Chapter One Hundred and Ten: A New Mission, Part Three

Because our Seventh Squad is understaffed, and its overall combat power is generally below F5 level.

To the Firebird Combat Team, that makes us the sort of burden that offers no value at all, a pack of dead weight they have to protect if they bring us along. Naturally, we are not exactly favored.

Chicken Leg explained, "Every year they get ten casualty slots to work with, and wasting them on us just isn't cost-effective. So they leave us at headquarters, where it's relatively safe, and have us handle some routine patrol errands instead. That's what makes the most sense to them."

So that was it...

Bai Yuxi finally understood the knots behind it all, and was just about to ask something else when a soft beep sounded from the personal terminal on Luo Fei's wrist. She glanced down, then said, "Meeting time. Let's go out."

The eight members of the Seventh Squad filed out one after another, drifting into a corner of the underground meeting hall to crouch or lean idly and wait to be lectured. As for the sofas in the center of the hall, there was certainly no place there for them.

Bai Yuxi leaned against the wall and stole glances at the members of the Firebird Combat Team.

There were roughly thirty or forty people present. Aside from the four fully armed regular members of the Firebird Combat Team, there was also a probationary squad of young people slouching on the sofa area. The other two probationary squads were scattered around separately, each grouped together in their own little clusters.

Those qualified to sit on the sofas were naturally the Firebird Combat Team's own cherished favorites, while the two squads beside them were obviously the children of somebody else's household. As for the Seventh Squad, they probably counted as the ones tossed in as a phone-balance bonus, or maybe picked out of a trash bin.

"...A large-scale outbreak of anomalous creatures has occurred in Flower Orchid Mountain, forcing the entire scenic area to be sealed off!"

"LDH has summoned nearby extraordinary combat teams to conduct a joint purge operation in the Flower Orchid Mountain region. Our Firebird Combat Team is among them."

"The rules are familiar to everyone. I'll send the mission intelligence through the team channel, and the assigned tasks will be relayed separately."

The burly man standing at the center spoke with a blank expression. "Because so many teams are taking part this time, the only real requirement is: don't make trouble."

As he spoke, he glanced faintly toward the Seventh Squad's position. After a pause, he continued, "First Squad will follow the main combat force. Fourth and Fifth Squads will provide support. Seventh Squad... will handle camp security and logistics. Just don't die."

This time, not all of the Firebird Combat Team was participating. Only a four-man regular extraordinary combat unit, headed by the burly man, had come.

Although Bai Yuxi's current vital data still remained in a highly unstable unknown state, he could still sense that the combat levels of those "beloved sons" in First Squad were generally around F9 to F10, while Fourth and Fifth Squads were mostly around F7 to F8.

By comparison, the Seventh Squad, with only Luo Fei and Chicken Leg as squad leader and deputy, both at F5 combat power, really could not compare.

Though the four regular extraordinary combatants showed no obvious energy fluctuations, the faint authority they exuded was likely at least at D-rank combat level.

Luo Fei and the others in the Seventh Squad had no objections to being assigned camp security and logistics. They simply set to work with blank expressions.

After returning to his room to change into his gear, Bai Yuxi came back out to find that the hall was already empty, with only Willie still there, complaining about something to Xia Youyou.

Jason and Chicken Leg were helping Su Xiaoke carry a rather large storage crate out of her room, apparently intending to take it to the transport vehicle outside.

"Is Senior Su going too this time?"

Bai Yuxi froze for a moment. The mission intelligence that had already been sent to his personal terminal said that the danger level of this joint operation had reached E-rank, possibly even D-rank.

Thinking back to the previous mission, which had only been F4-rank in danger level and had nearly cost them their lives, this E-rank assignment was a serious threat to Su Xiaoke, who had no means of protecting herself and worked in logistics.

"If I don't go," Su Xiaoke said with an unconcerned smile, "are you really planning to stay behind in camp and do logistics?"

Bai Yuxi was momentarily speechless. That was true enough. Even if the Firebird Combat Team did not value the Seventh Squad, how could they improve their combat strength by staying in camp?

"Those bastards are way too biased!" Willie muttered. "Look at the gear on First Squad's boys, damn it, it's all LDH standard armor!"

"If you're so jealous, go be their beloved son too," Xia Youyou said as she organized her equipment, glancing at the black foreigner. "What are you, a black foreigner, complaining about so much for? Being allowed to join the mission is already a favor done for LDH's sake. Who told you to be such a useless waste yourself?"

"This is discrimination!"

"So what if we're foreigners?" Willie protested. "Do foreigners not have human rights?"

"All right! You two stop fooling around!"

"Move faster, or we'll get scolded again in a minute."

"Besides, Old Lei already didn't like us because of what happened last time, when we clashed with the people from Tiger Combat Team."

Luo Fei frowned. "If he catches us with some handle to use against us, who knows what kind of petty punishment he'll slap on us."

People like Willie, Jason, and Maya, foreign nationals who awakened within the borders of the Flame Kingdom, were nominally attached to LDH and placed under the supervision of the Supernormal Management Department.

But first, people generally worried they might be planted spies from overseas anomalous organizations. Second, foreign extraordinary personnel were like wild rats that could never be domesticated; sooner or later they would return to their own countries. So within the domestic supernormal world, they were indeed not very welcome.

And so, by association, the Seventh Squad, a probationary squad that included foreign members, was naturally pushed aside by the other squads of the Firebird Combat Team.

"Quit being jealous, Old Black," Jason said, patting Willie's shoulder in comfort. "If you want to eat well and dress warm, you work for it yourself. Our gear isn't any worse than theirs now."

Ever since they unexpectedly came into a large sum of money last time, the members of the Seventh Squad had undergone a complete upgrade.

Because Bai Yuxi already had Nightmare Seventh Generation, Luo Fei had only taken his old axe as material and had it custom-made into a pair of combat gauntlets.

The others, however, had all replaced their gear entirely. For example, Chicken Leg's wooden shield and Jason's small round shield had both been replaced with semi-metal shields covered in metal plating.

Luo Fei herself had switched to a combat sword with a conduction rate of 0.5 percent, and Xia Youyou had obtained a pair of strong magnetic gloves specially processed for her by the school genius.

As for Maya, since last time she had grasped a vague and ill-defined extraordinary combat technique, she seemed to have scrounged up from somewhere a Western-style knight's sword and a strangely shaped left-hand defense dagger full of grooves and reverse edges, apparently intending to go down the path of dual swords.