Chapter 278: Lure the Tiger Away from the Mountain

“The two of us are friends. We had nothing better to do, so we decided to play a game,” the other side answered candidly.

“That’s fine. Either way, the agreement between us remains,” Yang Bo thought having more support staff would help him clear the monsters faster.

“Let me notify them. For now, we’ll add two more people. What do you think, Captain?” Xiao Huang replied.

“That should be enough for now,” Yang Bo answered.

But the current task was to first clear out this farm.

Generally, these kinds of farms came in two varieties. The first was entirely zombies—humans turned into zombies, killed other animals, or the animals ran away.

The second was all animals, with the same reasons as above.

Yang Bo used a strategy to lure the zombies across the river on a bamboo raft, drawing them to this side for elimination.

While clearing them, they also cleaned up the zombie corpses. They simply used sticks to sweep them away.

Finally, the three of them went over together to finish off the remaining zombies on the other side.

Mental control +8!

“Captain, I didn’t expect this one could even spit poison!”

“Yeah, the one we killed last time didn’t do that!”

Earlier, Yang Bo had the two of them retreat a bit, as this ram leader also spat poison.

The first time they cleared a breeding ram at the sheep farm, Xiao Huang and Xiao Hong were forced to use revival points to detoxify themselves. They didn’t know that later, they’d clear another ranch, but those sheep didn’t have the ability to spit poison.

Yang Bo wasn’t in the mood to talk, busy collecting the ram leader’s horns.

One of these ram leader horns was worth over fifty thousand credits. The brain matter needed appraisal.

Yang Bo, however, figured that the brain matter of this zombie ram must be valuable.

Since this ram gave +8, it proved its level was higher than normal, likely due to its ability to spit poison.

“Let’s head back!” Yang Bo said after collecting the mission items.

The three of them already opened the team chat. Yang Bo used a voice modulator to alter his voice.

The other two seemed to do the same. It appeared all three of them were hiding something from one another.

“Captain, will we come back tomorrow?”

“Yes.” Yang Bo had no choice but to stay low. His boss had issued a protection order, though Yang Bo felt satellites couldn’t detect his invisibility.

However, the thought of a satellite constantly watching his surroundings made him uncomfortable and somewhat uneasy, fearing it might spot something suspicious.

So, he decided to grind his skills. He wouldn’t focus on the Charging Skill for now.

His physical growth was progressing too fast and needed some time to accumulate. He planned to hit other farms instead.

The three of them walked for over 20 minutes before Yang Bo suddenly noticed something off.

“Did you see any zombie bodies on the road when you came here?” Yang Bo asked as he noticed some zombie corpses and miscellaneous animals up ahead.

“No,” Xiao Hong, who had just gone back to buy bullets, answered.

“Looks like someone’s setting a trap for us.” Yang Bo threw a rock far away, hitting a stone on the mountain in the distance.

The rock hit with a dull thud, and using sonic detection, Yang Bo discovered five people hiding in tall grass on the hillside.

“Crap!”

“Is it those idiots from last time?” Xiao Huang and Xiao Hong quickly retreated after hearing that.

Last time, they were collecting the horns Yang Bo had left behind when three shameless guys threw bombs on the zombie corpses.

It poisoned their characters. If they hadn’t returned quickly, their characters would have died.

“Give me the bombs.” Yang Bo now knew precisely where the five were hidden.

Each of them carried bombs, but they weren’t effective against zombies. However, they worked well against players.

Xiao Huang and Xiao Hong handed the bombs to Yang Bo. He grabbed them and rushed forward.

Xiao Huang and Xiao Hong didn’t quite understand, watching Yang Bo swiftly dash forward.

As soon as Yang Bo reached a distance of a few dozen meters, someone from the hillside threw a bomb.

“Careful, Captain!” Xiao Huang and Xiao Hong shouted in alarm.

The next second, Yang Bo’s gun fired. The bomb thrown from the hillside exploded midair.

The loud explosion startled the five hidden players, indicating they were constantly taking damage from bomb shrapnel.

Then, the next moment, Yang Bo threw his bomb directly at their hiding place.

Yang Bo reacted so quickly because he already knew their exact location.

While running, though it seemed like he wasn’t doing anything special, he had already prepared everything. As soon as they threw their bomb, Yang Bo responded.

To Xiao Huang and Xiao Hong, it felt like their captain was no ordinary person.

Reacting that fast, and with such non-standard moves, Yang Bo had thrown the bomb exactly where the five were hiding.

The five had just been deafened by their own bomb, and now they got hit again, leaving some seriously wounded.

“Run!” Yang Bo shouted on the comms channel.

Xiao Huang and Xiao Hong immediately took off running, the three of them successfully passing through the ambush zone.

“Captain, what happened to them?”

“Not sure. But with that loud of an explosion, we’ll probably attract a lot of zombies.”

“Our priority is to hand in the mission for money.” Yang Bo had already sensed the explosion attracted a good number of zombies.

“The game’s design is so frustrating. Players can’t even aim and shoot at each other,”

Xiao Huang and Xiao Hong grumbled together, complaining about the broken game mechanics.

Yang Bo didn’t really mind. He could modify the settings of the bionic humans.

But since players’ bionic humans didn’t give him any special abilities, it was better to kill zombies.

Also, it would certainly alert the military behind the game company.

“Let’s split up on the way back,” Yang Bo told them half-jokingly.

“Captain, what do you mean?” Xiao Huang and Xiao Hong were already impressed with Yang Bo. That move earlier was perfectly timed. While running, he had shot down the bomb and threw his own in response.

“If they get killed by the zombies, they’ll wait for us at the respawn point.”

“Switch your clothes and stash your weapons,” Yang Bo explained.

Xiao Huang and Xiao Hong were still half-convinced and half-doubtful. They went back to the respawn point separately.

At the respawn point, players watched incoming players suspiciously.

This caused arguments and fights.

Soon after, Xiao Huang and Xiao Hong understood what was happening. Five players respawned at the point.

Newbies entering the game were different from revival coin users. Their equipment was different.

Those five players respawned one by one, gathering a bunch of people, looking for three players.

They also had a rough idea of what the three looked like.

“Is our captain seriously that bold? Did he really take down all five of them?”

“How many people are in their group?”

“Those scumbags ambushed us. They must’ve seen us come back regularly!”

“These bastards. Where’s the Captain?”

“He’s offline. Here’s our 40,000 credits.”

“Captain made six or seven thousand in one day. That’s two million a year.”

“He’s lost money at times too.”

“Let’s just follow him to earn. It’s not like running a bit more is a big deal.”

“Let’s go dig for more info.”

“They must belong to some gang.”

“Should we join their gang and spy on them?” Xiao Huang and Xiao Hong, having split the in-game currency, watched the chaos unfold.

That group interrogated everyone on the road, causing more conflicts.

Some players even set off bombs randomly. The chaos on the road to the respawn point was indescribable.

Within a certain range around the respawn point, bombs and similar items couldn’t be used.

But melee weapons could be used, though you couldn’t attack players with them.

After logging out, Yang Bo went to the basement and started his gym routine.

Before lifting weights, of course, he had to recharge. Charging up was much more effective than milk.

Today, he killed over 1,500 zombie sheep. His Charging Skill increased by more than 3,000 points. The physical boost from those points was evident.

“The Charging Skill has reached the grandmaster level. I wonder what surprises await when it reaches the supreme level.” As Yang Bo pumped iron, he pondered.

“The Listening skill is pretty handy too. Today, I noticed my sonic detection was much better than before.”

“Skills like that deserve more attention moving forward.”

“The Listening passive skill doesn’t need active usage and is much stealthier.”

“There are quite a few rabbit farms nearby.”

“I should also check the pet market. They have all sorts of strange animals. Maybe I’ll find something surprising?” Yang Bo considered the possibilities. The pet market might hold some valuable finds.

“Also, could there be zombie animals in the slaughterhouse?”

“I’ll need to focus on farms, zoos, and slaughterhouses moving forward.”

“I’m just not sure where the slaughterhouse is. Logically, it should be on the outskirts of the city.”

“Maybe the seafood market has some strange zombies that could give me weird new skills?”

Yang Bo continued his workout, glancing around the basement. These facilities couldn’t fully measure his strength.

To properly measure energy attacks, advanced and expensive equipment was needed.

The main issue was that Yang Bo didn’t have a good excuse to buy those kinds of devices. His current persona was still a rookie who had just discovered superpowers.

Maybe it was because he had lived two lives, or perhaps it was his camouflage ability, but Yang Bo found he was getting better at hiding, thinking more and more carefully.

“It’s still not as comfortable as training under the ocean.”

“Should I find a chance to go swimming in the sea?”

“Maybe bring the Fat Boss along for some fishing?” Yang Bo thought the deep sea was still the best place for training.

After heading upstairs for a shower, rinsing off all the sweat,

he went to his room and put the wristwatch there.

When he turned it on, he saw two emails, both from Fat Boss. The first was inviting Yang Bo to meet.

The second said he had an urgent matter that would take him away from March Planet for about a month, because his subordinates had caused some trouble.

After reading the second email, Yang Bo felt something was off. The Fat Boss suddenly leaving March Planet—could this be a plot? He immediately called him.

“Boss, do you think someone’s trying to mess with you?” Yang Bo asked directly.

“It’s unclear right now, but I have to show up in person for this. You have a protection order, so remember, don’t enter any private locations.” The Fat Boss sounded a bit surprised but knew this wasn’t the time to question things.

“Want me to come along?” Yang Bo offered out of courtesy.

“I’m already on the ship. Besides, nothing ever goes smoothly when you’re with me,” the Fat Boss admitted. After all, while he had made money with Yang Bo, each event had been more outrageous than the last.

It wasn’t Yang Bo’s fault, but the Fat Boss couldn’t help but feel a little uneasy.

“I’ve also noticed that nothing good happens when we’re together.”

“Take care, or I’ll be on the hunt for a new job again,” Yang Bo joked.

“Get lost!” the Fat Boss angrily hung up after saying just that.

After the call, both of them started thinking. The Fat Boss mulled things over for a while but couldn’t find any clues.

On Yang Bo’s side, before he could think much, Zhou Rui emailed him, asking for his input on a custom energy suit.

“So this woman is behind it.” Suddenly, Yang Bo understood. Zhou Rui just wanted to establish a good relationship with him.

The Fat Boss would only have gotten in the way. Still, Zhou Rui’s offer caught Yang Bo’s interest.

He didn’t exactly need an energy suit, but he did want to be able to access his own suit when needed.

Additionally, he needed a batch of energy metal to create storage equipment.

With energy metal, he could forge containers that would fit into his mecha’s spatial storage.

The mecha had storage space, but it was too large to be practical for quick use.

Yang Bo swiftly replied to Zhou Rui’s email. On the other end, Zhou Rui smiled and replied with a simple ‘good’.

“No one can turn down an energy suit!” Zhou Rui was confident this gesture would improve their relationship.

Of course, the energy suit wouldn’t be free. Yang Bo would need to sign a service contract.

This was how families recruited superhumans. Without a contract, the person might just take the suit and disappear.

But with this official contract, they could maintain both a public and private relationship.

While the Bounty Hunter Guild was illegal on this planet, the agreement was still protected by Alliance law.

Meanwhile, Xiao Huang and Xiao Hong watched the chaos unfold in the game for two more hours, still stirring things up from the sidelines.

In-game, Xiao Huang taunted, daring the gang members to fight him. ‘I dare you to hit me!’ he shouted as the angry gang couldn’t do anything. The game didn’t allow players to PK each other.

While people constantly complained about this rule on the forums, the game officials had no intention of changing it.

The players didn’t realize that bionic humans were controlled remotely, and damaging them cost real money.

After logging off, the two of them video chatted. Both looked like 30-something-year-old men with slicked-back hair… well, actually both of them were pretty good-looking, more like doppelgangers of a certain famous actor.

“So, who should we recruit to join our team?” Xiao Huang asked first.

“Let’s feel it out first. There are about 10 people in our circle. I won’t mention the bad ones.”

“Today I found someone I trust to watch the Captain make bamboo rafts. They said there’s a good chance the Captain is a high-level mecha pilot.”

“I asked someone too. After they saw the video of the Captain shooting down the bomb, they said his combat sense is strong, probably gained from real battles.”

“Let’s ask around and see who’s interested. If someone doesn’t want to play, we won’t mention it. Our Captain is quite the mystery. He’s definitely up to something bigger.”

“I agree. Clearing farms doesn’t make a ton of money, but for now, we’ll just follow him and figure it out.”