Chapter 146: Mutant Sparrows

Chapter 146

The delegation from Country Z did not stay long at Country A's port. After just three days, Country A arranged for their delegation and Country Z's delegation to set out toward Country A's largest survivor stronghold, the Dawn Goddess Base.

Since the combined total of the delegates from both countries exceeded six hundred people, Country A had to scramble to dispatch numerous vehicles just to barely fit everyone inside!

Mei, sitting in a severely overloaded bus, felt terribly stifled. It was a vehicle clearly meant for only forty or fifty people, yet now it was crammed with sixty or seventy souls—how could anyone not feel suffocated?

Enduring until the halfway rest stop, Mei stepped out of the bus and took a deep breath of the fresh outdoor air.

The interior of the vehicle had been far too crowded, and with the driver turning off the air conditioning to save fuel and keeping the windows shut for safety, the stifling heat inside had tested her endurance to the limit!

"Mei'er, are you feeling unwell? How about we drive ourselves?" Seeing her pale complexion, Ye Jingxuan handed her a bottle of water and asked with concern.

Mei took a sip of water and shook her head. "After all, this is Country A, and we are strangers in a foreign land. It's better for us to keep a low profile! An energy-powered vehicle is far too conspicuous."

"Little Mei'er, you usually seem so clever, but I never imagined you could be so muddle-headed sometimes! It's not like we only have energy-powered vehicles. Ordinary cars might not be as comfortable as energy cars, but they are definitely better than cramming into a bus with this many people!" Mo Chen lightly tapped her forehead upon hearing this and reminded her.

"Oh, right! How could I forget? We have both cars and gasoline in our spatial storage; we can easily drive our own vehicle and follow right behind them!" Reminded by him, Mei instantly brightened up.

With a thought, a modified SUV customized by Mo Chen appeared in the open space. Mo Chen went over to inspect it, making sure there were no issues with the vehicle, before gesturing to the others.

"Colonel Ling, we will take our own car and follow at the rear of the convoy. Could you please explain this to the people from Country A?" After bidding Ling Feng farewell, Mei got into the car.

Ling Feng glanced at her retreating figure and explained the situation to the escort personnel from Country A. The other party readily agreed to let Mei and her companions drive their own vehicle at the back of the convoy. However, they also stated that since Mei's group chose not to ride the provided transport, they would not be offered any protection either. In other words, Mei and her group would have to resolve any dangers they encountered along the road entirely on their own.

"No problem!" Hearing the condition, Ling Feng agreed without a second thought.

Seeing him agree so readily, the people from Country A were somewhat surprised. Logically speaking, spatial ability users within the convoy were prime targets for protection; why were these people taking it so lightly?

With this thought, the leader of the Country A delegation began paying closer attention to Mei and her group.

With their own vehicle, Mei finally had the energy and the space for the remainder of the journey to continue reviewing the downloaded files.

Mei repeatedly filtered through the remaining documents, first selecting and reading the files that matched multiple keywords before moving on to the rest.

The others, except for Mo Chen who had to drive, each held a tablet computer, locked in a struggle with the data. Even Lin Shaojie, whose proficiency in Language A was abysmal, was holding a tablet stimulated by Wanqi Wenyue, flipping through a dictionary while examining a document at a snail's pace.

Country A was vast in territory yet relatively sparsely populated, making it a country with a sprawling landmass and few inhabitants.

This circumstance meant that the zombies they encountered along the way were quite limited in number. Even when they occasionally crossed paths with a few, they were directly crushed beneath the wheels of the convoy, requiring no one to clear them out.

However, while zombies were scarce in Country A, mutant animals were extremely abundant.

On the very first day, the convoy was subjected to two attacks by mutant animals. The first time involved several mutant dogs. Although they had all awakened supernatural abilities, the convoy had a massive number of people; a single skill from each person was more than enough to obliterate them.

Yet the second time, they were not nearly as fortunate.

Countless mutant sparrows came swarming in like a dark tide toward the convoy, covering every single vehicle until not a single inch of metal was visible.

The attack power of a single mutant sparrow was not particularly high, and a Level 2 ability user could easily dispatch one. However, when a massive multitude of mutant sparrows gathered together, they were far from easy to handle.

After witnessing an ability user rashly jump out of a vehicle, only to be swarmed by a flock of mutant sparrows that stripped him down to a bare skeleton in mere moments, no one else dared to easily disembark and launch attacks against the mutant sparrows.

However, executing supernatural abilities from inside the vehicles had severely limited effectiveness. They had to be careful not to damage the cars while simultaneously launching large-area strikes to ensure a high hit rate, with the result that the abilities unleashed by the vast majority of users could barely muster a fifth of their usual power.

Of course, not every ability user's offensive might was diminished; metal-type ability users could play a tremendous role under such circumstances. It was precisely thanks to their reinforcement of the vehicles that those mutant sparrows failed to breach the cars' defenses and attack the people inside.

Aside from metal-type ability users, wind-type ability users also achieved fairly decent offensive results. A single whirlwind sweep, even if unable to kill those sparrows, could at least serve to strip away their feathers. Ice-type ability users could accomplish the same defensive feat as metal-types by encasing the vehicles in a thick layer of ice while occasionally launching ice spikes, proving to be quite effective in combat.

Beyond these, Mei also witnessed some specialized ability users, such as puppet masters who projected and manipulated puppet-like constructs outside the vehicles to launch attacks against the mutant sparrows. There were also ability users who utilized sonic waves for offense, or those who could partially transform their bodies into sand to strike.

In short, the variety of bizarre ability users opened Mei's eyes to a whole new world.

"Are you sure you want to keep watching the show? The vehicles carrying those so-called experts don't have many ability users guarding them!" Xirier reminded her while continuing to flip through the documents in his hand.

Prompted by his remark, Mei remembered this crucial point. Those individuals were their mission targets, and they certainly could not be allowed to perish here.

"Oh! Spectating time is over, back to work!"

With that, Mei was the first to open the car door and step outside.

The moment she touched the ground, a massive swarm of mutant sparrows immediately converged toward her. Yet before they could even draw within a meter of her body, several bolts of lightning struck down from above, directly roasting the birds into charcoal.

Although the ground was instantly littered with the corpses of numerous mutant sparrows, the creatures seemingly lacked any sense of self-preservation, continuing to fly toward Mei wave after wave.

Before these birds could draw close this time, a dark red flame swept across the flock of mutant sparrows, directly reducing them to ashes.

Mo Chen and Ye Jingxuan stood on her left and right behind Mei, effortlessly neutralizing the swarming attack of the mutant sparrows.

Knowing that the two of them would protect her, Mei walked forward without a single reservation.

The three of them acted like glowing beacons, drawing the mutant sparrows away from the buses and causing them to crowd around the trio instead.

However, Mo Chen's lightning net and Ye Jingxuan's flame barrier protected the three of them layer upon layer; not only could the mutant sparrows fail to breach their defense, but coming even slightly close meant certain death.

Mei walked all the way from the rear of the convoy to the front, drawing away the attacks of the majority of the mutant sparrows before she finally began to unleash her magic.

A white luminous barrier rapidly expanded outward with her at its center. The moment those birds encountered the light-type energy, they dropped from the air like flies, as if their life force had been instantly drained. They fluttered their wings weakly on the ground before falling completely still shortly afterward.

"Done and dusted, time to clock out!"

Watching the remaining mutant sparrows finally perceive danger, beat their wings, and rapidly fly away, Mei brushed her hands together and turned to walk back!

"What kind of ability was that? It's simply too powerful!"

Many people inside the vehicles had witnessed this scene and stood utterly transfixed.

Especially the ability users from Country A and Country Z; they had never witnessed such an ability before. With merely a flash of white light, every single mutant sparrow had dropped to the ground—it was truly formidable.

In the evening, when the convoy stopped to rest, the leader of the Country A delegation specifically sought out Ling Feng during mealtime to gather information.

"Colonel, aren't those people in that car your team members? Why does it look like they aren't under your command at all?" Will, the leader of the Country A delegation, asked Ling Feng with curiosity as he gazed at Mei and the others chatting together in the distance.

Ling Feng glanced at the other man and replied in a calm tone, "They are merely hired mercenaries. Aside from the tasks stipulated in their employment contract, they maintain absolute autonomy!"

"Mercenaries? Then do you know what kind of ability user that little girl is? The move she pulled off this afternoon was seriously cool; could you introduce me to them?" Hearing this, Will looked somewhat surprised before quickly revealing his true purpose.

"I'm not entirely clear on that myself. You can go ask them directly; perhaps they'll be willing to tell you!" Ling Feng walked over toward Mei's direction as he spoke, and Will hurriedly followed behind him.

"Miss Mei, this is Will Caird, the leader of the personnel dispatched by Country A to escort us to the base. Mr. Caird is extremely interested in your performance this afternoon, so he would like to get acquainted with everyone." Ling Feng briefly introduced Will's identity to Mei and pointedly highlighted the reason for his arrival.

"Hello, my name is Will Caird; you can just call me Will. If you need anything along the way, feel free to come to me." Will greeted the group with a hearty smile.

Mei looked at the tall, blonde-haired and blue-eyed man named Will, then glanced at Mo Chen, signaling for him to handle it since she had no desire to converse with the man.

Receiving Mei's cue, Mo Chen lazily stood up, extended his hand toward Will, and said, "Hello, Mr. Caird! My name is Mo Chen. May I ask if you need something by coming over to see us?"

"Hello, Mo, there's no need to be so formal, just call me Will! This afternoon, the performance of the three of you truly opened all of our eyes. Your ability levels must be quite high, I presume?" Will shook hands with Mo Chen and probed tentatively.

"Not particularly, it's just that lightning-type abilities happen to have a very obvious restraining effect on flying creatures!" Mo Chen said deliberately, glossing over the specifics.

"Is that so? Still, lightning-type abilities are considered quite rare. I wonder what type of ability this young lady possesses? I have never seen any ability manifest as black!"

As he spoke, Will shifted his gaze toward Mei, watching her sit there obediently as he privately wondered just how old she was, given that she looked so young. Furthermore, her features were exceptionally exquisite and beautiful—at least, he had never laid eyes on a child prettier than her.

With that thought, Will squatted down so that his line of sight was level with Mei's, lowered his voice, and greeted her: "Hello, my name is Will. Can you tell me your name, you cute little oriental doll?"

He considered his attitude to be quite amiable, yet his words instantly caused Mei's expression to shift! (To be continued.)