Chapter 35: Ruins City

A-Rank Mutant Beasts were generally solitary, each with its own territory.

Ying Li knew every area near Starlight City and exactly which A-Rank Mutant Beast occupied which region. This information wasn’t exactly secret in the Central District, and he’d even led the Yu Family hunting teams to kill many A-Rank Mutant Beasts.

An A-Rank Mutant Beast’s crystal core was worth one million Credit Points, but Ying Li knew selling at that price was a loss.

The Underground City’s energy supply currently relied primarily on crystal cores. An A-Rank Crystal Core held immense power—one such core powering the Water Purification Plant could run its purification equipment for an entire month, generating over a hundred million in profit for the plant.

In truth, the value of a B-Rank Crystal Core also far exceeded a hundred thousand Credit Points.

But neither A-Rank nor B-Rank cores could be utilized except by large-scale equipment. In other words, after Sentinels obtained them from hunting, they couldn’t use the cores themselves.

They could only exchange them for Credit Points, allowing those in power to reap this windfall.

His thoughts were drifting too far… Ying Li gradually approached the A-Rank Mutant Beast.

This A-Rank Mutant Beast was a Mutated Pig.

It barely resembled a pig anymore. Its dark-brown body was covered in scale-like armor plates, each scale gleaming with cold, metallic luster. Two thick tusks curved upward from the corners of its mouth, growing to half the height of a man.

At this moment, it was rubbing its armor against a massive Mutated Tree that took three people to wrap their arms around. As it rubbed, the tree snapped from the friction.

Suddenly, it stopped moving and turned its head toward Ying Li’s direction.

Ying Li knew the Mutated Pig had detected him. He dropped all pretense of concealment and charged toward it.

First, a mental attack.

Now that he’d risen to A-Rank, Ying Li’s mental power was no weaker than it had been at the time of his death in his previous life.

A surge of immense mental force slammed against the Mutated Pig, freezing it in place for a split second. Ying Li seized that moment to slip something beneath its scales.

The Mutated Pig quickly recovered and resumed its assault on Ying Li. He dodged while intermittently harassing the beast with his mental power, and whenever an opening appeared, he slipped more objects under its scales.

The Mutated Pig knew whatever Ying Li was placing on its body wasn’t good. But it couldn’t dislodge them fast enough and decided to kill Ying Li first.

The earth trembled. The giant tree it had earlier broken was trampled to splinters. Ying Li judged the timing about right and pressed a switch in his hand.

The miniature bombs he’d planted beneath the Mutated Pig’s armor detonated simultaneously. Scales blasted off, and the Mutated Pig roared in fury.

Ying Li seized the moment. He pulled out a rocket launcher and fired straight into the Mutated Pig’s open mouth…

The battle dragged on for nearly an hour. Just as in his previous life, Ying Li killed the Mutated Pig.

Back then, he’d had help. But his speed now was roughly the same—after all, this time he had experience.

After killing the pig came the butchering.

No one was here to help him. He had to do everything himself.

Ying Li first dug out the Mutated Pig’s crystal core. Then he ran into the distance to find his motorcycle.

He drove the motorcycle near the Mutated Pig’s corpse, unloaded various tools, and began dismembering the beast.

An A-Rank Mutant Beast’s corpse was extremely valuable. Its scales, bones, fur, even its claws—once processed, they all had major uses and fetched high prices.

Ying Li wasted nothing. He dismantled the entire pig, tied its bones to the motorcycle’s rear rack to form a support frame, then strapped the scales and other parts onto that frame.

In the past, he would have discarded the meat. But this time, he didn’t even throw that away. He cut it into separate portions and loaded everything on.

This Mutated Pig’s hide was thick, with armor outside the skin. But the inner meat was not tough and was richly marbled with fat.

Ying Li thought it would taste excellent.

In that case, take it all back first.

The motorcycle he’d bought for several hundred thousand had a very strong load capacity anyway.

The worst that could happen with so much cargo was less easy handling. But he had his mental power—he could use it to stabilize the bike.

By the time Ying Li had roughly secured the entire Mutated Pig to the back of his motorcycle, two hours had passed.

He started the motorcycle and drove forward.

He sensed people approaching. He needed to leave quickly!

Ying Li’s senses weren’t wrong. People had indeed arrived—and they spotted him from a distance.

Well, not “him” exactly. They couldn’t make out his figure at all. All they saw was an enormous mountain of meat on the move.

Beneath the meat mountain was… a motorcycle? The bike looked tiny from afar, like an ant-beast carrying something dozens of times its own weight, threading through the forest.

As luck would have it, the ones who saw Ying Li were none other than a Yu Family hunting team.

This particular Yu Family hunting team consisted of one Team Leader, two deputy team leaders, eighty-two team members, two Yu Family “Overseers,” and thirty vehicles.

Their hunting method was entirely different from Ying Li’s small team. With so many people, they typically used encirclement tactics, surrounding and slaughtering all the Mutant Beasts within a designated area.

At this moment, one of the Overseers asked the Team Leader, “Who is that person? This area has an A-Rank Mutant Beast, and he dares come alone. His strength must be formidable.”

The Team Leader replied, “I don’t recognize him, and I can’t perceive anything either.”

A glint of eagerness flashed in the Overseer’s eyes. “Let’s intercept him and ask some questions.”

The Team Leader rejected the idea without hesitation. “No. Anyone who dares come here alone is definitely strong. If we can avoid offending them, we should.”

Though the distance was great, he could sense the danger emanating from the meat mountain loaded on that person’s motorcycle.

The Overseer was displeased by the leader’s refusal.

He’d also sensed the meat mountain was no ordinary prey and suspected it was an A-Rank Mutant Beast. He’d been entertaining thoughts of robbing the man.

Their hunting team had several A-Rank Sentinels. Every time they left the city, they tried to hunt A-Rank Mutant Beasts.

But success was never guaranteed. A-Rank Mutant Beasts could run.

If they could seize an A-Rank Crystal Core… how wonderful that would be!

Unfortunately, this Team Leader was far too cowardly!

The Team Leader refused to intercept Ying Li but dispatched men to investigate the vicinity.

Before long, someone returned to report their findings.

Upon learning that the A-Rank Mutated Pig which had ruled this region was dead—slain, skinned, deboned, and carted off entirely—the Team Leader drew a sharp breath.

He had once set his sights on that Mutated Pig. But before they could even encircle it, the beast had detected them. It killed a B-Rank Sentinel, wounded an A-Rank Sentinel, and fled.

After that, he never entertained the thought of hunting that pig again.

The pig had leathery, thick skin. Ordinary weapons couldn’t hurt it. The firearms that could harm it would also destroy the Energy Crystal Core along with it.

If that happened, not only would their efforts be wasted, they’d also lose a great deal of money. It simply wasn’t worth it. Naturally, they hadn’t attempted it again.

Now that Mutated Pig was dead. From the looks of it, someone had killed it alone.

Who exactly was that person?

The Overseer who had been disgruntled moments ago was now tense himself.

To kill an A-Rank Mutant Beast alone—could that person be an S-Rank Sentinel?

Ying Li was unaware of their thoughts. But the hunting team’s presence was too conspicuous—he had noticed them.

His original plan had been to search for resources for Xiang Ye, but he now turned his motorcycle and headed in a different direction.

He had intended to meet with those people on this trip anyway. Going a little earlier wouldn’t hurt.

After the Great Cataclysm began, humanity constructed many Underground Cities. Some were large, some small.

But as time passed, most vanished.

Some fell to Mutant Beast attacks. Others depleted their resources. Still others tore themselves apart as their inhabitants fought for power.

Starlight City originally had five Satellite Cities. All of them eventually died out and became Ruins Cities.

However, several decades ago, one of those Ruins Cities became inhabited again. Over time, more and more people moved in.

The ones who could live in a Ruins City were, of course, Sentinels.

Some were criminals who’d fled Starlight City. Others had Mental Sea issues and didn’t want to stay in Starlight, so they ran away.

Unless a Sentinel became a Dark Sentinel or formed a Mental Bond with a Guide, their Mental Sea would eventually break down. They would eventually go mad.

The reason Upper District Sentinels without Guides had lifespans similar to ordinary people was precisely because, past a certain age, their Mental Seas could no longer be stabilized by Mental Combing alone.

In Starlight City, Sentinels had to undergo a Physical Examination every year, testing the stability of their Mental Sea.

This stability was graded by color. A Green Mental Sea meant good condition. Yellow meant poor condition. Orange signified they’d entered a danger period. If the Mental Sea became Red, that meant the Sentinel had entered a high-risk state.

Once a Sentinel’s Mental Sea reached Orange and entered the danger period, they came under supervision. According to Starlight City law, when a Sentinel’s Mental Sea turned Red and reached the high-risk state, they had to be imprisoned… or simply euthanized.

Some Sentinels didn’t want to die. When their Mental Sea reached the Orange-Red boundary, they would flee beyond the city to live.

Even after their Mental Seas reached high-risk status, Sentinels didn’t constantly go berserk. They still had an instinct to survive and didn’t want to die.

Of course, after going outside the city, they would still die eventually.

The place Ying Li was headed was exactly that abandoned Satellite City near Starlight City—the one that had since become home to many Sentinels.

Several hundred Sentinels lived here. Some died from time to time; others arrived from time to time.

And the person who governed this Ruins City was an A-Rank female Sentinel.

This A-Rank female Sentinel, like Ying Li, had been born in the Upper City District.

But her talent was superior to Ying Li’s. She had awakened directly as a B-Rank Sentinel and, not long after reaching adulthood, became an A-Rank Sentinel.

A Sentinel with such prodigious talent was naturally recruited by one of the major families. Seeing great potential in her, that great family arranged for a B-Rank male Guide within their ranks to become her partner.

But that male Guide didn’t like this female Sentinel. His attitude toward her was terrible. That Guide’s suitors also targeted her at every turn…

This female Sentinel had a temper of her own. She naturally refused to stay with that male Guide any longer.

When that great family realized they couldn’t absorb this female Sentinel into their ranks, they decided to simply kill her.

They didn’t succeed. The female Sentinel escaped and fled to this Ruins City to live, eventually becoming its leader.

Her presence established order here and greatly improved the lives of its inhabitants.

Tragically, in five or six more years, she would die.

Without her holding things together, and with Starlight City learning the inhabitants had amassed considerable stores of Energy Crystal Cores…

Not long after her death, this Ruins City was swept clean.