Chapter 1406: Lei Xue Catastrophe

Xia Qing, who was maintaining her sniper rifle, had long heard Yang Jin's footsteps. Only after he walked in did she look up to greet him. "Finished with work?"

"... Mm." Yang Jin replied hoarsely. He took off his protective mask on the other side of the tent, removed and folded his outer protective suit, placed it next to Xia Qing's protective suit, then sat on the inflatable mat and quietly watched Xia Qing work.

Xia Qing, who was maintaining her sniper rifle, took out an insulated bag for food from her backpack. "Inside is the honey lemon tea you made."

"Okay."

Afraid that getting close would make Xia Qing feel uncomfortable, Yang Jin didn't stand up. He lay flat on the mat, stretched out his arm to take the insulated bag, pulled out a bag of still-warm honey lemon tea, unscrewed the cap and drank it all in one go. Comfortably lying on the mat, he sighed, "The strength evolution ability is really too convenient."

When carrying out missions in the Evolution Forest, carrying too many supplies reduces the reaction speed of those on the mission. So apart from strength evolvers, every mission executor must repeatedly weigh the amount of supplies carried against reaction speed, making the best choice suited to themselves.

Take Yang Jin, for example. In order to have the fastest reaction and combat speed, apart from weapons and equipment, the only things he carries on his person are X nutrient solution and emergency medical kits.

Xia Qing is different. She is a high-level strength evolver, so carrying a few jin, a few dozen jin, or even one or two hundred jin of supplies doesn't have much impact on her reaction speed. That's why she can carry all kinds of supplies on her person.

You, a top-tier combatant, actually envy the supply-carrying ability of a logistics personnel? Xia Qing couldn't be bothered to respond to him and continued maintaining her sniper rifle.

Yang Jin, who was lying on the air mattress, switched to lying on his side. After watching the sniper rifle disassembled into parts in Xia Qing's hands for a while, he asked, "How many rounds did Sister Qing use today?"

Xia Qing answered in detail, "8 rounds for shooting three high-level speed evolvers, 69 rounds for shooting other animals."

One sniper round costs 330 points, 77 rounds is points. Even if Xia Qing can buy sniper rounds from Yang Jin at half price, she still needs points. Adding in the used low-temperature specialized lubricant, adhesive anti-freeze tape, and other supporting supplies, the cost of this mission is close to points.

It hurts!

Sharing the same miserly trait, Yang Jin immediately understood what the expressionless Xia Qing was thinking. "In a low-temperature environment of minus ten-something degrees, the optical equipment like the sniper scope will malfunction. Other snipers can't achieve a hit rate as heaven-defying as yours, so their costs must be even higher."

Including the five unofficial snipers including the high-level sniper from Yang Jin's squad, none managed to hit the high-level speed-evolved animal worth 50,000 points. After deducting costs, this trip can earn at most two or three thousand points.

Compared to other personnel participating in disaster-elimination missions, this amount isn't small, but it's far worse compared to top-tier snipers. If they want to earn more points, they have to find ways to improve their sniping skills and hit rates.

Yang Jin rolled over and lay on the air mattress. "I heard from Peng Jian about your bet with Zhou Baldy. When we return to the safe zone, I'll send people to the Aurora Squad to collect the wager and five times the compensation, converted into bullets and brought back to the territory. You performed the sniping mission excellently this time, the base leader will definitely give you extra rewards. Currently our base doesn't have particularly good quality plant seeds and saplings, so should we just ask for bullets directly?"

"Okay." Xia Qing certainly had no objections. Bullets are consumables for snipers; the more the better.

Yang Jin yawned. "If the base leader calls you, just ask for 1 box of bullets directly. This is Brother Luo's reward standard for missions. When I go back to hand in the mission, I'll hint to the base leader that you're a newly promoted sniper who needs bullets for practice, and get him to give you one more box."

2 boxes of sniper rounds, 132,000 points, almost matching Xia Qing's mission reward this time! This extra reward made Xia Qing very satisfied. Her expression visibly softened. "Let's talk about these when we get back. You should hurry and get some sleep."

"Okay." Yang Jin pulled up his sleeping bag, hiding his upturned mouth corners.

In less than two minutes, Xia Qing, who was maintaining her sniper rifle, heard Yang Jin enter a deep sleep state. She turned her head to glance at his sharply defined brow.

In the perilous Evolution Forest, abundant physical strength and mental state are the most precise weapon systems in the hands of mission executors. Seizing every available time gap to rest is maintaining and recharging this system, which is one of the essential core abilities of a mission executor.

Being able to enter sleep so quickly not only shows that Yang Jin has very strong tactical recovery ability, but also shows that in his consciousness, he regards himself as a teammate who can be trusted and relied upon.

Yang Jin's trust in her is much higher than her trust in Yang Jin. Xia Qing withdrew her gaze and continued working.

Yang Jin's deep, slow, rhythmic breathing echoed in response to the rustling sound of falling snow, drowning out the chaotic thumping sounds of snow-jumping insects hitting the outer tent, making Xia Qing feel very peaceful and secure.

In the depths of the Evolution Forest where murderous snow falls, being able to experience a sense of security and peace is a very wonderful feeling.

Xia Qing abandoned the applicator she often used, which could spray cleaning agent, picked up a dropper, drew some cleaning agent and dripped it into the rear of the barrel. After the cleaning agent soaked a whole section of the inner barrel wall, she rotated the gun body to let the cleaning agent fully cover the entire inner wall circumference. Switching to the dropper would take a bit more time, but it could reduce noise and let Yang Jin sleep more soundly.

When Xia Qing had finished maintaining the barrel and had also disassembled the magazine to maintain the spring and follower, she heard someone taking large strides approaching from the command tent toward her side. A few seconds later, Yang Jin, who had caught the footsteps, immediately stopped breathing, opened his eyes, and sat up.

"Captain?"

"Speak."

Yang Jin reached for the protective suit beside him. Xia Qing quickly assembled her sniper rifle.

"The base sent a disaster forecast: within the next three hours, a thunder snow is very likely to occur in the mountain region where we are, triggering a murderous explosion."

Thunder snow, as the name suggests, is thundering while snowing. This extreme weather only occurs in very intense winter storms. Before the catastrophe, thunder snow was a very rare weather phenomenon, but its frequency of occurrence increased greatly after the catastrophe.

A thunder snow catastrophe occurring during the murderous snow period will definitely trigger a murderous explosion. The high-speed jet stream of murderous element particles can not only damage helicopters and human weapons, but can also penetrate protective suits below level three in the wild, destroying organs inside the human body.

Yang Jin, who had put on his protective mask, used the walkie-talkie channel to give the order: "Sound the assembly call. All team members immediately execute Emergency Plan Four!"

Without waiting for Yang Jin's order, Xia Qing handed him her sniper rifle packed in the gun bag and her backpack. "I'll go tow the helicopter."

Yang Jin nodded, took the over-one-hundred-jin backpack and the several-dozen-jin sniper rifle. "I'll carry the backpack and sniper rifle on my person. Sister Qing, pay attention to safety. Complete the mission and immediately return to the command post."

"Okay." Xia Qing put on her protective suit, carried her handgun, black knife, emergency medical kit, and the specialized binding straps for strength evolvers on her person, then rushed out of the tent and ran toward her helicopter.

Lightning strikes won't damage the helicopter, but murderous explosions can. The climate conditions for helicopter flight haven't been met yet, so this helicopter, which is tied with giant eagle claws and has a self-weight of up to five tons, can only be towed by manpower out of the dangerous area and transported into a sturdy shelter before the thunder snow arrives.

This helicopter doesn't only belong to Xia Qing, it also belongs to the Northern Wolf Pack. If the helicopter is damaged in the thunder snow murderous explosion, the Queen will definitely be furious, and the shameless wolf will definitely make Xia Qing compensate over nine million points to purchase that bizarre pink helicopter it had long taken a fancy to!