Zhong Xuezhi had slept fitfully all night, worried his teammates would discover that someone had grabbed his tail.
So when his body clock woke him the next morning, he lay there recovering for quite a while before reluctantly sitting up.
Mu Yi was still asleep beside him. Sensing his movements, he fumbled around beneath the thin blanket with his injured arm.
But after all that fumbling, he still could not find what he wanted.
Mu Yi opened his eyes groggily and asked in a slightly nasal voice, "Tail...?"
Smack! Zhong Xuezhi curled a finger and flicked him hard on the forehead, cutting him off.
"Ow..." Mu Yi woke up instantly. Rubbing his forehead, he looked up. "What was that for!"
Zhong Xuezhi withdrew his finger and smiled. "A thoughtful morning wake-up service. Effective, wasn't it?"
Mu Yi sprang upright and raised his hand to flick him back, but Zhong Xuezhi had anticipated it. He scrambled away, slipped on his shoes, and headed out the door.
Mu Yi punched the blanket. "Bastard..."
Now thoroughly awake thanks to that bastard, he had no choice but to get up too and wobble out of the room.
Zhong Xuezhi, who had gone out first, was standing a short distance away, holding a cup under the mountain spring water flowing from a bamboo tube as he prepared to wash up.
Mu Yi walked over, raking his fingers through his hair, and found his own mouthwash and tooth-cleaning grass already laid out on the stone platform nearby.
Hmph. A slap followed by a sweet. Captain Zhong's usual little trick.
Mu Yi rolled his eyes, but ultimately let the forehead flick slide.
He plucked a few leaves of tooth-cleaning grass, casually rubbed them into a ball, then popped them into his mouth and chewed slowly.
The tooth-cleaning grass made a gritty rustling sound as he ground it between his teeth, rivaling the swishing of Zhong Xuezhi's toothbrush beside him.
The two sounds continued for a while, then stopped one after the other.
Next, Zhong Xuezhi tipped his head back and gargled to rinse away the toothpaste foam, while Mu Yi lowered his head and spat out the withered-looking pulp.
Just then, the other members of Team 404 woke up too and shuffled over one by one, all sporting matching bird's-nest hair and bleary eyes.
When he saw them, Captain Zhong offered his customary greeting. "Morning."
The foursome gave their customary scattered replies. "Morning..."
Mu Yi looked up after spitting out the grass pulp and could not help taking another look at them. They looked far too much like copies of one another.
After shuffling over one by one, they held up their cups to collect water in turn, then lined up and began brushing their teeth in perfect unison, eyes closed.
As they brushed, both the pace of their toothbrush strokes and the sounds they made were perfectly synchronized.
Even their expressions belonged to the same half-dead collection.
Zhong Xuezhi covered his face with a hand and told Mu Yi, "Sorry you had to see that."
Mu Yi's eyes swept back and forth over the foursome before he grinned and replied, "It's pretty entertaining."
Clowns looked surprisingly alike, no matter which world they came from.
Once they had washed up, it was time for breakfast, though this time everyone had nutrient supplements.
It was Mu Yi's first time trying one. He cheerfully tore open the wrapper and brought it to his mouth, then... swallowed it with a miserable expression.
"Is this stuff meant for human consumption?"
At his question, all five men with nutrient supplements between their teeth turned toward him at once.
Zhong Xuezhi looked dubious. "You've never had nutrient supplements?"
Nutrient supplements were, without exception, the most common food in every Safe Base.
They were affordable and fully satisfied the body's basic nutritional needs while keeping people full. More than half the ordinary residents of the cities probably ate nothing else their entire lives.
Even among Mutants with special abilities, most preferred the last option when faced with a choice between venturing out to hunt, paying exorbitant prices for fresh ingredients, or simply eating nutrient supplements.
So there actually existed a rare specimen who had never eaten nutrient supplements?
What kind of family did he come from...?
Qiu Cai could not help asking a rather rude question. "Your dad... is he the lord of your Safe Base?"
Zhong Xuezhi suddenly remembered something and immediately reached out to smack Qiu Cai on the head. "Shut up."
Qiu Cai yelped, "Ow!"
Mu Yi merely smiled. After moistening his mouth to ease that indescribable taste lingering between his teeth, he said very slowly, "My dad is dead."
Rubbing the back of his head, Qiu Cai looked up and saw that the smile on Mu Yi's face was entirely genuine. It even carried unmistakable delight at his father's misfortune.
An inexplicable chill ran through him, and he did not dare ask anything else.
Just then, Zhong Xuezhi suddenly clapped his hands, drawing everyone's attention.
"All right, stop dawdling. Hurry up and finish so we can leave."
The foursome nodded and stuffed their nutrient supplements into their mouths, falling unusually quiet.
Breakfast ended quickly. Afterward, they packed their things and prepared to set off.
As soon as they started moving, the members of Team 403 emerged one after another, afraid they would slip away unnoticed and turn in the mission first.
Zhong Xuezhi glanced at Qi Tianhe and flashed a grin. "Oh, Captain Qi. I was just about to come get you."
Qi Tianhe smiled too. "We're ready as well. Let's go."
Zhong Xuezhi set off first, leading Team 404, while the members of Team 403 trailed behind at a moderate distance.
The men kept a brisk pace and soon left through the back gate of the Ruined City.
Next, they had to cross a vast stretch of grassland.
The two teams took turns stepping onto the rare stretches of level ground, their pace noticeably quickening.
They had been out hunting for a week, and now they were all eager to get home.
So when lunchtime came, they did not stop to rest, instead pressing on until they reached the Teleportation Array leading back to the main city.
It was Mu Yi's first time seeing a Teleportation Array, and he found it quite novel.
He had originally thought the Teleportation Array would be something like a transit station. Instead, it was an enormous crystal tower enclosed by stone walls.
The tower was formed from countless colored crystals. Rich, deep hues of light flowed across its surface, lending it a magnificent air of mystery.
After looking up at it for a moment, Mu Yi quietly probed it with his pheromones, only to discover that it held no electrical current inside.
The crystal tower was like an oversized shard crystal whose energy had been completely drained, yet had not dissolved into light.
Mu Yi could not help feeling a little anticipation. Everything here was so new to him. He wondered what Crystal City would be like and hoped it would be interesting.
Having finished his musings, he turned toward Zhong Xuezhi beside him, only to find him tapping away at a projected interface.
After a flurry of finger movements, the projected image flickered and changed into a cartoon white rabbit with a round head.
The white rabbit's lips moved twice, and a slightly stiff, synthesized voice came from the projection.
"Hello. Customer service representative 4018 at your service. How may I help you?"
Zhong Xuezhi found that synthesized voice so damn comforting that his smile widened.
He said, "Alliance Hunting Teams 403 and 404, accompanied by one research volunteer, requesting teleportation back to the city."
The white rabbit customer service representative replied, "Retrieving the Return City Code required for your current location. Please wait."
While the white rabbit processed the request, Mu Yi eagerly leaned closer and watched the projected interface with Zhong Xuezhi.
The white rabbit on the interface did not move, but densely packed numbers scrolled rapidly through its eyes.
A moment later, a clear ding! rang out, and the numbers in the rabbit's eyes stopped on four digits, rather like a verification code.
The synthesized voice spoke again. "Hello. Your Return City Code has been successfully retrieved. The code is 30..."
Just as the white rabbit was about to read out the complete Return City Code, Zhong Xuezhi abruptly ended the call with a beep.
Qi Tianhe's perked-up ears twitched, and he immediately frowned. "What are you doing?"
Zhong Xuezhi switched off his Identity Bracelet and turned to look beyond the Teleportation Array. "Something's approaching."
Before you continue