33: supply base

“Qiao Yu, what's wrong?”

Chen Gu and Zhang Ke saw Qiao Yu's tense expression and followed his line of sight, but they didn't notice anything unusual.

“I'm fine. I suddenly felt like I was being watched by some abnormally dangerous creature.”

Only after Qiao Yu saw the dangerous gaze vanish for a moment did he take a sip of tea and slowly explain.

“Haha, Qiao Yu, your vigilance is commendable, but we are still in the Base City. If the sky falls, there are tall people to hold it up. Since this is your first time entering the Wilderness Area, you don't need to be so nervous.”

Chen Gu patted Qiao Yu's shoulder and comforted him.

Qiao Yu nodded, outwardly accepting Chen Gu's words, but still harboring doubts deep down.

He might not trust his own intuition, but the sense of danger just now was feedback from all the spores in the air.

If it were one or two, he could say his perception was wrong, but if millions of spores all perceived it incorrectly, then even if it was a mistake, he still needed to be vigilant.

After Luo Feng and Xu Xin finished their affectionate moment and returned, all the members of the Fire Hammer Squad had arrived.

The 'Twin Moon Scimitars' Wei Brothers—Wei Tie and Wei Qing, and the Captain of the Fire Hammer Squad—Gao Feng.

Gao Feng was similar in height to Qiao Yu and Luo Feng, about 1.8 meters tall, but his muscles were terrifyingly solid, like Schwarzenegger.

Gao Feng chatted briefly with Luo Feng, and then they rested for another twenty minutes.

“Let's go, we're setting off for the Wilderness Area!”

Gao Feng and the others stood up, and Qiao Yu and Luo Feng also strapped on their weapons and armor.

The group boarded the HR Alliance special vehicle and left the Base City for the Wilderness Area.

The train stopped at a military region located several hundred kilometers north of the Base City.

Each military region designates an area to establish a Martial Artist Supply Base, and Qiao Yu and the others arrived at the Martial Artist Supply Base first.

Gao Feng chatted and laughed with a military officer for a few moments, and the officer handed him a key to the resting area.

“Let's go, we'll rest at the E6 Building first, and then we'll depart tonight!”

Gao Feng laughed heartily, pointing to the three-story building representing E6 not far away.

It was late August, the hottest time of the year in the northern hemisphere. Gao Feng told everyone to rest up and depart later that night.

Qiao Yu nodded. He had been curious why the Fire Hammer Squad was taking their time; it didn't look like they were training in the Wilderness Area, but rather on vacation.

Hearing Gao Feng's explanation, he realized that this Warlord Level squad captain was extremely experienced.

Departing at night conserves both physical strength and supplies.

As they were talking, Luo Feng noticed a familiar figure outside the supply base.

“Brother Chen, look, isn't that Zhang Zehu?”

Zhang Zehu was wrapped in bandages, and faint red bloodstains were seeping through.

“Yes, it really is him!”

“Mountain-Splitting Tiger, you were swaggering around before, but now you're injured? Did you get distracted thinking about the two hundred million huaxia coin you lost while fighting a monster?”

Chen Gu walked up to Zhang Zehu, leaned against the gate, and spoke smugly.

Zhang Zehu was originally walking and chatting with his companions, but hearing Chen Gu's voice, he couldn't help but turn his head to look.

Seeing Chen Gu, Luo Feng, and the others, he gnashed his teeth in anger.

He had already paid the money, yet they still wouldn't let him off the hook verbally!

Zhang Zehu was about to retort with a few sarcastic remarks, but his gaze swept past the members of the Fire Hammer Squad behind them.

When he saw Qiao Yu yawning listlessly behind the group, his heart clenched.

“More than ten days have passed, and my heart hasn't had any abnormalities. I also had the medical station check it, and they didn't find any foreign objects or lesions in my heart. I should be fine now, right?”

Zhang Zehu thought to himself. The morning after that night, he had rushed to the medical station inside the Thunderbolt Martial Arts School to have his body checked. The doctor said all his physical indicators were normal and found nothing inside Zhang Zehu's body.

Coupled with the fact that Zhang Zehu hadn't experienced angina since the Fire Hammer Squad went on vacation, he had somewhat forgotten the pain after the wound healed.

“Chen Cannon, your words stink to high heaven, just like the farts you let out.”

“Your Fire Hammer Squad is supposed to be an elite squad, right? Taking two rookies—are you planning to let them feed the monsters first so you can hog all the profits?”

Zhang Zehu either stayed silent, or when he spoke, he continuously poured out abuse.

Chen Gu and Zhang Zehu were like two vicious dogs barking at each other, slinging the nastiest insults possible, yet neither dared to strike.

If Gao Feng hadn't found them too noisy and yelled at them to stop, they probably would have kept arguing until nightfall.

Zhang Zehu retreated sullenly. However, he had only been testing Chen Gu just now. Seeing that he had hurled so many insults in front of Qiao Yu without the previous angina recurring, he suspected that Qiao Yu could no longer do anything to him.

Moreover, the Wilderness Area was different from the Base City. He still believed that Qiao Yu had gained the upper hand before, perhaps by administering some poison beforehand, which was why he had lost control in front of Qiao Yu.

If Qiao Yu hadn't tricked him in the end, he definitely would have reported it to the Security Bureau and made sure Qiao Yu faced severe consequences.

“Huzi, the young man next to Chen Gu, and the kid hiding behind them—are those the two who made you spend two hundred million?”

An eye-patched middle-aged man asked.

“Yes, those two little bastards used some trickery to deceive me. The money has already been transferred and can't be recovered! My nephew took a beating for nothing this time, which is also humiliating.”

Zhang Zehu's eyes flashed with fierce light, and his entire expression was terrifyingly hideous.

Even now, he didn't feel that Zhang Haobai or his Zhang family had done anything wrong.

Everything was merely a scheme by Luo Feng and Qiao Yu, and he would get his revenge sooner or later.

“Forget it. Your nephew is usually too unruly and causes trouble often. He deserves a lesson.”

“You hurry up and rest well. Once your injury heals, we'll kill that old fellow. Then, what's two hundred million? Even if we gave away a billion, we could earn it back!”

The eye-patched middle-aged man smiled faintly, his eyes revealing greed... As dusk approached, the Fire Hammer Squad left the supply base and headed for the Wilderness Area.

“If we follow this highway, we should reach County-level City No. 0201 in about three days. That's the main battleground for this trip.”

Captain Gao Feng said, pointing to the long, dilapidated highway ahead of them.

This was also Qiao Yu's first time walking freely on a highway, giving him a sense of novelty he had never experienced before—a feeling impossible to have in his previous life.

“Roar~”

As the group walked further, the highway beneath their feet became increasingly dilapidated. Under the moonlight, they spotted a Unicorn Wild Boar several hundred meters away, constantly sniffing the ground, trying to find some rotting corpses to satisfy its hunger.

“Qiao Yu, Luo Feng, there's a High-Level Beast Soldier Level Unicorn Beast over there. Which one of you wants to score the first kill?”

Gao Feng asked, pointing at the Unicorn Wild Boar.

“Luo Feng, you go first!”

Qiao Yu saw Luo Feng's eager expression, and being too lazy to argue, he spoke first.