He'd Never Stop Bringing It Up

"You've got some nerve!" Ye Shijie laughed in exasperation, swung a slap at her, and boarded the Flying Vehicle in one smooth motion.

Xia Chujian easily dodged Ye Shijie's slap, floored the accelerator, and transformed the Flying Vehicle into an off-road vehicle as she drove toward the Checkpoint.

Only then did Li Fu and the others realize what was unusual about this Flying Vehicle.

"Ahhh?! It's amphibious and can fly too! Chujian, Chujian! You actually got the Association's newest model of Flying Vehicle!" Li Fu yelped repeatedly, practically wanting to shove Xia Chujian aside and take the controls himself.

The few of them had also gone to the Association Station to collect supplies, but pressed for time, they had not carefully reviewed the weapons list included with the mission. They had only selected the Superpower weapons and stockpiled supplies they needed.

Ye Shijie glanced over the equipment inside the Flying Vehicle and was startled as well. "...Small Controlled Nuclear Fusion Generators?! And there are two of them?! Chujian, did you clear out the Association's warehouse while no one was around?!"

Xia Chujian smiled faintly. "Captain, do you distrust me that much? These were all listed on the mission equipment list. I only selected a small portion. Who am I to take things from the Association's warehouse without permission?"

Song Mingqian and Ping Qiong exchanged a look, both raising their brows.

Resting her chin in one hand, Ping Qiong said thoughtfully, "It seems this mission isn't really Geng Grade Level. I'm wondering whether it's like the mission we carried out at dawn. It looked like Ding Grade, but actually corresponded to B-Grade Merit!"

Ye Shijie nodded. "Very possible. Looks like we struck gold!"

"Hehe, Captain, and you said whoever took it was an idiot..."

"So what? Being an idiot once in a while is a blessing." Rarely, Ye Shijie cracked a joke.

While Xia Chujian went to the Checkpoint to handle the paperwork, her four teammates inspected the equipment in the Flying Vehicle once more.

As expected, they saw that crate of cheap Low-Level Nutrient Solution nearing its expiration date, which Xia Chujian had deliberately tucked into a corner.

But the Flying Vehicle had only so much room. With more people inside, anything hidden would be exposed.

The four exchanged looks. They understood without saying anything, then quietly threw out that crate of cheap Low-Level Nutrient Solution nearing its expiration date.

Once the Flying Vehicle took off again and entered stealth mode, they opened their own packs and placed all the supplies they had prepared in the Flying Vehicle's small storage compartment.

Ye Shijie said flatly, "This Time, I got five crates of Advanced Nutrient Solution from the Association. Five hundred tubes per crate, and each tube lasts forty-eight hours. Two crates are extra, so you get them cheap, Chujian."

Xia Chujian's heart skipped a beat.

Advanced Nutrient Solution was something money could not buy. Besides providing abundant nutrition, its most important function was restoring Mental Strength.

Neither Low-Level Nutrient Solution nor Mid-Level Nutrient Solution had that function.

Therefore, Advanced Nutrient Solution was rationed in both official Imperial departments and major civilian organizations, distributed only to Gene Evolvers.

Ordinary People like Xia Chujian, whose genes could not evolve and who possessed no Mental Strength, would never receive an Advanced Nutrient Solution ration in her lifetime.

She hesitated before saying, "Captain, I'm not a Gene Evolver, and I don't have Mental Strength. You should keep this Advanced Nutrient Solution that restores Mental Strength for yourselves. I brought my own Nutrient Solution. It'll definitely last me a month."

"Oh, when I was packing earlier, I accidentally threw out your crate of Nutrient Solution. Consider this compensation." Ye Shijie spoke as if it were nothing.

Xia Chujian understood at once. Her teammates had all seen that crate of cheap Low-Grade Nutrient Solution that was about to expire.

She tried her best to control herself, but the tips of her ears still slowly reddened.

She had never spoken about her family circumstances in front of her teammates, much less wanted them to look after her out of pity.

Yet somehow, they still knew.

Xia Chujian could not put her feelings into words.

She should have felt embarrassed and awkward, but these teammates were different.

For the past three years, they had faced life and death together and entrusted their backs to one another.

Before a bond forged through life-and-death trials, the private matters of her family that she could not hide anyway suddenly did not seem like such a big deal.

Xia Chujian looked away and said quietly, "Thank you, everyone. My Aunt has been hospitalized for three years. I need to save money for her surgery."

Ye Shijie and the others had not actually known what was going on with Xia Chujian's family. Since she never spoke of it, they had never pried.

They only knew that she seemed desperately short of Money. Now, they finally understood.

Ping Qiong hurriedly said, "Just tell us if you need help. No wonder you've been so frugal. I thought you were saving up to buy a house..."

Ye Shijie also wanted to say something to comfort Xia Chujian, but when the words reached his mouth, they became, "Frugal... She sure isn't when she fires her Gun. She burned through one hundred thousand rounds in one go!"

Xia Chujian: "..."

Was this one hundred thousand rounds thing never going to end? She shot Ye Shijie a glance, then changed the subject. "Captain, are you flying, or am I?"

Remembering how they had been utterly crushed by a Mental Strength Expert last time, Ye Shijie narrowed his eyes. "You fly. This time, we all collected Supernatural Defense Weapons. As long as the other side isn't A-Class Mental Strength, we can withstand it."

"That's good." Xia Chujian smiled as she activated stealth mode and manually lifted the Flying Vehicle into the air from where it stood.

After ascending, they could see the long Enclosure Wall stretching across the ground.

In the darkness, lights glittered atop the wall like a crystalline Long Dragon, separating the Exotic Beast Forest from Mulan City.

Li Fu, seated in the back, opened his combat pack, took out a Helmet, and handed it to Xia Chujian in the front as she piloted the Flying Vehicle. "Chujian, we got you a Supernatural Helmet that can resist Mental Strength Attacks Below Rank A. Put this on too. If you get hit by a Mental Attack, it'll at least block some of it."

Xia Chujian wanted to say it was unnecessary, but what if? The first two times could be called luck; the enemy had not considered an ordinary person without Mental Strength worth noticing.

The third time might not be so fortunate.

Xia Chujian nodded, freed one hand to reach behind her and take the Helmet. She examined it. "This is a Supernatural Helmet? It looks no different from the standard Helmet I collected."

"Of course it's different. The difference is in the inner layer. The inner layer of a standard Helmet can only block sound; it can't block Mental Strength Attacks. The inner layer of this Supernatural Helmet is made from special materials and can resist Mental Strength Attacks Below Rank A."

Li Fu happily put on his own Supernatural Helmet, then pulled down the mirror from the Flying Vehicle's ceiling and checked himself from side to side.

"It can block anything Below Rank A?" Xia Chujian was surprised. "What's the level of the strongest Mental Strength Expert in all of Mulan City? I heard they're only Rank B Peak?"

"Doesn't that mean we can swagger around Mulan City?!"

Ye Shijie let out a snort. "A Rank B Peak Mental Strength Expert wouldn't only have Mental Strength Attacks as a means of attack. Besides, this kind of Helmet can't block a Remnant's Mental Strength Attack, even if it's only C-Class. We already tested that last time."

Li Fu rolled his eyes and said gloomily, "Captain Ye, don't bring up what nobody wants to talk about... How can there be so many Remnants? Running into one once was already like winning the jackpot. The next time probably won't come until years from now!"

Once? We've clearly encountered them twice already, Xia Chujian thought.

She tugged at the corner of her mouth and quickly said, "Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey! Don't jinx us! Li Fu, don't talk nonsense!"

As she spoke, she set the Flying Vehicle to automatic flight mode and began changing her Helmet.

Since the two Helmets were identical in all standard functions, having an extra layer of protection against Mental Strength was still better.

After putting on the new Helmet, Xia Chujian checked the Flying Vehicle's various systems again and contacted the Dark Night Hunter Association's information Control Console.

The other side confirmed her Flying Vehicle model and mission target, stating that everything was normal.

Xia Chujian did not dare let down her guard. She specifically checked the approximate mission Coordinates and its distance from Mulan City.

"...No way?! The location where this Blood Kirin appeared is one hundred thousand kilometers from Mulan City?!" Xia Chujian stared at the data displayed by the Flying Vehicle's location management system, her eyes abruptly widening.

Ye Shijie sat with his arms folded and his eyes closed as if resting. "Chujian, do you have some misunderstanding about the size of the Exotic Beast Forest?"

Xia Chujian: "..."

She muttered, "I know the Blood Kirin is in the Land of the Far North of the Exotic Beast Forest, but one hundred thousand kilometers from Mulan City is still ridiculous, isn't it?"

Looking at it this way, Aunt Chen's little trip really had only been circling around the edge of the Exotic Beast Forest.

She mulled it over inwardly.

"That's far to you?!" Ye Shijie shot her a look. "The Exotic Beast Forest covers one-tenth of all Guiyuan Star. Think about that yourself."

"Otherwise, do you think the Association has nothing better to do than equip this mission with a Flying Vehicle powered by Small-Scale Controlled Nuclear Fusion?"

"And our squad—our Mental Strength is at the bottom, our combat power is at the bottom. Why have we never taken missions in the Exotic Beast Forest?"

"Is it because I don't work hard enough? Or because I'm timid and afraid of trouble? Use your brain and think carefully!"

Ping Qiong became unhappy upon hearing that and shouted, "Captain Ye, don't boost others' morale and dampen our own! Our Mental Strength may be at the bottom, but how is our combat power at the bottom?!"

"Exactly, we have Chujian! She's worth three of us! She'll fight Mental Strength Experts without hesitation!" Song Mingqian joined in, flicked his long bangs as though he were especially dashing.

Li Fu chuckled. "Send out that video of Chujian saturating that spindle-shaped Flying Vehicle with six Micro Missiles. Who would dare say our combat power is at the bottom!"

Ye Shijie: "..."

Fine, that did make sense.

But he did not want this bunch becoming blindly optimistic.

He sneered and poured cold water on them. "Even a blind cat catches a dead mouse sometimes... One hundred thousand bullets, six Micro Missiles—give that much equipment to someone with muscular dystrophy in all four limbs, and they could kill a string of Remnants. Does that really count as formidable combat power? It's just wasteful extravagance!"

Xia Chujian: "..."

She was sure of it now. Ye Shijie really was going to hold those hundred thousand bullets over her for the rest of her life! During the New Book Period, let's all work hard together! Waves