Chapter 139: Dog Hero vs Nine-headed Monster
Jin San had a loud voice, and everyone at the base heard him. They all involuntarily stopped what they were doing and looked over in unison.
No one wanted to pour their heart and soul into the Gale Mercenary Corps only to be cast aside like trash.
Xue Can straightened up slightly. "You want a reason? Fine, I’ll give you one."
"Jin San, you joined Gale two years before I did. When I first came, I even spent two months working under you. Later, my superpower advanced, and we became equals. Then, Brother Wu unfortunately died on a mission, and before he passed, he designated me as his successor."
"You know better than anyone how Brother Wu died. But he didn’t think you did it on purpose, and besides, being a mercenary means living on the edge. Death is normal. He told me not to say anything and not to blame you."
"Maybe out of guilt and fear, you worked hard on a few missions for the corps after Brother Wu died. But after a while, you slipped back into your old ways. Let’s not even talk about the distant past—what about the last mission to rescue Miss Lu? I told you to guard the entrance. Where did you go?"
"If I hadn’t sent Little Bei to check, we would have been trapped inside by the mutant beast that circled back. Jin San, I’ve considered you a brother I’d die for. Have you ever treated us as your own kin?"
Word by word, Xue Can ruthlessly tore away Jin San’s final shred of dignity, dredging up past events he thought were long buried.
His face flushed red, and he bellowed in a fit of rage and embarrassment, "Brother Wu was killed by a mutant beast! It had nothing to do with me! Don’t you dare slander me!"
"And that time with the Miss Lu mission, I didn’t leave the entrance on purpose! A-a mutant beast was approaching. I wanted to drive it away, so I just left for a moment."
Xue Can stared directly into his eyes. "I recall my orders were for you to guard the cave entrance, not to move an inch, and to notify us immediately if you spotted any mutant beasts returning. Correct?"
His gaze was too sharp, like a steel blade plunging into Jin San’s heart, dissecting all his dark insides.
’Yes, those had been Xue Can’s orders.’
But it wasn’t a lie that a mutant beast had approached—it had just been two very weak ones. Jin San had never accepted Xue Can as the leader. He believed that he, aside from Brother Wu, was the most suitable person to be in charge.
’A snot-nosed kid became my boss and doesn’t even show me much respect, calling me out for every little mistake, forbidding this and that. He has even more rules than Brother Wu.’
’If Xue Can gets injured—an incurable kind of injury—he’ll have to step down,’ Jin San had thought. ’Then, I can be the leader.’
With that thought in mind, he had quietly left the cave entrance, though he didn’t go far.
He just wanted to be the leader; he never wanted to get everyone killed.
Who would have known that not long after he’d hidden himself, Little Bei would suddenly come out and find him gone from the entrance.
"Xue Can, you just want to kick me out, right? Fine, I’ll go!" Jin San, feeling a pang of guilt, changed the subject. He shook off Liu Wei’s and Jiang Hua’s hands, pointed at Xue Can, and spat, "Don’t think yours is the only Mercenary Corps in the Imperial City! I’m a Third-level Superpower User, for crying out loud! I’ll be welcomed anywhere I go!"
The man turned away in anger, but after taking two steps, he suddenly spun back around. "I get it now. The reason you’re suddenly kicking me out... it’s because that bitch with the surname Shen snitched on me, right?"
"Xue Can, oh, Xue Can, you really disgust me. Kicking me out for a woman. Heh, you’re really something."
"And you lot," he sneered at the others, "you’d better serve that little wench carefully, or you’ll end up just like me."
Having sowed his discord, Jin San gave a disdainful sneer, strode away, and slammed the main door shut with a loud BANG.
Xue Can narrowed his eyes and said nothing, but the aura around him grew visibly colder.
Jiang Hua and Liu Wei exchanged a glance and silently retreated to the side. The other corps members also traded looks, their thoughts a mixture of uncertainties.
Xue Can took in everyone’s reactions.
’Good. Very good.’ Xue Can wouldn’t say he was the perfect leader to his men, but at the very least, his conscience was clear. He hadn’t expected that a few words from Jin San could stir up so much trouble.
’Or... have they always had their own selfish motives?’
Xue Can wasn’t a man of many words. Or rather, he felt that anyone with half a brain could tell Jin San had ulterior motives.
’Fine. Let’s see who else is restless. A team that isn’t united can’t go far. This is a good opportunity to weed people out.’
Shen Lu knew nothing about what was happening with the Gale Mercenary Corps. She figured Xue Can would handle it somehow, but she guessed it would amount to a scolding and maybe a fine at most.
Kicking someone out of the corps? ’That probably won’t happen.’
[DING! Detected sale of Braised Pork Set Meals 180/180 and Kung Pao Chicken Set Meals 80/80. Total revenue has reached 45,000 yuan, and customer satisfaction is three stars or higher. Mission complete. Reward: one Lottery Ticket.]
Just as the lunch rush was ending, the notification for the completed daily mission sounded.
It was a little earlier than yesterday.
’It’s mainly because more people came to share meals today, so the food sold out faster than before,’ Shen Lu analyzed.
After hanging up the "Closed" sign, Shen Lu checked the leftovers. As usual, the braised pork and Kung Pao chicken were completely sold out. There weren’t even many vegetable dishes left.
Still, if she combined what was left and stir-fried one more dish, it would be enough for a meal.
Shen Lu stir-fried a quick dish, "A Bowl of Fragrant Country-Style Pork." Red chili peppers, soy-sauce-colored pork, and golden-yellow fried eggs were all mixed together into one savory, tender, and spicy plate that went perfectly with rice.
Inhaling the hot and spicy aroma, Wang Daguo remarked with genuine feeling, "I could eat a whole bowl of rice just from smelling this."
No one is unhappy to receive a compliment. Shen Lu smiled as she carried her and Fu Cheng’s trays upstairs.
"Did the check-up this morning go well?" Shen Lu asked as she set up a small table.
Fu Cheng sent her a text message: "It went well."
"Good."
Shen Lu had been busy all morning and through the lunch hour, leaving her with little energy to talk. She sat down by the bed, eating and feeding Fu Cheng while watching TV.
The movie playing on TV was *Dog Hero vs Nine-headed Monster*, the one starring Li Zexing.
It had previously been in theaters and moved to the small screen on TV three months ago.
The plot was very cliché. Some unknown scientist performed human experiments, extracting a purified transformation agent from a mutated dog and injecting it into the character played by Li Zexing.
The good news was that Li Zexing’s character didn’t die and successfully awakened a superpower.
The bad news was that after awakening, his sea of consciousness was in chaos, and he often couldn’t make rational judgments like a normal person.
To suppress his chaotic sea of consciousness, the scientist made him wear an inhibitor disguised as a Biting Inhibitor. It was meant to both control Dog Hero and suppress his power.
Then, after a series of trials and tribulations, Dog Hero became a Level 10 Superpower User, broke free from the scientist’s control, defeated the movie’s main villain—the Nine-headed Beast—and became a hero to the entire world.
In Shen Lu’s opinion, this kind of film was a typical American-style popcorn movie. You couldn’t watch it with your brain switched on; it was pure, mindless fun.
’But to be fair, the special effects are incredible. Is this one of the benefits of a highly advanced mechanical civilization?’