Saturday morning. Wang Ji boarded the train bound for Military Base No. 8. The base was home to a division tasked with defending the Base City, and many martial artists came there to restock and recover. It was a small fortress city.
"Young man, are you a martial artist?" The greasy middle-aged man beside him was quite talkative.
Wang Ji played along. "I am!"
"Impressive! You're a martial artist at such a young age! But didn't you come with a team?"
Wang Ji replied, "I came ahead of them. We're meeting at the base." When you were away from home, a little truth mixed with a little fiction was fine. There was no need to take things too seriously.
The greasy man said enviously, "I'm jealous! Martial artists make money at an incredible rate. People like us can't manage that—we just earn a little for running errands."
Wang Ji asked casually, "What do you do?"
The greasy man looked surprised, then burst out laughing. "There's wealth everywhere beyond the Wilderness Zone. Who knows how many people make a living off the wilderness around Military Base No. 8?"
As he spoke, he pointed through the narrow pane of bulletproof glass at the wilderness. "See those trees? Those camphor trees are decades old, and it would take two people to wrap their arms around one. Take them back and sell them as premium lumber, and you could get a hundred thousand or so. And the grass—there are wild medicinal herbs growing in there. Even the cheapest go for dozens of yuan per jin, and it's perfectly normal for a rare one to sell for thousands or tens of thousands. Then there are all those mushrooms and wild animals. Isn't anything you bring back to the Base City worth something? You won't even find that stuff in an ordinary restaurant!
"The Military's logistics department, the HR Alliance, and the martial arts schools' purchasing departments handle the big business of high-end monster materials. But these little deals... They're beneath them, so people like us take care of them. Hah, we just earn a little for running errands."
Only now did Wang Ji get a real sense of the wilderness. It wasn't just a place for martial artists, where they killed monsters and harvested materials, with each beast worth hundreds of millions. The wilderness also belonged to ordinary people bold enough to take risks.
Military Base No. 8 was eighty kilometers from Yangzhou City. The train arrived in the blink of an eye. When Wang Ji stepped out of the station, he found himself in the middle of a bustling scene. Behind him stood the imposing, fearsome fortress of steel and concrete. In the plaza before him, all the way to the open ground outside the city gates, stalls of every size filled the area. Some bought goods; others sold them. There were medicinal herbs, mushrooms, unidentified mineral crystals, wild animals, monster meat... all kinds of strange things.
"Forming a team, forming a team! The Iron Stone Exploration Team is heading out soon! Three martial artists for professional protection! Anyone who wants to explore with us, hurry up! Leaving in thirty minutes, destination East Mountain Hollow, back by evening! Fee is 1,000 yuan plus 30% of the haul!"
"Iron Blood Exploration Team! We're only recruiting explorers at the senior student level or above! Heading to Boulder Beach! If you're strong enough, come join us!"
Wang Ji's mouth twitched. This was completely different from what he'd imagined! The whole vibe had changed. If these people had text boxes floating above their heads, it would look exactly like a game's party recruitment screen.
"Oh! Young man, you're a martial artist. You people usually head to the South Gate! There are villas and shops there specifically for martial artists to rest and recover. The wilderness is right outside the South Gate!" the greasy man from earlier said with a smile.
Wang Ji awkwardly tugged at the corner of his mouth. "I'm just looking around!"
The wide, thick city gate loomed before him. The reinforced concrete walls were a full ten meters thick, and the gate itself was made of alloy over a meter thick. An old man with white hair and beard sat ramrod straight atop the battlements, dressed in military uniform. His gaze was cold and deep.
The moment Wang Ji met the old soldier's eyes, his body stiffened. What a terrifying stare! It's full of death! Wang Ji shuddered, only recovering a moment later. That was when he noticed the old man was missing his left arm and had a jagged scar across his face.
The old man suddenly spoke. "Martial artists should go to the South Gate! Go into the wilderness and kill more monsters!" His voice was rough, his gaze chilling. Wang Ji found himself nodding before turning away from those eyes.
He headed south. It was much quieter there, with one emplacement and pillbox after another, peaceful streets, and rows of villas that seemed to radiate strength and solidity.
"Ding! Instance discovered: Dianyuan Defense. Move closer to enter!"
Wang Ji was overjoyed. He'd finally found another instance. He'd been wondering how he could find one while holed up in the city. He turned to look around. This was where a villa district met a secluded little park. The park was only forty or fifty meters across, with a memorial stele standing in the center.
Wang Ji took a closer look. The inscription read: "Dianyuan Defense Memorial!
"In 2018, the 112th Division of the Jiangnan Military Region was ordered to cover the evacuation of three million people from the Jiangnan region. At Jiangkou, Little Stone Mountain, and Dianyuan, they fought off the beast tide for seven days and nights. The 112th Division suffered casualties equivalent to 400% of its strength, but successfully completed its defensive mission, buying precious time for the establishment of Jiangnan Base City. This memorial was erected after the battle to commemorate the military personnel and civilians who died in the Tieyuan Defensive Battle!"
"Dianyuan Defensive Battle?" Wang Ji suddenly understood. "This is one of the battles mentioned in history textbooks! The textbooks only gave it a brief paragraph, a few dozen words. But looking at this memorial, it must have been incredibly brutal." As he thought, Wang Ji looked around.
"Could the instance be here?" Wang Ji walked toward the memorial. Sure enough, as soon as he got within ten meters, a prompt appeared: "Ding! Instance discovered: Dianyuan Defense. Available to enter! Remaining entries (3/3)."
Huh! Could he only enter this instance three times? That was a bit of a problem.
Time flowed inside the instance, too. Ten minutes inside was about one minute in the outside world. Wang Ji had no idea how long this instance would take, so of course he wasn't going to enter it while standing right there. He looked around, then headed farther ahead.
Martial Artist Service Hall.
"Are you alone? No teammates? That's dangerous! I recommend joining a team," the soldier in charge of registration asked in surprise.
Wang Ji nodded. "I'm alone. I won't go deep into the wilderness."
"Huh! You're only a Quasi-Martial Artist?" The soldier looked over Wang Ji's ID and seemed even more surprised. "Well... I'll have to check on this..."
Before long, Wang Ji had successfully checked into one of the villas reserved for martial artists to rest and recover. He chose the one in the farthest corner of the villa district. It was closest to the memorial he'd just seen.
Sure enough, the familiar prompt sounded as soon as he entered the villa. "Instance discovered: Dianyuan Defense. Available to enter. Remaining entries: 3/3."
"Haha! I knew it would work. Enter! Enter!"
A bone-chilling wind howled.
The sky was gray and oppressive. Wang Ji emerged from a ruin. Outside, everything was in chaos. All sorts of vehicles roared down the road, every one of them packed with people clutching belongings in their arms and hands.
Not far away, one car had crashed into the vehicle ahead. The unbroken stream of traffic came to a halt. People hurried out of the cars in front and behind. The driver of the car ahead tested his vehicle, then continued on without looking back. The car behind it seemed beyond repair. Without much discussion, dozens of people followed the temporary orders of an older man and lifted the several-ton vehicle, tossing it into the roadside ditch. Traffic began flowing again.
A desperate flight. An evacuation.
"Ding! Instance main quest: 1. Cover the mass evacuation; 2. Hold the line for seven days"
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