Chapter 97: Following Big Brother, Starving Nine Meals in Three Days!

Chapter 97: Following the Boss? More Like Starving Nine Times in Three Days!

The situation turned upside down in an instant—Dragon Path was pinned from both sides.

"Captain! What do we do now?!"

Long Sheng gritted his teeth. "Screw this, we're cutting our losses—fall back!

But Blaze... this ain't over—"

*Boom!*

A hail of gunfire slammed into Dragon Path's skimmer, sending it spinning wildly as alarms blared through the cockpit.

"Captain, Blaze isn't letting us bail!!"

Long Sheng snapped his head around to look at Blaze’s skimmer, only to see that the three previously disheveled figures were now decked out in black-and-gold battle gear.

Their eyes, visible through the glass, were ice-cold and razor-sharp, oozing kill intent.

Long Sheng sneered viciously. "Break out our new toy. They wanna play dirty?

Good. Let’s show these Alliance punks who they’re messing with."

At his command, Dragon Path's skimmer launched a missile blazing toward Blaze like a shooting star.

Long Sheng laughed triumphantly. "With the explosive yield on this laser missile, even Blaze’ll be blown to smithereens!"

But before he could savor it—

Blaze’s skimmer reacted faster than lightning, pivoting upright like it was on rails. The maneuver was so smooth it looked like an aerial stunt.

Not only did it dodge Dragon Path’s laser missile, but it actually snatched the damn thing mid-air.

Watching the missile get captured, its detonation seconds away, Long Sheng broke into a cold sweat.

As expected, the next second, the laser missile came yeeting right back at them.

Long Sheng roared furiously. "Move!! What the hell's wrong with you?!"

"The skimmer thinks it's friendly fire—it won’t activate emergency evasive maneuvers!!"

"Manual override, now!!

If Blaze’s pilot can dodge ‘em, why the hell can’t you?!"

"Humanly impossible!! This model requires simultaneous control of over fifty buttons with live programming!!"

Long Sheng grabbed the controls himself, barely squeaking by as the missile exploded behind them.

Even so, Dragon Path’s skimmer took a beating.

"The Tianshan Snow Toad is gunning for our engine stabilizers!

Captain! We gotta bail—now!"

Long Sheng clenched his jaw in fury. "Leave the grunts—save ourselves!"

Watching Dragon Path's shuttle suddenly pull up, Wu Chong tilted his head. "Captain, they're trying to escape."

Shen Que: "No survivors. Wipe them out for good."

Wu Yue lowered her head and swiftly manipulated the shuttle's control panel, her fingers moving in blurs through the air.

The shuttle's outer shell completely morphed, revealing a huge black muzzle at its tip, locked firmly onto Dragon Path's shuttle.

As the shuttle sharply ascended, Wu Yue remained calm, her gaze meeting Long Sheng's suddenly pale face inside Dragon Path's shuttle.

She smiled silently, "Happy trails~"

The Alliance's top-of-the-line turbo launcher roared to life, firing a crystal-core kinetic laser missile at full power.

The moment it struck Dragon Path's shuttle, rolling waves of heat engulfed the entire craft.

An earth-shaking boom erupted, turning the Dragon Path shuttle to dust.

A gust of wind blew, scattering Dragon Path's ashes—truly a smooth journey.

The Tianshan snow toad looked up as Dragon Path's shuttle crumbled from the sky, then calmly squashed the last bandit flat under its weight.

When Blaze's shuttle returned to the ground, Wu Yue rubbed her hands together excitedly. "Time to loot! This is my first time looting rookie bandits—so thrilling!"

Wu Chong joined in the excitement. "Yeah, yeah! It's like a bride on her wedding night!"

Shen Que: "...The Tianshan snow toad hasn't left yet."

Wu Yue and Wu Chong turned their heads in horror. "The boss is still aggro?!"

Not only had the snow toad not left, but it seemed like it wanted to talk.

Cautiously parking the shuttle at the edge of the rainforest, the three engaged in a standoffish, clear-boundaries conversation with the snow toad.

Wu Yue: "Toadster, why aren't you leaving?"

Snow toad: "Ribbit." It's Ribbit.

Wu Yue: "Toadster, just go already. It's never gonna happen between us."

Snow toad: "Ribbit!" Dumb humans! It's Ribbit!

Wu Yue grew impatient. "Move your fat toad ass so I can loot!"

The snow toad fumed. "Ribbit ribbit ribbit!!"

It flung the sacred snow lotus chalice from its head into Wu Yue's arms, then stormed off in a huff, muttering toad curses.

Wu Yue looked baffled. "What's its damage? Hey! Ribbit! You dropped your bling!"

She made to chase after the snow toad, but it booked it like its butt was on fire, running like its life depended on it.

It might as well have screamed while fleeing, "Get away from me!"

Shen Que: "...Pretty sure that was its way of saying thanks."

Otherwise, he was genuinely afraid the toad might just rage-quit life.

Wu Yue grinned ear to ear, "Who knew we'd score some extra loot?"

Wu Chong said darkly beside her, "Yue Yue, do you have any idea how many faction points that crystal-core kinetic laser missile you just launched costs?"

Wu Yue's neck went stiff. "How much?"

Wu Chong smirked, "You know we earned 100 billion points from this story instance, right?"

Her hopes rose—maybe she could swing that.

"Not enough," Wu Chong immediately added, "to buy the turbo booster needed to launch one."

Wu Yue, "..." 100 billion points, and it can't even cover an accessory?

Just as Wu Chong was about to continue, Wu Yue thrust a bowl at him.

Putting on her most serious face, Wu Yue said, "Wu Chong, take this Purifying Snow Lotus Chalice. The missile debt is yours now."

Without giving him a chance to protest, she bolted before he could react.

....

"Ribbit!"

Whimpering "Waaah QAQ" with a throbbing bump from the Tianshan snow toad's hit.

Successfully bound to the Purifying Snow Lotus Chalice, Wu Yue received Wu Chong's taunts from the sidelines: "Don’t forget to pay back those points for the crystal-core kinetic laser missile~"

"Otherwise, the vice-captain will definitely sell you off to the black mines to work off your debt."

Wu Yue felt like she'd lost everything.

Not even the ten-star flash during binding could cheer her up.

She opened the item info:

"Item Name: Purifying Snow Lotus Chalice | Affinity: 80%

Item Rating: SS-tier

Item Stars: 10 (currently 0 stars lit; requires 20 million crystals for next upgrade)

Item Skills:

Purify 50% of impurities in 1 square meter of water | Lv. 1 (0/5)"

She shot a murderous look toward Dragon Path, then growled while calling up Team Mourning Tiger,

"Time to go farming.

If I don’t make back what we lost from these damn bandits today, I’ll turn them to dust myself."

Faced with piles of glowing loot bags, Wu Yue started grumbling as she picked through them.

"A tattered outer garment — +10 defense but -10 beauty."

"One broken rain boot — might as well go barefoot in rain."

"A snapped dagger — couldn't cut warm butter."

She hurled the sack of junk to the ground in frustration, stomping her foot and crossing her arms.

Just great!

You damn bandits,

Following your boss means going hungry nine times in three days!