Chapter 113: This Teaches Us That Trouble…

He had just wanted to leave the cave with the Mineral Beast Cub by its scruff when his finger suddenly hurt.

The Mineral Beast Cub refused to back down and twisted its head around to give him a small bite.

The Little Adventurer was shocked and loosened his grip. The Mineral Beast Cub landed on the ground and darted toward the depths of the cave in the blink of an eye.

Xie Jianxun instinctively reached back to his neck to activate the exoskeleton again.

After thinking for a moment, he put his hand down instead and followed the Mineral Beast Cub’s trail into the cave—because he heard a faint snuffling sound from the darkness deep inside, as if the cub was calling him in.

After walking for about half a minute, Xie Jianxun adjusted his night vision goggles and barely spotted the Mineral Beast Cub in a pile of straw with their help.

He had just wanted to go over and pick up the cub again when it let out a couple of gurgles and pushed the straw with its front paws.

His gaze shifted, and a fluffy head poked out from the straw.

There was another cub!

Xie Jianxun was stunned. He hadn’t expected a buy-one-get-one-free deal.

The two looked like offspring of the same type of Mineral Beast, but with different patterns—one pure white, the other spotted.

Now, the two Mineral Beast Cubs pressed their heads together, bellies touching, and stared at him with their round eyes.

Xie Jianxun: “…”

One in each hand, he scooped up both the main prize and the bonus.

The Little Adventurer lectured, “See? This is what happens—don’t run into someone else’s home next time you escape, or we’ll all be in trouble.”

The Mineral Beast Cubs struggled for a moment, then one freed its front paws from his embrace and paddled toward the straw pile.

Xie Jianxun understood its meaning, so he squatted down and carefully placed them back into the straw.

The next second, the ‘bonus’ cub dug out a piece of emerald ore from the straw pile and pushed it into Xie Jianxun’s hand.

He hadn’t expected extra loot!

The Little Adventurer happily accepted it. “Thank you!” He stuffed the ore into his Light Brain Space as he spoke, only to see the Mineral Beast Cubs scrambling toward the depths of the cave.

…So it was a bribe after all!

In the end, Xie Jianxun grabbed both listless Mineral Beast Cubs, one under each arm.

“Let’s go. After the check-up, I’ll let you two come back,” he said solemnly. “But I’m keeping the bribe.”

Leaving the cave, Xie Jianxun looked up at the sky.

The moon and stars were sparse, barely providing enough light in the forest to make out the surroundings.

He followed the path he had taken to arrive, carefully identifying the trees and ground, but the surroundings grew more unfamiliar the further he went. Finally, he reached a grassy area that definitely hadn’t been there before.

Xie Jianxun: “…What the hell.”

He looked down at the two Mineral Beast Cubs under his arms, and they simultaneously looked up at him.

Silence.

He didn’t even have a free hand to pull out his Light Brain for positioning. If only humans could grow eight arms, Xie Jianxun thought randomly.

Just then, he heard an urgent cry from the north, like someone calling for help!

The cry was extremely loud, piercing the sky with a wide range.

Xie Jianxun’s first reaction upon hearing it was that the person was right nearby, but after the echo faded, he realized the caller might not be that close.

He glanced at the cubs under his arms and decided to regroup with the Wild Squad first, then let the Captain decide.

Finally, he tucked the right cub under his left armpit—two in one hand—and fumbled his Light Brain out with his right hand to operate it awkwardly.

Once he confirmed the direction, Xie Jianxun opened the navigation and followed the voice prompts back.

After circling a few large trees, he soon spotted Idis standing with Tuls beside him, and even a large crowd of people.

Xie Jianxun was surprised and hurried forward. “Huh, Captain, why are you all here? Weren’t we supposed to meet at the campsite?”

With the night vision goggles on, he couldn’t clearly see everyone’s expressions.

But he saw Captain Min Xingwen stride toward him excitedly, clutching his chest. “Thank goodness! You’re okay!”

Xie Jianxun showed off his armpit spoils. “Look, I picked up an extra one…”

“Boss, have you seen Mr. You?”

Unexpectedly, Min Xingwen’s next question was about You Liang’s whereabouts, leaving Xie Jianxun stumped.

He blinked in confusion and heard Ela calmly recount, “He heard someone calling for help earlier and rushed in. It was in the opposite direction from where you came back.”

Xie Jianxun: “I heard it too. It sounded like a special distress alarm… He went in to rescue them? I didn’t see him.”

He glanced back at the path he’d taken, unable to recall if he’d seen any figures.

He’d been focused on hurrying and hadn’t paid attention to anything else.

A squad member stepped forward to take the two bonus cubs from under the boss’s arms and put them into a Beast Capture Box, also asking where he’d caught the Mineral Beast Cub and if it was injured.

Xie Jianxun: “Don’t worry, I was gentle. They’re both perfectly fine.”

The squad member said helplessly, “I meant you, sir. Mineral Beast cubs have sharp claws from birth. You weren’t scratched, were you?”

Xie Jianxun looked at the two pairs of small eyes peering from the Beast Capture Box’s vent and suddenly didn’t know what to say.

That the cubs had been too busy acting cute to scratch him?

Meanwhile, the Captain was pacing anxiously, waiting for a comms connection.

After a while, the call connected, and Min Xingwen put it on speaker. You Liang’s panting voice came from the Light Brain.

“Captain, perfect timing. I need you to contact the Wild Zone Outpost!” The City Lord’s son was racing somewhere—who knew where—with wind howling around him. “The place I’m at now has large swathes of torn-up trees. It looks just like traces from a Combat Mecha fighting an adult Mineral Beast. There’s a small amount of blood on the ground, but it doesn’t look like Mineral Beast blood!”

The Captain froze, speechless.

You Liang: “Hey? Hey? You alive? Make a sound if you’re alive!”

After a long pause, Captain Min Xingwen snapped out of it and instinctively replied, “Got it. I have the Outpost’s comm code. I’ll contact them right away… Wait, Mr. You, where are you exactly?! We need to confirm your safety first!”

You Liang: “I’m fine. Better than all of you.”

With that, he sent coordinates and hung up on his own, as if continuing to track the traces.

Captain: “…”

He thought bitterly that he never should have taken this lucrative job from the big boss.

He immediately contacted the Wild Zone Outpost, then rubbed his temples with a headache.

Logically, he should organize the members to withdraw now.

But one of his most important “bosses” was still in a dangerous spot, and leaving with the team now would be improper.

Going deeper to search wasn’t ideal either—he had more than one boss, after all.

Finally, he steeled himself and came to discuss with Xie Jianxun.

“Boss, let me have two people escort you back first,” Min Xingwen negotiated. “I need to go in and look for Mr. You.”

Xie Jianxun worriedly said, “From the distance, it seems like it’s inside the Danger Zone.”

Captain: “The position Mr. You sent is indeed… How did he really run into the Danger Zone?!”

He looked on the verge of collapse, extremely regretting taking this job.

He hurriedly dialed the Outpost while calling out two members by name to escort the boss out of the Wild Zone.

“Boss, we’re truly sorry for this mishap. We’ll have to cancel tonight’s camping activity. I’ll calculate the price for this part and refund it later… What’s that noise?”

He jerked his head up. The others reacted similarly, faces filled with horror.

“What’s going on…”

“Was that my imagination? Is the ground shaking?”

“Earthquake?!”

Ela quickly pulled Xie Jianxun back and hid him behind a tree. Then, a long beast roar echoed nearby. The Wild Squad members, rich in experience, paled and scattered.

“How could it be a Giant Mineral Beast? We didn’t enter the Danger Zone!”

“Everyone, stay still and assess!”

But with the roar came rustling grass. A massive Mineral Beast slowly emerged from the shadows of the bushes.

Night shrouded everything. Even with night vision goggles, Xie Jianxun could only barely make out its outline. His heart tightened as he estimated it was about as wide as a person—truly a giant beast.

The beast’s foul stench approached step by step. Everyone dispersed, not daring to move rashly—afraid that running would make them immediate targets.

Someone whispered, “What happened? We caught the cub, and now its mom showed up?”

“Bullshit… Its mom isn’t this big.”

“Then what is it? Its grandma?”

Even the whispers enraged the Giant Mineral Beast. It stomped the ground fiercely, sending dust flying and the earth quaking, making Xie Jianxun’s scalp tingle.

The Captain decided instantly: “Up the trees! Everyone to the trees!”

No time for safety harnesses. As the Giant Mineral Beast lunged, the Wild Squad members rolled up their sleeves and nimbly ‘dashed’ up the trees like pros.

They didn’t need harnesses or spikes; they could climb with their own strength.

…But Xie Jianxun couldn’t!

His previous tree-climbing experience had relied entirely on safety spikes!

Seeing the Mineral Beast sniff the ground scents and head their way, the Captain inhaled sharply and commanded, “Bosses, don’t worry! I have an Electric Baton. I’ll distract it. You head back when you get the chance!”

Xie Jianxun didn’t delay. He scooped up Ela, who clung to his neck looking helpless but pretending to be calm, then told Tuls, “You climb the tree!”

With that, he activated the exoskeleton button on his back, and that light mechanical power returned to his body.

Tuls: “Boss, what about you?!”

He gasped in fear—for his boss and his own acrophobia.

Xie Jianxun chuckled. “I have the exoskeleton. I’ll outrun you for sure… Quit with the funeral face. Hold on tight.” The last part was to Ela.

Captain: “Boss, get ready. Three, two, one—I’m poking its butt with the Electric Baton!”

He jumped down from the tree, jabbed the beast fiercely, and it convulsed like it was electrocuted, freezing in place for seconds.

Then, it whipped its head around!

Seeing trouble, the Captain bolted back up the tree. He saw Xie Jianxun carrying his assistant already far away, while the other assistant climbed with eyes shut, and breathed a sigh of relief.

The Deputy Captain called from another tree, “Captain, I’ve contacted the Outpost!”

The Captain gave a thumbs-up.

He looked down at the Mineral Beast circling the trees and felt slightly relieved. Most Mineral Beasts couldn’t climb, so as long as they could, they could avoid danger without direct confrontation.

Next, they’d wait for the beast to leave, then follow the Outpost guards to rescue You Liang in the Danger Zone.

…Hold on.

He seemed to have forgotten something.

Over there, the Deputy Captain’s voice suddenly turned panicked. “Captain! Didn’t the boss run the wrong way?!”

The Captain slowly looked up toward the direction Xie Jianxun had fled. His vision went black—that wasn’t the campsite; it was straight toward the Danger Zone!

“Come back!!! Boss—the direction’s wrong!!!”

…

Even carrying a kid who looked a few years old, Xie Jianxun felt like he had endless energy.

Was this the power of the exoskeleton? he wondered.

No wonder You Liang spoke of it arrogantly, like they were in different worlds.

He ran at double speed, with greater strength, feeling light as if flying.

“I heard the first-generation exoskeleton was invented by Idis, right?” Xie Jianxun asked.

The kid stayed steady in his arms, arms tightly around his neck, face buried in his neck hollow.

Hearing him speak, he simply nodded.

Xie Jianxun stopped. He could no longer hear the Mineral Beast’s heavy breathing; he’d run for a good while and must be far away.

He set Ela down and watched the assistant pat the dirt off his pants.

“Professor Idis is a genius,” he praised. “I heard exoskeletons are hugely popular in the military with this level of enhancement. No wonder.”

Ela: “Thank you.”

Xie Jianxun: “Hm?”

He had only let out a simple sound of confusion when he heard another cry for help.

A night bird streaked over the treetops, and in the dark forest, both of them looked up at the same time.

This time, it wasn’t a rescue alert through a loudspeaker—it was a human voice!

Xie Jianxun frowned, realizing that the source of this cry for help wasn’t far from him.

Ela seemed to read his mind and said, “Shall we go take a look?”

Xie Jianxun thought for a moment before nodding. “We’ll take a quick look. If we can’t handle it, we’ll run.”

He turned to Ela, intending to leave him somewhere safe, but the assistant tugged at his clothes and insisted on coming along.

“Have you forgotten? I can pilot a Combat Mecha,” he said calmly.

True enough. It was better to have a “fighter” along than just running away.

Xie Jianxun cautioned him, “We’ll approach slowly. If anything goes wrong, we run immediately.”

In a patch of indistinct tall grass, a man sat on the ground, clutching his leg in pain with both hands.

His leg was bound with makeshift branches and bandages, as if to stabilize a broken bone.

He sat there listlessly, his expression dazed, until Xie Jianxun parted the grass in front of him. Then he jerked backward with a startled “Ah!”

Xie Jianxun jumped in fright and leaned back too. “Ah!”

Ela: “…”

The man shrieked, “Who’s there!”

Xie Jianxun stopped advancing and asked cautiously, “Was that your distress call just now?”

Through his Night Vision Goggles, he could clearly see this was a young man around twenty years old, probably a student out camping nearby who had run into some accident.

The man had no Night Vision Goggles and nearly died of fright when a shadowy figure emerged from the grass.

Only upon hearing the voice did he realize someone had come to rescue him.

“Y-Yes, it was me!” He was on the verge of tears, wiping his face hard—but he only smeared mud all over it, nearly making him vomit. “I didn’t dare shout too loudly, afraid of attracting the Mineral Beasts around…”

Xie Jianxun said, “Where’s your Light Brain? Contact the Outpost and give them your location!”

The man shivered as he replied, “My leg’s broken. My Light Brain got flung somewhere during the fall… It cost thousands. I’ll be in deep trouble when I get home…”

Xie Jianxun slapped his forehead in exasperation and casually asked, “How did you end up like this?”

The young man’s eyes were dull, his head hanging low as he watched Xie Jianxun kneel down to check the wound on his leg.

As if suddenly snapping back to reality, his eyes widened, and he gasped. “Right! Save him—save the others!”

Xie Jianxun reassured him, “Don’t worry. I’ll call the Outpost… Uh, I’ll take you back.”

He almost forgot—he didn’t even have the comm code for this Wild Zone Outpost and quickly changed his words.

“No, not me—save my other teammates!”

He grabbed Xie Jianxun’s hand, his grip so tight it hurt Xie Jianxun’s wrist. “His Mecha went berserk! It nearly killed me!”

“W-We were a Mecha squad out here for field training over the holiday. We wanted to test the new Combat Mecha on the market—the one you control with brainwaves. Everything was fine at first, but after he went up against it, it suddenly went crazy. It fought the Giant Mineral Beast nearby and nearly killed me too!”

He abruptly stopped.

“No… He really did kill someone.”

Xie Jianxun keenly caught a detail. “Who are you talking about? You’re a Silver University student?”

The young man blinked, looking at his face. “Yeah, I’m a sophomore. I just joined the school Mecha team this semester… Are you one too?! Which senior are you?”

Xie Jianxun replied, “No, I’ve only audited classes at Silver University. Who did you say got killed?!”

Just then, they heard a fierce wind howling.

This wind was unusual—like a shrill wail through the gaps in the trees. It sounded as if something was charging at high speed, snapping rows of trees in half with violent tearing sounds and the thuds of heavy impacts!

Boom—

Ela yanked hard at the back of Xie Jianxun’s clothes. The Little Adventurer gasped. Seeing the man couldn’t move on his own, Ela grabbed him under the armpits and hoisted him up with the power of the Exoskeleton, lifting him straight off the ground.

“Holy crap, you’re so strong!”

Xie Jianxun had no time to explain. He shoved backward with full force, flinging both of them back into nearby bushes. They rolled on the ground and plunged into the woods.

The young man nearly cursed from the pain. “What the hell are you doing?! Out of nowhere like that…”

Before he could finish, a mid-sized Combat Mecha crashed down from the sky, smashing a huge crater into the grass.

—If Xie Jianxun hadn’t yanked him back just then, he would’ve been done for!