Chapter 149: The Heart of Jealousy

Ling Feng’s reaction was well within the expectations of Mei and the others. In the middle of the night, he came looking for them once more.

"I agree to change the mission, but you must give me the formula!" Ling Feng looked at Cyril, his gaze a mixture of excitement and lingering regret.

What a waste!
That such a person could not be put to use for the nation was truly a tremendous pity!

Cyril did not speak. He simply tossed a piece of parchment over to him, clearly having prepared it well in advance.

"I leave the energy matter in your hands, and please ensure that Country A’s plan is completely disrupted. Once this mission is accomplished, you may take my soul whenever you wish!" Ling Feng caught the parchment, examined it closely, and then tucked it away carefully before speaking again.

"You don't need to tell me that; I am definitely taking the energy source with me! When daybreak comes, we will find an opportunity to fake our deaths and leave. I must ask Colonel Ling to provide cover for us," Mei said, outlining the plan they had already agreed upon.

"Very well! I will do my best!" Ling Feng promised without hesitation.

Since both sides shared the same objective, he naturally had to do everything in his power to assist.

As the sky gradually brightened, those who had rested through the night began to wake up one after another.

Breakfast was once again provided by Country A: two pieces of compressed hardtack per person, alongside a bowl of thick, paste-like soup whose ingredients were entirely unidentifiable.

"Does Country A have nothing else to eat? Why is it this again?" Mei looked at the food others were receiving, which was identical to what they had last night, and then glanced at the Country A personnel eating with great relish, her eyes filled with pity.

The people of Country A were truly pitiful. Such coarse food could actually make them feel so satisfied, which showed that their regular meals must be far worse than this!

"The food in Country A has always been simple and rough. Now that the world has ended, what kind of decent food do you expect them to pull out?" Mo Chen said as he retrieved fresh ingredients from his spatial storage, asking An Ziyou to help prepare breakfast.

Considering that time was rather tight, their breakfast consisted of a cup of hot milk each, a large, fluffy and soft slice of bread, and a fried egg—nutritious, quick, and convenient.

When the rich aroma of heated milk drifted through the camp, it immediately drew numerous gazes filled with envy, jealousy, and resentment.

So what if you have spatial storage and supplies? Is it really necessary to show off so early in the morning?

Many people thought bitterly to themselves, biting into their hardtack with mounting force.

Not far away, Xiao Keren looked at Mei’s breakfast, then at the dry, hard compressed biscuit in her own hand, and finally at that unidentifiable bowl of soup, feeling more and more disgruntled.

She had those exact same items in her spatial storage, but she didn't dare to take them out at all for fear of attracting unwanted attention from others.

Clearly, she could be living very comfortably, yet she was unable to enjoy it and could only watch as others lived the high life. How could she possibly feel at ease?

Watching Mei finish her breakfast with a look of complete satisfaction, while someone right beside her meticulously wiped the milk stain from the corner of her lips, Xiao Keren found that content expression glaringly offensive. A heavy sense of blockage grew in her chest.

"Keren, what are you looking at? Hurry up and eat! Otherwise, once we get on the vehicle later, you won't have any appetite left at all!" Xiao Kefeng urged after finishing the food in his hands, turning around only to find that Xiao Keren hadn't touched her meal in the slightest.

Hearing her older brother's words, a sudden surge of resentment welled up in Xiao Keren's heart.

"If you want to eat it, you eat it! I don't want it!" Xiao Keren shoved the food back at Xiao Kefeng in a fit of pique.

"How can you not eat? There's no telling what kind of trouble we might encounter on the road. What will you do if you don't have the strength then?" Xiao Kefeng continued with his usual good-natured patience.

"I can't eat this! Brother, don't you ever want to eat something decent? We clearly don't have to wrong ourselves like this; why must we..."

Xiao Keren spoke with a voice full of grievance, but before she could finish, she was yanked away by Xiao Kefeng. The commotion was loud enough to draw sideways glances from quite a few people nearby.

"Have you lost your mind? How could you blatantly spout such things out in the open? What would happen if someone overheard you?" Xiao Kefeng dragged her into the narrow gap between two large buses, far away from the crowd, and then lowered his voice to lecture her, a mix of anger and anxiety.

However, Xiao Keren, deeply provoked by Mei, was entirely deaf to his persuasion at this moment.

"So what if someone hears? My spatial storage is already completely bound to me; others can't just snatch it away! I really don't understand what you're worrying about! Look at those people—they use their spatial storage openly, and they're still living just fine, aren't they? No one is giving them any trouble! Why do I have to hide and cower, having food I dare not eat and supplies I dare not use?" Xiao Keren demanded indignantly.

Hearing this, Xiao Kefeng anxiously scanned his surroundings. Making sure no figures were in sight, he lowered his voice even further and said, "What on earth is wrong with you today? Haven't I explained these issues to you many times before? Don't assume that just because you haven't encountered it yet, certain things don't exist and certain events won't happen. Do you really think that just because your spatial storage is bound to you, others are powerless? For a young girl like you, if people truly want to force you to hand over the supplies in your space, there are countless ways they can do it! Since the apocalypse began, haven't you seen enough of the dark side of human nature?"

"I've heard enough of these lectures! Brother, don't you think you're being overly cautious? I'm already a level-six ice-attribute ability user, and you're about to reach level seven! We are no weaker than that Mei and the people around her. We are fully capable of protecting ourselves and deterring anyone from casting greedy eyes on us! I don't care, I simply refuse to endure this any longer!" Xiao Keren insisted stubbornly.

Seeing that his sister was completely ignoring his advice this time, Xiao Kefeng felt a splitting headache, but he could only continue coaxing her: "Keren, calm down! I know you feel aggrieved, but after all, we are currently in a foreign country. Once your abilities are exposed and the people of Country A insist on detaining you, do you really think the two of us can handle it? I promise you, once this mission is over and we return, I will let you use the supplies from your space. Can you bear with it just a little longer?"

After venting her frustrations, the jealousy and resentment in Xiao Keren's heart subsided slightly. Hearing her brother finally relent, she still felt a bit reluctant, but ultimately nodded.

Seeing that his sister had finally been placated, Xiao Kefeng let out a breath of relief. He checked the surroundings once more before pulling Xiao Keren back toward the group. Just shortly after they left, a figure leaped down from the roof of a bus. The man looked in the direction where the Xiao siblings had departed, a playful smirk curving the corner of his lips.

Well, what do you know!
He had actually managed to eavesdrop on such explosive content!
The team leader was definitely going to give him a raise for this!

Taking advantage of the fact that no one was paying attention to him, the man casually strolled back toward the area where his own team was stationed.

After breakfast, the convoy set off once more, with Mei and her group continuing to drive a separate vehicle at the very tail end of the procession.

Before noon, the convoy was once again ambushed by mutant animals. This time, what they encountered was a massive swarm of mutant rats.

The mutant rats were not particularly large, only about twice the size of normal rodents. Aside from a pair of hardened front incisors capable of gnawing through anything as easily as if it were tofu, they did not seem to possess any other offensive capabilities.

Before the rats could even get close, the ability users unleashed their powers. A single wave of abilities laid waste to large swaths of them, making the slaughter exceptionally effortless.

Within moments, the dense, countless swarms of mutant rats that had filled the area were practically wiped out. Casting one's gaze around, the surroundings were littered with nothing but corpses, with virtually no living creatures left in sight.

"This battle was so easy!"

"Yeah! These mutant rats are way worse than yesterday's mutant sparrows. But then again, Country A really has a ton of mutant animals! In our country, you might not even encounter a single mutant animal in an entire month!"

"How many people are in your country? And how many are in Country A? With such a vast territory and a population less than half of yours, having a huge landmass with sparse people—isn't it normal to have more animals?"

"What you're saying makes sense! Our country definitely has way more zombies than Country A!"

"Even though zombies generally aren't as lethal as mutant animals, zombies can transmit the virus. When you really think about it, the threat they pose is much greater than that of mutant animals!"

"Yeah, a friend of mine got infected with the zombie virus; there was no saving him, so we had to put him down. I really hope those researchers can come up with a cure soon, so it makes all the risks I took running all the way out here worthwhile!"

"Ain't that the truth!"
……

The ability users chatted among themselves as they returned to their vehicles, waiting to resume the journey.

However, not long after the convoy started moving again, "Bang! Bang!" popping sounds suddenly echoed from outside. The occupants in several of the vehicles felt a violent sway, followed by a sudden drop as the carriage bodies seemed to crash directly onto the ground!

What was going on here?
Everyone inside the vehicles was bewildered. Remembering the incident with the mutant sparrows from the day before, they didn't dare to step out directly, nor did they even dare to open the windows, choosing instead to peer outside through the glass.

One look was all it took to frighten everyone nearly out of their wits by the scene outside. For reasons unknown, the corpses of those mutant rats appeared to have been inflated like balloons, swelling up rapidly. The slightest external force would cause them to detonate instantly!

Some ability users wanted to use their powers to clear away the suddenly bloated carcasses, but as soon as their abilities touched the bodies, it immediately triggered a series of chain explosions. The massive scale of the blast even impacted the vehicle belonging to that user, causing cracks to rapidly spiderweb across the body of the car.

Seeing this, the rest of the people instantly lost the courage to act rashly, waiting to see if anyone else could come up with a solution.

Unfortunately, faced with this kind of situation, whether it was the team leaders from Country A, Country B, or Country C, everyone was encountering such a phenomenon for the very first time, leaving them completely helpless for the moment.

Just at that critical juncture, continuous explosions suddenly erupted from the very rear of the convoy.

The detonations generated dense clouds of smoke, making it utterly impossible for anyone to see what was actually happening behind them!

After a long while, until the explosive sounds gradually subsided and the smoke slowly cleared, the occupants of the last bus in the line realized that the path behind them—which had previously been completely blocked and surrounded by mutant rat corpses—had miraculously cleared, leaving an open route!

Feeling as though they had just been granted a second lease on life, the crowd scrambled through the windows onto the roof of the bus, and then jumped down onto the empty ground behind, fleeing far away from the unexploded rat carcasses.

The vehicles ahead, informed via radio communications that a retreat path had miraculously opened up in the rear, also abandoned their cars one after another, treading across the roofs to escape the rat-corpse encirclement.

When everyone had safely reached the open ground and distanced themselves far away from the rodent remains, someone finally noticed that a few people were missing! (To be continued.)