Still Missing a Healer

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

He was an unassuming young man, around 20 years old, wearing casual clothes that clearly looked like they were bought from a street vendor. His complexion was a bit pale, and his medium-length hair was meticulously combed. He didn't seem to talk much; upon seeing the three of us, he simply nodded and sat to the side.

Lin Xue stood up and began to introduce him: "This is Zheng Yiming, the Esper in our organization who is best at defense. Although he doesn't talk much, he's actually a very warm-hearted person."

"Hello," Zheng Yiming said with a polite smile and a nod.

"This is my younger brother, Lin Feng. His ability is to manipulate compressed air for attacks." A shy-looking boy next to Lin Xue stood up, bowed to Pandora and me, and said, "I'm truly sorry for attacking you last time. That was all my sister's idea. You can retaliate as much as you want without holding back."

...He truly is Lin Xue's brother. Beneath that shy exterior lies a dark heart!

"Xiao Feng, I'll beat you up when I have time." Lin Xue smiled slightly at Lin Feng, then pointed at Qian Qian and introduced her: "This is Xu Qianqian. An archaeologist named Xu Feng, who was in the missing expedition team, is her father. She will be joining us in the upcoming operation, and Zheng Yiming's main task is to protect her safety."

"Hello," Qian Qian said to Zheng Yiming with a smile, "Although I don't know how much help I can be, I will definitely try my best!"

"Lin Xue, you keep saying Qian Qian will be helpful in the upcoming operation. Can you tell me now what exactly she can do? I don't want her to be in danger because of this."

"You'll know soon enough. You can rest assured about Qian Qian's safety. Zheng Yiming's defensive ability is no joke."

Defensive ability? Can he directly withstand a Shilin counter-phase shock cannon?

I've already decided that no matter what abilities Zheng Yiming has, protecting Qian Qian will be my top priority in the upcoming operation. It doesn't matter if the mission fails because of it. With the help of the Shilin Expeditionary Force soldiers, there's really no need for Qian Qian to take this risk herself.

"These two," Lin Xue said, pointing at Pandora and me, "are siblings, both very powerful Espers."

"Espers?!" Zheng Yiming, who had been expressionless, finally showed a look of surprise. Then, he suddenly looked at us with the same expectant gaze that Lin Xue had back then.

"Don't even think about it," Lin Xue said, waving her hand. "I told them long ago, but unfortunately, they firmly refused to join the organization. However, they did promise to help us when needed—like now."

"Oh," Zheng Yiming nodded with a disappointed expression. Lin Xue continued her introduction: "This is the younger sister, Pan Lili. Her special ability is telepathic communication, which will play a significant role in the upcoming team operation."

Zheng Yiming's eyes lit up, and he praised, "A very good ability... Hmm? Your eyes."

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

"And this one, Extra A. His ability is to generate high-temperature energy attacks locally, and he seems to have the ability to remotely control these attacks. His combat power is very strong."

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

...Should I be angry?!

"Alright, alright, no more jokes," Lin Xue said, seeing that my face was starting to turn green, and decided to stop while she was ahead. "His name is Chen Jun—as for why he doesn't have the same last name as his sister, it's because they are both orphans who were adopted by different families when they were young and only reunited after they grew up. Their abilities also awakened after they reunited."

After introducing everyone one by one, Lin Xue suggested, "Now that everyone knows each other, for the convenience of the upcoming operation, it's best if we familiarize ourselves with each other's abilities."

"You mean, demonstrate our respective abilities?" I nodded. This was a good opportunity to see real Esper abilities.

When Qian Qian heard that we were going to demonstrate our abilities, she also became interested and excitedly exclaimed, "Okay, okay! Let me see too. I've been hearing you talk about Esper abilities, but besides Lily's ability, I haven't seen any of yours yet!"

"There's a closed training ground here," Lin Xue said, "We can go there..."

"Wait," I interrupted Lin Xue, "My ability has a relatively large range of effect. Can we do it outdoors?"

Of course, it had to be outdoors. Shilin Space Weapons are launched directly from outer space. If I used them in the training ground and blew a hole in this base, could I afford to pay for it?

"That's fine too. Anyway, this is a desert, there's plenty of outdoor space."

Outside the base, the five of us Espers and Qian Qian, who was watching the fun, were ready.

"First, my ability is perception," Lin Xue said. "I can accurately perceive the surrounding environment and the flow of energy, and based on my sixth sense, predict what will happen in a short period of time—of course, it hasn't reached the exaggerated level of prophecy, it's just roughly calculating the probability of something happening. For example—in 3 seconds, a strong wind will blow, and Qian Qian's hat will be blown off."

"Ah?" Qian Qian subconsciously pressed down on her hat.

Three seconds is a very short time. Almost as soon as Qian Qian pressed down on her hat, a strong wind howled past. Of course, since Qian Qian had already pressed down on her hat, the wind did not have the effect Lin Xue had predicted.

"That's how it is. I can predict that a strong wind will occur in 3 seconds and that the wind will be strong enough to blow off Qian Qian's hat, but the reality will still deviate from my intuition. As for my observation ability—the energy consumed by Qian Qian's action of pressing down on her hat just now was 0.132 kilojoules. Unfortunately, I can't prove this data."

Pandora's voice came through the mental link: It's 0.13185 kilojoules. In terms of energy perception alone, Lin Xue's ability has reached the level of an average Shilin explorer, and her short-term precognition ability is even stronger than her perception ability.

What a powerful ability! This is practically half a prophet!

Seeing Qian Qian's and my surprised expressions, Lin Xue smiled proudly and said, "Alright, who's next?"

"This is my ability." Pandora's voice simultaneously sounded in the minds of everyone present, and then there was no further explanation.

...A truly concise demonstration, fitting Pandora's personality.

"My ability is Wind Blade—Yiming, come over and cooperate with me."

Zheng Yiming nodded and stood about ten meters away from us, then nodded towards us, indicating that he was ready.

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

"Wind Blade!"

Several nearly transparent, distorted air currents flew towards Zheng Yiming at extremely high speed. At the same time, a light blue, translucent film-like protective layer appeared in front of Zheng Yiming. The Wind Blades struck the protective layer, creating ripples like water waves before becoming still, while several Wind Blades that Lin Feng deliberately aimed off course flew past Zheng Yiming, directly splitting a sand dune several hundred meters away in half!

Don't underestimate the attack power of these Wind Blades just because the sand dune is soft. You should know that sand is quite resistant to various external forces. A sand dune with a radius of over a hundred meters is something that even the most powerful sniper rifle cannot penetrate!

"It's like a movie..." Qian Qian murmured to herself, seeing the scene before her that looked like special effects.

"If we're just talking about attack power, I'm not the most powerful," Lin Feng said with a humble smile, then added with a hint of lingering fear, "You won't think I'm strong when you see Chen Jun's ability later..."

I smiled slightly and took a few steps forward.

Since Pandora's Heavy Armored Legion arrived in this world, my connection with the Shilin Mother Planet has been greatly strengthened. Although it hasn't reached the point where I can chat with Gaia every day, I can still make that 99.999999...% unusable instruction set have some effect.

After confirming that the connection was successful, my expression became serious. I looked straight ahead, my body as firm as a pine tree. In an instant, a certain aura emanated from me...

"If you keep posing like that, we're going back," Lin Xue said flatly from the side.

"Amaterasu!" I yelled with considerable swagger, waving my right hand forward while thinking, Requesting cross-space support.

A dazzling white beam of light, several meters thick, descended from the sky with a low hum, then quickly disappeared into the sandy ground a hundred meters ahead.

A pool of lava nearly ten meters in diameter...

I heard a collective gasp from behind me.

Damn! I overdid it!

"Chen Jun... is this your true strength?" Lin Xue asked, her mouth twitching. In her heart, a monstrous wave had already surged: Heavens, this kind of power, can it still be explained by being an Esper? I'm really glad I didn't truly anger this guy that day, otherwise...

Lin Feng also had a face full of cold sweat. He had been chased for a full day and night that day!

Zheng Yiming was also dumbfounded. He had been quite confident in his defensive abilities, but now it seemed... could he even last a second under this kind of attack?

Only the carefree Xu Qianqian didn't realize how exaggerated this power was, instead just looking at me with a face full of adoration.

"Well... actually, this level of attack has a lot of limitations," I explained with a dry laugh. "First, the consumption is too great, I can't use it continuously, and the range is very difficult to control. Every time I activate it, I have to charge up for a long time—that's when I was posing just now..."

"Oh—" Everyone nodded, seemingly finally feeling a bit more balanced.

Lin Xue seemed to have taken on the role of leader from the start. After everyone had recovered from the scene just now, she said loudly, "Alright, now everyone has a certain understanding of each other. Does anyone have any questions?"

I looked around.

Pandora, using telepathy to transmit information; Lin Xue, using detection and short-term precognition to scout the map; Zheng Yiming, using his defensive ability to act as the team's main tank; Lin Feng and I are the team's main DPS, plus Qian Qian, the key NPC. Hmm...

"Lin Xue," I raised my hand and said, "We're still missing a healer!"