Chapter 115: A Long-Awaited Small Gathering

At the other end of the city, dozens of miles away, among buildings resembling monstrous forms.
A man who had gotten up early to brew a cup of coffee and changed into his morning workout clothes was about to pick up his water glass.
Suddenly, he felt a tremor from another emotion within his heart.
[What’s wrong, Fang Tian?]
{We have harvested 9999.11N}
Lu Bu’s body stiffened instantly. By the time he reacted, fine beads of sweat had already seeped from his vest.
Fortunately, he had gotten into the habit of clearing his timeline.
He gently placed the teacup on the table.
“So, this is your response, huh?”
Thump! His solid, powerful hands slammed heavily onto the rosewood table.
In Lu Bu’s eyes flickered both anger and a hint of fear.
……
Crack, crack, thump!
A stout tree came crashing down.
“Yosh, not bad, it’s pretty sturdy.” Zuo Feixian gave the trunk a kick with his leg.
Yang Zicang watched this figure; in recent days, he often thought of that dream—what was that being behind Zuo Feixian waiting for?
“Once the cart is built, our caravan can set off. Heh, you truly deserve the title of Lord Yang—every single engine has been snapped up by traders in Hub Town.”
“I was only able to manage that thanks to the mayor’s help. For now, this is all I can do. Just focus on selling your goods from now on.”
Several streaks of light shot toward the group in unison.
{I am Lu Xiang. I’ve spotted a few mutated beasts. Anyone care to invest in me?}
On the other end of the Mental Link was a stranger who seemed to be in a quarry-like area, across from several muscular beasts that looked like they had strayed from some lost scene-monitor onto this wilderness.
“Wow, it’s rare to see someone seeking investment.”
“This is a newly arrived scene-monitor prime zone, I reckon. Look how those beasts haven’t gotten lean from hunger yet.”
[I have invested 200N in Lu Xiang.]
{Ooh-oooh! There’s a big shot here. Such generosity—thank you, thank you!}
Barely had the man finished thanking them when several more timely investments, ranging from fifty-six to a hundred years, rained in on him, giving him a fright.
{Hey, is there a major settlement nearby? Your humble little brother will put on a show today. Watch closely, everyone!}
The man rose to his feet, hefted a spear made from beast bones, activated a model, and charged at them.
Several beasts, each the size of two oxen, saw the human coming. Snorting twin plumes of hot breath from their nostrils, they pivoted and thundered toward him, knocking him clean off his feet—sending him flying hard into the ground.
The other beasts swarmed in, their enormous hooves beating down with a dull thunder, forcing Lu Xiang to foam at the mouth as he roared in agony.
“Hahahaha.”
“That’s too brutal.”
Zuo Feixian chuckled and wiped his eyes, sitting around the tree stump with the others, thoroughly enjoying the live-stream-like hunt.
It was hard to tell who was hunting whom.
Fortunately, the trampling was only a physical shock. After ten minutes or so, the man, battered with bruises all over, finally finished off a few monsters and limped toward the rock.
“Thank you, everyone. I hope you’ll keep an eye on my actions; I’ve been hunting nearby lately.”
In the sensing screen, the man bowed respectfully to thin air and then began distributing reverse dividends.
“Why is he turning his butt toward us, this guy?”
[I received Lu Xiang’s return of 203.2 N.]
“That’s really not much,” Yang Zicang thought to himself.
“Today is great, I earned a year’s worth of time sequence so easily,” Xu Xiuchuan said, almost jumping up.
The other young lads also looked delighted; each had earned time sequences ranging from a few months to a couple of years.
Yang Zicang scratched his head.
The time sequence had indeed come too fast recently. And this was mostly riding on Mo Li’s coattails.
A few days later.
Time came to the end of the month.
Thanks to the acquisition of two hundred cycles of Void-Zero Time Sequence this month, no one in the city suffered any deduction due to debt.
Only now did many who had appeared in this world during this month realize they had nearly skirted the gates of hell.
[You have consumed 150 N to advance to the next month.]
[Void-Zero Time Sequence deducted: 150 N.]
Zhang Yang collapsed limply onto the small dining table.
[Virtual Zero Timeline 150N duration ended.]
“Come on, usually you seem pretty calm, don’t you?”
Liu Ming beside him hummed in a good mood.
“Calm? If someone calms down to understand this world, only to have something like this happen in the last two minutes, wouldn’t you be shocked? There’s no way to foresee this!”
“It’s not that bad, Xiao Xi already told us about this, didn’t he?”
Liu Ming leaned back in the wooden chair, sporting a carefree expression.
Zhang Yang shook his head; his heartbeat steadied, but then a wave of irritation set in.
This month is over, what about next month? Always relying on Yang Zicang? We entered at the same time, yet I’ve done nothing.
Liang Xi walked into the room carrying a plate of fragrant grilled meat in one hand and a candle in the other.
“Late-night snack’s here!”
Mu Xiaoyu hopped out from behind the door with a grin, pulling out a food cart laden with roasted eggplants, grilled potato slices, cabbage and tofu soup, and the allotted pies and small cakes from headquarters.
“Come on, we made it through the first month safely—let’s celebrate!” the girl announced with a hostess-like flair.
“Smells great.”
Liu Ming quickly got up to take the plate from his hands, and Zhang Yang also stood to help the girl pull the cart inside.
“Ready to dig in?”
“Hold on!” Mu Xiaoyu raised a hand: “Wait, there’s still someone else.”
Zhang Yang and Liu Ming looked over, and Liang Xi said, “Could it be that Big Brother is coming back?”
“Mm-hmm.” Mu Xiaoyu nodded firmly with her fair chin. “He also said he’d bring gifts for everyone.”
A few minutes later, the people lying by the window on the second floor of the theater saw two flashlight beams appear in the doorway, and the empty lobby echoed with the sound of the two speaking.
“Hey~”
“Hello~ haha, gorgeous.” Luo Bin waved his arm.
He and Yang Zicang were carrying large and small bags of luggage.
“Ah, it’s tough coming back after all that. Whoa, it’s a lot cleaner now, huh.”
“Just cleaning up when there’s nothing else to do.”
Liang Xia introduced to everyone: “This is Uncle Luo Bin. The three of us took down this space back then.”
The situation from that time—Liang Xi had already brought it up more than once around them in the past few days. The battle marks in that room and the thunder that filled the entire theater had long made them grasp roughly what had happened.
“Why didn’t you come straight over to me, huh?” Mu Xiaoyu pouted.
“Heh heh, the little beauty’s mad. Isn’t it just that Master Yang here acts like a gentleman.”
After taking their seats, the group ate while recounting what they’d seen and heard in the Lost Frequency District.
Liang Xi and Mu Xiaoyu both listened with great interest.
“Bro, what’s the gift?”
After the meal, Liang Xi, now on familiar terms with everyone, proudly took the lead in asking on behalf of the other three.
“First of all, these.”
Luo Bin dragged over a few pieces of luggage and unloaded daily necessities filling a small half of the room.
The four of them felt happy, yet also disappointed; saying they were disappointed, but these were urgently needed items.
“It’s… it’s pretty good, ahaha.” Liang Xi tried to ease the awkwardness, hands on his hips as he laughed.
“Don’t worry, this is just a gift from me, on behalf of our major client, the Construction Crew.”
Yang Zicang silently covered his face.
“Major client?”
Liang Xi muttered the name curiously, then forced a strained grin across his face.
“Let’s get down to business. I want you to try using this.”
With a flicker of light, Yang Zicang spread his palm, and a translucent scroll materialized from the glow.
“What’s this?”
“You can think of it as a martial arts skill you learn after receiving a transmission in a wuxia world, or a skill book you instantly master by tapping in a game.”
Yang Zicang handed it to Zhang Yang first.
“Me?” Zhang Yang hadn’t expected Yang Zicang to give the skill book to him first.
“Try to see if you can use it.”
Yang Zicang simply wanted to take care of this “friend” he had the least contact with. Moreover, compared to Xiao Yu and Liu Ming, Zhang Yang was calmer and more stable—perfect as a test subject.
Zhang Yang sensed the information contained within it.
《Boost Contract—Lucency Perception, 95 years of training experience.》
“Boost Contract? This really is just like a skill book. This world is so amazing—is it magic?” Zhang Yang said.
Liu Ming was jumping with impatience, wishing he could shove the glowing boost contract into the guy’s mouth.
“Just use it already.”
“Tch, the emperor isn’t worried, but the eunuch is beside himself.” Zhang Yang shifted his buttocks and began gripping the training contract tightly as instructed by Yang Zicang; it slowly dissolved into a glow and merged into his body.
Then, Zhang Yang sat on the chair like a meditator, unmoving for a long time.
When he opened his eyes, the outlines of his irises seemed a bit clearer.
“How is it?” Liu Ming asked nervously.
“I feel like I can quickly recover from ordinary injuries now, and even serious ones can be nursed back to health.”
“Wow, that’s so good.”
Zhang Yang’s heart was both moved and shaken.
This was an invaluable healing ability—one not stemming from any model.
“Thank you, Zi Cang.”
“You’re welcome. We’ll help each other out from now on.”
Yang Zicang handed them all out one by one.
“These contracts are extremely rare. I’m giving you these also for another reason.”
“What reason?” Everyone looked at him.
“Based on my experiences and observations these days, I have a guess about how many model lines there are.”
Luo Bin pricked up his ears.
He highly coveted these training contracts. In all his time, Ren Luo Bin had thought his intelligence-gathering on Yang Zi Cang was thorough, but when the young man produced these, he still felt as if his head had been struck a heavy blow.
How did Yang Zicang obtain these? How many were there? Luo Bin had no clue, only awe.
“Based on the quadrilateral models I know and the relevant information I’ve gathered, the owners of quadrilateral models all have excellent willpower or mental state. So I think, if you cultivate these skills to nurture your body and mind, and then go to accommodate the model this month or next month, unexpectedly pleasant surprises might await you.”
Upon hearing this, the three of them were all tempted.
Liang Xi said, “As long as none of us end up with a model like mine.”
He was very dissatisfied with his own model, but fortunately, he had now learned skills and made up for some of the shortcomings.
Zhang Yang nodded in deep agreement; he didn’t dare hope for a quadrilateral—becoming a triangular model would be excellent already, and he didn’t even want to think about the despair of ending up like Liang Xi with a segmented-line model.
Luo Bin sighed deeply, “If that’s the case, Zicang, you’ve truly brought a great gift to those who come after.”
“That’s only if we three pioneers can succeed.” Yang Zicang said with a smile to the three of them.
Suddenly filled with a sense of mission, the three happily used the practice contracts.