Just as we were about to pack up and head back, Yuan Xinghe called.
“Hey hey, is it over?”
“We’re about to head back. I’m already in the car.”
“Ah, perfect. Then you don’t have to come back. There’s something else for you to do.”
“Hey hey hey, you can’t push us around that easily! We haven’t brought anything out with us, and you want us to go on another mission?”
“That’s fine. The convoy should be arriving soon.”
As he finished speaking, I heard the rumble of wheels crushing gravel and the roar of engines in the distance.
It sounded like three vehicles, with one of them towing what looked like a brand-new off-road vehicle, even larger than mine.
“Are they here?”
“They’re here, they’re here. Wait for me a moment.”
I hung up first and walked over to talk to the person in front.
The man was wearing the uniform of the Defense Army and a heavy gas mask.
He saluted me and explained, “By order of Commander Yuan Xinghe, I am delivering these supplies to you, sir. Please sign here.”
I took the paper he handed me.
I could feel his body tremble slightly as I approached him.
“Okay, done. Thank you for your hard work.”
The soldier saluted me, then signaled his team to unload the supplies and the towed off-road vehicle.
After the handover, they got back in their vehicles and left.
“Hmm… let me see. There’s quite a lot here.”
I estimated a month’s worth of food and drinking water, batteries for Xi Si Te and Hai Shi’s weapons, and finally that off-road vehicle—so big that I thought it could easily carry all the supplies.
This setup… they wouldn’t be sending us on…
Ring ring ring.
My phone rang again.
It was Yuan Xinghe.
“Got it?”
“Yeah. You’re giving us so much stuff… are you sending us on a long journey?”
“Quick on the uptake. Yes, I’m sending you on a long journey.”
Yuan Xinghe began to explain the reason.
“The Giant Mad Beast’s trail has disappeared?”
“Yeah. Last night, we lost track of that Giant Mad Beast. The last detected location was in the desert over a thousand kilometers away from the City of Hope.”
“Suddenly lost? Can it burrow into the ground?”
As he said that, something occurred to me.
That Sand Lizard—if it had been driven here by the Giant Mad Beast, no, if it was under the Giant Mad Beast’s control, it wasn’t impossible for it to have dug an underground tunnel for the beast.
But that would mean the Giant Mad Beast knew we were monitoring it.
‘Is that possible?’
I furrowed my brows.
Seeing that I wasn’t continuing, Yuan Xinghe went on.
“Anyway, I need you to go there. I’ve already coordinated with nearby Bola City; they’ll support your operation. And while you’re at it, you can clear out some Mad Beasts along the way to relieve the city’s defense pressure.”
“Fine, fine. Even if we went back, you’d just kick us out again.”
“So it’s settled?”
“Alright. Besides, there’s quite a bit of stuff here. It can also serve as an intense training session for the newbie.”
“Then have a safe trip. Oh, and did you give my contact info to some woman?”
Uh…
My finger, just about to hang up, froze in midair.
“Ahaha, well, I figured since you haven’t been looking lately, I’d give it to her. Don’t mind it.”
“Hmph~, it’s nothing. It turns out she’s someone I’ve contacted before. So as soon as she heard it was me, she hung up.”
“Oh, oh, I see…”
‘Looks like I underestimated him. Has he really already talked to every woman in the city?’
“Then we’re setting off.”
“Alright.”
I finally hung up.
The team members, seeing all the supplies delivered, probably guessed what we were going to do—except for Leng Qiongling.
“This is…”
“I think we’re being sent on a long trip.”
“You guessed right.”
I walked over to them, helped load the supplies into the vehicle, tied them down with ropes, and briefly explained the mission.
“In short, we’re going into the desert to find traces of that Giant Mad Beast.”
I explained concisely.
Leng Qiongling listened silently but lowered her head, gripping her own right arm tightly with her left hand.
‘After all, that’s the source of her hatred, the murderer of her family. It’s normal for her to react this way.’
I didn’t say much.
I composed myself and got ready to hit the road.
“Xiao Leng Leng, can you drive?”
“Huh? I do have a driver’s license.”
“That’s great! Then you’ll drive!”
“What? No, I’ve never driven an off-road vehicle! Suddenly making me drive it…”
“It’s fine! No matter how you drive, it can’t be worse than how the Captain drives!”
Ou Mi You shot me a glance, and I could only cough awkwardly.
“In that case, I’ll drive slowly…”
“No problem, that’s perfect. Think of it as a road trip.”
“So it’s settled?”
At this point, I couldn’t argue.
So I drove the off-road vehicle loaded with supplies by myself, while Leng Qiongling drove the original vehicle.
We maintained a distance of about two car lengths, driving side by side across the vast wilderness.
We kept heading north, towards Bola City, about fifteen hundred kilometers away.
We needed to report there first before we could operate more freely.
Bola City was a city on the edge of the desert, a city with a completely different style from the City of Hope.
The people there were generally warm-hearted, but they didn’t engage in much entertainment, and no one wandered around late at night.
That Giant Mad Beast had lost its trace in the desert.
How was that possible?
Had it really discovered we were tracking it?
If so, its intelligence might have reached a terrifying level.
Along the way, Leng Qiongling was clearly distracted.
Aside from the basic focus needed for driving, she seemed to have a lot on her mind.
‘I hope she doesn’t burden herself too much. Even though her family was killed and she ended up like this… but these are just useless words of sympathy. They won’t work on her. Only she can change herself. Because only she truly feels it. Outsiders have no right to interfere.’
“Captain.”
“Yeah, we’ll stop and clean them up when the time comes.”
We were speeding along, which naturally attracted countless Mad Beasts.
But stopping every time we encountered a group would be too troublesome.
So we made sure the vehicles weren’t caught up, gathered the surrounding Mad Beasts together, and then got out to eliminate them.
“Leng Qiongling.”
“Huh? Ah! I’m coming!”
Startled out of her daze, Leng Qiongling quickly got out of the car and grabbed her weapon.
“Come on. This time I’m really going to train you properly.”
“Okay…”
Leng Qiongling placed her longsword in front of her and took a deep breath.
For an ordinary person, this behavior would undoubtedly be laughable and unbelievable, but she wasn’t ordinary.
She wasn’t a normal person.
Yet she clearly didn’t realize that.
“So, which side do you think you’re really on?”