Chapter 396: First Meeting of the Squad Members |
In the morning, while the Human Consortium was holding a meeting, the members of the Beixing contingent participating in the Fire Thief Cult operation met for the first time.
The meeting place was inside a pavilion in a park in Pinglu.
Several people were already inside the pavilion at this moment, and Chen Na was one of them, chatting with Bai Xuewu.
Suddenly, she turned her head to look toward the park entrance and said happily, "Brother Guan is here, I'll go meet him!" After saying that, she jogged out.
"Brother Guan? Who's that?" Yang Ran asked Bai Xuewu curiously.
"Why do you care so much."
"Since he's a teammate, of course I need to learn more about him! Otherwise, how can I trust him to watch my back on the battlefield!"
"......"
Bai Xuewu couldn't be bothered to deal with this guy. At that moment, Li Meng, who was sitting in the pavilion, said, "He's not just a teammate, Guan Tong will be the captain of your action team for this mission."
"That's right, it's him. And who said the captain must be the strongest? The captain should be someone with a steady personality who remains calm under pressure." Li Meng paused briefly, "Moreover, he is actually the strongest among you."
"Really?" Yang Ran looked disbelieving, "I heard he's good at teaching, but fighting is a different matter!"
Hearing Li Meng's words, Bai Xuewu unconsciously raised an eyebrow.
Li Meng said seriously to Yang Ran, "I'm not joking. Yang Ran, you'd better not provoke him, or you'll bear the consequences."
"......"
"By the way," Li Meng asked Bai Xuewu, "Just now, Chen Na said Guan Tong had arrived, did she sense him?"
Bai Xuewu nodded, "Yes, in Xiao Na's perception, everyone's Mind Power is unique. Once she's come into contact with someone once, she can identify them the next time she senses them."
"I know that from the files. What I mean is, does she keep her ability active all the time even in non-combat states?"
If she wasn't maintaining her Perception Domain continuously, how could Chen Na know immediately that Guan Tong had entered the park?
But maintaining it constantly should consume quite a bit of Mind Power, which was the point of Li Meng's question.
"Xiao Na didn't used to keep it active all the time," Bai Xuewu said, "But she seems to have developed her ability herself and mastered a special marking method. Some Mind Power she marks leaves a record in the Perception Domain, so she can detect it immediately when it appears within her perception range."
"I see..."
"Wow, that girl's ability is really impressive!" Yang Ran exclaimed, "I don't want to be 'marked' by her, just thinking about it is a bit scary!"
Bai Xuewu glared at him, "Xiao Na isn't close to you, why would she mark you?"
Li Meng said, "She should mark you. Since you'll be going to Fahe together in late this month, I'll have Chen Na mark everyone in the team. It'll make operations easier."
As the three were talking, Chen Na and Guan Tong appeared together and arrived at the pavilion.
Li Meng smiled slightly and said, "Guan Tong, we meet again."
"Section Chief Li, it's been a long time."
"Hehe, almost two years. You've changed a lot."
Seeing Guan Tong, Li Meng remembered the first time he met him, when Guan Tong was still a high school senior.
Two years later, that student had grown so much, becoming one of the world's top Ascendants. It was truly hard to imagine.
"Wow, so you're Guan Tong! I've heard so much about you."
Yang Ran stepped forward proactively to greet him.
"I'm Yang Ran, people call me the 'Fire God'."
"Except for your variety show fans, no one calls you that, thank you."
Bai Xuewu said bluntly, then tilted her head slightly as she looked at Guan Tong.
"I'm Bai Xuewu, have we met before? You seem a bit familiar."
"Probably have."
Just as Bai Xuewu was about to ask more, Yang Ran moved closer to Guan Tong and looked at the glove on his left hand.
"Wow, that glove looks so cool! What material is it? How come it has no texture at all, smooth like marble!"
Guan Tong's glove was composed of the Nano Swarm, so naturally it had no texture.
Yang Ran reached out to touch it but was stopped by Guan Tong.
"Don't touch it randomly, unless you don't want your hand anymore."
"???"
Yang Ran was stunned, seemingly not expecting such a threat just for wanting to touch a glove.
Li Meng, however, understood the meaning in Guan Tong's words, "Guan Tong, are you saying that glove is dangerous?"
Guan Tong nodded.
"Yang Ran, did you hear that? Control yourself."
"Uh... okay."
Yang Ran looked displeased, clearly thinking Li Meng was giving him an out.
It was just a glove, how dangerous could it be?
Guan Tong then said, "Are these our team members?"
Him, Chen Na, Bai Xuewu, Yang Ran, plus Li Meng who was coordinating and commanding—only five people total. It didn't seem like the standard size for a team going to another country for an assassination mission.
"There are two more members," Li Meng said, "One is Silver Fox, you should all know her. She had an urgent mission and went out of town, hasn't returned yet. The other... due to some special reasons, cannot leave his room, but will assist remotely in this operation."
"This time, you'll meet each other first. When Silver Fox returns, I'll arrange another full team meeting. Then we need to start some combat coordination training, it's very necessary."
After Li Meng finished speaking, Yang Ran declared loudly, "Section Chief Li, I also think combat coordination is very necessary! My flames don't recognize friends, it wouldn't be good if I accidentally injured a teammate!"
Chen Na, at her current age, could understand the underlying meaning. Seeing that Yang Ran's words seemed to be subtly challenging Guan Tong, she couldn't help but retort, "I think you should worry about not injuring yourself instead, be careful of playing with fire and getting burned!"
"Hey, you little girl!" Yang Ran was immediately quite angered.
Bai Xuewu couldn't help but laugh, "Playing with fire and getting burned, yes, that's exactly right."
"You—"
Mocked by two female teammates, one older and one younger, Yang Ran instead turned to Guan Tong and said, "It seems they all think I can't beat you. I challenge you! The winner becomes captain!"
"Nonsense!" Li Meng reprimanded sternly.
Guan Tong wasn't angered by Yang Ran's challenge either. Instead, he asked, "Do you think the captain's position is something to show off about? Being captain means you have to take responsibility for protecting your teammates' lives. If you have that awareness, then be the captain, I don't care."
Yang Ran was stunned. Li Meng nodded deeply, "That's exactly right. Yang Ran, from your childish behavior of challenging Guan Tong, it's clear you're absolutely not qualified for the captain position. Stop this nonsense."
Bai Xuewu also said, "He's right. Yang Ran, regarding the captain selection, even Xiao Na would be better than you."
Yang Ran, repeatedly rejected, looked defeated and stopped mentioning the challenge.
......
"The target is... Shi Jingyi, a lecturer at the Beixing Mind Power Development Academy."
Lu Cheng opened his eyes and sat up.
He was currently in the wilderness outside Pinglu City.
He was in Black Flag Country yesterday and had already arrived in Beixing's Pinglu today, naturally relying on teleportation-type items.
After accepting the mission, the Prophet said he would arrange all kinds of support for him.
Clearly, even in Pinglu, this important city of Beixing, there were still lurking parasitized forms.
As for what he himself had to do, it was to use his identity to find a way to lure Shi Jingyi out of the academy, then cooperate with other parasitized forms deployed by the Prophet's arrangements to eliminate her.
"...Why would a lecturer become the Prophet's target?"
Lu Cheng couldn't understand.
Since yesterday, he had been thinking about this question.
The Prophet said those voices told him there were two real threats, and one of them was Shi Jingyi.
He didn't tell Lu Cheng who the other one was.
This was too strange... If the threats were Joint Force commanders, or even certain national decision-makers, Lu Cheng wouldn't be surprised.
But one of them was Shi Jingyi, this lecturer who had been teaching at the academy all along. How could she threaten the parasitized forms, threaten the Prophet?
"Could it be those voices believe... Shi Jingyi's teaching will continuously make more Ascendants stronger, thus becoming the main force against and eliminating the parasitized forms, so she becomes a threat?"
Lu Cheng didn't understand, but he knew he had no other choice.
He didn't have more time. Without the Prophet's help, he would become a parasitized form taken over by the spores.
Just thinking about his consciousness completely disappearing, with spores taking over and controlling his memories and body... Lu Cheng absolutely couldn't accept it.
Even though he didn't want to kill Shi Jingyi, this lecturer who had once taught him and wanted to help him, to ensure his own survival, he could only do this.
He knew he had to use his former student identity to try to make Shi Jingyi trust him.
Perhaps this was exactly why the Prophet sent him to carry out this mission... the Prophet must know he was once an academy student, know that he knew Shi Jingyi.
But how to make her believe him?
Lu Cheng wondered.
When he and several others left the academy back then, it wasn't just a simple violation of school rules. Academy student identities were inherently sensitive, plus the timing of their departure was after the Extraterrestrial Parasitism rule ended... This led the academy and relevant departments to determine that they were all spore addicts, and it couldn't be ruled out that they had transformed into parasitized forms.
If he suddenly returned now and rashly showed up at the academy, most likely the academy leadership would contact armed personnel to arrest and interrogate him.
Going to find Shi Jingyi alone wasn't feasible either. First, the faculty dormitory had armed guards. Second, Shi Jingyi usually followed a strict routine between two points, rarely going elsewhere.
"Since I can't show up openly... I can only hope Lecturer Jingyi is willing to help me out of kindness..."
Thinking this, Lu Cheng took out his old phone.
It still had the contact numbers of various academy lecturers saved. He pulled up Shi Jingyi's number.
After much deliberation and careful consideration, he edited a text message and sent it.
"Lecturer Jingyi, this is Lu Cheng. I don't know if you still remember me.
I left the academy after the fourteenth rule, Extraterrestrial Parasitism, because I discovered I still had spore addiction symptoms after the rule ended. I was afraid of being discovered by classmates, by the academy, so I panicked and fled... After that, I've been hiding everywhere until now. I know I should seek help, seek methods to quit... Lecturer Jingyi, can you help me? I want to meet you to seek help."