With a sound of air tearing, the demon's head parted from his body. As his head hit the ground, he saw the two demons fleeing in another direction tumble into a Pitfall Trap he had never noticed.
So... he wasn't singling me out to chase. There was a trap in the other direction...
As that thought rose in his mind, the system's voice rang out in Ye Chen's head.
[Killed one lesser demon. Exchange points +27.]
"Looks like that lesser demon had a little strength to him."
Ye Chen smiled at the number of exchange points the demon had earned him, but he did not dwell on it. As long as he did not encounter Muzan Kibutsuji or the six Upper Rank demons, he could put up a fight against anyone.
Ye Chen glanced at the demon sprawled on the ground, foaming at the mouth after being stabbed with the Poison Knife, then at the two demons still in the Paralysis Trap. Without another word, he retrieved the Poison Knife and quickly ended their lives.
[Killed one lesser demon. Exchange points +18.] [Killed two lesser demons. Exchange points +31.]
"I can retrieve the Poison Knife? Didn't expect that. Well, this isn't a game, after all. Shame the Pitfall Trap is a one-use item. Once it's triggered, the mechanism is gone."
Ye Chen shook his head and stopped thinking about it. Being able to retrieve the knife was already good enough.
"Whew, finally got a little saved up again. That really wasn't easy."
Ye Chen checked his savings of 140 exchange points, wiped the nonexistent sweat off his forehead, and looked around.
This was his first time killing demons like this, yet he felt neither nervous nor afraid. Perhaps the hunter's knowledge and experience he had absorbed through hunter's notes were taking effect, or perhaps he simply did not care much about these demons' lives.
"Well, if I'm going to grind, I'd better keep at it. It probably isn't even ten at night yet. Too bad I can't check the time." Ye Chen looked around, then set off again on his quest to find demons.
No one would ever have imagined that, deep in a remote mountain forest, a young man was searching everywhere for traces of demons...
"Hmm... what time is it now? Probably around three in the morning. Forget it. These demons are so hard to find. I'm done looking. I'm exhausted."
Several more hours passed. Sitting beside a tree, Ye Chen checked his exchange points, which had risen to 243, and felt they were truly hard to earn. He had covered quite a distance, encountering only one group of six demons and two demons traveling alone. After killing them all, he realized it was already very late.
A new day had also begun, so he checked in through the check-in system again, then immediately lost interest.
"I'm exhausted... I ran around for hours and only found two batches of demons. What the hell am I supposed to fight? No, forget hell-there aren't even any demons to fight..."
Ye Chen scratched his head and sighed. Today, he had not only pushed himself to grind, but also spent all his strength searching for demons. And what had he gotten out of it? He had worn himself half to death and barely seen a trace of them.
Other people went up a mountain terrified of encountering even one demon, yet here he was, complaining that there were not enough...
"Forget it. I'll just put a Pitfall Trap beside me. If a demon comes, it'll fall right in. If none come, so be it. I can retrieve it as long as it hasn't been triggered. Tomorrow, I'll look for a village or something during the day."
Name: Yatsuka Nightstar. Age: 14. Height: 165. Weight: 51 kg. Scroll skills: hunter's notes, Bushido Style. Equipment: Traveler's Clothes, Samurai Long Sword. Items: Kunai ×10, Poison Knife, Pitfall Trap. Physique: Xeno'jiiva physique. Active skills: Elder Dragon's Pressure, Flame Burst, Hellfire Blast. Special skill: netherworld fire. Combat rating: C+. Exchange points: 228. Current quest: Kill 20 demons (16/20).
He slept soundly all night, and no demon triggered the Pitfall Trap. He was a little disappointed, but he had expected as much. It was nearly noon the next day before he opened his eyes, pushed himself up, and resumed his journey.
Along the way, he finally found a passerby who told him about a village, and he eagerly ran over to take a look.
This world's economy was very underdeveloped, and the setting seemed to be the Taisho era. After entering the village, Ye Chen looked around with curiosity. Although it was not particularly lively, it was still much better than the silence of the remote mountain forest.
Ye Chen walked into the market and looked at the goods being bought and sold all around him. Realizing that he was completely penniless, his eyes suddenly lit up as an idea struck him. After asking around, he exchanged points for two pieces of Raw Meat in the system, then for a Throwing Knife, and set up a simple stall.
Four kilograms of raw meat was no small amount. People in this era rarely went hunting, instead harvesting food from their own fields. Demons also prowled outside at night. Although ordinary people did not know demons existed, they knew better than to go out at night without good reason.
After learning all this, Ye Chen licked his lips, picked up the Throwing Knife, and sliced away at the raw meat. He also wrote a price twenty percent below the usual market rate on a wooden board, placed it in front of his stall, and sat on the ground to wait for customers.
"Say, young fellow, is that really the price of your meat?"
As expected, someone soon came up to him and asked about the price.
After all, there were not many hunters in times like these. Meat was usually something only the wealthy could afford to eat every day, and demand outstripped supply. Why would anyone lower the price to sell it?
"Yes, I'm a hunter. I'm in a bit of a hurry, so I'm hoping to sell this meat quickly."
Ye Chen smiled. He was not lying. He really was a hunter—just a monster hunter, as well as a Demon Slayer.
"All right, I'll buy two hundred grams."
Reassured by his answer, the customer took out a handful of coins and handed them to Ye Chen. Ye Chen wasted no time, making a few cuts in the raw meat with his Throwing Knife. Since he had no scale, he could only estimate the weight. His price was twenty percent below the market rate anyway, so he figured the customer would not mind a little more or less.
"Thank you."
The customer roughly gauged the meat in his hand and smiled in satisfaction. "This meat is really fresh, too. You certainly know how to do business, young man."
Ye Chen blinked. It came from the system. How could it not be fresh?
Soon, more customers came to his stall to buy his raw meat. In less than three hours, he had sold it all, and his wallet finally had something in it.
"Hmm... one piece of Raw Meat only costs seven exchange points, and each piece weighs two kilograms. Even if I sell two pieces every day, that's only fourteen exchange points. And even if I don't kill any demons, I can get twenty points every day just by checking in."
Ye Chen assessed his current situation, then suddenly broke into a grin again. "Doesn't that make this a business that can never lose money? Couldn't I become a little rich man?"
But after thinking it over, he decided against it. He could not spend his whole life as a meat vendor after transmigrating here, could he? He was only doing this to cover his living expenses. Yes, his living expenses.
So he would keep selling some more tomorrow.