Monster Hunting Squad

Another knock came from outside the door. Song Weishi waited a moment, and after confirming there was no further movement, she cracked the door open just a sliver.

Outside, only two large bags sat quietly against the ground. Song Weishi quickly hauled them inside.

A series of messages buzzed in from the aunts on her phone: "Xiao Song, did you get them? Xie Yi dropped them off for you. Did you know you two are neighbors? If you need anything in the future, you can just go straight to her."

Song Weishi couldn't help but force a smile that looked more bitter than anything else. It truly was a small world—wherever you went, you'd run into the same faces, and every meeting felt like bad karma.

Still, she didn't dwell on it. What was done was done. For now, the priority was dinner.

The aunts had sent quite a haul: mostly canned goods with a long shelf life. Now that the scorching heat had set in, anything durable and non-perishable was in high demand.

Fresh produce and meat in the offline supermarkets were exorbitantly priced, but these canned goods were surprisingly affordable.

Huihai City's climate was relatively stable compared to the other disaster zones, whether they were scorching hot or freezing cold. Food production had held steady, just like before.

Even so, with the city's population surging over the past month, supply was gradually starting to lag behind demand.

The only solution was to seek resources from outside. In the scorching regions, harvests were meager—both plants and crops seemed reluctant to bear fruit. The ones that did tended to grow oversized, but they came with their fair share of danger.

Civilians had already begun organizing themselves, and with approval from the upper echelons, they were venturing out on expeditions. Any supplies they brought back were theirs to keep, minus a quarantine fee.

This had sparked an expedition craze across the city. Families who weren't well-off often left Huihai City for ten days to half a month, heading out to harvest the agricultural points marked on their maps.

These goods were hard-won, and if they returned with leftovers, they could sell them at premium prices. Still, even at those prices, demand far outstripped supply—there were plenty of buyers.

It had also spawned a whole host of side professions: woodcutters, porters, fishermen—you name it. It was like a carefully calibrated machine, barely propping up this sprawling metropolis.

Song Weishi checked the prices and knew immediately she couldn't afford any of it. She couldn't even buy regular vegetables or meat in the city. Thank goodness for the aunts' help; without them, she'd have been scraping by on scraps, too stingy to even eat the provisions stashed in her system space.

Huihai City was coastal, so seafood was abundant. When vegetables were scarce, people made up the difference with fish.

It wasn't the most balanced diet, but it kept people alive. The city's current income and expenses were barely treading water, and the higher-ups were actively seeking solutions. Missions like that fell squarely under the Security Team's purview.

Song Weishi was cooking noodles while checking the schedule Captain Chu had sent her. For the first couple of days, she'd focus on training, and once that was done, she'd accompany Captain Chu on some simple missions.

The captain was still recovering from her injuries, so there was a transition period to ease through before she'd get back to full strength.

That worked out nicely in Song Weishi's favor, actually. A rookie getting to shadow the captain right out of the gate? That kind of opportunity was rare.

Song Weishi sprinkled some salt into the noodles and tossed in two leaves of greens, trying to recreate the bowl of noodles the aunt had served her earlier.

She also fried up some bacon and an egg as a side. Honestly, she wasn't much of a cook—back when she'd worked and studied, she'd always ordered takeout.

With no such luxury now, she had no choice but to grit her teeth and give it her best shot.

She set the noodles on the table and tried a bite of the bacon and egg first. No surprises there—it was delicious. As long as you didn't burn it, this kind of processed stuff always tasted good.

Then she tried the noodles. The broth was bland, utterly tasteless, and the noodles themselves were a limp, pasty mess, like they'd been soaking in water for far too long. There was no texture to speak of.

Song Weishi refused to accept it and took another bite. This time, she nearly gagged—some of the noodles had clumped together and were still undercooked.

She grimaced and forced down the entire bowl of noodles, feeling thoroughly defeated.

They looked just like the noodles from the quarantine cafeteria, so why did they taste this awful?

She chewed on her fried egg, scrolling through her phone to check tomorrow's training schedule.

She had to be downstairs at 8 AM to meet Captain Chu, run through the fundamentals first, and then move to hands-on combat training in the afternoon.

Song Weishi didn't have much choice in the matter. The recent missions were all the same: head to a nearby city to scavenge for usable supplies.

The planned departure date was in three days. They were heading to Binhai City to assess the situation there—it had several large national hospitals with advanced equipment.

If possible, Xie Huiqing wanted them to haul all that medical gear back.

Binhai City wasn't far, just over 200 kilometers away. The whole convoy was going, and the roads had already been cleared by the advance units.

It was basically a straight shot, green light all the way—one of the easier missions right now. Perfect for Song Weishi to cut her teeth on.

After dinner, she pulled a few more things out of her space to fill out the apartment, then lay down. With no other entertainment, she got on her phone and browsed the web.

Thankfully, the signal here was decent, and most basic apps loaded fine. The city's online community was buzzing, and by scrolling through the information, Song Weishi managed to piece together her current location.

She was still on the outskirts of Huihai City, about fifty kilometers from the true downtown, where Xie Huiqing's office was.

The aunts had all moved out there too. They could only meet up now via the light rail, with transfers taking about an hour each way.

Huihai City looked almost like a pre-apocalyptic city. The locals' lives were largely unaffected, aside from the soaring prices.

Sure, the public safety situation was worse than it used to be, but those were minor issues compared to the people outside, who were scraping by day to day, barely surviving.

Song Weishi refreshed the day's cart and got the usual three items:

Corn seeds, 500g x1

Tomato seeds, 200g x1

Spinach seeds, 1kg x1

Today it was a farm supply store, with nothing but seeds—and they came with a special buff tag: Renewable (R). Song Weishi stared at the seeds, deep in thought. This was clearly something that could be cycled and reused.

But she had no soil to plant anything in.

Huihai City had strict regulations on soil—private digging was forbidden unless you brought it in from outside. There were dedicated teams handling that, and regular folks' soil was nearly impossible to get through quarantine. If you got caught digging up dirt and planting at home, you risked getting kicked out of the city.

Her first thought was the space, but the time flow inside was frozen. Those seeds would never sprout in there, let alone multiply indefinitely.

She was desperate to achieve corn freedom, tomato freedom, spinach freedom.

Song Weishi tapped around randomly and opened the shop.

To her surprise, the shop's inventory had refreshed. Whatever she needed, the universe seemed to provide—there, gleaming brightly, was a chunk of rich black soil.

Item name: Planter Space Black Soil [Attributes: Purple. Extends planter space by 1m. Currently limited purchase, 5 per day.]

A great find. Buying it would give her a planter space separate from her carry-on space. But the price made Song Weishi balk—15 points per chunk.

Just looking at that number made her eyes swim. She absolutely couldn't afford it. All because she'd gotten lazy lately—no points had come in for ages.

The system didn't nag her about it, which was unusual. If the daily cart hadn't reminded her, she might've slipped into full-on couch potato mode.

But for the sake of a bright future, she still had to put in the work. Only then could she afford good food.

When the system had come back earlier, it had spent energy, but the points were still there.

All the monsters she'd killed had pushed her points way up—she was now at 100. The system even added in all those bugs from Xinzhao City, counted retroactively.

If she'd known they were worth that much, Song Weishi would've stomped a few more of them flat. She would've dug out all that mud underneath too—who knows how many points that would've been.

But that place was inaccessible now; it had turned into a complete furnace. Even the female lead, Xie Yi, wouldn't go back there.

Song Weishi mused that they could probably use that geothermal energy somehow. Huihai City wouldn't have any energy worries then.

But that wasn't her problem to solve right now. She scrolled back through the previously refreshed items and suddenly noticed something was on sale.

That silver pistol from the very first refresh—originally 500 points, now heavily discounted.

Blowout price! Not 499! Not 399! Just 199!

Song Weishi wanted to buy it on the spot!

Just kidding. She only had 100 points. She needed to kill a lot more monsters to rack up points fast.

Because that price would only last three days, and she'd only set out for Binhai City on day three—the timing wouldn't line up. Miss this window, and the chance was gone forever.

She had to work fast and figure out some moneymaking schemes.

The local Black Sea Forum was an officially sanctioned black market trading board. Honestly, in a city this big, with all kinds of people, it was impossible not to have some dark underbelly. Song Weishi could use it to find an opening.

Many small civilian squads gathered here too. Aside from the legitimate work, the most profitable business right now was monster trafficking.

Song Weishi dug into the details. Many research institutions in Huihai City had a massive demand for monster corpses or live specimens.

Among them, Huirun Pharmaceuticals—the city's flagship enterprise—was the top buyer. They offered fair prices and high demand, making them the go-to place for selling monsters.

Many monster hunting squads had long-term arrangements with this company. With the Security Team severely understaffed, the hunting squads could supply these companies with a steady stream of monster remains to keep their research going.

It was a virtuous cycle for all of Huihai City. Song Weishi browsed the forum looking for a trustworthy hunting squad. Her main goal wasn't the money—it was killing monsters for points. So having reliable intel was crucial.

A solid organization in the background would spare her a lot of hassle. From what she'd gathered, although the Security Team officially forbid members from taking gigs like this, quite a few secretly did.

The higher-ups knew but turned a blind eye. These people were risking their lives on a knife's edge anyway. If they died, there was no workman's comp; if they made a profit, it was all theirs.

Security Team members were human too—they had families to feed.

As Song Weishi filtered through the listings, one post caught her eye:

URGENT! Admin pinned. Suogang District dock urgently needs a replacement crew at 11 PM.

Song Weishi clicked in. The post was clean and to the point.

Trailblazer Squad looking for 1 to fill a 4-person team. Suogang dock, sea monsters uncounted. Seeking Security Team members who can swim.

Requirement: must have verified info. Non-Security Team members need not apply.

It was already 8 PM, and the post had gone up two hours ago. Suogang was the same dock where Song Weishi had been quarantined.

This squad's name looked familiar—she'd seen it while scrolling. They were among the more reputable organized teams out there.

Their membership rarely changed, and recruitment posts were few and far between. As Song Weishi scrolled down, she saw someone asking if individuals could apply.

The organizer didn't bother to respond, but others quickly jumped in, crowding around to watch the recruitment spectacle.

Song Weishi was tempted by the "sea monsters uncounted" part, but that also meant the situation was unknown.

Likely a high-danger mission, and not many had signed up. With time running out, the admin had pinned the post.

The squad still hadn't found anyone suitable. Song Weishi sat up in bed, thought for a moment, and tapped the apply button.

Soon, a black avatar popped up. It was the OP. The poster sent her a verification link, and Song Weishi clicked it.

This kind of link kept personal information confidential, so she wasn't worried about leaks. These were all officially endorsed verification methods.

Song Weishi figured the Trailblazer Squad must have connections—otherwise, they wouldn't be so blatant in recruiting Security Team members.

Once she'd worked that out, she breezed through the verification.

Before arriving, she'd already had her Security Team info registered in the system through the quarantine zone. A burst of colored light flashed across her phone, confirming her identity.

Cang Ning was getting anxious waiting at the dock. It had been over two hours already. A temporary member of the squad had lost his nerve after the last voyage and didn't want to join the hunt. She'd tried to talk him around, but this time he'd straight-up quit.

She was livid and permanently struck him from the Trailblazer Squad roster. Finding a replacement on short notice was never easy—she could only pin her hopes on the forum. Most of the skilled members were already locked into permanent squads and wouldn't join a hunt on short notice.

Those who did show up charged exorbitant rates. One trip at sea could cost most of their earnings for the season, cutting into the members' profits.

Her squad had gotten first-hand intel on this job, but they clearly didn't have the manpower. Cang Ning mulled it over, glanced at the high quotes several people were sending her, and gritted her teeth. Maybe she'd just have to give up on this one. After all, no amount of money was worth risking your life.

Just then, a notification popped up—an avatar that had passed verification.

The other party seemed to be a newbie, just registered on the Black Sea Forum. The avatar was blank, and their nickname was a string of numbers.

Cang Ning hesitated but clicked in. Since they were a Security Team member, she decided to be polite and sent a quick message: "Hello, could you send over your data info?"

The other party seemed clueless: "Sorry, what kind of info do you mean?"

Cang Ning was a bit exasperated. She turned away from the anxious gazes of her team and asked, "Are you new? When you entered the city, there was a comprehensive assessment—did you take it?"

Song Weishi looked at the message. When she'd arrived at the quarantine zone, she had taken a test. She'd assumed it was just a routine procedure for entering the city. She had no idea it actually mattered.

She opened her personal panel, blanked out the sensitive details, and sent over a screenshot.

Cang Ning sighed. She waited a moment, disappointment creeping back in, and figured this person must've just joined the Security Team and was trying their luck here.

But the Trailblazer Squad wasn't easy to get into. Without real strength, they'd be cut just as fast as the Security Team's selection process.

The Security Team's minimum standard was 88, which already put them far above the average person. Her squad's requirement was the same, but she didn't dare recruit anyone outside the Security Team into the fold.

If she got betrayed out on that vast sea, she'd die without a trace.

Cang Ning's heart sank a little. She glanced at her teammates, who were still trying to contact others, and was about to put her comm device down when the newbie sent over an image.

She casually tapped it open, gave it a half-hearted glance, then her eyes shot wide open. Her hand, holding the communicator, trembled slightly.

After a few seconds, she called out excitedly, "No need to keep looking! We've got our person! This one!"

Her teammates crowded around, seeing the image on Cang Ning's communicator. Song Weishi's 98 rating was stark and glaring.

They recalled that the best black-market Security Team member they'd ever seen had only been rated 95.

Someone with a rating of 98 was prime material—top-tier talent, usually earmarked for key positions. Why would they come out for cash like this?

They'd definitely struck gold this time. Cang Ning's guess about Song Weishi being a newbie was spot-on. Song Weishi only noticed the replies coming back at lightning speed.

The other party shot off several messages in a row, asking for her location. Once Song Weishi authorized her location, she got a response saying a car would pick her up in 8 minutes to reconfirm her info.

Just like that, it was done. She exited the chat window and saw the original post was now locked, marked as "Recruitment Complete."

Yep, that was her.

Song Weishi scratched her head and quickly got up to change.

Her Security Team uniform hadn't been issued yet, so she wore the custom gear she'd found back in the snow. It was highly protective and breathable.

It wasn't as cool as sleepwear, but it was nowhere near as stuffy as other clothes.

Song Weishi took two minutes to get dressed, put on her mask and face covering, and headed out.

Her location was at a light rail station two kilometers away. She biked over.

By the time she arrived, someone was already there.

Song Weishi locked her bike in the station's parking area and came face-to-face with the woman.

The woman sat in an NU4 electric car, poking her head out, eyeing Song Weishi with a hint of uncertainty as she approached.

"Are you, um, Clever Pig?"

Song Weishi froze, then nodded. That was the username she'd just created on the forum. She hadn't thought anyone would actually say it out loud. Having it called out like this made her face burn with embarrassment.

Thankfully, her mask hid her expression. Song Weishi got into the car, and they drove off immediately.

She scrolled through the forum, looking to change her name, but it said she'd have to wait three months.

Song Weishi: ...

No one had warned her that a random forum name would become her handle.

Because her info was confidential, she'd basically be stuck with it.

The woman driving kept glancing over at her, the corners of her mouth betraying a smile. Song Weishi looked down, closed her eyes, and clenched her fists on her knees. Go ahead and laugh.

The woman drove fast, but sitting in her car, Song Weishi felt anything but unsafe.

In less than forty minutes, they reached Suogang Dock.

It was much cooler here than in the city. Far from the lights, the sea was pitch-black, with only the dock lights cutting through the dark.

Things hadn't been peaceful around here lately—all cargo and fishing vessels were banned from passage.

The harbor was shaped like a gourd, with hills wrapping around on both sides, keeping the water calm. There were no dramatic tides, making it perfect for docking.

The normally bustling port was eerily quiet now, with only a handful of ships moored along the water's edge.

The floodlights made it seem even lonelier. Song Weishi got out of the car, and the woman pointed her in a direction. Seeing Song Weishi locate the group, she turned the car around and drove off.

Cang Ning rubbed her hands together and waved when she saw someone approaching. A long silhouette walked toward her against the light. Song Weishi was decked out in full gear, looking like she was ready to fight a winter storm in the middle of summer.

Cang Ning couldn't help but marvel at how professional the newcomers were these days—this was what the Security Team was like, all geared up before a mission.

She was curious about this 98-rated newbie and stepped forward with a greeting. "Hi there, I'm Cang Ning, captain of the Trailblazer Squad. These are our members for this trip: Xing Chun, Zhu Gaoge, Ren Tong. And you are...how should I address you?"

Song Weishi's lips twitched beneath her mask. At least the captain hadn't used that username out loud. "Hello, everyone. I'm Song Yi."

Clearly a fake name, but Cang Ning didn't mind. As long as the person had the skills, that was all that mattered.

Security Team members were registered in the system, so she wasn't worried about them running off or pulling any stunts, which was precisely why she insisted on recruiting only Security Team members.

Safety at sea was the absolute priority.

She introduced the three members to Song Weishi. They were all tall with obvious training under their belts. Xing Chun was a short-haired girl who looked younger than Song Weishi, with a cold face and a quiet demeanor.

Zhu Gaoge wore her hair in a ponytail and flashed a friendly smile. Ren Tong had a broad face, a high nose, and deep-set eyes, almost looking mixed-race.

She studied Song Weishi with curiosity and gave her a nod.

Their mission tonight was to clear out the Devil Fish in Suogang. These creatures had mutated. If they used large-scale lethal weapons, it could damage the harbor's foundation, making it impossible for ships to dock. So they'd have to go down and clear them out manually.

Song Weishi boarded a sizable fishing vessel. From the dock to the Devil Fish's location took about twenty minutes.

Cang Ning estimated the operation would take around two hours. They'd need to scope out the situation underwater first.

The fishing boat left the harbor. The water was pitch black, and the warm yellow lights of the dock faded into the distance, leaving only the lighthouse's sweeping beam to keep watch.