Jinling City, Satellite City No. 3.
Ruins City in the Wilderness.
Now, only faded GG-brand signs remained, along with crumbling walls draped in fresh green vines.
Beneath the mold-colored clouds, the air was damp and cold.
Lu Xuan could not help having every hair on his body stand on end. Breathing in the pungent stench of decay, he gazed out at the gray-white world and crushed a withered bone beneath his foot, his heart sinking.
"The Wilderness... is lonelier than I imagined."
He had taken barely two steps.
"Beep, beep, beep—!"
The earpiece suddenly blared.
Lu Xuan answered the call, and Xu Xin's voice sounded from the other end. "I marked a monster corpse. Have the logistics team follow and bring it in."
"Understood!"
The team immediately changed direction and headed toward the coordinates.
After several minutes of travel,
they saw
a gigantic mutated chicken lying in a pool of blood, pierced through by a long spear.
The chicken's head was the size of a basketball. Its comb split into two sides, and the blood at its tips was the most precious.
Its claws were sharp as blades.
Its palm-sized feathers were fresh and beautiful, sharp enough to cut through metal as if it were mud.
It was a low-level monster, the Precious Beauty Chicken.
Xu Xin assigned the teams at the scene.
"The basic survey is complete. The strongest monster within ten li is only an Intermediate Monster. Everyone, split up. Three members of a close-combat logistics team will accompany each student..."
After a pause, she looked at Lu Xuan.
"You come with me."
"All right!"
Lu Xuan did not refuse.
He knew Xu Xin was helping him.
She was an Intermediate Martial Artist. Recovering corpses with her would earn him a higher commission.
Moreover, Building 3, where he needed to go, was in the inner city.
After making the simple assignments,
Xu Xin led Lu Xuan straight toward the depths of Ruins City.
They did not encounter any monsters along the way.
After passing through a street, a towering building appeared ahead.
Xu Xin stopped and said,
"We've entered the third ring of Ruins City. Let's search around here."
There were many monsters in Ruins City.
They built their nests in high-rise buildings.
There was no other reason than their sturdiness.
Likewise, monsters would bring back seeds of natural treasures.
Once those took root and sprouted, they would nourish the young.
Besides training, Xu Xin and the others' mission was to search for these natural treasures, accumulate resource points for ranking, and ultimately determine their resource benefits after entering higher education.
The two entered several high-rise buildings one after another, but found nothing.
Just then—
Boom!
A building collapsed in the distance. Seeing this, Xu Xin rushed over at top speed.
"Send our location to the team and wait here for them. I'll go take a look!"
"All right!"
Lu Xuan responded calmly.
This suited him perfectly. Separating from this group of martial artist students would give him more freedom to search for opportunities.
"The Building 3 mentioned in Future Mail..."
Lu Xuan opened the electronic screen. "I previously investigated Ruins City's original layout. Building 3 should be in the third ring. Let me see where..."
He focused and examined the Satellite Map.
Suddenly—
His Psychic Power, which had spread outward, detected a heartbeat.
"Not good!"
Lu Xuan rapidly put away the electronic screen.
Almost in the next instant,
shing!
The sound of air being sliced came from the side. Lu Xuan pushed off with his foot and retreated backward.
At the same time, a black shadow appeared where he had been standing. Looking closely, it was a spotted-faced monkey one size smaller than him.
"Ghost-faced Monkey!?"
Lu Xuan recognized the monster at a glance.
Back at the Monster Warehouse, he had handled Ghost-faced Monkeys. They were skilled at ambushes and disguises. If one saw someone walking toward them or waving at them in the fog, there was a very high chance it was one of these creatures!
Lu Xuan exhaled, still shaken, and thought in alarm, "The Wilderness really is full of ambushes. I clearly searched the area just now, yet I never expected to miss this monkey..."
Fortunately, after swallowing the Qi and Blood Golden Elixir, he had awakened Psychic Power.
Once his Mental Power spread out, he could detect the aura of life.
If he had still been his former ordinary self,
he would have been doomed!
"Why, you baboon, did you really think I was easy to bully?"
Lu Xuan raised his gun and fired.
"Squeak!" The Ghost-faced Monkey moved with extreme speed, dodging several bullets. After failing to kill its target in one strike, it withdrew into hiding, waiting for another chance to launch a fatal attack.
How could Lu Xuan let a tiger return to the mountains?
"Trying to leave?"
Bang, bang, bang! Bullets flew out.
His Psychic Power surged with them, taking control of the bullets and sending them straight after the Ghost-faced Monkey.
Pfft~ A bullet struck the Ghost-faced Monkey in the thigh. The latter let out a shriek and fled into the ruins.
"Tsk, I still can't concentrate my Psychic Power on a single point!"
Lu Xuan clicked his tongue.
If he had been given a little more time to train, he could have instantly killed the baboon just now.
He activated the Mechanical Exoskeleton and gave chase. His Psychic Power spread outward across a ten-meter radius, and he could still sense the Ghost-faced Monkey. It had not run far.
"Hm? Something's wrong!"
Lu Xuan hurriedly braked.
He suddenly discovered that there was a huge pit ahead of him, sunken downward, a hundred meters in diameter and so deep that its bottom could not be seen.
The Ghost-faced Monkey was down there.
Should he go?
Or not?
Lu Xuan hesitated. Although the Ghost-faced Monkey was a low-level monster, it was worth 100,000 Federal Coins.
If he killed it alone, all the proceeds from its corpse would belong to him.
He had come here to make money and search for opportunities.
"Finding Building 3 will take time anyway. I might as well search while I kill."
Lu Xuan inhaled, steadied his mind, loaded his gun, activated the Mechanical Exoskeleton, and jumped into the giant pit.
The light in the deep pit was faint, so dim that he could barely see his own hand before his face.
Even the Ghost-faced Monkey, which had lived here for years, found it difficult to move quickly.
Lu Xuan switched on the Searchlight embedded in his shoulder and slowly descended.
His Psychic Power swept the surroundings like radar.
Before long,
he detected the Ghost-faced Monkey's trail.
The creature was still descending, moving faster and faster, as if it were searching for something.
"A troop of monkeys?"
"No. Ghost-faced Monkeys are selfish and self-serving. Unlike other monkeys, they don't live in groups. It must be looking for something to heal its wounds... Could there be a Heaven and Earth Spiritual Item?"
Lu Xuan thought as he descended.
Having considered this possibility, he drove the Mechanical Exoskeleton to its limit and rushed toward the Ghost-faced Monkey.
In less than two minutes, Lu Xuan caught up with it.
"Squeak, squeak, squeak!"
The Ghost-faced Monkey cried out in terror. The injury to its leg had already made it difficult to climb steadily. Especially when it saw Lu Xuan pursuing it, its body lost balance, and it fell directly from the heights.
"Trying to commit suicide? Dream on!"
Lu Xuan raised his gun and fired.
Bang, bang, bang! The bullets flashed in the darkness. He did not know whether they had struck the Ghost-faced Monkey, but in any case, the latter had already fallen silent.
Lu Xuan landed.
At the bottom of the pit stood several enormous buildings. Some unknown force had dragged them forcibly a hundred meters underground.
The light shone toward the Ghost-faced Monkey, but only a puddle of blood remained there. Lu Xuan spread his Mental Power, and suddenly detected a heartbeat behind him.
He immediately turned and pulled the trigger.
Screeech—!
The Ghost-faced Monkey pounced at him as well. This time, it seemed to have been prepared. Its figure vanished into the darkness before it shot out again, flashing in front of Lu Xuan in the blink of an eye and swiping at him with one claw.
Lu Xuan instinctively raised his gun to block.
Bang!
Its sharp claw was as keen as a blade. It tore the gun apart and smashed through the Mechanical Exoskeleton.
Lu Xuan was sent flying backward.
"Damn it... My head hurts!"
He rubbed his head. It seemed that overusing his Mental Power had left him dazed for a moment just now, giving the Ghost-faced Monkey an opening.
"Squeak, squeak, squeak!"
After knocking its opponent down, the Ghost-faced Monkey did not pause for even half a moment. It pressed its advantage and pursued.
Lu Xuan drew his blade to defend himself.
Fortunately, the blade's quality was completely different from the gun's, and it successfully blocked part of the attack. Although Lu Xuan was barely surviving in a sorry state, he would never let go of this fleeting opening. He immediately mobilized his Psychic Power and controlled the shattered gun fragments to stab the Ghost-faced Monkey from behind.
"Howl!"
The Ghost-faced Monkey was pierced through the head, and fresh blood sprayed across Lu Xuan's face.
It was dead.
"Huff, huff, huff~"
Lu Xuan shifted his rear against the wall and panted heavily. "That was too close. I didn't expect Psychic Power to have side effects..."
He had finally witnessed the danger of the Wilderness.
Just encountering a low-level Ghost-faced Monkey had left him in such a sorry state.
What if it had been another Intermediate Monster—or a High-level Monster?
"Phew... I still need to train."
Lu Xuan raised his head, and the light on his shoulder turned upward with it.
In a daze,
he saw several decayed characters illuminated by the light.
Building 3!
Before you continue