Spanning almost a quarter of a planet from the imperial capital to the western frontier, the young students did not feel the difference in time at first, until they slept and realized that the fatigue they had experienced was so deep.

After getting off the plane, none of them realized that the time displayed on their terminals had begun to slowly change, and the day they experienced yesterday was even more than six hours longer than the original day.

And during the extra six hours of the day, they walked a lot, did a lot of things, and ate only one meal. When the sun rose again, they realized that their muscles were sore, their minds were a little drowsy, and they felt a little uncomfortable.

The students of the mecha department are relatively resistant to this experience, after all, as cultivators, although they are only the beginning of the Ming Body, they are much stronger in terms of physical and psychological quality.

Before dawn, the students of the mecha department were woken up by Wei Qingxuan and Xu Hewei, got up at half past four, and after rectification, they gathered on time at five o'clock, and the audience was quiet when assigning tasks, no one yawned, and no one spoke, just quietly accepted the grouping and assignment.

The five veterans took away the three students of the mecha department, went to the cafeteria to eat first, and after bringing their guns, they had to go out on time at six o'clock to carry out patrol tasks.

When they got up at six o'clock, some people vaguely saw that the students of the mecha department had left the patrol camp, and a team of ten people scattered from all corners of the mountain into the deep mountains and old forests.

I didn't care about the departure of the mecha department, and I don't know if the mecha department had dinner in the morning, anyway, they didn't have anything to eat, and the canteen was not open to them, so they were directly assigned through the registration last night, and those with professional knowledge were assigned to the engineering team, and the professional counterparts went to logistics and civil construction.

Receiving the assignment in frustration, muttering in his mouth, the whole camp was in a mess, which was completely different from when the mecha department received the assignment before, although there was a gap in breakfast, but this result still surprised the soldiers in the patrol camp.

Su Pi was just like this on the watchtower in the distance and observed the group of young students below, and he didn't dare to come out of the atmosphere, because there was a burly figure standing next to him, and the military uniform was worn on his body, which was as simple and small as a horse coat, but it complemented each other.

The man's face is angular and angular, the whole person is like a knife and gun, and the momentum exuded by the whole person is like a tiger descending from the mountain, so that the people around him are silent, for fear that if one accidentally disturbs this idle tiger, he will be buried under the tiger's mouth.

After watching it for a while, when the people in the empty field of the camp were about to disperse, the tiger laughed suddenly, and a deep and deep voice sounded: "These hairy balls! ”

Su Pi smiled beside him: "Why should the general care about these students? Naturally, the subordinates will arrange them. ”

The burly general nodded, and didn't say anything, and he didn't know whether he thought Su Pi was right, or didn't care about his words, but Su Pi didn't dare to continue to say anything, he was just a small platoon commander, and the general's thoughts were not something he could ask.

Just behind the burly general, there stood a dark-skinned man, who was actually a colonel with epaulettes, and said at this time: "These students are not supposed to come to the border, but it's good to give them a few days of hardship, but the previous mecha department ......"

The burly general let out a heavy breath, like a tiger napping, turned around and walked down the watchtower, the swarthy colonel and Su Pi followed behind, and the colonel continued: "An Xiaoyu seems to have let them go?" It seems that we still underestimate An Xiaoyu. ”

The burly general didn't say anything, just glanced around at the settings in the camp, and saw that Su Pi broke out in a cold sweat, if the general saw that there was something unqualified in his camp, it would not be as simple as suffering.

But fortunately, the general didn't find anything bad, just glanced at Su Pi, and was a little dissatisfied with his groveling appearance, but he didn't scold, just left the patrol camp with the dark-skinned colonel, and after getting into the car, he headed towards the side of the base.

At this time, the three-person team of the mecha department had already gone up the mountain under the leadership of five patrol soldiers, and after separating from each other, they went to their respective patrol routes, asking them to complete their patrol tasks today within one day, which was really not a simple task.

An Xiaoyu's practice of pulling Wei Qingxuan and Xu Hewei into his team made all the students of the mecha department thoughtful, they knew that An Xiaoyu must have a purpose in doing this, and as for what the purpose was, they could guess one or two from the cold expression that An Xiaoyu showed after coming here.

So the students of the mecha department were a little serious, and even a little low, but it was a trio of thorns, which seemed particularly excited at this time, of course, the three of them were divided into a team, and they saw that the heads of the five big soldiers leading the team were getting bigger and bigger, and they really didn't know what would happen with their three living treasures.

All of them left the camp with a heavy heart, and with the cold of winter, they embarked on a journey to the position, and even asked them to lead the way on the patrol route, in order to cultivate their ability to find their way in the mountains, and they naturally did not resist.

When they were in the Three Thousand Academy, they all learned some professional knowledge and skills of reading maps and finding routes according to maps, and these simple patrol routes did not go deep into the mountains, which were naturally simple for them, but they were not so easy.

The only exception is An Xiaoyu, An Xiaoyu doesn't seem to be worried at all, and even the five veterans who lead the team don't know where An Xiaoyu's confidence comes from.

Handed over the task of leading the way to Wei Qingxuan, Xu Hewei had already started to discuss with the casual technicians the materials that could be provided for research in the nearby mountains, as well as the things about the awakened beasts nearby, and Wei Qingxuan took the electronic map relentlessly and began to lead the way in front.

An Xiaoyu walked leisurely through the mountains and forests, the dry trunks next to her and the canopy of the trees that had shed their bare leaves on the top of her head, coupled with the snow in the mountains, made the whole mountain forest look monotonous and weird, in such an environment, it is easiest to get lost.

Wei Qingxuan was careful and careful, almost every marker had to be matched several times, and Xu Hewei had already quickly mingled with the researchers, and his mouth was full of some incomprehensible professional terms, as the patrol route progressed, the two of them pointed at the distance, quite a bit of pointing.

The soldiers who led the team were quite satisfied with these two people, but seeing An Xiaoyu's face with a faint smile, walking on the road without doing anything, and even the snow-white military uniform on his body was different from them, he began to have a pimple in his heart.

The patrol team is generally a team of ten people, which is probably to divide the fighters of a squad into two parts, one side led by the squad leader, and the other side led by the deputy squad leader. Because of An Xiaoyu's arrival, the soldiers who patrolled the camp were able to take turns to rest, and the person who led the team today was a squad leader.

The squad leader's name is Wu Luse, a local born native, who joined the army relatively early, probably the same as a hundred years old, because he is not very good at studying, so only by joining the army can he solve his own food problem.

Seeing An Xiaoyu's appearance like this, Wu Luse was a little confused.

An Xiaoyu's identity is not known to everyone, especially these big-headed soldiers who have been at the bottom of the border for a long time, and they know very little about the outside world, and they have only vaguely heard that there is a very young general in the imperial capital, as for what is going on, they are not interested in inquiring at all.

So Wu Luse naturally didn't know what An Xiaoyu was, and thought that she was an eldest lady who came here to experience life, but the identities of Wei Qingxuan and Xu Hewei around him were more well-known, and according to the identity of the two people, he felt more and more that An Xiaoyu was a child of a family whose identity was about the same as that of two boys.

It is precisely because of this that every time he sees An Xiaoyu walking leisurely on the mountain road, Wu Luse feels a little uncomfortable, after all, they are not here to be nannies, but considering that the other party is a girl and a child of a family, it is not easy for him to scold him directly.

So Wu Luse often insinuated on the road that some rules of action and survival in the mountains and forests, Wei Qingxuan and Xu Hewei listened very carefully and accepted it humbly, but An Xiaoyu was still like that, although he listened to it, he didn't take it to heart at all.

Every time Wu Luse turned around and asked them something, it was Wei Qingxuan who raised his head and answered, Xu He made some additions, An Xiaoyu kept silent, and seemed to know how to smirk.

And An Xiaoyu looked at Wu Luse more and more interestingly, the squad leader who led the team seemed to be targeting herself, An Xiaoyu could guess why, but she really had no interest in what he said.

The skills of survival in the wild that Wu Luce told them are only applicable to people in the Ming Body realm and below, and they are useless to An Xiaoyu at all, not to mention that An Xiaoyu still has feelings and tranquility, and the dangers they need to pay attention to are not dangerous in An Xiaoyu's opinion.

In fact, An Xiaoyu is more interested in the arrangement of the entire team to change guards at the border, the confirmation of patrol routes and the handling of some problems encountered in patrol tasks, the operation methods of patrol camps, and the methods of dealing with aliens and beasts at the border.

These are what An Xiaoyu wants to understand, but Wu Luse obviously doesn't have much in his stomach, and it is "Lao Tzu ...... back then", "...... that winter", "...... platoon commander at that time" A lot of old things, and then led to a bunch of chicken soup for the soul mixed with **, which made Wei Qingxuan and Xu He dizzy.

An Xiaoyu listened and watched with a smile on the side, feeling that the big man Wu Luse was quite funny, but she didn't say anything, just observed the situation in the mountains as she walked, and searched for any wild beasts or alien infestations nearby.

After all, if there are aliens with concealment functions on their bodies who want to cross the border, it is impossible for these big-headed soldiers to send new ones, even if they have the most advanced detection equipment on their bodies, limited by their own strength, there are still many ways to evade their detection.

However, to An Xiaoyu's disappointment, this border seems to be very quiet, and there is no attention from the alien race at all, or in other words, the alien race that once raged here has long been beaten by the imperial army and cannot raise its head, plus this is not the main point of the attack, so the alien race without support can only choose to live far away.

And at lunchtime, Xu Hewei talked to the researchers about the awakening beast, which made An Xiaoyu even more interested.

According to their statements, as well as the rumors of Woolusser, there is indeed an Awakened Beast in the mountains of this border, but no one knows what this Awakened Beast really is, but according to the inference, this Awakened Beast is likely to be herbivorous.

An Xiaoyu was a little surprised, Xingneng has always been merit-based when choosing a host, and he can still choose herbivores as a host? And this herbivore awakened beast is still living peacefully until now, and has not been found and eaten by other awakened beasts?

The researchers said that they did not have a picture of the awakened beast either, but it was only deduced based on the recent changes in the vicinity and the reaction of the starlight probe that there was an awakened beast here, and as for why it was determined to be a herbivore, it was because of some changes in the food chain in this mountainous area.

In the food chain of nature, it has always been carnivores that hunt herbivores, but in the past month, there have been changes in the mountains, and a large number of herbivores have begun to gather in groups, often hundreds of activities together, which is very scary.

On several occasions, they have even seen a large herd of herbivores surrounding the predators in the mountains, tearing them to pieces, leaving the predators with no room to resist, and it feels like the relationship between predator and prey in this mountain area has been reversed.

In fact, the predators in the deep mountains are still mostly solitary, and there are not many wolves on the western border, because the vast mountains and steep mountain walls here are not suitable for hunting in groups.

So, gradually, the carnivores in the mountains began to disappear gradually, either killed by herbivores or hidden.

According to the researchers, if this problem is not solved this winter, the number of carnivores will plummet in the spring of next year, or die or migrate, and in the spring there will be a large explosion of herbivores, when the entire forest will be eaten up by the budding vegetation.

After a few years, the carnivores will disappear completely, and the mountain will also be devastated by the explosion of herbivores, plant death, soil erosion, wildfires, rock collapse, and even the starvation of a large number of herbivores, which will also cause the spread of plague.

This is the inevitable consequence of the collapse of the food chain.

An Xiaoyu was a little frightened when she heard this, it seems that the Awakening Beast is indeed a virus that affects the natural environment and social environment between heaven and earth, and once it cannot be controlled, it will cause bad results.

Although she thought so in her heart, An Xiaoyu didn't care, she just ate the energy bar assigned to her from a distance, anyway, her hearing was very strong, and she could hear Xu Hewei's conversation with the scientific researchers from any distance, and she didn't have to look at them.

In the eyes of Wu Luse, this gesture was like seeing a rich kid camping leisurely, not caring about anything, eating and drinking and following the procession, looking at the scenery when he was fine, and even picking up a piece next to him and throwing it into the distance.

At the beginning, Wu Luse still guessed that An Xiaoyu, a rich man, was so tired that he couldn't climb anymore after walking for half a day, obviously he miscalculated, An Xiaoyu is still alive and kicking now, which made him a little disappointed At the same time, the resentment in his heart was even deeper.

If you're so useful, why don't you do anything? Give it to your two companions, just because you are a woman, you are good-looking, can you do whatever you want?

Wu Luse is a border passer, and he is also a straight man, and he has never had any concept of what good-looking girls are, in his opinion, good-looking looks are just useless things, which is the double law of border passes and military camps.

He quietly found Wei Qingxuan and asked, "That classmate of yours, where did you come from?" ”

Wei Qingxuan was stunned for a moment, but he didn't expect Wu Luse to be interested in An Xiaoyu, so he glanced at An Xiaoyu, who was playing with a black stone in his hand, and said with a smile: "She, the first place in the freshman year of the Three Thousand Academy." ”

"No wonder." When Woolusse heard this answer, he blew his beard and glared and said, "Good students are like that!" ”

It seems that Wu Luse has also been bullied by those good students who have brain problems, Wei Qingxuan is also smiling, he also knows that everyone has to meet so many people when they are young, and they are very good at studying, but they are incompatible with the people next to them, and their brain circuits are very strange.

Wei Qingxuan has also seen such a person, even if he is a good student, he is also respectful of this kind of person, for fear that stupid people will also be infected.

But now Wu Luce treats An Xiaoyu as such a student, which is really interesting, Wei Qingxuan did not continue to explain, watching Wu Luce leave with a look of resentment, he felt a little funny in his heart, glanced at An Xiaoyu, and knew that she also heard it.

An Xiaoyu also looked at Wei Qingxuan's side at this time, shook her head with a smile, and the two of them glanced at each other, and they both saw the banter in each other's eyes.

Of course, Wu Luse didn't see it, he thought that An Xiaoyu didn't know anything at all, he wouldn't do anything, and he was still thinking about how to make An Xiaoyu's small report when he went back.

Then came the return patrol in the afternoon.