Chapter 269: Decision

“It’s still the asymmetry of information causing problems.” Yang Bo had no solution for this and realized he had been too hasty earlier.

“But this situation actually fits my persona. Just entered society and was sheltered before.” After thinking it through, Yang Bo felt relieved.

Yang Bo also saw the number Zhou Rui referred to; it was close to the testing target, showing 79 on a device.

This was the instrument used to measure the brightness of the target earlier.

“I was just a bit away from 80. At first, my energy purity was only 65. Energy purity can be refined through self-cultivation over time.”

“You’ve just started, yet your purity is already at 99. This will save a lot of time in the future.”

“I’ve endured hardships over the years to raise my energy purity to 79.” Zhou Rui said this with a hint of a bitter smile.

The Fat Boss stood by, feeling like countless knives were stabbing his heart.

Zhou Rui’s superpower was clearly special, but its exact nature remained unknown. Among the three, he knew he was the weakest.

He still needed to cultivate his technique two more levels to release energy from his body.

This was the difference in talent among superhumans. Some could release energy naturally, while others needed decades of cultivation to do so.

In other words, some people were already ahead of others at the starting line, surpassing most people’s finish lines.

However, the Fat Boss quickly adjusted his mindset. It was obvious Yang Bo had the best talent. As long as he stuck close, he’d be fine.

“In the future, my father-in-law will surely take care of me,” Fat Boss shamelessly thought to himself.

Fat Boss could see it clearly. Yang Bo really was the ideal type, the kind of person all women dreamed of having. On one hand, he had no complicated relationships.

On the other hand, his talent was freakish, and most importantly, he hadn’t acquired any bad habits. Some heirs from old families even disliked people.

Some of them went so far as to rebel against their own families, exposing their family’s dirt.

Hearing Zhou Rui’s words, Yang Bo responded, “I’ve suffered too. I ate grass roots for months.”

Zhou Rui almost laughed out loud at that. If eating grass roots for a few months could grant such talent, all the grass on Green Demon Planet would have been eaten by now.

But when she thought it through, it made sense. Talent was simply like that. This was the difference between people.

“I’ll report the test results to my family right away. Once they’ve made arrangements, I’ll inform you.” Zhou Rui was very satisfied with the results, but final confirmation was still up to her father.

“So, is that all? Can I go eat now? I’m feeling a bit hungry.” Seeing that everything was settled, Yang Bo asked.

Zhou Rui wanted to say more, but the Fat Boss immediately interjected, “Let’s go eat.”

When they reached the first floor, Zhou Rui hurriedly left. The Fat Boss whispered, “There must be a lot of good stuff at the Bounty Hunter Guild’s headquarters, but I suggest you don’t go.”

Without asking why, Yang Bo nodded in agreement, “I’ll listen to you, Boss.”

“Zhou Rui’s family traveled all this way, clearly with a story behind them. Maybe they were chased here. The headquarters is crowded, so your safety can’t be guaranteed there.”

“What you need right now is steady growth. On March Planet, the Alliance has the upper hand. No family can dominate everything. On some of the administrated stars, old families have power that’s unimaginable.” Fat Boss explained.

Yang Bo nodded seriously, thinking that it didn’t matter if he went or not. If someone really tried to bully him, he’d see who was stronger.

“When training with your superpower, don’t overdo it. Hurting yourself is bad. We superhumans fear injury most.” The Fat Boss passed him the prepared breakfast.

Yang Bo nodded and hurriedly ate his breakfast, planning to return to the game soon. Power was the first priority; everything else came second.

After breakfast, Yang Bo returned to his room, preparing to stretch and exercise before logging into the game.

Meanwhile, Zhou Rui hurried back to the farm with a tablet video feed.

Typically, important information wasn’t transmitted over the web but through specific devices.

After watching the video, Zhou Rui’s father took a deep breath, feeling a slight sense of defeat.

“Father?” Zhou Rui cautiously asked after seeing the scene.

“I’m just getting old… thinking back to my youth when I was full of vigor. Now, I’m ready to die.” Zhou Rui’s father reminisced about his younger days.

“Yang Bo appears to have limitless potential for now. We need to keep this information under wraps until he fully matures, so outsiders won’t find out.”

“And as for going to headquarters to collect the energy suit, it’s best not to go. Too many people are watching there. In a few days, I’ll head out to find some energy metal, hoping to find something suitable for Yang Bo.” Zhou Rui’s father said.

“Father, are you saying?” Zhou Rui looked at her father in shock.

“I plan to custom-make him a suit of Energy Suit.” Zhou Rui’s father said calmly.

“Maybe my last piece of work will suit such a genius. I hope he can help raise our family to new heights.” Zhou Rui’s father nodded confidently.

“But didn’t you promise them?” Zhou Rui asked in surprise.

“I’m not charging them. It’s a gift. Is that unacceptable?” Zhou Rui’s father answered calmly.

“Are you really so optimistic about him?”

“Yes, there are better geniuses out there, but do you think we have the means to attract them?”

“…”

When Yang Bo exercised, he stretched his body into various forms.

His meridians and bones strengthened under this stretching.

An hour later, Yang Bo stood up, jumped twice, and prepared to log into the game.

He drank a whole bottle of milk in one go.

Upon entering the game, Yang Bo found his character had been repaired. After checking with his superpower, the character seemed patched together. Luckily, the energy suit covered most of it.

“So this high-value armor is the kind Zhou Rui mentioned.” Yang Bo realized that many protective suits in the apocalypse game had similar attributes.

These included immunity to flame damage, lightning resistance, and toxin corrosion. Yang Bo originally thought they were just game gimmicks to fool players.

But now, it seemed like most of the high-tier equipment in the game was real.

“A suit that reduces 80% of flame damage costs 2 million game currency. I wonder if it can block my real-life firepower?”

“That probably depends on the strength of the fire energy attack!”

He considered this while browsing the game’s official shop.

“I wonder if the military has that kind of gear. Wherever it’s produced, I should visit if I get the chance.” Yang Bo, ever bold, was already thinking about raiding the Military’s gear.

After browsing the shop, Yang Bo headed toward the farm.

As he reached the entrance, he saw the two players from yesterday.

“Boss, you’re back!” The two players quickly greeted Yang Bo.

Yang Bo noticed the scene had been cleaned up and nodded.

“Boss, we reinforced the ropes. We counted around 2,000 zombie sheep inside. We’ve prepared 2,500 bullets, two guns placed above, and 50 bombs.” They hurried to explain.

“Aren’t you losing money then?” Yang Bo asked. Bullets weren’t cheap.

“Boss, would you mind not going for headshots? These creatures’ brain matter is quite valuable.”

“Alright, I’ll aim for the neck.” Yang Bo agreed. These monsters’ brain matter was a bounty item, but he didn’t bother extracting it as the quantity varied. Some might offer 10 milliliters, others only 1 milliliter.

In reality, he wasn’t short on money. He still had billions of credits in the Mercenary Guild.

The two players looked excited as they watched Yang Bo nod, and they moved to the side.

Yang Bo carefully checked everything. Indeed, bullets and supplies were hung from trees at both ends of the ropes, alongside food and water.

Using a familiar strategy, Yang Bo cleared the creatures near the farm’s door, then threw a bomb ahead and fired off a few bullets before running.

The zombie sheep bounced and jumped when they ran, far faster than regular animals. Some even nearly caught up with Yang Bo.

“No wonder you’ve got four legs,” Yang Bo muttered as he glanced back at the creatures in pursuit.

As he climbed up, he tied the rope around his waist to prevent it from dangling and getting bitten by the creatures below.

Gunfire echoed through the valley once again. This time, Yang Bo aimed for their necks instead of their heads.

Hitting the necks of the zombie sheep made them lose mobility, their heads left biting aimlessly on the ground.

The decapitated ones bled black, viscous fluid, resembling crude oil.

“These creatures are so weird!” Yang Bo was convinced these beings must have been modified in some way.

True, natural creatures wouldn’t be like this. But what kind of modification could have created these results?

In his previous life, Yang Bo knew nothing about genetic engineering, let alone the bio-genetics of this world.

Unknowns like this didn’t interest him, so he stopped thinking about it and kept pulling the trigger. Still, until they died, no skill ranks would drop.

As long as he participated in the attack, the creatures would still drop skills eventually.

“It’s nice having help. But for now, getting skill progress is something I don’t need help with.” Out of bullets, Yang Bo pulled on the ropes to retrieve the guns and ammunition the two players had prepared.

Far off, the two players watched Yang Bo as he relentlessly hunted these zombie sheep.

“This guy’s impressive, a hit rate above 99%. But with his shooting stance, it doesn’t look like he’s been trained.”

“That’s no surprise. These vintage guns don’t exist in real life anymore, only in a few old games.”

“These guns have recoil, unlike today’s laser or electromagnetic guns.”

“Back then, they used chemical reactions to propel the bullet. Now we use energy weapons. Electromagnetic guns are driven by electromagnetic force.”

“Well, this guy’s easy to talk to. We spent a lot of credits buying him bullets. If he was head-shotting these things, we’d be losing money.”

“He’s got a sharp mind. It was smart to think of this method for safely hunting these creatures.”

“I wonder if there’ll be any flying creatures today. Yesterday, we earned nearly 200,000 credits.”

“Don’t go spreading that around. This game might not be fun, but as long as it’s profitable, it’s worth it.”

“Of course, I’m not stupid. I’ll get his contact info later, just in case he needs us in the future…!”

“What are you even talking about? Why would he need your contact info?”

“Delivery, of course. This game world is huge. If he ever hunts monsters again, he might need bullets or other supplies. And since he doesn’t need these corpses, we’ll just deal with them.”

“Not a bad idea. Yesterday, we collected a ton of sheep horns. Yeah, they don’t sell for much individually, but accumulate enough, and you’ve got something.”

“There’s no harm in trading contact info. I reckon this guy likes using old guns or maybe enjoys the thrill of killing.”

“Maybe. Probably some unfulfilled rich kid in a family, venting in this game world.”

“Or someone bullied in real life.”

As they watched Yang Bo hunt the creatures, the two players whispered to each other, eventually concluding that he must be a disgruntled young heir from a prominent family.

In just 20 minutes, Yang Bo had nearly wiped out the monsters. Most were shot in the neck, leaving their heads furiously gnawing at everything around them, even injuring each other.

In Yang Bo’s mind, incomplete messages for ‘Charge +2’ skill drifted by.

“Boss?” The two players saw Yang Bo climb down from the rope and hurried to his side.

“I’ll go check the farm. You two handle things here.” Yang Bo glanced at the mass of zombie sheep heads with their blackened, gnashing teeth. The chaos was unsettling, and the sound was grating.

“Be careful, Boss! We’ve heard that if the monster count hits a certain threshold, a stronger creature might appear. With this many zombie sheep, who knows if there’s something more dangerous lurking.” The two players warned Yang Bo as he headed into the farm with his gun.

The two of them looked over the zombie sheep carcasses, extracting fluid from their heads. Each one was worth at least 10 game currency, alongside the sheep horns and other parts.