Chapter 34: This Resentment Knows No End, But There Will Come a Day When the Long Wind Breaks the Waves

Ren Zhong had long since acquired a profound understanding of the world’s injustice and cruelty.

Yet when it did not concern him directly, though anger simmered in his heart, that anger was like rootless duckweed—ethereal and insubstantial. He knew it was everywhere, could see it, almost touch it; but when he reached out, it dissolved like a mirage.

Only when injustice and cruelty fell upon him with blunt brutality, battering him without warning, did Ren Zhong’s fury find its outlet—a tiger unleashed from its cage.

He was utterly overwhelmed.

He hated—oh, how he hated!

Curled beneath the cryo-chamber, Ren Zhong raised his fist to the heavens and cursed.

Damn it all!

Damn this dog-eat-dog world!

Damn this Origin Star!

After a long while, his curses faded.

A warrior with no other choice must face bloody reality head-on.

Damn it!

Dead again.

The story breaks into two parts.

Four hours earlier, in “Ren Zhong time”—just past ten in the morning—Zheng Tian’s squad was singing merrily and hunting monsters.

The switch from a box truck to the Thunderbolt vehicle had changed many things; like climbing to higher peaks, the view was always different.

This time, Zheng Tian made a bold decision, choosing a road they had never dared touch before. Counting on the Thunderbolt’s prowess, they forced their way through a blockade of mostly second-level Ruin Beasts, entering Mouse Cliff Mountain ninety kilometers west of Spark Town.

Mouse Cliff Mountain spans about six square kilometers, covered in broad-leaved forests, its Ruin Beasts predominantly rodents.

Rodent Ruin Beasts breed rapidly, living in small groups, but are weak individually—making them favorites among scavengers. If not for the perilous journey, everyone would want to come here.

Prepared, Zheng Tian’s squad plunged in.

It was paradise: fewer people, more prey, mostly first-level rodent beasts—an absolute bonanza.

They swept through like a storm, their luck astonishingly good. In just two hours, they harvested sixteen rodents, worth over fifty contribution points, while only consuming a third of their military supplies.

Having learned from their previous greed and the encounter with the Razor Mantis, Zheng Tian now relied heavily on Ren Zhong’s opinion for crucial decisions.

After discussing, they decided to expand their haul just a bit more, aiming to reach sixty contribution points, then call it a day and return before noon.

Ren Zhong also hoped to head to the landfill with Wen Lei that afternoon—scavenging or not, he wanted to complete his five-piece set first.

But as the group watched Ou You Ning set up traps, preparing to lure a pair of rodents nearby, an airborne hover-motorcycle descended, drifting to a halt before them.

The man atop carried a long, black rifle larger than Zheng Tian’s sniper, its appearance fierce and forbidding.

He dismounted, removed his helmet, and regarded the group with a mocking, insincere smile.

Ren Zhong recognized the vehicle—it belonged to one of the professional team members affiliated with Zheng Tian’s squad.

This team, notorious in the town, consisted entirely of fourth-level professionals—formidable indeed.

Unlike semi-professional squads who needed to stick together, these professionals always operated solo in “low-level maps” like Mouse Cliff Mountain, riding hover-motorcycles with the speed of wind, confronting Ruin Beasts regardless of level or number—charging straight in.

All possessed at least first-level dismantler skills: after slaughtering a nest, they would extract chips on the spot, leaving carcasses behind for other beasts or lucky scavenger teams.

That morning, Zheng Tian’s squad had lucked out, picking up three corpses with damage rates up to fifty percent, now stashed in the Thunderbolt’s cargo hold.

Zheng Tian stepped forward, seeing the chip box hanging from the motorcycle’s rear, and smiled obsequiously. “Good morning, Brother Hui. We’re so lucky to run into you today.”

Brother Hui jumped down, squinting at the Thunderbolt parked nearby, and said, “Lucky to meet me, indeed. So, you got a new ride without reporting to the boss?”

Zheng Tian sidled up, slipping her arm through Hui’s, and said with a giggle, “Just a shabby second-level vehicle, I wouldn’t dare trouble you with such a small thing.”

“Alright. Fate brings us together. By the rules, since your hunting zone overlaps with ours, you ought to show respect. That’s why I say you’re lucky—I’ll only take half your haul. With anyone else, I’d ask for seventy percent. Have your dismantler bring the box over. Hurry up.”

Nearby, Ou You Ning, who had paused his work and returned to stand beside Ren Zhong, wore a smile of enthusiastic admiration, but muttered under his breath, “Damn it. We’ve been targeted. Bastard. Vampire.”

Ren Zhong asked, “What do you mean?”

Ou You Ning kept his genial smile. “We got a good vehicle, a chance to climb higher. These scumbags came at once to choke us. I don’t buy any of this crap about overlapping routes. Asking for half—damn.”

Ren Zhong narrowed his eyes, trying to hide his anger.

It was difficult. He couldn’t suppress the sharp glint in his gaze.

He had known about the professional team’s twenty percent cut, and the ten percent tax on everything; he thought he understood the malice of this world.

Now he realized—it’s not just the king who’s cruel, the little devils are even worse.

Brother Hui, extracting chips from Chen Han Yu’s box, was highly perceptive. He sensed the hostile gaze and suddenly looked up at Ren Zhong and Ou You Ning.

Ren Zhong hadn’t expected to be noticed from the side; he quickly adopted Ou You Ning’s Oscar-worthy smile.

Brother Hui stared at Ren Zhong, ignoring Zheng Tian, and asked, “Who’s that?”

Zheng Tian, tense, hurried to reply, “That’s Ren Zhong, a newly arrived scavenger in town. I liked his look and took him in.”

She had only told the mayor, Ma Da Fu, about Ren Zhong’s role as census officer, knowing Ma Da Fu wouldn’t compete for resources or expose his identity—such a move would ruin him.

But with the professional team’s Bei Li Hui, she wasn’t so honest.

Bei Li Hui listened, waited a few seconds, then shifted his gaze. “Alright. He’s interesting.”

After Bei Li Hui left, Zheng Tian cautiously asked Ren Zhong, “Brother Ren, did you look at him funny just now?”

Ren Zhong admitted, “I wasn’t happy with him, why? I didn’t expect him to be so sensitive, just glanced at him—was it really such a big deal?”

Zheng Tian smiled bitterly. “Bei Li Hui’s a fourth-level gunner, extremely alert. But you… Never mind, you don’t really have much to worry about.”

Having lost nearly half their hard-earned gains, the squad quickly discussed and decided to keep working.

By the rules, Zheng Tian’s squad had already paid Bei Li Hui’s “encounter tax” for the day, so next time they would be spared.

Also, Ren Zhong hadn’t reached his ten-point target and was unwilling to give up.

By two in the afternoon, their haul was back to sixty points.

Once again, just as they were about to grab a final bounty before leaving, trouble struck.

First, they encountered the second-level rodent Ruin Beast, the Crystal-Armored Long-Tailed Giant Rat—a beast as big as a calf, covered in crystal scales and nearly immune to all kinetic ammo. Fortunately, Ren Zhong checked the vehicle computer, discovered its weakness to fire, and Bai Feng risked pouring flammable pitch from another Ruin Beast’s corpse onto it, then Zheng Tian ignited it, burning it alive.

Then, true disaster arrived.

Bei Li Hui and five other professionals appeared, heading straight for Zheng Tian’s squad.

At first, the group thought their target was the Crystal-Armored Long-Tailed Giant Rat—but the real prey was Ren Zhong.

Parking nearby, Bei Li Hui drew his massive gun without a word—no interrogation, no warning—just waited with cold detachment.

His gun pointed directly at Ren Zhong.

He didn’t shoot immediately, but his eyes held the playful smile of a cat toying with a mouse.

None of the other professionals spoke; they simply looked down on everyone.

Zheng Tian’s squad was stunned.

A deathly silence fell, broken only by the faint hum of the hover-motorcycle engine.

In the shadow of death, Ren Zhong felt as if plunged into icy water, his mouth parched.

He never imagined that a careless glance could put him in mortal danger.

“Brother Hui… why?” Unexpectedly, the silence was broken by Wen Lei, who stepped forward, “Brother Hui, please—Brother Ren isn’t just a nobody.”

Bei Li Hui finally responded, turning to Wen Lei. “Oh? Not a nobody? Didn’t Zheng Tian say he was a scavenger before? Are you lying to me?”

Zheng Tian, seeing the fire turn on her, had to speak up. “Sorry, Brother Hui, I really couldn’t say earlier. Brother Ren isn’t a scavenger—he’s… he’s a census officer sent from above, here incognito.”

“A census officer?” The leader of the professionals was briefly shocked; the others reacted similarly.

In the next instant, they all laughed uproariously, including Bei Li Hui.

The leader’s laughter faded first. “Zheng Tian, are you out of your mind? First, even if a census officer came incognito, he’d never mix with trash scavengers like you. Census officers are at least fifth-level citizens—do you know what that means? Second, our boss personally told us: for this census, the county won’t send officers to Spark Town—there’s simply no need!”

Zheng Tian was stunned. “What?!”

“Don’t be stupid. Who knows better, you or me? Enough wasting time. Bei Li Hui, kill him.”

In the next moment.

Ren Zhong entered the “Underworld God’s perspective” once again.

He saw his shattered corpse, Zheng Tian’s face twisting from shock to rage, Wen Lei’s grief, Ou You Ning’s regret, Bai Feng’s indifference, Chen Han Yu’s surprise and sympathy.

Meanwhile, he himself was thinking:

Census officer?

What is that?

Then, he crawled out of the cryo-chamber, his heart ablaze with fury.

After a long time, Ren Zhong slowly stood, expertly dismantling the cryo-chamber’s auxiliary computer. Using tools and following the maintenance diagram, he extracted the rubidium iron boron permanent magnet, tested its magnetism—though weakened, it was still strong.

He headed toward the creek.

Arriving, he drank some water, stepped back, looked up—red fruit fell from above. He caught it skillfully in his clothes and ate.

After a while, the lymph nodes in his neck throbbed, pain spreading through his body.

He endured.

Another fruit fell.

This time, Ren Zhong didn’t use his clothes; he reached out and caught it precisely, absorbing the force with ease.

He held the fruit intact.

His face was calm, indifferent, neither happy nor sad.

But inside, he felt a little better.

Well, this resurrection wasn’t a total loss.

When he caught the first fruit, he noticed something new.

When his focus was intense, the falling fruit seemed to slow.

It meant the brain reaction score he’d trained up to 34.7 points during the last resurrection had persisted.

His reaction score and memories had carried over.

His brain’s physiology hadn’t changed, but his practiced methods of processing information had.

Satisfied, he stood and set off, heading due south.

He thought again of Bei Li Hui and that pack of professional bastards.

Damn it, Old Ren is back!

I swear to God!

Someday, I will cut you all down!