225 Ren Xiaosu, the snake catcher

In Ren Xiaosu's opinion, whether a soldier was capable of going into combat was absolutely not only dependent on their capability. There was also the instinctive sense for combat they had and their skills.

If a normal person gained newfound strength, that person might not even know how to wield or control it.

Even though Lin Qi and the other officers were fully geared and were even equipped with special close quarters combat weapons, did they really know how to use them?

Therefore, Ren Xiaosu felt that if he could anticipate such a problem, the Li Consortium would definitely have also thought of it.

"Because they need to gather actual combat data and collect the data of nanomachine use in battle." Hu Shuo did not hide it from Ren Xiaosu. "Ever since the breakthrough in neurotech that made it possible for nanomachines to interface with neurons, there hasn't been any actual combat testing by the Li Consortium's nanosoldiers. So they're curious about how effective these nanosoldiers are."

"Aren't they afraid of taking huge losses?" Ren Xiaosu wondered.

"What losses?" Hu Shuo laughed. "It's only a few lives, that's all. The ratio of nanosoldiers selected from the screening isn't as low as you might imagine. Don't tell me you haven't realized that, other than the one experienced soldier leading the group, the rest of the troops were made up of refugees? To them, soldiers trained with their money are like gold, while refugees only serve as a tool. Did you really think they lack candidates with high synchronization rates?"

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. So these people… they were all sent here to die for the sake of collecting data! Was the Li Consortium that vicious?!

"Wait, isn't a requirement of 80% synchronization very high?" Ren Xiaosu could not understand this. "What exactly does this synchronization rate refer to?"

"The synchronization rate is the degree to which you can perfectly control the nanomachines." Hu Shuo explained, "But this isn't set in stone. By undergoing physical training and responsiveness coaching, it can be steadily improved. Of course, there's also a limit to everyone's improvement potential. It's just like how some people naturally have better athleticism than others. It's also down to one's talent as well."

That meant that even those with a low synchronization rate might still be able to control the nanomachines. It was only a matter of how efficiently they could do it. For example, even though you might order it to turn into external armor now, it only turned into external armor a year later.

If that was the case, then what was the point of having the nanomachines turn into armor?! Wouldn't it be more efficient to turn it straight into a coffin instead? The user would have already died anyway!

However, even though Ren Xiaosu's synchronization was 0%, he sensed that the nanomachines were very obedient to his commands. They would do whatever he needed them to do without any delay.

He asked, "Then what does having an extremely low synchronization rate mean? Does it mean that the user is a vegetable?"

Hu Shuo looked at Ren Xiaosu meaningfully and said, "There are special cases too. After a person becomes a supernatural being, their independent consciousness will reject the nanomachines, thus leading to a low synchronization rate. That means that person has an extremely powerful consciousness."

Ren Xiaosu froze at the words. However, he soon got around it when he realized Hu Shuo was bluffing!

If the Li Consortium already knew this from the research, he and Chen Wudi, who had gotten a synchronization rate of 0% and 1% respectively, would have been targeted by the Li Consortium! Hah! Who would have thought Hu Shuo was quite cunning!

However, Ren Xiaosu still had doubts about the Li Consortium's decision to send in recruits like Lin Qi and the others to take on the wolves. "Don't the nanomachines cost anything? The nanomachines they have in them should be worth a lot of money too, right?"

"Nanomachines can be recycled." Hu Shuo said calmly, "Even if the soldiers die, the nanomachines won't die. When the real elite troops get here, they'll be able to retrieve all the nanomachines scattered in the wilderness."

That did sound quite logical. And thus, Ren Xiaosu had nothing more to say.

However, he did not think that Hu Shuo was totally correct. At the very least, this group of soldiers' nanomachines were not going to be retrievable by the Li Consortium anymore.

…

The snowy mountain was covered in fog.

Lin Qi and the rest of the troops were walking in the wilderness at this time and using the radio to maintain communications with the main force at the neighboring outpost. This coordination made it feel like it was a military exercise.

The main man of the group was the soldier who spoke to Hu Shuo, while the rest of the troops were just as Hu Shuo had said, recruits who had just joined the Li Consortium's combat troops.

They had thought that after joining the army, they would be subject to very rigorous training as recruits, as well as undergo military-style training on how to operate the nanomachines. But that wasn't the case at all. After undergoing just some brief training, they were immediately assigned on their first ever mission.

But of course, no one rejected this. After all, they heard of how tough the training was for recruits, so it was best that they did not have to suffer through any of that.

No one felt suspicious of anything. The joy of having their statuses elevated had blunted their judgment. Even though there was a mismatch in the information they knew, it left them with no opportunity to be judgmental.

Lin Qi only thought that since they met the synchronization standard, it meant they were special.

"Captain Zhou, who was that old man?" Lin Qi asked.

"Don't ask," Captain Zhou answered. "Just don't provoke him. In the entire Li Consortium army, he's one you should not offend most of all."

"What should we do next?" someone asked.

Captain Zhou thought for a bit before saying, "Scout ahead!"

One of the officers suddenly stepped forward. A silvery liquid metal started seeping out from underneath his skin and landed on the ground.

In an instant, that silvery liquid metal suddenly turned into five small, silvery snakes that slithered towards the depths of the mountain.

Captain Zhou asked, "What's the furthest range of your control?"

"It was assessed at 418 meters during the previous test," the platoon member replied.

"Alright, that's good enough for our purposes." Captain Zhou said, "Keep a careful lookout on the surroundings and maintain the range so you don't lose control of the nanomachines. The key is to not be careless. Once you discover anything odd with the nanomachines, inform me."

"Roger," answered the platoon member.

Lin Qi suddenly said, "But Captain, this isn't where the wolves were active. Besides, we have five squads conducting a simultaneous search. There shouldn't be any danger, right?"

Honestly, if a battle were to break out, it would be really difficult to depend on Lin Qi and the others even if they had nanomachines in them, because they did not have any actual combat experience.

Captain Zhou looked at him and said, "Just listen to my orders and everything will be fine."

But right at this moment, the soldier controlling the nanorobotic, silver snakes suddenly exclaimed, "This is bad!"

Captain Zhou was startled. "What's the matter? Is it the wolves?"

"No… I don't think so." The soldier hesitated for a moment before saying, "A shadow just flashed by up ahead and stole away one of my silver snakes."

Captain Zhou froze for a moment. "It didn't do anything else and only took your silver snake away?"

"That's right. It ran off after catching it."

Everyone was starting to get suspicious. What the fuck just happened?!