Chapter 109: A New Mission, Part Two

"Hey!"

"White, did you finish your homework?"

Halfway there, Jason appeared from nowhere.

The bright and cheerful foreign youth grinned broadly as he joined them.

"Big White!"

White Jade Emperor smiled and nodded in greeting.

Old Black, Big White, Little White, and Maya, the blond foreign girl, made up the Seventh Squad's second combat team.

What was even funnier was that in the first combat team, which consisted of Lofi, Drumstick, Xia Youyou, and Su Xiaoke, there was Lofi as the main close-combat attacker, Drumstick as the main shield bearer, Xia Youyou as the long-range damage dealer, and the prodigy Su Xiaoke as the strategic mind and logistics support.

As a result, White Jade Emperor's role in the second combat team was unexpectedly that of a jack-of-all-trades: compensating for Jason's weak defense as an offense-and-defense fighter, for Maya's lack of close-range combat power, and for Willy's lack of intelligence as a scout.

The "homework" Jason mentioned naturally had nothing to do with White Jade Emperor's college major, but rather with the various study assignments the prodigy had given him.

Since he also served as the prodigy's laboratory assistant, he had no choice but to relearn medicine, biology, and other related fields.

Fortunately, for him now, that was hardly a difficult matter.

What was difficult was that he had to hurry and catch up with the prodigy's own reserves of knowledge, so that he could march alongside her into the field of anomalous and unconventional research, a realm utterly unlike the ordinary world of science.

In short, during this period, aside from his regular study tasks, he spent every day honing his extraordinary combat techniques at the squad headquarters and serving as the Seventh Squad's human punching bag.

As the members of the Seventh Squad gradually digested the combat imbalance caused by their sudden leap in rank, they also began once more to carry out the various daily patrol duties assigned by the League of Dawn and Harmony, such as monitoring overlap points and clearing out certain extraordinary creatures.

Because of the field of resonant sympathy and mutual attunement that White Jade Emperor carried with him, Lofi and Su Xiaoke no longer dared let him near any area in Jiangcheng that had once opened an overlap point.

So, reluctantly, they had to split the already understaffed Seventh Squad into two teams: the first team handled patrol duties, while the second team handled extermination operations.

White Jade Emperor asked curiously, "What did Boss call us together for now?"

Normally, extraordinary combat teams only began operations after eight in the evening, and the daytime was for independent activity.

It was barely past noon. Why had Lofi suddenly issued a muster order?

"I know! I know!"

Willy shouted as if eager to answer first: "The main force of the Firebird Team has come back. Maybe the League of Dawn and Harmony is planning some big operation?"

"The main force of the team?"

White Jade Emperor froze. Since joining the Seventh Squad, he had not seen a single person from the Firebird Team, which showed just how thoroughly the Seventh Squad had been left to fend for itself.

The three of them hurried back to Halfway Hill Community, only to find that the hillside, usually deserted, now had quite a few people moving about.

Even the headquarters of the other extraordinary teams, which had formerly been as deserted and eerie as haunted houses, now saw people coming and going in a constant stream.

"Looks like there really is some big action going on," Jason said quietly. "They've actually called back people from all the teams?"

The relations between the various extraordinary teams were far from good, so the three of them did not dare linger outside.

Under the cold stares cast from all directions, they slipped into Building 18 of the Firebird Team's hillside residential compound.

The Firebird Team headquarters, which had previously been empty, was bustling now as well.

People were coming and going from the rooms in the ground-level buildings; according to Willy, these were the Firebird Team's logistics staff.

Inside the team headquarters, the hall that had originally been used only by the Seventh Squad now had many more people in it.

For some reason, though, the young people around White Jade Emperor's age all seemed rather indifferent in attitude.

When they saw the three of them arrive, they merely glanced over casually, as if the three did not exist, then withdrew their gaze and went back to their own business, making the atmosphere somewhat awkward.

If White Jade Emperor had been an unfamiliar newcomer, it would have made sense that no one felt close to him.

But hadn't Jason and Willy already joined the Firebird Team?

Why were they also so distant from the other probationary squads in the Firebird Team?

Jason and Willy did not care much about that attitude. They did not greet those people either, but led White Jade Emperor straight to the room belonging to the Seventh Squad.

Lofi, Drumstick, Su Xiaoke, Xia Youyou, and Maya had already arrived early. Seeing White Jade Emperor come in wearing a baffled expression, they all laughed.

"Do you feel the 'unity and warmth' of our team yet?" Xia Youyou said with a playful smile, her words full of irony.

"Don't take it to heart. Who told us we were just baggage?" Lofi gave a self-mocking laugh. "Just treat them as if they don't exist. You'll get used to it!"

That only made White Jade Emperor even more confused. He had never understood this system of registered teams training probationary squads for the League of Dawn and Harmony.

Drumstick gave a rough explanation, and only then did White Jade Emperor understand.

New-generation extraordinary warriors like them were reserve members assembled by the League of Dawn and Harmony's Extraordinary Management Department.

The ones who could establish actual combat teams were mostly veterans who had lived through the chaotic years.

Though they had been forced to register with the Extraordinary Management Department of the League of Dawn and Harmony, they did so only out of deference to official power; it could hardly be said that relations were good.

So when the Extraordinary Management Department forcibly required them to train new-generation extraordinary warriors on their behalf, the Firebird Team was naturally unwilling.

After all, training newcomers also consumed resources.

This led to the fact that, apart from the two squads recruited by the Firebird Team itself and raised like their own children, the other five probationary squads were treated as the children of some neighbor, used as free labor. Their relationship, naturally, could not be good.

Even so, being treated by the team like child labor and exploited and squeezed dry, the probationary squads still had to grit their teeth and endure it in order to improve their strength.

After all, extraordinary missions were highly uncertain and extremely dangerous, and the death rate among probationary members had always remained stubbornly high.

With a proper extraordinary team protecting them, their chances of survival during such missions would be higher than if they risked it on their own.

In the end, the relationship between registered teams and probationary squads was one of mutual use.

If it were not for the chance to exploit free combat power, and occasionally poach talented people from among those who came to them on their own, who would be willing to spend money and effort helping someone else raise children?

"Our Seventh Squad has only been assigned under the Firebird Team for less than four months," Drumstick said with a bitter smile. "But altogether we've met people from the team fewer than five times. This is the first time I've seen so many of them..."