Chapter 506.2: Ah Fuck...

“Then let’s not waste time,” Night Ten sighed, cutting off the debate as he walked to the holomap. “We need one team for the reactor room to manually activate the suppression system, one for the administrator’s office to access the permissions, and one for Zone X-13 to rescue the crew.”

In tight terrain, splitting up was actually safer than moving as one group.

After all, the number of sub-entities was limited. Lone ones were far easier to handle than dense swarms.

That was what they learned from exploring level B6.

Glancing at the faction representatives around them, Meng Liang nervously asked, “Now the question is... Who goes to the administrator’s office...”

“Obviously, it’s going to be me,” Wally cut him off with a grin. “I don’t care about rescuing dead guys. My goal’s the office, no matter what.”

“Doesn’t matter who goes,” Yunyi said, tossing a thumb-sized drive to Su Ming. “Just plug this into the terminal.”

Then, she added as if she recalled something, “By the way, the door to the administrator’s office opens frequently. Normal sub-entities enter dormancy with the Mother Body, but evolved types are exceptions, ”

“Pangolin!” Once again interrupting, Wally looked at Battlefield Cheerleader, clapped him on the shoulder, and laughed. “Heard you’re good at dealing with mutants. Even the super Deathclaw fell to you. This job’s yours.”

Night Ten burst into laughter.

Battlefield Cheerleader kept a straight face, though his heart sank. Reluctantly, he nodded. “Yes, sir!”

...

With the plan set, teams were quickly assigned.

Team A consisted of Wally and Jiang Xuezhou. They would head to the reactor room to manually trigger the fire suppression system and put the Mother Body back to sleep.

Team B consisted of Night Ten and Yunyi. They would head to Zone X-13 to rescue the crew of the Pioneer.

Those tasks were relatively easy.

According to access logs, the Mother Body hadn’t fully awakened yet, and the sub-entities in those areas were mostly low-threat Crunchers.

Team C would consist of ‘Pangolin’, Su Ming, and Meng Liang. They would go to the administrator’s office, which housed an evolved entity. That was why they got more manpower.

Each squad had at least one technical personnel and one combatant, and they were chosen based on team members’ preferences.

For example, Wally insisted one of them had to be sent to the administrator’s office, and that no other faction could send more than one person.

His reasoning was blunt. He didn’t trust the Enterprise.

As for Jiang Xuezhou, she made it clear she didn’t want to work with anyone from the New Alliance, especially Night Ten.

She was even okay being paired with the Wislander.

Seeing her reasoning, Night Ten was totally confused.

What did I do to offend her?

We just met, right?!

Just as Night Ten was wondering, Yunyi’s voice came from beside him.

“You’re responsible for my safety. Is that okay?”

“Of course! I...” Night Ten turned, ready to flash his most confident and charming smile.

But just as he opened his mouth, he suddenly remembered, he had earned Jiang Xuezhou’s glare earlier precisely because of that smug smile.

Aha. Case closed!

So that’s when she started hating me.

And just like that, he swallowed his confident smile. Even his tone lost its shine. “... I mean, I can’t promise, but it should be fine.”

Yunyi fell silent, staring at him with a hint of suspicion.

This guy...

Is he really reliable?

He didn’t seem that old...

Night Ten stood there looking awkward.

Damn it!

Confidence doesn't work, and neither does caution.

What the hell do these dog-ass NPCs even want?!

...

Once the group assignments were confirmed, they didn’t waste the little time they had left. Everyone immediately moved toward their designated targets via the shortest routes, as marked on Yunyi’s map.

Staring intently down the corridor ahead, Jiang Xuezhou tightly gripped her sidearm, maintaining constant mental linkage with the mechanical dog behind her.

She was on guard for danger in front of her, while also wary of the Wislander beside her.

"Hey."

The sudden voice startled her so badly she almost misfired. Furious, Jiang Xuezhou glared at the Wislander who had just spoken to her. "What?!"

"Relax," Wally said with a clueless grin, raising a hand to show he meant no harm. Then he continued, "I'm just curious. Does the Academy actually send women to the frontlines? What’s your commander, or should I say, your doctor, thinking?"

It wouldn’t matter if it was just a woman, but he could tell at a glance she was a rookie, probably someone who had just learned how to fire a gun.

"Frontlines?" Jiang Xuezhou's eyebrow twitched.

"Isn’t this the frontline?” Wally squinted, glancing around the corridor’s walls crawling with dark red fungal patches. Curling his lips, he added, “It’s not just trenches that count as frontlines, you know."

Jiang Xuezhou took a deep breath and explained, "There was no intelligence indicating we would encounter Slime Mold here... I’m just under orders to recover the technology and experimental logs from this site.”

Too bad her former team leader, Zheng Hao, was a fool. The New Alliance, Enterprise, and Army only gave the Academy one spot, otherwise it would’ve been him, or at least both of them together.

"Intelligence? Heh. That stuff’s just a suggestion," Wally scoffed. "Whether it's Slime Mold, mutants, or whatever nonsense, if you run into it, you run into it. The whole damn planet is a battlefield. Anything can happen in a warzone... It's been 200 years and this war never ended."

Not interested in his sarcasm, Jiang Xuezhou coldly replied, "... What the hell..."

Still, as annoying as he was, his interruption eased her nerves a little.

The frontlines of a war for civilization?

That phrase did make a weird kind of sense.

𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Those Slime Mold were supposedly a gift from the colony in the South Heaven Gate project. In that case... yeah, maybe the war really had never ended.

"Oh. Incoming." Hearing noise from up ahead, Wally calmly raised his Eagle assault rifle and chambered a round with practiced ease.

Almost at the same time, a wave of snarling filled the air. Dozens of Crunchers surged forward, but not enough to pose a real threat.

Even a survivor with a pipe rifle could handle them, let alone someone bred for war like Wally.

With several gunshots filling the air, the Crunchers at the front dropped instantly.

As black blood exploded in puffs, Wally squeezed the trigger without a hint of panic, dispatching more Crunchers with clean, controlled bursts.

In seconds, over 20 corpses littered the hallway.

“Damn... They get annoying in big numbers.” His magazine ran dry, and he swore as he slapped in a new one, glancing sideways at Jiang Xuezhou. “Hey, Academy lass, give me a hand here!”

“Heh.” With a cold chuckle, Jiang Xuezhou glanced at the Wislander starting to sweat, then raised a finger to her temple.

A pale blue ripple of energy flowed from her fingertip into her hair.

Almost instantly, the mechanical dog behind her flipped open its back panel, launching two basin-sized drones into the air like lightning. They whizzed past Wally’s head.

“What the...?!” Wally’s eyes widened. Just as he was about to ask what those were, the drones reached the Crunchers.

Then, like beans scattered into the wind, the hum of gunfire erupted above the swarm. A storm of bullets rained down from the drones, engulfing the Crunchers below.

Ugly, withered corpses twitched like they’d been electrocuted, then crumpled to the floor.

All 51 Crunchers were annihilated and it took less than 10 seconds.

As smoke curled from the hallway and the drones lazily returned to her, Jiang Xuezhou lifted her chin slightly, her face radiating smugness and pride.

Wally could tell she was showing off, but only curled his lip. “Tsk. It’s just fancy toys.”

Showing off just for handling a few dozen Crunchers?

Too bad he couldn't bring his clone soldiers. Otherwise, a mere researcher wouldn't even get a chance to act tough in front of him.

“What did you say?!” Jiang Xuezhou’s brows shot up, her expression sharp as a blade, like a cat whose tail had just been stepped on.

This guy...

From the start, he had that look of disdain. Even someone with her patience couldn’t take it anymore.

She admitted the Academy had its flaws, but it was no place for a thieving, scheming Wislander to talk down to.

“Nothing,” Wally grumbled, ignoring her glare. “Let’s just get moving.”

Watching him walk away, Jiang Xuezhou clenched her teeth, then begrudgingly followed behind.

There were other paths to the reactor room, but walking through the creepy place alone... She just couldn’t summon the courage to ditch Wally.