“During the time I’m out of the city, try not to go out. If someone knocks, don’t open the door,” Ying Li instructed Xiang Ye.
Besides worrying Wu Nian might report Xiang Ye, he was also worried Xiang Ye might be bullied.
People in the Upper City District lived under too much pressure, so many had bad tempers. When they encountered someone weaker than themselves on the road, they would vent their emotions on that person.
This venting was usually just a few curses or a kick. As long as the person being cursed or kicked wasn’t injured, the police didn’t care.
Even a child could bully Xiang Ye, let alone an adult. Ying Li didn’t want Xiang Ye to be bullied.
Xiang Ye nodded earnestly, his eyes shining as he looked at Ying Li.
In a very good mood, Ying Li rubbed Xiang Ye’s smooth, bald head.
When Xiang Ye was at the orphanage, his head had been shaved. When Ying Li met him, it had been a while since his last haircut, so he had a buzz cut.
But after arriving at Ying Li’s place, he used Ying Li’s razor to shave his head completely clean again.
His original hair was dry, yellow, and soft, clearly a sign of malnutrition, so Ying Li hadn’t stopped him.
“I’ve stocked enough nutrient paste at home. Eat whenever you’re hungry; make sure you eat a lot. And those Ginkgo Fruits I brought back earlier—they’re a bit hard to swallow, but you need to eat one every day…” Ying Li went over more dietary reminders.
The Mutant Ginkgo Nuts were large, about the size of a chicken egg. The pulp inside was dark red, bitter to the taste, but with a sweet aftertaste.
Back then, Wu Nian had taken one bite and refused to eat more. But Ying Li liked the taste of the Ginkgo Nuts very much. Or rather, he loved any food that wasn’t nutrient paste.
There were hundreds of flavors of nutrient paste, but if you ate it too much, it just tasted like industrial flavoring and killed your appetite entirely.
Wu Nian probably got sick of it as a child and thus refused to touch it later.
He wasn’t as picky as Wu Nian, but he didn’t like nutrient paste either. Any food other than nutrient paste, even if sour and bitter, he considered better than nutrient paste.
“The Ginkgo Nuts aren’t hard to eat at all. They’re delicious!” Xiang Ye said seriously.
He’d looked it up online. This was one of the few Mutant Flora fruits humans could eat, and it was expensive—one could sell for seven or eight hundred Credit Points.
When Ying Li first gave him one, he’d been afraid to eat it. When he did eat it, he cherished it, using his teeth to slowly scrape it away bit by bit.
Although it was a little bitter, its texture was great. Anyway, Xiang Ye liked it very much.
“That’s right, they’re not hard to eat.” Ying Li smiled.
After finishing his instructions for Xiang Ye, Ying Li left the house.
The Artificial Sun of the Underground City turned on to its lowest setting promptly at six every morning and dimmed promptly at six every evening.
It was seven when Ying Li went out. The Artificial Sun’s power hadn’t been cranked to maximum yet, casting a soft glow.
But today there was no blue sky and white clouds. The sky showed a metallic sheen because the ceiling of the Underground City was undergoing maintenance.
Ying Li glanced at the repair workers suspended in the air, then arrived at the place he had agreed to meet the four new team members.
Of the four he recruited, two were his classmates, named Luo Qiming and Hong Mayi. The other two were his juniors, named Hu Xiangyang and Shi Tai.
All four were C-Rank Sentinels who had followed hunting teams into the wild before. But because they were young, their field hunting experience wasn’t extensive.
Upon seeing him, the four greeted one after another: “Captain Ying!”
“Captain Ying!”
“Good morning, Captain Ying!”
…
Ying Li nodded at them and said, “Take out what you’ve brought and check it over.”
Ying Li’s expression was very serious, so even though Luo Qiming and Hong Mayi had once been his classmates, they didn’t dare act familiar.
They took out their gear and carefully checked it against the list Ying Li had sent them.
Ying Li stood nearby, observing all four of their actions.
Seeing they hadn’t forgotten anything, he nodded with satisfaction and led them to the exit gate, telling them some wilderness precautions along the way.
Luo Qiming and the others listened intently, using all their mental power to engrave Ying Li’s words into their minds.
As they listened, strong feelings of gratitude towards Ying Li arose in the four of them.
The information Ying Li was telling them was the kind of “secret” other people hid and were unwilling to share!
Many hunting teams didn’t take new recruits. Even if they did, the treatment of newcomers was terrible because newbies in the wild sometimes not only didn’t help but were actually a liability.
These four, in their previous hunting teams, had not only received very little money but also had to rent their own equipment and buy their own food, unable to save any money.
They were mainly responsible for chores in their teams. When danger came, they were pushed out as cannon fodder, basically the bottom rung of the hunting team.
And no one was willing to teach them wilderness survival experience for free. They had to give gifts to the veterans for the veterans to be willing to pass on a bit of knowledge.
But Ying Li was different from the others.
Ying Li’s treatment of them was better than other hunting teams’, and he didn’t hold back his knowledge at all.
Following Ying Li, their daily city-exit fee was very low, only a thousand a day, but Ying Li provided the equipment and food!
In other words, the city-exit fee was their net profit!
Ying Li was also willing to teach them hunting experience!
The four looked at Ying Li with extremely fervent gazes.
Like Ying Li, they had studied at the Upper City District’s Sentinel Academy and had thus witnessed Ying Li’s rise.
Initially, Ying Li was just a very ordinary D-Rank Sentinel in the academy, but he was exceptionally hardworking.
Before the sky even brightened, he’d be training in the training room. During mealtimes, he’d be doing practice problems on his Communication Terminal.
Even when running errands and washing clothes for others, he’d have heavy barbell plates strapped to his body.
As time passed, his grades got better and better, his whole person growing more dazzling.
They had admired Ying Li even back when they were students. After graduation…
They had also heard about Ying Li’s deeds over the recent years.
Two years ago, Ying Li had the ability to solo-hunt C-Rank Mutant Beasts. Not long ago, Ying Li advanced to B-Rank and also single-handedly killed a B-Rank Mutant Beast.
Although Ying Li was around their age, Ying Li was their idol!
Ying Li could feel his team members’ admiration for him, and he had no intention of changing their view.
He had been the captain of the Yu Family hunting team before, and he knew the captain had to be able to keep the team in line for the members to obey.
He wouldn’t buddy up with these four; he would just teach them as his apprentices.
By the time the group reached the Surface Exchange, it was eight in the morning.
Ying Li took the four to the rental depot, rented a four-seat truck, and also rented some equipment for them.
The deposit for the equipment just about emptied his savings. When renting the truck, Ying Li couldn’t produce the deposit at all. Luckily, being a B-Rank Sentinel allowed him to rent an ordinary truck based on his status alone.
Ying Li deeply realized he was rather poor.
Renting a truck was expensive, costing five thousand Credit Points a day. He really wanted to buy a good truck, but a decent one cost one or two million.
That wasn’t money he could come up with in a short time.
And there was the food problem… If possible, he honestly wanted to eat Ecological Zone meat and vegetables for every meal. But meat was too expensive!
While in the Underground City, although he ate some meat at each meal, it was only about a hundred grams of meat per meal, and he shared it with Xiang Ye.
If he were to eat freely, he could easily eat a kilogram of meat in one meal. But eating like that, he couldn’t afford it.
Speaking of which, the Mutated Animals in the wild were all huge. If only they were edible.
After renting the vehicle, Ying Li had Luo Qiming drive the truck while he rode his motorcycle ahead to lead the way.
He knew the area around Starlight City like the back of his hand. Today, he planned to lead the team to hunt by a lake.
That area had lush vegetation and was home to many Mutant Beasts. Since it was relatively close to Starlight City, there were no B-Rank or A-Rank Mutant Beasts there.
A good spot like this should logically be the first choice for small hunting teams. But the D-Rank and C-Rank Mutant Beasts there weren’t worth very much.
For many Mutant Beasts, besides the crystal core, their fur, bones, teeth, or certain parts could also be sold for money. Many luxury goods in Starlight City were made from Mutant Beast fur or bones.
But the Mutant Beasts living in that region were primarily insect-types, mostly venomous caterpillars.
This kind of Mutant Beast was troublesome to hunt and only its crystal core was worth money. So many people were unwilling to go there to hunt.
Ying Li came here for two reasons. First, he had once found a perfect hunting spot here where Luo Qiming and the others could hunt.
The second reason was that some Mutant Water Chestnuts grew in this lake.
This was something he discovered in his past life.
One time, while leading the Yu Family hunting team through here, he noticed a significant energy reaction in the water. Thinking there might be a B-Rank or A-Rank Mutant Beast underwater, he stopped.
They hunted a B-Rank Mutant Lobster creature. During the fight, they churned up some Water Chestnuts hidden in the water.
They had equipment that detected Corrosive Energy on them and checked it out. They found these Water Chestnuts hidden underwater had a small energy reaction and were edible.
The Yu Family made a fortune off these Water Chestnuts. He also brought back ten jin of Water Chestnuts to his home. Wu Nian had quite liked eating them.
“This is Mutant Wood Sorrel. It’s a food Mutant Beasts like to eat very much. Do you see the tooth marks on its leaves? A Mutant Beast bit them. What Mutant Beast do you think it was?” Ying Li asked his team members.
The few of them shook their heads. Ying Li then gave the correct answer. “These are tooth marks left by a Saddleback Beast. The 139th episode of the ‘Understanding Mutant Beasts’ video series has an introduction to the Saddleback Beast, but it’s not very detailed…”
Ying Li introduced the Saddleback Beast in detail and also explained the weaknesses of several other Mutant Beasts commonly found there.
Luo Qiming and the others listened with excitement.
This was all experience!
Ying Li led the four to the base of a small hill by the lake.
There was a small hole in the cliff face. The signs suggested a Mutant Beast lived inside.
Ying Li had the four members wait outside. He entered the hole, quickly killed the C-Rank Mutant Beast dwelling in the cave, and then began to modify the cave.
The opening of this cave was very small, elliptical, roughly seventy centimeters long and only thirty centimeters high.
He widened the hole, increasing its length to one meter two, and then said, “In a bit, three of you will stay inside the cave. The remaining person will come with me to lure Mutant Beasts. After luring a Mutant Beast here, you’ll start attacking.”
In his previous life, he had once cooperated with others, using this cave as cover, to hunt many Mutant Beasts.
He planned to stay here with Luo Qiming and the others for a day, letting them learn this hunting method. Then he could go dig up the Water Chestnuts alone.
The two spots weren’t far apart. If Luo Qiming and the others ran into danger, they just had to send a signal, and he could immediately come back to rescue them.
