Chapter 125 : Chapter 125
Chapter 125
“Ji Qing, how do you do it?”
On the third day of the escort commission, and also its final day, Zhou Que suddenly leaned closer and asked Ji Qing, who was resting his chin on one hand as he looked out the window. Hearing that, Ji Qing turned back instinctively, only to find Zhou Que’s face right in front of him.
After a brief hesitation, Ji Qing asked, “Which part are you talking about?”
“I mean, um...” A trace of conflict flashed across Zhou Que’s face, but in the end he stubbornly said, “How do you judge an Aberrant’s motives?”
“By feel.”
Zhou Que immediately looked dissatisfied. “Other than that?”
“Then it’s talent.”
“No!!!” Zhou Que looked even more dissatisfied after hearing that. Sulking, he muttered, “You have to come up with a second reason for me! I absolutely refuse to believe it’s just talent. There’s no way I have no talent in this area!”
In truth, this was a species instinct... Ji Qing felt thoroughly troubled inside.
Helpless, Ji Qing smiled and said, “Alright, alright. I’ll try to sort it out.”
“Hmph!” Zhou Que snorted, clearly satisfied with Ji Qing’s answer this time. He quickly pulled the upper half of his body back into his own seat and proudly resumed the alert posture he had been maintaining earlier.
At the very least, Zhou Que did take his work seriously, Ji Qing thought.
Still, this matter really did put him in a difficult position. He might as well just make up some excuse and muddle through it. Ji Qing felt that, at its core, this was a lot like how East Asians often felt that white faces all looked alike, while white people often felt the same about East Asian faces.
Only those within the group could distinguish the differences among their own kind.
Aberrants could sense the emotions of other Aberrants.
That was also why this journey had gone so smoothly. Ji Qing lowered his gaze and glanced at the time displayed on his Terminal. The current time was 17:23.If the rest of the journey went smoothly, the convoy would arrive in Ding'an City at around 7:00 p.m.
The trip was even shorter than he had expected.
A strange sense of unreality suddenly rose in Ji Qing’s heart. In the past, whenever the manga protagonist was present, all kinds of ordeals would appear sooner or later, yet the current development was far calmer than he had imagined.
Could it be that he had overlooked some crucial point?
Ji Qing lightly tapped his fingertip against the door handle, his expression thoughtful.
On the third day of the escort commission, he and Zhou Que were paired together at the front of the convoy, while Xie Chang’an and Jiang Cuo were paired together at the rear.
During this three-day, two-night escort commission, they had encountered the flock of ostriches splashing about on the first afternoon, a hunting cheetah in the early hours of the second day, and then an attack from three or four Mutated Eagles that same morning.
Ji Qing had defused the first crisis with a clever method. Although he had not discovered the second crisis immediately, he had still provided support quickly enough. As for the third, the convoy members had suppressed it together with their machine guns.
Although those dangers sounded perilous, each of them had been snuffed out before it could truly develop.
But what about Xie Chang’an?
Only now did Ji Qing belatedly remember the manga protagonist. Because of the three days and two nights of patrols and watch duty, Ji Qing had nearly forgotten that he was currently participating in the manga’s main plotline. A bad premonition suddenly rose in his heart.
Xie Chang’an’s combat style leaned toward close-range fighting. It was difficult for him to deal with enemies that needed long-range suppression.
All three crises they had encountered so far had been solved by others, and Xie Chang’an had played only a minimal role in them. If this were not a hot-blooded shonen manga with Xie Chang’an as the protagonist, Ji Qing would naturally have thought there was nothing wrong with that.
The less they had to do along the way, the safer the convoy was.
But would Yuexia be willing to accept that?
After all, manga readers came in with expectations. The commission ended smoothly, yet the manga protagonist contributed nothing at all and could only watch as his teammate handled every problem single-handedly?
Would Yuexia really be willing to allow that sort of development?
The more Ji Qing thought about it, the tighter his brow furrowed.
As that thought surfaced, Ji Qing suddenly realized that he might have handled things too perfectly. Even though he and Zhou Que were part of a team, his own behavioral logic was still to deal with every problem by himself whenever possible.
On the theoretical level, he had done very well. On the practical level, however, it was a complete mess.
“Ji Qing, what’s wrong?”
Seeing Ji Qing’s expression suddenly turn grave for no clear reason, Zhou Que tilted his head in confusion. Somewhat unwillingly, he muttered under his breath, “If you really can’t think of anything, I’m not the kind of person who’d make things difficult for you...”
Yet the more he spoke, the more unwilling his expression became.
Ji Qing was immediately caught between laughter and helplessness. He understood exactly what Zhou Que was thinking. Zhou Que had clearly linked Ji Qing’s frown to the earlier question. Going along with Zhou Que’s assumption would certainly save Ji Qing a lot of trouble later, but he had no intention of doing that.
He and Zhou Que were friends, and friends should hide as little as possible from each other.
“I’m not failing to think of an answer,” Ji Qing said. “I just suddenly thought of something else.”
“Oh, then how exactly do you tell?” Zhou Que’s voice instantly brightened with excitement, but he hurriedly corrected himself, “No, wait—that’s not right. Did you think of something depressing? Leave it to me. I’ll help you solve it!”
Patting his chest confidently, Zhou Que said, “If that doesn’t work, then leave it to Brother Huayu. The two of us will figure something out for you!”
...Did Shao Huayu know he was being volunteered for extra work like this?
Ji Qing found it both funny and helpless inwardly.
But for some reason, he could not help imagining Shao Huayu’s reaction if he learned of this. Shao Huayu would absolutely give Zhou Que a look of pained disappointment and say in an elegant, utterly world-weary tone, “So apparently I can be used in this way too.”
Ji Qing immediately burst into laughter. “Hahaha...”
“Huh?” Zhou Que scratched his head blankly. “Did I say something that funny?”
“No, no.” Ji Qing waved a hand, still smiling.
Just as Ji Qing was about to answer Zhou Que’s question, a harsh sound suddenly came through the semi-in-ear earpieces both of them were wearing.
KRRSH—
Ji Qing instinctively clapped a hand over his ear.
But he quickly realized that his reaction was inappropriate, so he hurriedly tore off the earpiece that was producing the noise. Before the ringing in his ears had even faded, the tires of their Armed Vehicle suddenly skidded, and the entire vehicle began to jolt violently.
Not good. Ji Qing immediately felt a headache coming on.
He sprang to his feet at once and used his still-mobile right hand to seize firm control of the steering wheel. The violently shaking vehicle gradually stabilized again, and Ji Qing hurriedly put his earpiece back on.
The ringing in his ears had almost disappeared.
Ji Qing quickly grabbed the radio and said in a calm voice, “Anyone still in the channel, report the condition of your vehicle. Does anyone know which vehicle had a problem?”
But no one answered.
Seeing that, Ji Qing immediately shot a glance at the rearview mirror. Behind them, there was nothing but a haze of flying sand. The second vehicle was nowhere to be seen. That ominous feeling rose in his chest once more.
Damn it. He had been too busy talking to Zhou Que!
He had clearly known Xie Chang’an was here. He had clearly known Yuexia would never let this escort commission end smoothly. And yet he still had not raised his guard immediately. No, that wasn’t right... Ji Qing silently warned himself.
This was not his fault. There was no way for him to guard against Yuexia suddenly stirring things up.
“Little brother, let me drive.”
The driver, whose face was still twisted from the lingering pain in his ears, had nonetheless not forgotten the responsibility he was supposed to bear.
At the same time, Zhou Que cursed under his breath, “Damn it.”
Seeing that both of them had already recovered from the sudden ringing in their ears, Ji Qing picked up the radio again and asked, “Anyone still in the channel, report your vehicle’s condition. Does anyone know which vehicle had a problem?”
Second after second passed, and Ji Qing’s heart sank lower and lower.
Just as he was about to tell the driver to turn back, other voices finally came through the convoy channel.
“Vehicle 3, safe for now.”
“Vehicle 6, safe for now.”
“Vehicle 5, safe for now.”
...
“Vehicle 8, safe for now. I just saw Vehicle 7’s tire punctured by ground spikes that suddenly appeared. Vehicle 9 seems to have gone to support them.”
Ji Qing’s heartbeat had not even returned to normal before it tightened all over again.
He muttered under his breath, “Ground spikes?”
There were Aberrants among whom certain individuals possessed Abilities. But compared with the Abilities humans possessed, Aberrant Abilities were more like species-specific gifts, much like the infection gifts displayed by the Infected after infection.
“Anything related to ground spikes should probably belong to a rodent type,” Ji Qing murmured quietly to himself. “The convoy is currently passing through a plain with relatively rich natural resources. It wouldn’t be strange for burrowing animals like gophers to appear here.”
Were gophers solitary creatures, or social ones? Ji Qing’s thoughts suddenly turned chaotic.
No, that wasn’t right—
Even the remaining vehicles could not turn back.
Compared with bird-type and reptilian Aberrants, burrowing Aberrants were extremely difficult to deal with. Ji Qing’s Gravity Control was not suited to handling them, and he also had to assume that the Aberrants attacking the convoy might have come in groups.
If they had come in groups, then turning around now would be the same as dragging the convoy straight into a trap.
At present, the only vehicles that had not responded were Vehicle 7 and the vehicle carrying Xie Chang’an’s group. The Father Miao and son and everyone else were here, which meant the situation was still under control.
Ji Qing had never heard of any gopher activity before, and Miao Miaonian had never mentioned anything like it in their conversations. This attack by the gophers was definitely the first time it had happened.
In that case... the loss of some cargo should still fall within acceptable consequences. As hunters, they could also voluntarily reduce their payment to lessen the Miao Family’s losses.
The tension in Ji Qing’s heart gradually eased.
The rear seat of Xie Chang’an’s vehicle held a spare tire. Even if the transport vehicle truly became inoperable, given Jiang Cuo’s way of doing things, he would definitely drag Xie Chang’an and the surviving convoy members away from the scene as fast as possible.
And as the manga protagonist, Xie Chang’an had even less reason to die here.
Which meant—the worst possible outcome was the loss of one truck’s cargo.
Once he thought of that, Ji Qing’s heart completely settled down.
Holding the radio in one hand, Ji Qing gave his orders in a steady, forceful tone. “The three vehicles in the rear, move forward and stay tight on the tail of the vehicles ahead. Ding’an City is right in front of us. We enter the city by 19:00.
“I trust my teammates to handle the rest.”