Chapter 20 The Bet

Not long after, the metal elevator doors opened.

A slender girl emerged, wearing ill-fitting clothes.

"The person is out! Quick, quick, get out of here!"

The four members of Team Zero didn't have time to look at her before they hurriedly hid.

Tao Haohao, hiding behind the door at the top of the stairs, shook Duan Xi vigorously, "Quickly ask Minister Duan if she agreed?"

It's about 300 points.

Duan Xi turned and glared at him, "Why don't you go ask?!"

The rabbit looked bewildered. "Why are we hiding?"

Why don't you just go over and say hello, or ask the guide?

The two men paused, stunned. "Yeah, why are you hiding like a thief..."

Song Liang shook his head helplessly and came out of the stairwell first.

The guide was nowhere to be seen on the first floor; he'd long since left...

*

Minister Duan acted first and reported later.

The news that an S-class guide had joined Team Zero caused a huge uproar among the base's high command.

I disagree.

In the building's conference room.

Minister Bai of the Special Abilities Department calmly stated, "In the two hundred years since the apocalypse, only one S-class guide has emerged."

“S-class guides are too precious. If they are lost in the contaminated area, it would be a great loss for us, and even for all of humanity.”

Minister Duan sat upright, his eyebrows slightly raised. "Is Minister Bai questioning Xie Tu's abilities, believing that his Zero Team cannot protect a guide?"

"Nothing is absolute." Minister Bai adjusted his glasses.

Minister Shao of the Logistics Department nodded in agreement: "Guides are already scarce. Our base has a population of nearly 300,000, more than 10,000 sentries, but less than 200 guides."

"Have you all forgotten? The founder of our Dawn Base was a Guide."

Minister Duan tapped the table lightly with his hand. "Guides were even rarer in the Dark Ages. Back then, guides could go to the front lines to fight."

"What? Are we all getting more and more backward as we get older?"

Minister Duan's gaze turned cold. "Confining the guides to the base has robbed them of their fighting spirit; this was a mistake from the start!"

Minister Bai didn't want to argue with her, so he said, "Let's vote then, let's vote on the decision."

"The Operations Department has already agreed, and Yun Zhao himself has also agreed. What else is needed for a vote?"

Minister Duan's debate with the group of scholars was truly remarkable; none of the men could out-argue her.

Chief Shen sat at the head of the table, looking left and right, his expression conflicted, unsure of which side to stand on.

It was Dean Jiang of the research institute who spoke up to smooth things over, "How about this, let Yun Zhao undergo an ability test first, to assess his S-level guide abilities, so that we can at least have some understanding of them, otherwise arguing all the time won't do any good."

The researchers kept coming to his office, demanding to conduct comparative tests on the two S-class spiritual entities.

Two phoenixes, a sentinel, and a guide.

The researchers, eager to know what the difference was, waited for him outside the office building every day.

Dean Jiang doesn't even dare to go back to his office now.

Minister Duan said, "Yun Zhao just arrived at the base, and her home doesn't even have a decent piece of furniture. Let's wait until she's settled in before making any decisions."

Minister Bai felt a headache coming on when he heard this.

A perfectly good guide was inexplicably intercepted by the operations department halfway through the journey.

*

Upon learning that Yun Zhao had agreed to join Team Zero, the team members gasped.

"It's over, my 300 points..." Tao Haohao sighed to the sky.

Duan Xi sneered, "Heh, five hundred."

The captain earned 1,400 from them while lying down.

I've already recouped most of the money I spent on meat yesterday.

The four were unwilling to give up and hurriedly drove back to the training ground outside the base.

A shooting range halfway up the mountain.

Xie Tuzheng stood alone on the training field, casually raising his gun and firing, hitting the bullseye every time.

"Captain! How do you know the guide will definitely agree?" Rabbit was extremely curious and asked impatiently before even getting close.

Tao Haohao was reluctant to part with his points and muttered, "Yeah, you two have never even met."

"Why did I follow your betting..." Duan Xi was filled with regret.

Song Liang said irritably, "I should be the one saying that. I lost three hundred points for no reason."

He was just passing by.

As a result, the three men grabbed him and said that they were all a team and that he had to join in the betting.

Song Liang stopped standing on their side and said to Xie Tu, "Captain, speak quickly, make them accept their defeat wholeheartedly and willingly hand over their points."

Xie Tu had a headache from their noise.

He simply put down the gun in his hand and turned to enter the indoor training room.

The four of them hurriedly followed him inside, clearly indicating that they wouldn't give up until he told them.

Xie Tu bent down to pour a glass of water, sat down casually, and looked up to see the four people surrounding him. He asked, "Are those bowling balls on your necks?"

Tao Haohao subconsciously touched his neck.

What's the meaning?

Song Liang kindly translated: "I'm saying you guys have no brains."

Rabbit reacted quickly this time, looking at Song Liang: "Captain, the word 'they' clearly includes you."

The topic has veered off course again.

Song Liang really didn't want to deal with them anymore.

The captain had never seen that S-class guide before.

I went to her this morning to try and persuade her to join Team Zero, but she turned out to be gone.

Minister Duan beat him to it and quickly apprehended him.

Song Liang asked directly, "Why is the captain so sure she will join?"

Xie Tu felt that his team members were beyond saving.

I decided to be frank with them, "The information about the high-level guides in the remote town came from an informant at Dawn Base. And there's only one signal monitoring tower near Contaminated Zone Six."

The rabbit nodded repeatedly and hurriedly asked, "And then?"

Xie Tu was speechless: "And then? Dawn Base didn't even receive the message, so why did it reach our ears?"

He kept thinking about this problem on the way back.

The nearest Dawn Base was unaware of the situation, but he, hundreds of miles away, found out.

It's like... deliberately leaking the news to them.

The three remaining S-class Sentinels are all in a public state in terms of their spiritual entities.

Everyone knows that his spiritual form is a fire phoenix, and the guide's spiritual form happens to be a phoenix as well.

How could it be such a coincidence?

Song Liang realized, "So the guide himself released the information to lure us there."

"But why?"

"I don't know," Xie Tu said very simply.

He's not a god; he's never even met the guide. How could he possibly know what the guide was thinking?

Duan Xi leaned closer and asked, "Then why is the captain so certain that she will join Team Zero?"

Xie Tu looked at him with a half-smile, "Want to know?"

Everyone nodded in unison.

Xie Tu slowly took out his points card and said, "Let's settle the bets first."

Duan Xi: "..."

Tao Haohao: "..."

rabbit:"……"

Song Liang sighed and took the lead in making an online transfer.

Xie Tu made 1,400 yuan in one go.

He put away the points card with satisfaction, stood up and walked out, leaving behind the words, "When the guide comes to Team Zero in a couple of days, you can ask her yourselves."

The four people: "..." We've been tricked!