Chapter 474: Chapter 470: Robbery

A sudden realization dawned on Xie Ning, her eyes lighting up as she stared at her round-faced mother.

Truth be told, her mother had slimmed down quite a bit over the past year thanks to her superpower training.

But she naturally had a round face, giving her a plump, auspicious look.

Coupled with over a year of eating and living well, her mother now had a fair, radiant complexion, and her spirits were much higher than the average woman’s.

In her current state, Song You’ai looked much younger than she had over a year ago.

"Mom!" Xie Ning squeezed Song You’ai’s hand. "You’re my ultimate lucky charm."

Song You’ai looked utterly bewildered, just giving her daughter a dazed smile.

’Survival. Just as Mom said, the people of the X Realm must be stirring up all this trouble just to survive.’

’And if it’s for their own survival, they might not hesitate to sacrifice anything.’

’Like the lives of everyone on Earth?’

...

Inside Car #8

Li Zongyuan lowered his voice. "Something feels off."

"What the hell is that brat Gu Chen up to? We’re stopping and starting constantly. He says it’s for registration, but I feel like that’s just a flimsy excuse he made up."

"Are they looking for something?" Li Zongyuan glanced at the silent, crew-cut man beside him. "Could they have found out there are Alien—"

The crew-cut man, Che Kai, shot him a look brimming with warning.

Realizing his slip of the tongue, Li Zongyuan quickly shut his mouth. "Then what do you think they’re up to?"

’No, that’s not it,’ he thought. ’I doubt a guy like Gu Chen would even bother with excuses. Is this a deliberate arrangement to stall for time?’

"They can’t possibly find anything. It’s not like there’s some advanced instrument that can detect this." Full of confidence, Che Kai curled his lip into a sneer at Li Zongyuan. "You just think too much."

"Relax. We just have to complete our mission for this trip. Nothing else is our concern."

"Easy for you to say, ’complete the mission.’" Li Zongyuan frowned and shot him a look. "And how are we supposed to do that?"

"We’ll eventually split up, won’t we?" Che Kai glanced back at him. "What’s the rush?"

"I’ve never seen you this antsy. Why are you so on edge all of a sudden?"

"Don’t you feel like there’s something strange about all of this?" Li Zongyuan scoffed in annoyance. "If I were as careless as you, I’d have been dead and buried years ago."

The crew-cut man shot him an indifferent glance and said no more.

The driver of Car #8 appeared to be driving steadily, but his beady eyes kept darting to Li Zongyuan and the others in the back via the rearview mirror.

When the car fell silent, he drove absently, reaching over to tap his wristband and glancing at the message that appeared on its face.

"Stop for inspection in five minutes."

SCREECH— Exactly five minutes later, the driver, with a complete lack of consideration, slammed on the brakes and brought the vehicle to a screeching halt.

Caught off guard, Li Zongyuan was thrown forward by the momentum, his head smacking into the seat in front of him. He winced, clutching his forehead in pain.

"What the hell kind of driving is that?!" A young man in the back row glared as he shot to his feet, roaring at the driver.

"Xiao Cong, sit down, sit down." Li Zongyuan, still clutching his head, waved the young man down, signaling him not to be reckless.

The young man named Xiao Cong stood there, muttering a few curses, until Qian Rongtian spoke up calmly, "Someone’s coming."

PSSSH— The driver pushed a button, and the door slid open.

Xie Ning boarded the vehicle, followed closely by Zhai Ruobai and several members of Team A. Her face was a mask as she swept her gaze over everyone inside.

Li Zongyuan immediately shot to his feet, his face plastered with an eager smile. "Captain Xie, what brings you here?"

"To help register information." Xie Ning had no desire to waste her breath on this man. She glanced at them and added, "Come over one by one to register."

Li Zongyuan still wanted to ask what was going on, but seeing Xie Ning’s obvious reluctance to speak with him, he could only swallow his myriad questions and cooperate with a fawning smile.

Ten minutes later, Xie Ning, Zhai Ruobai, and the others disembarked from the car.

Zhai Ruobai and the others all looked toward her.

Seeing Xie Ning shake her head, Zhai Ruobai couldn’t help but sigh in relief. "It seems the number of those things is relatively small."

’It’s not so easy to just plant someone on a team.’

After all, the selection process for official teams involved layers of screening and assessments.

’It makes you wonder about those three from Feng Lijian’s team...’

The convoy continued its stop-and-go pattern, periodically pulling over for inspections. Thankfully, Xie Ning’s process grew much faster over time.

It wasn’t until a little after seven in the evening that the vehicles were finally on the road for good, with no more stops for registration.

"The situation isn’t too bad, then," Song Youzhi said with a sigh of relief. "Thankfully, the number of those, uh, Alien Species isn’t as ridiculous as we feared."

Across the entire convoy, they had only found the initial four; everyone else seemed to be normal.

If that hadn’t been the case, they really wouldn’t have known what to do.

It seemed the situation hadn’t yet reached its worst-case scenario.

Xie Ning glanced at the group. "Regarding the identified Alien Species, Xiao Gu will have people watching them. When we get out later, everyone be careful. If you can avoid them, avoid them."

"Got it."

"At this rate, we probably won’t reach Gushang Base until eight or nine o’clock."

The sandstorm on the road was intense, severely affecting visibility, and the drivers had already switched over once.

Zhu Yong had volunteered to relieve Xiao Wu. While driving, he remarked, "We’re getting a lot of Contribution Points for this mission, right?"

"Mhm, everyone gets a base of five thousand Contribution Points."

"Then after we get back, we’ll each get bonus Contribution Points based on our squad’s performance evaluation."

"Uncle Yong, with that many points, we could buy another small villa in Jingji Base!"

Zhu Yong laughed, but then he suddenly noticed Car #8 up ahead slam on its brakes. He quickly swerved to the side.

The moment Zhu Yong brought the car to a steady stop, two massive searchlights suddenly flared to life ahead, blasting them with a blinding glare.

Everyone in the car reflexively squeezed their eyes shut.

Song Shijun instinctively raised his backpack to block the light. "What the hell?"

A chorus of howls, "AWOOOO! AWOOOO!" echoed from outside the window.

Immediately after, a horde of bizarrely shaped figures rushed out from both sides of the road.

Li Xiang pressed his face against the window to look out. "Whoa, it’s a huge group of wild men! Bro, there are so many of them!"

"How many?"

"Probably a thousand or so!"

"Holy shit!" Li Dawei shot upright in his seat. "Don’t tell me they’re here to rob us?"

Song Kexin squeezed in next to her sister, peering out the window. "Sis, who are all these people? Why aren’t they wearing any clothes?"

Each one wore a grass skirt and a straw hat; their outfits, believe it or not, were quite uniform.

"That’s like asking, ’Why don’t they eat cake?’" Song Shijun couldn’t help but roast his sister.

’Who would choose to be bald if they could have hair?’

’They obviously don’t have the means to get better clothes!’

"Oh my god, don’t tell me these people are professional robbers who just wait on this road?"

Xie Ning nodded.

Without a doubt, this was a crew of professional bandits.

And not only that, they had gathered together to form a group of considerable scale.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.