Chapter 270: Selecting Personnel

Even long after the Nightingale left, Rod remained standing there in a daze, the faint fragrance still lingering at the tip of his nose. That soft, comforting sensation stirred his heart, making him feel a sense of fondness and reluctance to part.

A gentle breeze brought Rod back to reality. He looked at his hands—still bearing the memory of touching the Nightingale’s soft, serpentine waist. With a wry smile, he realized he had once again fallen for that enchanting woman’s trick. Sighing, he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, shook his head to dispel those distracting thoughts, then walked over to his bed and took deep breaths to calm himself.

Putting the Nightingale aside for now, he began to organize his thoughts. Outside, Skora and the others could handle the complicated situations, so he didn’t need to worry. With the Nightingale and the rest, Rod trusted their strength enough to ensure everything would be fine.

As for himself, his top priority was to devise a plan for retreating from the second defense line. How to retreat, when to retreat—everything required a comprehensive strategy. He sighed inwardly, realizing he had fallen for Emilio’s scheme, who had managed to take control of all these matters. Rod couldn’t help but smile bitterly.

The second defense line, as Nagran had said, was in a different situation now. Retreating immediately wasn’t an option; at least for now, they still needed the first defense line. The appearance of vampires and werewolves had disrupted their original plans!

Approaching the only table in the tent, Rod began to ponder and plan. Drawing on his experience and knowledge, along with the current realities of Ironbar Town, he started drafting a plan. Everything seemed simple on paper, but in practice, it turned out to be extremely difficult. How would the main forces retreat? How could they avoid being followed by the beast armies and invaded? How could they minimize casualties and reduce the costs of retreat? All of these were challenges.

Time seemed to pass quickly amidst such demanding work. After what felt like an eternity, Rod finally felt a headache setting in, but he had a rough idea of the overall plan.

Looking outside, he saw that the sun was already setting! Unnoticed, another day was coming to an end. It was a rare quiet day—apparently, the beast armies hadn’t launched any attacks during the day, otherwise, it wouldn’t be so peaceful. Night was approaching. What would happen then? Thinking of this, Rod couldn’t help but sigh again, frowning once more.

It was still as noisy outside the camp, seemingly the matters hadn’t ended yet. “These guys really know how to make a fuss!” Rod couldn’t help but smirk bitterly to himself at the noise.

He had spent the whole day dealing with this issue. It seemed quite a number of people had come; otherwise, it wouldn’t have dragged on until now.

“Boss, take a look!” While Rod was thinking, Curly ran excitedly inside, shouting at Rod as he waved the small booklet in his hand.

Nightingale followed behind him. As for Skora, Krod, and the others, they seemed to still be outside handling things and hadn’t come in yet!

“Are you done?” Rod asked with a smile as he looked at Curly, who was excitedly running up to him. He could tell it must be good news—today really made this guy quite proud!

“Not yet. There are still lots of people. Hehe, they’re still signing up. These are the applicants this morning. We counted, and just in the morning, over 300 people came to sign up to join our Death Scythe Squad. It will be even more this afternoon! Hehe, boss, you have no idea—our Death Scythe Squad is now the most famous inthe wholeC District, even in Iron Bar Town. Didn’t you see? Today, when word got out that our squad was recruiting new members, the whole C District was in an uproar. You wouldn’t believe it—Camp 13 was almost overwhelmed by the crowd this morning, and it was even worse this afternoon. It’s still extremely noisy! Hehe, this is the first time I’ve seen such a bustling scene!” With an excited and complacent expression, his mouth almost reaching his ears, Curly waved his hands wildly as he described everything happening outside to Rod.

Rod was secretly amazed. He hadn’t expected such a huge reaction. It seemed he had achieved his goal without much effort, saving Nagran and the others the trouble.

“If you’re not done yet, why did you come in?” But then, looking at Curly and Nightingale, he asked doubtfully.

According to Curly’s description, it should be very busy outside. Under such circumstances, he shouldn’t have come in. What could he possibly want?

“That’s exactly why I came in. As you know, there are so many people coming that we don’t know what to do, so I came to ask you! Nightingale said earlier that we shouldn’t just accept members randomly. We should take this opportunity to be more selective, bring in only the best, and eliminate the inferior ones. We can’t let everyone slip in—rather than having three thousand, we’d rather not accept anyone who could harm the whole group! Um… I can’t remember the exact words. Nightingale, you’re here too; please explain it yourself!” Prompted by Rod’s question, Curly remembered his purpose and hurriedly spoke up.

“That’s right. After all, I’m also a member of the Reaper Scythe Squad, so I’m well aware of many things. Over these past few days, we’ve shown strong combat capabilities while suffering minimal casualties, which has drawn a lot of attention and envy. Now that we’re considering expanding our ranks, I think it’s inevitable that some scoundrels will try to take advantage of the situation and slip in! We must prevent that from happening, as once such people get in, they could disrupt everything and lead to an irreparable situation.

Besides, it’s impossible to include all of these thousands of applicants. We must make choices. I think we should strive for excellence by reorganizing and upgrading the Reaper Scythe Squad into an absolutely elite force. We only need the best members, and not too many—otherwise, we’ll lose our identity. Then it won’t be the Reaper Scythe Squad anymore. Without our core characteristics, we’ll decline in every aspect, only harming ourselves. You should understand this, which is why I came to hear your opinion!” Perhaps because of Curly’s presence, Nightingale also restrained her behavior, becoming less frivolous and slightly more serious.

Hearing her words, Rod couldn’t help but nod in agreement. She made a good point—it was indeed the case. We couldn’t just take in anyone; it would only bring harm, not benefits.

“What do you think?” Rod asked, frowning slightly as he looked at Nightingale. He wanted to know her thoughts. From what she had said earlier, it seemed she already had a plan.

“Our original squad had a hundred members, and that’s already the maximum. Beyond that, a squad loses its flexibility. The reason the Reaper Scythe Squad became so famous and quickly gained popularity throughout Iron Bar Town in just a few days is not only because of our strong combat skills and low casualties but also because of our flexibility!”

We must be able to fight flexibly and appear where they are needed most—our agile figures can be seen all over the city walls! It is precisely this flexibility that has enabled the Scythe of Death Squad to achieve what it has today. I can say without hesitation that if we lose this ability to adapt, we will cease to exist, and the Scythe of Death Squad will vanish from people’s sight! I believe you understand this well!

Therefore, I think our team size should be kept around a hundred people. Having too many members will only bring unnecessary trouble—too many people is not good. If necessary, we can form two or even three Scythe of Death Squads or more, but there must still be a limit. Considering all these factors, while there are many applicants, we must first assess their character. Integrity comes first; having both virtue and ability can serve as our main criterion for selecting members. Then it’s up to you to decide!” Looking at Rod, Nightingale slowly laid out all her thoughts, and after finishing, she quietly watched Rod in anticipation of his response.

After hearing this, not only Rod but also Curlie, who had been excited earlier, couldn’t help but fall into deep thought. Her words made perfect sense and hit the nail on the head, pointing out the most crucial issues that demanded reflection.

“Hmm, very reasonable! That’s indeed a problem!” After a moment, Rod nodded in agreement, though his brows were furrowed. It made sense, but implementing it would definitely be very troublesome. It wouldn’t be easy to achieve this.

Not to mention the urgency of the situation, which left little time to deal with such matters. Even if there was time, these people were meeting for the first time, coming from all over the place—how could we know their character and behavior? How to assess them is also a very important question.

All three of them understood this, and a silence replaced the previous excitement and chatter, creating a somewhat dull atmosphere.

“That way, after the list of applicants is compiled, Nightingale, I hope you can help filter them out. It’s not about quantity but quality—select members with the strength of Gold Warriors or above! Exclude the rest for now, and then gather these people for another round of selection. We don’t have much time; we need to finish this tonight. We’ll discuss how to proceed later that night. As for the number of people, keep it under a hundred! We can divide them into several teams, but no more than five! We don’t need that many. Deal with these first, and we’ll discuss the preliminary list later at night!” Taking a deep breath, Rod made this decision after looking at the two people across from him.
Only after selecting the right members can we plan the next steps. Choosing those with the strength of Gold Warriors or above is also for the sake of combat effectiveness—of course, we should pick the best ones if we have the chance.
Rod believed that not many applicants would meet these criteria, so there was no need to worry about having too many people. There were probably less than five hundred members who met the requirements. After all, anyone with the strength of a Gold Warrior or above was already considered an expert in normal times. Only Iron Bar Town could have so many such people. Specific decisions would need to be made after seeing the actual members! Of course, by now, Rod already had a rough set of selection standards and plans in mind, waiting to be discussed that night.