Sorry

"Did you really eat them?"

Li Le's vision went dark. His anger flared, but as he looked at Tao Yu's smile and recalled how he'd performed on the team, he forcibly tamped down his fury.

His family had left the Inner City in disgrace. Now they were Outer City commoners too, and he couldn't afford to be as willful and hotheaded as the Inner City kids.

Anger wouldn't solve anything or do him any good.

If Tao Yu were just some useless nobody, that would be one thing. But with B-rank Dynamic Vision and all those Blood Orchids, his physical abilities were probably impressive too. He was a ready-made fighter.

During the early days of settlement, that could be a considerable force.

Li Le hadn't treated Tao Yu well on the team and hadn't shown Tao Hu any consideration, but that was mainly because Winuo disliked Tao Yu.

Now Yosef was dead and Winuo was badly injured. This kid might still be useful after all!

Li Le managed to force a faint smile and said, "All right. Investing in your own strength isn't a bad deal. You've got good talent."

It felt awful to say that while swallowing his anger, but he had no choice.

"Really? That's what I thought too. You've got a great eye."

Tao Yu's breezy reply nearly made Li Le lose his composure. He took a moment to steady himself, then put on a hearty expression and said, "With talent like yours, you should be able to claim two skills for free. What have you got in there? It's packed full."

He still hadn't given up, but the rules here meant he couldn't openly rob Tao Yu in broad daylight.

He could have made an excuse if he'd eagerly offered to take the bag and accidentally torn it earlier. Now, there wasn't much he could do.

No matter how dark things got around here, the rules in plain sight still had to be followed. At least, Li Le, being an Outer City resident himself, had to follow them.

As long as Tao Yu didn't make the first move, there was nothing he could do.

To keep people from coveting his belongings, Tao Yu opened the bag a little and let Li Le take a look.

"Snake fangs. A whole set of skills, huh?"

The skills from that set were quite a haul. They were valuable enough that Inner City people had gone out of their way to acquire them, but they weren't too conspicuous—not compared with a bag of Blood Orchids, anyway. With Uncle Hu's talent and Tao Yu's own, they could keep a fortune of this size under control.

"You returned them?"

Li Le had only asked casually, but when he saw the snake fangs, his eyes widened.

Holy shit, the Inner City people are all dead, and you actually had the nerve to do that!

"Why wouldn't I? You aren't thinking of robbing me, are you?"

"Of course not. Starfall City is a place with rules."

Li Le felt speechless. What a bumpkin, with no idea how the world worked. If it had been that bag of Blood Orchids, he might have considered making a move in secret afterward. But ordinary skills worth around three thousand units of Willpower weren't worth the trouble.

"Um, I actually went back afterward too, but I was too late."

Zhang Wei, carrying a large bundle of snake meat, came over as well.

With his D+ endurance talent and a gun in hand, the kid had been lucky enough to survive.

If they'd actually run into an alien, even Li Le would have been done for. The two of them had survived mostly by luck, just like the rest of the people who'd made it through on the plaza.

After Winuo showed how much he wanted to put Tao Yu down, Zhang Wei had changed his attitude. Tao Yu didn't hold it against him. Everyone had their own position and interests, and that was only natural.

But understanding someone's position didn't mean accepting it.

The two of them were now little more than casual acquaintances. They could team up temporarily, but there was no need to become close.

Well, considering the gap in their strength, there was no need to team up either. They probably wouldn't cross paths again.

Of course, there was no point in being hostile for no reason. What was there to gain by making enemies?

Even minor characters had plenty of ways to make your life miserable.

"Well, this is something. Three of us from the same team made it. We should look for chances to work together in the New settlement."

Tao Yu smiled as he made some polite small talk, and neither Zhang Wei nor Li Le thought there was anything wrong with it.

They looked around again. Of the Outer City residents from their team, only the three of them—with combat talents and weapons—had survived. The Awakening Day casualties really had been severe...

"B-rank Dynamic Vision? You little rascal! Haha, I knew you had something in you. You're a lot sturdier now too. Much easier on the eyes than before."

Uncle Hu had been waiting with Tao Yu's parents. When Tao Yu came over and answered his questions, Uncle Hu's eyes lit up.

Looking at Tao Yu's sturdier build and taller frame, he thought the kid had gotten a pretty good haul.

He hadn't expected his talent to be B-rank too.

Dynamic Vision was a very common combat talent, but it was still a combat talent!

With a B-rank talent, Tao Yu might even have a chance of getting into the Inner City if he worked hard.

More importantly, he'd happened to arrive just as they were opening up a New settlement. That meant both risk and opportunity!

"Space-Time Anomalies are a real pain, but this is your chance too. The higher your talent, the better. The more talented you are, the more valuable you'll be and the easier it'll be to catch people's attention. They're short on manpower right now. Once you report your talent, you might even get on Young Master Sun and Miss Sun's radar!"

When Uncle Hu mentioned the two people from the Floating City, an instinctive look of reverence crossed his face.

Tao Yu's parents were practically crying with joy, their eyes red.

The Tao family had produced someone with a B-rank combat talent!

If Tao Yu's status rose, theirs would rise with it. Even their points in the Cannon Fodder Sequence could increase.

By any measure, it was a wonderful thing!

As for the dangers of opening up a new settlement...

Was there anything in this hellish world that wasn't dangerous?

The family had already lost four of their eight children!

Compared to that, an opportunity and a way into the Inner City were worth more than anything.

Remembering what the Security Team captain had said earlier, Tao Long gritted his teeth, his breathing heavy. "Seventh, go all out. We'll sell everything we own if we have to, just to get you equipped. You have to learn that skill at half price."

Then he turned to Uncle Hu with a pleading look. "Hu, you're the only one our family knows. You have to help us with this. Give your nephew a hand."

"Haha, you don't even have to ask. Of course I'll help him! A B-rank combat talent can't be allowed to go to waste."

A glint flashed in Uncle Hu's eyes as he readily agreed.

Tao Yu's talent was a very promising investment for him too.

Tao Long had helped him out when he'd hit rock bottom, but goodwill could only go so far. After Uncle Hu got his mechanical arm, the gap between their families had widened again!

But Tao Yu's timely emergence with a B-rank combat talent had solved all their problems.

It was give-and-take that truly strengthened a relationship!

"Let's go back and work out a proper plan for the boy. First, we'll test his talent. A'Yu, don't you go fudging the results on your Uncle Hu, all right?"

Uncle Hu said it teasingly.

Although Zechuan, the Security Team captain, had gone on and on, they hadn't done any talent registration or testing at the scene.

Talent was something only the individual knew about; you couldn't just take someone's word for it.

People were usually tested when they volunteered to join an organization or take a position. Based on years of accumulated experience, they would be given different tests and classifications according to their talents.

So the talent ranks people claimed for themselves were often full of exaggerations, true and false mixed together...

"Heh. If anything, it's stronger than I said. Don't worry, Uncle Hu."

And so Tao Hu, his mechanical arm hanging at his side, took the other three back to his home.

Even before his injury, Tao Hu had been fairly well off. His home was in a much better location than Tao Yu's family's place, close to the Inner City wall and within the protected range of the weapons mounted there.

That was one of the perks of being in the Security Team: the home was close to work and safe.

Tao Hu had been injured in the line of duty, so they couldn't very well kick him out while he was recovering.

There were quite a few homes nearby, most of them patched together from junk. People could only bring back so much each time they went to and from the Abyss, so they cobbled things together. Almost everyone outside had gotten into the habit, and no one thought it was strange.

As far as living conditions went, the plots set aside for the families of Security Team members were far better than the ones inside the Outer City strongholds.

"Perfect. We'll cook these two good legs, and my wife can show you what she can do in the kitchen."

When they reached the place, which looked like a sheet-metal shack, Tao Hu took the wolf legs from Tao Yu and went inside, loudly telling his wife to get dinner ready.

Tao Hu himself was dark-skinned and stocky, but his wife was quite attractive by Outer City standards.

Even Tao Yu, who had been exposed to all kinds of online beauties in his previous life, would have given her a six. She wore no makeup, and she was tall, with delicate features, though her skin was a little rough from housework and exposure to the wind and sun.

At the very least, judging by looks alone, the contrast between her and Tao Hu was striking. It made people think of Wu Dalang and Pan Jinlian.

But in terms of their actual relationship, Tao Hu's status meant that even at his lowest point, when he was disabled, Aunt Hu—who was pretty but untalented—had still deferred to him completely.

Just the fact that his injury on the job had exempted her from her Cannon Fodder Sequence assignment was enough to make plenty of other women jealous.

Uncle Hu still had two sons and a daughter who were alive, but none of them were home today.

While Aunt Hu bustled about preparing the ingredients, Uncle Hu led the others to the living room and sat down with them on a leather sofa.

Real leather!

It looked like it had been stitched together from the hides of three brown bears. Apart from the supporting frame, no one knew what they'd stuffed inside.

When Tao Yu sat down, still filthy, he left a few smudges behind. But people in the Outer City weren't particularly fussy about that sort of thing.

"I only know roughly what the standards for B-rank Dynamic Vision are. I'm not in charge of testing, so let's start with a rough assessment."

As soon as he sat down, Uncle Hu got straight to the point. They had to clear this up. It was fine to boast in front of family, but if Tao Yu lied during an official test, he'd be in trouble.

As he spoke, Tao Hu rubbed his mechanical arm, seeming to close his eyes and adjust its speed. The next moment, it flashed past in front of Tao Yu.

"Uh, sorry. I think I just set it too fast."

"Punch, three, two, punch, four."

Tao Yu's voice came out in sync with Tao Hu's. Then the two of them fell silent, both thinking the same thing.

Are you messing with me?