Leaving the City

Although he could tell this was a contaminated human, Su Shijie did not say much.

The man had already been detained. As long as he kept failing to solve the cube, he would expose a flaw sooner or later.

But why had someone like this been arrested for attempted theft?

He must have known the "rules of the game" within the city too.

Still, Su Shijie did not press the matter. Otherwise, if this man's problem was uncovered, he would get dragged into the mess as well.

"What are you doing here?"

Just as Su Shijie was mulling it over, his father's voice reached him. He was walking down from the upper floors of the castle-like City Guard Station.

So he had come here directly to report it?

"Uh, I looked into some information related to Contamination Sources and got misunderstood."

Su Shijie told the truth, and Su Ren showed a look of understanding.

At that moment, a somewhat plump, middle-aged man who had come downstairs with Su Ren said with a smile,

"Old Su, this is your son, right? He really got the best features from both of you. If I had a daughter, I'd definitely propose a match."

After saying that with a laugh, the plump man turned to Chuan Feng beside him.

"Captain Feng, you people are being too cautious. Old Su came here specially to... Ahem, never mind. Everything's fine now, right?"

The plump man had nearly let it slip, but he seemed to remember something and abruptly stopped himself.

Su Shijie was speechless. Was his father's friend reliable or not? He had nearly given away the informant.

"It's fine. I gave them a little gift."

Chuan Feng did not pay much attention to the man's words. After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Su Ren led Su Shijie out of the City Guard Station and back to their hotel room.

"Being questioned specifically might actually be a good thing for you. Since you've openly shown an interest in Contamination Sources, it'll be easier for you to avoid suspicion next time."

Back at the hotel, Su Ren did not think much of what had happened to Su Shijie.

"But I really did find a contaminated human. He was in the holding cell."

Su Shijie did not hide it.

Su Ren froze for a moment. After hesitating, he still said,

"Don't worry about it. It's not something we can handle right now. We've gotten the medicine, but it hasn't been long since you used the last dose. For the medicine to work properly, don't rush to use it yet. We'll set off early tomorrow morning. Try to exhaust yourself a few more times on the way. By the time we get home, you should be about ready to try the second dose."

At the mention of taking the medicine, Su Shijie instinctively recalled that agony and shuddered. Even so, he nodded firmly.

"Alright, I understand."

"You can develop resistance to the medicine, so there needs to be an interval between doses. Otherwise, you'll suffer again while the effect drops sharply. It's not worth it. And even if you time it perfectly, every dose will be less effective than the last.

"Once you finish these four doses and use up one more from the Advanced Class, the cost-effectiveness will be too low. After that, rely on your own hard work."

Su Shijie was not surprised by this outcome.

When he had used the medicine for the first time, he had risen an entire level, from the early stage of Level One to the early stage of Level Two.

Never mind jumping an entire level—even if the medicine could take someone from the early stage directly to the middle stage, Su Shijie would still think it was worth using.

It was just a pity that it really was expensive: one million, plus the required purchase authorization. Otherwise, even after using up the dose from the Advanced Class, he could have bought more to speed up his progress.

Yes, using the medicine was more painful than breaking through, but since he had made his decision, he had to keep walking this path!

What if, someday in the future, he encountered a regret that could have been undone with just one final push, only to fail because he had slacked off once? Then all the suffering he had endured would have been for nothing.

Since he had decided to do it, since he had already taken this step, he had to do it as well as possible. All this effort and sacrifice had to count as sunk costs. There was no other choice, and no way back.

Su Shijie wanted to be able to tell himself without regret that he had done everything he could, even if he truly ended up bloodied and battered in the future...

The subtle change in Su Shijie's heart did not show on his face, but Su Ren, who was smoking by the window, glanced at him and could not help curling his lips into a faint smile.

After experiencing the medicine once, he could still agree so decisively. His son was tougher than he had imagined.

The first time, one could say he had not known the consequences and had been pushed into a crocodile pit. But the second time, he was choosing to jump in himself. The meaning was completely different.

Sure enough, he had grown up...

Early the next morning, father and son got up and prepared to leave the city. However, retrieving their belongings before departure could not be done directly in the elevator. They first had to go through the procedures at the nearby storage center to collect their weapons, then take the enclosed passage from the storage center straight to the elevator.

Su Ren also took out a device resembling a metal detector and scanned everything they had retrieved, seemingly to prevent tracking and eavesdropping.

Seeing these little details, Su Shijie felt that he had learned quite a bit.

Some things left no impression until one experienced them firsthand.

Once inside the elevator, Su Shijie inserted his guns, including the newly bought M-7, one by one into the slots of his high-grade Protective Suit. He slung the bag containing the Star Crossbow over his back, secured fifty special arrows in the slot behind him, and tucked in the Alloy Dagger.

By the time the two finished organizing themselves, they had already descended to the ground.

"I was originally going to take you around the black market too, so you could get familiar with it. But it looks like you're out of money, so we'll skip it this time."

Back at the bustling market beneath the city, Su Ren smiled.

"Yeah, bring me next time. During this Deer Herd Migration, I need to work harder and earn some money."

Now that he had stopped playing the game, he naturally had to consider other ways to make money.

After all, making money through games required enough time and energy, so Su Shijie had never intended to keep doing both at once.

For now, this deer herd was a feast perfectly suited to his current abilities.

Even if he sold them directly to merchants here at P-314, Awakened Rank Spirit Beasts were worth at least a thousand, while Transformation Tier ones were worth tens of thousands!

On top of that, there was the Soul Power he could harvest during the hunt to build up his bloodline, as well as the spiritual energy released after Spirit Beasts died to accelerate his evolution training. It was a perfect fit.

Cute little deer, Brother Su is coming for you!

Their fully armed appearance let them move through the market without obstruction. They encountered no trouble, and after leaving, they immediately began their journey back.

Once they reentered the jungle, Su Shijie began practicing controlling the Bee VI drones.

Putting on his goggles and looking at the adjustable display in the upper-left corner of the left lens, Su Shijie used psychokinesis to control the drones' remote controllers.

The jungle's complex terrain was perfect for helping him quickly familiarize himself with them and master their use.

First one, then gradually all four Golden Snitch-like drones flew out.

Compared with the spherical cameras limited by the range of his psychokinesis, these drones were far more versatile.

Their specialized cameras were not bothered by the jungle's darkness at all and had all kinds of modes.

Although the dense canopy overhead usually prevented them from flying higher than a hundred meters,

the four drones could rely on their excellent performance to race continuously through a three-kilometer radius, helping Su Shijie map the surrounding terrain in his mind.

Breaking it down into coordinates.

If he had a sniper rifle on him, killing enemies beyond visual range would not be a problem at all.

"Uh, Dad, is it normal for someone to keep following roughly the same route as us?"

However, as Su Shijie became increasingly skilled at controlling the drones, he suddenly spoke up to ask Su Ren.

Quite a few people had left the Floating City and entered the jungle, including some who were also rushing to catch the last chance at the Deer Herd Migration.

But because the jungle terrain was complicated, everyone traveled at different speeds, and the routes were three-dimensional, they had quickly scattered after entering the jungle.

Yet through the drones, Su Shijie had noticed that a four-man team had been following a route similar to theirs, trailing behind them all this time.

No, rather, they were slowly closing in...