Chapter 64

Speak of the devil and he shall come.

The Jiu Wei Team, the uncrowned king of the civilian team.

The man introduced himself as Xu Ru’an, the vice-captain of the Jiu Wei team, and his companion Dou Xiaokang, the main player. With their current identities, they did not have to go through the formalities in person. Naturally, it was not just by chance that they met in the team guild. Xu Ru’an very straightforwardly explained their purpose.

“These are the new compatriots who joined our Yellow River family. Welcome! I received the news that you are here to register your team, so I hurried here. As this friend said, you can get less than one-tenth of materials as the benefits of joining our team. Also, the crystal cores for upgrading are provided unconditionally and we have enough supply. Are any of you interested in joining? If you like, your friends,” He glanced at Wu Nan and said with a smile, “We also welcome them to join us.”

Wu Nan and Li Dong’s eyes lit up.

Just as Hou Ying was about to speak, Li Xuanyuan suddenly frowned, unexpectedly bit Hou Ying’s lips, and asked in a low voice, “What are you looking at?”

Hou Ying was stunned. Then he raised his hand to cup his face and kissed him back, all the while replying affectionately, “I’m just remembering the appearances of the two distinguished guests out of politeness. I’m not looking at anything.”

Compared with Xu Ru’an who was in his early 50s, Dou Xiaokang was unexpectedly young and fair-looking. If carefully packaged before the end of the world, he was also a small fresh meat that charms thousands of fans.

Li Xuanyuan let him go.

Neither Xu Ru’an nor Dou Xiaokang predicted that Hou Ying, the team’s leader, had such a relationship with his teammate. They immediately felt that the situation was a little tricky. Dou Xiaokang frowned directly, a little disgusted. Meanwhile, Wu Nan and the others were frightened. They knew that Hou Ying had a son who has not reached full moon yet, but they did not expect that his sexual orientation was… They were very puzzled for a while.

Hou Ying comforted Li Xuanyuan, held his hand, and gave Xu Ru’an a professional and gentle smile, “Thank you for your appreciation, Captain Xu, but we have no plan to join a team for the time being. If there is any in the future, we will consider Jiu Wei first.”

Before Xu Ru’an replied, Dou Xiaokang coldly sneered, “Your tone is not small. You’re a waste without an ability. Can you be the master of others?”

“What did you say?!”

Qiao Daye roared and grabbed Dou Xiaokang’s neck in a flash, “Who do you say is a waste?!”

“Lao Er.”

Hou Ying shouted without any real heat.

Qiao Daye threw him away with contempt in his eyes as if to say that the main force of the Jiu Wei team was so weak. He turned back to Hou Ying with a smile and said carefully, “Don’t be angry, Brother Hou. I just wanted to kindly remind this Mr. Dou that he has bad eyes and bad breath, so he had to be treated as soon as possible.”

“You!” Dou Xiaokang was enraged.

Xu Ru’an stopped him and apologized, “Sorry, my teammate said the wrong thing. Since Mr. Hou has already made plans, I will remember Mr. Hou’s promise today. Jiu Wei must be given priority in the future. Our doors will be opened for you whenever. If you have any inconvenience at the base, you can come to us at any time. If we can help, we will definitely not refuse. It can also be regarded as an apology for you.”

Hou Ying’s smiling face has not changed. He even said a little jokingly, “I’ll accept Vice-Captain Xu’s words. Don’t think we’re troublesome when we visit you in the future.”

Xu Ru’an handed him a team business card, said two more words, and took Dou Xiaokang away.

Li Dong could not help saying, “Brother Hou, you really don’t want to join the Jiu Wei? That’s an unconditional supply of crystal cores for upgrading.”

Wu Nan glared at him and whispered, “It’s not necessarily a good thing if you go.” He looked in the direction of their disappearance and frowned slightly. Dou Xiaokang can blurt out that ordinary people without abilities were wastes, and Xu Ru’an, as the vice-captain, although modest and apologized, had no objection to this sentence itself.

If this was the Jiu Wei team’s consciousness, then maybe he should change his mind about them.

Finally, they waited until Hou Ying went through the formalities of applying for the team.

The application form for tracing relatives was also submitted together. In addition to the description of age, birthplace, kinship, and appearance, there was also a photo column. It was just that, who could keep photos in the apocalypse?

As Wu Nan said, it costs ten crystal cores to find one person and the full amount needs to be paid in advance. No matter whether they could be found or not, the money cannot be returned. With such a high mortality rate in the apocalypse, it was no wonder that few people were looking for their relatives through trade unions. After submitting the form and a large number of crystal cores, the opening procedure of the team came next.

They had not thought about the team name before. After carefully reading the team’s application conditions, it was found that there was an age limit for the team members—after they found that children under the age of 10 were not allowed to participate, they named the team directly after Li Hou. In this way, the little guy could still be added to the team they first established.

After 15 minutes of review, the staff rang the bell and said, “Your team has been rated, but I’m just gonna inform you in advance that there’s a problem. There are 11 members in your team, ten of which are level 1 ability users, so your combat effectiveness rating is B+. However, due to your small number, you’re demoted one level and can only be immediately approved as a C-class team. Still, your captain doesn’t have an ability. A captain’s personal combat power accounts for 30% of the team’s rating. If you insist on doing so, your team rating can only be level D.”

He knocked on the window to let them see the memo of the welfare basis and contribution points calculation methods of different ranked teams next to the notice of application conditions and restrictions.

Although the C-level team was not a high-level team, compared to the most basic D-level, their treatment was still very different. For example, in this case, D-level teams could only apply for D-level tasks. Each time they enter and leave the safe area outside the base, they must undergo physical examination. This was one of their means to prevent the zombie virus from being carried into the base. Every time they enter the city, they have to take off their clothes and be checked inside and out. It was troublesome and tortuous.

Hou Ying looked at them and Liu Zhan said firmly, “D-level is D-level. You are our captain, it cannot be changed.”

The others mean the same.

The staff saw that they were unwilling to modify the team’s application information and they had not had a dispute. Although very puzzled, he did not persuade them again.

If other teams can have Hou Ying’s work efficiency, the staff would be thankful. Therefore, although their decision was puzzling, the staff rarely presented a professional smile, quickly completed their team registration procedures, and issued team ID cards—gold cards stamped with the team’s name and team number. The staff told them that if they lost it, they would need 50 crystal cores to renew one, so they must keep them properly.

It was ten times more expensive than their ID badges.

After returning to the tent, several people looked at Li Xuanyuan, “What happened just now? Xu Ru’an and Dou Xiaokang attacked us with their abilities?”

They all saw how he and Hou Ying usually get along. It was always Brother Hou who took the initiative. If Li Xuanyuan could give him a smile, it would make him happy all day, let alone actively kissing him because he got jealous that he was taking a few more glances at others.

Qiao Daye also cooperated with them in acting, creating an image of an obedient but irritable team member. Hou Ying had told them before that if they encounter such an opponent, they should not be so smart, and show some weaknesses that were easy to be controlled to stun the opponent. Qiao Daye’s weakness was that he was irritable and easily provoked.

Li Xuanyuan nodded and said, “It should be a psychic ability.”

Hou Ying added, “It is a psychic ability. It should be like the mind-reading ability that He Daqing once said. He’s spying on our true thoughts. He also deliberately said those insulting words in order to provoke us.”

Holding Li Xuanyuan’s hand just now, he also felt Dou Xiaokang’s ability attack accurately. With the particularity of the twin banyan tree’s wood crystal, he instantly changed the enemy’s passive sneak attack into his own active attack. As far as his observation of the other’s expression was concerned, his own judgment greatly influenced him.

The rest frowned.

Hou Ying sighed, “I didn’t think the fastest ones to approach would be them.”

Their ability’s information was hidden. That was either true or false. But they have long considered that their abilities’ attributes may be transparent for some people and were already mentally prepared to be recruited by various means. The Jiu Wei Team was considered to be very gentle. Maybe they were trying fair means before resorting to force, but their sincerity could be seen.

It was just that they did not expect that the first force to come would be from the civilian team.

He does not know whether it was because their level 1 abilities could not attract the attention of several big families in the Yellow River Base, or because the Jiu Wei Team was not as civilian as they preach, and behind it was also a strong high-level family of the base.

After Hou Ying finished his analysis, Liu Zhan said, “The Jiu Wei Team will only be the beginning. This kind of scene will always happen in the future. It doesn’t matter if they just ask, I’m just afraid that they will use indiscriminate methods.”

When Hou Ying heard his words, he leaned over and touched Li Hou, who was sleeping peacefully in the cradle, and said, “You must remember what I said before. During this time, Xuanyuan and I will be the ones taking care of Li Hou, while you take care of yourself. If you jump into someone else’s pit, I’ll dig you up and kick you back down so you can engrave it into your mind.”

Everybody said that they would not be that stupid.

In the ordinary tent not far away, Wu Nan and his team were also discussing.

Gao Xiaoming, who had the least contact with Hou Ying because he was in a coma, was the first to object, “Brother Wu, are you really planning to let us mix up with them? I don’t think they’re thinking clearly. They didn’t just reject the Jiu Wei Team, they even refused to get the treatment of a C-level team that is at their fingertips!”

They have been constrained to D-level because of their limited members. It was clear that they were suffering an injustice by being rated that way. It was not only as light as being checked every day whenever they enter and exit the base, D-level teams did not have any additional subsidies nor can they apply for any weapons! This was not merely a stipulated black and white word, but also related to their life and death every time they perform a mission.

Wu Nan replied seriously, “Yes, we don’t understand their reasons for doing so but if we really thought about it, heh, didn’t you see that the vice-captain of the Jiu Wei team was crushed by their hands? I have a feeling that it’s not wrong to follow them. Now we have nothing but a few crystal nuclei. Why don’t we gamble?”

These young people, who were full of confusion about the future, did not know that they had made the most correct decision in life for the rest of their lives.