New Exploration Area and Team Members

On the afternoon of April 8, Coach Chen Zhenhua brought two men and a woman to Changnan Interstellar.

As the one who had invited them, Wang An introduced the four of them to Wang Quan, the exploration team captain.

He returned to the company's office area and spoke to Manager Hu.

"Have the buyer purchase four more sets of wilderness survival gear. I brought in four archery coaches today.

They're all expert archers, and they'll be taking part in this operation.

Also, register them under our exploration team as outside personnel.

Make sure they have all the equipment they need, and apply for their permits to enter the restricted zone as soon as possible."

Manager Hu was a little puzzled and asked,

"Boss, none of these archery coaches have any wilderness experience!"

"It's fine. I'll have Wang Quan give them a crash course over the next few days."

Hearing the boss say that, he said no more on the subject.

He began reporting on the latest exploration site the company had settled on.

He opened his computer, pulled up a map, and pointed to it as he spoke.

"Here at Mount Huangyu, public information, photographs, and video footage indicate that at least two hundred meteorites landed in the area.

The relevant authorities have already set up a dedicated base in Huang Family Village, deep in the area.

According to feedback from the local villagers, four or five exploration teams have already entered the area."

Generally, when teams went out, they brought enough food for seven days and returned to camp for supplies when they were running low.

So the logistics base couldn't be too far from the target area. Otherwise, resupply would be inconvenient, and going back and forth would waste a great deal of time.

It couldn't be too close, either. Deep in the mountains and forests, noncombatants would have difficulty getting help if an accident occurred.

After explaining the situation in the new exploration area, Manager Wu began describing the preliminary exploration plan they had drawn up.

"There are quite a few meteorite landing sites here, and they're widely scattered across complex terrain. The area is also inside a nature reserve, so there may be quite a few mutated creatures as well. We're therefore planning for this exploration to last more than fifteen days.

We contacted the local villagers and learned a little about the other exploration teams. According to their reports, members of two teams have already been attacked and sent back to the village.

So if we rely on Captain Wang Quan to explore alone, it will take a very long time.

There's a strong possibility he'll be attacked by multiple kinds of creatures, which would be very difficult for one person to handle.

Having the people you brought join our exploration team will greatly increase our search efficiency and firepower.

That way, even if we face a pack of mutated creatures, we'll have a fighting chance."

Wang An nodded and cautioned Manager Hu.

"Don't place too much hope in them. Some people don't know how dangerous the mountains and forests are. They may still see them through a filter and start clamoring to go back after a few days.

So we still have to rely on ourselves and prepare for the worst.

They might be unable to adapt and come back on their very first day in there, so we need to prepare for a protracted battle."

Manager Hu nodded to show he understood.

"The funds from the Recovery Bureau arrived today.

Manager Wu, you can prepare the notice to recruit people to go into the mountains.

We're recruiting to train our own exploration team members, so we'd rather go without than take anyone unsuitable.

We'll offer generous pay and benefits, but we also require them to be familiar with the mountains and forests and able to identify all kinds of poisonous insects and plants.

They need extensive wilderness survival experience and must be young and strong. None of those in their fifties or sixties.

If there's an emergency, they'll hold us back.

This time, combat ability isn't required. It'll be enough if they can serve as logistics personnel, expand our search range, and improve efficiency.

Also, get our legal adviser to draft an employment contract specifically for exploration team members.

It must include the company's training and the team members' obligations. They also need to sign noncompete agreements. We can't have people we've trained running off to other companies."

In fact, Manager Hu had long wanted to recruit more exploration team members.

But first of all, this kind of work was extremely dangerous, and few people were willing to do it.

Second, too few people met the requirements, making it hard to recruit suitable candidates.

Now that the boss had proposed adding personnel and lowered the requirements somewhat, they should be able to find a few suitable people.

Manager Hu thought for a moment, then asked Wang An,

"Boss, how many should we recruit this time?"

Wang An calculated that the company spent around 100,000 a month on employee salaries.

Other supply purchases, equipment purchases, and maintenance also came to roughly 80,000 or 90,000, bringing the total to nearly 200,000.

"Let's recruit two reserve members for now. They can train with those archery coaches first.

They can receive specialized skills training later when there's time. They'll form the backbone of the exploration team in the future."

Manager Hu wrote down the requirements, preparing to begin recruitment the next day.

After thinking for a while, with nothing else to see to, he returned to his rented place and moved some of his belongings to the villa in the suburbs.

Wang An's avatar, Wang Quan, began giving the four of them the most basic wilderness survival training.

Wang Quan sized them up for a moment: three men and one woman.

Coach Chen was the oldest, in his forties. The woman was the youngest at twenty-eight, while the other two men were both in their thirties.

Then he spoke.

"I'm Wang Quan, captain of this exploration team.

Now that you've joined the team, we're teammates. Let's start with introductions."

Coach Chen, Chen Zhenhua, spoke first. "Hello, Captain. My name is Chen Zhenhua."

Of the other two men, the taller one was Hu Jun, and the shorter one was Li Guohua.

The two introduced themselves, saying they had become coaches after retiring as athletes and had extensive experience teaching and using compound bows.

The woman said,

"Captain, I'm Mo Yuemei. I'm currently an archer on our provincial team, and I also coach part-time at a club.

Um, I know a little about compound bows. I can quickly get the hang of one within a few days."

Wang Quan asked in some surprise,

"Mo Yuemei, what made you decide to join this exploration operation? Do you understand how dangerous the mountains and forests are?"

Mo Yuemei was slender and stood straight as a pine.

Her skin was wheat-colored, and her hair was tied in a high ponytail. She looked spirited and dashing.

Mo Yuemei felt that the captain thought he was one of those girls too weak to truss a chicken.

She immediately raised her voice.

"I understand perfectly. I came precisely for the danger. If there were no danger, I wouldn't have come."

Wang Quan didn't know how much she actually understood and said,

"In a moment, I'll show you how dangerous the mutated creatures I've encountered before are.

If you want to withdraw, you can do so at any time."

Now that introductions were over, Wang Quan took them to one of the company's conference rooms.

He took out a detailed introduction to the restricted zone that the company had compiled from footage of the mutated creatures Wang Quan had encountered before.

First came an introduction to the greatest threat in the restricted zone: mutated creatures.

"Based on information currently released by the government and information collected by our company,

Any creature can become a mutated creature.

Some creatures grow larger, some become more venomous, and others have their original abilities greatly enhanced."