After Qilin Team Four steered their boat out of that slightly darker patch of ocean, an eerie silence fell over them.
Every single one of them was busy with their own tasks, which coincidentally gave the livestream viewers a taste of how the four of them trained on a daily basis.
"There's nothing on the boat, and it's such a tiny space... Are they really doing unarmed physical and combat training here?"
"I thought they only trained in the training room. So unarmed training is actually useful?"
"I'm going to try it right now!"
"My mom is asking why I'm standing at attention while watching a livestream."
"I'm impressed... I'm truly impressed."
"Jian Jingyu is an assaulter, yet he can spar with Little Bear without even blinking? I'll never forget the scene where our adorable Little Bear launched a star beast like a cannonball..."
"Huang Yan is training along with them too, oh my god!"
"Looks like Wang Tianwei is the only slightly normal one in this team."
"...Normal? Wang Tianwei?"
"Pfft! You carefully picked out the 'supreme king of overachievers'!"
With a pouch of nutrient solution dangling from her mouth, Wang Tianwei carefully melted Cangli ore into the mecha materials, then shaped the finished material into delicate fish scales.
The entire process heavily drained her mental energy, but this kind of meticulous work had to be ground out bit by bit. As long as she completed it once, the rest would just be practice making perfect.
Moreover, the amount of ore was limited, so it was best not to waste even a single speck.
During this time, Huang Yan detected the appearance of mutant beasts on multiple occasions.
Underwater creatures would occasionally latch onto the bottom of their boat, and Huang Yan took this opportunity to practice various methods of using his mental energy to kill star beasts.
Through the scanning equipment on their aircraft, the scorer teachers had repeatedly seen Qilin Team Four fall into crises, only for the mutant beasts and star beasts to be effortlessly defeated by the three members shortly after. By now, the teachers were quite unfazed.
"Ah... a giant mutant octopus? It's fine, don't panic, let's see how they handle it first."
Wang Tianwei's mind was entirely on the mecha, so when she caught sight of an octopus tentacle as thick as a thigh reaching out in front of her, she didn't even lift her butt. She simply whipped out a saw-sword, casually severed it, ensured her pile of finished parts wasn't disturbed, and went right back to work.
"The thirteenth small piece, it goes here..."
Seeing her focused demeanor, the safety officer guessed she had absolutely no idea what was happening around her.
Jian Jingyu and Zhang Lyra, however, released their mechas, ready to teach the mutant octopus that was trying to drag their little boat into the sea a lesson.
While weaving illusions for the mutant beast, Huang Yan attempted to use his mental energy to control the direction of the boat.
The annoying thing about creatures like octopuses is that they have too many tentacles, and each one has localized autonomy.
Merely controlling the brain isn't enough to make many of their small movements act entirely according to one's will.
This resulted in the kelp drying on their boat getting tangled into a mess, not to mention the tentacle that had just reached Sister Zebra's side...
It was Zhang Lyra's first time using cold weapons while her mecha was suspended in mid-air. The mutant octopus's tentacles clung tightly to the hull, so she had no choice but to chop them off one by one with a long blade.
However, the parts exposed above the water were easy enough to deal with; it was the parts underwater that were a real headache!
Using underwater mines or high-pressure water blade cannons would definitely damage their poorly protected little boat. It had been a long time since they'd seen such a "squishy" vehicle...
Seeing that his teammates had chopped off all the tentacles above the water, Huang Yan withstood the pressure and continued to use his mental energy to "deceive" the mutant beast, coaxing it to leave the bottom of the boat.
The two single-soldiers cooperated perfectly, launching a precise strike the moment the creature swam a short distance away!
The cannon barrel on Zhang Lyra's mecha finally found its use, and a mutant sea monster whose sheer size was enough to make one's scalp tingle was thus jointly dispatched by the three of them.
Sitting beside the screen on the aircraft, the safety officer teacher set down his thermos.
"See, I told you a mutant beast of this level wouldn't need our intervention..."
"Qilin Military Academy Team Four, plus one point."
Zhang Lyra and Jian Jingyu returned to the boat, each carrying two octopus tentacles on their shoulders.
"The new spatial button is just too perfect for storing seafood. We can even stock up on some food when we go back this time! We owe it all to Sir Huang. When we get back, you can take your pick of the seafood!"
"...You're welcome."
Huang Yan felt there was no point in arguing anymore.
They might as well have Taihe sell this spatial button directly as a refrigerator; who knows, it might even attract the attention of a few more foodies.
Zhang Lyra used her long blade to slice a large chunk of meat off the octopus tentacle, which should be enough for their meals today.
Jian Jingyu stored the rest back into the spatial button, then went to check on the kelp that had just been knocked to the ground by the mutant octopus.
Most of it wasn't completely dry yet and needed to be hung up again.
Until evening, Wang Tianwei kept melting parts, not even moving from her spot.
Her hair had been blown into clumps by the sea breeze, and the skin on the back of her neck ached a bit from sunburn because she hadn't reapplied sunscreen in time, but the pile of parts in front of her had grown significantly!
In the end, it was the aroma of Jian Jingyu's grilled octopus that made her stomach rumble uncontrollably, finally snapping her back to reality.
She moved her body, only to find her lower half completely numb.
"Ugh, hiss..."
Jian Jingyu was at the bow of the boat, humming a song while grilling!
He turned his head and found Sister Zebra on all fours, crawling toward them at a snail's pace. Her body trembled continuously as she crawled, and her face and lips were impossibly pale.
"Quick, give me a skewer..."
"...Female ghosts aren't allowed to eat food."
After giving Jian Jingyu a death stare for five seconds, Wang Tianwei finally got her wish and bit into the tender, juicy grilled octopus tentacle!
Her lips visibly regained their color.
"The whole afternoon just flew by? I didn't even notice! You guys didn't run into any trouble, did you?"
Jian Jingyu looked at the octopus skewer in her hand with a complicated expression... I'm really sorry, Brother Octopus, for letting you die so silently.
"Nope."
Zhang Lyra picked the bones out of the grilled fish on the plate, broke it into bite-sized pieces, and then handed it to Wang Tianwei.
"Eat up, careful it's hot."
Huang Yan stared for a long time at the grilled fish in his own hand, which was as long as half his forearm and impossible to figure out how to bite into, feeling quite conflicted.
If he remembered correctly, Jian Jingyu had even swapped out a pouch of nutrient solution for her in the afternoon. She hadn't even realized the one in her mouth had long been sucked dry. Was this the so-called flow state?
A mecha master's concentration was truly terrifying!
Still, she practically needed to be spoon-fed when eating barbecue... Was this how Zhang Lyra developed her patience as a half-beastman?
Immediately after, he watched Wang Tianwei wolf down the octopus chunks, her eyes rolling back as she swallowed... Some people in this world were just built differently; if her food wasn't prepared meticulously, she really would choke herself to death!
So, he pushed the glass of warm water cooling in front of him toward her.
"You must have been a starved ghost in your past life."
Wang Tianwei downed half the glass of water and let out a "Haha" laugh.
"I think so too!"
