"You Really Have an Eye for Work."

The Strange Entity, like an oversized maggot, was pinned to the ground by the spear. It barely struggled before falling still, dying on the spot.

"Beautifully done!"

There was no time to dissect the corpses. Chen Fan pulled the remaining ropes again, dragging the Beast Traps in from the darkness. Every one of them held a Maggot Fiend. Crippled Monkey gripped his spear once more, killing one with every thrust!

Clean and efficient.

After finishing all that, Chen Fan tossed the empty Beast Traps back outside the camp. Then he and Crippled Monkey hid inside the Wooden Hut again, their eyes full of anticipation as they stared into the depths of the darkness.

The Strange Entities seemed unusually active tonight.

After roughly three breaths, another hemp rope began to sway.

Another prey had taken the bait.

An hour later.

Chen Fan stood naked inside the Wooden Hut. He took off his drenched coarse-cloth outer garment and wrung it hard with both hands. Icy rainwater streamed onto the floor. He then hung it above the stove inside the hut and let out a long breath.

They had reaped a full harvest over the past half hour. Prey took the bait every so often.

However, the number of Strange Entities nearby seemed to be rapidly dwindling. Two incense sticks' worth of time had passed without a single Strange Entity stepping into a Beast Trap, giving him time to tidy himself up so he would not catch a chill.

The Wooden Hut forged from two Eerie Stones differed from the one at his main camp. It was sturdier and covered more ground.

It was enough to keep out the cold and wind.

Several oil lamps were embedded in the walls for lighting, while a stove stood in the middle of the room to maintain the temperature. There was no need to burn firewood. All it took was inserting an Eerie Stone into a recess in the hut wall, and it could last for a year.

Though it consumed Eerie Stones, it lasted long enough and was far more economical than Eerie Fire.

"Crippled Monkey, you learned more before. Do you know what kind of Strange Entity this is?"

"I've never seen it before."

Crippled Monkey frowned and pondered for a long while before shaking his head. "I never saw this kind of Strange Entity in the Strange Entity illustrated manual kept by the private school teacher. The Strange Entities he taught us to identify were all common ones on the Wasteland, unless..."

"This kind of Strange Entity did not exist on the Wasteland before and only appeared recently, or its numbers are too small, so it is rarely discovered."

Chen Fan narrowed his eyes slightly and said nothing more.

For now.

Other than looking disgusting, this Strange Entity had not shown any unusual traits. It had almost no strength and belonged among the weakest of all Strange Entities. Still, tonight's actions had confirmed one of his suspicions.

That was, the "Strange Entities" on the Wasteland might truly each have their own territory.

The territory near his main camp belonged to the Monkey-Head Ghosts. After he killed off that batch of Monkey-Head Ghosts, there were temporarily no other Strange Entities around.

Another half hour passed.

Still, not a single Strange Entity stepped into the traps. Before they knew it, the two of them lay on the bed and gradually drifted off to sleep.

Until daybreak.

Chen Fan groggily opened his eyes and pushed open the Wooden Hut door. Cool, refreshing air rushed toward him. The darkness had faded, but the downpour outside had not weakened in the slightest. Rain battered the ground in a loud clatter, seeping into the cracked Wasteland and breathing a trace of life into it.

"Let's go."

He looked toward Crippled Monkey, who was busy in the courtyard under the pouring rain. At some unknown point, Crippled Monkey had already woken up. He was digging the Eerie Stones out of last night's Strange Entities one by one and loading them into a basket, then stacking the corpses onto a cart.

"Young Master, you're awake."

Crippled Monkey ran through the rain to the front of the Wooden Hut and reported, "We killed forty-seven Strange Entities last night and dug out forty-seven Eerie Stones. They're all in the basket. These Strange Entity corpses can be brought back to camp for fertilizer, but the cart is too small."

"So I loaded all the corpses onto the cart and tied them down with hemp rope. They'll be much more secure that way."

"Very good." "You really have an eye for work."

Chen Fan looked at the cart piled high with Strange Entity corpses. He took the clothes that had dried over the stove and put them on, unable to help sighing. Having a subordinate like this truly saved him a great deal of worry.

He did not even need to say much. Crippled Monkey finished the work himself.

"Hehe." Crippled Monkey scratched the back of his head somewhat sheepishly. "Those of us who serve others aren't afraid of having too much work. We're only afraid of having no work at all."

"Let's go. We're heading home."

The rain showed no sign of stopping anytime soon. They could not possibly wait for it to stop before returning.

Crippled Monkey pulled the cart at the front while Chen Fan followed behind it, using his hands to steady the Strange Entity corpses stacked several meters high so they would not fall. Cool rainwater seeped down his neck, and the threads of chill instantly cleared his head.

The clothes he had only just dried last night were soaked through again after only a few steps.

Not only was the rain heavy.

The wind was fierce as well.

Visibility had dropped sharply. If not for the Ghosthide Map guiding their direction, the two of them would certainly have become lost on the Wasteland and been unable to find their way home. Before leaving, Chen Fan added another Eerie Stone to the camp's Eerie Fire to ensure it would continue burning.

The journey was long.

It had taken them an hour to get there yesterday. Today, with the heavy rain and such a heavily laden cart, it took them nearly two full hours to return to camp.

"Crippled Monkey, thanks for the effort."

Looking through the rain at the faintly visible camp, Chen Fan patted Crippled Monkey on the shoulder somewhat apologetically.

Making a cripple pull a cart for two hours—honestly, he felt truly bad about it. He had considered taking turns along the way, but he ran out of strength after only a few steps. Though Crippled Monkey was crippled, his physical condition was genuinely far more solid than Chen Fan's.

So Crippled Monkey could only pull the cart the entire way.

"It's nothing."

Crippled Monkey wiped the rain from his face. Panting heavily, he trudged through the torrential rain and pulled the cart faster toward the camp, grinning. "I don't know why, but although I used to follow Young Master too, I always felt lost about the future."

"Now, whenever I get close to the camp, it feels like I'm coming home."

"Just thinking about it makes me feel less tired."

"It even feels like my body is full of energy."

As they spoke, the camp came clearly into view.

"Hmm?"

Chen Fan looked at Wang Kui and his two subordinates standing outside the camp in the rain. Confusion flashed through his heart. He narrowed his eyes slightly, walked forward, cupped his hands, and smiled. "Stationmaster Wang, I went out to handle something and wasn't at the station. What brings you two here?"

Wang Kui stood in the rain, his gaze passing Chen Fan and landing on the cart full of Strange Entity corpses. Astonishment flashed through his eyes. He stood rooted to the spot for a long while before recalling why he had come. His throat bobbed slightly, and he spoke with some urgency.

"Stationmaster Chen."

"Things are urgent, so I'll make this brief. This year's Rainy Season has arrived a month early!"

"In previous years, the Rainy Season would not begin until November. This downpour will last an entire month, after which winter will arrive. Then comes heavy snow, and spring will not return until March next year."

"Once the Rainy Season begins, the Wasteland will be sealed off, entering a five-month period without people."

"During that time, every station on the Wasteland will be abandoned, and no one will travel through them."

"They will only be put back into use after spring returns."