Wild Boar Herd

The small Armored Vehicle jolted across the Wilderness.

The cabin was cramped, with six people squeezed onto narrow seats, knee pressed against knee.

The protective mesh over the windows chopped the outside light into fragments, casting mottled shadows across their faces.

No one spoke. The atmosphere was somewhat strange.

Song Chen sat against the innermost seat, his eyes closed as he rested.

He could feel several gazes sweeping over him now and then—scrutiny, curiosity, and undisguised contempt.

"Hey."

Someone beside him jabbed him with an elbow.

Song Chen opened his eyes and saw Zhao Wei's falsely smiling face.

His voice was neither too loud nor too soft, just enough for everyone in the cabin to hear. "Song Chen, with your Vitality Value of 0.6, if we run into mutated beasts later, are you going to hide behind us, or just lie down and play dead?"

"I heard mutated beasts like eating live prey. Playing dead might not work."

Sun Qiang, sitting beside him, immediately burst out laughing.

The two girls seated opposite them reacted differently.

Liu Tingting glanced at Song Chen nervously, while Li Wei remained expressionless, as though she had not heard a thing.

Wang Jun stared out the window, lost in who knew what thoughts.

Song Chen gave Zhao Wei a glance, then closed his eyes again.

Zhao Wei curled his lip and turned to the others. "No fun."

"Hey, tell me, with a useless 0.6 guy on our team, shouldn't we buy him a big insurance policy? If he dies, his parents can still make a fortune."

"Zhao Wei." A calm voice came from the driver's seat.

Zhao Wei's expression changed, and he immediately shut his mouth.

Without even turning his head, Zhang Zhenyun held the steering wheel with one hand while extending the other, cigarette between his fingers, out the window.

The wind tore the smoke apart and scattered it behind the vehicle.

"Keep your mouth shut until we get out. Otherwise, I'll throw you out."

Zhao Wei answered awkwardly and did not dare speak again.

The cabin fell silent once more.

After another ten-odd minutes of driving, the vehicle stopped.

"We're here."

Zhang Zhenyun pushed open the door and jumped down. "All of you, get out."

Everyone filed out of the vehicle.

Before them lay a stretch of low hills thick with waist-high grass.

In the distance, the ruins of Evergreen City stood clearly in view. Crumbling high-rises rose on the horizon like tombstones, roughly two or three kilometers away.

Zhang Zhenyun stood beside the vehicle and swept his gaze over the six people before him.

"Do you know why I brought you here?"

No one answered.

He pointed into the distance. "Because this is the best observation point on the outskirts of Evergreen City."

"See those ruins? Between here and the edge of the ruins is open ground, with a good field of vision. It's suitable for observation. We'll wait here."

"Wait for what?" Li Wei asked.

Zhang Zhenyun glanced at her. "For mutated beasts to come out."

He lit a cigarette and took a deep drag.

"There are hundreds of thousands of mutated beasts inside Evergreen City, but not all of them stay in there all the time."

"Every evening, a group of mutated beasts comes out to forage. They travel west along a fixed route to drink at the water source over there."

"We'll lie in wait here, wait for them to come out, kill a batch, then withdraw before dark."

Zhao Wei looked somewhat disappointed. "That's it? Aren't we going into the city?"

Zhang Zhenyun exhaled a stream of smoke and looked at him. "You want to go into the city?"

Zhao Wei grew uncomfortable under his gaze, but he still forced himself to speak. "Isn't this supposed to be field training? Going into the city to kill mutated beasts is field training, isn't it? What does waiting outside count as..."

"Have you ever gone in?" Zhang Zhenyun cut him off.

"N-No..."

"Then let me tell you what it's like inside."

"The ruins are crawling with mutated beasts. First Rank ones move in packs, Second Rank ones lurk in the shadows, and Third Rank ones will have you dead before you ever see them."

"Once you go in, let alone students like you with Vitality Values barely over 1.0—even I wouldn't dare claim I could come back alive."

"If you think your life is big enough to go in and throw it away, I won't stop you. But this is my squad, and I have the final say."

"If I say we're not going into the city, then we're not going into the city."

Zhao Wei was choked speechless, his face shifting from green to white.

"Now, all of you squat down and hide."

"Wait properly."

The six of them crouched in the grass and began to wait.

One minute.

Ten minutes.

Half an hour.

One hour.

An hour and a half.

Mosquitoes and insects began to appear in the grass, buzzing around their ears.

Their legs went numb from crouching too long. Even after changing positions, they were still numb.

Zhao Wei's expression grew uglier and uglier.

Sun Qiang muttered softly beside him, "How much longer are we supposed to wait..."

Liu Tingting was starting to lose patience as well, repeatedly looking toward Zhang Zhenyun.

Li Wei, however, held steady. She kept staring at the distant ruins without moving.

Wang Jun... Wang Jun had actually fallen asleep, snoring as he leaned against the grass.

Only Song Chen maintained the same posture from beginning to end, half-crouched in the grass with one hand on the hilt of his combat blade, his gaze calmly fixed on the distance.

Zhang Zhenyun glanced at him, and a flicker of surprise passed through his eyes.

With a Vitality Value of 0.6, he dared come outside the city—and he could still stay this composed.

Either he was a fool, or he was a ruthless man.

Another ten-odd minutes passed.

"Damn it, how much longer are we waiting..."

Zhao Wei finally could not endure it any longer. He stood up, intending to stretch his numb legs.

At that moment, Song Chen suddenly spoke. "They're here."

Everyone froze.

Zhang Zhenyun's eyes narrowed. He immediately raised his binoculars toward the ruins. A few seconds later, his expression changed slightly.

He barked in a low voice, "Get down! Don't make a sound!"

Everyone immediately flattened themselves low.

In the distance, things began to emerge from the shadows at the edge of the ruins.

First came one black dot, then a second, a third... more and more appeared, until they merged into a moving black tide.

It was a herd of wild boars—enormous wild boars.

Even the smallest stood half a person tall, their fur jet-black, tusks protruding, their eyes glowing an eerie green in the dim light.

They poured out from the ruins and headed west along a fixed route, their heavy, orderly steps making the ground tremble faintly.

Song Chen counted them. There were at least thirty.

Among them, three were especially massive, a full size larger than the rest. They stood one and a half meters at the shoulder, with tusks half a meter long, stained with dried blood.

Those three large ones were definitely First Rank mutated beasts.

Zhang Zhenyun introduced them in a low voice. "A Mutant Wild Boar herd. Three First Rank ones, and more than twenty Unranked ones."

His hand rested on the hilt of the blade at his waist, but he did not draw it.

"Everyone, prepare for battle."

Zhao Wei froze. "Captain, you..."

Zhang Zhenyun's gaze swept across the faces of the six people. "I'm only responsible for keeping watch."

"If other mutated beasts are drawn here by the smell of blood, I'll act. But you'll deal with this herd of wild boars yourselves."

Sun Qiang's voice rose in fright. "Deal with them ourselves?"

"Three First Rank ones and over twenty Unranked ones—there are only six of us?"

Zhang Zhenyun sneered. "What's wrong with six people?"

"Aren't you here for field training? Field training means killing mutated beasts. If I have to kill them for you, then what did you come here for? Tourism?"