Chapter 26: Showing Off in Public, Returning Fully Loaded

In fact, Ren Zhong had no interest in showing off.

Ren Zhong, in order to accelerate his growth rate and maximize the benefits gained from his time investment, recklessly took down the Blade Mantis, inadvertently revealing some obvious and illogical "abnormal" aspects.

To have lived to the age of Zheng Tian and the others in this world, and to have become semi-professional scavengers of mid-tier status among the scavengers, they clearly weren't fools and each had their own survival skills and life philosophies.

Zheng Tian and the others naturally could perceive Ren Zhong's "abnormality."

Last night, when Ren Zhong purchased the Magnetic Storm Dust Hand Grenade without reasonable cause, everyone could naturally suspect that he already knew what today would bring.

In a sense, you could even say Ren Zhong foresaw the risks, and yet watched coldly as everyone stepped into this one-misstep-and-you-fall trap.

Truly, people could have died.

Ren Zhong more or less needed to provide an explanation to everyone that they could accept; he couldn't simply say "it's my secret, don't ask" and leave it at that.

If he did, it would inevitably create serious divides, scattering the group's cohesion, and Ren Zhong would naturally lose these new partners.

Fortunately, as with solving math proofs by deducing process from the outcome, it's always a lot simpler.

Ren Zhong slowly stood up, patted the dirt and dust from his body, shut his eyes tightly and feigned deep thought, all the while silently chanting a spell in his heart.

From now on, I'm not a doctor, but an actor.

I'm not just one person.

At this moment, the spirits of Tony Leung, Tony Leung Ka-fai, Leonardo DiCaprio, Anthony Hopkins, and especially Marlon Brando possess me!

...

Zheng Tian and the others looked at him, gradually experiencing an illusion.

In their eyes, Ren Zhong's face began to radiate with a holy light, as if a dazzling halo of wisdom formed behind his head.

Ren Zhong slowly extended his index finger towards the sky.

Everyone felt something in their hearts and subconsciously looked up towards the sky.

There was nothing, just a deep blue endless sky, and a huge bluish sun.

Ou Youning pondered silently, there's nothing unusual about this sky. Is my observational skill not sharp enough to pick up on the hidden critical information within? I'm still not smart enough.

Ren Zhong: "The first point..."

Ou Youning: Damn, so the finger was pointing to the first point, not the sky!

Ren Zhong: "In the official wrist watch's internet function, there is a feature called the Ruined Beast database. It clearly records that, under certain conditions, the Blade Mantis can form a symbiotic relationship with the Ironfoot Beetle."

"Earlier, the footage Bai Feng brought back showed that the Ironfoot Beetle had no obvious injuries but its energy level was unreasonably low. At the time, I suspected that a Blade Mantis was in a symbiotic relationship with the Ironfoot Beetle, periodically absorbing the iron elements from its body, thus causing its weakness."

"Despite you all being experienced scavengers, you don't have official wrist watches, and usually have to rely on your own exploration for insights, while I am different."

"Oh! I see!" Zheng Tian, Chen Hanyu, and the others nodded like pecking chickens, looking as if they had learned something new.

This is the power of knowledge, and also the power of money. It's enough to make one enviously and resentfully want it.

"What about the second point? Ren sir, how did you know the location where the Blade Mantis appeared?" asked Ou Youning.

Ren Zhong pointed into the distance, exactly in the direction from which the Blade Mantis had come.

"Secondly, the Blade Mantis is a third-level Ruined Beast and is strong. Its resource extraction needs cannot possibly be satisfied by just one Ironfoot Beetle. Hence, I believed that besides the Ironfoot Beetle, the Blade Mantis had other..."

Ou Youning: "Partners!"

This guy had already learned to answer first.

Zheng Tian rolled her eyes at him, "Don't interrupt."

Ren Zhong continued, "Look over there."

Everyone turned to look.

The grass over there lay neatly flattened, forming a straight line.

The direction in which the grass lay pointed right here.

"Before the Blade Mantis came over, the grass over there was flattened in a direction that led away from us. So, I inferred that if it were to return for support, it was most likely to come from that direction. I confirmed its location and chose to deploy Wen Lei, the strongest in defense among us, there in advance. As long as Wen Lei could block its first blade, and with my covering fire, it would be completely trapped, and every subsequent action it took would be within my grasp."

By this time, all the details of this fierce battle had been largely explained in the minds of the team members.

Even as Ren Zhong spoke lightly and freely, the team clearly understood that if any detail went wrong during execution, it could lead to a fiasco and total annihilation.

They looked at Ren Zhong's confident and leisurely manner, feeling that whether it was the movements of the Blade Mantis or every person's action in the grand scheme, all were entirely under his control.

Including the Blade Mantis and themselves, they were puppets on his strings.

Thinking of this, everyone felt both fear in hindsight and awe.

This Pu Cha officer wasn't an easy nut to crack. He dared to take risks and indeed had the skills!

Of course, it also proved he wasn't watching them risk their lives out of indifference but had absolute confidence in passing through with no failure.

"Then, why did you buy the Magnetic Storm Dust Hand Grenade yesterday, Mr. Ren? You can't have known yesterday that we would come to the Iron Worm Forest and encounter the Blade Mantis, right? Wasn't this all decided on the spur of the moment by me?"

Zheng Tian finally discovered this blind spot and asked the most critical question.

She was concerned about this, too.

If Ren Zhong could accurately predict even her thoughts the day before, that was way too terrifying.

Not someone to get too close to.

This question truly stumped Ren Zhong.

He found it hard to give a perfect explanation, so he could only throw out a statement that barely fit his high-level persona and was ambiguous.

"From your attitude towards me yesterday, Zheng Tian, I inferred that you had the intention to invite me to join your team. I indeed hoped for that too. However, I was new to the team, and you had no understanding of me."

"So you would definitely choose a relatively safe hunting area. Among the nearby areas of Starfire Town, the Iron Worm Forest was one of the best options. The Iron Worm Forest mainly featured insect-type Ruined Beasts, and ones that could pose a threat to the team's safety and mine personally and were difficult to escape mostly comprised of only the Blade Mantis. So I made an extra preparation in advance, unexpectedly using it today."

Upon hearing this, Zheng Tian felt slightly relieved, acting as if she suddenly realized, "I see, Mr. Ren, you really are too clever. Compared to you, we are simply..."

Ren Zhong smiled, "Stop with the 'Sir' and 'Mr.' now, we are teammates, equal and friendly. Just call me Ren Zhong."

"Okay, Ren Ge!" Zheng Tian promptly agreed, "Alright, let's divide the spoils!"

The intact Blade Mantis carcass was valuable, selling it to the recycling company could earn 40 Contribution Points, our first harvest.

The biggest gain was the perfect-level Blade Mantis crystal chip, which could sell for 80 Contribution Points.

Thank goodness, Zheng Tian's bullet penetrated its skull but happened to just graze about 5mm above the crystal chip, leaving it undamaged.

Thanks to Chen Hanyu's efforts, the challenge at a higher level was completed in four minutes and fifty seconds, perfectly extracting the crystal chip unharmed.

After a round of discussion, they decided that since Ren Zhong did the most work and made the biggest investment, he alone would receive 90 points.

The remaining five would split the other 30 points equally, at 6 points per person.

After this thrilling death match, Wen Lei was significantly injured; though he had received emergency bandages and basic medications to stop the bleeding and regain basic mobility, his equipment was also damaged. Zheng Tian decided not to explore further and head back to Starfire Town immediately.

Upon reaching town, they first went straight to the Starfire Resource Recycling Company's submarine building and sold their gains from the day.

The team's previous hunt captured five First Level Ruined Beasts, along with the Ironfoot Beetle. After the 20% cut by the professional team, it was worth 18 points. Deducting the costs of ammo, food, first aid kits, and energy cells, worth 6 points, the six shared equally, with each receiving 2 points.

Therefore, this morning, Ren Zhong earned a total of 92 points, used 50 points as the cost, and had a net profit of 42 points, roughly equivalent to the efforts of Zheng Tian's team for 42 days, which equals the scavenger working hard sleeping for 420 days.

Ren Zhong's wealth returned to 110.52 points.

He was quite satisfied with this result.

This reckless move was worth it; the return on investment within a day was as high as 180%.

...