"Grandpa, you're back! Liang and I are looking at the messages in the mutual aid group. It's so lively there, lots of people have signed up, and Liang signed up too!" Xiao Feng replied excitedly.

"Really? It's getting late. Have you had dinner yet?"

Xu Liang stood up and said, "Not yet, Uncle Li. Dinner is ready, but Xiao Feng and I aren't hungry yet. We wanted to wait for you to come back so we could eat together."

After they finished speaking, they washed their hands and sat down to eat. The table was set with three dishes and a soup, which looked quite presentable. Xu Anran couldn't help but praise, "Wow, your dishes look pretty good!"

Xu Liang urged everyone to try his cooking, and it tasted excellent. Everyone praised it, and Xu Liang blushed slightly from the compliments. After dinner and a short rest, Grandpa Li told Xiao Feng to go upstairs to sleep while the three of them counted the number of people who had signed up in the group chat in the living room.

Overnight, a total of 78 people were found to be willing to participate in the mission and were in the vicinity. This number is not large for a group of 1,000 people, but considering it is the first mission, there are geographical restrictions and a certain degree of danger, so this number is already quite good.

Xu Anran pulled these people into a separate small group. Today, she and Uncle Li stayed at the villa to assign tasks, while Xu Liang was responsible for going out to find train tickets. The temperature outside had already dropped to minus 50 degrees Celsius. Xu Anran lent him another set of her heated clothes, which made him so happy that he wanted to pick up Xu Anran and spin her around, but he didn't dare, afraid that his sister Anran would beat him up.

After creating the group chat, Xu Anran asked everyone what their special skills were. About ten people lived near that upscale residential area, and two others currently lived there. Xu Anran assigned these people to gather intelligence.

Someone messaged her privately. According to that person, he had been captured by that group and forced to stay with them. He wanted to escape. The leader of this group was the passenger. This leader did not know about the mutual aid society and wanted to become an inside man.

Xu Anran pulled him out of the group chat and asked him why he did this. The man told Xu Anran that he did it because he and his sister had been captured by this group of people. His sister had been raped by the leader. Now, because they were passengers, the others didn't dare to touch his sister, but he was very worried and wanted to take down the group, especially the leader, whom he wished he could tear to pieces.

Xu Anran didn't completely believe him, but only asked him to send over any useful information so she could follow up with instructions on how to proceed.

Xu Anran discussed with Uncle Li that they could let that person contact them alone, and then cross-reference the information they received from him with other information.

They then divided the others into an armed forces department and a logistics department. Some of the men with guns were responsible for ranged attacks, while the others were responsible for finishing off the wounded. If anyone was injured, the logistics department was responsible for providing cover and medical treatment.

Before the operation, everyone should memorize the password and tie a red thing around their neck, such as a ribbon, scarf, or neck warmer, so that everyone can recognize each other and know that they are one of their own.

After the tasks were assigned, everyone agreed and began to act. Two days prior, the investigators had reported the collected information to the group chat, including Xu Anran. Uncle Li and Xu Liang would be involved in the subsequent remote attack; now, they would go find train tickets.

Over the past two days, Xu Anran, Uncle Li, and Xu Liang compiled information about the group, combining it with details from the members in the vicinity and the residents of the community, as well as the information about the person who claimed to be their undercover agent:

The leader of that group was called Tiger, a new passenger who had taken the train two or three times before. He was domineering, easily angered, and very strong; he seemed to have been a mercenary before.

He had about ten passengers under his command, whom he trusted, and they were all equipped with guns.

The others are just a bunch of petty thugs who gathered in this world, or scoundrels who joined them because they thought they were powerful. There are currently about 80 people in this group.

Once Tiger and his cronies are dealt with, that group will basically break up.

The residential complex they live in is called Mingzhu Garden, and it's inhabited by wealthy people. They've already looted the high-rise apartments in front of the complex and are preparing to head to the villa area behind it tomorrow.

According to observations, their personnel are relatively concentrated. Currently, Brother Tiger lives on the top floor of Building 9, his confidants live on the middle floors, and half of the others live on the lower floors to look after the women and children, while the other half live in a nearby building to look after the men and have them do their work.

Several people were also stationed at the gate and security room of the residential area to keep watch, so they could contact the people inside at any time if anything happened.

This operation was primarily a surprise attack. One of the members was a traditional Chinese medicine doctor who knew how to make anesthetics. Xu Anran arranged for four people to accompany him to make the anesthetics, working with the residents of the community to anesthetize the gatekeepers and guards at the security room.

Half of the people gathering intelligence stayed behind to continue observing the situation, while the other half followed the logistics personnel to tie up the drugged person and clean up the scene.

Some of the armed personnel followed the infiltrators ahead to protect them, while others stayed behind to follow. Others were assigned to positions near Building 9 with good long-range shooting skills, ready to eliminate Tiger and his trusted men at any moment.

After making the arrangements, everyone began preparing for the operation. They started their operation at 1 a.m. Xu Anran arranged for herself and Xu Liang to be in the same group as the doctor who could make anesthesia. They set off at noon to meet up with that person.

Uncle Li was in charge of the long-range shooting team. He was a policeman with a high level of marksmanship, and he could also observe the situation during the operation from a distance.

At noon, Xu Anran and Xu Liang met up with the other group of five at the entrance of the hospital. All of them wore red scarves or shawls and first went over their slogan. Xu Anran said, "Let's go up the mountain to fight the tiger!" A tall young man replied, "Go up the mountain to fight the tiger!"

After confirming their identities, everyone introduced themselves, using code names. Xu Anran introduced herself and Xu Liang as "Old One" and "Old Two," respectively. The code names of the others were also quite perfunctory, except for the doctor, whom Xu Anran paid special attention to.

His code name was Daozhang (Taoist Master), a young man in his early twenties with an average face—the kind of ordinary person you'd easily lose in a crowd. He said he studied Traditional Chinese Medicine, but he also loved reading all sorts of books, and this sleeping potion was something he learned from one of them. He had used it to knock out wolfhounds before.

They followed the Taoist priest into the hospital. The hospital was deserted; it was cold and empty everywhere. Following the map, they found the medicine storage room, pried open the lock, and searched for the materials the priest needed.

Soon everyone gathered the materials, and the group found a laboratory to help the Taoist priest make the sleeping potion.