As soon as Wuning put away the dagger, the man in front of her pulled it out from her waist.
“Reporting, sir, I just wanted a weapon for self-defense,” Wuning had no choice but to speak up.
But considering what had just happened, it seemed useless for her to hold onto it anyway.
“Self-defense?” The special forces soldiers who had witnessed the scene earlier burst into laughter.
Bo Yin deftly sheathed the dagger and turned to leave.
Wuning felt slightly embarrassed and quietly flexed her numb wrist.
She had used all her strength in that strike, only to have it rebound onto herself. Now her entire right wrist and forearm throbbed with pain.
Fortunately, the rescue ship returned shortly after. No further crises occurred, and everyone safely left the Dark Sky Zone.
Aside from a few who had fainted from fright, there were also those who were too terrified to walk properly and were knocked unconscious impatiently, lying bruised and swollen in the corners.
The military headquarters had already received the report. As soon as they landed, all the trainees were taken away for examination and treatment.
The base dock was bustling with people.
Yet, a large vacuum surrounded the 191 Phantom Squad.
Each of them bore bloodstains, but the medical team assumed they didn’t need treatment.
Eli watched the surroundings coldly, sneering repeatedly.
Garnet, his voice low and muffled, grumbled unhappily as he adjusted his gear belt, “Not even a word of thanks.”
Bo Yin lowered his gaze to his communicator. “Mission complete.”
He headed to the command station to submit the mission report, while the rest of the team dispersed.
At the base hospital, Wuning had her arm sprayed with medication by a nurse.
“It’s fractured,” the nurse said sympathetically. “Did the 191 squad do this?”
“Why do you say that?” Wuning asked, trembling with pain.
“Your companions are mostly just shaken up. Only you have such a severe injury—it must be 191’s doing,” the nurse explained, her tone filled with wariness and hostility toward the 191 squad.
“They hate medics the most, and you’re a pretty girl too.”
Wuning curved her lips into a faint smile at the nurse. “Thank you, but I still have to thank them for saving us. This injury is partly my own fault.”
“Oh, you’re so sweet. No need to explain for them. Everyone knows what those lunatics in the 191 squad are like,” the nurse said, shuddering as she spoke.
After finishing the spray, she gave a few instructions and hurried away.
Wuning finally let out a sigh of relief and rested quietly.
A few bursts of static echoed in her mind as the System finally came online.
[How did you get injured as soon as you arrived?!]
The System screamed worriedly, [Let’s go back, let’s go back! I’ll file a report with headquarters!]
Wuning called out to it, trying to soothe it. “It’s fine. But the mission target is all members of 191. So, who’s the male lead?”
[The male lead is Bo Yin, but the tricky part about this world is that just targeting the male lead isn’t enough. You need to stabilize the entire 191 squad. Almost no one can handle relationships with all five of these lunatics at once.]
The System sighed deeply.
Wuning pondered thoughtfully. “I can give it a try. Don’t worry.”
The System barely managed a few more words before being forced offline again.
Wuning also fell into a deep sleep due to the medication.
A week later, she recovered and was discharged from the hospital.
Her classmates had already been assigned to various combat units.
An officer came to ask for her preference.
Wuning handed over her application.
The officer took it with a smile, but his expression froze when he read it. He held it closer, then farther away, disbelief written all over his face. “You… you want to go to 191?!”
“Yes, I voluntarily apply to join the 191 Phantom Squad as an accompanying medic,” Wuning replied earnestly.
The base conference room had the number 191 posted on the door.
After Bo Yin announced that a medic would be arriving, the others erupted in an uproar.
“We don’t need those useless idiots! I’ll break the neck of every one that comes!” Cook’s rough, deep voice boomed in opposition.
Eli curled his lip disdainfully. “Wasn’t the fate of those previous fools miserable enough? Why would headquarters still send someone? They’d be happy to see us dead.”
Sanchez leaned against the table. “Bo Yin, you accepted this? That doesn’t seem like your style.”
Even Garnet, the tallest and usually the most reserved, had a sharp edge to his voice. “Ha, which idiot is volunteering? I’ll tear them to shreds and use the pieces to clean my gun!”
Wuning stood outside the door, hearing every word clearly.
How fierce.
Then she reached out and knocked.
Silence fell inside, followed by the door swinging inward.
Wuning walked in. Her voice was soft and light, a polite, faint smile on her small, pale face the size of a palm. “Reporting. I am Wuning, the accompanying medic for the 191 Phantom Squad.”
Apart from Bo Yin, the other four stared at her in astonishment.
Clearly, they hadn’t expected anyone to actually be willing to come.
Wait, weren’t they notorious and known for being insane?
Had they not killed enough people recently?
That couldn’t be—hadn’t they just finished a mission?
Garnet was the first to react. With a low growl, he ducked beside the table, burying his face in his knees. “Damn it, don’t look at me!”
He wasn’t wearing his mask.
One of the reasons the entire 191 squad was considered dangerous was that they always wore masks whenever they appeared in public.
The pitch-black masks, gleaming with a cold light, covered everything below the eyes.
It made them seem more like human-shaped weapons.
Who knew whether humans or monsters were hidden beneath those masks?
Because they were difficult to interact with, they had a separate area within the base, complete with dormitories, training grounds, and conference rooms.
In this area, they sometimes didn’t wear their masks.
They hadn’t expected an outsider to intrude today.
Garnet was extremely unwilling for anyone to see his face. His movements were so frantic he nearly overturned the table, his muffled voice tinged with panic.
“Don’t look at me! Don’t look at me!”
Sanchez whistled with a smile, though his eyes looked anything but friendly. “So it’s a little lamb.”
“Why aren’t you with your own kind? What are you doing here?”
Cook, usually silent and taciturn, was still loudly objecting. “Make her leave! Otherwise, Garnet will turn into an idiot hiding from people all day!”
Garnet cursed under his breath. “Shut up!”
Wuning wasn’t sure how to explain amid the clamor that her intentions were entirely friendly.
So she simply released her mental power.
After the interstellar evolution, human lifespans had extended to around 200 years, and changes in genetic sequences had given rise to mental power.
Wuning accepted this setting very smoothly—after all, she had experienced Sentinel-Guide and ABO-type interstellar worlds before.
But in those worlds, she had always been an ordinary person in Sentinel-Guide worlds or a Beta in ABO worlds.
That was really just being an extra.
This was the first time she truly possessed something like mental power or pheromones.
It was hard not to try it out.
As for the soldiers, those capable of fighting in the Dark Sky Zone were all individuals unfortunate enough to have been contaminated by dark matter.
Their lifespans generally lasted around 40 years. After contamination, their physical fitness and combat abilities increased dramatically, along with terrifying self-healing capabilities.
Accompanying these changes were various mental illnesses.
Fury, manic depression, paranoia, deformity, madness, distortion, detachment from normality, neuroticism, and so on.
Moreover, this condition worsens with the number of battles fought and as they age.
In other words, in the later stages of their lifespan, they are no different from the monsters of the Dark Sky Zone.
If they could receive mental energy soothing, although it wouldn’t extend their lifespan, it could reduce the agitation of their mental power, allowing them to live as normal individuals.
All members of Squad 191 are over thirty in biological age, but their physical fitness and appearance remain frozen at the time they were contaminated years ago.
For others, this condition wouldn’t have driven them to madness yet.
But the members of Squad 191 were already somewhat abnormal to begin with, and after being contaminated, they fully unleashed their true natures.
In private, everyone referred to them as demons.
Even this area was considered a forbidden hellscape no one dared to tread.
But now, Wuning drifted in like a fluffy cloud, floating gently into their midst.
And with her mental power, she brought a refreshing drizzle to each person’s scorched, hellish mental sea.
It didn’t take long before Sanchez grabbed Wuning by the throat.
Bo Yin made no move to stop him.
The members of the squad were more like companions than subordinates, bound together by certain reasons that linked their lives, so Bo Yin wouldn’t interfere in such trivial matters.
Without the obstruction of a face mask, Sanchez’s aggressively handsome features and the densely packed scars on his neck loomed larger and larger before her eyes.
Wuning shivered, her gaze politely avoiding looking further down, meeting only Sanchez’s amber eyes with an innocent stare.
Sanchez responded with a smooth, gentle tone, matching her superficial politeness, “Like what you see, little lamb?”
Come on, tremble in his palm.
An ignorant little thing like her should shiver in his grasp, uncontrollably shedding tears of terror, only to have her neck snapped.
Wuning hesitated, unsure how to reply.
She wasn’t quite sure what kind of answer he wanted—obedient submission or feigned rebellion? Consideration or cruelty?
Or perhaps he simply wanted to see her fear.
If she followed her usual approach… no, that wouldn’t be appropriate at all.
But the fingers around her neck tightened relentlessly, leaving her no time to think!
Wuning had no choice but to speak up helplessly, “That’s so cool! Where’d you get it done? Did you do it yourself or was it a prop? Can I get one too?”
This was the line she used most often in her Quick Transmigration year-end summaries.
It frequently came up in infinite flow scenarios, when she coveted the props of other NPCs.