Chapter 130: Level Four

Day 52, morning.

Ren Zhong was running furiously on a treadmill while visually scanning the stock market trends projected before him.

His wristwatch suddenly vibrated.

Ren Zhong stopped, answered the call, and chatted for just a few seconds before hanging up. He then changed into a specially prepared hooded garment.

Pulling down the hood to hide his face in the shadows, making him look like the protagonist of Assassin's Creed, he quietly slipped out of the villa's front gate and headed straight for the edge of the town.

More than ten minutes later, Ren Zhong's figure appeared inside the maintenance hatch of the automatic machine gun turret above the high wall.

Ma Xiaoling stood beside him with her arms crossed.

Beneath the high wall, eight white trucks emblazoned with the characters of the Mendu Group were parked side by side along the road outside the town gate.

Far away in the sky above, a massive floating airship shaped like an island hovered quietly.

The death-buying truck from the Mendu Group's Liaoyuan branch had only arrived yesterday.

These eight trucks had not come from Liaoyuan County, but rather from the Mendu Group's headquarters.

More than ten staff members wearing white hazardous materials isolation suits stood beside a portal-shaped device.

A long queue extended from this portal-shaped device all the way back into the town, measuring at least nearly a kilometer long.

Those in line ranged from the elderly to the young, men and women alike.

With faces brimming with a mix of anticipation and tension, these people passed through the portal-shaped device one by one under the guidance of the staff.

After passing through the portal, the crowd split into two paths: the majority trudged back into the town with dejected expressions, while a small fraction boarded the trucks with a mixture of excitement and bewilderment.

Some waved goodbye to their family members waiting in the distance before getting into the vehicles.

Others had no family to speak of and boarded the trucks without looking back.

Ren Zhong asked, "What are they doing?"

Ma Xiaoling replied, "The Mendu Group is recruiting volunteers from outside."

"Living volunteers?"

"Still alive for now."

"No wonder it's not just the elderly participating. How much do they pay? How many openings?"

"One hundred points per person, five hundred openings."

"That's quite a lot of money and rather generous, much more than ordinary death-buying trucks."

Ma Xiaoling shook her head. "Generous? Perhaps."

"Some young people probably see this as an opportunity to change their fate. Look, some of those who got rejected look so devastated."

At that moment, a slight commotion rippled through the crowd, but it quickly settled down.

A squad of live-ammunition black-armored warriors wearing lightweight exoskeletons rode out of the town gate in two columns on hovering motor-skiffs, filing past in an orderly fashion.

Right in the middle of these two columns of black-armored warriors was Sun Miao, wearing a bird's nest of messy hair and a sticky white lab coat.

Sun Miao wasn't handcuffed and rode his skiff just like everyone else.

His left hand gripped the handlebars while his right hand was shoved into his pocket.

His body language was utterly relaxed, making the black-armored warriors look almost like his personal bodyguards.

After driving nearly twenty meters out of town, Sun Miao, with his back to the town, raised his right hand and gave a casual wave, then seemed to say something to the people beside him. The convoy suddenly accelerated, hurtling forward.

Sun Miao left without looking back.

As the convoy of motor-skiffs approached the floating island, they successively raised their prows, filing in like fighter jets entering an open hangar beneath the floating island.

After waiting a bit longer, the eight trucks, having presumably filled their quota of 500 people, also departed one after another, displaying lifting performances entirely different from the vehicles in Spark Town as they swarmed into the floating island like a returning hive of bees.

With a buzzing sound, the floating island gradually accelerated, tore through the white clouds, and vanished into the horizon.

Ma Xiaoling sighed, "I knew sooner or later Sun Miao would get hauled back by the Mendu Group. Well, now the town has no doctor again. My dad is going to have a headache. Sigh, and with the census being a dead end, it'll probably be impossible to recruit another citizen doctor. As for wastelanders capable of practicing medicine, they'd never come here and make fools of themselves. I have no idea how we're going to manage for the next month or so."

Ren Zhong shook his head. "Sun Miao has made arrangements."

"What arrangements?"

"Follow me."

Arriving at the Skilled Hands Spring to Life Clinic alongside Ren Zhong, Ma Xiaoling finally breathed a sigh of relief.

In the completely emptied first-floor clinic, a half-meter-tall machine stood quietly—it was none other than a simple smart diagnostic machine left behind by Sun Miao.

While this machine couldn't compare to the man himself, nor could it perform surgeries, it was more than capable of handling common illnesses and non-fatal injuries. At the very least, it would keep the town's medical system from instantly collapsing.

Ordinary patients coming for treatment could obtain a prescription from the smart diagnostic machine and then take it to the supply store to purchase medicine themselves.

According to the rules, once a town lost its last doctor, the supply store would automatically take over the responsibilities and authority of regional medical supply distribution.

Ren Zhong gently patted the machine. "That's how it is. Find someone from the security guard team to sit here every day later on, just in case the machine gets broken."

Ma Xiaoling asked in surprise, "That's not a problem at all. But this machine costs one hundred thousand points a pop—where on earth did Sun Miao get that kind of money?"

The corner of Ren Zhong's twitching slightly. "Uh, maybe it was his secret stash, who knows."

He had been ripped off.

Brother Sun had told him fifty thousand.

Clearly, Ren Zhong had fleeced Sun Miao for over a month, only to ultimately trip up over the refining of Star-Origin Injection fluid.

Yet, Ren Zhong couldn't bring himself to stay angry.

Sun Miao had always been short on money.

He needed to fund his taboo research while also saving up to buy a smart diagnostic machine to prevent the patients of Spark Town from falling into despair after his departure.

Brother Sun truly was a hardworking laborer who gave it his all, and he was genuinely a good guy.

...

Day 53, 9:15 PM.

Entering the Level 4 virtual reality training for the first time, Ren Zhong abruptly stopped his movements, clicking to abort the training the exact moment a crystallized pangolin spat out a stream of corrosive mucus that was about to hit him.

Returning to the virtual reality initial interface, he clicked to reload parameters.

"Reading personal parameters..."

"Estimated brain-machine synchronization rate: 39%."

"Brain reaction index: 737.4."

"Bioelectric load capacity: 1,000 kilowatts."

"Comprehensive physical fitness index: 1,000."

Ren Zhong grinned widely.

With the miraculous efficacy of the Star-Origin Injection fluid, compared to three days ago, the total increase in his load capacity and physical fitness index approached six hundred, more than doubling.

Two of the three major indices had finally surpassed the minimum Level 4 standards, leaving his long-standing leading brain-reaction index as the laggard.

In a sense, he had now become a contestant with "well-developed limbs and a simple mind."

He wanted to say a few words to his brain: After years of one divine player carrying two heavy burdens, did you ever think this day would come?

You actually ended up becoming the drag?

Pull yourself together quickly; everyone's just waiting for you so we can break through to Level 4!

Once all parameters met the standards and the breakthrough was completed, he would be able to experience five-sense resonance in advance during the Level 4 virtual reality training, which cost a whopping 2,560 points per session.

Compared to Level 3, Level 4 virtual reality training did not differ much in its conventional functions.

Aside from allowing challenges against Level 4 Ruins Beasts, its core function was the ability to perfectly simulate the effects of five-sense resonance during training, allowing warriors who had recently advanced to Level 4 to experience the sensation of man-machine integration ahead of time, thereby accelerating their adaptation speed in the real world.

Taking a deep breath, Ren Zhong plunged back into training.

By 10:00 PM, Ma Xiaoling appeared right on schedule.

Since the Level 4 training admission tickets were too expensive, Ju Qingmeng figured her own work on that side had officially begun and chose not to enter simultaneously, which also served to save Ren Zhong some points.

Even though Ren Zhong felt there was no need to be so frugal, he couldn't sway her mind.

Ma Xiaoling, wealthy and largely insensitive to points, didn't think about any of that at all. After entering the hypnotic space, she raised her hand to select the team mode and jumped right in.

At this moment, Ren Zhong was engaged in high-intensity combat with numerous Level 4 Ruins Beasts and hadn't noticed that Teacher Ma had already arrived.

His new parameters demanded entirely new requirements for his control; what he needed to accumulate now was not methods for dealing with Ruins Beasts, but rather an understanding and excavation of himself.

Seeing him fighting with complete absorption, Ma Xiaoling didn't call a halt. Instead, she happily opened the stock interface and began her usual routine of blindly buying and selling.

Roughly five minutes later, due to insufficient familiarity and precision in controlling his equipment, Ren Zhong made a minor mistake, and the pack of Ruins Beasts accurately seized the opening, tearing his body apart.

His figure materialized behind Ma Xiaoling.

Five minutes having passed, Ren Zhong said softly, "Teacher Ma, how much did you make this time?"

Ma Xiaoling waved a hand. "Not much, not much, a mere tens of thousands of points or so, uh..."

"Teacher Ma, how did I fight just now?"

"Good, exceptionally good!"

"Then would you care to critique my mistake just now?"

Ma Xiaoling replied, "Tonight's moon is truly big and round. Oh, where is Manager Ju? Why didn't she come? Ah! Don't tell me you deliberately chased her away because you wanted to spend some alone time with me? What are you trying to do? It's the dead of night, a lone man and an unmarried woman—you surely don't want to do anything unhealthy to me, do you?"

Ren Zhong: "..."

You've really pushed your luck!

This is virtual reality, there isn't a single damn moon here!

Ren Zhong was thoroughly infuriated. "Teacher Ma, we had an agreement from the start. I teach you earnestly, and you treat me with equal seriousness. Now that you've achieved a modest mastery of the craft, you should naturally perform your duties without cutting corners. My training is extremely important, and before long... in short, this brooks no carelessness whatsoever. Every single session of this Level 4 training costs me over two thousand points; I must ask you to stop zoning out."

Ma Xiaoling waved her hand dismissively. "That's not how it is. I'm already at Level 4 myself, and as an official security captain, I don't pay anything to enter the Level 4 arena. Why don't you check your deduction logs?"

"Huh, so it is. But that still doesn't give you an excuse to brush me off!"

...

At 5:40 AM on Day 53, having concluded nearly two hours of busy work, Ren Zhong and Zheng Tian were on their way back to Spark Town.

Ou Youning lowered his head, looking somewhat distressed at the chip storage boxes piled high at his feet, and sighed, "Ren, aren't we being a bit too extravagant? Leaving so many chips here to gather dust—if my old man jumped out of his pit, he'd definitely kick my butt and call me a spendthrift."

Wen Lei retorted, "You're the only one making a fuss. I'm warning you, don't you dare take any to sell yourself, or you'll ruin Mr. Ren's big plan, and I won't let you off!"

Ou Youning asked, "Oh? Wen Lei, do you know what Mr. Ren's big plan is?"

Wen Lei shook his head. "No idea."

"Then why are you talking about it so confidently? Have you lost your mind?"

Wen Lei shouted back, "Does that even matter? Anyway, Ren's decisions definitely make sense! Why should dimwits like us pry into that? Shouldn't we just focus on doing our own jobs?"

Ou Youning snapped, "You're the dimwit, not me!"

The two of them nearly came to blows.

Right at that moment, Ren Zhong, who had been sitting with his eyes closed in deep thought, opened them. "Starting tomorrow, morning hunting is suspended. Chen Hangyu, starting tonight, move over to live in Manager Ju's villa."

Zheng Tian asked in mild shock, "Why?"

Ren Zhong smiled. "Based on my understanding of Lin望, his patience is reaching its limit. Something big or small is going to happen in town today. We shouldn't enter the abandoned mine shafts for the next few days; there's too much risk. But I still need Chen Hangyu to help adjust my appearance, so it's just simpler for her to come straight over. Anyway, in Lin望's eyes, I'm a womanizer, and both of you are my kept women."

Zheng Tian thought about it seriously for a moment. "Can you include me as well?"

Ren Zhong flatly refused. "Manager Ju is a citizen after all; letting Chen Hangyu come over alone is already pushing it, bringing you along as well wouldn't look right."

Zheng Tian sighed, "Sigh, alright then."

Ou Youning, trailing behind, couldn't help asking again, "Ren, what did you mean by something happening this afternoon?"

"You'll know this afternoon."

Around noon that day, the three professional teams of Spark Town simultaneously ended their hunting trips early, returning to town one after the other just past one o'clock, heading straight for Spark Resources to demand justice from Yang Bingzhong.

Both Lin Wang and Bei Lihui bore minor injuries of varying degrees, and the combat members of the other two professional teams were also mostly wounded, especially the two mecha warriors and one firearms specialist on Tang Shuying's team, who were rather severely hurt.

Just as Ren Zhong had anticipated, Lin Wang, having suffered repeated setbacks in the abandoned mine shafts over the past few days and finding it unbearable, had ended up cornering two professional teams in the mines today, demanding to get to the bottom of the matter.

Although the captains of these two teams were individually inferior in strength to Lin Wang, their rosters were complete and well-equipped, making them no pushovers either. Moreover, sensing a rare opportunity and already harboring thoughts of replacing Lin Wang, the three parties exchanged harsh words before resorting to blows.

However, the individual combat prowess of Lin Wang and Bei Lihui ultimately proved slightly superior, allowing them to suppress Tang Shuying and the other professional team despite being outnumbered.

Following that, Lin Wang initiated his routine procedure: "Sherlock-level" meticulous analysis.

Footprints: matched.

Exo-armor traces: matched.

Greatshield dent: matched.

Combat style exposed in the remaining traces of the skirmish: matched.

Tire tracks of the breeze heavy truck on the ground: also matched.

"Tang Shuying! Are you still going to argue? Look across the entire Spark Town—besides you and your group, which other five-person team has two mecha warriors, one balanced type and one heavy type, and owns both a breeze heavy truck and an added wedge-shaped undercarriage armor?"

Tang Shuying countered, "Your subordinates Ren Zhong and Zheng Tian's team."

Lin Wang retorted, "Including Ren Zhong, that's six people! Their breeze heavy truck doesn't have wedge armor! Besides, Ren Zhong is currently severely injured and on the verge of death, unable to even get out of bed—how could he possibly come to the abandoned mine shafts to hunt? And bringing those Level 2 professionals along, too? Do you really take me for an idiot? What, am I made of clay? Easy to bully?"

"Furthermore, I've carefully analyzed the scene, and it matches you people to the letter. Even if Ren Zhong is faking his injury and trying to sow discord, he hasn't even interacted with you folks and doesn't even know what equipment you have. How could he possibly fabricate a crime scene to this extent?"

Tang Shuying was left speechless and unable to defend herself.

What was there was there, and what wasn't, wasn't.

Her team truly had never had any intersection with Ren Zhong.

Of course, she would never know that Ren Zhong had once thoroughly observed one of her team's hunting sessions and even taught her the clever use of flashbangs.

Without a doubt, the negotiations completely collapsed, and the two sides engaged in a fierce battle.

Had Yang Bingzhong not intervened and called a halt over the comms in time, Tang Shuying likely would have suffered heavy casualties today.

During the brawl, lone scavengers passing by in the distance had witnessed the entire spectacle.

Before the three teams even returned to the town, the news had already spread like wildfire.

When Lin Wang, accompanied by Bei Lihui and Sima Wan, emerged from the sub-building of Spark Resources first with gloomy expressions, the wastelanders began whispering among themselves.

Undoubtedly, the negotiations had utterly broken down.

Although Ren Zhong was absent the entire time, he had already deduced the progression of events to a near-certainty in his mind.

In Yang Bingzhong's office, Lin Wang, armed with a mountain of "solid evidence," must have demanded compensation, while an utterly innocent Tang Shuying felt he was pushing her too far.

With Yang Bingzhong's balancing act, he would inevitably strike both sides with fifty blows each and toss a sweet jujube to each.

On the surface, this might seem capable of satisfying all parties, but as long as the chip yields didn't match up, the real outcome would inevitably be dissatisfaction from every single faction, including Yang Bingzhong himself.

Ren Zhong understood Yang Bingzhong's character as well.

He had never given Lin Wang one hundred percent trust; otherwise, he wouldn't have thought of cultivating Ren Zhong to keep Lin Wang in check in the first place.

Now, Lin Wang's team's combat strength was severely compromised, yet instead of exercising restraint and addressing the consecutive days of botched hunting yields, he had gone as far as shifting the blame onto others.

Yang Bingzhong naturally had reason to develop new suspicions.

Could it be that Lin Wang had established other connections in the Morning Glow Mining Area, deliberately seeking another way out, and was thus testing his bottom line?

The possibility was slim, but not nonexistent.

Invisible cracks silently and imperceptibly spread through the air.

Amidst this delicate atmosphere, at 2:00 AM on Day 56, Ren Zhong's brain reaction index finally reached 1,000.

Level 4.

Breakthrough!