Child Laborer

Hairless Freak was quite surprised by Qu Jianlei's words. "You have a gun. Aren't you afraid they won't talk?"

Qu Jianlei asked blandly, "What if they simply refuse to talk?"

He had never considered himself softhearted.

Born into Blue Star's peaceful society, he could kill without batting an eye, without even feeling physically unwell afterward.

Anyone he wanted to kill surely deserved to die.

But grabbing two random people for information and killing them if they failed to provide it... that still somewhat challenged his bottom line.

His personality was rather stubborn, and he did have some issues, but boundaries were not things one should casually cross.

He would never associate with Survivors who ate people, nor did he wish to kill people for no reason.

The Wasteland had its own rules, and he lacked the strength to resist them. But as a person, he still needed his own principles.

He did not want to become someone like Mr. Sai.

The feeling of wielding absolute power over life and death might be wonderful, but he did not like it.

Hairless Freak paused in surprise. "True. Since you could save me, you're naturally not the kind of utterly vicious person."

Qu Jianlei did not reply. Though the other party was a child, one should never reveal too much about oneself to anyone in the Wasteland.

After a pause, Hairless Freak sighed. "You don't need to kill anyone. You're so strong—you can just spend money to ask for directions."

"Heh." Qu Jianlei shook his head dismissively but said nothing.

He had encountered people deliberately giving him wrong directions even on Blue Star. How could he possibly trust the integrity of Wastelanders?

The Wasteland was so vast that even a slight error in direction could fucking get someone killed from running.

Seeing this, Hairless Freak fell silent as well. The other party clearly had no intention of taking his advice.

After that, Qu Jianlei traveled during the day and cultivated at night. As for food and water... supplying one more person was no big deal.

Hairless Freak recovered quickly. Wastelanders truly had exceptional physiques, and since he was still young, early on the third morning, he volunteered to be the Driver.

Hairless Freak had watched Qu Jianlei cultivate, but he truly had no idea what the other man was doing.

He sensibly did not ask. Instead, he eagerly offered to drive, wanting to demonstrate his value.

Honestly, if he had not made that request today, Qu Jianlei had been considering abandoning him.

Giving you three packs of Nutrient Solution was already generous enough. You've recovered quite a bit too—do you still want to cling to me and refuse to leave? Watching Hairless Freak drive the enormous motorcycle, Qu Jianlei felt no guilt whatsoever about employing child labor.

If I didn't employ you, you'd be dead for sure! This was not some hypothetical scenario from a 996 boss. This was simply how the Wasteland worked.

Qu Jianlei wanted to try meditating on the flatbed cart, but after several attempts, he gave up—it was simply too bumpy.

Still, being able to recline against the cart and relax was far better than riding the motorcycle the whole time.

Before long, however, he discovered the convenience of employing Hairless Freak.

The wilds of the Wasteland had always been ruled by the strong preying on the weak. That had never changed.

Over the next several days, the two encountered five or six groups of Survivors, one of which had as many as nine people.

Seeing that a child was driving, nearly every Survivor's eyes revealed greed.

But upon seeing the figure on the flatbed cart and the weapons, they all chose silence.

He might have been some peerless fiend, or perhaps he came from a powerful faction. In any case, there were truly not many people in the wilds who could afford to employ child labor.

It was mainly within Settlements that child labor was more commonly employed.

After this happened several times, Hairless Freak could not help saying, "Sir, your presence... is really powerful!"

"What fucking presence?" Qu Jianlei replied with a cold laugh. "They just know that the first one to make a move is usually Cannon Fodder."

Hairless Freak immediately understood. "So they're all waiting for someone else to test the waters?"

That attempt at playing straight man was a bit poor, Qu Jianlei thought, curling his lip inwardly.

Hairless Freak's small frame driving that massive motorcycle looked truly bizarre, yet he handled it with ease.

"Are we just going to keep traveling like this without looking around at the surroundings?"

What was there to see around them? Qu Jianlei really did not want to go looking for trouble.

Conditions had already improved somewhat. Wanting to lie low until he reached a place with better order and develop there was only natural.

But half a day later, he abruptly asked, "What is there to see around here?"

Hairless Freak hesitated before answering, "We can look at the various conditions, and... what if we run into a herd of Mutated Beasts?"

Qu Jianlei paused before replying, "Let's keep driving for now. We'll talk when we come across a camp."

Those words truly were a case of bad things coming true instead of good ones. Half a day later, they ran into trouble.

The child was concentrating on driving when Qu Jianlei suddenly spoke. "Wait. Something's wrong ahead."

Hairless Freak immediately braked. "What's wrong?"

The bindings between the flatbed cart and motorcycle were somewhat problematic. The sudden braking caused a stiff lurch forward and backward.

But Qu Jianlei was already used to it. He rolled forward with the motion and jumped to the ground.

He stared ahead intently. "It seems... the ground is shaking?"

"The ground is shaking..." Hairless Freak narrowed his eyes. "A herd of Mutated Cattle? I don't see any."

Mutated Cattle were valuable, and the weapons Qu Jianlei carried could kill them.

But if it was a herd, they could only run. Even if they shot one or two, they would not be able to collect the spoils. It was not something a small group could handle.

However, Qu Jianlei frowned and jumped onto the flatbed cart to stare at the distant ground. "There seem to be ripples moving across the ground."

"Sandworms!" Hairless Freak turned the motorcycle around and immediately opened the throttle. "Sandworms always travel in groups!"

Qu Jianlei was caught off guard, staggering and nearly falling off the cart.

Fortunately, his physical condition had been steadily improving lately, and he adjusted his posture in time.

Unexpectedly, Hairless Freak changed direction again the next moment.

Qu Jianlei swayed once more and could not help snapping, "What are you doing?"

"There are only rocks over there." Hairless Freak increased the throttle. "To avoid sandworms, we have to get somewhere with lots of Stone!"

Qu Jianlei was instantly speechless. He knew of sandworms, but only from hearsay.

All he knew was that sandworms ate everything, could grow seven or eight meters long, and seemed somewhat like oversized earthworms.

When it came to things he did not understand, naturally he had to listen to someone who did, even if the other person was a child.

Still, as he looked back, he asked curiously, "Don't sandworms eat Stone?"

"They can't swallow large rocks." Hairless Freak focused on driving. "Stop asking... see whether they're catching up quickly."

Qu Jianlei stared closely behind them and saw ridges of earth rapidly extending toward the motorcycle. "Their speed is decent."

The resistance underground was too great. Even sandworms could not move all that fast. "Unfortunately... there seem to be dozens of them."

"Those aren't mutated." Hairless Freak sighed in relief, then glanced back. "Dozens? Sandworm swarms can have over a thousand. These are just the ones closest to us. But it's good that none are mutated..."

Mutated sandworms were much faster than ordinary sandworms.

The motorcycle, dragging the flatbed cart, could only reach thirty kilometers per hour at most. If they encountered mutated ones, they might not be able to outrun them.

But Qu Jianlei was considering something else. "If there aren't too many Insects, I want to kill two."

"Sandworms have no value," Hairless Freak replied without looking back. "Only a tiny portion of their meat is edible."

Qu Jianlei rolled his eyes at that. "You know so much, yet you still got poisoned by Purple Flower Lichen?"

"I was starving," Hairless Freak explained awkwardly. "I had been forcing myself to control it..."

Qu Jianlei asked again, "Is the energy content of sandworm meat high?"

"The edible part is too little," Hairless Freak answered without hesitation. "And it's inside the middle layer..."

Sandworms had a thick keratinous outer layer with slight toxicity, while the meat inside their body cavities was highly corrosive.

The edible portion was only a little bit in the middle. The key was that breaking through the keratinous layer was difficult, and one also had to prevent the corrosive fluid from the inner layer from leaking out.

Even with a ready-made sandworm corpse, dissecting it and extracting the edible meat came at no small cost.

Killing sandworms also cost resources. In Hairless Freak's words, killing sandworms was completely uneconomical.

Even if there was only one sandworm, there was no need to kill it—unless it posed a threat.

The rocky terrain was not far from them, about two kilometers away, though at first there were only small grains of sand.

After they entered the sandy ground, the earth ridges behind them sped up as well, chasing them relentlessly.

Watching sand and rocks constantly churn from the earth, with quite a few small stones even being flung into the air, Qu Jianlei was thoroughly astonished.

"You've got to be kidding. How long have these things been hungry?"

Hairless Freak kept his head down as he drove. After a while, he said, "Small rocks can't stop them... our speed is slowing down."

It was the motorcycle's speed that was decreasing, while the sandworms were growing faster and faster. Clearly, they were unwilling to give up such delicious prey.

After they ran another three kilometers or so, the sandworms were less than four hundred meters from the motorcycle.

The increasingly numerous rocks made the motorcycle bounce constantly, and the terrain became harder and harder to traverse.

After five kilometers, the sandworms were only a little over two hundred meters from the motorcycle. Though the rocks had grown larger, they still pursued them relentlessly.

"Damn it." Qu Jianlei decisively jumped off the cart and sprinted, several guns still strapped to his body.

In the blink of an eye, he overtook the motorcycle. Hairless Freak was dumbfounded when he saw this. "Hey, you're just leaving me behind like that?"

Qu Jianlei ran for his life but did not forget to answer, "With less weight, the motorcycle will naturally go faster too."

He swore that was truly what he thought, not that when you encounter a bear, all you need to do is run faster than your companion.

Hairless Freak looked back at the spreading earth ridges and desperately twisted the throttle.

"The load is lighter, but the bike is bouncing even worse! I can barely hold onto the handlebars!"

Qu Jianlei knew that was true, but he absolutely would not go back to serve as ballast. "Do your best!"

Fortunately, after another two kilometers, they reached an area with more rocks, greatly hindering the sandworms' pursuit.

At that moment, the spreading earth ridges were less than fifty meters from the motorcycle.

Neither of them stopped. They continued fleeing for over another kilometer.

Then, a rock the size of a small sedan was pushed by an earth ridge and rolled three or four times.

As though this marked a boundary, the earth ridges gradually stopped their pursuit.