What else could it be?
Chloe thought her friends must be incredibly bored to come up with such a question.
She replied irritably, "We're iron brothers, good buddies. That's the kind of relationship we have."
Hearing this, the others exchanged glances and fell into silence.
After a while, Katherine was the first to speak up, "Isn't there... any other kind of feeling?"
At this, Chloe narrowed her eyes, "What on earth are you all thinking about? I feel like your questions are getting quite inappropriate."
Daniel and Qin Huaibei, suddenly labeled as inappropriate, felt a bit angry. "If we didn't care about you, we wouldn't be asking so much!"
Chloe yawned, turned over, and pulled up her blanket. "Then don't ask. I know that even if you all shut up, you still love me."
Everyone: "..."
Daniel thought to himself that he shouldn't have been so vague. Wouldn't it have been safer to directly ask if she liked Anderson or not?
But now...
Daniel glanced at the soundly sleeping Chloe and sighed.
Never mind, let it be. We'll ask again in a few days.
Dear Anderson, we tried our best, but we couldn't help much.
Chloe is just a big jerk, a blockhead.
It's not worth wasting time on someone like her.
...
She slept very soundly. When Chloe woke up the next morning, she rolled out of her hammock, changed her clothes, and immediately walked out of the tent.
As soon as she came out, she saw Anderson sitting by the campfire.
Chloe noticed that this person always seemed to have an extremely serious demeanor, his back always straight as an arrow.
She took a few steps forward and then realized that there were corpses of fierce beasts around the tents and campfire.
Not just fierce beasts, but various giant ferocious beasts, lying in a jumble, with blood spilled all over the ground.
As Chloe approached, Anderson was absentmindedly poking at the campfire ashes with a tree branch, his lowered eyelashes looking somewhat forlorn.
It wasn't until she patted Anderson on the shoulder that he froze, raised his emerald green eyes to look at her intently, and seemed to come to life.
Anderson unconsciously smiled, "Young miss."
In the soft morning light, Anderson's handsome features stood out even more, and his smile became increasingly captivating.
For some reason, Chloe suddenly felt her heart skip a beat.
It wasn't a big flutter, but enough to surprise her.
She suppressed the stirring in her heart and immediately changed the subject, looking at the beast corpses in the distance, she asked:
"Did you kill all these?"
"Mm-hmm." Anderson tossed aside the branch in his hand and continued, "There are many fierce beasts in the forest, especially active at night. I was worried they might disturb the young miss's rest, so I just spent the whole night dealing with them."
Some had even come attracted by the scent, not necessarily targeting the people in the tents, but to be safe, Anderson had killed them all anyway.
Chloe raised an eyebrow slightly, "Aren't you ruthless?"
Anderson didn't say anything, just pressed his lips together slightly, looking oddly shy.
Seeing this, Chloe stopped teasing him and took out a can from her backpack, heated it briefly, and started eating.
By this time, Qin Huaibei and the others had also gotten up.
After finishing breakfast, they continued on their journey.
This time, Qin Huaibei took the lead with the map, while Chloe brought up the rear. However, she still habitually used her perception to scan the surrounding environment, avoiding dangers in advance.
Today was just like yesterday, with an extraordinary number of ferocious beasts. The blood on their weapons barely had time to dry.
Eventually, Chloe got fed up and simply used her perception to clear out dangers as soon as she detected them, saving time.
After two or three hours of this, Chloe suddenly sensed her perception hitting something. She immediately stopped in her tracks.
Everyone immediately noticed her unusual behavior and stopped as well:
"What's wrong?"
Chloe raised her eyes, a glint flashing in them, the corners of her lips curling up almost imperceptibly:
"We should be... reaching our destination soon."
At these words, everyone immediately understood and became more cautious as they moved forward.
Sure enough, they hadn't walked much further when their view suddenly opened up.
Ahead was a large enclosed clearing with various tents pitched on it. The air was permeated with a strange smell of potions.
If Chloe had to describe it, she'd say these potions smelled like failed, defective products. The odor was pungent and acrid, making one want to vomit at first whiff.
Daniel could barely contain his excitement: "We've found it already? How is it this simple?"
Hearing this, Qin Huaibei gave him a sidelong glance: "You think it's really that simple?"
"Isn't it?" Daniel retorted.
Chloe put away the large blade she'd been carrying in her ring and finally said: "It's indeed not that simple. Although their campsite is deep in the forest, they didn't seem to make any effort to conceal it. It's more like they wanted us to find it deliberately."
At this point, Katherine picked up the thread: "Moreover, given the Viper Group's usual modus operandi, they shouldn't have left any clues in this forest. But they still dropped hints, telling the human military that they were operating in the border forest of the capital, as if they were begging to be targets."
Hearing this, Daniel was a bit confused: "Then why are they doing this?"
"We don't know," Chloe said. "But since we're here, we might as well find out what's really going on."
The Tagar Military Academy team had taken a safer, more direct route and should have found this place before them.
Chloe guessed they had probably already found this campsite and figured out a way to infiltrate it.
She pondered for a moment, finally crushing the hard candy in her mouth with a "crunch," and said:
"Let's go. We'll find a way to sneak in."
As soon as she finished speaking, she darted over to the edge of the camp.
There were guards posted here, all tall and muscular men.
They wore the distinctive uniforms of the Viper Group, making them easy to identify.
Chloe's movements were ghost-like, her feet making no sound as she quickly made her way to a guard in the corner.
With a swift move, she knocked the man unconscious, then stripped off his clothes and put them on herself.
To be on the safe side, Chloe gently slit the person's throat, confirming they were thoroughly dead before hiding the body in the bushes.
Qin Huaibei and the others followed suit, knocking people unconscious, stripping their clothes, and then killing them.
The series of actions flowed smoothly, executed with alarming proficiency, as if they had privately rehearsed such unsavory deeds countless times before.
In the end, only Daniel was left without a suitable target to strip. He started to get a bit anxious.
"What should I do? Where can I find someone alone?" Daniel whispered urgently.
Chloe searched the surroundings and spotted a figure lying prone not far away. Her eyes lit up as she said:
"Quick, go over there. There's still a dog left."
Daniel: "..."
Realizing the implication, he immediately became angry and embarrassed:
"Chloe! Can't you be serious for once?"
