Chapters [83 - 84]

Chapter 83. Can't Afford A Thing...

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After dinner, Lin Huang checked into a hotel in Carefree City. He got into the room and sat on the living room couch. He then got Xiao Hei to arrange his cards.

"You have received a total of nine new cards."

"New Monster Card x5 - Charcoal (Epic), Alexandrian Eagle (Rare), Viridian Wolf, Demonic One-Eyed Ape, Specter"

"New Skill Cards: Thunder Sword (Rare), Cloud steps (Rare)"

"New Function Cards: Advance Card x1"

"New Item Card (Relic) x1"

Lin Huang was satisfied when he heard the list. The two cards he obtained for completing the mission were an Advance Card and a Relic Item Card. He had received both of them when he stepped into Carefree City. However, there was another notification that came from Xiao Hei later on.

"You have used a total of six cards"

"Cards that you have used: Provisional Transformation Cards x5, Healing cards x2, Double Reward Cards x3, Mission Cards x2"

"I have used all my Provisional Transformation Cards?" Lin Huang asked, stunned at the announcement. He mumbled and calculated, "I used one when I killed the Six-Armed Demon in the Purple Dress, one for going underground, another to kill Li Yanxing, one more to get out of the cave and I used the last one to transform into the Alexandrian Eagle to fly into the air… I really did use all of them!" He exclaimed.

"Two Healing Cards were used on Leng Yuexin, three Double Reward Cards got me 20 cross-ranking Reward Cards…" Lin Huang thought. He then frowned and asked, "Xiao Hei, please calculate all the remaining cards that I have."

"You have a total of 17 non-Monster Cards: Advance Card x4, Mission Card x1, Treasure Card x3, Life Power Storage Card x2, Item Card x4, Limitless Card x1, Flawless Card x2, Healing Card x1."

"Four Advance Cards would mean I can upgrade both Bai and Tyrant…" At the very beginning when he got his first two monsters, he always wondered which he should advance first. Now, he no longer had to think and upgraded the both of them.

"Xiao Hei, if I were to upgrade both Bai and Sand Monster to Epic-levels, that wouldn't affect me right?" Lin Huang asked Xiao Hei before he upgraded both of them.

"No. But upgrading twice would mean one Life Transformation. They will evolve into another species and during the evolution, they will need a large amount of Life Power. I don't suggest you do it in the foothold or the areas near the foothold. An unusual wave of life force could attract the attention of a transcendent as well as the monitoring bureau of the Union Government. Furthermore, I don't suggest you do it in the wild zone as there are transcendent monsters there too, just to be safe," Xiao Hei explained.

"Alright then…" Lin Huang had to put his plan on hold. He was lucky that he got out of Wangyou Forest alive but he was not going to back there just to upgrade his monsters.

"I'll have to wait for the next time I go to a wild zone then, since I can do it anytime," he thought. He then continued, "From the four Item Cards, three of them should be able to get me some Item. And the random Relic Item Card that I retrieved from the mission, let's activate all of them!" Four Item Cards with a question mark on top appeared in Lin Huang's hand. Three of them were pure white while another was silver in color.

"Activate Item Card x4"

"Congratulations, you have received bronze-level armor x1, bronze-level battle sword x1, bronze-level water bottle x1."

"Congratulations, you have received a Scouting Relic - Waxed Dragoneye (pirated)!"

"Scouting Relic…" Lin Huang was speechless. Although such a relic was very useful, it required a lot of money. A single use would use up Life Crystal which was worth a hundred years. The one he wanted the most was actually a Sword Relic. Not only he did not need his Life Power to use it, the sharpness of Sword Relic would never decrease.

He then tapped on the treasure tool card to read the detailed description.

"Item Card (Relic)"

"Level: Four-star relic"

"Relic Name: Waxed Dragoneye (pirated)"

"Relic Type: Scouting Relic"

"Description of Relic: This pirated holy relic can identify and detect everything that is going on within a coverage area of 1,000 kilometers."

"Usage Limit: Maximum three times per day!"

"Looks like an astonishing relic with such strict limitations. I can only use it three times per day!" Lin Huang raised his eyebrow. All the other equipment were transformed into rings after they were activated but this relic remained a card.

To activate relics, he would have to be at least gold-level so that he can have sufficient Life Power. Lin Huang was very far from that so he had to keep it in its card form.

After keeping his new equipment, he looked at the two skill cards that he obtained from killing Li Yanxing.

"Skill Card"

"Skill Card Name: Thunder Sword"

"Rarity: Rare"

"Type of Skill: Sword"

"Skill Level: Gold-level"

"Status: Available"

"Description: This skill required speed and force to be effective."

"Remarks: This skill requires Life Power."

"Card remarks: Passable"

…

"Skill Card"

"Skill Card Name: Cloud Steps"

"Rarity: Rare"

"Type of Skill: Body movement"

"Skill Level: Gold-level"

"Status: Available"

"Description: This skill is suitable for short-distance teleportation."

"Remarks: This skill is a unique movement skill. Not limited to level, the effect changes with the user's ability."

"Card remarks: Passable"

"No bad," Lin Huang thought. He was satisfied with the two skills that he obtained. He practiced his Thunder Sword for many days before and only got a few card pieces. He did not expect to get the card from killing Li Yanxing. As for Cloud Steps, he witnessed it in one of Li Yanxing's battles, it was a pretty amazing teleportation skill.

"Activate both skill cards!" he said.

"Activation has been completed!"

Both skill cards on Lin Huang's hand disappeared. He then looked at his Exclusive Card and saw two skills added to his list of skills.

He then looked at the cards that Xiao Hei listed on the notification board.

"What is this Life Power Storage Card and Limitless Card?" Lin Huang asked. He had obtained the two cards when he performed a cross-ranking kill on the transcendent monster in Wangyou Forest. It was one of the 20 reward cards that he obtained but did not have the time to look at them.

He viewed the Life Power Storage Card and was stunned after reading its description.

"Life Power Storage Card: After it is activated, it can clone the user's Life Wheel and store the same amount of Life Power as the user's original Life Wheel.

"Remarks: This card can only increase the storage of Life Power but not clone the other functions that a Life Wheel comes with."

Even with that disappointing remark, Lin Huang thought this card was the best thing ever. Once it was activated, he would have an extra Life Wheel. Moreover, he had two Life Power Storage Cards.

"Each iron-level rank-3 Life Wheel has 1080 columns of Life Power. If I activate both cards, I would have three Life Wheels of Life Power stored in my body, which is equivalent to 3240 columns of Life Power!" Lin Huang was over the moon when he read the card's function and instructed Xiao Hei immediately, "Xiao Hei, activate both of the Life Power Storage Cards!"

"Life Power Storage Card x2, activated!"

Both of the Life Power Storage Cards started to glow and the glow enveloped his body. He inspected his body afterward and there really were two additional Life Wheels that looked exactly the same. However, all the other columns were blank. Unlike his original Life Wheel, the Life Power only filled the first circle.

He then looked at the Limitless Card, "So what's this Limitless card?"

Limitless Card: After using it, you can permanently upgrade one thing of your choice for an unlimtied amount of time."

"Remarks: It will disappear after one use."

"An unlimited upgrade?!" The first thing Lin Huang thought of when he saw the card's function was Xiao Hei.

"Xiao Hei, is this card effective on you?"

"Yes," Xiao Hei replied firmly.

"That's great, then I'll use the card on you, which also means I get to upgrade my usage of you without limitations!" Lin Huang said and smiled at the thought.

"Are you sure about the target user?"

"Confirmed!"

"Limitless card has been usage… You have received an upgrade…"

"Activated new function - Card Pieces Mall!"

"Random card reward, card selection has been increased from 12 pieces to 18 pieces!"

"Card Pieces Mall?!" Lin Huang's eyes brightened up. He was just thinking of trading off his card pieces for something useful.

"You only have iron-level and bronze-level card pieces, you can't browse pages that are of a higher card level."

"Sure, let me take a look at iron-level and bronze-level card pieces." Lin Huang nodded.

Many cards were presented to him. After he glanced through them, he felt cheated by Xiao Hei.

"I have to use two card pieces to trade one card piece of the same level… One normal iron-level monster would only need 30 card pieces to combine a but here, I would have to use 60 card pieces!"

"As your card pieces are not the monsters you want, there's a price to pay if you want certain monsters," Xiao Hei explained.

He then looked at the rare monster cards. Every single one of them would need at least 10,000 card pieces and there were many that required millions of card pieces.

"Seems like I'm still a poor boy that can't afford anything here…" Lin Huang shook his head. Normal Monster Cards would not help him much but the Rare Monster Cards required ridiculous amounts of card pieces which were way more the card pieces he owned.

_ _ _ _ _End_ _ _ _ _

Chapter 84. Over A Hundred Million In Savings

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Carefree City was fresh with an earthy smell after the drizzle. It was almost eight in the morning and the sun was breaking in the dawn. The city was waking up from its nightly slumber. However, Lin Huang was bummed as he did not manage to book the Demonic Crystal Spaceship tickets the night before and would have to wait for the next scheduled flight which would the following Monday.

He called Lin Xin and unsurprisingly, she picked up even before her phone started to ring. A video was projected before him.

"Brother, was it successful?!" Lin Xin looked at Lin Huang in excitement.

"Yes, I'm now an Iron-level hunter!" Lin Huang nodded in matched enthusiasm.

"Ever since you left, I've browsed through some information about the Six-Armed Demon on the network. It seemed powerful but brother, you're even more powerful than the demon!" She shouted. Lin Xin always thought her brother was invincible, and moments like those proved her right, for her own sake.

"Of course!" Lin Huang smiled.

"Brother, when are you coming back?" Lin Xin asked.

"There's supposed to be a spaceship that departs to Baqi City today but I just got my settled down after sorting out my stuff from yesterday and didn't manage to get the ticket. I'll have to come back next week…" Lin Huang explained. "However, I have some things to settle when I'm back in Baqi City so that'll take one or two days. I'll get that done in Carefree City since I'm already here," he continued.

"Oh…" Lin Xin said, sounding upset.

"Carefree City is a food heaven, I'll bring you good food when I'm back. What would you like to eat?" Lin Huang smiled and asked.

"I want everything!" Lin Xin said playfully.

"Alright, I'll get one each for you." Lin Huang nodded.

"No, I want two of each dish!" Lin Xin said.

"Can you finish so much food, you little glutton?" Lin Huang raised his eyebrows.

"Of course! We'll share it. I want you to eat with me!" Lin Xin's tone remained playful.

"Alright then, I'll get two of each…" Lin Huang shook his head.

"Brother, can you stay longer this time when you're back?" Lin Xin asked after a moment of hesitation.

"That shouldn't be a problem, why?" Lin Huang replied, curious at her request.

"It's summer break next week. I will be so bored without you at home…" Lin Xin explained, rolling her eyes and pouting at the thought.

There were four seasons in Division7 as well. Everyone, no matter a child in school or an adult at work would have four long holidays every year. Spring break was a long holiday during the rainy season which was usually 15 to 20 days. However, it would not be raining in all the areas and the holiday did not apply to certain areas as well. Summer break was similar to the experience back on Earth, it was the warmest season of the year. The break would usually be one and a half months and if it was too warm, the break could go on for two months. Autumn break would be the anniversary of the establishment of the Union Government. The break lasted for 10 days. Lastly, the winter break which was similar to the one on Earth. This coldest holiday would last for one to two months. Some areas that were colder would get a holiday that was longer than two months.

Lin Huang was shocked when he learned about the four long holidays in this world. The first thing that came to his mind was, "We get five months of holidays in this world? These people are so pampered!" He later found out that to ordinary people, it was not really a holiday for those who were working during the summer and winter. It was more like a work from home situation.

"Ahh, I almost forgot about the summer break…" Lin Huang scratched his head, "It would be boring to stay at home for one to two months. Why not you pick a destination and we'll travel there?"

"A vacation? Yes please!" Lin Xin screamed. She had never left Wulin Town since she was little. She was so excited when Lin Huang suggested the vacation.

"You pick the destination within the next few days. After I get back, I'll rest for two or three days before we depart," Lin Huang told her. He was relieved when he managed to coax her out of her solemn mood.

"Okay," Lin Xin nodded her head hard.

After he hung up the phone, he had breakfast downstairs. He then went to the reception and booked his room for another one week and left to the Hunter Association. There was a division of the Hunter Association in the middle of each foothold. Lin Huang planned to trade the dead monster carcasses to get credit points when he got back to Baqi City but now that he could not leave just yet, he figured he would do it that here instead since it was the same. In reality, the price of dead monster carcasses was fixed so it would not matter which city he went to.

The Hunter Association divisions were built in the central area of each city. It was not far from the hotel that Lin Huang stayed in. It only took him a 10-minute walk to get there. It was 8:30 in the morning when he got there and it was already crowded. Lin Huang followed the crowd to the main hall and made his way to the reception desk on the left of the entrance. There were many people at the counter, and after waiting for quite a while, he was finally at the counter.

"Hi, I would like to know where to trade in monster carcasses," he asked.

"It's at the Monster Carcass Warehouse behind the hall, I'll get someone to bring you there." The receptionist in a red dress called a number and immediately hung up after a short exchange of words.

"Someone will come get you, please give them a moment," she told him.

One or two minutes later, a strong, young man approached Lin Huang when he saw him standing next to the receptionist.

"Are you the guest who would like to trade in monster carcasses?"

"Yes, that's me," Lin Huang nodded.

"How many are there?"

"I think there are 300 to 400 of them, I didn't count," Lin Huang really had no idea of the exact amount as he collected so many himself while he was following Li Yanxing. Bai and Charcoal killed quite a lot of monsters as well. The storage in his ring was full to the extent they were not able to bring back the carcasses of the monsters they killed later on.

"Alright, please follow me," the young man said. He brought Lin Huang to the back of the hall.

It was a large backyard. The young man led Lin Huang across the backyard to the far end. There was a massive house that looked like a warehouse. The young man stopped at the entrance of the warehouse, turned around and said to Lin Huang, "You can put all the monster carcasses here, I'll get my master to count them."

The young man then walked into the warehouse. Lin Huang took out all the monster carcasses from his storage ring, and soon the carcasses were piled into a small hill at the entrance of the warehouse.

A moment later, a short and stout old man walked out slowly. The young man walked behind him without saying a word. The old man looked at Lin Huang, nodded, and walked around the pile of monster carcasses. He then said to Lin Huang,"There are a total of 421 of them, 187 are bronze-level rank-3 and 234 are bronze-level rank-2. Is that correct?"

"I didn't count them myself, so I have no idea how many are there." Lin Huang replied, stunned at what had just happened. He thought it was strange that the old man just walked around the monster carcasses and he managed to get such an accurate figure. However, what he was certain of was there were only monsters of bronze-level rank-2 and bronze-level rank-3 as he cleared out all the bronze-level rank-1 in his storage to store more valuable monster carcasses.

"Hercules, help him count them," the old man ordered and waved to the young man casually. He then walked back into the warehouse.

"It's impossible that my master would have miscalculated. I'll count them for you again then," the strong, young man said then lifted a monster's thigh and tossed it aside.

Lin Huang was shocked. The young man had just lifted a Trihorn Rhino. Although it was not a gigantic monster, it weighed at least five tons but the young man managed to lift it with just one hand. What shocked Lin Huang even more was, there were no signs of Life Power on the young man's body.

"Was he born strong or is there some other reason?" Lin Huang looked at him skeptically while he counted the carcasses. The figure was exactly what the old man said.

"Are you done counting?" The old man came back and smiled at Lin Huang while he stood at the warehouse entrance. "The price of a bronze-level rank-2 monster carcass is usually within 300,000 to 500,000 credit points while bronze-level rank-3 would be within 500,000 to 800,000 credit points. The accurate price for all these carcasses would be 215.15 million credit points. I'll round it up to 215.2 million credit points for you," he said.

"Sure, thank you old man," Lin Huang replied. He thought it would have been great if he could get at least one hundred million credit points out of the carcasses but it was so much more than he expected.

"Hercules, please do the transfer for him," The old man then passed a note that was the size of his palm with '215,200,000' written on it. Lin Huang was surprised but he took the note.

"Let's go, we need to go to the finance department near the hall," Hercules said, and he ushered Lin Huang out of the warehouse and into the hall.

While they were walking, Lin Huang could not help but ask, "What does the Hunter Association do with so many monster carcasses?"

"Most of them will become food in the market while rare ones will be sent for research," Hercules explained.

"The Hunter Association collaborates with the House of Food and many other organizations so there are many orders for the carcasses," he continued.

"Ahh, so they collaborate with the House of Food…" Lin Huang finally understood why the Hunter Association needed massive supplies of monster carcasses.

The House of Food was an organization that many Food Hunters joined. The organization only recruited Food Hunters so they need to collaborate with other organizations for other resources. For the safety of food ingredients, they did not purchase ingredients from the market. The selection of food ingredients was done by the Hunter Association and Adventurer Paradise, which saved the House of Food a lot of time.

Hercules brought Lin Huang to the finance office, Lin Huang then passed the note to the middle-aged woman behind the counter. The woman looked at the note and looked at Hercules and Lin Huang, "215.2 million, is that right?" she confirmed.

"That's correct." Lin Huang nodded. A white interface then popped up before him.

"Please scan at the bottom right corner. The transfer will be done within three minutes," the woman said.

Lin Huang scanned the barcode at the bottom right corner with his Emperor's Heart Ring immediately. Just as he retracted his hand, he received a transfer notification. It was a message from the credit bureau.

"Dear Mr. Lin Huang, you have received a transfer of 215.2 million credit points."

Looking at the number, Lin Huang was over the moon, "Who cares what kind of currency this is, I finally have more than a hundred million in my savings…"

_ _ _ _ _End_ _ _ _ _