Chapter 137: Blisters on the bottom of the foot
Su Yinhe had stopped setting up her stall recently, as she took a great interest in the plants that grew wildly outside the base.
When she learned that Xu Jiaoqin’s team had undertaken a mission to hunt mutant animals outside the base, she was excited and followed them.
At first, Xu Jiaoqin did not agree.
Su Yinhe seemed defenseless, and if she accidentally died out there, where would they go shopping?
If they saw Su Yinhe in danger, they would certainly protect her, but the fear was that sometimes they would be too overwhelmed to look after themselves, let alone protect Su Yinhe.
This was Xu Jiaoqin’s worry.
But her concerns dissipated when she saw Su Yinhe almost kill a high-level Superpower User with her bare hands, someone who had hit on her and harassed her.
What was she worrying about?
Their boss looked soft and fragile but could actually crush her skull.
Su Yinhe went with them, and the prey she caught belonged to her; they each ate their own food, but she could use her space to carry water for Cheetah Team.
Cheetah Team, the entire squad, lacked a Water Element Superpower User.
Perhaps their team was cursed with Water Powers, they had recruited many Water Element Superpower Users, recruited one, went on a mission, they died, recruited another, went on another mission, dead again…
Over time, Cheetah Team had no Water Element Superpower User.
So before on missions, they had to carry a lot of water out.
The water they brought was generally only for drinking and cooking.
But they usually didn’t cook—it was too wasteful.
Anyway, when they were on missions, they always proceeded with heavy loads.
This time was good, with Su Yinhe who had space, they took her along; they would protect her if she was in danger, and she served as their mobile storage.
Not only did they put water into her space, but they also loaded their supplies into it.
Except for two days’ worth of dry food on each of their persons, everything else went into Su Yinhe’s space.
They did this to prevent separation from Su Yinhe by accident, and if their mobile warehouse disappeared, their environment was too harsh, so having food on them meant they were less likely to starve.
On the first day out, Su Yinhe had a hard time coping.
Cheetah Team was always on the move.
Other than eating and sleeping, they were traveling.
Her feet had blisters by the end of the day.
She hated that her supermarket didn’t sell cars, only tanks.
“Do you want me to pick at it?” Xu Jiaoqin offered to help with Su Yinhe’s blister, “Don’t worry, I’m very experienced.”
Su Yinhe quickly retracted her foot, put her socks back on, and re-shoed.
Then she got up and tentatively took a step, feeling that indescribable mix of pain and relief.
“Really don’t want it?”
Su Yinhe actually saw a hint of regret in Xu Jiaoqin’s face.
As if not feeling any pain, Su Yinhe ran off with her shoes on.
“Hey!” wasn’t her foot hurting? Xu Jiaoqin watched Su Yinhe’s rabbit-fast figure with some regret.
“Captain, can you… can you rein in your weird hobby?” Liu Wutong couldn’t bear to watch.
“Human hobbies are free,” Xu Jiaoqin declared confidently.
Liu Wutong’s mouth twitched, freedom, but surely not to this extent.
After a day of walking, Cheetah Team decided to treat themselves, they started a fire, Su Yinhe took out their pot, noodles, some vegetables, and seasoning.
Liu Wutong and Bai Yuanyuan began to cook the noodles, the thin kind of egg noodles. They had originally planned to cook rice but felt it wasn’t convenient, so they cooked noodles.
They cooked much faster.
For Cheetah Team, who often carry out tasks outside without a Water Element Superpower User and need to conserve water, the meal was indeed sumptuous.
It was too extravagant.
They usually gnawed on pancakes directly or skewered any prey they caught over a fire to roast.
A soup was almost unheard of.
Su Galaxy contributed some greens and joined them in eating the communal pot of noodles.
The taste was somewhat bland, but eating with so many people made it quite lively, and even boosted Su Galaxy’s appetite.
After slurping down a bowl of noodles, Su Galaxy was full, but the members of Cheetah Team were still eagerly urging her to eat more, thinking she was too shy to help herself.
“Don’t be polite. Grab some more, or there won’t be any soup left soon,” Xu Jiaoqin said while slurping her noodles, calling for her to take more.
The noodles fresh out of the pot were very hot, but everyone in Cheetah Team ate quickly, as if they didn’t feel the heat at all.
Su Galaxy shook her head and took an apple to gnaw on instead.
It wasn’t good to eat too much late at night.
She was already eighty percent full; any more would be too much. However, an apple was still fine.
As Cheetah Team noisily slurped their noodles, Su Galaxy was beside them, crunching into her apple.
Today’s apple was large, crisp, and sweet.
After dinner, they chatted for a while, left a few people on night duty, and then the rest lay down to sleep directly around the campfire.
Su Galaxy didn’t fancy using the sky as her blanket and the ground as her bed, so she got out her tent.
After getting into the tent, she didn’t feel completely safe, so she generated a protective shield for herself.
Now she was a rich woman, with Crystal Cores piled up like a small hill; she could put up her protective shield as desired.
She didn’t entrust her safety completely to the people of Cheetah Team.
Better safe than sorry.
In fact, Su Galaxy had her defenses, so she wasn’t afraid of a nighttime sneak attack, as she wouldn’t die anyway.
When she had stayed with Chi Yan and the others before, she had forgotten the first time, but later, having gained some trust in them, she didn’t generate a protective shield around her tent.
But she was now in the dangerous wild, and though she could not die, she wanted a greater sense of security.
She always used a high-level shield. And she even layered it three times.
The highest-level ones were hard to bring herself to use, but she was willing to use the generally high-level ones.
Thanks to the protective shield, Su Galaxy managed to sleep fairly well.
Her only complaint was that they got up too early.
Just when the sky was faintly lit, Cheetah Team was already awake and hitting the road.
That day on the road, Cheetah Team encountered another squad also out on a mission, and the two squads politely made way for each other.
Afterward, Xu Jiaoqin breathed a sigh of relief.
When you’re away from home, apart from mutant animals, Mutated Plants, and hordes of Zombies, the last thing you wanted to run into was other squads.
Who knew what kind of squad you might encounter?
Some squads with a bit of morality would pass by without getting close, after a polite encounter.
Others with no morals at all might come looking for trouble if their numbers were stronger.
Especially on the return trip, when they were carrying supplies, some cunning and ruthless squads didn’t go on missions but came out specifically to rob other squads.
If Cheetah Team encountered such squads, they weren’t afraid, but they would prefer to avoid trouble if they could.
Xu Jiaoqin feared that they would be severely weakened even before encountering mutant animals.
Or that they would have just killed a mutant animal, only to have someone come along and try to steal it.
The latter was particularly disgusting.
This time, they seemed to have encountered a squad with common sense.
But Xu Jiaoqin dared not relax her vigilance; after parting ways with the other squad, she made several hand signals to Monkey.
And then Monkey set off and soon disappeared from sight.