The two latecomers finally boarded the vehicle.

Yuri Warren’s face was expressionless. She was clearly not pleased.

The girl, Nadia, was actually alright. The moment she boarded, she apologized to everyone before she’d even caught her breath. But the man beside her, Evan Pierce... Paige Summers thought Lucy Lee had a point about his difficult personality.

He was tall, slender, and exceptionally handsome, but his attitude was cold and aloof. After a single, detached glance around, he sat down brazenly. His expression seemed to say, "What do I have to apologize for?"

’People like him still exist in the apocalypse? What a freak!’ Paige Summers thought.

The others on the vehicle clearly couldn’t stand him either, but since Yuri Warren hadn’t reacted, no one else felt it was their place to speak up.

Only Heath Hughes couldn’t hold back and shot him a vicious glare.

Evan Pierce, in turn, looked back with disdain, which only enraged Heath further.

Fortunately, Nadia stepped in to smooth things over. Out of Evan Pierce’s line of sight, she pressed her hands together and pleaded with Heath Hughes. Only then did he, face flushed and huffing with anger, finally drop it.

Paige Summers propped her chin on her hand, watching the baffling scene unfold.

She had just quietly asked Lucy Lee what the relationship between the two was.

Lucy Lee had made a gesture indicating they were a couple.

’But does a girlfriend really need to be that subservient? She’s acting like a maid...’

Still, it was their business, not hers. The thought passed, and she put it out of her mind.

After the vehicle departed, the members of the Hunting Squad fell silent. On the other side of the cabin, the soldiers were all grim-faced and utterly quiet.

In this heavy atmosphere, the vehicle left Central City through the North Gate.

From this direction, they could see the factory district off to the side. Its walls were extremely high, just as tall as those of the residential district.

Moreover, the walls seemed to be surrounded by a buffer zone, traps, patrolling soldiers, and lookout posts.

It was clear how much importance The Government placed on this area.

Paige Summers was quite interested in the factory district, especially the armory and the smelting plants. Unfortunately, it went without saying that she wouldn’t be allowed to just waltz in.

’Honestly, you can tell just by looking at their current weapons.’

’The smelting and manufacturing technologies here are inferior to those from my world, likely because the conditions can’t be met in the apocalypse.’

’A real shame.’

While she was lost in these stray thoughts, the vehicle picked up speed, leaving Central City far behind.

About an hour later, they reached the first area that needed to be cleared out.

In the distance, a few Mutant Beasts were lying in wait, ready to strike.

However, since the clearing operation was divided by zones, only the first vehicle stopped to begin its mission. The others continued down the main road.

The farther they drove, the more treacherous the environment became.

At first, it was mostly open plains, but that gave way to dense shrubs and woods—the kind of terrain perfect for concealing Mutant Beasts or large mutated plants.

’The mission areas weren’t chosen by the Hunting Squads themselves,’ Paige figured, ’but were likely assigned by the military based on each squad’s strength. The tougher the area, the greater the rewards. That much was fair.’

Still, when they reached their squad’s designated area that afternoon, she was a little surprised.

The right side was fine—mostly just wasteland. But to the left were vast swaths of tall shrubs, so dense they were almost a forest! ’Don’t tell me we have to chop all that down?!’

She had guessed right.

Except they weren’t going to chop it down—they were going to burn it all.

The Hunting Party and the soldiers, twenty people in total, all disembarked. Except for the driver, who remained with the vehicle, everyone took a special fire-starter and surrounded the thicket—which spanned several hundred square meters—to set it ablaze.

’This method is so crude and simplistic! And don’t they know it’ll just grow back?’ Paige Summers grumbled to herself as she headed to her assigned position with the others.

Nadia’s clear voice suddenly rang out. "This will never solve the problem!" 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Because of their bad impression of Evan Pierce, the others gave her the cold shoulder as well. But Paige’s interest was piqued. ’Does this girl have an idea?’

She deliberately slowed her pace and asked with a smile, "Why do you say that?"

Nadia had been feeling awkward, but seeing Paige’s friendly attitude, she breathed a sigh of relief and quickly explained, "From what I’ve observed, these shrubs grow incredibly fast and are extremely difficult to eradicate. If we just burn them, it won’t be long before they grow back."

"Is that so..." Paige Summers nodded thoughtfully. ’Her thinking is pretty much the same as mine. But if we can both see the flaw in this plan, surely Yuri Warren can too? Or were these the orders from on high, and they’re just meant to follow them blindly? If that’s the case, then there’s nothing to be done. We’ll just have to burn it and see what happens.’