Everyone gave Jing Shu a thumbs-up. Sometimes, luck really mattered!
Just when they thought they'd finally escaped death, another armed helicopter came flying in from behind! Jing Shu's plan to sneak into the river and stash the helicopter wreckage into her Cube Space—maybe to salvage something useful, or at least fill it up with ores—instantly went up in smoke.
"Run! Get inside a building, hurry!"
"Shh! Keep quiet, turn off every light!"
"Hide under that big rock!"
Soaked and bedraggled, they scrambled up the riverbank. Luckily, Tank's exoskeleton armor had absorbed most of the damage, leaving him only slightly injured. Jing Shu held her pack high above her head, letting herself get drenched just to keep her treasures dry. The moment everyone made it ashore, they bolted. The helicopter swooped low over the river, its guns going rat-tat-tat, spraying bullets everywhere. Its floodlights swept through the darkness again and again, circling relentlessly overhead.
Each time it passed, Jing Shu's heart pounded faster. She'd seen firsthand how powerful those things were. Still, someday, she'd have one of her own—something just as badass!
After fifteen minutes of circling and ten minutes of strafing, the armed helicopter finally pulled back. Jing Shu then caught distant voices—it sounded like the nobles' bodyguards had arrived, bringing slaves to salvage the ores from the river.
Cargo ships began passing through the blown-out canal one by one, but the slave king's luxury yacht was nowhere to be seen. He'd probably taken the helicopter to chase down the twenty-three cargo ships. After all, in the apocalypse, food meant wealth and life. All they could do was buy Yang Yang a bit more time.
"I wonder how they'll deal with several helicopters," Ling Ling said worriedly.
"Let's just hope Old Goat and the others make it," Monkey replied. "A few choppers like that could level twenty ships in minutes."
That slave master BOSS really had the guts to travel with so much cargo. If Yang Yang had tried to attack head-on, they'd all be dead by now. Who could've imagined someone would actually have the balls to pull a swap like that—and succeed? It was insane, poking the tiger right in the eye!
"With Captain around, you've gotta believe in his strength," Snake Spirit said as he stripped off his shirt, revealing lean muscles and a few knife cuts that had turned pale from the river water. Ling Ling blushed and ducked her head, while Jing Shu just clicked her tongue. She hadn't expected that.
The guy looked cool for all of three seconds. The cold wind hit, and suddenly a whole bunch of shirtless men were shivering like wet dogs.
"Let's move! Get far away from here before they sweep the area again!" Tank said, hauling all their weapons on his back. "Damn it, all the other supplies went into the water."
"We'll head straight back to Kolusa and regroup with Old Goat. As long as our weapons are safe, losing food and supplies isn't the end of the world. We've got plenty of wilderness experience. If we have to steal, we'll steal," Snake Spirit said confidently. But before he could even finish, karma slapped him right in the face.
Xiao Hei was crying. All the bedding, toothbrushes, and the loaf of black bread he'd just managed to scavenge were gone again.
Everyone turned to look at Jing Shu. To her, her luggage was practically her life. Even in moments like this, she clung to it like gold. Fresh garlic sprouts poked out from the edges of her pack, along with a few lettuce plants she'd planted days ago. Right now, she was gently stroking one that had lost some leaves in the chaos, looking completely heartbroken.
The worst part? She'd stacked slabs of meat in there too. A whole dried pig leg hanging from the side, apparently to make ham. Beef ribs marinated in cumin and chili powder—her "hand-torn jerky project." She'd even turned the leftover eagle-and-rabbit stew from a few days ago into spicy dried meat, claiming it was "perfect with rice."
On the black market, she'd traded all her black market coins for flour and rice every day. Instead of eating it, she roasted the stuff in a pan with butter and sauce, making "buttered fried rice" and "crab roe fried noodles" as her snacks.
As if that wasn't bad enough, she'd stockpiled corn just to make popcorn—chocolate, brown sugar, and milk-flavored popcorn, no less. Who did that in the apocalypse? The others couldn't decide whether to drool openly or secretly swallow their saliva whenever they looked her way.
"Let's keep going. Follow this path for fifteen kilometers, and we'll reach Fred Town," she said.
They did a quick patch-up job on Tank's wounds and pressed on. Everyone kept quiet, trudging forward through the night. Except for Xiao Hei, who kept whining that he couldn't walk anymore. The rest were trained and fit, but even so, the journey was brutal.
When they finally reached their supposed destination, everyone froze.
"So… where exactly are we?"
Something was seriously wrong. They'd expected to find a populated area, maybe grab some supplies, or at least steal a vehicle. But this place? It was all wilderness and mountains. Not a single building in sight.
Jing Shu frowned. Unlike the others, she could see clearly even in the dark, as if it were daylight. And what she saw made her even more uneasy. The jagged mountain ahead hadn't always been here. It looked like it'd been pushed up by tectonic movement.
That meant the old map was useless now. The shifting plates had thrown everything out of alignment. What used to be a few kilometers away could now be hundreds.
Tank unfolded the map and shone his flashlight on it. "We came up the canal to this town. If we keep heading straight for about two hundred kilometers, we'll reach Luksa. With a car, that's just a two-hour drive. But we've walked so far and haven't seen a thing. So, what do we do?"
Snake Spirit frowned. "This was supposed to be a town, right? There should be supplies. Our coordinates aren't wrong—it is Fred Town. But why the hell is there a mountain here? Even after the apocalypse, it shouldn't have wiped out every single building."
Monkey planted his hands on his hips. "Then we just keep following the road. We'll hit civilization eventually. If not, we can cover two hundred kilometers in two days on foot. By the time we reach Luksa, the others should be done, and we can regroup, claim our contribution points, and start the next mission."
Everyone nodded. It was the only plan that made sense.
Except for Xiao Hei, who was nearly in tears. "But… what about food? I'm starving."
Snake Spirit flicked his tongue. "There's plenty to eat in the mountains."
But Jing Shu shook her head. "I don't agree. Haven't you noticed? This whole mountain range, and the wilderness around it, looks like it was squeezed up by an earthquake. The quake must've shifted the land, and we can't be sure Luksa's still where it used to be. The safest move is to go back to the canal and retrace our steps. At least we know Luksa was connected to the canal when we came."