Chapter 430: Chapter 428: Astonishment

"Girlfriend." Gu Chen jutted his chin toward Yang Yiling, who stood opposite him. "Mine!"

Across from them, Zhai Ruobai, Lu Wei, the bald Wang Binwu, and the others could hardly bear to look at their captain’s insufferably smug expression.

How could someone turn latching onto a powerful backer into such an ostentatious performance?

Reeling from the blow, Yang Yiling pointed a finger at Gu Chen, then turned to Xie Ning. "You... you’re the captain of the Starfire Team?"

Xie Ning nodded, feeling a bit reluctant to crush the poor guy.

"You? Are you really his girlfriend?"

Gu Chen rolled his eyes so hard they nearly flew into space. "Are you sick in the head? Who in our circle doesn’t know Ningning is my girlfriend? You’re doing this on purpose! Pretending you don’t know she’s my girlfriend so you can deliberately go to her for help."

Xie Ning reached out and patted her boyfriend on the waist. "What are you doing here, boyfriend?" she asked in a bright voice.

"Captain!" Yang Yiling’s teammates all surged forward to catch him as he reeled back in fury.

This captain’s situation was truly pathetic.

First, he’d suffered a humiliating, unspoken defeat at Gu Chen’s hands in front of Secretary Chen and a group of senior officials. Now, he was being subjected to a public display of affection meant to torture single people.

He was being force-fed a whole lot of PDA!

What a piece of work!

Lu Wei turned away, hiding a smile and clearing his throat. "Let’s head inside."

The group chuckled as they walked toward Xie Ning. As they went around Yang Yiling, they called out one after another, "Excuse us, coming through!"

Just as they walked in and closed the door, the old lady nimbly scurried out of her room. "Who was that outside?"

"Grandma, it’s nothing. Just someone unimportant."

"Why are you only getting here now? Come, come, I saved you some food. Ningning found an Aunt Chen today who’s an amazing cook. Come and try it."

"Want some chicken soup with your rice?"

"Yes! Yes!"

The people inside the house were overjoyed, while outside... it was a scene of utter misery.

The group of teammates behind Yang Yiling all wore the same peculiar expression as their captain, staring at Xie Ning and Gu Chen.

"What’s the matter? Weren’t you all there in A-1 when I showed the zombie video? Don’t tell me I forgot to mention that the cute girl kicking ass in the video is my girlfriend?"

Seeing everyone’s expression as if they’d swallowed a fly, Gu Chen laughed unkindly. "My bad, I guess I must have forgotten to mention it. So... you came here today looking for my girlfriend because you want the Starfire Team to escort you on a search and rescue mission to that small, sandstorm-plagued base, right?"

"Then you’ve really come to the wrong place." Gu Chen happily wrapped an arm around his girlfriend, his charming peach-blossom eyes twinkling as he looked at the group of blockheads. "My girlfriend will definitely be accompanying me to Gushang Base."

Yang Yiling had no desire to say another word.

He’d been thoroughly humiliated all day, getting slapped in the face practically every hour!

This left him with no energy to waste another word on Gu Chen!

He turned and left without so much as a polite word.

"Captain, Captain!" The members of Group B were stunned for a moment, then quickly ran after him. As they ran, they looked back and gave Gu Chen an indescribable glare.

’Captain Gu’s behavior was especially infuriating. If it weren’t for his high combat power... they’d really want to beat him to a pulp.’

’His smugness was out of this world.’

’Is it so great, bagging a Sixth Rank powerhouse for a girlfriend?!’

’Bah, on second thought, it is pretty damn amazing.’

’If that girlfriend were our captain’s, we could be just as smug, and we’d lord it over those bastards from Team A for ages...’

Gu Chen watched the kids from Group B scurry away dejectedly, then looked down at the young lady with a grin. "Girlfriend, that Yang Yiling really ticked me off today."

"Give me a break." ’Xie Ning knew his personality all too well.’

’With his slippery and unpredictable nature, he was the one who infuriated others. It was practically impossible for anyone to infuriate him.’

Gu Chen couldn’t help but laugh. "It’s true! They even gave me a particularly arduous mission. Girlfriend, you have to help me!"

"Let’s team up! What do you say?"

"Let’s get this straight, there’s no way I’m abandoning the Starfire Team to join you."

"Mhm." ’Her boyfriend’s charming peach-blossom eyes were sparkling at her. What was she supposed to do?’

’I really want to pinch his cheeks.’

"We’ll join you," Captain Gu declared shamelessly, sealing the deal.

Xie Ning nodded.

’Besides, Captain Gu had said it before: he would be responsible for fighting, tanking, and killing all the monsters. All she needed to do was stay pretty, act as the hands-off boss, and maybe collect a few Crystal Cores on the side...’

’Her boyfriend should be capable of that, at least.’

"What’s the mission? Is it urgent?" Xie Ning took his hand and turned to enter the house, where another table full of dishes was being set up.

The people who had finished their first round of eating stepped back, and another group came to the table to grab food. When they saw the two arrive, they all greeted them with their bowls in hand.

"Captain, are we really leaving tonight?"

"We can’t. How can we travel at night with all the wind and sand?"

"Exactly, use your bald head to think about it! Why would we travel at night?"

"Bald means brainless! What’s he thinking about? He’s thinking about eating, what else!"

Everyone couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

"This mission is quite urgent, but luckily we’re not completely unprepared."

Gu Chen pulled Xie Ning down to sit, accepted the clean bowl and chopsticks from Song Youyi, and thanked him.

"We’ll discuss the mission in detail after we eat. But there’s something else, have you heard?" Gu Chen took Xie Ning’s hand and pointed to her Satellite Bracelet. "The group chat is blowing up. You should go take a look."

"Oh." Xie Ning had never paid much attention to the chat activity on her Satellite Bracelet.

Although she occasionally received messages from members of Team A, she was always too lazy to reply, just glancing at them before moving on.

But now, when she opened the main group chat, she saw people were fervently discussing something. Text was constantly jumping across the small bracelet screen, scrolling so fast she could barely read it.

The small screen made her dizzy and tired her eyes. Plus, with Song Kexin and Song Shijun staring at her eagerly, their faces screaming for gossip, Xie Ning simply had Future connect to the large screen.

A large, transparent, aqua-blue screen materialized out of thin air in front of everyone, allowing them to clearly see the contents of the group chat.

"No way!"

"The Global Superpower Academy is issuing a system bracelet to everyone? What does that even mean?"

"They say it’s the most advanced smart-brain product from the X Realm. Once connected, it can not only generate a data sheet of your physical stats but also connect to the greater X Realm system."

"In short, it’s all flashy and confusing."

"Quit spouting nonsense, person above. How is it confusing? The announcement makes it very clear: after connecting to the main system, everyone’s data will be visible to everyone else at a glance."

"Also, there’s a system store, things like a Dimensional Space, and you can trade freely."

"Huh? What the heck is a Dimensional Space?"

"Isn’t that something you only see in movies! Can the X Realm really give us a Dimensional Space?"

"Jeez, just read the instructions for the details! What’s the point of arguing about it here?"

"Can someone give us the TL;DR?"

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