Chapter 44: The Yu Family Hunting Team

Boss Lin stared at the list Ying Li gave him for a long time. Finally, he said, “I can provide all of these things.”

As he spoke, a dignified pride appeared on the aging, one-legged Boss Lin.

Boss Lin had become a B-Rank Sentinel just as he reached adulthood and even joined the Yang Family’s hunting team.

Everyone thought he should battle Mutant Beasts and carve out a fortune for himself.

But from a young age, he had never liked fighting. Instead, he loved all kinds of machinery.

Back in Sentinel Academy, his vehicle repair courses always scored full marks. He would use his mental power to observe the various instruments and equipment in the school and quickly learned how to repair them.

Later on, even when teaching equipment at the neighboring Guide Academy broke down, they would seek him out to fix it.

That was how he met his Guide.

He loved studying machinery. But after graduation, if he only took a related job, his income would probably be about the same as those D-Rank Sentinels—the basic maintenance work on the large-scale equipment in Starlight City’s Lower District was all done by D-Rank Sentinels, while the core maintenance was handled by the Sentinels from the major families.

Boss Lin had a Guide, so he naturally couldn’t live a life of barely scraping by. So, after graduating from Sentinel Academy, he joined the Yang Family’s hunting team.

But he wasn’t skilled at fighting Mutant Beasts. Fortunately, he was good at modifying vehicles. He not only relied on this skill to establish himself within the hunting team but also made a name for himself. During his downtime, Sentinels from other hunting teams would come to him for vehicle modifications.

This also gave him a means of survival and stability after being injured and leaving the hunting team.

Sentinels who formed mental bonds with Guides had very long lifespans.

Boss Lin was now over a hundred years old, and his auto repair shop had been open for sixty years.

In those sixty years, he hadn’t just studied vehicles; he had studied other machinery too. After all, it was his passion.

And because of this passion, he had once found connections to buy many of the replacement parts taken out of Starlight City’s operational equipment.

The underground cities, including Starlight City, were the crystallization of all humanity’s wisdom.

Back then, humanity had fought with everything it had just to build these underground cities, one by one, to survive.

And over the years, they had consistently maintained the underground cities’ facilities and even added some new ones. But the overall structure of the underground cities had never changed.

To Boss Lin, the underground city that sheltered countless people was undoubtedly the most sophisticated and beloved piece of machinery to him.

Over time, he had collected a great many replaced parts that kept Starlight City running. He had even assembled his own scaled-down versions of water purification and air purification equipment, storing them in a warehouse outside the city.

These were all just metal machinery, giving off no energy signatures, so no one ever paid them any attention. Now that Ying Li wanted them, giving them away was no issue.

Consider it a way of giving back to Ding Hua, an old customer.

Boss Lin was very clever. The moment he saw this list, he already knew who the real intended recipient was.

No wonder Ying Li was so strong; it turned out he was trained by Ding Hua!

Boss Lin had a wife and daughter. Although he harbored some dissatisfaction with the major families, he had previously been unwilling to associate with people like Ding Hua.

What he sought was stability.

But now, he had already been targeted. It was time for him to find a way out for himself.

Ying Li was somewhat shocked by Boss Lin’s words. He hadn’t expected that Boss Lin could actually provide all of these things.

But this was undoubtedly good news.

Ying Li had told Ding Hua he wanted to overturn the sky over Starlight City, but he wouldn’t say that to Boss Lin.

Ying Li said, “Many thanks! Boss Lin, many Sentinels in Freedom City were forced to flee there after suffering persecution. Over the years, they’ve had to buy food and water at high prices, living truly difficult lives. If those systems in Freedom City could be repaired, their lives would definitely improve a lot.”

“Yes…” Boss Lin sighed.

A portion of the water and food for Freedom City was sold by a friend of his.

That friend tried his best to send fairly priced food and water to Freedom City, but those supplies weren’t enough to support everyone in Freedom City.

Besides, “fairly priced” was still much more expensive than in Starlight City. After all, Freedom City couldn’t grow its own fungi or cultivate crops.

The Sentinels in Freedom City were certainly not living an easy life.

Ying Li talked with Boss Lin for a long time, growing more and more astonished.

He knew Boss Lin’s vehicle modification skills were superb, but he had still underestimated Boss Lin’s capabilities.

It was Starlight City’s current system that constrained Boss Lin.

Ying Li had always felt that Sentinels were a uniquely gifted existence.

Their learning ability was astonishing, and their physical strength was excellent. They could work or hunt for days and nights on end without sleep, food, or drink. If they had been around before the Great Cataclysm, they would make the best scientific researchers.

The only problem for Sentinels was the instability of their mental sea. But Sentinels who formed mental bonds with Guides had stable mental seas.

In his past life, he had felt that the value of Sentinels shouldn’t only be reflected in hunting.

He also felt Starlight City should value scientific research more.

But the Sentinels of the major families in Starlight City were overly obsessed with their ranks and didn’t care much about scientific research.

As for the Sentinels of the Upper City District… The cultural knowledge he had learned at Sentinel Academy was minimal. Most of what they studied was knowledge related to hunting and Mutant Beasts.

Furthermore, they only entered Sentinel Academy after their awakening and graduated at the age of eighteen. The actual learning period was very short.

After graduation, they had to spend their time scrambling for a living. Where would they find the time for scientific research?

A top-tier engineer like Boss Lin could only end up running an auto repair shop.

If Starlight City could discover and cultivate more talents like Boss Lin, improve the city’s defense systems, and design some new weapons, the city might not necessarily be destroyed by the beast tide.

Fortunately, there was still time.

It was already afternoon by the time Ying Li left Boss Lin’s place. As soon as he stepped out the door, he saw Xiang Ye sitting in the shop’s waiting area, fiddling with a model car.

“I told you to go wander around the area. Why are you waiting here?” Ying Li asked.

Xiang Ye replied, “I already went around the area and ate quite a lot of things.”

Xiang Ye began telling Ying Li about all the things he’d eaten, showing him the photos he’d taken.

He had quite a bit of money in his account now, so he went and ate some gourmet foods he’d never tried before.

The taste of those gourmet foods wasn’t great, but their presentation was beautiful, and Xiang Ye had taken many photos.

This was the surface; there was no wireless network connection. He planned to post on his social Moments once they returned to the underground city.

Ying Li had initially thought he would have to worry about transporting the supplies to Freedom City. Unexpectedly, Boss Lin voluntarily took over this task. With that settled, Ying Li found he had free time.

He brought Xiang Ye back into the city. As soon as they were back in range, Xiang Ye started fiddling with his communication terminal.

This kid loved posting on his Moments just like Wu Nian. However, his posts were positive and uplifting—all food and beautiful scenery. They were much more interesting than Wu Nian’s constant complaining.

“Big Brother Ying, your teacher messaged me to compliment my cooking and ask if I had a secret recipe!” Xiang Ye said to Ying Li with a smile.

Yesterday, Ying Li had bought a jin of meat, sliced it thinly, fried it in lard, and then sent it to Teacher Yan.

Teacher Yan was stunned by the taste and asked if he had a secret recipe.

But he couldn’t reveal his secret recipe. He couldn’t just tell Teacher Yan that the meat was fried using A-Rank Mutant Beast fat.

“Your cooking is indeed excellent,” Ying Li said with a smile.

A Guide’s mental power was gentle and unaggressive, but it was no problem to use it to control the heat. Xiang Ye was also more than happy to watch cooking videos online.

The dishes he made were truly delicious.

Ying Li thoroughly enjoyed this current life, full of the smells and bustle of everyday cooking. And precisely because of that, he absolutely had to protect this life. He couldn’t let it be destroyed by the beast tide.

Boss Lin was a capable man, and he owned many vehicles.

Under the pretext of testing the vehicles, he and his apprentices transported all the supplies Ding Hua needed to a location in the wilderness. Once the transport was complete, he informed Ying Li of the location.

Then, during his next hunting trip out of the city, Ying Li relayed the location of the supplies to Ding Hua.

Even if Freedom City’s equipment was repaired, the lives of Freedom City’s Sentinels wouldn’t immediately improve significantly.

But it would give them hope. With hope, people could hold on.

After dealing with this matter, Ying Li rode his motorcycle, racing across the wilderness.

Boss Lin had not only modified his truck but also his motorcycle. Now, his motorcycle couldn’t easily be damaged even by an A-Rank Mutant Beast, and its engine was incredibly powerful.

Riding a vehicle like this—what a thrill it was!

Along the way, Ying Li encountered some hunting teams.

He skirted around most of them, but when he came across one particular hunting team, he did not detour.

It was the Yu Family’s hunting team. The one Yu Mingwei was in charge of.

In other words, it was the hunting team he had led in his past life. Inside were many of his friends.

And now, this hunting team had run into bad luck. They had encountered a berserk A-Rank Mutant Beast and were being beaten back, steadily losing ground.

Actually, a hunting team as strong as this one normally shouldn’t struggle against a single A-Rank Mutant Beast. But the Sentinels in the team were forced to protect a vehicle, preventing them from properly fighting the beast.

As for that vehicle… Ying Li knew it well.

In his past life, whenever Yu Mingwei followed the convoy out of the city, he always rode in this vehicle.

But it wasn’t just Yu Mingwei who rode in it; others did too. And they, the Sentinels of the hunting team, absolutely loathed this vehicle and the people inside it.

Hunting was already dangerous enough. Yet they had to spare mental energy to cater to some pampered young master. One could imagine how agonizing it was.

Ying Li accelerated, heading straight for the area where the hunting team was. Upon getting closer, his grasp of the situation on the ground became even clearer.

The Sentinels in the team, those who had fought shoulder-to-shoulder with him in his past life, were desperately resisting an Mutant Beast while protecting a heavily modified, highly secure RV.

That RV, it seemed, had fled earlier without watching the road and had become stuck in a swamp. It was also tangled by some mutated plants and couldn’t break free.

Ying Li then heard a familiar and utterly detestable voice shouting: “Protect me! Everything here is being recorded on video! If something happens to me, none of you will have a good ending!”

Confirmed. The person inside the RV wasn’t Yu Mingwei but one of Yu Mingwei’s friends—or rather, a bootlicker—who was even more despicable than Yu Mingwei.

If things continued like this, the team was going to lose several people.

In his past life, Ying Li had joined this hunting team several months from now. As far as he knew, in those months before he joined, the hunting team hadn’t encountered any such danger.

So what was happening now? A butterfly effect caused by his and Wu Nian’s rebirths?