123: Chapter 121 Recruiting

Chapter 121: Recruitment

The dilapidated off-road vehicle finally drove out of the radiation range of Zombie Town, and the gloom in the sky dissipated a little.

Captain Ding Li's nerves were highly focused. After seeing that there was no figure of the Mother Spider Tyrant chasing behind her, her tense nerves finally relaxed.

Survived—

Through the shattered rearview mirror, Captain Ding Li looked at Wang Ting in the back seat of the car.

Wang Ting was still wearing a suit of Night Demon armor, and his face was hidden beneath the Night Demon mask, making it impossible to see his appearance.

"Captain Ding Li, squad leader of the 1st Company, 7th Squad of the Jumu City Pioneer Army. What is your name?"

Driving while striking up a conversation with Wang Ting, Captain Ding Li spoke in a cold tone with a bit of cautious detachment, "Thank you for the gunshot just now; the matter of you shooting the Tyrant is written off. It is my first time seeing someone so crazily eager to hunt monsters."

Her instincts were very sharp. When Wang Ting first fired his gun right in front of her to preemptively shoot the Tyrant, she subconsciously thought that the other party wanted to hunt down their entire squad.

But when she faced Wang Ting directly this time and caught a glimpse of the unbridled joy he revealed while hunting the Mother Spider Tyrant, she truly realized that her previous judgment was wrong. This person did not want to hunt her down or come specifically to save them, but rather to hunt monsters.

"Wang Ting."

Beneath the mask, Wang Ting thought for a moment and decided to reveal his real name.

He had no conflict with Jumu City, exposing his name would not cause too much trouble, and Captain Ding Li's conduct was also acceptable.

"Aren't monsters meant to be killed?"

His indifferent reply made Captain Ding Li stun for a moment, and a trace of strangeness quietly flashed across the depths of her eyes. Even the platoon leaders or company commanders among the Pioneer Army would not have such a strong murderous intent toward monsters.

"They are meant to be killed, but I have never seen anyone like you."

Captain Ding Li was not indirect either, her gaze filled with exploration: "You must be from another Shelter, right? We haven't seen this equipment of yours around Jumu City, and it looks like it's of a high grade."

"Even soldiers like you who go out on missions are not equipped with extraordinary equipment?"

"We have it, but not as good as yours."

There was a hint of envy in Captain Ding Li's words. No warrior would not be red-eyed with envy at such armor. She estimated in her heart and couldn't help thinking: Just this suit alone is probably considered top-tier goods among Tier 1 equipment.

Bang. As they were talking, the engine began to billow black smoke, and this dilapidated off-road vehicle finally reached its limit and directly broke down.

"Damn it," Captain Ding Li cursed, her blood-stained face twitching slightly as she slammed her hand heavily on the steering wheel.

She opened the car door, stepped out, and directly lifted the hood. Billowing black smoke poured out from inside. Continuous driving under extreme conditions, coupled with the damage caused to the vehicle by the monsters, finally proved too much for it to endure.

"Give me a hand and help me carry a box. This place is not far from Zombie Town; we need to get further away before we can stop."

Captain Ding Li opened the door and carried Zheng Xue on her back, tearing her clothes into straps to bind her tightly.

Zheng Xue was unconscious, but fortunately her injuries were not serious. However, there were weapons and equipment still in the car, and these items could not be easily abandoned.

Wang Ting took the box handed over by her. With a glance, he knew that these were materials from the Tyrant. Before meeting Wang Ting, they had already hunted several Tyrants.

Wang Ting didn't say anything. Seeing Captain Ding Li carrying Zheng Xue on her back while holding weapons in her hand, he knew that this person was still on guard.

After walking for a while, about two kilometers, they finally stopped.

"Cap-Captain, did we escape?"

Zheng Xue woke up, her weak voice coming from the back.

Captain Ding Li stopped and put Zheng Xue down, "We escaped. How do you feel?"

"It hurts."

Zheng Xue frowned, her head still very dizzy and buzzing at the moment.

"But there are no other problems. What about that lunatic? Did he escape too?"

Captain Ding Li's expression stiffened, and she glanced at Wang Ting out of the corner of her eye.

"I was lucky; I didn't die."

Hearing a male voice, Zheng Xue's dazed brain instantly jammed. Catching sight of Wang Ting's figure out of the corner of her eye, she hurriedly remedied: "Expert, I—I was wrong, I meant no malice."

It was true that Wang Ting was a lunatic in her eyes, daring to engage in a fierce firefight with a mid-level anomaly, but she also had a deep understanding of herself: Wang Ting's strength was definitely among the best of Tier 1 Extraordinarys, perhaps even a peak Tier 1 Extraordinary like the captain.

This was not something a second-time limit-breaker like her could afford to provoke.

Wang Ting shook his head, "If you don't have other means to contact your teammates, it will probably take a few days to walk out of this wasteland."

"Let's rest here; they will be here shortly."

Captain Ding Li said, taking out the flare gun from her waist and firing a shot into the sky. The signal flare flew high into mid-air, bursting into a cloud of red smoke that lingered for a long time.

The three sat down to rest, and Wang Ting placed the box next to Captain Ding Li.

"Wang Ting, you shouldn't be here to execute a mission, right?"

"Hmm?"

Wang Ting looked surprised. Captain Ding Li showed no trace of probing, only calmly analyzing, "If you were executing a mission, you wouldn't hunt monsters regardless of the consequences like you do. And since you can control monsters, I'm afraid you do all this for the sake of an extraordinary path."

"You've got quite an imagination."

Wang Ting did not deny it either, merely narrowing his eyes slightly as he sized up Captain Ding Li before him.

Captain Ding Li had taken off her tactical jacket earlier to carry Zheng Xue on her back.

Now she was wearing a light green tactical vest, which clung tightly to her compact and powerful torso. The broad and sharp lines of her shoulders and neck featured restrained and solid muscles, all of which showed the explosive power hidden beneath this body.

Her expression was calm, the corners of her mouth turned up slightly, and her eyebrows and eyes carried confidence.

She was not worried that her words would incur Wang Ting's disgust.

"If you have no place to settle down, I can recommend you to join Jumu City and become a deputy squad leader of the Pioneer Army."

A squad was a complete tactical team, usually consisting of ten people. If it were a regular Pioneer Army squad, the squad leader naturally would not be an Extraordinary.

Even for Jumu City, it wouldn't be that extravagant.

However, special squads responsible for field missions were different.

"Your team?"

Captain Ding Li's tone was confident, "My team. Although I don't know what your extraordinary path is, since you need monsters, we have the ability to help you hunt them."

Wang Ting smiled, "It was me who made a move just now that allowed you to escape from the Mother Spider Tyrant."

"When I advance to a Tier 2 Blood Warrior, I naturally won't be inferior to the Mother Spider Tyrant. If it weren't for the fact that we were specifically hunting the Tyrant this time and didn't bring enough extraordinary weapons, sheer firepower alone would allow us to hunt even stronger monsters."

Mentioning the Mother Spider Tyrant, Captain Ding Li's aura leaked a bit, but there was still more unwillingness to admit defeat.

Special squads executing ordinary hunting missions naturally wouldn't carry excessively powerful weapons, and the Pioneer Army wouldn't allow extraordinary weapons with Tier 2 destructive power to be easily taken out.

"Forget about joining; I have my own camp."

Hearing this, Captain Ding Li was stunned, "A Shelter built by yourself?"

"Hmm."

Wang Ting nodded. Upon hearing this, Captain Ding Li stopped trying to persuade him, "Although the Southern Wasteland is safer than the North, an anomaly riot has already occurred, and it may stir up an abnormal sandstorm. I'm afraid it won't be safe for some time to come."

She reached out and tore off the iron sheet necklace clinging to her skin, throwing it directly to Wang Ting.

Wang Ting reached out and caught it. The iron sheet still carried residual warmth, with the words "Pioneer Army Captain Ding Li" engraved on it.

"Take it," Captain Ding Li said flatly.

"If you can't endure the anomaly riot, come to Jumu City to find me. Your skills can secure you a place in Jumu City, and if you lack the potion for subsequent paths, Jumu City might just be able to research a stable potion for you."

"Those weirdos in the Research Department still have some skills."

An unheard-of extraordinary path, and the ability to control monsters.

"I'm afraid it's not researching potions, but researching me first."

Wang Ting raised his eyes slightly, while the corners of Captain Ding Li's mouth curved into a smile, "It seems you didn't come out of a Shelter city."

Beneath the mask, Wang Ting's brows furrowed slightly, his tone turning a bit colder, "You were probing me."

Captain Ding Li was open and generous, shrugging like a relaxed black panther, "Correct. If you came out of a Shelter city, you wouldn't not know that large Shelter cities only specialize in extraordinary paths with development potential, anchored by the resources of the Infinite Building. As for spying on other extraordinary paths, that's just a rumor from small Shelters."

She gave a mocking laugh, "It's not that Shelter cities are kind; there are no lack of dark-hearted things inside Shelter cities, but the decisive factor doesn't lie there—it's interests."

Wang Ting scrutinized this woman once more. This woman was not just a warrior on the surface; her mind was equally meticulous.

"Theoretically, there are as many extraordinary paths as there are anomaly monsters. Can they possibly manage to research all of them? Without anomaly monsters, how many paths can they even research?"

The difficulty of researching different anomaly monsters into potions naturally varied.

Researchers were not immortals; they couldn't just develop an extraordinary potion the moment they got extraordinary materials, so even research was selective.

They would certainly be curious about Wang Ting's extraordinary path, but they wouldn't grind themselves to death over it, because the Infinite Building around Jumu City most likely did not possess this kind of anomaly monster.

"So you're saying there are quite a few people like me inside Jumu City?"

"There are a few. I know a few special combat squad leaders who coincidentally fused with the Extraordinary Core of anomaly monsters to become Extraordinaryers—one is a snake-man, and the other is a black scorpion warrior. Neither of them followed regular paths."

Captain Ding Li paused slightly, then continued, "Although they don't have potions for subsequent paths and can only continuously fuse with Extraordinary Cores of anomaly monsters with stronger attributes of the same type, with the Research Department around, they can find ways to stabilize the fusion process."

Her words naturally meant she wanted to win over Wang Ting. Such powerful combat strength, coupled with a decisive combat style, was precisely the teammate she wanted.

"Thank you for your kind intention, but I am used to being free."

Wang Ting politely declined Captain Ding Li's invitation and steered the topic back to the anomaly riot.

"With the anomaly riot in Zombie Town, what actions will Jumu City take?"