Joining the squad

"Mm." Lin Qi hadn't expected the captain to get straight to the point without any preamble.

But that was fine. It saved him the bother of going back and forth. He hated dawdling most of all.

"Thunder Sequence?"

The captain seemed to have seen into Lin Qi's mind, his palm-leaf fan still moving at its usual rhythm.

"Does awakening a sequence mean I have to reveal what it is?"

Rather than answer, Lin Qi asked a question of his own.

The captain's fan paused. He cheerfully looked Lin Qi up and down. "Tsk, tsk, interesting. You at least have to prove you're an Extraordinary."

On his way here, Lin Qi had already decided to join the Transcendent Squad to reap the benefits of the Ghost Well, so he had no intention of hiding it.

He extended his right hand, and crackling arcs of electricity began flashing in his palm.

"How strange. Extraordinaries of the Thunder Sequence are the most effective against the uncanny, and it's a very rare ability. I never expected two to appear in our convoy at once." The captain narrowed his eyes. No one could see through his thoughts.

Soon, his narrowed eyes relaxed, and he resumed his affable smile. "Green Radish said you're pretty good at staying alive. Hopefully you won't die as quickly as that Jiahao..."

"All right, let's get to the important stuff."

Lin Qi didn't want to shoot the breeze with the captain. Despite the man's smile, he always made Lin Qi feel uncomfortable all over.

"Oh, right."

The captain seemed to remember suddenly. Leisurely waving his palm-leaf fan, he began explaining. "After becoming an Extraordinary, you have two choices."

"First, join the Transcendent Squad-that's our team. The team will ensure your survival, but you must follow my orders."

"Second, you can become an independent Extraordinary and choose not to join the Transcendent Squad."

At this point, the captain seemed to study Lin Qi's expression. Only when he saw little change did he continue. "As an independent Extraordinary, you naturally won't have to obey my commands, but if the convoy faces a crisis, you must act."

"Of course, you'll receive corresponding benefits too. Any information I obtain will be shared with you immediately."

"Don't think information isn't important. The information I obtain can be a hundred times more important than supplies in this apocalypse."

After saying his piece, the captain lay back in his recliner, leisurely waving his palm-leaf fan as he waited for Lin Qi's answer.

"I'll take the second option."

Lin Qi gave his choice almost as soon as he had run through it in his head.

For him, the second option had nothing but benefits.

The first might earn him the captain's care, but getting too close would not be a good thing for him.

"All right."

The captain seemed to have expected this. He rose and pulled a slip of paper from his pocket. "Here's our internal walkie-talkie channel. If anything comes up, I'll share it over the walkie-talkie right away."

"Okay."

Lin Qi took the slip and began memorizing the internal channel.

Green Radish had leaned against the edge of the tent throughout, with no intention of interrupting them.

Only after memorizing the contents of the slip did Lin Qi turn his gaze back to the captain.

"If you have any questions, ask away." The captain still looked very easygoing.

"I have a question. Since you can only enter the Ghost Well once each time, why not send more people in at once?" Lin Qi asked what was on his mind.

Hearing his question, the captain smiled, as unhurried as ever. "You could call it a rule agreed upon by the captains of the various convoys."

"Huh?" Lin Qi paused. "You can communicate with the other captains?"

"Haha, that's my secret. Let's talk another time, another time." The captain clearly meant to see him out.

"All right."

Lin Qi naturally understood that further questions would get him nowhere. He got up and left the tent.

Only after Lin Qi left did Green Radish look at the captain in surprise. "What were you talking about? What communication between captains? Didn't you say it was because sending too many people at once would require lots of corpses, and you were afraid it would make the survivors break down?"

Hearing Green Radish expose him, the captain hurried to the tent entrance and cautiously peered outside. Only after seeing that Lin Qi was far away did he say helplessly, "Oh, for heaven's sake, he's still an outsider. How can you just blurt everything out like that!"

"Heh, you really are a piece of work." Green Radish snorted softly and left the tent, her long braid swinging.

"Ah, without me, this team would fall apart sooner or later."

The captain looked around the empty tent, his face full of helplessness.

Lin Qi returned to the SUV and tuned his walkie-talkie to the internal channel the captain had given him.

It was the early hours of the morning, and the sky remained blood-red.

The Transcendent Squad hadn't discarded the piled-up corpses. Liu Yan was directing the survivors to gather them and move them into a heavy truck.

It should have been a time when the survivors were fast asleep, yet it was particularly noisy.

Lin Qi no longer felt sleepy either, so he began fiddling with and studying the Energy-Devouring Gun.

The faint light of dawn once again spread across the land.

The Blood Moon disappeared from view, and a new day arrived, but the convoy still showed no sign of setting off.

"Lin Qi, your clothes."

Yi Xue jogged over to the vehicle carrying the dried clothes and passed them to Lin Qi through the window. Then she looked at him expectantly. "Lin Qi, is there anything else you need me to do?"

"Not for now."

There really wasn't anything Lin Qi needed help with for the moment.

"Oh, okay. Be sure to come to me if you need anything."

After getting to know him over this period, Yi Xue understood Lin Qi's personality. Seeing him refuse so decisively, she didn't invite another rebuff and jogged back to the bus.

"Bzzzt, bzzzt."

Not long after Yi Xue left, Lin Qi spotted someone in his rearview mirror who made him frown.

It was Huang Li.

Huang Li emerged from somewhere. Calling her mental state poor would have been an understatement-she could even be described as raving.

Her clothes were disheveled. She had clearly experienced something bad yesterday.

Huang Li's appearance immediately drew the attention of quite a few survivors.

Wang Feng, who loved a spectacle, naturally rushed to the scene at once.

In the blink of an eye, the raving Huang Li was surrounded by an impenetrable crowd.

Lin Qi didn't care what exactly had happened to Huang Li. He withdrew his gaze after a single glance.

Her current state could be called a kind of retribution.

Lin Qi didn't want to know, but Wang Feng's gossipy nature soon brought the news back to him.

He darted over to the window, an odd expression on his face. "Lin Qi, what goes around really does come around. You have no idea-that woman Huang Li was actually sold by Bo Gang to a bunch of old bastards as a tool for satisfying their lust. They tormented her all night. I'm afraid they've driven her out of her mind by now."

"Mm." Lin Qi's expression didn't change. He unobtrusively put away the Revolver, opened the door, and stepped out.

"Huh?" Seeing Lin Qi get out, Wang Feng's smile froze. "Lin Qi, don't tell me you still care about that ex-girlfriend of yours?"

Hearing that, Lin Qi headed toward the trunk without looking back. "It's already noon. Aren't you going to eat?"

Wang Feng was momentarily embarrassed. "Ahem, I was overthinking it. I was overthinking it..."