From Titan Corporation to the Empire of Man

The driver was a volatile Frenchman wearing Hawaiian-style short-sleeved shirts and shorts, with a buzz cut and dark brown skin.

The passenger with blond hair and a slightly childish face was the prospective investigator Lyon.

In terms of dress and equipment, Lyon wore a black light jacket and short-sleeved shirt of the same color produced by his own military industry, with tool bags and magazine bags hanging on his waistband, dark green multi-pocket overalls, leg holsters and military boots, and a black backpack in the back seat of the car.

The reason why they did not deliberately conceal their identities was that the African country they sneaked into, that is, Congo, was really in chaos.

The struggle for territory between tribes, a large number of refugees and deserters being sheltered by anti-government forces, riots, mutinies, and killings are the norm in Congo and are common.

Although it has a large amount of gold, copper, and iron ore, and its natural gas reserves are among the best in the world, it is one of the poorest countries "begging with a golden bowl", with a GDP of only US$4.2 billion in 1993.

The air defense force is almost non-existent, not to mention that Congo has not even established an air force. Compared with Atlas, which consumes nearly 2 billion US dollars every year to maintain military expenses, it is simply a world of difference.

In addition, Leon's skin and hair color make him an outsider at first glance, so there is no need to deliberately hide anything. Anyway, there are countless mercenaries and criminal organizations operating in Congo.

One day ago.

Chief Instructor Krausa announced the content of the "graduation exam" to them, that is, to go to Congo to conduct an investigation, try to search for abnormal things, and successfully survive.

For a period of fourteen days.

During this period, the company will not take the initiative to provide them with any support, and everything depends on themselves.

Of course, if they are unfortunately in a life-threatening moment and cannot escape by themselves no matter what, the company will still send the ARS company to launch a rescue operation with all their strength.

But as an investigator, luck is also an invisible and intangible strength. If you cannot escape by yourself, it will seriously affect the final score of this "graduation exam".

However, before Lyon and his team picked their own equipment and prepared to board the plane with enough supplies, Krauser gave them a final reminder, which was "keep alive and don't force yourself to take the exam."

Because even if the comprehensive results are not up to standard, the trainees who have been trained for half a year will still be assigned to the most suitable positions according to their resumes. If they are besieged by some thugs, but choose to fight hard for the sake of grades and die...

The spirit of dying rather than surrendering is worthy of praise, but the behavior of being too stubborn and not knowing how to adapt to circumstances is not worthy of praise.

July 16, 00:34.

The ARS Aviation Company provided "services" from the Kenyan base to the sky over Congo. After that, Lyon and his classmates left the cabin one by one and parachuted, landing in their respective investigation areas under the cover of night.

02:20.

Lyon successfully touched the ground.

After folding and recovering the parachute, through the positioning of the individual computer, it was determined that he was in the central part of Congo, and the straight-line distance from the target "Loja" town he was responsible for was still 30 kilometers.

It may be due to the wind speed, or it may be due to the turbulence that caused the transport plane to be very bumpy when he jumped, but in any case, the distance deviation is quite large.

The plan to walk to the target location is unrealistic, and there is a large area of ​​virgin rainforest in the middle, so after a short rest and analysis, Lyon chose to rush to the nearest town called Longa.

Maybe it was because of good luck again, or something, after walking for three hours, Lyon found that there was an outpost of a French logging company in this town with a population of less than 40,000.

This has led to many French people being active in Longa, and there is even a bar with authentic French food and open 24 hours a day.

People who can come here regardless of thousands of miles and the turbulent environment must be doing some "big business" to make a fortune. Intelligence transactions and mercenary intermediaries always need a fixed place to "summarize".

Where there is demand, there is a market, and the bar called "Romanee-Conti" is such a place.

Out of caution, Leon did not order food and wine when he entered the bar. He just rested in Romanee-Conti for a while and asked the bartender if there was anything unusual nearby.

At the beginning, he only got the answer "It seems so, I don't know, I'm just a bartender."

Although this was Leon's first mission, it didn't mean that he didn't understand the meaning behind it. So after paying a "tip" of $200, he got the information that "Loja will be occupied by anti-government rebels in a few days. Brother, if I were you, I would never go there. Your life is important."

There are also unexpected gains?

Leon is not sure whether the $200 intelligence fee is the market price, but he feels that it should be worth it...right.

If he didn't know about the rebels' actions in advance, he would definitely be caught off guard, causing his own safety to be seriously threatened.

You know, the rebels and thugs in Africa will frequently commit cruel acts. Using the word beast to describe them will insult the word beast.

Then, after a short rest in the bar, Leon negotiated a price with a man who had just woken up from a hangover and called himself a "French guy", and drove him to Logja, which was still more than 20 kilometers away.

Then, time came to the present.

"."

Looking at the terrified passers-by outside the window, coupled with the pungent smell of alcohol in the car, Leon regretted taking the French guy's car.

What even he didn't notice was that Clausa once wrote a comment on his file that "seems to be related to the car accident."

After all, in past trainings, for any project involving vehicles, as long as Lyon is on the team, the probability of vehicle cylinder failure, tire blowout, loss of control and other failures is much greater than that of other teams.

Clausa is not afraid that Leon will think too much about it. Unless necessary, Leon cannot and has no right to check the files on his own.

"Beep! Beep!"

"Merde! (Damn!)"

"Fiche le camp! (Get out!)"

After listening to countless cars and yelling, Leon finally saw a large number of thatched houses in front of him that would gather on the edge of the town. This meant that he would reach his destination soon and no longer had to endure the driver's madness.

Chi-——! !

The vehicle brakes suddenly.

Bang! Bang!

The sound of violently opening and closing the car door was also heard.

Buzz~——! ! !

There is something wrong with the exhaust pipe or something, causing the engine to make a deafening roar.

I saw Leon, who had put on his backpack again, standing on the roadside, looking in the direction where a lot of dust was rising, and heard another roar from the French guy:

"Adieu, l'Américain. Merci pour tes trois billets de Benjamin Franklin~! (Goodbye, Yankee, thank you for the three Benjamin Franklins~!)"

"."

Leon just frowned and stopped paying attention to the Frenchman. Instead, he looked around and made simple observations.

There is not much difference from most areas in Africa. Tin houses can be seen everywhere, and there are very few houses built with cement and steel bars. There is no real road and the environment is dirty.

If there is anything unusual about him, it is because of his skin and clothes that make him the most special person here.

After realizing that several residents nearby seemed to be "curious" and had a tendency to surround him, Leon immediately moved away.

But as he walked and observed, he found that the residents were staggering, their expressions were dull, and most importantly, their mouths and noses were still flowing...

Blood?