I'll treat you to nutrient solution-the aroma of baked potatoes, the first miss...

Sang Luoluo followed him, and the rest of the squad tagged along to watch.

Qi Feng led her about a kilometer. She was thirsty from all the walking. "Where are we going?"

Qi Feng suddenly stopped and asked, "Have you felt any discomfort during the walk?"

Sang Luoluo thought about it and answered honestly, "I'm thirsty."

Qi Feng: "..."

Lei Qi: "..."

The other squad members: "..."

Qi Feng gave a light cough and said expressionlessly, "Now, take out all the trucks."

Sang Luoluo did as he said. Looking at the empty ground ahead and seeing that it could hold fifteen trucks, she waved her hand. All fifteen trucks appeared together in neat rows before them, exactly as they had been.

The members of S17 were stunned once again, their mouths all forming O's.

Qi Feng glanced at his teammates, then smiled and looked at Sang Luoluo. "Your ability is very unusual, and very powerful. You can join S17."

For a moment, Sang Luoluo was dazzled by his smile.

He Fei happily stepped forward and patted Sang Luoluo on the shoulder, saying warmly, "Luoluo, we're teammates now. I'm He Fei. We've met before, so we're not strangers. Let me introduce myself-my ability is my eyes. I can see farther and more clearly than most people."

Sang Luoluo watched his eyes. His pupils suddenly turned gold before returning to their original color, leaving her a little surprised.

Lei Qi came over too. "My ability is speed. I can run two hundred meters per second."

Sang Luoluo nodded. "I know. I saw yesterday."

Lei Qi smiled and said nothing more.

Sang Luoluo looked at the others and asked, "Are they all evolved humans too?"

Embarrassment flashed across their faces.

Amused, Lei Qi explained, "There aren't that many evolved humans. Apart from the captain, whose ability is a bit special, and Fatty, whose ability makes his hair grow really fast, none of the others are."

Sang Luoluo looked them over, committing their faces and names to memory.

What concerned her most, though, was the compensation and how hard she would have to work.

So she asked, "Then... what's the compensation like in your squad?"

Qi Feng said, "Newcomers get a thousand points a month, and evolved humans get an extra hundred. That's already a lot of points. With your ability, even with storage space, you wouldn't earn that much scavenging in the wilderness."

She couldn't care less about that paltry sum and continued, "Then how many days a month would I work?"

Qi Feng answered honestly, "That depends on the base Guard's arrangements. If you exceed the monthly mission workload, you'll receive an extra bonus for the excess, ranging from a few hundred to over a thousand points. When it's busy, we go on missions almost every day."

Hearing that she would have to work every day nearly made Sang Luoluo go numb. People weren't machines. They needed rest too, okay?

So she asked, "I don't want to work every day. Are there any positions with more freedom? Like hourly work? Something calculated by the number and duration of missions, where I can choose whether to go based on the pay and my own schedule?"

Chapter 15: I'll treat you to nutrient solution-the aroma of baked potatoes, the first miss...

Qi Feng also felt that this would suit her better. Her ability was powerful, but her constitution was too weak. Going on missions with the Guard every day would be too much for her, so he said, "Yes. You just need to register your information at the base's evolved human headquarters. I'll invite you to join our missions on behalf of the squad. Each mission pays anywhere from a few dozen to a few hundred points. That way, you can choose whether to accept."

Sang Luoluo's eyes lit up. "That suits me."

Qi Feng didn't want to dampen her enthusiasm. He knew how badly people at the bottom needed points and only hoped she wouldn't regret her decision. Without becoming an official member, she might not get the chance to take on more missions to earn points later, even if she wanted to.

He instructed, "Lei Qi, take her to handle the paperwork and make the arrangements."

Lei Qi said, "Yes, Captain."

"Come with me."

Sang Luoluo hurried after Lei Qi. He was tall, over six feet, with a crew cut. Even at his normal walking pace, she had to jog a few steps to keep up.

Lei Qi took her to a truck cab and had her sit beside him. It was already ten, and the radiation outside was so strong that it was no longer suitable to be out and about.

The first thing Lei Qi did after getting in was turn on the air conditioning, then activate the truck's radiation-proof glass. The entire cab instantly became a relatively safe area.

Sang Luoluo felt the air from the air conditioner. It was so cool, and she didn't have to worry about radiation at all while staying here. Was this the benefit of hanging around with the Guard?

Seeing her curious, fascinated expression, Lei Qi chuckled. This girl surely had never seen such advanced radiation-proof materials back in the shantytown.

Lei Qi activated his wrist device and worked quickly on the virtual computer interface that appeared. Sang Luoluo quietly watched beside him as he periodically had to scan his face and enter a password to authenticate something.

Lei Qi stopped and said, "Now hold your wrist device up to it. We need to confirm your information and scan your face."

Sang Luoluo obediently agreed. "Okay."

She brought her wrist device over. After a few beeps, her information was uploaded, and her face was scanned too.

Then Lei Qi continued working beside her, filling in plenty of information. He also uploaded a video of her storing and taking out the trucks earlier; she had no idea when he had recorded it.

Sang Luoluo watched in bewilderment. "When did you record that video?"

Lei Qi said, "I didn't. The captain did. When you register as an evolved human, if you aren't there for an on-site verification and recording, you have to provide a video demonstrating your ability. These are all necessary steps."

"Oh."

After working for a while, Lei Qi glanced at her wrist device. "Once you've earned some points, get yourself a new wrist device. Yours is an antique. It barely has any functions, and the signal is poor. We'll be traveling to plenty of places on missions, some of them far away. It's important to buy a better wrist device."

Sang Luoluo nodded. "Okay, I'll take a look later."

Lei Qi worked a while longer before sending Sang Luoluo her completed evolved human certificate. "This is your evolved human certificate. I've linked your information to the Guard and registered your contact details as well. Our captain will contact you when we need you for a mission."

"Okay, thank you."

Lei Qi thought she was quite polite. "You're welcome. Just take more missions with our squad in the future."

Sang Luoluo nodded.

Lei Qi continued reminding her, "If there's anything you don't understand, you can message me anytime. I've sent you our squad members' contact details too. They'll come in handy."

Sang Luoluo nodded and opened her evolved human certificate. The information on it was very detailed: her age, sex, and address, which still showed the shantytown and hadn't been updated, as well as her genetic blood type and other information. She could see it herself, but anyone else would need her authorization to view it.

Sang Luoluo was quite satisfied with that.

After all, three hundred years had passed, and technology had developed very rapidly.

Sang Luoluo asked, "Can I rest here at noon?"

Lei Qi nodded. "Make yourself comfortable."

After all that work, it was eleven, and he was getting hungry. Lei Qi took a tube of nutrient solution from his bag and held it in his mouth while dealing with the work the captain had assigned him through his wrist device.

Seeing that he was working, Sang Luoluo didn't disturb him. It was mealtime, so she ought to eat too.

She didn't dare eat anything else, since it would draw attention, so she took out a small piece of baked potato, still steaming, and began nibbling it.

She found it rather tasteless. After all, she had just tasted chicken soup, and plain baked potato no longer stirred anything in her.

After eating half, she put it away, thinking she would secretly eat something else when she had time that afternoon.

She took out a full bamboo tube of water and gulped down half, then burped before leaning back against the seat for a midday nap. She had slept sitting up for the past two nights and hadn't slept well. Now that she was somewhere relatively comfortable and quiet, she fell asleep the moment she closed her eyes.

With the nutrient solution in his mouth, Lei Qi had naturally smelled the aroma of baked potato. The nutrient solution instantly tasted like wax. Was the girl already eating potatoes? But then he saw her put it away after eating less than half. He felt a little sorry for her again. She could only bear to eat so little. Tsk, tsk.

Sang Luoluo slept until after three in the afternoon, and even then, Lei Qi had to wake her.

"How long has it been since you slept? How can you sleep so much?"

She hadn't woken once the whole time.

Sang Luoluo answered honestly, "I don't dare sleep too deeply when I'm alone. I haven't slept well these past few days."

Lei Qi wouldn't have felt such pity before, but now that Sang Luoluo had ties to their Guard, he naturally counted her as one of his own and thought she was rather pitiful.

"Are you the only one in your family who comes out scavenging? What about your other relatives?"

Sang Luoluo replied flatly, "My older brother and I used to have only each other. He's gone too."

Lei Qi: "..." She really was rather pitiful.

Still, he offered a few words of comfort. "Stick with our Guard from now on, and moving into the safe zone won't be a problem."

Sang Luoluo nodded.

Suddenly remembering a very important question, Sang Luoluo took the opportunity to ask, "Brother Lei, I count as an auxiliary member of the Guard now, right? Is there a badge or something that shows my status?"

Lei Qi knew what a Guard badge meant. "Normally, anyone who isn't an official Guard member doesn't get a badge, but you do count as a member. I can apply for a base Guard badge for you."

"Thank you, Brother Lei. I'll treat you... I'll treat you to nutrient solution sometime." Sang Luoluo was sincerely grateful. She wondered whether to give him a boiled egg to show her thanks, but seeing the unfinished nutrient solution still in his mouth, she decided against it. Eggs would draw too much attention. She could give him nutrient solution later. Once she got back, she would stock up on a whole case.