Chapter 52 Establishing a Mercenary Squad
The crowd at the hiring point automatically parted to make way, and the previous lively scene of people volunteering disappeared.
Everyone avoided looking at them, and Yu Miaomiao and Lu An ignored them, walking straight to the small, thin figure in the corner.
Would you like to team up with us?
Yu Miaomiao squatted down in front of the ragged, droopy, dirty child.
The girl looked up; she appeared to be only seven or eight years old. Her shoulder-length hair was messy and disheveled on her head, but her eyes sparkled brightly. "Are you really willing to hire me? I'm very capable, but I want 100 Asia Crystals a month. You have to pay me the first month upfront."
After the girl finished speaking, she bit her lip. She knew how dangerous missions were; her father had gone on a mission and never came back.
In the days that followed, the aunt next door took care of her, coaxed her to eat and drink, and provided her with a place to stay. However, the aunt always came back from missions covered in wounds. This time, she was carried back because of her serious injuries and fell seriously ill.
She wanted to earn the money needed for her aunt's medical expenses. She carried bricks, built walls, and did whatever paid the most. She had superpowers and strength, and she could do manual labor quickly and earn quite a lot. However, she was still 100 short of the 300 sub-crystals needed for the treatment.
The aunt couldn't wait any longer; her illness was getting worse.
Her father wouldn't let her come to the employment hall, but she heard from the uncles who carried bricks at the construction site that this place paid the most.
If she doesn't save up this money soon, her aunt will leave her.
"make a deal."
Yu Miaomiao didn't know what she wanted the 100 Asian Crystals for, but she could afford to give them to her.
Moreover, this amount of money is far from enough to repay the life-saving grace from my previous life.
This little girl's superpower is air-based. Not only can she purify the air within her range, but she can also generate hurricanes. The airflow is strong enough to blow down buildings, and she can also generate small, high-speed airflow blades that can easily cut any object.
In her previous life, a supervolcano eruption produced a large amount of volcanic ash and toxic gases that spread globally. When Yu Miaomiao was on a mission, her gas mask was damaged, and she was on the verge of death when she encountered the superpowered team that the little girl belonged to. The little girl's air purification saved her life and escorted her all the way back to the provincial capital base.
She vaguely remembered that the mercenary team the little girl was in was an elite team dispatched by the underground city shelter of the capital to participate in the rescue work in the provincial capital. It was a team that was at the height of its power. The captain was also a very good person and did not abandon her because she was an ordinary person and her life was in danger.
Instead, they had the little girl take care of them until they recovered before their team left the provincial capital and returned to the capital's refuge.
Back then, she heard the little girl say that she had suffered a lot in the capital and no mercenary team wanted her, but she was lucky and finally met a kind captain.
However, their team ultimately could not escape the assassination attempt. The last news she heard in the provincial capital was that the entire team was ambushed and wiped out during a mission.
Reborn into this world, I must never forget revenge or gratitude.
During the week of lying around, I asked He Liang to keep an eye out for the girl in the mercenary mission hall. It wasn't until yesterday that He Liang finally found the dirty little girl in a corner.
Today, naturally, I've come for her too.
"Really? But it's 100 Asia Crystals, not a single penny less." The little girl's eyes were filled with tears, and her cheeks were dirty like a stray kitten, but a smile appeared on her lips.
"Of course, I'll give it to you now. What's your name?" To keep up the act, revealing her rebirth was out of the question. Yu Miaomiao waved the bracelet on her wrist.
The young girl didn't refuse, adjusted her bracelet to the payment frequency setting, and stuck it next to Yu Miaomiao's bracelet.
"Beep... 100 Asia Crystals received." Even as the mechanical voice rang out, the little girl still looked incredulous.
But then she turned to Yu Miaomiao and said, "Thank you, sister. My name is Xu Nanwei."
Yu Miaomiao winked at her and pointed to herself and Lu An: "My name is Yu Miaomiao, and her name is Lu An."
"This brother is so handsome. Hello, Brother Lu. Please take good care of me." The little girl's innocent and sincere appearance amused Lu An.
"Hahaha, I'm Sister Lu."
"Um...you're the older brother."
The little girl stubbornly refused to change her tune; well, at her age, she probably can't distinguish between these things.
Holding the little girl's hand, the three of them went to the window to register and form a mercenary team. As for the name... let's call it Yu An, hoping for a peaceful and carefree life for the rest of their days.
A team logo should also be added, a bone and a cat paw, after all, the three little ones are the soul of their team.
The little girl wasn't unaware of the dangers of accepting all of this; she guessed some of it from the sympathetic looks of those around her. But no one was willing to hire her for 100 Asia Crystals, while this older sister was. So, exchanging her life for her aunt's survival was worthwhile.
"Alright, young lady, now take us to where you live."
"But it's very dirty and messy there..."
"Aren't we teammates? Teammates should never look down on each other, no matter what. Understand?" Lu An picked up the little girl and looked directly into her bright eyes.
"good."
They weren't unaware of the hateful gaze from Li Yi at the entrance of the mercenary hall, but they chose to ignore it. She didn't take Yi Tie's team seriously; a team composed of oppressed people was ultimately a disorganized mess.
Guided by the little girl, the two arrived at the apartment area, their first time visiting this residential area.
The difference between the villa area and the villa area is that the passageways are very crowded. Two people have to turn sideways to pass each other. The lights in the passageways also flicker. Even in the apocalypse, people are still different. This is the difference in life.
The doors were packed tightly together, which gave an idea of how cramped the room was. The little girl opened a door with her bracelet and led the two into the room. There was only a bed, a table, and a chair in the room, and the three of them could not even turn around.
On the bed lay a gaunt woman, her lips were pale purple, and her eyes were sunken. Judging from her skin condition, she was only in her thirties, but her hair was already somewhat gray.
"Aunt Meng, I've earned some money! Shall we go to the hospital?"
Meng Wanqing opened her eyes weakly and saw two unfamiliar faces. She looked at Xu Nanwei and a hint of doubt flashed in her eyes. She forced herself to sit up and reached out her thin hand, which was so thin that you could see the knuckles, to touch Xu Nanwei's head. "Auntie, it's okay. You don't need to go to the hospital."
He then turned to look at Yu Miaomiao and Lu An, his eyes filled with wariness and unease. "Who are you?"
"I'm her captain," Yu Miaomiao said, pointing at Xu Nanwei. "You have... sepsis?"
Yu Miaomiao stared at her exposed, festering skin, then touched her forehead. It was hot, but her body, especially her limbs, was convulsing and cold, and her consciousness was sometimes clear and sometimes blurred.
"I'm beyond saving. It seems you don't mean any harm to Weiwei... Since you're the captain, I'd like to ask you to take good care of her. This child is so young and has lost her parents. Natural disasters are merciless. I'm useless too; I can't even survive a minor injury... Cough cough... Cough... I still have 153 Asia Crystals in my bracelet; you can have them all. And all the food here is yours." The woman didn't even have the strength to avoid Yu Miaomiao's hand touching her forehead. She weakly and slowly uttered her request, then closed her eyes and breathed softly.
Xu Nanwei kept saying, "Let's go to the hospital, Aunt Meng, let's go to the hospital, I have money."
She had no idea that 300 crystals could save Meng Wanqing; Meng Wanqing was lying to her.
Given the current situation, it's unclear whether the hospital even has the equipment to culture bacteria, making it impossible to diagnose the illness and prescribe medication. Moreover, antibiotics are extremely scarce these days, and 300 oz was merely a hope Meng Wanqing had given her.