These little electric scooters couldn’t be ridden outside the base. A single rental cost one hundred grams of rice for a maximum of twenty minutes of use.
Xie Ning had originally planned to sneak out of the base alone, just like she always did, but Song Shijun and his group had other ideas.
Song Shijun, Song Kexin, Ji Taixian, Wang Zongxuan, and Xiao Huang Mao—the six of them rented three small electric scooters.
When Xie Ning reluctantly dug three hundred grams of rice out of her bag, her heart bled with every grain...
Song Kexin nearly died laughing at her sister’s stingy display.
’This penny-pincher... She exchanged millions of points for a ton of rice earlier. What’s three hundred grams to her?’
"Why don’t you hurry up and sort out that useless Space of yours? How can it not even fit a car?" Xie Ning grumbled at Ji Taixian.
If Ji Taixian’s Space could hold a car, they wouldn’t have had to rent these scooters.
’In any case, I can’t reveal my Space in front of strangers for now.’
’It’s a forty-minute walk from their villa complex to the base’s south gate. That’s just too long. Otherwise, I wouldn’t mind walking...’
Ji Taixian looked aggrieved. "Sis, my Space is already full. If I crammed a car in there, it would probably burst."
Xie Ning thought, ’What’s the point of having you, then?’
Donning her helmet, she drove her scooter with a deadpan expression, taking a wide lead. "Do you all know the objective of this mission?"
"MONSTER HUNTING! MONSTER HUNTING! MONSTER HUNTING!" came the passionate shouts from the young men behind her.
With one arm around her sister’s waist, Song Kexin couldn’t help but facepalm with the other.
’I feel like I’m leading a pack of idiotic clowns on a stroll through a park.’
Once they reached the base’s south gate, the scooters were collected by base personnel and parked in a designated area.
Xie Ning’s group, each shouldering a hiking backpack and carrying a trekking pole, planned to take the mountain path often used by the Hunting Teams.
The six of them had just reached the trailhead when they came face-to-face with Li Dawei and his sister.
Li Dawei’s squad seemed to have grown quite a bit. There was even some idiot at the front carrying a flag with the two words "Fierce Tiger" printed on it.
Song Kexin burst out laughing.
Li Xiang glared at her. "What are you laughing at? What’s so funny?"
Xie Ning then noticed that Li Dawei’s squad wasn’t the only one heading up the mountain. There were several other small teams holding signs, and some people were even shouting at the trailhead, trying to recruit members.
Things like, "Wild Wolf Squad recruiting!" and "Bull Team recruiting! We have three Superpower Users!"
Others held signs and yelled, "Looking for a team! Let’s team up! Twenty and over only!"
She hadn’t realized how lively it was until she actually looked.
"Hey, where did they get those flags and signs made? How come they all have squad names already?" Ji Taixian asked, looking completely out of the loop.
After settling down in the base, they had spent all their time indoors training their physical abilities and superpowers, completely unaware of how much things had changed outside.
Li Xiang tilted her head back, a look of smug arrogance on her face. "Our Fierce Tiger Squad is now one of the top squads in the base! You have no idea how many people are dying to join us. Hmph!"
"Ningning!" From the back of the crowd, Ge Yan waved enthusiastically and ran over.
"Don’t mind her," Ge Yan said. "We’re all just a temporary team, heading up the mountain on a mission to find food."
Xie Ning smiled at her. "Same here. The weather’s nice today, so we thought we’d just take a walk up the mountain."
Li Xiang scoffed.
"What are you laughing at?" Song Kexin lifted her chin, and a flicker of flame suddenly erupted in her palm.
"Ah!" Li Xiang stumbled back in shock. "You... you! You awakened a superpower too?"
’It’s not fair!’ she thought resentfully. ’I thought my brother and I were the special ones, both awakening superpowers so soon after the apocalypse began.’
’I never expected this!’
’That damned Song Kexin, just like her detestable cousin, has awakened a superpower too.’
Just then, the eyes of the recruiters from the Bull Team and Wild Wolf Squad lit up, and they all swarmed over. "Hey, little lady, want to join our squad? The Bull Team already has three Superpower Users."
"Our Wild Wolf Squad may only have two Superpower Users, but our members are really close-knit and supportive. Plus, our leader is already a Second Order Superpower User!"
Xie Ning frowned and deflected. "Sorry, we already have a team."
"Let’s go." Not wanting to waste any more time arguing with Li Dawei’s group, Xie Ning led her five companions and quickly headed for the trail.
"Keep up," Li Dawei ordered with a grim expression, waving his hand. The entire Fierce Tiger Squad, including Zhong Shichong and his sibling, clamorously followed.
Since everyone in Xie Ning’s group had a trekking pole and they wanted to leave the others in the dust, they deliberately picked up their pace.
"Yu Tianfeng said there are a lot of useful medicinal herbs on Lanshan Mountain," Xie Ning said as she walked, pulling a handful of sketches from her pocket and handing them out. "Look for these. It’s better than nothing."
"A lot of the vegetation here looks dead and withered."
"Don’t let your guard down." Xie Ning glanced up at the dark, deep woods ahead. "In this heat, anything that’s managed to survive has probably mutated to some degree."
The temperature today was nearly fifty degrees Celsius, and the ground was hot enough to burn their feet.
Fortunately, the temperature on Lanshan Mountain was at least ten degrees cooler than the outside world. As they walked, a cool breeze from the woods made it feel bearable.
The group of youngsters, who knew nothing about pharmacology, followed Yu Tianfeng’s instructions and searched a wide area on the mountain. They actually managed to find over a dozen different types of medicinal herbs.
Without worrying about whether they were the right ones, they dug them up first. The herbs, roots, soil and all, were unceremoniously tossed into a large plastic bag by the group of philistines...
Along the way, they ran into a small rat swarm. Song Shijun and Song Kexin figured out the principle of fire riding the wind and wind fanning the flames, and their coordination became increasingly seamless.
Xie Ning collected over twenty First-order Crystal Cores, feeling quite pleased with herself.
’You really do have to get out here and train by fighting monsters. Where else would you get Crystal Cores?’
Xiao Huang Mao’s sharp eyes spotted another medicinal herb from one of Dr. Yu’s drawings. The group crouched down, carefully dug it out of the ground, and casually tossed it into the large plastic bag.
Just as they were about to search the area for more of the same herb, a bloodcurdling scream echoed from the distance.
Xie Ning and the others looked up toward the source of the sound.
They saw a section of the silent woods suddenly begin to glow with a soft, verdant light.
Xie Ning’s heart lurched. An intense feeling of danger made her take a sharp step back.
"Run!"
At her command, everyone followed without a second thought, sprinting straight down the mountain.
Li Dawei and his sister had just finished fighting a dozen zombie rats and hadn’t even had a chance to catch their breath when they looked up to see Xie Ning’s group barreling toward them in a mad dash.
He instinctively tensed up. "Let’s go!"
’When you see Xie Ning running, you don’t ask questions. You just run...’
Without a word, Li Dawei and his sister dragged their team along and ran with her.
With a flicker of thought, Xie Ning quickly collected the few small Crystal Cores scattered on the ground.