Chapter 91: Enduring Humiliation and Bearing the Burden, Captain Lin—The Academic Competitor’s Basic Strategy

Page 1/3

At 4:30 in the afternoon, inside the armory mall’s repair workshop.

Ju Qingmeng put on a stern face and said to Ren Zhong, “You guys were way too reckless. How could you venture so deep into the abandoned mine? Your equipment is damaged this badly, and it’s a miracle you’re still alive.”

On the nearby control panel, the exoskeletons of Ren Zhong and Wen Lei, as well as Zheng Tian’s brand-new heavy sniper rifle purchased just a few days ago, were all being carefully repaired by the maintenance machines.

Ren Zhong smiled and shook his head. “It’s alright. The situation only looked dangerous, but it was basically controllable.”

“Basically controllable? It’s one thing that the two mech warriors’ equipment was thirty percent damaged, but tell me, how did the gunsmith’s rifle end up like that?”

“Gunsmith Zheng Tian was suddenly rushed by a level-two splinter of a level-four Ru Beast. In a moment of desperation, he used his gun to block it.”

“And you still say it was basically controllable?”

“Hahaha, judging by the results, he’s fine, isn’t he?”

Ju Qingmeng gave Ren Zhong a helpless look and patted his shoulder. “Forget it, I can’t be responsible for other people’s lives. I’m just worried… worried that you owe me so many favors but might die before getting the job done. What would I do then?”

Ren Zhong shook his head slightly. “I’m not going to die, rest assured.”

“That’s true. You always have a plan.”

“Mm.”

“The repairs will take about two more hours. I’ve finished the programming, so no need to keep an eye on it. You should go out and show your face at the counter. Manage it yourself.”

“Alright, see you later.”

“See you.”

…

When Ren Zhong arrived at Miao Shou Hui Chun Clinic, Bai Feng, who had just completed treatment, was lying on the iron-framed bed struggling.

He was tightly bound inside a sturdy bio-suit.

Bai Feng was sweating profusely, his face twisted in pain, occasionally snorting through his nose.

He had just been injected with a new fusion gene serum.

“Brother Sun, how’s he doing?” Ren Zhong asked with concern.

Sun Miao’s expression was unreadable. “What are you asking me for? I just tried to persuade him. He was injured today, not in a good state; he should have waited to use the fusion gene another day. But he wouldn’t listen. Isn’t he just playing with his life? What can I do? Whether he can pull through depends on him.”

About ten minutes later, Bai Feng’s expression stabilized; he stopped struggling and fell into a deep sleep.

Sun Miao let out a long breath. “Stable. He made it.”

Seeing this, Ren Zhong felt somewhat moved.

Bai Feng was basically a stranger to him, yet Sun Miao showed such kindness.

Brother Sun truly is a good man, with the heart of a Bodhisattva.

Ren Zhong complimented him, “Brother Sun, you really have a warm heart.”

Sun Miao wiped sweat from his brow, muttering, “How could I not? You armor guys waste money all day on metal shells, but the soldiers with colonist gear aren’t like you. They’re my premium clients and are very protective of my wallet. Now your team is making money, and this Bai Feng here, a colonist soldier, sends me several hundred points every month at least. If he dies, who takes the loss?”

Ren Zhong closed his mouth and silently withdrew the compliment he had just given.

After another ten minutes, Bai Feng woke up on his own. Upon opening his eyes, he saw Ren Zhong standing by his bed. Slightly surprised, he nodded faintly but said nothing more.

Sun Miao opened the bio-suit’s restraints from outside, then brought over a scanner to examine Bai Feng’s arms.

To the naked eye, Bai Feng’s long arms had no obvious changes except that the scales were smaller and denser.

The original eagle-claw four fingers had regrown into five fingers, resembling human hands once again.

Bai Feng looked regretfully at a pair of level-two alloy gauntlets recently purchased that lay nearby. Well, they were useless now.

“Besides these changes in appearance, is there anything else?” Ren Zhong asked.

Bai Feng nodded and slightly activated the energy inside his body.

On his arms, two pure white glimmers appeared on the outer sides, spreading from his shoulders down to the backs of his hands.

The glow gradually brightened and intensified. Then, crackling flashes of electricity spread along the two bands of light.

After a moment, Bai Feng’s arms continuously emitted crackling electric arcs, with countless tiny currents weaving like little snakes, fading in and out.

Sun Miao took back the scanner. “Alright, stop testing. No problem. You’ve merged the electric eel gene very well. This bottle contains level-two colonist immunosuppressants. Take one pill daily, don’t stop the medicine. Come back for a refill next month.”

Page 2/3

“Okay, thank you, Doctor Sun.”

Sun Miao said, “No thanks! Pay up! Six hundred points total, thanks for your patronage.”

Ren Zhong slapped Sun Miao’s shoulder. “Brother Sun, old friend, how about a fifty percent discount? We’re family, no questions asked.”

Having everything arranged so clearly, Sun Miao suddenly deflated.

“Damn.”

…

After finishing here, Ren Zhong went to the tea bar inside the supply and marketing cooperative.

Waiting for him was a female staff member from the recycling platform, who was off duty today.

The two were not simply meeting for personal reasons.

She was here to provide intelligence.

“At noon, Lin Wang called me and asked about you. I told him the truth,” the woman said apologetically.

Ren Zhong waved his hand. “It’s alright, you have your difficulties.”

“Thank you for understanding.” The woman sipped her milk tea, embarrassed. “From his tone, he didn’t sound very happy. Anyway, you still need to be careful.”

“Mm.”

“Well, I better go now. It wouldn’t be good if someone saw us.”

“Okay, okay.”

After the woman left with her milk tea, Ren Zhong looked at his watch with a playful smile.

Lin Wang already knew he had been stabbed in the back.

Putting aside the lies Ren Zhong told him, just the fact that Lin Wang was secretly selling goods through a scavenger’s account, and later brought the entire Zheng Tian team with him, willing to pay a hefty 30% tax just so Ren Zhong would lose half his commission — this was an undeniable fact.

For someone like Lin Wang, who was extremely controlling of his subordinates, being made a fool of in front of him and losing money behind his back would surely enrage him. Yet he hadn’t called Ren Zhong directly.

This showed that Lin Wang was temporarily enduring it, planning to brew up trouble later.

Lin Wang was ruthless with those beneath him but when matters involved Yang Bingzhong, he showed the cunning of an adult and learned to endure humiliation.

He would surely recall their two friendly encounters, especially the expensive and delicious fresh meal they shared.

There would be many things Lin Wang would never understand in his life.

Ren Zhong smiled and took out his watch, unusually taking the initiative to contact Ma Xiaoling.

On the phone, the breathless Ma Xiaoling snapped, “What is it?”

Ren Zhong organized his words and asked, “I want to ask, if a night watchman in Spark Town kills a sleeper by stealing from them, and the victim is a Ruin Man, what happens then?”

Ma Xiaoling was shocked. “That can’t happen! Killing at night is the biggest taboo; no one dares. Not just in Spark Town, all towns have this rule. Once confirmed, the Commerce Association issues a bounty, wiping out ten clans, including relatives and close friends. The execution is carried out by hunters.”

“I see, then I’m relieved. Hahaha, a few days ago, I met a night watchman who seemed suspicious. Hahaha. Goodbye.”

Ren Zhong awkwardly hung up.

No way to fix this.

Last time, he had no choice; those close to him were basically dead, so he acted under cover of night.

This time is different.

Killing Lin Wang and others isn’t the ultimate goal; it’s just a step to survive.

Unless absolutely necessary, he must gather final bits of information before acting.

In fact, Ren Zhong could have searched directly through his watch, but being an experienced infiltrator, he feared monitored browsing records might reveal abnormalities, so he cleverly asked Ma Xiaoling, the guard captain, directly.

…

When Ren Zhong returned to the second-generation Iron Curtain courtyard, it was empty.

Since setting the rapid advancement plan, the previously unremarkable squad members in Spark Town had begun a wild, unrestrained journey of improvement.

After leaving the clinic, Bai Feng went to the training ground to adapt to his new colonist gear.

Even Ou Youning stopped slacking off and dove straight into the demolition expert’s intermediate training area after hunting.

Wen Lei and Zheng Tian did the same.

As for Chen Hanyu, she finally relaxed her self-imposed restrictions slightly, no longer just satisfied with studying books. She went to the intermediate area to combine theory and practice on those models to enhance her understanding.

With no one else around, Ren Zhong found some peace and quiet. He took out his tablet, disconnected from the internet, and opened the 3D map editor.

On the tablet appeared a complex, twisting network of lines.

These lines represented the routes the squad had taken today.

Compared to yesterday, the team had pushed much deeper and traveled much farther.

But today’s earnings were significantly lower than yesterday’s, with a net profit of only 4,500 points, and Ren Zhong’s share being 3,150 points.

It wasn’t that Ren Zhong and the others had grown weaker, but because he spent more time traveling, minimizing fights to cover more ground until they met a level-four hardened sandworm they couldn’t defeat. They then fled in a hurry. Everyone’s equipment was seriously damaged in that battle.

Along the lines, small glowing dots were marked at intervals. Clicking them revealed rows of data.

The data wasn’t complicated; it was the magnetic induction strength arrays recorded by Ren Zhong’s added sensors, totaling over 1,300 data points.

Then Ren Zhong inserted the data storage disk Ma Dafuo had given him into the tablet and opened the original exploration map, choosing to overlay it.

He began to stare at the map in a daze.

On the original exploration map of the Spark Mine Area, the abandoned mine pit wasn’t a pit but a small hill.

Inside the hill, 3D colored blocks marked the concentration of different metal elements, resembling an inverted poisonous mushroom cap.

After overlaying the two maps, the team’s route today looked like the extended tendrils protruding from the mushroom cap’s outer edge.

Times had changed. The structure of the Spark Mine Area had undergone fundamental transformations, and the original regional magnetic field structure had been completely overturned.

But past information hadn’t lost all value. No matter how it evolved, there were still underlying patterns and laws.

Ren Zhong’s mind aimed to bridge the past and present of the mine pit, finding a method to use existing data to calculate the complete magnetic field line network of the abandoned mine.

His major in school was biology and chemistry.

But his physics and math skills were not bad.

After a long while, Ren Zhong suddenly opened his eyes, grabbed paper and pen, and began drafting. He repeatedly wrote formulas then crossed them out.

After more than an hour, he had a long list of formulas on the draft paper.

He memorized them silently and then burned the draft.

He had completed the methodology.

From tomorrow, he would continue delving deeper into the abandoned mine, exploring more areas, and continuously collecting magnetic induction data to fill the 3D map.

Once the base data reached a sufficiently large volume, he could use exhaustive methods to compute the entire magnetic field line network model of the abandoned mine.

There was nothing mysterious about this — just standard procedures for professional researchers.

Ren Zhong glanced at the time; it was already 8:30 p.m.

The door opened from outside, and Chen Hanyu entered.

Ren Zhong frowned. “Why did you come back alone? Didn’t wait for the others? That’s not safe.”

Chen Hanyu shook her head. “It’s fine. Everyone outside already knows we’re the fourth professional team. As long as they hear your name, no one dares to harm me.”

“I see.” Ren Zhong sighed. “Reputation is a good thing, but it can also be a burden.”

Chen Hanyu looked puzzled. “How so?”

“Lin Wang fears being replaced the most, so our reputation forces us to further oppose him. With Yang Bingzhong’s support, if we develop well, we become his capable lieutenants. Lin Wang is then a knife hanging over our heads, a tool Yang Bingzhong uses to control us. But if we show weakness in the future, or run out of potential, or suffer losses and become useless, we’ll become the debt Yang Bingzhong sells to his loyal dog Lin Wang.”

Chen Hanyu was stunned. “Every step pushes us into a dead end. No wonder it’s him.”

Ren Zhong smiled. “Isn’t that just the reality of this world?”

“Mm.”

Page 3/3