CHAPTER 217: CHAPTER 217: THE BACKBONE

"Yu Manman, you should be the team leader," said Ackman.

The female members exchanged glances, still a bit unsure, but the rest were convinced.

Though Yu Manman is female, her overall strength is in no way inferior to theirs, and she knows even more than they do.

For example, last week, someone encountered a sudden situation. While several medical students couldn’t diagnose the problem, Yu Manman resolved it perfectly. Since then, they’ve acknowledged her skills, and several medical students eagerly sought her advice...

Another example is when someone’s Spiritual Sea became chaotic due to excessive pressure. Yu Manman was the first to notice and inquire about the overwhelmed Beastman, helping him solve the issue. Yu Manman’s insight is indeed excellent.

In the next two weeks, eighty-one individuals become familiar with and adapt to each other, undergoing deeper training for five females, focusing mainly on spiritual power and purification training of their Spiritual Seas. However, they also need at least half a day’s combat training to ensure certain competence — having the ability to protect themselves even without a male Beastman by their side.

As for Yu Manman, being the main fighter and not support, she didn’t need to train with them.

Most of their training was similar, and the rest also worked on spiritual power; it’s just the proportion of time spent was different. Yu Manman primarily trained with male Beastmen in combat, such as how to materialize spiritual power and have their spirit bodies fight alongside them!

Regarding purification power, Yu Manman also set aside about an hour for training.

"Are you ready?"

Ackman watched the team below, who have been training earnestly for three weeks.

"Always prepared!"

After a good half-month of training, their mental state had changed significantly; each stood tall with sharp eyes, like a freshly honed blade.

"Set off!"

"Yes, Instructor!"

They wore special combat suits and boarded the yacht.

Wu Yingyue’s eyes gleamed as she sat beside Yu Manman.

"It’s so incredible..." she whispered.

Wu Yingyue’s life path had always been arranged for her. She never thought she’d one day join such a team! Even though she might not need to dive underwater for combat, it still thrilled her!

"I want to train more and hope to fight alongside you one day," Wu Yingyue said to Yu Manman, her eyes full of yearning.

"You will," Yu Manman gave a light smile.

Recently, she’s discovered that Wu Yingyue, who seemed like such a well-behaved girl, actually liked engaging in exhilarating activities. After coming here, it felt as though a new world was opened to her, realizing that there were so many things she could do!

She wanted to learn shooting, to learn fighting, not fearing injury!

"Your shooting talent is very high!" Yu Manman encouraged her, "In time, you will definitely become a sharpshooter!"

This wasn’t just a boast from Yu Manman.

She found that Wu Yingyue had a strong gift in that regard; though her training was relatively short, she could overlap bullet holes on fixed targets, and even hit nine and ten rings on moving ones!

Wu Yingyue smiled shyly, "I never imagined..."

Several other females listened to the dialogue between Wu Yingyue and Yu Manman and nodded silently.

They, like Wu Yingyue, also wished to be part of the combat unit!

The instructor had high expectations for them, but definitely not as high as those for Yu Manman and their group! For them now, the most basic ability is self-defense.

But being part of such a team and witnessing Yu Manman’s abilities, they aspired not merely to be simple auxiliary Purification Masters.

"Whoa—"

On the sea, a massive whale surfaced, flipped over, and splashed a tall wave.

This whale was only about a hundred meters away from their yacht.

However, they’d learned how to use their spiritual power to distinguish between Original Species and Fallen Species. This whale close to them was merely an original creature and not mutated.

They quickly used their spiritual power to probe, finding out it’s a thirty-meter-long, but relatively calm blue whale.

What a huge blue whale, nearly as big as their yacht!

It was Yu Manman’s first time observing such a whale up close and she felt extremely curious.

"We are about to enter a medium-to-low danger sea zone, please pay attention," Ackman said through a small walkie-talkie. "Today, you’ll be randomly divided into groups of five to tackle a Fallen Species with an A-level danger rating collaboratively."

"Once the Fallen Species appears, the time limit is ten minutes. Any group failing the mission will have to swim back themselves."

They exchanged looks, swim back?

Wouldn’t that take them hours?

"We guarantee the task will be completed!"

Ackman nodded, then turned to Yu Manman and the five females, "Today you’ll form a six-person team to hunt a B-level Fallen Species! The time limit is also ten minutes, and failure means swimming back to the base yourselves."

"Us?" Wu Yingyue was somewhat worried, afraid of holding Yu Manman back.

Although they were selected, and had certain strength, they still differ considerably from those who passed through rigorous selection.

"Don’t worry, it’ll surely work out!" Yu Manman said, "Yingyue, your marksmanship is excellent, and your spiritual power is the strongest, so stay on the ship to monitor the Fallen Species’s position ongoingly, and seize the opportunity to hit it."

"We’ve learned various weaknesses of Fallen Species during these days, once you find its weak point, the chance of eliminating it is quite high!"

"And Anyan, your beast form and materialized spirit body are very strong and your coordination is very high; calm down and your strength is in no way below mine."

Tao Anyan’s prototype is a Tiger Whale with S-grade spiritual power but lacks training, easily panicking when issues arise.

"Xixue, you belong to the Eagle Clan, and your observation is very sharp. You’ll be able to direct from the air, overseeing the whole situation. If any emergencies occur, inform us instantly!"

"You Xiao, you’re swift underwater, you can find opportunities to lure the Fallen Species to the surface, allowing Yingyue to shoot better at it!"

"Chang, your defense and attack are both very strong, you excel in both long-range and close combat..."

"Thank you, Manman!"

With Yu Manman’s analysis, the five of them felt less nervous and more confident in resolving the Fallen Species issue. They looked at Yu Manman, treating her as their backbone.

"We’re a team, right? As long as we all work together, we can definitely do it!"

Actually, Yu Manman didn’t have one hundred percent confidence either, as she was very much receiving her first mission to kill a Fallen Species. But if she panicked now, what would happen during the evaluation later?

"First group ready!"