Lin Qianxing puffed out his small chest with pride upon hearing the compliment. "Of course! These are treasures I crafted day and night without rest!"
Bai Shu asked him, "Including these little dresses?"
Lin Qianxing's face instantly turned red. "So what if I did? Is there a rule saying boys can't make dresses?"
Bai Shu replied, "Not at all. I just think you're very talented."
Wang Weihu added, "A craftsman is a craftsman, regardless of gender. There are plenty of male tailors out there."
Lin Qianxing glanced at them with a peculiar expression before muttering under his breath, "You guys are actually pretty nice." Then, louder, he said, "Alright, if there's nothing else, you should leave now. I've got more customers waiting outside. Take your medicine, and next time, I can upgrade one of your cold weapons for free."
He emphasized, "Just this once!"
His stingy demeanor was almost comical.
With their business concluded, Qin Luo and his group were promptly ushered out by Lin Qianxing. True to form, the boy quickly disappeared behind a small door, leaving his clown puppet, Bu Bu, and the mechanical parrot at the entrance to manage the shop. The parrot's name was Dull.
It was only after stepping outside that they noticed a customer muttering at the door, "Huh? Why won't the door open today? Did my attractiveness drop?"
The next moment, the clown puppet opened the glass door, bowing gracefully as it said, "Welcome."
The customer looked both flattered and surprised.
Before entering, the customer glanced back at the 3A Special Operations Team, murmuring, "Oh, so there were people inside? Is the shop limiting customers today?"
A while later, inside the shop, the customer suddenly realized something and exclaimed, "Holy crap! That was the 3A Special Operations Team just now! Damn it, I missed them!"
---
Meanwhile.
With their task completed, Qin Luo and his team felt relieved. On the way, they decided to help Lin Qianxing deliver some medicine to the orphanage.
For Wang Weihu and the others, it was their first time visiting this place. Upon hearing that Liu Chunhui and her family were staying here, they felt genuinely happy for them. It was a sense of fulfillment, knowing that the survivors they had personally rescued were now living well.
However, they didn’t plan to meet Liu Chunhui specifically. To them, once the survivors were saved, their lives became their own business. As long as they lived well, there was no need for further interference.
Lin Qianxing’s good friend, Sun Yuan, was a ten-year-old girl who had suffered burns in the past, leaving scars all over her body, especially on her face.
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But she was truly adorable.
Her personality was equally lovely.
She was sitting by the playground, drawing, accompanied by another familiar girl—the same one who had drawn the map of the grain warehouse for them last time.
Qin Luo didn’t disturb them. After handing the medicine to the teacher, he prepared to leave with his teammates.
Xu Duoduo left a bag of snacks for the children, also giving it to the teacher.
Wang Weihu and the others couldn’t help but feel emotional.
"This place is pretty great. The kids may have lost their families, but this is already the best life they could have."
"Yeah, it’s like a fairy tale paradise."
"The person who built this orphanage is a genius. It’s even more fun than the schools we went to as kids."
Qin Luo glanced at the little zombie, who remained silent. He felt that she was becoming increasingly normal. Occasionally, in certain fleeting moments, she even seemed fully human again.
Just as he was about to say something, the team simultaneously received an urgent mission notification. The destination this time was I City!
One of the coastal cities.
Back when they had to choose between C City and I City, they opted for C City to collect grain, abandoning I City. Later, the authorities took over I City and established a small base there. Unfortunately, frequent natural disasters plagued the area, including torrential rains and massive typhoons.
Now, mutated marine creatures had even come ashore, posing a severe threat to the safety of I City’s temporary survivor base.
They had no choice but to send out a distress signal.
Upon receiving the alert, headquarters immediately dispatched twenty combat teams for the mission, marking it as a mandatory operation.
After reading the details, Qin Luo said, "Emergency mission. No time to waste. Let’s move out."
Wang Weihu immediately contacted the vehicle maintenance staff to retrieve their car.
Bai Shu frowned as he reviewed the data on his tablet. "Mutated marine creatures? This is going to be tricky."
Some areas of I City were still flooded with seawater, making combat even more challenging.
Additionally, Qin Luo’s ability was lightning-based. While water could amplify the range and intensity of his lightning strikes, it also increased the risk of friendly fire. Coordination would be crucial to avoid harming their own teammates.
Xu Duoduo quickly pulled out her own tablet to check the latest updates on the emergency. The forums were already in an uproar. The most popular pinned post summarized the mutated marine creatures that had come ashore so far: massive octopus monsters, fast-moving cannibalistic starfish, venomous mutated fish, and more.
The variety was overwhelming.
It was speculated that this sudden outbreak over the past two days wasn’t due to increased pollution but rather because the creatures had migrated from a specific region—coincidentally arriving at I City.
Currently, I City’s temporary survivor base had been sealed off, allowing no one in or out. Everyone was defending the base.
"I’ll go get the car. You guys wait for me at the base entrance," Wang Weihu said after finishing his discussion with the staff.
Chen Xiaofei nodded. "Got it. We’ll meet you there."
Qin Luo urged everyone to hurry to the bus stop, grabbing Xu Duoduo as he ran.
An emergency mission signified an extremely critical situation. Marine creatures were already mysterious and terrifying, and with mutated ones now coming ashore, who could predict what might crawl out of the ocean next?
The temporary survivor base in I City was a small-scale facility, housing over 200,000 survivors. It had to be defended at all costs.
Evacuation would only be a last resort. With so many people, the three major bases wouldn’t be able to accommodate them all. The best solution was to stabilize the situation first and plan the next steps later.
Even if the survivors were to be relocated, it would have to wait until the construction of the three major bases was complete.
Otherwise, where would they live?
For now, the priority was to help defend I City’s base. Future plans would depend on headquarters' decisions.
Bai Shu glanced at the mission rewards, which amounted to a staggering 1.8 million points. "This won’t be easy."
Qin Luo clicked his tongue. "There’s no such thing as an easy job in the apocalypse. Let’s go. Didn’t Xu Duoduo mention last time that mutated shrimp were delicious? And Xiaofei said mutated squid was tasty. Let’s head over and achieve seafood freedom!"
Chen Xiaofei immediately burst into laughter, and Xu Duoduo, hearing that they might collect seafood, grew excited too!
Her spatial ability could store a ton of supplies. Hopefully, they’d find some good stuff this time!
Bai Shu, meanwhile, reviewed the information and quickly summarized it for himself, jotting down notes about the weaknesses of the mutated marine creatures.
His memory was excellent—almost photographic.
Other passengers on the bus had already seen the forum posts and recognized the 3A Special Operations Team. After the list of rescue teams was made public, many were relieved not to have been chosen themselves. After all, if given the choice, no one wanted to risk their life.
But when they overheard Qin Luo talking about catching seafood, they couldn’t help but chuckle. They envied the 3A team’s optimism and cheerful spirit—it was truly inspiring.
