[Congratulations, Host. You have killed one mutated beast and earned 0.1 Purification Point.]
…
The notifications continued endlessly, so many that they began overlapping with one another.
Before long, every aphid flying in the sky had been exterminated.
Cheng Ye then led his team in sweeping the ground with flamethrowers one more time.
As for any aphids still hidden underground and undiscovered, they would leave those alone for now.
Meanwhile, Wu Chenggang and Liu Qiao’s bodies had been devoured beyond recognition by the aphids.
They had long since stopped breathing.
Xiang Ge looked at the two corpses with a heavy expression and complicated feelings.
There were still so many aphids crawling on them.
If only someone would spray them with a flamethrower.
But she had just claimed to be close friends with them.
Turning them into barbecue immediately afterward might seem a little heartless.
Ah… those are all Purification Points…
What a waste.
“Don’t be too sad. From what I saw, they didn’t treat you very well anyway.”
Seeing the girl’s gloomy expression, Cheng Ye offered some comfort.
After only a few interactions, he had already concluded that the couple were lazy, greedy, and dishonest.
In his opinion, they were a waste of food even when alive.
“What will happen to their bodies?” Xiang Ge asked sorrowfully.
“They have too many mutated aphids on them. We can’t bring them back to the base.”
“We’ll have to cremate them on the spot.”
Hmm?
Cremate?
Burn them?
A light at the end of the tunnel?
Xiang Ge’s expression immediately became much less sorrowful.
“Can I personally send them off on their final journey?”
“Of course, if you want to.”
In the end, Xiang Ge successfully harvested one final batch of mutated aphids.
This entire trip earned her a total of 134 Purification Points.
Of course, that wasn’t her only gain.
After most of the aphids had been eliminated, Cheng Ye gathered the fleeing workers back together.
Everyone rushed to carry whatever edible potatoes they had harvested to the entrance and lined up for settlement.
Because of the aphid infestation, the potato field was no longer considered safe.
The remaining potatoes would be abandoned.
Everyone had to evacuate as quickly as possible.
People fought to stand at the front of the line.
Nobody wanted to remain in this dangerous place for even one extra second.
The military personnel clearly shared the same goal and processed settlements rapidly.
Xiang Ge stood at the very back of the line.
Beside her sat a mountain of potatoes.
Far more than anyone else’s.
Because she had helped fight the aphids, Cheng Ye made an executive decision.
After the required portion was turned over to the base, everything that Liu Qiao and Wu Chenggang had harvested would belong to Xiang Ge.
The two lazy freeloaders hadn’t left much behind.
Still, something was better than nothing.
Xiang Ge was quite satisfied.
Standing casually at the rear of the line, she looked completely different from everyone else, who seemed as nervous as if facing a great enemy.
She even had the leisure to continue observing the potato field.
She noticed Cheng Ye crouching alone in the field, digging into the soil with a dagger.
After only a few scoops, his expression changed.
He immediately returned to the entrance and said something to his teammates.
The settlement line was quickly split into three separate queues.
Processing speed increased dramatically.
In the end, after turning in the required share, Xiang Ge was left with eight potatoes.
Of course, that was only her visible harvest.
She also had thirteen potatoes hidden in her storage space.
Combined, she now possessed twenty-one potatoes.
Two of them were the low-radiation potatoes she had secretly kept for herself.
The two buses were soon filled again.
Most people had only harvested two or three potatoes.
The luckiest had managed four.
Whether carried in baskets or hugged in their arms, everyone could manage their load easily.
Only Xiang Ge’s eight potatoes stood out conspicuously.
One of the soldiers who had fought the aphids alongside her found a large sack and gave it to her.
Only then was she able to pack all the potatoes together and shove the bag beneath the first row of seats.
Unlike the trip out, nobody rushed to sit near the military personnel on the return journey.
Instead, everyone intentionally left the seats closest to them empty.
As a result, Xiang Ge, who had boarded last, ended up sitting in the very front row.
As the bus started moving, exhaustion finally crashed over her.
Every ounce of strength seemed to drain from her body.
She was tired.
So tired.
Resting her head against the railing in front of her, she closed her eyes and listened to Cheng Ye chatting with the driver.
“Captain Cheng, the points from potato harvesting aren’t worth much.”
“The follow-up mission to clear the mutated aphids will probably fall to our Second Legion, right?”
“That’s a great assignment. Sign me up when the time comes.”
The driver’s name was Mu Ming.
He was close friends with Cheng Ye and also the soldier who had kindly found Xiang Ge a sack for her potatoes.
“A great assignment?”
“There aren’t just mutated aphids in that field.”
“There are also their symbiotic beasts—mutated red ants.”
“Those things have hard shells. Ordinary flamethrowers can’t handle them.”
“What?”
“There are red ants too?”
“No wonder you wanted everyone evacuated so quickly.”
“Our base only has one fire-type ability user—Shen Jin.”
“Don’t tell me we’re going to have to cooperate with the First Legion again.”
Mu Ming clicked his tongue.
Clearly, the Second Legion and First Legion didn’t get along.
“Probably.”
“After all, they’re ability users.”
Cheng Ye’s tone remained neutral.
“So what if they’re ability users?”
“Captain, even without abilities, you’re still the strongest individual fighter in the entire base.”
Mu Ming genuinely believed that.
“Besides, there are only six ability users in the whole base.”
“Didn’t all of them awaken during combat after reaching adulthood?”
“If we spend more time on the battlefield killing mutated beasts, maybe we’ll awaken abilities too.”
Whether he was encouraging himself or comforting his captain, Mu Ming remained remarkably optimistic.
Ability users.
That term was very familiar to Xiang Ge.
There had been countless ability users in her former apocalypse.
She herself had been a psychic-type ability user.
When she first transmigrated, she had already tested her powers.
This body’s mental energy reserves were completely dried up.
There was nothing left to activate.
Still…
Perhaps her excessively high radiation level was suppressing her potential.
Once she lowered her radiation further, she would definitely try again.
As she pondered the idea, drowsiness finally overwhelmed her.
She fell asleep.
She had no idea how long she slept.
When Xiang Ge finally opened her eyes, the bus had already stopped.
Everyone else was gone.
Only Cheng Ye and Mu Ming remained standing in front of her.
“You really can sleep, huh?”
“If I hadn’t kept an eye on your potatoes, all that digging would’ve been for nothing.”
Mu Ming had only helped because he had watched Xiang Ge work tirelessly all night.
She dug efficiently.
She fought aphids decisively.
He liked her straightforward attitude.
“Sorry.”
Even Xiang Ge was startled.
In her previous life, the slightest noise would wake her instantly.
That vigilance was the reason she had survived alone in the apocalypse for so long.
This body, however, was simply too weak and exhausted.
She bent down and dragged the sack of potatoes out from beneath the seat.
Then she pulled out two potatoes and handed one to Cheng Ye and the other to Mu Ming.
Without them, someone might have stolen the entire sack while leaving the bus.
“Uh…”
“You worked hard for those.”
“You should keep them.”
Mu Ming had only helped casually.
He hadn’t expected anything in return.
Besides, a football-sized potato could feed one person for two or three days if rationed carefully.
For military personnel like them, that wasn’t much.
But for the skinny, undernourished girl standing before him, it was a valuable gift indeed.