38: Section 38

"If it were the old world, I could actually pursue her. Too bad this is the Lighthouse; we can only wait for the Hall of Dawn to assign someone. With so many Upper Citizens on the Lighthouse, it's hard to meet such a beauty."

Mo Dong walked over and slapped Chu Feng's head, scolding, "All you think about all day is the Hall of Dawn! Hurry up and introduce them."

Jing Yuan looked at the two people Chu Feng had brought; their faces looked familiar, as if they were also rookies selected this time.

Chu Feng only reacted after being hit and hurriedly introduced them, "Jing Yuan, this is De Hai, and this is Lin Ge. They are fellow rookie Wasteland Hunters from our year. After witnessing your strength on The Surface yesterday, they admire you greatly and asked me to introduce them."

"Big Brother Jing Yuan!"

"Big Brother Jing Yuan!"

The two spoke in unison.

Jing Yuan quickly said, "We're peers, don't call me big brother. Just call me Jing Yuan."

"No, no, no! We go by strength. With your strength, you can definitely be our big brother!"

"Yeah! The scene where you slew the Phage Beast yesterday was truly magnificent!"

"You flatter me." He hurriedly waved his hands, not expecting to unexpectedly gain two little fanboys.

Chu Feng looked around and felt this wasn't the place to talk, so he said, "How about this! Let's gather at your place later. De Hai, you two come as well!"

"Sure!"

After bidding farewell to the others, Jing Yuan first went to settle his contribution points.

For this mission, Jing Yuan, Erica, Penny, and the others received relatively high contribution points because they had found some useful equipment.

Even Mo Dong and his group obtained a good amount of contribution points because of it.

On the Lighthouse, there were no other extracurricular activities besides work and missions.

A few friends gathering to chat in their spare time was considered a form of leisure and entertainment.

Later that evening, Mo Dong, Chu Feng, Neil, plus De Hai and Lin Ge—six people in total—gathered at Jing Yuan's residence to drink.

As they talked and chatted, the conversation inevitably turned to this mission.

Chu Feng recalled, "This mission was truly too dangerous! That last Phage Beast chased us onto our vehicle. If Jing Yuan hadn't appeared in time, I'm afraid we wouldn't have made it back!"

Mo Dong also said, "After we finished loading the equipment, intense combat broke out on Captain Marc's side. Fortunately, Senior Penny remained calm under pressure and directed our evacuation. Only then could our vehicle stay in front. Otherwise, we would have been in deep trouble!"

Jing Yuan looked at them and asked, "Were all five of you in the same vehicle at the time?"

"Yes! The situation was quite chaotic then, so we didn't follow the seating arrangement we had when we arrived."

Jing Yuan also recalled the scene then; the vehicle Penny was in was driving in front, using the vehicle-mounted machine gun to block many Phage Beasts.

The vehicles driving behind weren't so lucky.

"Didn't they say missions involving rookie assessments generally aren't that dangerous? Nearly dying the first time we went to The Surface—that's just too unlucky!" Neil was still shaken.

Lin Ge, who was beside him, said, "I also heard that missions led by Captain Marc have the lowest risk. I thought with Captain Marc leading the team, everything would surely be fine. I never expected we'd almost not make it back."

De Hai also complained, "Because of this failure, Captain Marc's reputation has been significantly affected."

"When Captain Marc led missions before, although there were casualties, the supplies were always brought back. So people didn't care much. This time, even the supplies weren't brought back, so people have opinions."

"The ones with the strongest opinions are those people from the Light and Shadow Society. They say Captain Marc violated the will of the lord of light and shadow, which is why he was punished!"

"Those fanatics in the Light and Shadow Society didn't do any work; they only know how to spout nonsense."

"By the way, I heard the higher-ups are very dissatisfied with Captain Marc's actions this time..."

Listening to their complaints and banter, Jing Yuan suddenly realized something.

The mission failed, Marc's reputation was affected, and the Light and Shadow Society was even fueling the fire?

Jing Yuan felt more and more that Charles was behind this.

Listening to their conversation, Jing Yuan suddenly asked, "You said the higher-ups are dissatisfied with Marc? Which higher-ups?"

"Who else could it be but City Lord Morgan!"

"The City Lord is dissatisfied with Marc?" Jing Yuan found it hard to believe; Morgan had always valued Marc and wouldn't be dissatisfied over just this.

"Yes, I heard the Wasteland Hunters are planning to appoint a Deputy Captain."

"Deputy Captain? Don't the Wasteland Hunters already have a Deputy Captain?"

"Who?"

"Adjutant Ran Bing!"

"She is only an Adjutant, assisting Captain Marc. It's said the newly established Deputy Captain position will be second only to Captain Marc and will also have independent command authority."

"Then who will be the new Deputy Captain?"

"I don't know. It's said they will be selected from the current Team Members!"

"Oh? Then do we also have a chance?"

"Forget it! What chance could you possibly have!"

"It's just a rumor for now; the specific requirements haven't been announced yet."

"Regardless, if there's a chance, we can all give it a try. Becoming the Deputy Captain means the contribution points will be much higher, at least."

As the others discussed on the side, Jing Yuan was lost in thought, wondering how Charles would arrange for him to become the Deputy Captain.

Chu Feng looked at Jing Yuan and asked with a smile, "Jing Yuan, why aren't you speaking?" Chu Feng gave a mischievous grin and asked, "You couldn't be thinking about that blonde beauty from today, could you?"

"Blonde beauty?" Mo Dong said with a laugh, "You mean Senior Penny?"

Chu Feng teased, "Senior Penny is indeed very good. Among our Wasteland Hunters, she's considered one of the best!"

When a group of men are together, discussing beauties is an inevitable topic.

Chu Feng's teasing sparked a discussion about beauties among everyone.

Lin Ge said with a smile, "Speaking of beauties, the two Light Bearers in the Law Enforcement Office are quite good!"

"Don't let the Light Bearers find out, or they'll come and give you a whipping." De Hai said with a smile, "I have a friend who works in the Navigation Control Room. According to him, there are several beauties in the Navigation Control Room who are truly top-tier. Especially the Chief of Navigation, Jing Nan; her figure and temperament are both exquisite. I wonder if there's a chance to meet her in the Hall of Dawn."

"Stop dreaming. She's the City Lord's daughter; you think she'd let you meet her in the Hall of Dawn?"

"Actually, you guys don't know, right? Chief Jing Nan is just the City Lord's adopted daughter. Of course, those are all old world family relationships."

Hearing their conversation, Jing Yuan suddenly leaned closer to De Hai and asked, "What did you just say?"

De Hai was somewhat confused and tried to answer, "Jing Nan is the City Lord's adopted daughter."

"Not that sentence, the one before! You said you have a friend who works in the Navigation Control Room?"

De Hai nodded.

Jing Yuan's brow suddenly shot up as he asked, "Could you please ask this friend of yours for a favor?"

Chapter 39: The Selection

The next day, Jing Yuan arrived outside the Navigation Control Room under De Hai's lead to wait for his friend.

The Lighthouse was currently flying through a stable zone, so things were relatively quiet in the Navigation Control Room.

De Hai's friend took some time out to meet them.

The person who came was a young man. Seeing De Hai, he gave a warm greeting.

"Vic, this is Jing Yuan from our Wasteland Hunters."

"Jing Yuan, this is my friend Vic!"

De Hai introduced the two to each other.

"Hello, Vic!"

"There's something I need your help with!" Jing Yuan directly stated the purpose of this trip. "I want to check the Navigation Control Room's archived data regarding Surface missions."

Vic hesitated for a moment, looked at De Hai, and then readily agreed.

In truth, Surface mission data wasn't considered highly classified, and many people could access it.

Normally, if a Wasteland Hunter wanted to come and consult the data, they would just need to submit a report and follow the process.

Jing Yuan was simply skipping one step of the process.

In a small room within the Navigation Control Room, Jing Yuan used a computer to find the reconnaissance data related to the previous day's Surface mission.

Before conducting The Surface mission, the Navigation Control Room had flown over the Energy Reserve Center and taken many photos using ground-facing telescopes.

Jing Yuan also pulled up these photos to examine them.

From the data, there indeed seemed to be no issues.

No traces of Phage Beast activity were found near the Energy Reserve Center, from which it could be inferred that the danger level of the area was low.

After reading the data, Jing Yuan's thoughts were a bit scattered.

Could it really have been an accident?

Jing Yuan knew clearly that there were a large number of Snake Dogs in a ruins area near the Energy Reserve Center.

This ruins area was very close to the Energy Reserve Center. Logically, the activity traces of these Snake Dogs should have been reported as valid reference information.

But Jing Yuan could not find any report regarding Phage Beast activity.