okay.” Anton straightened his back and looked at Han Fulai. “Mr. Han, I will tell you everything you want to know about this mission.”

Han Fulai made a "please" gesture.

"This happened a long time ago, right after this place was sealed off, and our people approached the Seven Stars of Liyue. At first, the talks went well... and 'Lady' even managed to negotiate a few trade agreements that were beneficial to both sides. The fact that the Fatui's advance force was stationed in the Lava Pit was originally one of the additional conditions..."

"As I said before, we came here to investigate and eliminate the source of the anomaly. All the information we obtain will be shared fairly between Winter Country and Liyue."

So Ningguang actually knew everything. She knew from the beginning that there was still a "Ninth Company" that had not been evacuated. She sent Yelan here for another purpose—to retrieve intelligence!

Han Fulai glanced at Ye Lan beside him out of the corner of his eye.

Ye Lan stroked the die hanging on her chest; she had already started recording.

"Our 'Ninth Special Forces Company' is directly under the Fifth Executive Officer, Lord Puchinella, codenamed 'Rooster.' Before we descended into the Rock Abyss, our commander told us that we were only here for the 'Dark Calamity.' We drank and chatted with the Thousand Rock Army responsible for providing support, and we were blessed by the citizens when we set off. Everyone thought... we were a heroic unit that sacrificed ourselves to protect others."

"But... I never expected things to turn out this way."

Anton looked up at the sky and remembered Yanbo, the captain of the Qianyan Army who had shared "fire water" with him back then.

Leave

The author suffered a severe stiff neck and can no longer move the left side of his neck and shoulder. This serves as a reminder to everyone to pay attention to posture when sitting for long periods. What a painful lesson!

I need to take the day off; I'm going for physiotherapy tomorrow.

(；′⌒`)(；′⌒`)(；′⌒`)(；′⌒`)(；′⌒`)(；′⌒`)(；′⌒`)(；′⌒`)(；′⌒`)(；′⌒`)(；′⌒`)(；′⌒`)(；′⌒`)

Chapter 224 The Ninth Company's Log

Ye Lan was listening intently to what Anton was saying. Her key objective in coming to the Layered Rock Abyss was located deep within it.

She possessed crucial intelligence that she needed to retrieve from this group of fools.

This wasn't Yelan's first time in the Layered Rock Abyss, nor was it her first time seeing this group of Fools soldiers—for example, she had met the "acting company commander" Anton a year ago, and even had a drink with him.

At that time, Yelan was an ordinary soldier of the Thousand Rock Army, who shared "fire water" with Anton at the ground supply station.

At the time, Yelan wanted to try to find out the core secrets of this Fools, but unfortunately the captain was very strict about the equipment, and Yelan did not find an opportunity to get close to their logistics camp to find out.

When Anton mentioned drinking and chatting with the Thousand Rock Army soldiers who were responsible for providing support, Ye Lan knew who he was thinking of—Yan Bo, the captain of the Thousand Rock Army.

She had even read the letter that Yanbo had left at the ground supply station a few months earlier when he evacuated.

Yanbo's letter reads as follows:

Brother Anton Melnikov:

Sorry, the situation has changed drastically, and the supply depot has been closed. We were saying we'd wait for you to come up so we could have a couple of drinks together, but it seems that won't be possible now.

I've left some food privately, enough for short-term consumption. Please feel free to take what you need.

I'm sorry, but as a friend, this is all I can do. If we meet again, we'll only be enemies. While I understand that what happened on the ground may be unrelated to your mission, I hope you can understand that we cannot forgive such aggression.

Just as you fight for the Queen of Winterfell, we, the Thousand Rocks, must also defend our homeland. We all need to take responsibility for what is important.

Good luck. Yanbo, stay.

Yelan actually carried the letter with her. If she captured the group of Fools alone, she would use the letter to tell them that they had been abandoned by their commander. If necessary, she could also disguise herself as Yanbo and use Yanbo's relationship with Anton to extract information.

Of course, after that, this group of useless fools will lose their lives or their freedom, depending on the circumstances.

In fact, Ye Lan had gone on three missions to the Layered Rock Abyss this year. The last one was just recently, after Han Fulai had a falling out with her at the bottom of the Qingxupu Ruins.

At that time, the Ninth Company still had at least twenty men, and Yelan had been tracking them for at least two days. These Fools soldiers also had a technical detachment carrying several large boxes containing their classified equipment. Yelan's original plan was to follow them from a distance, observe their movements, and wait for them to reveal the secrets themselves.

But the company commander was an experienced soldier, and he seemed to have spotted Yelan's whereabouts... Meanwhile, Anton, who had also strayed from his unit, had accidentally come across Yelan, though he hadn't seen her face clearly.

In short, after that, the captain and Yelan engaged in several rounds of tracking and counter-tracking maneuvers, which raised the troops' vigilance.

Ye Lan wasn't there to kill anyone, and to avoid revealing her location, she ultimately chose to retreat temporarily.

This time, however, the captain was gone, and the technical team and classified equipment were nowhere to be found. The Fools were reduced to just a handful of people.

Yelan sincerely hoped that her mission would not fail because of the captain's disappearance.

—Her main purpose in searching for these Fools was to find out how they resisted the "Dark Calamity".

For the Fools, the means to combat the "Black Catastrophe" were a "secret." When they went down into the mines, they brought down some equipment sealed in boxes. Nightlan deduced that the key to combating the "Black Catastrophe" lay among that equipment.

Although the elite forces of the Fatui possess the "Evil Eye" and have the ability to use elemental power, they are not the true holders of the "Eye of God"—the Black Mud does the same harm to them as it does to ordinary people.

Even those who possess the "Eye of God" will be harmed by prolonged contact with the black mud miasma, let alone these Fools soldiers who have spent a year in the Black Mud in the Abyss of Layered Rocks.

But these remnants of the Fools, though wounded, exhausted, and hungry, showed no signs of being corrupted by the black mud, or rather, the power of the abyss.

Therefore, they must have a way to fight against the forces of the abyss.