"Weapons!"
Realizing the danger Lin Feng spoke of, Ophilia, after a moment of stunned silence, unbuttoned her coat and produced two assault rifles.
The model was unremarkable, just ordinary assault rifles.
Lin Feng took them and chambered a round.
A crisp metallic click echoed.
Lin Feng felt a pang of emotion. He never thought he'd get to use these things again in this lifetime.
These things were like fire pokers to his physique, and he never imagined they would serve as weapons one day.
Ophilia handed him two more magazines.
"Use them sparingly, I don't have many bullets!"
Lin Feng curiously peeked, reaching inside Ophilia's coat.
His action made Ophilia blush, and she quickly closed her coat.
"What are you doing? Ouch!"
In the short time it took to handle the guns, Ophilia felt completely chilled by the biting wind.
"Where did you hide these guns? Didn't you say we couldn't use personal terminal space systems?"
Lin Feng was curious and wanted to see where she had hidden them.
Ophilia blushed again.
"Don't worry about that, let's hurry!"
With that, Ophilia took the lead.
But the howling wind soon forced her back behind Lin Feng.
That's it?
Lin Feng chuckled, picked up the rifle, and walked ahead.
He had to admit, the weather was truly frigid.
Even through his thick gloves, Lin Feng could feel the biting cold of the gun's metal.
He glanced at the environmental scanner on his wristband.
Minus forty-six degrees Celsius. Any colder, and firing the guns might become an issue.
Next to the temperature, a red numerical display indicated various radiation values.
At the bottom, there was an 'erosion value,' which read zero. Lin Feng didn't quite understand why such a measurement existed.
Although they had seen smoke rising, the distance was further than they had anticipated.
coupled with trudging through deep snow and walking against the wind, it took them nearly three hours to approach the source of the smoke.
It was a place that resembled a small village.
Walls of thick snow surrounded it, blocking the biting wind.
Lin Feng surveyed the area; there were probably less than a hundred houses.
Many houses had smoke rising, suggesting it was mealtime.
Or perhaps they were burning wood for warmth?
Either way, a village that could sustain life, warmth, and cooking in this post-apocalyptic wasteland was enough to make Lin Feng heighten his vigilance.
"Ophilia, brief me on the mission," Lin Feng asked, observing the village while speaking to Ophilia.
He didn't approach the village rashly, instead crouching in a hidden spot to assess the situation first.
"Huh? Oh!" Ophilia, somewhat dazed by the cold, still opened her personal terminal.
"Main mission, it seems we need to locate a radioactive meteor and find a way to destroy it."
"As for side missions, there are quite a few."
"Establish a settlement of over ten thousand people, acquire over fifty percent of the scientific technologies in use in the wasteland, and kill over a thousand mutants..."
Ophilia scrolled through her terminal, relaying some of the higher-rated missions to Lin Feng.
Lin Feng frowned as he listened.
These missions would be trivial for Lin Feng in his superhuman state, but with his physical strength restricted to normal human levels, each task was not simple.
Moreover, it seemed the timeline for the second stage of the mission would be quite extended.
For a normal human physique, these missions were nearly impossible, which helped Lin Feng understand the intentions of those in the First Sequence.
Were they meant to test everyone's capabilities?
His current physical condition was undoubtedly perilous in this wasteland.
Under such circumstances, the missions were likely designed to assess their command ability and strategic vision in adversity, with these two points being the primary assessment criteria.
Could the selection for the auxiliary group truly be for the reserve of the First Sequence Bosses?
These assessment contents made Lin Feng doubt.
Lin Feng's thoughts were indeed close to the truth.
However, they were the only ones to receive such special missions in nearly a century.
And this particular mission was tailored for Aaron and Lin Feng.
Being able to fight was not an issue, but often, fighting was merely the most basic requirement.
The First Sequence Bosses had placed high hopes on these two.
Lin Feng, however, was unaware of all this for the time being.
What he was concerned with now was how to complete the mission as quickly as possible.
Even with favorable timing, location, and assistance, those side missions would take at least one to two years with their current human physical capabilities.
"Let's go!"
After observing for a while and finding no visible dangers, Lin Feng adjusted his rifle to a ready-to-fire position and led Ophilia towards the small village.
The snow had stopped, and the streets were muddy, but it was evident that some effort had been made to clear them.
There were no people in the streets, and all doors were tightly shut.
Lin Feng walked down the path.
The ground was frozen solid.
Beside the street, houses were shut tight, as if no one had noticed Lin Feng.
Lin Feng deliberately made some noise, ensuring that the people inside the small wooden houses could hear him, yet still, no one emerged.
However, Lin Feng could feel pairs of eyes from within the houses, observing him cautiously through tiny gaps.
The village was not large, and Lin Feng and Ophilia soon reached the center.
Lin Feng stopped, realizing this passive approach wouldn't work. He turned and gave Ophilia a meaningful glance, nodding towards a house.
"Is your mouth uncomfortable?" Ophilia asked blankly, completely missing Lin Feng's intention.
Seeing Lin Feng making faces, she thought he was having some kind of reaction to the cold.
A '#' appeared over Lin Feng's forehead.
"Go knock on the door!"
He was genuinely amused. Why did most of his teammates seem to lack basic intelligence!
Ophilia pouted and let out a sound.
Knocking on a door was fine, just say it, who could understand all that winking and nodding!
Complaining internally, Ophilia raised her hand and knocked on the wooden door.
"Is anyone home? Can I have a cup of hot water?"
*Knock, knock, knock!*
"Is anyone there? Answer me!"
After knocking for a while, Ophilia received no response.
She returned to Lin Feng and stated seriously, "There's no one in this house!"
Lin Feng looked up.
Smoke was still rising from the rooftop.
...
Never mind, it seemed they were not welcoming outsiders.
But he could understand. If Lin Feng were a local resident here, he wouldn't open the door either.
The prevailing themes of the post-apocalyptic wasteland were boundless hunger and omnipresent danger.
To put it realistically, in such a doomsday scenario, even children carried deadly weapons.