Chapter 28: Mission

The woman froze.
When she turned back, all traces of her previous vulnerability had vanished.

Su Xiao bent down and picked up the item the woman had dropped.
“This is an Alliance badge. Your agility and reflexes clearly mark you as someone beyond ordinary. So… you’re with the Alliance. Speak. What exactly are you trying to do?”

She wasn’t just any Alliance member. Su Xiao had seen the standard Alliance emblems before—plastic badges affixed to uniforms. A red firework blooming violently under the piercing of a black arrow. But this one—this badge—was metal. Its texture and sheen made it clear it belonged on an entirely different level.

Who was this woman, really? What status did she hold within the Alliance to possess such a thing?

Seeing the badge in Su Xiao’s hand, the woman’s expression darkened. “Give it back!”

She lunged at Su Xiao.

But Su Xiao didn’t dodge. Instead, she sidestepped, tossed the axe aside, and grabbed the woman’s wrists with a slight twist.

Crack, crack.
A pair of crisp pops echoed as the woman’s arms dislocated.

The Safehouse she had been holding slipped from her hands and fell to the ground.

Su Xiao realized it immediately—this woman had acquired a Safehouse but hadn’t bound it yet. She quickly picked it up.

The woman’s face went pale, her body trembling.

How could she have forgotten?
In this apocalyptic game, players possessed abnormal strength. If this girl had the power to split open a man’s skull with an axe, of course she could easily fend off any counterattack.

“Sorry,” Su Xiao said, stepping back quickly. “Apologies, I didn’t control my strength well. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

She truly hadn’t.
But before overwhelming strength, technique meant nothing.
Even Archimedes, with all his cleverness and the perfect leverage point, would still need a sturdy lever to move Blue Star. A ten-pound rod just wouldn’t cut it.

The woman bit her lip. “You’ve already bound the Safehouse. With your strength, I can’t do anything to you. But that’s my item. Please return it.”

She had dislocated both her arms in an instant—and Su Xiao still claimed it wasn’t on purpose!

“I did save your life, you know. Not even a word of thanks?”

Of course Su Xiao knew it was hers. She glanced down at the metal badge in her hand. The woman visibly tensed.

Then Su Xiao noticed something odd.
There was a seam beneath the arrow—almost like it could be pried open.

She gave it a try.
To her surprise, pressing there triggered a mechanism. A green light flashed across the arrowhead.

The woman’s expression shifted instantly—panic.

Before she could move, a voice came from the device:
“Unit 1349, do you have a status report?”

Su Xiao was stunned.
There was still a signal?
A pager?!

She stared at the woman. “Didn’t the signal base get destroyed? How does this thing still work?”

The voice on the other end went silent, clearly caught off guard.
This wasn’t the first time a communication device had gone rogue during a mission.

“1349, they’re calling you, aren’t they? Why aren’t you responding?” Su Xiao’s eyes narrowed.

The woman eyed her warily.
How could someone who looked like just another survivor command such calm dominance?

“If you don’t respond,” Su Xiao said coldly, “I’ll kill her. She’s still holding a Safehouse, after all.”

Finally, the voice replied.
“Hello, this is the Doomsday Alliance Central Command. The equipment in your possession belongs to Unit 1349 of the Eastern District Alliance. Please return it to her. If you have conditions, we’re willing to negotiate. There is a transmission delay—we weren’t intentionally ignoring you.”

Su Xiao looked around.
A live signal meant it could be traced. That also meant she could open a map.

Wait.
That also meant they could trace her signal—perhaps they were already on their way.

She backed off immediately.

Clearly, the device was vital to the woman.
Even with both arms dislocated, she followed Su Xiao closely.

Only after retreating to the area near the Safehouse did Su Xiao speak again.
“You probably wouldn’t answer honestly even if I asked. I’m not interested in your agenda. But your Unit 1349 just now ran into danger, and I saved her. That Safehouse she held? Originally, it should’ve been mine.

“But I can guess what the Alliance is doing—posing as a rescue force while actually hunting down Safehouses to hoard for control. I don’t care about your goals. I have just one demand.”

The woman looked at her in disbelief.
How did she know all this?
Who was she really?

Su Xiao glanced up at the sky.
“The ground signal infrastructure is gone. Regular phones are useless. But this thing still works, which means the signal is satellite-based. So, I want access to that—just a signal strong enough to import a map.”

The woman was stunned.
That was it?

Ground signal stations transmitted signals quickly and efficiently but had limited range. Mountains, remote regions—those areas struggled with coverage. But in cities, there was never an issue.

Su Xiao, just an ordinary worker in a city, would’ve been using a ground signal.
After the quake, once those bases were destroyed, phone signals vanished.

But satellite signals were transmitted via micro-waves—hard to destroy and capable of covering the globe. Slow, with delay, yes—but perfectly fine for accessing a map.

After a pause, the voice responded:
“Understood. Our personnel will arrive at your location in approximately thirty minutes. Please wait.”

Wait? Yeah, right.

Su Xiao said bluntly, “I also want a solar charger. I’ll leave my phone and power bank with your… Unit 1349. You have four hours to prepare what I need. I’ll be back at six to pick it up. That’s when I’ll return your Safehouse.”

Before the woman could react, Su Xiao expertly popped one of her dislocated arms back into place.

Then she shoved her power bank and phone into the woman’s hands and turned to jump into the cellar.

Peeking back up, she added, “That Safehouse is no use to me. I’ll be here at six for the exchange. Your teammate will arrive in half an hour… Hmm, I assume you’ll survive at least four hours, right?”

The woman: ???
Was she being underestimated?

“I will survive.”
Her voice was hard as steel.

Su Xiao casually gave her an “OK” gesture and slammed the cellar lid shut.

The woman reconnected her other arm and scrambled back up—but the Safehouse entrance had vanished.

She could only seethe in frustrated regret.
If only she had bound it earlier!
Now the Safehouse was gone, taken from her hands.
Was her mission doomed to fail again?