42: Section 42

"If you didn't care, you wouldn't be troubled by this."

"I'm not troubled by this..." Jing Yuan's hesitant expression made it seem like he was exactly that.

"The other candidates are veterans of the Wasteland Hunters; they exceed you in both experience and connections. If you need help, I can join your team for this mission."

Jing Yuan looked at Penny; he was incredibly grateful that she had offered.

Team combat was different from fighting alone. Jing Yuan needed teammates. As Penny said, the other candidates had more experience and networks than Jing Yuan. When it came to picking teammates, Jing Yuan could only invite those few newcomers.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. You've helped me several times; it's my turn to help you once."

The two walked back to the Upper Citizen residential area.

Jing Yuan's residence was ahead. As they approached, Jing Yuan asked politely, "Would you like to come in for a bit?"

"No, thank you."

"Should I walk you back first?"

"Don't," Penny said. "We shouldn't overstep our boundaries too much."

"Understood."

...The next day, the mission details were announced.

The Command Center confirmed five marked locations for the selection mission.

The five locations were chosen randomly.

Teams were to be formed freely.

As Penny said, the other candidates had seniority and broad connections. They had many choices when inviting people to join their teams.

Not many people were left for Jing Yuan.

Jing Yuan originally wanted to invite Erica, but she had already agreed to help Mo Cheng.

Mo Cheng was also one of the candidates this time. Erica, Flying Snow, Jeff, and others were all on Mo Cheng's team.

Besides Penny, Jing Yuan couldn't invite a single veteran Team Member. His team consisted only of Mo Dong, Chu Feng, Neil, De Hai, and Lin Ge.

The five candidates finally selected were Jing Yuan, Mo Cheng, Gao Ge, Kun Jie, and Luca.

Mo Cheng was Mark's best friend, that went without saying.

Gao Ge and Kun Jie were veterans from Red Calyx's time.

All three were part of Mark's faction.

This Luca was a bit strange; he wasn't on the previous list, but he appeared on the candidate list later.

More importantly, he had the support of the City Defense Force.

For this selection, the City Defense Force lent him two gravity bodies.

Jing Yuan learned of this and was also thinking of ways to get gravity bodies.

Every gravity body already had a pilot; if a pilot was on your team, you had a gravity body in your team.

For example, Mo Cheng's team had Erica, Flying Snow, Jeff, and Corey.

That meant they had four gravity bodies.

In Jing Yuan's team, only he had a gravity body while the others did not, meaning they only had one gravity body.

The distribution of gravity bodies was also a problem.

Seeing Luca get support from the City Defense Force, Jing Yuan guessed he was someone they wanted to promote.

So Jing Yuan sought help from Charles, but the kid's reply was quite intriguing.

"You don't need to borrow gravity bodies. In this selection mission, you will surely win."

Jing Yuan knew Charles would use some means, but he didn't know what they would be.

This left his heart feeling unsettled.

In the end, Mark couldn't bear to watch and reassigned Corey's gravity body to Jing Yuan, to be piloted by Neil.

Mo Cheng had no objection. He was just participating for the sake of it; he'd be happy to be the Deputy Captain, but it didn't matter if he wasn't.

On the day the selection began, an Opening Ceremony was organized on the Lighthouse.

Besides those mentioned, four Dust Citizen laborers were assigned to Jing Yuan's team.

Then, five armored vehicles were deployed to The Surface, each heading toward their designated location.

Inside the armored vehicle, Mo Dong was driving while Penny sat in the passenger seat checking the mission details.

"Our mission site this time is an old world Survival Base. High-altitude detection indicates there might be Phage Beasts. The internal situation is unknown."

"Survival Base?" It was the first time Jing Yuan had heard of it.

Penny explained: "After the disaster broke out, surviving humans on The Surface built many underground Survival Bases. But as Phage Beasts increased, these Survival Bases were breached one by one. Fortunately, Phage Beasts only absorb life source essence and don't destroy supplies, so the large amount of supplies stored in these Survival Bases remained. When the Wasteland Hunters acted before, they obtained a large amount of supplies from one of these Survival Bases."

Jing Yuan laughed after hearing this. "Then my luck is pretty good. Choosing a Survival Base means supplies are guaranteed."

"We're almost there!"

Chapter 43: Exploring the Survival Base

Mo Dong stopped the car, and the team packed their gear to disembark.

After getting out, Penny first observed the surrounding environment.

After Jing Yuan arranged for the Dust Citizen laborers to prepare the gravity body, he also came to Penny's side.

Penny said to Jing Yuan, "Something feels strange!"

"What is it?"

"The report said there were signs of Phage Beasts nearby, but I don't see any activity on the ground."

"Maybe they were buried by the yellow sand."

Penny shook her head. "Unlikely. The reconnaissance info was updated just two days ago. Two days isn't enough to completely wipe away the traces."

Jing Yuan was also puzzled, but isn't the absence of Phage Beasts a good thing?

Penny looked back at the team and said, "Arrange for two people to enter the base with us, one person to keep watch from a high point, and the rest to stay on alert."

"Okay," Jing Yuan agreed immediately. Then he realized and looked at Penny, asking, "Actually, you could have arranged it yourself."

Penny smiled and said, "You're the captain of this team."

"Alright!" Jing Yuan smiled, understanding Penny's intention.

He arranged things as Penny said. Mo Dong and Lin Ge followed them into the base, along with two Dust Citizen laborers.

The Survival Base's location was only a small area, with the upper layer camouflaged. The whole thing looked like a cave entrance.

Because the space inside was narrow, Jing Yuan didn't wear a gravity body.

The group of six went down into the base through an elevator shaft. At first, it was all narrow passages, but they soon entered a wider area.

"There are no signs of ecology here," Penny said while observing her surroundings.

There were many flesh soils in the Survival Base, obviously invaded by Phage Beasts.

However, there were also many skeletons on the ground, which clearly weren't the work of Phage Beasts.

What happened in this Survival Base, they didn't know.

The final result was that this human settlement perished.

Thinking of this, Jing Yuan felt some emotion. It really wasn't easy for the Lighthouse to survive until now.

Regardless of the many faults on the Lighthouse, in terms of survival, it was rare enough that it could keep so many people alive.

Bang!

A sudden loud noise startled everyone, and they immediately aimed their guns.

Looking back, there was nothing; just a Dust Citizen who had knocked over a shelf while trying to grab something.

Jing Yuan looked and shouted angrily, "3855, what are you doing?"

"I..." The Dust Citizen was terrified.

Jing Yuan looked at the game console in 3855's hand and understood instantly.

This kid was just as restless as 4068.

Jing Yuan walked over, took the game console from 3855's hand, threw it aside, and said, "Remember, don't let it happen again!"

"Yes!" As Dust Citizen 3855, he knew his place clearly. If he messed around here and Jing Yuan killed him, no one would care.

"All of you remember, I don't object if you want to take some small things back! But you must distinguish the occasion! Once we've explored this place and confirmed it's safe, you can take whatever you want! But if you mess around before safety is confirmed, what if a Phage Beast appears? Do you want to lose your lives for these trifles?" Jing Yuan looked at 3855 and asked again, "Do you?"

3855 shook his head repeatedly.

"Remember it!" Jing Yuan said, then led the team forward again.