"There are six mutant beasts in total, and they were all heading straight forward," Lin Jingjing added.
After briefing them, Lin Jingjing lowered her pointer and returned to her spot.
The two of them standing beside her secretly gave her a thumbs-up.
'That's Sister Lin for you, performing flawlessly even in front of all these big shots.'
Every one of the big shots sitting here looked incredibly intimidating.
Lin Jingjing saw them and gave a thumbs-up in return.
The man returned to his position and said, "We don't know if this is true or not, but the appearance of a Steel Beast means a swarm of mutant beasts will show up before long."
"Intensify the patrols. We cannot let the mutant beast swarm plunder all of B6 Star's resources. B6 Star must not become a barren planet."
"If it becomes a barren planet, the people of B6 Star will have nowhere to go."
"Regardless, we must take this seriously."
Hearing him say this, the three of them—Lin Jingjing, Shi Feng, and Feng He—nodded in tacit agreement. 'Not bad,' they thought. 'At least he's thinking about the people.'
Perhaps because the three of them nodded in such perfect unison, they attracted the attention of the man standing in the center and the others across from them.
The man's ice-blue eyes swept over them, and the sheer pressure of his gaze froze the trio in place, too scared to move.
All three of them stood perfectly still, their eyes fixed straight ahead on the large screen.
After his quick scan, the man retracted his gaze and turned to one of the only two women in the room with long hair. "Gu Fei, take a team and search along this route. Be thorough."
The woman named Gu Fei immediately replied, "Yes, sir!"
The trio didn't pay much attention to the rest of the discussion. After all, it wasn't something low-level grunts like them had any say in.
During the boring lull, Feng He quietly rested her hand on Lin Jingjing, communicating using a method only the five of them knew.
'This is so boring. I want to go back.'
Lin Jingjing immediately replied in kind: 'Just a little longer.'
Beside them, Shi Feng also began tapping on Lin Jingjing's back with his index finger.
'You've already finished your report, so why are they making us stay?'
'Besides, their strategy is so cliché.'
So, Lin Jingjing could only place her hands behind both of them, making it look to outsiders as if she were simply putting her arms around their waists.
'Don't be so quick to judge. This strategy is actually pretty good.'
Shi Feng continued tapping on her back to reply.
'The enemy is already in our backyard, yet they show no sense of urgency. They're just sitting here talking. If they don't go investigate now, the mutant beasts will have tunneled their way in for a surprise attack by tonight.'
'How do you know they're digging a tunnel?' Lin Jingjing asked, confused.
'The lead mutant beast—its claws were covered in mud.'
'I suspect they've already finished the tunnel and will start their attack tonight.'
When Lin Jingjing heard this, she looked at him and pressed her lips together, her expression clearly saying, "Why didn't you say so earlier?"
Feng He also leaned over to look, her face full of confusion.
Shi Feng, now the center of their attention, just shrugged with an innocent look.
Lin Jingjing shot him a glare. 'Why didn't you mention something so important sooner?'
"Do you three have something to say?" The man's gaze fell on the trio in the corner again, his tone stern.
Shi Feng gave Lin Jingjing a shove forward and said, "Sir, she has something to say."
Lin Jingjing shot him a fierce glare over her shoulder before turning back to the man with a smile. "My teammate noticed something I missed."
"He should be the one to tell you."
After saying that, Lin Jingjing turned, pulled Shi Feng out, and whispered in his ear, "Nice try, passing this off to me. Not happening."
"You found it, you report it!"
She thought she had whispered quietly enough for only the two of them to hear, but everyone present had incredibly high spiritual power. The man in the lead position even possessed 1S-level spiritual power.
He had heard every single word Lin Jingjing said.
The man was silent for a moment. Finally, his ice-blue eyes landed on Shi Feng. "You. Speak."
And just like that, Shi Feng was pushed to the front.
He stood in the center, looking at the people before him, each one exuding an overwhelming sense of pressure.
Shi Feng, who wasn't usually prone to social anxiety, looked at the crowd and was suddenly reminded of his past life, standing on a stage during a year-end review with a sea of executives sitting below.
His legs began to tremble uncontrollably.
Even his voice started to shake.
"Um... I... I noticed that among the six... six mutant beasts, the lead one had mud on its claws," Shi Feng stammered out.
"So I suspect... they might have crawled up from underground."
"You could send someone to check." After saying that, a wave of panic hit Shi Feng. He was suddenly afraid the mud on the beast's claws was just from it touching something else.
"It's just my personal suspicion! You can take it or leave it," Shi Feng blurted out, then immediately scurried back to his corner.
Upon hearing this, Gu Fei immediately opened her Star Ring and issued an order to the soldiers on patrol.
After giving the order, Gu Fei looked at Shi Feng. "I hope, for your sake, that you're right."
"Heh heh." Shi Feng didn't dare to speak, only managing an awkward yet polite smile.
After receiving the message, the patrol soldiers led their unit to the location Gu Fei specified.
At that, the entire conference room fell silent. Everyone was waiting for a report from the patrol captain.
Meanwhile, the patrol captain and his team had arrived at the location and began their investigation with caution.
After a soldier cleared away the branches and leaves blocking their path, a light orb illuminated the scene ahead perfectly.
The soldier who saw it was left dumbfounded.
"Captain!" the soldier quickly called out. "We've got something!"
Hearing the shout, the patrol captain hurried over. When he saw the massive hole before him, he, too, fell silent.
They were surrounded by tall mounds of reddish earth, with a hole one-point-three meters in diameter in the center.
The mounds of earth were covered in a chaotic mess of claw prints that looked very recent.
The patrol captain immediately sent a video call to Gu Fei. In the quiet conference room, the ringing from her Star Ring shattered the silence.
She tapped her Star Ring, and a large blue screen materialized in front of her, showing the patrol captain's tense and anxious face.
Gu Fei said, "One moment."
With a few quick maneuvers, she transferred the video call to the main screen above.
The patrol captain seemed a bit stunned to see so many commanding officers.
But he snapped back to attention at the sound of Gu Fei's voice. After saluting them, he reported grimly, "We've discovered a large hole."
He then angled the camera to show the officers the scene.
Seeing this, everyone in the room was in an uproar.
The man looked over at Shi Feng, his eyes narrowing slightly.
Seeing that there really was a tunnel, Shi Feng let out a sigh of relief.
'Good. My gut feeling was right.'
"The opening is one-point-three meters wide. There are numerous mutant beast tracks all around it, many of them fresh."
"It looks like they just came out not too long ago."
The man's gaze was fixed on the screen, on that pitch-black tunnel.
Then he ordered, "Tonight, all soldiers will search for the mutant beasts that have crawled out."
Saying that, he turned to the big shots and addressed the man with the crew cut. "You, take an elite team down that hole and see what you find."