Chapter 21: Temporary Teammates

“What? Chu Xihen can shoot a bow?”

Everyone was stunned, not expecting he had such a hidden skill.

Chu Xihen was also surprised. He had only used a bow and arrow once in front of Lou Su a long time ago. He didn’t expect Lou Su to remember.

That was before they were together. He was attracted to Lou Su’s face, but he couldn’t directly confess his intentions, or the other party would definitely think he was crazy. So, during that period, he frequented the places Lou Su often visited, creating opportunities to “accidentally” meet.

Lou Su went to the archery club to learn archery. However, despite his strong learning abilities in other areas, he stumbled when it came to archery.

Chu Xihen couldn’t help but demonstrate from the side when he saw Lou Su consistently missing the target.

He just casually drew an arrow once, and Lou Su remembered it until now.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve touched one. I should have regressed a lot.” Despite saying this, Chu Xihen still accepted the card, along with the [A Paper Umbrella] card.

“Do you really know how to shoot arrows? Why don’t you shoot one for us to see?” Han Chong questioned.

He suspected that Lou Su was just protecting Chu Xihen. Could that good-for-nothing actually know how to shoot arrows?

Just now, Lou Su and Bai Jinli had worked together to kill a bunch of Variants, and the scattered few were slowly retreating, as if they were afraid.

They could still see the blue-glowing beetles in the distance. Guns couldn’t hit them, but Han Chong thought that someone who knew how to shoot arrows should be able to hit those bugs, right?

So, he pointed into the distance and said, “Shoot a beetle for us to see!”

Chu Xihen took out [Barrage of Arrows] and handed it to him. “If you can do it, you do it.”

Seeing how straightforward he was, Han Chong chickened out and didn’t dare to take the card.

Bai Jinli stepped forward to mediate. “Xihen, don’t mind him. Han Chong just speaks without thinking. If Brother Lou says you can, then we believe you.”

So, he believed Lou Su, not Chu Xihen.

Chu Xihen raised an eyebrow slightly, finding Bai Jinli truly interesting. Han Chong was Lou Su’s lackey yesterday, and tonight he was directly treating Han Chong as his own man, right in front of Lou Su.

But after all, the card was given by Bai Jinli, so he politely thanked him.

Bai Jinli was just one of the male leads in this world, not his enemy. As long as the other party didn’t provoke him, he was too lazy to target him.

“Let’s go. We need to find a place to block the sun before dawn.” Lou Su ignored Han Chong’s clamoring and asked Gao Lin, “Are you okay? If you can’t walk, we’ll find a place to stay nearby.”

Gao Lin’s entire weight was on Zhou Quan. Hearing Lou Su’s words, he slowly raised his head. “I should still be able to…”

Before he could finish speaking, he closed his eyes and fell.

Zhou Quan was startled and didn’t hold him steady, falling to the ground with Gao Lin.

“Gao Lin? What’s wrong? Wake up! Don’t scare me! It would be such a loss if you died right after awakening your ability!” Zhou Quan slapped Gao Lin’s face and shouted.

Bai Jinli stepped forward, raised his hand, and touched Gao Lin’s arm, activating his Precognition ability. Confirming that Gao Lin wouldn’t die here, he said to Zhou Quan, “Don’t worry, he won’t die. Looking at the situation, he should be upgrading his ability, just like Brother Lou before.”

“Ah?” Zhou Quan was stunned. “But he just awakened his ability. He’s upgrading already?”

Lou Su joined the conversation. “He’s been constantly using his ability, depleting his mental energy. This can cause an ability to upgrade.”

However, this method only works for upgrading in the early stages. To become stronger, one still needs to rely on skill cards of the same attribute dropped after killing Variants.

For example, if Gao Lin encounters a Fire-attribute skill card next time, he can devour the card to upgrade his own ability if he doesn’t want to learn the skill. If he learns the skill on the card, then he can no longer learn other skills of the same attribute, and any further same-attribute skill cards can only be used for upgrading.

“Mr. Hao said that if an ability upgrades automatically, it requires a coma of two to three days. We can only find a place to stay first,” Zhou Quan said to Lou Su.

Before Lou Su could speak, Zhou Quan added, “If Brother Lou is in a hurry, you can go ahead. I’ll take him to find a place to stay.”

He didn’t want to delay Lou Su’s journey because of him and Gao Lin.

“It’s okay. It won’t delay us for long.” Lou Su didn’t mind and stepped forward to help Zhou Quan lift Gao Lin.

Zhou Quan and Su Yan thanked him repeatedly. Su Yan also considered herself on the same side as Zhou Quan and Gao Lin. If Lou Su and Chu Xihen were to leave, she would definitely stay with Zhou Quan to take care of Gao Lin.

Lou Su’s decision to wait for Gao Lin to wake up and travel together wasn’t entirely out of kindness. Gao Lin had now awakened his ability, and it was a very powerful Fire-attribute ability. Having him in the team provided an extra layer of security.

Traveling together might be safer than traveling alone with Chu Xihen.

Currently, everyone’s abilities were only at level one or two. Fighting alone was not an option; teamwork was still necessary.

Although Bai Jinli and Han Chong had come, Lou Su didn’t consider them temporary teammates. They could abandon him once because of Chu Xihen, and they would do it a second and third time. He needed teammates who wouldn’t dislike Chu Xihen.

After walking for another hour, they found a village. They had been walking for half the night and had left the city, arriving in the suburbs.

The entire village was silent. Because it was dark everywhere, they didn’t know if there were any survivors.

They didn’t venture too deep into the village, finding an undamaged bungalow near the entrance.

Upon entering the house, they found green liquid everywhere on the walls, indicating that it had been invaded by Green Fur Wolves.

“Check around to see if we can repair the broken areas. Chu Xihen and I will go upstairs to take a look,” Lou Su said, pulling Chu Xihen upstairs.

The door to the upstairs living room was broken. As soon as Lou Su walked in, an Infected rushed out, only to be kicked away by him.

He rushed forward and pierced the Infected’s head with a dagger.

Chu Xihen stood at the door, providing light. The two hadn’t discussed it, but their cooperation was seamless.

Then, Lou Su checked all three rooms upstairs, confirming that they were safe before calling the people downstairs up.

“Upstairs is relatively safe. Except for the broken door, the doors and windows of the other rooms are fine,” Lou Su said, throwing the Infected he had killed out the window.

Zhou Quan and Su Yan chose a room first, placing the unconscious Gao Lin on the bed. Then, Su Yan stayed by the bedside to watch over him, while Zhou Quan came to the living room to listen to the arrangements.

“You and Gao Lin can share a room to take care of him, Su Yan can have a room to herself, and Bai Jinli and Han Chong can share a room. Is this arrangement okay?” Lou Su asked.

Zhou Quan and Su Yan had no problem with it. They were used to Lou Su’s arrangements, but Bai Jinli and Han Chong didn’t think so.

Bai Jinli asked Lou Su, “There are only three rooms. If we divide them up, what about you two?”

“Xihen and I will rest on the sofa. I’ll take the night watch,” Lou Su said.

“That won’t do. Let Xihen rest in a room, and the three of us ability users can take turns guarding the living room,” Bai Jinli suggested in a gentle tone.