Entering Kunshan

The next day, final preparations were underway outside the company.

Wang An's Avatar took the form of a lean, muscular young man with rugged features and a crew cut.

The logistics coordinator, Xu Feng, looked much like Wang An's Avatar. He, too, had the crisp bearing of a soldier, though he was older, a middle-aged man.

Manager Hu had recruited him on the recommendation of the Veterans Affairs Bureau. He was a retired military driver, skilled in driving, repairing, and maintaining all kinds of military vehicles, with experience driving in difficult road conditions.

He was familiar with logistics procedures such as vehicle dispatch, cargo transport, and fuel resupply, and had some organizational and coordination skills.

He had undergone rigorous military training, was highly disciplined and obedient, and had a stable temperament. He could handle demanding, highly confidential assignments.

He would be the person who had the most contact with the Avatar going forward, and was well suited to secret transport, field exploration, or emergency evacuation missions.

They were now outside the company, loading the last of the equipment. Since they were heading into the mountains to explore, the company had bought an off-road vehicle for transportation.

Seeing that the loading was nearly finished, Wang An said to Xu Feng, "Brother Feng, check if we have everything. We're getting ready to leave."

Xu Feng nodded, pulled out the checklist, and immediately began taking inventory, moving briskly.

The equipment for this operation fell mainly into the following categories:

Personal equipment: high-performance hiking packs, waterproof and fireproof outdoor clothing, hiking boots, satellite phones, GPS trackers, outdoor watches, multi-tools, headlamps, water purification equipment, high-energy food, first aid kits, tents, and machetes.

Exploration tools: geological hammers, labels, metal detectors, high-powered flashlights, and laser rangefinders.

Recording equipment: shockproof, waterproof cameras, action cameras, and field notebooks.

These were for taking photographs of the "exploration site" and "samples" to complete the company's records.

There was also an exploration permit and a compound bow and arrows for use as a weapon. They had essentially made every preparation they could.

Once the inventory was complete, Wang Quan and Xu Feng prepared to set off. The company's employees all came to see them off. This was the company's first job since it had been founded!

Changnan was still some distance from Kunshan, and the drive on the expressway took around two hours. They set out in the morning and reached Kunshan Village beside Kunshan at around eleven.

Kunshan Village, however, was on a mountaintop, quite far from Wang Quan's destination, a valley among the mountain's branches. The valley ran southeast from Kunshan Village all the way to Wumei Mountain, with numerous mountain hollows on both sides.

The impact site in the video only gave them an approximate direction. They still had to search in that direction for a weak point, and might have to search two or three mountain hollows before they could find it.

After reaching Kunshan Village, they headed straight to the village committee, explained their purpose to the village chief, showed him their exploration permit, and asked him about local conditions.

The village chief told them that the villagers had formed their own exploration team, but it had turned back halfway in. Another team, formed by a company, had gone in afterward and still hadn't come out.

Electromagnetic interference was also very strong deeper inside, and communications were almost completely cut off. Wild boars roamed in groups, along with venomous snakes and eagles. The village exploration team had run into these dangers and, being insufficiently prepared, had turned back for fear of casualties.

Wang An wasn't surprised by this. The village team's main intention had really been to pick up overlooked treasures or try their luck. They hadn't planned on dealing with those mutated creatures.

That afternoon, Wang An and Xu Feng asked the members of the earlier exploration team where they had encountered the mutated creatures. Wang Quan noted the locations down as they spoke, planning to check those places first.

Finally, they asked which direction the second exploration team had taken and learned that they had gone around along the northeastern mountaintops.

The village team had taken the southeastern route. Since someone had already gone northeast, Wang Quan decided to take the village team's route and go farther along to see what was happening.

There was also a very famous herb gatherer in Kunshan Village who had been invited along this time. He was said to have gathered herbs in the Jiuling Mountain Range for more than thirty years and knew the area very well.

Wang An and Xu Feng asked where he lived and went to his home to ask for some help, including where creatures were more numerous.

Finally, Wang An asked, "How big are the wild boars around here?"

The herb gatherer took a deep drag on his cigarette.

He said, "The biggest one I've seen to the east weighed at least five hundred jin. If you run into them, get out of the way quickly. Don't fight them. They usually show up in groups. As time goes on, more and more boars will gather, and even with a bow and arrows, you won't be able to kill them all."

That evening, Wang An and Xu Feng stayed at the village committee building and planned the next day's exploration.

Early the next morning, Wang Quan set out as soon as it was light.

New spring growth was sprouting, and the mountains were now covered in tender green, with touches of red here and there from the azaleas just beginning to bloom.

It was late March or early April, and the south had entered the plum rain season. Wang Quan hadn't gone far before a fine drizzle began to fall. Thick fog filled the mountain forest, reducing visibility to less than five meters.

Fortunately, the terrain here had distinct features, so it was hard to get lost. As long as he followed the mountaintops, there would generally be no trouble.

On the map, the straight-line distance between Kunshan Village and Wumei Mountain was a little over ten kilometers. But mountain paths were a different matter entirely. What looked like a little over ten kilometers could mean walking several dozen. Exploring all the mountain hollows would make the journey even longer.

It would take about five days just to reach the end, and a complete exploration would probably take around ten days.

At noon on the first day, Wang Quan came to the place where the exploration team had encountered venomous snakes, though he didn't encounter any himself.

Since this place was within the impact zone of a meteorite the company had identified, Wang An carefully searched around the mountain hollows on both sides of the summit.

He searched the hollows one by one and finally found traces of damage from a meteorite impact inside a stone cave.

Following the traces inside, Wang Quan saw a meteorite about the size of a softball lying in the middle of a rubble-filled crater.

Although it was also a metallic meteorite, it lacked those mysterious patterns, so he could be certain some creature had used it. Wang Quan put the meteorite away and immediately retreated to the mountaintop.

With his current three-dimensional attributes, he actually had little to fear from them, even creatures that had grown a little stronger after changing class.

But it was best not to run into them if he could help it. He had come mainly to collect Class Change Stones, not to hunt these creatures.

After walking a little farther, he saw that it was almost dark, found a flat spot, and began setting up camp.

It wasn't that Wang An's Avatar couldn't explore at night, but there was no need.

If this Avatar died, another would have to be sent from Changnan.

That could waste a great deal of time and the advantage of acting first, and might also arouse other people's suspicions.

So the Avatar could be injured, but it couldn't lose its ability to move.

As the sun slowly sank, darkness gradually spread through the mountain forest. The cries of all kinds of creatures rose and fell, some resembling the meowing of cats.

Those came from leopard cats, the most common wild felines in the area. They were about the size of domestic cats and lived in mountain forests throughout the province.

There were also the calls of hwameis and red-billed leiothrixes.

As these sounds grew more numerous and intense,

a sudden, tremendous howl rang out through the mountain forest like thunder bursting from clear skies, shaking the surrounding creatures into silence.

It sounded a little like the squeal of a pig being slaughtered, but there was no pain in it.

It was also deeper and heavier, faintly pressing down on the sounds around it.