Otherworld Advance Team
Chapter 139 - 135: Return Journey

Chapter 139: Chapter 135: Return Journey

Luo’er still remembered that they had left Yazhi City in the month of Autumn Equinox, which corresponds to August in Otherworld where they didn’t use numbers to mark months – this was going to be explained later. It was now almost the tail end of Winter Solstice, the equivalent of December.

During the nearly five months, they traveled from Yazhi City to the west coast of the Continent, from the west to the east, and visited the Holy Heart City twice. The journey was way more difficult than they had ever imagined before they entered the Otherworld.

He roughly calculated that most of the time they were on the move, with only a small amount of time spent in combat mode. But that was fine for Luo’er. He preferred traveling over fighting.

Reflecting on the events of the past few months evoked a wealth of emotions in them. When they first entered the Otherworld, they pursued and killed everyone associated with their attempted assassination in order to reveal the identity of the perpetrators. Thinking about it now, it seemed their recklessness was a manifestation of the adage that ’fools rush in where angels fear to tread’.

Before leaving Yazhi City, they were merely naive students. Now, as they returned, each one of them had evidently matured. Especially Luo’er and Tangmo, who even had a child.

As Cheng Ziang rode his horse, he looked unhappily at Yaning in Luo’er’s arms. He felt Luo’er had reduced the amount of attention he paid to the others due to her presence, hence his resentment towards this little girl who had muscled in for affection.

Aside from Cheng Ziang, Baiyue was also simmering with grievances. No matter how she tried to win Yaning’s favor, Yaning always preferred to hang out with Tangmo. This made her feel that only Luo’er, Tangmo, and Yaning were the real family and she was merely an interloper trying to intrude midway.

Even though Luo’er didn’t show any signs, Tangmo’s fervent confession of feelings had evidently stirred up some emotions in Luo’er. Baiyue, however, had until now failed to find any ways to draw Luo’er’s attention, which made her anxious.

Baiyue knew that if she could muster even a tenth of Tangmo’s courage to confess her feelings, her predicament wouldn’t be much worse than Tangmo’s. But that’s purely hypothetical. In reality, she was not brave enough to confess her feelings to Luo’er and she struggled even to initiate a conversation with him.

But Luo’er was undoubtedly oblivious to these girlish complexities. What was on his mind now was how to handle Yaning’s affairs.

It is for certain that he couldn’t keep her with him all the time. After all, the Advance Team is a special operations unit. The addition of a non-combatant burden which was also requiring care from team members severely compromised the team’s combat capability.

So, regardless of Tangmo’s agreement, Luo’er knew that he couldn’t keep Yaning with him any longer. His plan was to take her back to Yazhi City and leave her in the care of Wang Xu and others.

Nevertheless, he felt somewhat guilty about it. If every time they returned they brought back a little girl, and if Tangmo continued with her benevolent deeds, it might turn the frontline headquarters into a kindergarten.

With this thought, Luo’er looked down at Yaning. Meeting his gaze, she looked up at him with her innocent, bright eyes. Luo’er knew he could not abandon Yaning under any circumstances. Not just because he is indebted to her parents but also the idea of leaving this fritless little girl was unbearable, on both moral and emotional grounds.

He doesn’t have the same overflowing kindness as Tangmo, yet he is not void of it either. As long it didn’t risk his teammates, he was also willing to extend help to those in need.

They traveled about ten days, with few dangerous encounters during the journey. After all, while some bandits did join the ranks of the rebel troops to indulge in misdeeds, fundamentally the rebel troops were a regular military organization. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been able to hold their ground against the Masya military.

Throughout the journey, they treaded mountains, occasionally finding a road and thus sometimes running into some trade caravans. These mostly comprised the Blaiqi people. Their position within the rebel forces was not low for they served as middlemen between the rebels and the Earth’s side. Without them, the rebels couldn’t possibly secure ammunition supplies from Yazhi City so effortlessly.

After traveling with the trade caravans for a few days, they parted ways and continued towards Yazhi City. There were still no direct roads to the city, hence they had to again traverse the mountains.

About a week later, they were finally within a distance of a hundred kilometers from Yazhi City. The group set up camp in preparation of resting for the night and resuming the journey the next morning.

Because they had spent so much time in the mountains, their dry food sources had been exhausted long ago, leaving them dependent on hunting and scavenging for food.

After setting up the camp, Luo’er left Cheng Ziang to look after Yaning while the others scattered to look for food. Cheng Ziang, failing to understand Luo’er’s intentions, glared at him then reluctantly looked after Yaning, who was innocently sitting in front of the bonfire.

It was quite rare for Tangmo to be able to join the hunting group. Excitedly, she left with Hu Daoke, who was experienced with hunting. Luo’er and Baiyue formed a separate group and went out scavenging for food.

Excited to be working with Luo’er, Baiyue couldn’t contain her excitement. Even though she gave no outward signs of it, her fluffy ears had begun to feel unbearably hot, tempting her to take off her hood.

The farther south they moved, the warmer it got. A warm current, flowing from the South to the North across the South Coast of Masya, brought warm and humid air to the South. The humidity blew unhindered across the southern plains and into the mountains of Masya, pushing the snow line further north by over a hundred kilometers.

The Advance Team’s current location was right in the range of this warm, humid air. Hence, the accumulated snow here had already melted. The air was laden with moisture, although one could still see ice condensing on tree branches in the early mornings. Nevertheless, it was much warmer than the snowy northern regions.

Luo’er and Baiyue carefully passed through the branches of the bushes, moist with dew, which dampened their clothes, although fortunately, it didn’t seep through. Holding their rifles, they scanned their surroundings vigilantly, communicating only through eye contact and gestures. This made Baiyue, who always wanted to talk to Luo’er, feel a bit dejected.

Suddenly, Luo’er in front crouched down and turned his head back to gesture at Baiyue, then he pointed forward.

A deer-like animal was standing by the stream not far away, drinking water. Luo’er signaled her to kill this animal, and he, too, raised his rifle, ready to fire at the same time as Baiyue to ensure the prey would be taken out in one fell swoop.

Baiyue nodded, raised her rifle, and aimed at the animal in the crosshair of her scope. Her hunting rifle, turned sniper rifle, had a long silencer attached. Luo’er’s gun also had a silencer, a measure to prevent the noise from attracting unwanted guests.

"Ready!" Luo’er gestured and said his first words to her. Baiyue nodded and adjusted her aim.

Despite the distance being less than a hundred meters, Baiyue must make sure she could take down this prey in one shot, saving Luo’er the need to fire a second shot. After all, in this crisis-ridden place, every extra shot meant extra danger. They wouldn’t have chosen to go out hunting if it wasn’t for running out of supplies.

"Phut!"

As Baiyue pulled the trigger, a deep gunshot came from the muzzle. Despite the silencer, because subsonic bullets were not used, the gunshot was still relatively loud.

On the edge of the stream in the distance, the prey was hit in the head with a bullet. Before it could react, it fell rigidly by the stream and dyed the water with its bright red blood.

Seeing Baiyue’s excellent shooting skills, Luo’er nodded in satisfaction. This saved him the need to fire a second shot. He slung the rifle onto his shoulder and walked straight towards the stream.

Baiyue followed him with her rifle, watching his back. She always wanted to say something to him, but every time she was about to speak, she forgot what she wanted to say. Thinking about it seriously, she really envied Tangmo who could act spoiled with Luo’er whenever she wanted, while Baiyue herself could only endure it time and time again.

"What’s wrong, are you feeling upset?" Luo’er suddenly turned his head and asked her when he saw Baiyue’s face.

Baiyue shook her head, gritted her teeth and didn’t speak. Even though this was a golden opportunity, she evidently missed it once again.

"Speaking of, when you were little, you didn’t like to talk." Luo’er turned his head and said on his own, "just like Yaning is now."

Baiyue was stunned, then looked at him. Luo’er looked up at the distance, then continued, "I remember when they took you from that man, you didn’t make a sound. It was like you only started crying once people had gone."

"And then?" Baiyue finally couldn’t help but ask.

"Well then," Luo’er scratched his head, turned towards Baiyue, and said embarrassingly, "I think you only stopped crying when I kept comforting you."

Baiyue lowered her head, her face looking a little downcast. Luo’er quickly said, "Don’t worry, when we get to Yazhi City, I’ll help sort this out for you. Instructor Wang certainly knows that man’s identity."

"Instructor Wang?" Baiyue was taken aback, Wang Xu was also their class instructor.

"When you were sent to Haiya Academy, Wang Xu was there. He knew that man, even though at that time he was just a service soldier." Luo’er paused and said, "his main task was to take care of me. Although I was also an experiment subject of the academy, I had my grandpa’s influence, so his service soldier, Wang Xu, took care of me."

Baiyue kept her head down, not saying a word. Luo’er continued, "Once we reach Yazhi City, I’ll help you ask Wang Xu about it."

"Thank you." Baiyue said quietly.

"You’re welcome." Luo’er smiled and continued on his way.

Baiyue hesitated for a moment and quickly followed behind him. After much deliberation, she finally spoke, "I, I want to talk to you more."

Luo’er was stunned, then turned back and said with a bit of a wry smile, "Aren’t we talking right now?"

"I mean, chat. Like, have a conversation." Baiyue stuttered.

"Sure, what do you want to talk about?" Luo’er asked.

"Um..." Baiyue was momentarily at a loss for words. It seemed she still wasn’t ready to communicate with Luo’er.