Chapter 41: Encounter

Xu Feng dug out all the Insect Crystals and then used Gathering Art on the Fish Monster corpses. Soon, those Fish Monster bodies turned into some living materials.

Xu Feng packed these materials into a small backpack.

He found this backpack at the Resort. Although it wasn’t as powerful as a Virtual Backpack that could ignore volume and weight, it was clearly much more convenient than carrying everything by hand.

At this point, Xu Feng really wanted to buy a Virtual Backpack from the Fate Store. It was too inconvenient without a storage tool.

“In my previous life, I didn’t get a Virtual Backpack until I reached Five-Star Strength, and it was the smallest one—only one cubic meter. Before that, I always used a backpack like this…” Xu Feng remembered his struggling days on Earth in his past life and couldn’t help but smile slightly.

Over the past few days, Xu Feng settled down at the Resort. Not many people usually came back here, especially during the apocalypse. Even now, Xu Feng was the only one here.

Every day, Xu Feng cleared out the Fish Monsters in the Resort Lake, collecting Insect Crystals and various materials. These days reminded him of his time at the Resort in his previous life, which was just as peaceful as now.

“The backpack is almost full. Time to go back,” Xu Feng thought to himself, glancing at the distant Resort.

…

“Ahead, right ahead. Follow this road to the end, and you’ll see the Resort. But there might be some people there now. I don’t know if they’ll let us stay for the night,” Li Min said, pointing forward.

“What’s there to be afraid of? Even though we can’t beat those monsters, we have weapons. I doubt they’d dare mess with us,” Zhang Qiang said, waving his machete.

Zhang Qiang was big and strong. He was the first in their small team to complete the task set by Earth’s Will to hunt Black Armored Beetles. Plus, he personally killed an Insect Human that had just possessed a person, so he was very bold and looked down on ordinary people.

“Let’s just talk nicely to them. At worst, we can give them some money,” Sun Liang said, adjusting his glasses nervously.

“Money? Money is useless now,” Zhang Qiang said scornfully, glancing at Sun Liang. “It’s the apocalypse now. The most important things are food, water, and weapons. Unless you’re willing to give away your food and water…”

“If… if it really doesn’t work, then… then…” Sun Liang hesitated. They didn’t have much food—only enough for a few days. If they gave it away, they’d probably starve.

“Enough, stop talking. Maybe everyone there is already dead,” Ma Wei said, waving his hand.

Soon, the group arrived at the main gate of the Resort.

“How… how come there are so many monster bodies here?” Sun Liang said, his face pale as he looked at the several Fish Monster corpses lying inside the Resort.

“What’s there to be scared of? Being afraid of monsters is one thing, but being scared of dead bodies? Pathetic,” Zhang Qiang said, kicking an Insect Human corpse and glaring back at Sun Liang.

“Seems like no one’s here?” Guo Yu suddenly said. “Maybe everyone here was killed by monsters?”

“What if we don’t go in? What if there are still monsters inside?” Li Min said timidly.

“Scared of what? I’ll go first. If there are monsters, I’ll chop them dead with one swing,” Zhang Qiang said loudly, gripping his machete tightly as he led the way into the Resort.

Soon, the group entered a three-story building and slowly made their way upstairs.

“Wow, so many things! Look, those are Insect Crystals! So many! We’re rich, we’re rich!” Zhang Qiang was the first to enter a large private room on the third floor. He laughed heartily at the sight of monster materials piled high like a small mountain in the corner and a small stack of Insect Crystals placed beside them.

“How come there are so many things here? These are all from monsters, right? So many… how many monsters did they have to kill?” Guo Yu said in surprise.

“Hey, there’s a Sniper Rifle here. Look, it’s even brand new,” Ma Wei said, amazed at the sight of the Sniper Rifle that Xu Feng had tossed aside, along with a dozen or so bullets next to it.

“A Sniper Rifle? Who are the people here? They even have guns. These monster materials must have come from monsters they killed with guns,” Li Min said, clapping her hands.

“Then… then where did these people go?” Sun Liang looked around but didn’t see anyone.

“They must have been killed and eaten by monsters, so all these good things are ours now, haha!” Ma Wei laughed loudly.

“So many Insect Crystals! We should be able to complete our mission now, haha!” Zhang Qiang grabbed a handful of Insect Crystals and laughed heartily.

To get a One-Star Insect Crystal, you had to kill a monster with One-Star Strength. Earth’s Will’s second task for ordinary people only required killing ten monsters and obtaining ten One-Star Insect Crystals.

But these people had limited strength. Even if they worked together, they weren’t a match for a single monster with One-Star Strength, so none of them had completed this task.

“Yeah, yeah, let’s finish the mission first. I’ve been worrying about this task. Forget one month, even a year wouldn’t be enough for me to finish it. Now it’s great—we’re getting it for free, haha!”

The group was happily looking at the items piled in the private room when they suddenly heard a voice from the doorway.

“If I were you, I’d put those things back where they were!”

“Ah!” Li Min jumped in fright. Everyone shivered, startled, and turned to look. A lean man in his twenties, holding a long sword, was leaning against the door frame, watching them coldly.

“Who… who are you?” Zhang Qiang stepped forward first, holding his machete horizontally, glaring fiercely at Xu Feng. “Friend, this place is ours now. Everything here belongs to us. You’re alone. I advise you not to have any bad ideas.”

“Right, first come, first served. We found this place first,” Ma Wei said, gripping a long wrench and standing behind Zhang Qiang.

The others timidly stood behind the two, not saying a word, just watching Xu Feng.

“Hmph, you found it first? I’ve been living here for over ten days. Since when did you find it first? And those things were obtained by me risking my life to hunt monsters. Do you think they can easily become yours?” Xu Feng gave them a disdainful look and said coldly, “Get lost now, or I’ll kill all of you.”

After saying that, Xu Feng swung his long sword. With a swish, a deep mark split open on the ground, startling all of them.

They looked at each other, their faces pale.