Chapter 37
Returning home, Jiang Jitang didn’t even catch his breath before putting on protective gear and entering the task world.
“Where is this? Where’s my task target?”
It was actually nighttime here. Jiang Jitang turned on a high-power flashlight and found himself in an abandoned entertainment square, right next to a collapsed escalator. In the darkness, there were rustling, creepy sounds.
No glowing name visible; the task target wasn’t here?
Logically, even if the task target wasn’t here, there should be a red light for guidance. Where was the red light?
He opened his hand, and a high-priced riot shield appeared in it. With a flick of his other hand, a high-priced electric baton appeared. The earlier flashlight had long been put away, and now a camping lantern was placed on the ground.
The lamp could only illuminate a small area, but because Jiang Jitang’s night vision was also better than average, he could roughly see the outline of the surrounding environment.
He was looking for the task target.
“!” A strange beast from the darkness charged out with unstoppable speed. Even though Jiang Jitang reacted keenly, he still couldn’t dodge – his physical abilities still couldn’t keep up with his perception. His eyes said ‘I see it, dodge quick!’, his body said ‘I can’t do it’.
Just like that, he was heavily pounced on. A swipe of sharp claws, even though it didn’t penetrate the protective suit’s defense, his fragile health bar still plummeted to the bottom with a crash.
However, he had an immortal body.
The next second, Jiang Jitang revived. The surging life energy within him quickly replenished; his body felt no weakness at all.
Never one to stand there and take a beating, he switched the baton in his hand for an electric stun gun. With a zap, the monster’s fur stood on end all over. It didn’t fall immediately but, sensing something wrong, dodged and hid back into the darkness.
Jiang Jitang watched it run away; he didn’t catch up.
Coughing a few times, he looked at the stun gun in his hand: The item was good, but his speed couldn’t keep up, and it couldn’t kill with one hit. It wasn’t as good as his instant-cast spells without cast times. Was this forcing him to upgrade?
“Screeeech—!” From the left rear, the nocturnal animal that had just escaped let out a shriek. Jiang Jitang whipped his head around and saw a short figure slowly walking out from the darkness.
Above her head was exactly the glowing words he was looking for: [Young Legion Commander].
The one who came out was a child, less than 1.4 meters tall, with short hair and many stains on her face, but they couldn’t hide her delicate features.
She wore form-fitting gray-green leather armor, holding a half-person-tall sword in one hand and the freshly slaughtered strange beast in the other. Her expression was blank, yet she carried a rolling murderous aura.
Looking again at what she was holding, it turned out to be a mutated rat, darker and larger than the ones seen before, probably a rat king.
One moment it had given Jiang Jitang an unpleasant experience, but now it was decapitated with one clean cut.
He therefore felt full of favorable impression towards this Young Legion Commander.
“Who are you?”
Her voice was hoarse and cold, with traces of blood still at the corner of her mouth. But that wasn’t her blood; it seemed more like she had drunk the beast’s blood to replenish energy out of necessity.
Judging by her state, she had run out of rations, and had been for some time.
Jiang Jitang stood up, brushing the dust off his clothes.
The task said ‘dying Young Legion Commander’, but seeing how cleanly and efficiently she killed the beast, she didn’t seem to be at death’s door. What was going on?
Facing the wisher, he first put away the stun gun and riot shield: “I received the task you posted. 1860 credit points, to fulfill the dying wish of the Young Legion Commander.”
The Legion Commander looked blank.
This really was all her savings, but her personal terminal had long been broken, and she hadn’t posted any task.
“What dying wish?”
“To see the ocean.”
The young girl holding the rat corpse fell into deeper silence. She threw the corpse away: “For such a small amount of money, you’re going to take me to see the ocean?”
Over a thousand credit points was an astronomical amount for ordinary people, but in the eyes of management, it was just the cost of a few meals.
Even if someone issued such an order in her name, she was currently in an occupied zone, the area with the most beasts.
Even taking a step back ten thousand times, if she were in another safe place, the people she had offended were all high-level figures in the base. Offending high-level figures for this little money? Was the person accepting the task a bit stupid?
“Want some candy?” He still had two extra lollipops in his space. He tossed one to the young girl and kept one for himself, unwrapping it and putting it in his mouth in front of her.
Turns out she didn’t even look at it, having already unwrapped it and put it in her mouth.
“You’re a strange person,” she said, savoring the taste of the milk candy slowly melting. “I’ve been poisoned with a neurotoxin; I won’t live long. And I’ve offended people and can’t go back. Investing in me will only result in a total loss.”
“Just this bit of candy? You call this an investment? Let me show you real investment.”
When the favorability bonus reached a certain level, it unlocked ‘Willful Jiang Jitang’.
He completely ignored the neurotoxin and just charged ahead recklessly, enveloping her entire body with an all-purpose healing spell – curing illness if sick, strengthening the body if not.
However, the life energy entering her body was like a clay ox entering the sea – it disappeared before he could even get a taste of it.
Jiang Jitang was somewhat surprised. It was indeed a tough problem.
He refused to believe he couldn’t conquer this! He continued steadily and persistently pouring life energy into this small yet exceptionally strong body.
Fortunately, he had gulped down three big and bright Wishing Stars yesterday. He finally managed to fill the bottomless pit before his energy was exhausted.
Forcing himself to stay steady, Jiang Jitang took a deep breath imperceptibly. While steadying his wildly beating heart, he pretended to be relaxed: “How is it?”
“Excellent!” The Young Legion Commander was, after all, a child who had just left school. She didn’t know what restraint meant. If she felt good, she felt good, and she would say it out loud.
“Unprecedentedly good!”
“This is called investment.”
Jiang Jitang raised an eyebrow and smiled. The hazy light fell on his face covered with a thin layer of sweat and on his relaxed brows and eyes. He shone brightly all over.
She stared straight at him for several seconds.
So good-looking.
She thought.
There were quite a few good-looking people in the base, but she had never seen anyone this good-looking before.
The young girl scratched her scalp, suddenly feeling a sense of yearning. She also wanted to become such a shining adult.
“Let’s go, kid. Taking you to see the ocean.”
Jiang Jitang picked up the camping lantern. He was surrounded by light, his figure becoming hazy.
“Okay.” The Young Legion Commander, carrying her sword, chased after him.
They walked out of the abandoned entertainment square and got onto a helicopter. The high-speed rotating propeller brought up wind, unusually clear in the quiet night.
“I’ve never ridden an aircraft like this.” The plane hadn’t taken off yet. The Young Legion Commander, wearing a safety helmet, curiously touched everything.
This was also Jiang Jitang’s first time operating in a real environment. He wasn’t afraid of death, but he couldn’t let a guest die with him. So he first told the guest in the back row: “This is my first time flying a helicopter. If it doesn’t work out, we’ll go by car.”
He had eight simulation slots; giving one to an off-road vehicle was also fine.
The Young Legion Commander seriously refused: “It’s fine. Even if it explodes, I can protect myself. Please let me ride the plane.”
If the guest didn’t mind, he minded even less. So Jiang Jitang felt perfectly at ease and went ahead and flew the helicopter.
They chatted while looking down at the land through the screen, feeling the novelty of unlocking a new map.
The Young Legion Commander in the back row leaned by the window, talking about her previous adventures.
She liked exploring abandoned buildings.
Those were abandoned buildings in safe zones that had been searched countless times, with nothing valuable inside, but she still never tired of it.
Jiang Jitang also talked about his own experiences, crawling through all the abandoned factories and houses near his home.
So the newbie phase for humans was pretty similar – all little rascals.
Perhaps due to the ‘newbie protection period’, his journey was unusually smooth. He didn’t even encounter any aerial beasts head-on and found a white sand coast and a blue ocean.
The ocean without human traces was even more beautiful than before. Under the moonlight, the sea surface shimmered silver, the sound of tides washing away worries.
“So beautiful.” She dazedly looked at the ocean before her; it was a thousand, ten thousand times better than described in textbooks.
“Sunrise is even more beautiful. The sky is filled with red clouds, golden light spreads over the sea, and a golden sun rises from the horizon.” It was a pity it was night now. Even if he stayed until the ninety minutes were up, he wouldn’t see the sunrise over the sea.
“I have to go.”
The Young Legion Commander, still looking at the ocean, turned her head. She didn’t come over but waved her hand: “I will always remember you, little fairy.” In fairy tales, children were guarded by little fairies. Now it seemed she also had a little fairy.
“Thank you for remembering me. Remember to give a good review.” Jiang Jitang, suddenly promoted to ‘little fairy’, also waved. He left this place stepping on the countdown’s final moment.
—
The real world was still daytime. Returning home, Jiang Jitang felt uncomfortable looking at the daylight outside.
He didn’t ask her if she would be okay alone by the sea, because she definitely would be. That child, though small, when sitting on the beach holding her knife watching the sunrise, just her silhouette could make one feel the strength of her soul.
No matter where she went in the future, she would definitely carve out her own path.
He picked up his phone, habitually opened the messages page to see if there were any new texts in these five minutes.
There were, from Minister Jiang.
She said she had already taken people to the abandoned kindergarten in the suburbs. After simple planning, the renovation work would begin. Because they needed to ensure it could be put into use the day after tomorrow, time waited for no one.
Additionally, she planned to apply to higher-ups for ‘benefits’. Although Jiang Jitang considered himself an external member, only willing to take a basic salary and mooch a bit of training programs.
But things couldn’t be done this way. Fifty thousand for healing a hundred severely injured players equated to five thousand per person. That price wasn’t available anywhere. They couldn’t let someone suffer losses after joining the official side. So she planned to apply for some additional ‘benefits’.
In C-Nation, certain official ‘benefits’ were more valuable and harder to obtain than simple money.
Jiang Jitang happily sent back [Okay, thank you, Minister].
Regarding this matter, he could say ‘I don’t want anything’, but the official side couldn’t really play dumb and offer nothing. People were contradictory like that, and he was especially contradictory.
Ding!
[The tasker can consider activating business mode. Besides point income, there will be a continuous stream of real currency.] The speech bubble, seeing he had intentions of making money, immediately popped up.
“Temple? No.” He would never become a bald monk with hair in this lifetime.
[If you don’t like temples, you can try other special buildings. Activating business mode requires a special building, using it as a base for expansion. The system can recycle the Mini Temple. Buyback price: three hundred thousand points.]
“Sounds pretty good.”
Jiang Jitang, tempted, even opened the points mall, only to be deterred again by a string of zeros.
Any random special building cost at least six zeros, and judging by their potential, they didn’t seem very high, not cost-effective. Ones of the Mini Temple’s level were close to seven zeros. He actually managed to get one in a single draw before.
Thanks, my heart is dead. Off to deliver packages.
“There are still orders left for preparing gifts for graduates and preparing an exotic beast hide. The former has one-star difficulty, the latter three-star difficulty.”
The difficulty is probably estimated to be in ‘obtaining a low-pollution exotic beast hide’.
He now used the Seed of the Tree of Life as his ‘core’. Using life-element spells was as easy as eating and drinking for him, but other types of spells and secret arts were more difficult, especially the completely opposite dark-element and curse-element.
With such low attack power, how could he catch those exotic beasts?
“Can I use raw meat mixed with anesthetic? Let me think… I probably also need to get a testing probe to determine if the beast meets the standard.”
This really was a big problem. Potent topical anesthetics for animals could be bought in the points mall, even on discount, but the detection probe seemed to be researched by that world itself.
If the wisher needing the beast hide couldn’t provide it, he could only borrow from someone nearby who had one.
“I wonder if I can exchange for one hour’s usage with some other benefit.”
He took a whole frozen turkey from the fridge, tossed it into his backpack to thaw slowly, planning to apply the potent topical anesthetic later.
“Let’s finish both orders today.” And also deal with this frozen turkey that’s been sitting for almost a year.
Why did he think of eating roast turkey back then? It was terrible.
Jiang Jitang looked at his watch. He loaded all three boxes onto his grocery shopping cart.
“Graduation gifts. Submitting the order.”
