Still Need a Healer

The next morning, in the base's lounge, we met the defensive Esper Lin Xue had mentioned.

He was an utterly unremarkable young man, around twenty years old, dressed in casual clothes that were obviously cheap street-stall goods. His complexion was somewhat pale, and his medium-short hair was combed meticulously. He did not seem particularly fond of talking. When he saw the three of us, he merely nodded before sitting off to the side.

Lin Xue stood up and began introducing everyone. "This is Zheng Yiming, the Esper in our organization most skilled at defense. He may not like talking much, but he's actually a very warmhearted person."

"Hello." Zheng Yiming gave us a polite smile and nodded.

"This is my younger brother, Lin Feng. His ability is to manipulate compressed air for attacks." The shy-looking boy beside Lin Xue stood up, bowed to Pandora and me, and said, "I'm deeply sorry for attacking you last time. It was all my sister's idea. You can take your revenge on her however you like—don't hold back."

...He really was Lin Xue's brother. Beneath that shy exterior hid a thoroughly wicked heart!

"Xiao Feng, I'll beat you up when I get the chance." Lin Xue smiled faintly at Lin Feng, then pointed at Qian Qian and introduced her. "This is Xu Qianqian. One of the archaeologists in the missing expedition was her father, Xu Feng. She'll be accompanying us in the coming operation. Zheng Yiming's primary task will be ensuring her safety."

"Hello," Qian Qian said to Zheng Yiming with a smile. "I still don't know what I can help with, but I'll definitely do my best!"

"Lin Xue, you've kept saying Qian Qian will be useful in the coming operation. Can you tell me what exactly she can do now? I don't want her getting into danger because of this."

"You'll find out soon enough. You can rest assured about Qian Qian's safety. Zheng Yiming's defensive abilities are no joke."

Defensive abilities? Could he withstand a Shilin anti-planet Phase Shock Cannon head-on?

I had already made up my mind. No matter what Zheng Yiming was capable of, I would make protecting Qian Qian my top priority in the coming operation. Even if it caused the mission to fail, that would be fine. With the soldiers of the Shilin Expeditionary Force helping us, there was no need for Qian Qian to take this risk herself.

"These two," Lin Xue said, pointing at Pandora and me, "are brother and sister. Both are very powerful Espers."

"Espers?!" Zheng Yiming, whose expression had remained calm all along, finally showed surprise. Then he suddenly looked at us with the same expectant gaze Lin Xue had worn before.

"Don't get your hopes up," Lin Xue said with a wave of her hand. "I already asked them. Unfortunately, they firmly refused to join the organization. Still, they agreed to help us whenever needed—like they are now."

"Oh." Zheng Yiming nodded with a disappointed expression, while Lin Xue continued, "This is the younger sister, Pan Lili. Her special ability is Mind Communication, and she'll play no small role in future team operations."

Zheng Yiming's eyes lit up. "A very good ability... Hm? Your eyes."

"I can't see," Pandora said calmly. Zheng Yiming immediately said awkwardly, "Ah, sorry..."

"And this one is Extra A. His ability is to generate high-temperature energy attacks in localized areas, and he apparently can remotely control those attacks. His combat strength is formidable."

"Hello, Extra A," Zheng Yiming said cooperatively.

...Should I be angry?

"All right, all right, no more jokes." Seeing my face beginning to turn green, Lin Xue wisely stopped while she was ahead. "His name is Chen Jun. As for why he doesn't share a surname with his sister, it's because they were both orphans, adopted by different families when they were young. They only found each other after growing up, and their abilities only awakened after their reunion."

After everyone had been introduced, Lin Xue suggested, "Now that we all know each other, we should familiarize ourselves with our teammates' abilities for the sake of future operations."

"You mean demonstrate our abilities?" I nodded. This was a good opportunity to see what real powers looked like.

When Qian Qian heard that we were demonstrating our abilities, she became interested too and cried excitedly, "Sure, sure! Let me see it too! I've been hearing you talk about powers all this time, but aside from Lily's ability, I haven't seen any of yours yet!"

"There's an enclosed Training Field here," Lin Xue said. "We can go there..."

"Wait," I interrupted Lin Xue. "My ability affects a rather large area. Can we do this outdoors?"

Of course we had to do it outdoors. Shilin Space Weapons were fired directly from outer space. If I used one inside the Training Field and punched a hole through the base, could I afford to pay for it?

"That works too. We're in the desert, after all. There's plenty of open space outside."

Outside the base, the five Espers and Qian Qian, who had come to watch, were ready.

"First, my ability is perception," Lin Xue said. "I can accurately sense the surrounding environment and the flow of energy. I can also use my sixth sense to judge events that will happen within a short period of time—though it's not as exaggerated as prophecy. I can only roughly determine the probability of something occurring. For example—a strong gust of wind will blow by in three seconds and blow Qian Qian's hat off."

"Huh?" Qian Qian instinctively pressed down on the hat on her head.

Three seconds was a very short time. Almost as soon as Qian Qian pressed down her hat, a powerful gust howled past. Of course, because she had already held it down, the wind did not achieve the result Lin Xue had predicted.

"That's how it works. I could sense that a gust would come in three seconds and that it would be strong enough to blow Qian Qian's hat off, but reality can still differ from my intuition. As for my observational ability—the energy Qian Qian used to press down her hat just now was 0.132 kilojoules. Unfortunately, there's no way for me to prove that figure."

Pandora's voice came through our Spiritual Connection. "It was 0.13185 kilojoules. In terms of energy perception alone, Lin Xue's ability has already reached the level of an ordinary Shilin explorer. Her short-term precognition is even stronger than her perception."

What an incredible power! She was practically half a prophet!

Seeing the astonished expressions on Qian Qian's face and mine, Lin Xue smiled smugly. "All right, who's next?"

"This is my ability." Pandora's voice rang simultaneously in everyone's minds, and then there was nothing else.

...A demonstration as brief as Pandora herself.

"My ability is Wind Blade. Yiming, come over and help me demonstrate it."

Zheng Yiming nodded and stood more than ten meters away from us. Then he nodded in our direction, signaling that he was ready.

Lin Feng took a slight breath, then suddenly swept his right hand forward!

"Wind Blade!"

Several nearly transparent distortions in the air shot toward Zheng Yiming at tremendous speed. At the same time, a pale blue, translucent membrane-like shield appeared in front of him. The Wind Blades struck the barrier, causing ripples like waves on water before falling silent. Several Wind Blades Lin Feng had deliberately aimed wide flew past Zheng Yiming and cleaved a sand dune hundreds of meters away directly in half!

Do not underestimate the power of those Wind Blades just because sand dunes were soft. Sand was extremely good at dissipating all kinds of external force. A dune with a radius of over a hundred meters was something even the most powerful sniper rifle could not penetrate!

"It's like watching a movie..." Qian Qian muttered when she saw the spectacle before her, which looked like special effects.

"If we're talking only about attack power, I'm not the strongest." Lin Feng smiled modestly, then said with lingering fear, "Once you see Chen Jun's ability, you won't think I'm powerful anymore..."

I smiled faintly and stepped forward a few paces.

Ever since the Pandora Heavy Armored Legion had come to this world, my connection with the Shilin Mother Planet had strengthened considerably. Though it had not reached the point where I could chat with Gaia every day, it was enough to make that command set—99.999999... percent unusable—produce some results.

After confirming that the connection had been established successfully, my expression turned solemn. I looked at my nose, my nose at my mouth, and my mouth at my heart. I stood straight as a pine, and in an instant, an xx aura surged forth from me...

"If you strike another pose, we're going back." Lin Xue said from the side in a flat tone.

"Amaterasu!" I shouted grandly, swinging my right hand forward as I said inwardly, Requesting cross-dimensional support.

A dazzling white pillar of light several meters thick descended from the sky with a low humming sound, then swiftly plunged into the sand a hundred meters ahead.

A pool of lava nearly ten meters across...

A chorus of sharp inhalations rose behind me.

Damn! I overdid it!

"Chen Jun... was that your true strength?" Lin Xue asked, the corner of her mouth twitching. A monstrous storm had already risen in her heart. Good heavens, could a power like this still be explained as an Esper ability? It was a good thing I didn't truly anger him that day. Otherwise...

Lin Feng was also covered in cold sweat. He had been chased for an entire day and night back then!

Zheng Yiming was dumbfounded as well. He had originally been quite confident in his defensive abilities, but now... could he last even one second against such an attack?

Only the carefree Xu Qianqian had yet to realize how outrageous that power was. Instead, she merely looked at me with a face full of worship.

"Well... attacks at this level are actually heavily restricted," I explained with a dry laugh. "First, the energy consumption is too great, so I can't use it continuously. And the range is hard to control. I need to charge up for a long time every time I use it—like when I was striking that pose just now..."

"Oh—" Everyone nodded, apparently feeling a little more balanced inside.

Lin Xue seemed to have taken on the role of team leader from the very beginning. After everyone recovered from what they had just witnessed, she called out, "All right, everyone has a certain understanding of one another now. Does anyone have any questions?"

I looked around.

Pandora would use Mind Communication to relay information. Lin Xue would use her detection and short-term precognition to scout ahead. Zheng Yiming would use his defensive ability as the team's main tank. Lin Feng and I would be the main DPS, and with Qian Qian as the key NPC as well, hmm...

"Lin Xue," I said, raising a hand, "we're still missing a healer!"