Chapter 88: The Little Devil Before Death, Already Sees the King of Hell [5600 Words]

At 9:05 in the evening, the Thunderbolt vehicle slowly pulled into the Xinghuo Resource Recycling Plaza.

As usual, the place was deserted.

Official working hours were from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., a grueling twelve-hour shift every day, but proper workers never stayed overtime.

A female staff member, who had a private appointment with Ren Zhong, sat with her legs crossed by the platform, waiting.

When the vehicle’s headlights lit up at the plaza entrance, she eagerly stood up.

Another milk tea to enjoy—how wonderful.

The pair of roaming bookshelf speakers worth 30 points he had given her were also excellent—crisp highs, steady mids, and deep lows. Truly impressive.

The vehicle came to a stop, and Ren Zhong and Zheng Tian stepped out.

No one else followed.

The group had suffered a significant mental shock today and felt the need to indulge themselves at the supply cooperatives and armory mall to soothe the turbulent waves within.

As Ren Zhong and Zheng Tian opened the rear trunk, the female staff member, having cooperated with Ren Zhong many times before and knowing his talent for making money, was dumbfounded.

She rubbed her eyes and squinted.

After a moment, swallowing nervously, she said, “Wait, could you please turn on the trunk light? I can’t see clearly.”

Click. Zheng Tian used the remote control to switch on the light.

Hissing!

The woman finally saw clearly.

Inside lay the corpses of five wasteland beasts.

Two of them were likely level-four wasteland beasts!

Arranged outside were one large and three small crystallized pangolins, and inside was also an insect about the size of a calf.

“This… this looks a lot like the crystallized pangolins from the abandoned mine pit?”

Ren Zhong answered, “Not just looks—it is. The large one is level four, the three smaller ones are level three.”

“And the one inside?”

“That’s a Dreamweaver Maze Bug, also a level-four wasteland beast. It’s powerful and terrifying. But we won.”

Earlier that afternoon, at around 1:30, the group had returned to the abandoned mine pit, hauling in a large military storage box with exceptional corrosion resistance, high structural strength, and a value of 150 points.

Though the cave network was a complex maze, Ren Zhong had recorded the route with the auxiliary processor built into his armor.

Thus, the group navigated confidently to the area where the crystallized pangolins had previously appeared, and after some investigation, they successfully located its lair.

It guarded a critical junction in the tunnel.

Beneath this mature crystallized pangolin were three juveniles.

These juveniles had an energy index around 370, far lower than the mature one’s 1500.

While the others were surprised, Ren Zhong was not.

The mature pangolin had already destroyed his small round shield and dagger; if it had pursued a few more steps, it could have trapped him, but it decisively retreated.

If not for some unresolved concern behind it, there was no other explanation.

What concern would keep a level-four crystallized pangolin from retreating to the upper layers and prevent it from straying far?

Only one answer emerged: it was nurturing its young.

Everything was under Ren Zhong’s control.

Detecting that the intruder who had previously escaped dared to approach its nest, the crystallized pangolin rose angrily and charged toward the group’s position.

Ren Zhong and his team calmly retreated, placing the storage box in front, then activated its remote-controlled opening to block the passageway.

The reckless crystallized pangolin crashed headlong into the box.

It believed it could break through—that piercing this iron box would be easy.

This was the biggest difference between humans and wasteland beasts.

Soon after, the storage box closed tightly.

Inside, the crystallized pangolin thrashed left and right, its long tongue lashing out, but the box’s corrosion-resistant coating was impervious.

Then, the wasp-tail toxin mist Ren Zhong had preloaded began spraying from two large tanks.

This toxin mist was processed from the remains of a level-three wasteland beast and was highly effective against crystallized-type beasts.

Ren Zhong had bought two cans from the mall, each priced at 50 points—the same as a magnetic storm dust grenade.

For this battle, he invested a total of 250 points, determined to win by any means necessary.

The trapped crystallized pangolin, unable to escape and tormented by the toxin mist, curled up tightly and rolled frantically inside the box.

The other three just-over-level-three small crystallized pangolins rushed in squeaking.

Ren Zhong, equipped with a top-tier level-two shield and heavy exoskeleton, confronted them head-on with Wen Lei, while Zheng Tian fired piercing bullets sprayed with wasp-tail toxin from behind.

Meanwhile, Bai Feng guarded Chen Hanyu.

Ou Youning, who had basic mechanical knowledge and could operate tools, carried a portable welding machine and acted as a makeshift repairman, quickly patching the cracks on the storage box caused by the pangolin’s impacts.

Minutes later, the battle ended; the crystallized pangolins inside perished helplessly.

The group then resumed efficient hunting.

Around 5 p.m., something changed.

Walking along, Ren Zhong suddenly noticed the people behind him had disappeared.

His first reaction was not panic but an immediate realization: he had encountered a wasteland beast, an unprecedented one capable of influencing his thoughts.

His vision dimmed briefly; the scene darkened.

When he opened his eyes again, he was sitting in a spacious, brightly lit examination room.

There were few desks and even fewer people, each desk spaced far apart.

Outside the window stood a large elm tree, its yellowing leaves swaying in the wind, autumn leaves drifting down.

Ren Zhong momentarily forgot what he had been doing, his gaze settling on the test paper before him.

He quickly recalled.

He was a high school freshman taking the national physics competition finals—the last, most difficult problem.

The question wasn’t very hard but involved knowledge beyond the standard curriculum, referencing a rare physical principle.

He had heard the principle’s name and roughly what it covered but had never studied the detailed formula, leaving him profoundly disheartened upon reading the question.

In his life, he had never left an exam blank—only scoring 100 because that was the full score.

Yet here he faced the prospect of an unfinished test, a blank spot.

For the twelve-year-old him, there was only one intolerable thing in life: submitting a blank paper.

At first, terror overwhelmed Ren Zhong, but he quickly rallied, meticulously rereading the question and trying to deduce the unknown physical principle from his existing knowledge.

A remarkable thing happened: a torrent of knowledge surfaced in his mind, and his thinking accelerated like never before.

Within a minute, he derived the formula for the principle he only knew by name.

The once formidable problem transformed into a smooth path.

His panic and fear vanished.

Just as he lifted his pen to answer, the scene shattered.

When he opened his eyes again, a calf-sized, six-legged, eyeless insect with metallic legs and sharp mandibles lunged at him, trying to break through a network of automatic response close-range firearms integrated into his level-two enhanced armor.

Ren Zhong immediately recognized it as a Maze Bug.

Glancing at the ammo count on his visor, which was running low, he drew his dagger and engaged in fierce combat.

Though small, the bug’s body was incredibly tough, forcing him to shatter three shock daggers and break two small iron chain shields.

Only by channeling 600 kilowatts of output into his final shock dagger did he sever the creature.

Throughout the fight, Ren Zhong tried to awaken his teammates via communicator.

They all stood frozen, like statues.

Only about a minute after he killed the bug did they gradually come to their senses, breaking into uncontrollable sobs, especially Chen Hanyu, who cried hysterically.

Ren Zhong wanted to wait for them to recover before speaking, but fearing the chip’s expiration, he forced himself to grab Chen Hanyu’s shoulders and shake her awake.

He lifted his helmet visor, revealing his face, and shouted, “Chen Hanyu, wake up! I’m Ren Zhong! There’s a level-four Maze Bug waiting for you to dismantle! Wake up! Hurry, it’s about to expire!”

Chen Hanyu barely recognized his face but only cried louder, clutching him like an octopus and whispering, “Mr. Ren, you promised to help me avenge. You promised... please don’t break your word. I beg you!”

Ren Zhong was at a loss, so he raised his voice and roared, “When have I ever broken my word? Dismantle the chip now! If you want me to avenge you, do your job! If this drags on, the chip will devalue from 1,000 points to 500! How do you expect me to avenge you then?”

Chen Hanyu finally fully woke.

After communicating, the group understood what had happened.

The Maze Bug was a large family with various evolutionary branches.

The one they encountered was a Dreamweaver Maze Bug, capable of reaching level four with a maximum energy index of 2,000 points.

Unlike ordinary wasteland beasts, it did not excel at close combat; its power lay in its special abilities.

It could release tiny, colorless, odorless particles from its tail, with strong penetrative power, almost impossible to filter out.

Once inside the human body, these particles acted like neurotoxins invading the brain, causing dreamlike hallucinations far stronger than poisonous mushrooms.

These dreams were not random but built upon the victim’s deepest, most painful memories, often the hardest and most desperate moments of their lives.

Whether the victim had overcome these challenges or if they remained nightmares, the intoxicated person relived them in dreams.

Moreover, memories were partially obscured; fragments and thought patterns remained trapped in the original trauma.

It dragged forth painful memories people wished to forget, forcing them to relive the agony.

This was an exceedingly terrifying mental ability.

Not only level-two or three professionals but even level-four or five could fall victim unexpectedly.

Zheng Tian, Chen Hanyu, Wen Lei, and the others each carried haunting memories that trapped them helplessly.

If Ren Zhong had not killed the Dreamweaver Maze Bug in time, stopping it from releasing particles into the air, they would have eventually succumbed to brain death without the bug needing to attack directly.

Hearing all this, Ren Zhong’s expression grew peculiar.

Since his resurrection, he had experienced much and had been killed multiple times.

What he never expected was that the greatest challenge he had feared wasn’t death but a difficult, out-of-syllabus question from a competition long ago.

It was utterly insane and unfathomable!

He pondered, suspecting that perhaps when others called him cold and bookish, they weren’t insulting but saw his true nature.

He felt fairly normal.

Wait, he thought deeper.

After some reflection, he sorted out his thoughts.

At resurrection, death was always sudden, with little time to prepare or fear before perishing.

After the first death, dying became habitual; new fears turned to loneliness, feeling trapped in a nightmare like a ghost ship.

Back then, he briefly collapsed but was bolstered by his parents’ last words, still believing there was a way out and quickly recovered, eventually meeting Zheng Tian and others to escape the forest.

Subsequent deaths came with preparation and even willingness to die, fueled more by anger than fear, knowing he would resurrect.

Looking back further, when he was about to be cryogenically frozen, he had little fear, fully aware death was inevitable and fearing it was useless.

From a scientific perspective, birth, aging, sickness, and death were natural laws.

He was of course a believer in science.

Ren Zhong’s true fear was singular: doubting his ability to accomplish something and thus becoming uncertain.

Since his resurrection on Origin Star, he had never wavered.

Thus, the Dreamweaver Maze Bug’s particles precisely targeted the physics competition scene.

He had solved that problem eventually, winning first prize nationally and entering the university’s youth class early.

Now, his knowledge and worldview returned to that exam room—but his brain processed information ten times faster.

The bug’s challenge was a gift.

Ren Zhong thought if the nightmare had chosen the moment he nearly broke down in the woods, it might have been more dangerous.

But if memories had returned to then, his parents’ words would have appeared, likely helping him recover faster than solving the problem.

In truth, solving the problem was the optimal choice.

Of course, if he had repeatedly failed in Xinghuo Town, utterly hopeless, witnessing aimless, lost fleeing with the wasteland beasts claiming one after another by exhaustion or hunger, that might have become his true nightmare, eclipsing the fear of the test.

But that had yet to occur and there was still hope.

In short, the ordeal passed with no real danger; otherwise, Ren Zhong and Zheng Tian would not be standing now in the Xinghuo Resource Plaza.

“Please calculate the total amount.”

Seeing the woman stunned, Ren Zhong urged her and had Zheng Tian bring the chip storage box, showing her the chip list.

The woman gasped again.

Two level-four chips, twenty-one level-three chips, forty-two level-two chips.

Such a haul...

Wasn’t this a professional team?

She quickly waved her hand. “No... no, Mr. Ren, this amount is too large. I don’t have the authority to purchase during overtime.”

Ren Zhong glared. “Huh?”

This was unexpected.

Zheng Tian didn’t know either.

Ren Zhong asked, “Then what do we do?”

“Please wait a moment, Mr. Ren. The boss is in the office today. I have to report to him. Don’t leave, wait here!”

Without waiting for an answer, she ran inside.

Ren Zhong frowned and asked Zheng Tian, “What’s going on?”

Zheng Tian shook her head. “I’m not sure. Should we wait?”

Ren Zhong nodded. “Yes. We have no other choice.”

Zheng Tian anxiously added, “Looks like our previous secret operations won’t stay hidden.”

Ren Zhong waved indifferently. “It was impossible to keep it secret once I decided to go to the abandoned mine pit.”

About three minutes later, the woman hurried out, waving from afar.

“Mr. Ren, the boss wants to see you in his office. Follow me. Someone else is waiting outside.”

“Alright!”

Though Ren Zhong had seen this massive submarine-like building countless times from outside, this was his first time entering.

Upon stepping inside, he felt as if entering another world.

Numerous robots darted about in seemingly chaotic yet orderly routes without collisions.

Conveyor belts were arranged artistically, enough to make any perfectionist moan with satisfaction.

Wasteland beast carcasses passed through modular machines along the belts.

Each machine stripped off parts from the carcasses.

On the other side, smaller conveyor belts led to other areas.

A complete wasteland beast carcass would be dismantled into basic components after passing through a few dozen machines.

This vast building was like a highly efficient assembly line factory, staffed by only a handful of technicians sitting cross-legged before data-filled control panels monitoring operations.

The factory was fully automated.

Those technicians seemed almost unnecessary.

“Don’t look around, Mr. Ren. Come back next time for a tour. The boss is waiting for you on the top floor. His time is tight, hurry up.”

The female staff urged.

Ren Zhong nodded.

Before entering the elevator, two guards in sleek, fitted exoskeleton armor approached, asking Ren Zhong to remove his armor.

He complied.

A machine emerged from behind a wall, neatly storing his armor on a nearby rack.

Ren Zhong stepped into the elevator, his heartbeat quickening.

This was an unexpected situation.

He hadn’t expected to meet the boss behind the scenes before even killing Lin Wang, a figure second only to, perhaps even higher than, Madafu in Xinghuo Town’s power hierarchy.

To meet the lord of the underworld before slaying the little demon—that was the feeling.

If this building was truly a dirigible, then the boss’s office would be the bridge.

Before entering, Ren Zhong analyzed the boss’s information in his mind:

Name: Yang Bingzhong.

Age: Under thirty.

Gender: Male.

Identity: One of the owners of Xinghuo Resource Recycling Company, the actual controlling manager.

This was information Ren Zhong already had from Zheng Tian and Madafu.

Beyond that, he knew nothing.

Zheng Tian had only seen this mysterious boss, known to everyone at Xinghuo Resource, two or three times from afar.

Ren Zhong, curious due to Madafu, had refrained from probing further to avoid exposure.

He planned to talk to Madafu in the next couple of days to gather intel but was unexpectedly meeting the boss today due to unforeseen circumstances.

“That’s it; I’ll leave you here. You go in by yourself.”

The woman said and started to leave.

“Alright, thank you very much.”

Ren Zhong replied politely.

She paused for a moment, then whispered, “Sorry, I already told the boss about your previous solo sales and our little deal. I’m not betraying you—I just can’t hide things from the boss.”

“Okay, no problem. I understand and thank you.”

“Good. Go talk with the boss.”

Ren Zhong took a deep breath and lightly knocked on the door.

“Hello, President Yang. I’m Ren Zhong.”

“Come in.”