Chapter 201: Going Out into the Wind and Snow

Luo Sanlin watched the convoy depart, feeling somewhat unhappy in his heart. He truly had not expected Liu Mu to bring everyone from the Sea Soul Squad, as well as the logistics personnel, and even eight unknown drivers, yet she simply did not let him go along.

"Sister Mu probably thinks this trip is too dangerous," said Xu Xiaoxia, who had also come out to see them off upon hearing the news. She hadn't actively sought out Liu Mu these past few days, but that Fang Darong was pestering her to act as a go-between, leaving her feeling rather irritated.

Of course, this also happened to be her shift break, otherwise she wouldn't have come; it wasn't that she didn't want to see Liu Mu, but rather she was afraid of being misunderstood as having some ulterior motive.

When it came down to it, she was just a young woman in her early twenties. She might only talk business with others, but when facing Liu Mu, who knew her inside and out, she had to have a bit of unnecessary self-esteem.

'But she even brought the dog,' Luo Sanlin sighed inwardly. In the end, it was just that his own abilities were insufficient, and staying at the Barrier was likely more helpful.

"I'm going to the Scrap Station—no, to Shengli Group to see a friend. Do you want to go?"

He asked this simply because Xu Xiaoxia had often gone to the Scrap Station when helping Liu Mu scout for information in the Barrier, so she had a bit of a friendship with Xu Xiaofeng and the others.

"Me...?"

Xu Xiaoxia hesitated for a moment, remembering that the last time she saw Zhang Xiaoyong, she had promised to bring him a car model.

Sniffling in the cold wind, she decided to go after all. "Alright, I'll go back and get some things. Let's meet at the No. 1 tunnel entrance."

"Fine," Luo Sanlin said, as if he hadn't seen her hesitation, and turned to enter the descending elevator, thinking about going to see Jiang Wenjun after he returned.

They were the last of the send-off party to leave the Barrier; after they left, only the cold wind and falling snow remained.

A few minutes later, a giant dog's head secretly poked out from around a corner in the distance. After confirming no one was there, it stood up, shook the accumulated snow off its body, and chased after the convoy into the cold wind.

Gouzi had an opinion about its Master; last time, it was clearly agreed that it would be taken on the mission, but she ended up running off while it was asleep.

This time was even worse—she didn't even ask for Gouzi's opinion. Hmph, she must be sneaking off to get good things without its cute doggy self, so it decided it didn't need its Master's permission and would follow on its own.

Anyway, the doggy wasn't afraid of the wind and snow, nor did it like staying underground; everything there was too small, not enough for it to run around and play.

As for Big Sister, haha, Big Sister was on its side; it was precisely because Big Sister was worried about Master running out that she sent it to follow secretly.

The two big bags of meat it was dragging on its back were the proof!

It was so capable; it could even bring its own dog food!

In the convoy, Liu Mu was looking at a map, feeling as if a red dot was flashing before her eyes.

At first, she thought it was the reflection of the snow making her dizzy, but when she used a red pen to mark the first destination on the map, the red dot... was not in front of her eyes at all.

Heitao A displayed the route taken in her mind; a red dot was following at an extremely fast speed. If it wasn't her own dog, who else could it be?

It was also at this moment that she noticed Xu Xiaofeng had left a message through the system, the meaning being to let her bring Niu Boyi along for safety.

Over ninety percent of the Headquarters' work had been moved underground, so there wasn't much need for Niu Boyi to defend against enemies.

Fine, Liu Mu thought about the temperature in the dog's fur, tacitly allowed Niu Boyi to follow, and even had the convoy slow down.

By the time Niu Boyi caught up to the convoy, they had already left the Haicheng area and were crossing the highest mountain in Jiang Province.

"Is this... your dog?" Ma Si saw the steaming giant dog in the rearview mirror and, in a flash, thought it was some kind of giant mutated beast, giving him a fright.

"Yes," Liu Mu put away the map, wiped the weapon on the window, and made a gesture to the dog, telling it not to follow too closely in case the truck hit it while talking.

"What is it carrying?" Ma Si saw the dog's appearance clearly and recognized it, also noticing the items hanging on its back.

Liu Mu asked Niu Boyi in the system, and as the dog's brain activity fluctuated, the list of items was listed out one by one.

Good heavens, besides pure meat, it was all dog food, but what surprised her was that there was actually a set of outdoor kitchen utensils.

Only then did she remember mentioning to Xu Xiaofeng before that she wanted to bring a set of utensils so she could occasionally cook something outside.

Actually, she could have let Xu Xiaofeng cook things and put them into the system so she could eat hot meals every day. But she didn't, because Liu Mu hadn't told anyone that Heitao A was her storage space.

Even Xu Xiaofeng firmly believed that Heitao A was an intelligent system obtained from the Tian Viper ship, and besides the functions based on a computer system, it had no other abilities. It was completely independent of Liu Mu's space.

One must always keep their trump cards; even the most trusted people cannot be told. This was the only chance for a desperate comeback, so she would never reveal it in the future.

As for Niu Boyi, that was no longer important. The dog wouldn't backstab her, and it fundamentally couldn't understand the existence of the system or where she went when she leveled up.

When she leveled up to New Human Complete Form, the dog also leveled up once. Heitao A clearly showed that Niu Boyi's intelligence growth had reached its limit. Unless it changed its brain, its intelligence would not grow again.

The first stop was reached five hours after departure, with a distance of 198 kilometers from the Haicheng Barrier. Nowadays, the roads were damaged, and they had to constantly change routes along the way; by the time they arrived, the truck showed they had traveled 235 kilometers.

This place was already outside Haicheng, near the border of two prefecture-level cities; this side was called Jindong City. It also belonged to Jiang Province, and the geographical environment was similar, only Haicheng had a coastline, while Jindong City was separated from the ocean by the Canglan Mountain they had just struggled to cross.

The Southeast Mountain Range was undulating and long, and the Southeast Three Provinces were distributed in its upper, middle, and lower positions, only each place had a different name for the part they were in.

Before the infrastructure was perfected, the Southeast Mountain Range was a dividing line that split the three provinces into clear wealthy and poor areas. Later, the Construction Group opened countless tunnels and built several large bridges in these mountains, which became the foundation for the twenty years of economic takeoff in the three provinces.

Nowadays, there weren't many usable tunnels; the Ten-Day Burning and the Giant Sun Fragment destroyed ninety-nine percent of the vegetation, and the heavy rains in the following year naturally formed a large number of landslides and mudslides.

That they could arrive so quickly was thanks to the military's persistent exploration, finding the only usable tunnel and repairing many sections of the road at both ends of the tunnel.

In order to connect the various bases, Yang Shuo had not been stingy with manpower and resources in this regard.

"What are you here for? We have already received the notification about the Cold Wave; we don't need your supplies!"

The convoy stopped, and just as Liu Mu and her party got out of the car, people surrounded them, their tone and attitude as if they were facing a hostile force.