"Cover me. I'm going to test out this long blade," Lin Jingjing said as she charged forward.
The moment Lin Jingjing moved, the battle-ready Steel Beast charged as well.
It was incredibly fast. Reaching Lin Jingjing, it raised a claw, aiming to kill her with a single swipe.
The downward swipe was blocked by the long blade in her hands. Gripping the hilt with both hands, Lin Jingjing used all her strength to meet the blow.
At that moment, only one thought ran through Lin Jingjing's mind: 'This Steel Beast is way too strong!'
The long blade was about to be torn from her grasp. "Shoot it! Now!" Lin Jingjing screamed.
Hearing her cry, the other two acted instantly. Their guns, already aimed at the Steel Beast, immediately fired at its heart.
Two blasts of white light struck the Steel Beast's vital spot, and its body collapsed to the ground.
Lin Jingjing's hands, still gripping the hilt, were trembling. She quickly reverted the long blade to its original form and put it away.
She grumbled, "So damn strong."
"I almost couldn't block that swipe."
The two men walked over. Seeing her hands still trembling, they understood just how powerful the mutant beast was.
They both fell silent. It was no wonder Captain Li had been worried about them. If their aim wasn't true, they really might have died under the claws of those mutant beasts.
Shi Feng looked at the weapon in his hand. It was powerful, dealt high damage, and was also light. It saved the soldiers a great deal of stamina on the march.
As long as one's aim was good, even a Steel Beast—with its immense strength, sharp claws, and tough scales—would fall to this gun.
The weapons here were so advanced. He wanted to research and develop a weapon of his own, too.
"Let's get going. The gun is low on ammo," Feng He said, looking at the weapon in his hand, which was down to half its energy. "We still have a long way to go to get back. If we run into another mutant beast, it'll be tough to handle."
To be safe, the trio returned to the main base on B6 Star as quickly as they could.
The three of them breathed a collective sigh of relief at the sight of the familiar military base.
Once inside, they headed straight for the kitchen. They still had to return the utensils they had taken with them.
As soon as they reached the kitchen entrance, they saw Captain Li standing there, arms crossed, a cigarette dangling from his lips.
The area was pitch-black, only illuminated when the three of them arrived with their light sphere.
The three of them felt their hearts clench at the sight of Captain Li standing before the kitchen door, his face as black as thunder.
'Holy shit, does he look angry enough to beat someone up?'
Feng He and Shi Feng cowered behind Lin Jingjing, and though she was frightened by his thunderous expression herself...
...she steeled herself and stepped forward to report. "Captain Li, mission accomplished."
Captain Li took a hard drag from his cigarette before tossing the butt to the ground and grinding it out with his heel.
As white smoke billowed from his mouth, Captain Li roared, "'Accomplished,' my ass! You're overdue!"
"Two hours overdue! Were you trying to slack off?"
Lin Jingjing quickly replied, "No, sir! Absolutely not."
She rushed to explain what happened on their way back. "We were late because we ran into a Steel Beast on the return trip."
Finishing her explanation, Lin Jingjing forced a smile. "We had to fight for our lives against four of them. It took a long time to kill them all."
"Captain Li, please don't be angry. We promise we'll work hard tomorrow. The pig manure in the sty, the vegetables in the garden, the trees in the orchard, the cooking... we'll do it all properly."
"We won't fall behind again."
The dark look on Captain Li's face gradually faded. Finally, he snarled in a low voice meant only for the three of them, "You'd better."
He held out his hand. "Guns."
After taking back the guns, Captain Li noticed they were low on energy but had no scratch marks on them at all. He glanced at the trio again. Other than a few burrs stuck to their clothes, only their boots were caked in mud.
Their clothes were clean, and none of them had so much as a scratch.
This made Captain Li begin to doubt the truth of Lin Jingjing's story.
He asked suspiciously, "You really ran into Steel Beasts?"
The three of them nodded with exaggerated sincerity.
"Yes, sir! We'd never lie to you," they said in unison.
Seeing them act this way, Captain Li could only bury his suspicions.
Finally, he said, "Hurry up, put the equipment away, and get the hell to bed."
"Making me wait this long... a bunch of useless brats. The nerve of you all."
Still not satisfied after his grumbling, he raised a hand and slapped Shi Feng on the shoulder.
"Why are you flinching? A grown man hiding behind a woman. Have you no shame?"
"A man should stand tall and proud! You need to man up!" Captain Li continued, "Get up early tomorrow. You're training with me."
At these words, Shi Feng's vision went dark and his head started to buzz.
'Making a brain-worker do physical training? Isn't that like asking him to switch careers?'
Shi Feng recalled his days in the military's design department, being dragged out for physical training every day. His legs began to feel like jelly.
"Captain Li, I don't think I need to train. My mother raised me like a girl since I was a child. I think I'm the type who needs protection," Shi Feng said, trying to refuse.
To get out of it, he was basically calling himself a girl.
Hearing this, Lin Jingjing and Feng He, who were standing nearby, wanted to laugh but didn't dare. They had to suppress it with all their might.
"Tch, wuss," Captain Li muttered, dropping the subject of training. After he left, Lin Jingjing and Feng He clutched their stomachs and burst out laughing.
"Only you," Lin Jingjing said, her stomach aching from laughter. She still managed to give him a teasing thumbs-up.
"HAHAHA—" Feng He was laughing so hard he started snorting. "The beautiful Miss Shi Feng."
Shi Feng gave them a look of utter despair and sighed. "Are you two done laughing?"
"When you're finished, let's go put the equipment away."
Wiping tears from their eyes, the two replied, "We're done."
All three of them walked into the kitchen, their laughter still echoing.
「In the forest」
A man with ice-blue eyes was leading a team on a patrol. When he saw the four dead Steel Beasts on the ground, his eyes narrowed slightly.
The soldiers behind him rushed forward to inspect the bodies. They discovered that the Steel Beasts had all been killed instantly by a single shot to a vital spot.
The only exception was the last one, which had been shot twice in its weak spot.
Its right claw also bore a shallow scratch, which, based on the mark, was made by a Purple Long Blade.
"Admiral He, the first three were killed with a single shot. This last one was hit twice and has a shallow gash on its right claw."
"There are no signs of a struggle at the scene. Whoever killed these Steel Beasts wasn't looking for a direct confrontation."
Listening to his subordinate's report, Admiral He kept his eyes fixed on the four Steel Beast corpses.
It was the first time he had seen such intact Steel Beast corpses. The ones they had eliminated before were either mangled flesh and blood or were missing limbs and heads.
"Take them back," Admiral He ordered. "Give them to the biology department for research."