NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 191 - Sour and Refreshing
“Instructor, the beast tide explosion wasn’t really sudden, right? The number of mutant beasts we’ve encountered these past few days has been increasing,” Mai Dongzi asked Instructor Shan.
She had only met Instructor Li once and thought he looked quite stern and hard to approach. Moreover, he wasn’t an instructor in the arts or command departments, so whenever Mai Dongzi had a question, she naturally asked Instructor Shan.
Although she wasn’t very familiar with Instructor Shan either, as he hadn’t officially taught her, he was the head instructor of the command department, and they had met several times.
“The beast tide showed signs of eruption more than ten days ago, but it actually started to erupt the day before yesterday,” Instructor Shan said honestly.
“The landing ship has arrived. Let’s go,” Instructor Li said, as they were the last group.
When the Phantom Squad entered the landing ship’s hall, it was already packed with a large crowd of people.
Upon seeing the hundreds of students in the landing ship hall, the members of the Phantom Squad all shared a feeling in their hearts: grim, very grim—they were all in a miserable state.
Although their combat suits had some cleaning function, it could only maintain cleanliness for a few days at most. If not washed for an extended period, they would still become dirty.
The environment on Liva Star was harsh and the resources scarce. They didn’t have detailed information about the planet’s geography or environment.
Under such circumstances, it was already a good thing that they had managed to find enough drinkable water. There was no surplus water to clean their bodies.
For the past month, they had not only been struggling in the harsh environment but also constantly battling mutant beasts and playing a game of robbing and counter-robbery with the humans of Liva Star.
Their combat suits, which were originally capable of changing color according to the environment, had become so dirty that the colors were all muddled. But what had become more noticeable was the smell on their bodies.
So, when they entered the landing ship, the first thing the Phantom Squad noticed was the strong, sour and refreshing smell inside.
Then they took a closer look. Their companions in the flying vehicles were just as filthy, each one blackened and gaunt, their hair tangled and disheveled, looking extremely haggard. The men even sported rough stubble.
It was no exaggeration to say that they were in worse condition than the homeless people on Emperor Capital Star.
After all, the homeless on Emperor Capital Star received a basic survival stipend every month, and their apartments, though only twenty square meters, at least had water for personal hygiene.
Looking at the condition of the others, it wasn’t hard to understand why the Phantom Squad was so struck by the sour and refreshing smell inside the landing ship.
No wonder the instructors stayed in the landing ship’s cockpit and didn’t even show their faces.
Among all these smells, the most overpowering was the scent of blood.
At a glance, most of the people had large blood stains on their clothes, with varying shades of black, deep red, and bright red.
From the bloodstains, it was clear that they had killed plenty of mutant beasts, which explained the strong smell of blood on everyone.
The Phantom Squad, being the team that fought until the end, looked even more disheveled than the others.
The final hours of battle had been especially fierce. Except for Mai Dongzi, everyone else looked as if they had been pulled out of a pool of beast blood. They were almost drenched in blood, with a thick, pungent smell of blood surrounding them.
Among them, the leader of the Phantom Squad stood out even more. Although she had also crawled and fought in the desert, her clothes weren’t as dirty, and she wasn’t in a completely filthy state.
The most obvious thing was that she didn’t have a single drop of blood on her, making her stand out as clean in stark contrast to the rest of the Phantom Squad.
Additionally, everyone noticed that Student Xi’s wood-type ability had actually leveled up, reaching the late stage of level 3.
On the already largely desertified Liva Star, with no energy supplements available, it was surprising that Student Xi’s wood-type ability could still advance. It certainly wasn’t because she had been constantly growing plants.
There was only one possibility: she often used her wood-type ability to heal others, which had caused her slow-growing ability to level up.
When the Phantom Squad entered the landing bay, there was only space next to the Sunlight Squad, so they naturally moved over and found a spot to sit down.
However, before they could sit down, they smelled an unpleasant odor.
They then noticed that although the Sunlight Squad also had a strong smell of blood, another distinct odor completely overpowered the bloody scent, showing just how overpowering it was.
Oddly enough, aside from the blood stains, the Sunlight Squad looked cleaner than the others.
No wonder no one was around the Sunlight Squad. Others would rather squeeze together than go near them.
The Phantom Squad also wanted to move away, but there was no other space to sit. The red lights flashing on the wall urged them to sit down and fasten their seat belts, so they had no choice but to endure and sit down.
“You guys really fell into a pile of rotten fish,” Mai Dongzi couldn’t help but ask.
She couldn’t stand it anymore and used her mental power to form a barrier, blocking out the various sour and refreshing smells in the landing bay.
“We drifted at sea for two days, then were sunbaked for two days, drifted in the seawater for another two days, and after finally reaching the shore, we were thrown into the desert…” Ye Zhengyan didn’t want to recall it. If it weren’t for Student Xi asking, he wouldn’t have answered.
No wonder they smelled so bad. The Phantom Squad looked at them with sympathy— the Sunlight Squad had actually been tossed into the sea.
On this unfamiliar planet, without any tools, if the desert environment was considered a difficult survival level, the ocean environment was definitely hellish. No wonder their smell was so uniquely unpleasant.
It’s true that comparison brings comfort. In contrast, the Phantom Squad felt quite relieved. The hill-like terrain where they first landed was definitely a basic-level survival environment.
Fortunately, the air purification system on the landing ship was fairly good. While it couldn’t completely eliminate all the odors, the smell in the hall, though sour and refreshing, wasn’t suffocating.
When they first entered, the Phantom Squad found the smell unbearable due to the unfamiliarity, but after a while, the impact of the sour smell on them wasn’t as significant.
Although everyone was almost exhausted when the instructors received them after they got off the flying vehicles, after drinking the energy boosters, their physical condition had almost recovered. Though their spirits were still a bit sluggish, they still had enough energy to chat with those around them.
About an hour later, they boarded the starship of Emperor Capital University, bringing the sour and refreshing smell with them.
Though the instructors didn’t show any signs of distaste on their faces, everyone could still feel the underlying displeasure from them.
According to the usual procedure, after their training, the instructors would give their feedback based on their performance during the training.
However, this time, without saying a word, the instructors instructed everyone to return to their rooms to tidy up and rest for six hours before gathering in the starship hall.
If anyone said the instructors weren’t displeased with them, no one would believe it.