Can You Show Some Professional Ethics?

At this point, there were still two days before the entrance to the Spirit Fiend Abyss opened.

In two days, once the entrance to the Spirit Fiend Abyss opened, a large number of Phantom Demons would pour out and enter the present world, the surface side of the world.

For now, the entrance to the Spirit Fiend Abyss had yet to open, and the army of Phantom Demons had not appeared either. The missions posted on the notice board were basically tasks involving fortifying the defense line, patrolling, inspections, processing, and even assisting with transportation.

The only missions with any real taste of gunpowder were escorting important items and clearing out lone Phantom Demons wandering around Huaming District.

The former might attract some greedy underground criminal organizations, while the latter involved directly confronting lone Phantom Demons. Both would involve combat.

Su Ming and the others took a rough look and discovered that these missions were all fairly difficult. The Contribution Points offered as rewards were also relatively high, making them extremely popular among the students.

Students confident in their own strength naturally would not be afraid of combat. Moreover, this time they would be carrying out missions in teams, which raised their safety by more than one level. For the sake of Contribution Points, there would certainly be plenty of students eyeing these missions.

Because Su Ming and the others had taken some time, they had failed to come claim missions at the earliest opportunity. As a result, most of these missions had already been taken. The remaining ones were either missions that took too long or required subjugating particularly troublesome Phantom Demons.

Although the lone Phantom Demons wandering around Huaming District at present were certainly Lesser Phantasmal Demons that had originally been active in this area, and Lesser Phantasmal Demons were merely cannon fodder in the Spirit Fiend Abyss and not difficult to deal with, some Phantom Demons could still be more troublesome and dangerous than ordinary ones despite lacking outstanding strength.

For example, the Screaming Devil that Su Ming, Lei Hao, and Ye Bai had dealt with before possessed wings and could fly. Because of its high mobility, catching a Phantom Demon that could easily escape even if it could not win a fight was still difficult.

The Rotwater Demon Su Ming had mentioned to Xu Qianqian was the same. Its combat ability was not high, but it was an aquatic Phantom Demon. Finding it in the water, luring it ashore, and killing it would certainly take some effort.

Besides that, there were Phantom Demons like the Blackheart Demon, which could curse anyone who touched it; Phantom Demons whose entire bodies were poisonous; Phantom Demons capable of mental attacks; Phantom Demons with extremely powerful concealment abilities; and so on. Dealing with these types of Phantom Demons was ultimately much more troublesome than dealing with ordinary varieties.

Even if there were people who would accept missions to subjugate such Phantom Demons without hesitation, there would not be many of them.

Thus, the missions still left on the notice board at this point either required a great deal of time or were too troublesome. The good missions that could easily earn Contribution Points had long since been taken by the people who had come to wait early that morning.

"Did we still come too late?"

Yao Beibei said softly.

"It's all Senior Brother Su Ming's fault."

Jiang Wanyu seized the opportunity to complain at Su Ming.

"No, it's all my fault. Don't blame Brother Su Ming."

An Zijin, a ten-year fan of Su Ming, hurriedly took the blame upon herself.

"No, this really is Su Ming's fault. It has nothing to do with you, Junior An."

The veteran bootlicker Ye Bai had already prepared himself to blow the matter out of proportion.

"We should come a little earlier next time."

Lei Hao scratched his head and was the first to offer the most conventional opinion.

"We don't all need to be here. We can send one person over first to choose the missions. The other teams are definitely doing that. Otherwise, waiting until everyone has gathered before coming over will take up a lot of time again."

Su Ming directly ignored Jiang Wanyu and Ye Bai and said this.

The others had no objections. After agreeing to decide who would come early to claim the missions through rock-paper-scissors next time, they formally began selecting the missions they planned to take.

Regarding the type of mission, the three first-year juniors, An Zijin, Yao Beibei, and Jiang Wanyu, all said that they did not need the others to take them into consideration. They could accept even somewhat risky missions.

Although Yao Beibei and Jiang Wanyu did not seem eager to choose particularly risky missions, lest unnecessary danger arise, they were not unwilling to take even the slightest risk and make everyone accompany them on patrol missions or the like.

Such missions were certainly safe, but the Contribution Points offered as rewards were far too few.

Even if Yao Beibei and Jiang Wanyu cared deeply about An Zijin's safety, considering that they would be expelled if they did not have enough Contribution Points, they could still accept taking a little risk.

"Since that's the case, let's choose a subjugation mission, our old specialty."

Lei Hao immediately voiced his opinion.

Of everyone present, Lei Hao was the most combative. When accepting missions at the academy, he had always preferred missions involving subjugating Phantom Demons. In his words, they were more exciting.

"I have no objections."

Su Ming immediately agreed.

Subjugating Phantom Demons was great!

Because if they subjugated a Phantom Demon, he could find an opportunity to pocket the materials it dropped!

As a man who needed supernatural items to exchange for Crystals that had returned to their starting point, Su Ming declared that what he liked most was subjugating stupid but adorable Phantom Demons!

Ye Bai alone was somewhat worried.

"Isn't it a little too soon to accept a subjugation mission right away?"

Ye Bai could not help glancing at An Zijin and the other two.

These three exceptionally pretty juniors were only first-years after all. They had only recently entered the academy and had never subjugated a Phantom Demon or participated in a proper life-or-death battle. With their insufficient strength and lack of experience, if something really went wrong, their guilt would be immense.

Naturally, Ye Bai's concern earned the juniors' displeasure.

"Don't underestimate us, Senior Brothers." Jiang Wanyu put her hands on her hips. "Even though we've only just enrolled, we come from Hunter Families and have received training from our elders. We're not as weak as you imagine."

"Me too." Yao Beibei spoke softly. "I also have an elder who taught me how to fight."

This was where Hunters had an advantage. Aside from ordinary people who had to find ways to obtain a Phantom Demon Bloodline, children born into Hunter Families with innate Phantom Demon Bloodlines could often receive instruction from their elders from a young age because of their family circumstances.

Thus, despite having only recently enrolled, Jiang Wanyu and Yao Beibei, who came from Hunter Families, possessed considerable combat ability. They simply lacked experience.

An Zijin, on the other hand, had only awakened her Spiritual Constitution recently and was a complete newcomer. She indeed had not received much training.

However—

"I'll obediently stay behind Brother Su Ming and listen to everyone. I absolutely won't act recklessly."

An Zijin made her promise.

"Why are you staying behind Senior Brother Su Ming?"

Jiang Wanyu, being the sharp-eyed one, immediately noticed the key point.

"Because Brother Su Ming will protect me!"

An Zijin answered crisply, and her words made everyone feel awkward.

"W-We can protect Little Zijin too!"

Yao Beibei hurriedly tried to make her presence felt, prompting Ye Bai and Jiang Wanyu to nod repeatedly.

Unfortunately, An Zijin was still An Zijin.

"Having Brother Su Ming protect me is enough!"

Her straightforward declaration easily dealt a critical blow to one man and two women.

The three of them glared resentfully at Su Ming, making him turn his head away.

I saw nothing. I saw nothing. (/ω＼)

"Then let's accept a subjugation mission!"

As the only person who could remain outside this complicated relationship, serving merely as a passerby who watched the drama while feeling envy, jealousy, and hatred, Lei Hao seemed to have already had all his interest drawn to the new challenges and missions.

"Let's do that." Su Ming also made the final decision. "Our team composition is fairly reasonable. Taking a subjugation mission won't be too dangerous."

There were three Hunters and three Warlocks in this team, making the class distribution extremely balanced.

Among the three Hunters, Lei Hao was the vanguard tank, Jiang Wanyu was the skirmishing assassin, and Yao Beibei was the frontline attacker. Their roles were also very well balanced.

As for the three Warlocks, An Zijin could use the several offensive Spiritual Arts she had learned to provide rear-line firepower, Ye Bai would continue serving as crowd control, and Su Ming would provide the greatest firepower. Their division of labor was equally reasonable.

Aside from lacking a scout and a healing support, this team could already be considered a proper team.

With such a team taking the field, even if Su Ming did not use his true strength, they would be able to handle any Lesser Phantasmal Demon other than a Mutant.

The prerequisite was that nothing unexpected or untoward happened.

There were three newcomers on the team, so the odds of that happening were still fairly high.

But who had not been a beginner once?

Yao Beibei and Jiang Wanyu aside, as for An Zijin, Su Ming hoped to use this opportunity to broaden her horizons, increase her knowledge, and give her more experience dealing with Phantom Demons and carrying out missions. That way, when the great battle came in two days, she could perform as well as possible instead of making a complete mess of things.

The most important thing was to keep her alive.

Whether in this battle or in her future career, Su Ming hoped that his overly adorable girl next door could continue living.

For that reason, Su Ming did not mind giving An Zijin some guidance.

"What are you thinking about, Brother Su Ming?"

An Zijin noticed Su Ming's thoughtful expression and could not help asking.

"Thinking about you."

Lost in thought, Su Ming answered without thinking.

"Huh?"

An Zijin's eyes widened, and her pretty face immediately flushed red.

"Ah—"

Only then did Su Ming realize what he had said. He shuddered violently and revealed an awkward smile.

Lei Hao: "."

Ye Bai, Jiang Wanyu, and Yao Beibei: "(Angry)"

"Brother Su Ming."

An Zijin gazed at Su Ming with a pair of limpid eyes, the blazing emotions within them practically spilling out.

Seeing this, Su Ming turned and ran without a second thought.

"Don't run! (Flailing)"

Ye Bai, Jiang Wanyu, and Yao Beibei immediately chased after him.

"Hehe. (#^.^#)"

An Zijin was still blushing shyly.

In the end, only the honest man Lei Hao remained standing there, muttering mournfully.

"We came here to carry out a mission, not to date. Can't you show some professional ethics?"

"Sigh ε=(ο｀*)"

Life was hard. Haohao sighed.