Secret

"Dad, there was a bonfire tonight, and they handed out a huge chunk of venison. I'll heat some up for you. Big Brother hasn't eaten either."

Bai Congcong came out of Su Shijie's room, his face still flushed from the steam.

"Congcong is still the thoughtful one. Did your brother drag you off to scrub his back again?"

Su Ren smiled as he rubbed Bai Congcong's head. His stubbly, rugged face wore a gentle expression.

The youngest had the best temperament in the whole family, and everyone liked him.

"Third Brother was really impressive today. He tried breaking through a level on his own."

Bai Congcong also put in a good word for Su Shijie.

That made Su Ren pause.

"That brat broke through a level by himself?"

He muttered as he reached back to touch the canvas bag behind him.

Just then, Su Shijie emerged while stretching lazily.

He had completed his breakthrough, soaked in a bath, and gotten a massage. Other than being hungry, he couldn't have felt better.

Before long, Bai Congcong came over wearing heat-resistant gloves, carrying a steaming pot.

Inside was a huge chunk of venison with just the right balance of fat and lean meat. A light poke with chopsticks would pierce it, and it melted in the mouth.

The animal fat mingled with the scent of spices, creating an indescribable deliciousness.

Besides the venison, there was also the staple food distributed by P-314.

C1 Nutrient Paste.

C-1 Rank was considered a special-supply version. Only a family with Su Shijie's standing in the shelter could eat it regularly.

It was a carbohydrate synthesized by machines from carbon dioxide, plant fibers, and other materials, with large amounts of trace elements and vitamins needed by the human body added to it.

A packet looked about the same as a piece of dried tofu, but for an ordinary person, a small piece was enough to meet a day's caloric and nutritional needs. It was just a little rough on the stomach.

For those who cultivated daily through spiritual energy guidance, it could greatly replenish their nutrition and even provide some assistance with cultivation.

Having just broken through, Su Shijie only took two bites of venison for the taste before he started stuffing Nutrient Paste into his mouth.

This was just ordinary venison, not Spirit Beast meat. Its nutritional value was inferior even to the Nutrient Paste.

It was like how, when someone was truly hungry, flour-based foods such as steamed buns and stuffed buns were more filling.

Afterward, he gulped down a huge bowl of mushroom soup.

These delicious Red Umbrella Mushrooms were a specialty of the P-314 shelter. Even after being thoroughly cooked, they retained a slight toxicity. Ordinary people who ate them would see little people dancing.

But for Su Shijie's family, whose weakest member was now Mortal Tier Level 8, this delicious Red Umbrella Mushroom soup was indispensable at every meal.

As for that huge, succulent piece of venison, more than half of it had already ended up in Su Ren's stomach while Su Shijie was filling his own belly.

"You didn't leave me any at all. Are you even my dad?"

"What's wrong with honoring your old man? I traveled more than six hundred kilometers round trip to bring your medicine back."

"How was it? Did you run into anything on the way?"

"On the way there, I ran into two Awakened Rank Spirit Beasts. I killed them and sold them while I was at it."

Father and son chatted as they ate and drank.

The P-314 shelter was more than three hundred kilometers from Prosperous Sky City. With rainforest terrain making travel difficult the entire way, ordinary people usually could only travel to Prosperous City with the merchant caravans at the beginning and middle of each month.

Although there were not many Spirit Beasts near the areas influenced by the city and shelters, and Awakened Rank Spirit Beasts were even rarer, the journey was still three hundred kilometers long. The chances of encountering them along the way were not low.

If ordinary people ran into one, death was their only outcome.

To travel to Prosperous Sky City alone at any time, even ordinary Awakened Rank individuals would usually form teams as a precaution. Only someone at Late Level 9 like Su Ren could easily make the round trip.

If he encountered Spirit Beasts, he could even treat them as extra income.

Every part of a Spirit Beast was valuable: hide, meat, bones, blood, even organs. If properly butchered and sold separately, two Spirit Beasts could probably fetch several thousand Credit Points.

Even if Dad could not carry everything away and only took the most valuable parts, he could still earn two or three thousand Credit Points. That was quite a good haul.

An ordinary family would not normally make that much in a month.

Even in this relatively remote residential area, food was never really a problem. Low-grade synthesized Nutrient Paste could fill one's stomach.

But if someone in the family wanted to maintain spiritual energy guidance continuously, that money would not be enough. They needed additional nutrition.

"Alright, I brought back your potion. Come on, I'll keep watch for you."

After they finished eating and chatting, Su Ren patted Su Shijie on the shoulder.

He rummaged through the canvas bag and pulled out a syringe that looked distinctly high-tech, filled with pale yellow medicine.

This was the Awakening Tier Gene Potion Su Shijie had earned through online gaming over the past few years. It could let someone enter the Awakened Rank directly and painlessly.

Its official listed price alone was as high as one million Credit Points!

And it was not something money alone could buy. One had to possess a special talent or make a special contribution.

For example, the Advanced Class selected people suited for research and manufacturing. Once they passed the screening, they could obtain the qualification to purchase the potion.

"Uh, I broke through a level today."

Su Shijie seemed to be trying to organize his words.

"I know. Let's go talk."

Seeing Su Ren's half-smiling expression, Su Shijie knew that his father had probably realized he must have received some kind of stimulus.

A father knew his son best.

In the past, no matter how earnestly his father had urged him to cultivate, he refused. Now that the potion was about to arrive, he had suddenly broken through a level. There had to be some very unusual reason.

After entering the room and closing the door, Su Shijie looked around, worried that Bai Xinxin might eavesdrop.

The walls of the underground parking garage were made of wooden boards, and their soundproofing was only average. Mortal Tier Level 9 was enough to hear through them.

That was only because their family had high status and had been given a separate air-raid section to build in.

In the ordinary living areas, people could hear the neighbors' nightlife perfectly clearly.

"Oh? Sounds like some big secret."

After teasing Su Shijie, Su Ren released an invisible ripple from his body.

The air nearby visibly distorted, completely enveloping the two of them.

This was the power of a Late Awakened Rank 9 expert. Spiritual energy had permeated his genes to nearly one hundred percent!

Though Su Ren looked like a rugged close-combat fighter and was even disabled, the essence of the late Awakened Rank was that every aspect of the body had been developed to its limit.

Aside from choosing a path in the early stages, one could only truly choose a professional direction after reaching the Transformation Tier, when new genes were shaped.

In other words, Su Ren was actually an all-rounder. However, to ensure a smoother transition, most Awakened Rank individuals, aside from a few exceptions, also chose to advance evenly in every aspect during the early stages.

For an all-rounder, controlling the nearby spiritual energy was basic stuff.

It was just that compared with his own combat power, such control could only be used for auxiliary purposes, such as blocking sound like this.

In terms of processing power alone, Su Ren was even stronger than the exceptionally gifted Su Shijie!

That was also why the Advanced Class conducted screenings.

Even if a brute had great mental processing power, it merely meant that his raw processing power was high. He could accurately grasp all kinds of combat parameters and precisely judge trajectories, but what he did not understand about research and manufacturing, he still did not understand.

That was why the Advanced Class was needed for screening. Those suited for research were directed toward research. After passing layer upon layer of screening, they would receive the qualification to purchase an Evolution Potion, increasing their lifespan and hardware capabilities.

"Uh, this may be rather serious. Personally, I don't think it's suitable for them to know."

Su Shijie chose his words carefully, then slowly recounted what had happened that day.

(In the early stages, he relied on Dad; after growing stronger, the relevant memories had been erased.)

Even Su Ren had weathered his share of storms.

But after hearing everything, he could clearly sense the invisible ripples around them trembling.

Su Shijie could also clearly see Su Ren's expression becoming increasingly calm. His usual joking manner had vanished completely, leaving behind a calmness that was somewhat frightening.

"Who else knows?"

Su Ren's tone was so flat it felt cold, and Su Shijie suddenly felt an overwhelming pressure.

It felt as though his father might chop him to death the next moment.

"I even kept it from those two because of this. Of course only the two of us know."

"At least you have some brains."

Su Ren relaxed slightly upon hearing that.

"Remember this. Never mention this matter to anyone else again.

"People are very bad at keeping secrets in this world. Even I can't do it..."

"I understand."

Su Shijie had been somewhat frightened by his father's unusual behavior.

But then, a faint smile appeared on Su Ren's face.

"Still, it's a good thing you knew to come ask me about it. Your old man has eaten more salt than you've eaten rice, so we can study it together.

"If an evil spirit can enter a residential area through an Interference Device, then a low-level Contamination Zone has likely appeared nearby. I'll look for it in the next few days. Before reporting it for extermination, it'll be perfect for testing."

In the darkness between star systems, if some evil god passed by and was illuminated by starlight, its projection onto Earth would form a projected Contamination Zone.

Depending on the part illuminated and the distance, Contamination Zones varied in severity.

But most of the time, they were low-level Contamination Zones.

The appearance of evil spirits formed from dead ordinary people was generally enough to determine that it was a low-level Contamination Zone with a low threat rating.

And since it had only begun having an effect now, it had likely formed recently and had not yet been discovered.

The Interference Device itself did not actually possess any direct killing power. It merely made evil spirits dislike the area, making it essential equipment for wilderness residential zones.

This evil spirit had evidently been directly affected by a nearby Contamination Source.

However, if a Contamination Zone was left unchecked, as the number of contaminated Spiritual Creatures grew, the nature of the Contamination Zone itself would also escalate.

Controlling the scale of Contamination Zones on Earth was one of the Earth Federation's responsibilities, and a duty that all interstellar civilizations had to fulfill...

I don't want to work hard anymore. Someone rich, please take me in...