Chapter 482.2: HOW THE FUCK DID YOU LOSE A PLANE?!

To be honest, there had definitely been rewards.

They avoided direct conflict with the Academy and completed the rescue mission while maximizing benefits for the New Alliance. All participating players received a generous bonus.

Thanks to the occasional mysterious auctions held on the official website, silver coins were always in demand on the forums. The reward was quite appealing.

Still, when Night Ten saw the bland string of pale numbers on the settlement screen, his eyes were full of grievance from the ‘reward’ that Old White had received.

Unable to meet his gaze, Old White coughed dryly and muttered, “See you in three days.” before walking off toward the transport aircraft.

Falling Feather and Little Feather were already inside waiting for him.

Also aboard were the android Xuan Feng, strapped into an iron casket, the packaged remains of the Mutant Slime Mold Little Feather created, and the two Enterprise pilots they had rescued earlier.

Due to insufficient fuel for a return trip to Ideal City, the flight plan had changed. They would first transfer at West Continent Municipality.

As the aircraft prepared for takeoff, the two pilots sat whispering to each other, gossiping about the strange tale they had just heard.

“That’s some real ghostly stuff.”

“What do you mean?”

“The aircraft is gone.”

“Gone?!” The copilot beside Sun Ze stared at him wide-eyed. “How is that even possible? A plane that big just vanished?”

“I don’t know either... The salvage company the Aerospace Division contacted went to the coordinates I submitted, but now they’re accusing me of getting the location wrong.”

Sun Ze was baffled.

He had calculated the approximate location using the black box flight data, and double-checked it. There was no way it could’ve been wrong.

The aerial photos clearly matched the spot where the Burning Corps had clashed with the Signal Squad. He was certain he hadn’t misread it.

It was a huge aircraft, and the surrounding wasteland didn’t even have roads built...

So how could it just disappear?!

“Hey.”

Just then, his teammate tugged on his sleeve. Sun Ze looked up, still lost in thought. “What?”

The teammate didn’t answer. He simply pointed toward the hatch, where a young woman in a beige jacket had just stepped inside.

Her long, chestnut-brown hair was tied into a ponytail. She was tall and slender, yet curvaceous in all the right places.

What startled him wasn’t just seeing a pretty woman here, but the fact that he’d seen her before.

Out of curiosity, Sun Ze whistled and struck up a conversation. “Hey, gorgeous, didn’t you go back already?”

Chen Yutong glanced at him and muttered, “I stayed.”

That reply surprised Sun Ze even more. “You stayed?!”

His teammate wasn’t surprised at all. Grinning, he said, “Told you. Life in the Academy isn’t normal, who’d want to go back to that? Wanna check out Ideal City?”

“Maybe someday.” Chen Yutong gave a noncommittal response, then found an empty seat, sat down, and fastened her safety belt.

Even though she had left the Academy, she still didn’t care for the Enterprise. They were too flippant, too unserious, and always bragging about things she found utterly unimpressive.

She knew it might just be prejudice, but prejudices formed over 20 years weren’t going to change in a day or two.

“You tied that wrong. You’ll tear your stitches.”

Hearing that less-than-perfect Federation dialect, Chen Yutong looked up to see Old White walking in from the cargo bay.

She raised an eyebrow curiously and asked, “How should I tie it, then?”

“Avoid putting pressure on your abdomen. Distribute the force to your legs and shoulders, it’ll feel better that way... Here, watch.”

Unable to explain with just words, Old White sat down next to her and demonstrated the correct method.

Following his example, Chen Yutong undid the nylon buckle around her waist and re-fastened her belt. It really did feel a lot better.

“Thanks... So you’re not going to the frontlines anymore?”

“Plans changed, same as those two,” Old White said, pointing with his chin toward the Enterprise’s pilots. “Long story short... I’ve got to head back for a few days.”

Chen Yutong observed his expression. Her instincts, honed from years of work, picked up on something. “Is it because of me?”

Old White hesitated, then shook his head. “Nah. It has nothing to do with you.”

Despite all the teasing from his bros, he still stubbornly believed it was a punishment, just as the administrator said.

And honestly, it wasn’t wrong.

Even if he had never doubted the New Alliance’s ideals, never hesitated in his belief, he couldn’t deny that a personal bias had played a role.

“Sorry.”

Old White shrugged and smiled casually. “What are you sorry for? I told you, it has nothing to do with you.”

Just then, the cabin door shut, and not long after, the low hum of plasma propulsion filled the air behind them.

With a light tremor, the transport aircraft lifted off.

At the other end of the cabin, Falling Feather and Little Feather were still chatting in hushed voices.

“... What are you eating again?! When we get back, I’ll buy you a whole box of lollipops! You can eat as many as you want!”

“Yiwu!”

“Ice cream? You sure? I thought you hated cold stuff?”

“Yiwu!”

“Alright, alright... I’ll buy it, okay?”

The wholesome scene made Old White smile like a doting aunt. He still didn’t understand how the two of them communicated.

Through telepathy?

How did it even work?

“This really is incredible...”

Echoing his thoughts, Chen Yutong also looked intrigued. In a low voice, she said, “A mutated Mother Body capable of communicating with humans... This overturns 200 years of our understanding.”

Old White nodded. “Yeah, we were just as surprised when we discovered it. Especially in a place like Clearspring City, Slime Mold is practically synonymous with death and plague. If not for the administrator’s orders, no one would’ve allowed it to live.”

Players didn’t mind.

As long as it could communicate, even Deathclaws could become mounts, let alone Mutant Slime Mole. The weirder it looked, the cooler it was.

If mutants weren’t so bloodthirsty and immune to psychic influence, those factions backing Goblin Technology’s nonsense would’ve raised a couple for free labor long ago.

But for proper wastelanders who lived in the world... It still mattered.

Only the administrator’s personal charisma and authority had led them to accept such an anomaly.

Chen Yutong looked at Old White. “Even so, you accepted it?”

Old White scratched his head. “Yeah. At least for now, it’s harmless. Maybe we’ll even find a way to neutralize the Hives through it... Honestly, I don’t think we can wipe them all out. These things can survive 200 years without air, water, or oxygen.”

Chen Yutong thought for a moment before mumbling, “I once heard a rumor...”

Old White asked casually, “What kind of rumor?”

She pointed upward. “They came from up there.”

“Up there?” Old White blinked.

He instinctively looked up, only to see the aircraft’s silver-gray ceiling.

“She might mean Southern Gate Heavenly Project 2.”

Sun Ze, sitting nearby, couldn’t help chiming in. As Little Feather stared at him expectantly, he popped a piece of gum into his mouth with a grin.

“A former Federation colony, a planet shrouded in auroras. Yeah, I’ve heard that rumor, but so what? Oh, and by the way, you can’t see it from here.”

Old White gave Chen Yutong a puzzled look.

That detail wasn’t in the official lore.

Unbothered by the Enterprise employee’s sarcasm, Chen Yutong nodded softly. Her voice carried a faint trace of sorrow. “Most people have already forgotten... That place used to belong to us.”

...

At that same moment, over 1,000 kilometers away in the desert, hundreds of trucks were stalled beside a crumbling highway. Scrapped steel carcasses burned on the nearby dunes.

Standing atop a tank turret, holding binoculars, Escaping Mole scanned the devastated battlefield in the distance.

It was another decisive victory.

Thanks to intel from Comrade Pangolin, the retreating Army’s battalion had been utterly crushed by the New Alliance’s steel tide.

This was the third battalion they had wiped out this week.

Counting the kills from allied forces, there probably weren’t many chess pieces left on the Army’s board.

Now, Escaping Mole had only one goal, to beat Spring Water Commander to the punch and seize the Falcon Kingdom before he did, cutting off the Army’s supply convoys coming from the east.

He brought his communicator to his mouth and yelled, “Armored infantry, advance!”

“Copy that!”

On the roof of a truck, Irene patted the hood and signaled the driver to move out. At the same time, he steadied the 20mm heavy machine gun welded onto the vehicle’s roof.

The dark barrel pointed squarely at the distant, wreckage-strewn battlefield, shimmering heat waves rising from the sun-scorched metal.

The armored units had already wiped out most of the resistance. It was the infantry’s turn to clean up the field.

In truth, all they needed to do was round up the surrendering soldiers, confiscate their weapons, and hand them over to the Lion Kingdom’s army who were coming from behind.

At that point, the Skeleton Corps was only 50 kilometers away from the Falcon Kingdom. Soon, they would lay eyes on the royal palace that General McClennan so fondly remembered.

Glancing at the Wislander soldiers kneeling with their hands on their heads, Irene chuckled, “Let’s hope Battlefield Cheerleader isn’t in there with them.”

Hearing the quip, dripping with the tone of a meme reaction, Construction Boy, who was standing next to him, drew a hammer sign over his chest. “I’ll pray for him.”