In the early morning, Xià Zhèngyǔ brought five people to Nán Cháoyán's door.
Before Xià Zhèngyǔ could knock, Nán Cháoyán opened the door herself.
“What is this?” Nán Cháoyán looked around at the three men and one woman she hadn't met. She suddenly remembered him saying his teammates would arrive today.
Xià Zhèngyǔ looked serious and motioned for everyone to introduce themselves.
“Miss Nán, I’m the boss’s teammate, second in command. Lǐ Lóng, I can control the shape of the land. Nice to meet you!” said a man whose pectoral muscles were larger than anyone else present.
“Nice to meet you.”
“Miss Nán, I’m also the boss’s teammate. I haven’t awakened any special abilities, but I’m suitable for long-range sniping. Huáng Jié.” Huáng Jié carried a sniper rifle on his back.
“Nice to meet you.”
“Fourth in command, healing ability, Zhào Lí.”
“I’m the youngest, but now I have you. My name is Ān Jiāngróu, you can call me Sister Rou. I can control metal.”
“Nice to meet you all, I’m Nán Cháoyán. Are you guys here to help me get crystal cores today?” Nán Cháoyán’s eyes held a hint of distance.
“Yes, this is your breakfast. Shall we go?” Xià Zhèngyǔ answered softly, handing her the bag he was holding.
Nán Cháoyán looked at him strangely, 'Why is he so weird today? Besides being so serious, he’s suddenly become gentle too?'
The others stared at Xià Zhèngyǔ in shock, then exchanged glances, 'This boss?'
'Could he be possessed?'
'This definitely isn't him! I don't believe it!'
Only Ān Jiāngróu looked at the two walking side by side with a complex expression, feeling a pang in her heart.
“What are you acting crazy about today?” Nán Cháoyán asked quietly.
“If I said I’m not feeling too well today, what would you do?” Xià Zhèngyǔ tentatively asked as she got closer.
Nán Cháoyán saw right through him, “So? You want me to care about you? Or let you take advantage of my sympathy? I think you’d better think about how to help me get more crystals later!”
“You really are different! Cold and ruthless!” Xià Zhèngyǔ suddenly found her terrifyingly clear-headed.
“I know what you want to hear, but you? Heh!” Nán Cháoyán sneered. A man who flirts with you but doesn’t want to take things further, what else does he want?
Xià Zhèngyǔ didn’t understand her smile at all, “You’re mocking me!”
“Yes, you’re so childish! Let’s go, time to work!” Nán Cháoyán replied unceremoniously.
Xià Zhèngyǔ froze, his steps slowing. 'Childish, does she mean she doesn’t like me?'
Ān Jiāngróu looked at him, lost in thought, and shook her head helplessly. 'If he treated me like this, I would surely be overjoyed. But unfortunately, Nán Cháoyán’s feelings for him only go as far as liking. He never clarifies his intentions, always keeping her hanging. I don’t know how long Nán Cháoyán will be annoyed by him.'
“Nán Cháoyán, what special ability did you awaken?” Ān Jiāngróu jogged forward.
“It’s something like wood elemental. I have a seed in my palm that can sprout vines.” Seeing her enthusiasm, Nán Cháoyán hid the distance in her eyes and responded with equal warmth.
Ān Jiāngróu feigned gossip and asked quietly, “You and the boss knew each other a long time ago, right?”
“Yes, we played together when we were kids. I’ll teach you all how to quickly improve your abilities later!” A flicker of an unforgettable memory crossed Nán Cháoyán’s eyes.
Ān Jiāngróu understood. 'So the person the boss said he liked is her. The one he always wanted to marry. She’s so beautiful, so wonderful.'
On the city wall, Ān Jiāngróu looked down and asked, “Why are some eyes white, while others are red?”
Nán Cháoyán’s heart tightened. She quickly climbed up. There were already three or four red-eyed zombies below. “Have they ascended so quickly?”
She raised her palm, and vines spread rapidly. Her face was slightly pale. When she retracted the vines again, two white crystal cores had been collected. Xià Zhèngyǔ skillfully cleaned them.
“Look.” Nán Cháoyán clenched the crystal cores. After a moment, the crystal cores turned to dust and blew away with the wind.
Everyone stared at her hand in astonishment.
Nán Cháoyán handed the other crystal core to Xià Zhèngyǔ. “You try! Concentrate your ability in your palm, wrap the crystal core, and absorb it back into your body.”
Xià Zhèngyǔ held the crystal core, closed his eyes tightly. It didn’t work the first time, so he tried again. The crystal core vanished into dust in his palm.
Nán Cháoyán looked at him with envy. In her Previous Life, she had to learn for a long time in the corner to do what the pioneers abroad demonstrated to the remaining troops. She didn’t expect him to learn it in just two tries.
“I feel like everything that was depleted yesterday has been replenished all at once! And I feel so full of energy!” Xià Zhèngyǔ said excitedly, grabbing her hand to share.
The people around were even more shocked.Is this easily excited silly boy really the ruthless boss?”
“Probably not.”
Nán Cháoyán coughed lightly to remind him that there were people around.
His body stiffened. He coughed to cover his embarrassment and instantly put on a cold face, ordering, “What are you still looking at? Get to your posts!”
“Yes, boss!” Huáng Jié ran to the patrol turret with his sniper rifle.
Ān Jiāngróu, full of disappointment, followed the other two to start digging for crystal cores.
Nán Cháoyán slowly pushed his hand away, bringing her thoughts back to the battlefield. “Let’s start too!”
Xià Zhèngyǔ gathered an electric ball. “Okay, how’s the space?”
“I don’t know, I can’t get in.”
Xià Zhèngyǔ felt her mind wasn’t on him, and with a sense of loss, he cooperated with her to attack the red-eyed zombies.
At this moment, not far away, a giant beast more than two meters tall came charging. Huáng Jié’s shot hit its mark, but the giant beast was unharmed.
Nán Cháoyán activated her ability, splitting her vines to quickly extract the crystal cores from the heads of the red-eyed zombies and rushed towards Ān Jiāngróu.
Ān Jiāngróu was manipulating her ability and couldn’t retrieve them quickly. She couldn’t dodge in time. Seeing the leopard with red eyes baring its fangs, she could only close her eyes, awaiting death.
“Careful!” Nán Cháoyán shouted. Her vines lashed out and struck the leopard’s large head, preventing it from biting Ān Jiāngróu’s mouth.
Pain didn’t come. She carefully opened her eyes. Nán Cháoyán stood in front of her, her vines binding the leopard.
The leopard seemed to be enraged, struggling desperately to break free from the vines that bound it. Its sharp claws madly tore at the tough vines, and its sharp howls pierced the sky.
As the leopard exerted more force, the vines that had been tightly wrapped around it began to loosen and break. These broken vines did not fall to the ground limply like ordinary plants; instead, the moment they came into contact with the air, they turned into wisps of gray smoke, scattering with the wind.
Nán Cháoyán’s face quickly turned pale. Seeing her ghastly pale face, Ān Jiāngróu couldn’t help but have a bad premonition. She quickly shook her head and manipulated the metal beside her to stab at the leopard’s eyes.
Huáng Jié quickly shot at the leopard’s eyes, but it was all in vain. The leopard’s eyes were as hard as if they were covered with a layer of tempered glass.
Xià Zhèngyǔ quickly cleaned the crystal core, placed it in Nán Cháoyán’s hand, and conjured a huge electric ball, throwing it at the leopard.
Lǐ Lóng piled up the earth beneath the leopard’s feet and fiercely pinned it to the ground.
The leopard’s eyes turned from red to black. Nán Cháoyán seized the opportunity, sending out another vine. The vine penetrated its skull and pulled out a crystal core.
The leopard fell to the ground and died. The other zombies, sensing a new corpse, began to feed.
The few of them lay on the ground, gasping for breath. “Oh my god! I can’t take it anymore, I’m already exhausted?” Lǐ Lóng trembled, his arms shaking.
“At least we fought side by side!” Nán Cháoyán lay directly on the city wall.
“Thank you! You’re younger than me, but instead of me fulfilling my role as an elder sister, it was you who saved me.” Ān Jiāngróu’s eyes were full of guilt. She lay next to Nán Cháoyán, wiping the sweat from her cheek.
“Huh?” Nán Cháoyán asked, confused.
“She’s always been the youngest in our team. She often grumbled and asked the boss to recruit someone younger than her,” Zhào Lí explained as he handed out bottles of water.
On the border, Shen’en Country chose to compensate with supplies and temporarily mortgaged their warships within the Great Wall, returning home on warships of other countries.