Enemies Meet

Though there were many Sprinters charging the outpost below, they were almost all First Order.

Team Five was an elite squad. Every member was Second-tier, and they even had a Third-tier Qin Wu, so their combat strength went without saying.

Besides, these Low Sequence Calamities weren't very intelligent, and they were far inferior to the Skin Painter Jiang Mian had once encountered.

Of course, Calamities on the Nightmare Path were naturally more intelligent than other Calamities. They were the ones most "like humans."

With Li Huan and Qin Wu leading the charge, they soon carved a path through and successfully joined up with Xiong Yu Squad at the outpost.

It didn't take long. They had practically bulldozed their way through, and the remaining Sprinters seemed to sense the danger and retreated like the tide, leaving only devastation in their wake.

Jiang Mian only had time to fire five Incendiary Bullets, but the harvest was still decent.

She had never eaten so well before. It felt as if her core had been filled to the brim, and a tremor of delight rippled through the depths of her soul. Her progress toward advancement had also increased by about a third.

She had reaped a plentiful harvest from just one fight.

At this rate, she'd soon be able to advance again!

"Sister Su, they're retreating."

Jiang Mian put away her gun and ducked back into the vehicle.

"Got it."

Su Wanning understood and started the car, driving toward the outpost.

But Jiang Mian suddenly sensed a faint, unusual presence and instinctively looked out the window.

If the Sprinters' presence was like the smell of fish, this one was like the Skin Painter's—a faint smell of stinky tofu.

A Calamity on the Nightmare Path?

She had her suspicions. Sure enough, no matter how hungry for flesh and blood these low-intelligence Calamities were, they wouldn't gather in large numbers for no reason and deliberately attack a fully fortified outpost.

At the outpost entrance.

"Old Qin! Hey, Old Qin!"

Xiong Yu wiped the blood and sweat from his face, his expression carrying the relief of someone finally able to breathe easy.

"Old Xiong, what happened? A bunch of Sprinters shouldn't have been able to push you this far."

"Exactly!"

Xiong Yu slapped his thigh and said through gritted teeth,

"These things had someone directing them from behind. Otherwise, how could a bunch of brainless beasts have broken through our defenses?"

"I could tell. They were moving with too much discipline. What was it?"

Xiong Yu shook his head.

"Probably a Heart Eater. We don't know exactly where it's hiding. The Radiance guy on our team got taken out by it."

Sequence 137, Nightmare Path, Heart Eater. It could twist minds and drive lower-level Calamities. Once one gained momentum, it became extremely troublesome.

Qin Wu knew how dangerous it was. Unfortunately, the enemy had already disappeared into the Mist. Trying to track it would be too risky.

"By the way."

Xiong Yu remembered those astonishingly powerful Incendiary Bullets and asked,

"Did you bring heavy weapons this time? Those few shots just now were pretty accurate. I almost didn't recognize you."

"No."

Qin Wu nodded toward the off-road vehicle approaching them.

"It was our new recruit. She fired those shots with her 'cannon.'"

"'Cannon'?"

Xiong Yu was confused at first, then realized what Qin Wu meant. His face filled with disbelief.

"That thing can hit that hard?"

After spending so many years in City Defense, he was familiar with every standard-issue weapon.

Even loaded with the highest-grade custom ammunition, that thing could never have produced an effect like the bombardment they had just witnessed.

Qin Wu shook his head and didn't elaborate. Instead, he turned to look at the off-road vehicle as it came to a stop.

The rear door opened, and the first thing Xiong Yu saw was a pair of clean black ankle boots.

Then a girl in a black standard-issue Combat Suit stepped out, holding the sniper rifle he knew all too well.

Her features were delicate, and the glasses on her face gave her a quiet air. She seemed completely out of place in her surroundings.

"Huh?"

Xiong Yu's gaze swept back and forth between the girl and the rifle in her arms, which was almost as tall as she was. For a moment, he was at a loss for words.

In his imagination, an attack that powerful would have a tremendous recoil. It would take a broad-shouldered, burly man at the very least to handle it.

But the girl standing before him...

"Hello."

Jiang Mian noticed Xiong Yu's intense gaze, tightened her hold on the rifle, and greeted him politely.

"Her name is Jiang Mian. She's the new trainee on our team. Sequence 48... Eye of the Storm."

Qin Wu's voice sounded beside him, answering his question.

Oh, a High-tier Sequence. That explained it.

"Hello, hello. A pleasure to meet you..."

Xiong Yu swallowed the question on the tip of his tongue and responded to Jiang Mian with great enthusiasm.

He didn't know how she'd done it, but since she was a legendary High-tier Sequence, it made sense that she could enhance an ordinary gunshot to that degree...

Still, looking at Jiang Mian, Xiong Yu just couldn't picture her as a human artillery platform.

There was no point dwelling on that for now. Nearly every member of his squad was injured and needed treatment, and they still had cleanup to take care of.

Su Wanning immediately got to work treating the wounded.

Li Huan and Gu An cleaned up the battlefield. There were hardly any useful parts on the Sprinters, so there was no need to call in the Cleaning Squad.

Qin Wu quickly exchanged information with Xiong Yu and began arranging the follow-up work.

A short while later, people dispatched from the city gradually arrived and began repairing the outpost's defenses. Team Five only needed to stand guard nearby.

Jiang Mian stood quietly on the top level of the outpost, watching the people below bustle back and forth.

From their conversation, she learned that incidents like this had been happening frequently lately, so everyone had grown used to them.

As she stared absently into the distant Mist, she faintly spotted a convoy heading toward the outpost.

That direction... It wasn't coming from the Base City. Was it an Exploration Team, or someone else?

Jiang Mian knew the outpost served not only as a lookout, but also as a kind of signpost in the Mist.

In recent years, Base City No. 144 had grown closer to several neighboring cities, so it wasn't unusual for people to pass through.

It looked like they planned to rest here.

The convoy stopped in the open space outside the outpost. There were Awakened Ones wearing Combat Suits, as well as ordinary workers carrying tools, their faces weary.

People from the Construction Bureau?

She recognized them at a glance. In her memories, her father's work clothes looked exactly like those worn by the workers.

The leader of the Awakened Ones was tall and radiated the aura of a Third-tier.

The instant Jiang Mian's gaze fell on him, he sensed it, raised his head, and looked up at her. His pupils contracted slightly.

It's her...

Li Tian remembered Jiang Mian's appearance vividly and recognized her at a glance.

What happened? Did the job fail?

His brow furrowed almost imperceptibly. He had placed a bounty in that place last time; by rights, it should have been enough to draw those desperate outlaws into action.

But now... Jiang Mian was not only unharmed, she was even wearing a City Defense uniform. Which Awakened Ones squad was she training with?