Mercenary Service Center.

When Zhou Ling led his team over, they were shocked to find that the S-level mission they had been longing for had already been taken by someone else.

The task is no longer displayed on the scrolling screen above.

S-rank mission: 2 Tier 6 Pine and Camphor Tree Cores, the one worth three million Star Coins.

Zhou Ling slapped his brother, who had followed him, on the head: "I told you to come earlier, but you insisted on dawdling. Now look what happened! Someone else snatched the mission! It was the easiest and highest-paying S-rank mission. How are you going to take responsibility now that we're out of three million star coins? Where are we going to find such an easy mission?"

Zhou Yang rubbed his head and cried out, "Ouch!" He said, "Brother, it's not my fault. This S-rank mission has been hanging here for so long and no one has accepted it. How come someone else accepted it just when we were about to do it? Could someone have done it on purpose?"

"Damn it, they're showing us no respect at all. If I find out who it is, I'll definitely teach them a lesson! Hey? I remember you told the person in charge of the service center yesterday that you were going to reserve this task for me? Where's the lobby manager? Where is he? Make him come out and give us an explanation!"

Then he started yelling at the top of his lungs. A short while later, a man ran out from the service desk. He looked apologetic, and beads of sweat dripped from his forehead. He was extremely nervous.

Before Zhou Yang could ask any questions, he immediately begged for forgiveness and began to explain, "Brother Ling, Brother Ling, I really didn't expect anyone to take this mission. I clearly had Xiao Ma keep watch all night without daring to close his eyes. Who would have thought, who would have thought that this mission would be taken by someone else during the shift change! This mission was posted a week ago, and no one took it at all. I never expected that someone would suddenly appear out of nowhere..."

Zhou Ling knew the other party wouldn't dare to play any tricks on him, so he didn't blame him, but simply asked, "Which regiment picked you up?"

He needs to weigh the chances of eliminating the other party.

Unexpectedly, he heard something that shocked him.

Lobby Manager: "Yes, a young woman answered the call. She didn't have a team and was a newbie. We were all speculating that she might have gone there to commit suicide. Look, here she is."

Then they pulled up the surveillance footage and showed him Lin Yiran's photo.

"It was taken on by an individual?" Zhou Ling glanced at the photo and already knew what was going on.

"Then this really has nothing to do with you. It's alright, you can go now, we have our own plans."

"Alright, alright," the lobby manager wiped his sweat and left. He was still a little uneasy. This was the Cheetah Squad, an affiliated unit of the Emperor's Tyrant Mercenary Group, and their squad's overall strength was ranked very high! Not to mention that their Cheetah Squad's captain, Zhou Ling, was an S-level mental strength martial artist, whose personal achievements alone were quite impressive!

And with the Emperor's Mercenary Corps behind it, it sounds like a force to be reckoned with.

The top three mercenary groups in the Ninth Galaxy—no, the entire galaxy—are, in order: Starsea, Emperor's Tyrant, and Starfire. Starfire's headquarters are located on Shatia in the Seventh Galaxy. Starsea and Emperor's Tyrant, however, are rivals and coexist on Lama in the Ninth Galaxy.

They are also the two major mercenary groups that control all the resources of the Ninth Star System.

Besides these two major legions, the Ninth Star System also has hundreds of smaller mercenary legions, categorized by level from one to five. Level five is the lowest level legion; for example, Wu Yongde's Blazing Sun Legion is a level five legion, while Zhou Ling's Cheetah Legion is a level four legion.

That's not the main issue. The main problem is that I heard the Cheetah Legion has now been recognized by the Emperor's Legion and has become an officially recognized mercenary group. This means that the Emperor's Legion has become their backer, and they can do whatever they want under the Emperor's Legion's name. They can also say that they are members of the Emperor's Legion when they go out.

This is a change made by both Starsea and Emperor's Domination in order to absorb fresh blood, giving small mercenary groups absolute freedom while also being able to summon them to strengthen their own forces when needed.

Therefore, the Cheetah Legion actually relies on the Imperial Legion behind it.

Most legions on the Ninth Star System are unaffiliated. However, those that do rely on these large legions will receive support from them, making it easy for them to quickly advance to the second-tier legion level.

Zhou Ling is bound to become a hot commodity in the future, just waiting to soar to great heights, which is why the lobby manager is trying so hard to please him.

"Brother, what do we do now? Damn it, this mission was taken by a woman! I really want to kill her and take the mission back!"

Zhou Ling pondered for a moment, then went to the big screen again, but didn't see any missions that suited his taste. So he made a decision: "Let's go, call the brothers, and go to the Forest of Hope together."

Zhou Yang's eyes lit up: "Big brother! Are we going to take back the mission?"

Zhou Ling frowned. "Don't talk nonsense. It's not about stealing. We're asking this girl to give us the mission. She can't possibly complete it alone. We're going to help her. We'll give her some star coins later so she can unbind the mission herself."

Zhou Yang: "Hehe, that's great! Let's go, I'll go get the brothers!"

……………………

Lin Yiran glanced at the several-meter-tall Thunderwood Fruit Tree, tested its attack range with her supernatural ability, and then took a step back. She took out her newly bought samurai sword, and as she wielded the sword to fiercely slash at the Thunderwood Fruit Tree, Lin Yiran thought to herself: I made a mistake.

I should have bought a chainsaw.

Unlike now, it's not as difficult for her to chop.

The trunk and bark of the Raimu fruit tree are extremely hard, so hard that Lin Yiran's newly purchased samurai sword was completely destroyed. Unfortunately, only a small part of the Raimu fruit tree was cut down.

Despite being whipped around wildly by the branches of the Leimu fruit tree, Lin still took out his large machete. After looking at it from all angles, he still thought this machete was the best to use. The blade was relatively thick and not easy to break, but it was easy to chip.

Lin Yiran was furious. It seemed she would need to buy more good knives in the future. Without hesitation, she took out the hunting knife that Senran had given her when she was inside the mutated wormhole.

The knife was made of some unknown material; the blade was exceptionally sturdy, and the edge was exceptionally sharp.

With this knife, Lin Yiran was no longer badly beaten by the mutated Thunderwood Fruit Tree. Instead, she quickly used her supernatural power to cut the Thunderwood Fruit Tree in half.

After cutting the branches off, the branches of the Thunderwood fruit tree would stop jumping around, so Lin Yiran went forward and picked all the fruit from the crown of the tree.

They look very similar to green apples, but they are inedible. Lin Yiran counted them; there were thirty-three fruits in total. She handed over three, and the rest could be sold at the market.