Chapter 82

Chapter 82

"Chief Wen, Grandpa, I really don’t mean to disturb you, but I have no other choice..."

It was the fifth day of his marriage, still within his honeymoon leave, yet early in the morning, he received a communication from his superior, Gao.

"Don’t play the grandson with me, you’ve already used up your one-week honeymoon leave," Wen Jiuzhe mocked, throwing the peeled garlic into the bowl beside him.

Gao Ninghai on the other end of the communication hesitated, "Can I make it up to you after this is over? Please, just come and help out for an emergency."

"It was supposed to be just the Ghost-faced Moths at Qin River, so I sent the second team to handle it. But there were too many, and several of the second team ended up in the hospital for detoxification."

"Today, those Ghost-faced Moths attracted a large group of anomaly birds, which are now hovering over Qin River."

"That area doesn’t dare to turn on lights at night, and people can’t go out. It’s been under curfew for days. If this keeps up, our phones are going to blow up with complaints..."

"Double compensation for the leave, and wages calculated as overtime for rest days. Remember that." Wen Jiuzhe said.

Gao Ninghai agreed repeatedly on the other end.

Clearly, marriage had changed him. He never cared about pay before, but now he was all about the money.

"Oh, by the way, I can’t seem to find your wife’s contact info anywhere. Could you...?"

Wen Jiuzhe hung up the communication.

Xue Ling stood in the kitchen, stirring the braised seasoning, and after he hung up, she said, "Your superior asked you to work overtime, right?"

"Yeah, I have two hours to prepare, and I’m heading to Qin River at 2 PM." Wen Jiuzhe tapped on his communicator and sent a message in the team’s public channel.

"Alright, go ahead." Xue Ling continued stirring her seasoning.

That morning, she suddenly craved the braised flavors she used to make. Even though she couldn’t eat them now, just tasting them—without actually swallowing—would satisfy her. In any case, she had to get a taste of that nostalgic flavor.

So that morning, she dragged Wen Jiuzhe—who had been sleeping in lately—out of bed to help her buy ingredients.

After helping her for so long, Wen Jiuzhe washed his hands, rinsing off the garlic smell, and turned to say, "Hurry up, we’re about to leave."

Xue Ling: "Wait, am I coming too?"

Wen Jiuzhe: "You bet."

Xue Ling: "You mean, just a few days after I woke up, you want me to go to work with you?"

Wen Jiuzhe: "You dragged me out of bed to help you, but I can’t ask you to come with me?"

Xue Ling: "..."

"It’s not that," Xue Ling reasoned, holding up her ladle, "It just doesn’t seem right for me to tag along on a mission with your team."

"What’s wrong with that?" Wen Jiuzhe said, "An anomaly team is fully staffed with ten members. Our anomaly team only has nine. I’ve already registered a spot for you. I told you, everything’s prepared."

Xue Ling: "..." I didn’t realize your 'preparation' meant setting me up with a job.

It's not like reserving a seat in a library, and you're helping with that now? You're really out there.

"Actually, now that the world has pretty much restored order, I don't necessarily have to do the same job as you, don't you think?" Xue Ling asked.

Wen Jiuzhe said, "Join the team. You'll get to fly the large aerial vehicle in the team, and there's also a single-person flight vehicle that you can't buy on the market. Wouldn't you want to try that out?"

Xue Ling put the lid on the braised pot and said, "I'll change my clothes and leave."

Forced to pause her braised food preparation, Xue Ling was taken by Wen Jiuzhe to their Anomaly Bureau, located near their house, a building with a similarly large footprint.

From the moment they entered, Wen Jiuzhe started introducing things to her:

"The rules and regulations in the hall don't need to be read. You won't be fined if you break them."

"Apart from the staff, almost everyone here is a thawed patient. In Area A, where the anomaly team operates, there are over a hundred people, including official members and alternates. You don't need to remember; I don't even bother with it."

Xue Ling walked beside him, feeling like everyone was watching them, but no one came to greet them.

"Wen Jiuzhe, isn't your popularity a bit poor?" Xue Ling asked.

"The popularity of our first team isn't great either." Wen Jiuzhe said.

Xue Ling thought, it must be your fault. You should apologize for dragging the whole team down!

"Your team name is just First Team Second Team?" Xue Ling followed Wen Jiuzhe into the first team's rest area.

"The official team name isn't these. First Team and Second Team are just common names. It used to rotate once a year, with the teams being re-ranked based on task completion rate. The higher the completion rate, the higher the team's rank."

The vice-captain, Xiong Wenhuan, who was already waiting in the rest area, explained.

"But because Wen Jiuzhe is in our team, we've consecutively won the championship banner for task completion rate for several years, so the name First Team has gradually become fixed to refer to us."

Xue Ling greeted her, thinking to herself, so your team gets the top performance award every year.

No wonder Wen Jiuzhe acts so confident; he's the team's key player.

"What's your official team name?"

"Missing Persons Team." Xiong Wenhuan said.

"..." Xue Ling paused, "Did Wen Jiuzhe come up with that name? How did he even agree to it?"

Xiong Wenhuan smiled, "Our team name is actually not bad. The third team is called the Rose Sisterhood, but it's all guys."

"It's because the captain originally hoped the team would be all girls, so he specifically chose this name to attract female members, but all the applicants were men, and the name couldn't be changed."

"The fourth team is called Who Dares to Challenge Us Team, the fifth team is called the Frozen Beauties Team, and their captain is called Chu Chu."

"The sixth team is called the Centenarian Team, the seventh team is called the Waist Drum Team, the ninth team is called Am I Still Alive Team, and the tenth team is called the Resurrection Guerrilla Team..."

And then there are some other creative names: These sound like they belong in a comedy sketch!

Xue Ling suddenly felt that the name Missing Persons Team wasn't so bad.

No wonder they just call them First Team and Second Team; these official names are unspeakable.

"Hey, didn't you skip the Second Team?" Xue Ling counted.

"The Second Team goes by the name 'Thunder Team.'" Xiong Wenhuan said.

The name of this team fits in with yours so well that it almost seems out of place. It’s so normal that it becomes abnormal.

Xiong Wenhuan seemed to have some reservations about the second squad, and her expression was hard to read when she mentioned them.

At that moment, Captain Xiong Xiyuan entered the rest room holding a stack of documents. He appeared to be the oldest and had been handling all the mundane tasks for a group of unreliable members for many years.

"This is Xue Ling's first day. I've filled out most of the forms for her, but she needs to sign her name where it's blank."

Captain Xiong handed the documents and pen to Xue Ling.

"Also, this is the ID tag for the anomaly team. I'll help you register the communicator and open the permissions for the entire district."

"Alright, you can come to me if you have any issues."

In less than three minutes, Xue Ling officially became a member of the A District's First Anomaly Team. The complicated procedures she had imagined didn’t exist at all.

"That's it?" Xue Ling pulled Wen Jiuzhe aside, "No test or anything?"

She had looked it up; joining the A District's anomaly team was supposed to be extremely difficult. How did it become so simple for her? It was even easier than getting a marriage license, and they make you do quizzes for that.

"Am I really ready for this? I've been out of touch for so long, and I don't know how to use modern weapons or tools. We used to just fight zombies, but I have no idea what kind of missions you're doing now. Is it really okay for me to start working right away?"

Seeing Xue Ling anxiously biting her nails, Wen Jiuzhe simply said, "You have a special advantage, just like me."

"The mutated creatures are rampant now. The viruses they carry have mutated many times, but the original zombie virus in our bodies is special compared to the regular zombie virus."

"Other thawed survivors don't have the same level of resistance to the mutated creatures' viruses as we do. In many cases, these mutated creatures won't even attack us. So, when we go on missions, we can achieve twice the result with half the effort."

"In this job, you have a unique and irreplaceable advantage, understand?"

Wen Jiuzhe knew Xue Ling's personality well. Telling her "you can do it" wouldn't work because she wasn't confident in herself. But if he told her "no one else can do this except you," she would charge forward with unparalleled responsibility.

Sure enough, her self-doubt vanished immediately.

"Don't sweat it. If anything goes wrong, I've got your back."

Hearing this, Xue Ling laughed, "Yeah, like I could cause more trouble than you."

With the solid foundation Wen Jiuzhe had laid, the rest of the first squad members were friendly and introduced themselves to Xue Ling.

"Alright, everyone's here, let's head out."

The group walked out of the rest room, and at the same time, a few people came out from the opposite rest room.

A young man with a smug grin led the group, his gaze immediately locking onto the only unfamiliar face in the first squad.

"So, this is the weakling who's taking up a spot in the first squad? Wen Jiuzhe, I admit you're capable, but letting such a frail woman join your team, I think the title of the first squad will soon belong to us."

The first squad froze.

Xiong Wenhuan, walking beside Xue Ling, muttered, "That's Huang Mao, the captain of the second squad's Thunder Team."

Captain Xiong also explained, "He wanted to join the first squad before, but Wen Jiuzhe rejected him, saying we were full. Since then, he's been causing trouble."

Xue Ling: "..."

Just say it to his face! He’s already heard us, and he’s starting to look pissed.

"Every time I hear Captain Huang speak, he sounds like one of those over-the-top villains from an old TV show. It’s so weird, haha," Dong Yang, the youngest member of the team, laughed heartily.

"You’re even worse," Xue Ling added.

A few other members of the team started discussing as if no one else was around: "I heard that the second squad failed their mission and several of them ended up in the hospital. Why isn’t he in the hospital too?"

"Yeah, if the second squad weren’t so useless, we’d still be enjoying Wen Jiuzhe’s marriage leave. We wouldn’t have to go on missions ourselves."

Xue Ling listened to the loud discussions and quiet murmurs within the team and understood why they weren’t very popular.

It didn’t seem to have much to do with Wen Jiuzhe either.

"Hmph, don’t think you can act so arrogant just because of Wen Jiuzhe! I don’t believe you’ve never failed a mission!" Captain Huang said angrily.

Wen Jiuzhe had his arm around Xue Ling's shoulder and glanced at the other side. "Yellow Hair, remember, every extra word I say to you today is because I’m in a good mood. You..."

Xue Ling sensed a fight was brewing. She didn’t want to get into a brawl with a colleague on her first day of work.

Tugging at Wen Jiuzhe’s arm, she whispered, "When we fought zombies, his grandfather probably wasn’t even born yet. Don’t waste your time on this kid, let’s go."

Wen Jiuzhe said, "Did you hear that? Your grandma said not to mess with her grandson. Quick, thank your grandma."

Xue Ling: "..."

On her first day, she found herself in the middle of a full-blown brawl.

They then made it just in time to board the aircraft and head to the mission location, Qin River.

Wen Jiuzhe asked Xue Ling, "Are you still nervous after the fight?"

"Not anymore," Xue Ling replied.

"Good, next time I’ll bring you along for the fun," Wen Jiuzhe said, dragging out an equipment case from under his seat. "First, put on your combat suit."

Xue Ling reached out to take it, but Wen Jiuzhe wouldn’t let her. He directly started putting the gear on her, fastening the vest, belt, and wrist guards all at once, then lifted her leg to tie the shin guard.

Xue Ling felt awkward under the gazes of the others. "If you keep this up, they’ll think you dress me all the time."

"I have been dressing you lately," Wen Jiuzhe replied.

Xue Ling felt the gazes around her become scorching hot for a moment.

Wen Jiuzhe dug through the weapon case, pulled out a gun-like weapon, and handed it to Xue Ling.

"For your first mission today, I’ll let you experience the atmosphere. Come, I’ll teach you how to use it."

Xue Ling refused, "Can I ask someone else in the team to teach me? I’m afraid you’ll trick me halfway through the lesson."

Dong Yang, who was watching the scene, raised his hand. "Sister Ling, I can teach you. I know how!"

The next second, a magazine was slammed into his face, and he fell back on the seat with a yell.

"It’s not your turn to call her Sister Ling," Wen Jiuzhe glanced at him.

Dong Yang got up, wide-eyed, realizing the issue. "Wait, you’re calling her Sister Ling too?"

Xue Ling, unable to bear it, stopped Wen Jiuzhe. "Fine, you teach."

Don't hit the kid; he doesn't look like he has much on the ball.

Dong Yang rubbed his nose and watched as Bro Wen and Xue Ling spoke with their heads close together, chuckling softly.

It's great to see them like this; missions are usually so tense. Bro Wen is usually so quiet during missions, but now he seems to have come alive.

"I didn't know Bro Wen could talk this much!" a teammate whispered.

Dong Yang nodded in strong agreement.

"Now we should say, 'Haven't seen Bro Wen smile this much in a long time.'"

"Hey, Deputy, that line sounds like something from a book I read once!"

Xue Ling: "..." I heard every word.

"Have they always been this close?"

"Not really, I haven't paid attention."

"Then how did you communicate before?"

"Communication? It's like this—"

Wen Jiuzhe helped the two gear up, then stood up: "I'll go first and handle the first wave, you follow."

He pulled Xue Ling onto a folded personal aircraft, opened the cockpit, and controlled the aircraft to eject from the cabin, diving into the sky.

Dizzy from the spin, Xue Ling grabbed the handle tightly, pressed tightly against Wen Jiuzhe by the air currents.

They had arrived above the mission location, their aircraft landing amidst a dark swarm of anomaly birds.

"You control the direction, I'll show you how to use the weapon."

"I control the direction? You didn't teach me how to fly the personal aircraft!"

That damned dog. Before she could react, he had already pulled her into the flock of birds.

Wen Jiuzhe seemed to be laughing; Xue Ling felt his chest vibrating behind her.

She had to jump into action, feeling Wen Jiuzhe wrap around her, the weapon in her hand firing bursts of energy that cut through the swarm like meteors.

Other personal aircraft appeared one after another around them.

The deputy team leader's aircraft came close: "Xue Ling, how are you feeling, alright?"

Xue Ling nervously controlled the aircraft: "I'm okay, it's just I'm not very good at flying this thing!"

The deputy paused for a moment, then Dong Yang's surprised voice called out: "Wait, this thing's on autopilot! You don't even need to steer it."

Xue Ling: "……"

She let go of the control stick and clenched her fists.

Once they landed, she wasn't planning on killing any anomaly creatures—she was going to go after Bro Wen first.

Wen Jiuzhe's voice came through her ear: "Xiao Dong, dock this aircraft, we're going down to handle the anomaly moths."

He pushed off the pedal, and they plunged from the sky, Xue Ling still in his arms.

Xue Ling felt the wind whipping past her face as loose anomaly birds darted by.

The world spun wildly out of control, and a dog was barking maniacally, making her scream in terror.

"You’re just jumping like this?! We’re still so far from the ground! Wen Jiuzhe, AAAAAHHHHH——"

-End-

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