Chapter 199: Universe Valley
Han noticed a strange thing on the corner of the table. He walked over, picked it up and examined it.
It was a handful of strange fur. When Han held the fluff in his hands, it naturally turned to the color of Han’s palm. Clearly, this came from some type of animal and it could change color depending on the environment.
“What animal did this fur come from?” Han asked in curiosity.
The owner of this ball of fur was a dark burly man with two axes on his back. His face and chest were plastered with bandages and cloths and covered in bruises, as if he had just been beaten up by someone.
He whispered, “A little fellow, a very small star beast, seemed to be a squirrel.”
“Squirrel? A squirrel that can blend in like a chameleon?”
“It should be. When I found him, that little thing was eating a star python. It was a hundred-meter long python, and the squirrel carefully cracked open its skull and only ate the python’s brain.”
“Star pythons are very high level, and that little guy could actually kill and eat it, its level must be really high too. So, I launched an attack on it. Even if I couldn’t catch this little thing that could go invisible, getting that star python was pretty nice too. It had a brown and oval-shape-patterned skin so it should belong to the terrestrial vortex python family.”
Han smiled, “Unfortunately, you not only failed to catch that little thing but was also beaten up?”
Hearing those words, the dark and burly soldier first was enraged and gritted his teeth, then he was like a deflated balloon and said, “My whole family had been mercenaries for generations and I’m the sixth generation. Just a little bit more and I can reach the warlord level! My father, and even my grandfather are very proud of me!”
“But who would’ve guessed, I actually lost to such a little thing. After it noticed me, it didn’t dodge to flee but charged right towards me to scratch me with its claws. If it wasn’t for the warlord level hard armor that my grandpa gave me, I would’ve died in its hands!”
“You said, you were wearing warlord-level armor?” Han frowned and asked in curiosity.
Armor and the soft battle suit on Han were not the same thing. Armor was equipment specifically for soldiers that a.s.saulted fortified positions. Its focus was not flexibility nor speed, but the ability to resist attacks.
If both sets of equipment were at the same level, the degree of defense of hard armor was much higher than soft battle suit. A little squirrel, actually could tear apart warlord level armor with its claws? Such attack power was absolutely crazy. If it were up to Han, maybe only the Ghost Claw could destroy warlord level armors, but the Demon Claw definitely couldn’t.
And one must know, the Ghost Claw was a combination of a dark apostle and the dark queen bug’s power. Its size was also big, which wasn’t fair to be compared to a squirrel.
The dark burly soldiers helplessly said, “I’m the a.s.saulter among the mercenaries, I like to wear another layer of battle suit under my armor.”
Han hesitated again, looks like this little squirrel not only destroyed a warlord-level armor but also tore the combat suit underneath!
Han took in that pinch of fur that could change colors, and then said to the dark burly soldier, “I like your story, come with me.”
Woa~
Everyone let out a sigh when Han really demonstrated his eccentric habit to the extreme. Not only did he like trading for all kinds of whimsical things, today he even accepted a pinch of hair and a story?
Everyone felt that there was no justice at all, but the dark burly soldier was overly surprised. He followed Han to his own tent, sat on the bed and looked a bit stiff.
Han played with the fluff of fur and said, “What’s your name?”
“Black Tower.”
“Well, tell me the whole story.”
Black Tower then sincerely spoke, from when he entered the Universe Valley, how he got lost, how he broke through a swamp, how he encountered the squirrel, how he was chased by the squirrel, and how he ran his a.s.s back to the camp.
“Universe Valley again?” Han whispered to himself.
Universe Valley was the designated location for collecting materials. It was very magical, the pharmacists could find the drugs they needed in the valley, the soldiers could hunt all sorts of star beasts, and even blacksmiths could find the ore they wanted over there.
If taken literally, the Universe Valley basically meant it had all the items in the universe.
Han hadn’t been to Universe Valley because his current ident.i.ty was a genetic biology expert. If he personally went there, people would find out that he was actually also a soldier. In addition, there wasn’t a need for him to go, after all the soldiers will bring back products from the Universe Valley, and Han could trade with the soldiers for what he wanted.
Now that he heard Black Tower’s story, Han suddenly had the urge to personally go into the Universe Valley. A squirrel this powerful, maybe it was exactly what he needed, the best material to make the next fusion beast.
Now Han has two claws, they were both considered to be large fusion beasts and Han just needed a little guy.
When Han was working on the star squirrel for the blacksmith, he actually wanted one too. But to Han, that star squirrel’s level was obviously too low, not to mention Ghost Claw, even the Demon Claw could easily kill it with one move.
For Han who was going the elite troop path, if he was getting something, then it must be the best.
Thinking of this, Han couldn’t wait anymore and said to Black Tower, “Brother Black, I want to make a deal with you. Take me to the place where you met that squirrel, and I will make a fusion beast for you. As long as it’s within my ability, you can choose anything, even customized flying crocodile.”
Black Tower hesitated, first he was pleasantly surprised, then he worriedly said, “That might not be good. You are a genetic biology expert and the Universe Valley is very dangerous. As far as I know, there have now been a lot of soldiers that didn’t die on the battlefield but lost their lives in that valley.”
Han replied, “That you don’t have to worry, just tell me if you dare to go or not.”
“Of course I dare! If I see that d.a.m.n squirrel again, I’m going to strangle it!” Mercenaries like Black Tower were rough fellows, very daring and loud.
“Very good, first come with me to a place.”
“Where?”
“Let’s go get you some equipment.”
Han brought Black Tower to Blacksmith Thousand Hand’s tent. At this place, names were all code names used on dark net, so Thousand Hands obviously didn’t have a thousand hands, he was just someone Han recognized to be not bad and also owed him a little favor.
The Thousand Hand old man didn’t say anything and gave Black Tower a new set of armor and battle suit. Although the level wasn’t as high as the set Black Tower had before, but it should be enough for him in the current circ.u.mstances.
Black Tower felt that he owed Han a big favor, he immediately stopped saying any objections, and just asked when they were going.
Han thought for a moment and said, “The morning after tomorrow. I have a field test tomorrow, and starting from the day after tomorrow we will all have a few days of break. Let’s take advantage of these few days of time and visit the Universe Valley.”
“Alright, the day after tomorrow!” Black Tower looked up and said excitedly.
It was another busy working night, right now Han couldn’t say he was as wealthy as some countries, but at least he received a lot of strange things.
Han wasn’t really short on money anyways. He had tens of thousands of original blueprints, and the value of those blueprints were no less than a trillion GC. Of course, Han also had spent a portion of that money, and the majority of that wealth was stored with the military on Earth.
It was just because Han didn’t need money. The way he judged the value of something was always based on how novel and interesting it was.
Genetic biology experts were very popular in the camp. It could be imagined that if Han continued to stay here, that Lunar Mark of his with 1000 cubic meters of s.p.a.ce will sooner or later be filled with stuff.
After completing the work for that day, Han also went into the training tent to practice a few hours. The Path of G.o.d’s difficulty was unbelievable. Although Han always practiced hard, it was still very hard to make progress. Han couldn’t do anything about it either, but could only patiently practice bit by bit, ponder bit by bit, and hope the water drops will eventually penetrate through the rock. (TL: idiom for how small work builds up to yield big results)
In the morning, Han went to the genetic biology expert battle tent on time. There were already a lot of people in there sitting down, and most of them were just there for entertainment.
If Han wanted, he could also go to other professions’ combat scenes. As the latter half of the selection a.s.sessment began, the duels between contestants became more and more exciting. To be able to see the elites of each profession go on stage and battle, the life at the camp wouldn’t be as boring as before.
The two dark guards that were responsible for the selection of gene biology experts were Ting Bu and Xiao Man. Seeing Han, Xiao Man walked over with a smile and said, “How come you came this late, you really are calm. Next round is your turn, so don’t lose.”
Han didn’t say anything. He nodded, sat in the audience rows and watched the two fusion beasts battle on stage.
It was a flying crocodile and a brute force bear. In the realm of genetic biology, there wasn’t really a saying about patents. Although flying crocodiles were pioneered by Han first, if other people wanted to copy the design, Han couldn’t really do anything to stop them.
This flying crocodile had a good degree of imitation, almost the same as the ones Han made himself, using the body of star crocodiles and the wings of star vultures.
As for the brute force bear, it was combined with star bears and star apes. It looked like a skinny version of a bear, but the body was covered in muscles, like a body builder. It was ferocious without compromising agility.
Very soon, the copied flying crocodile lost. Although its teeth were locked on the bear’s arm and tore off the entire arm, but it couldn’t stand the bear’s brutal force and critically lethal strikes. Its wings were torn off, and after losing agility and flight, his skull was shattered by the one-armed brute force bear.
The scene was b.l.o.o.d.y, compared to the fighting between human soldiers, the battles between fusion beasts were more brutal and fearless.
Gengci~
The brute force bear’s owner walked up and cut off its head. This was a usual practice of genetic biology experts. The bear already lost its combat power, so the owner might as well take back the dead body and rebuild it into a new fusion beast later.
Han himself rarely used such means. Although fusion beasts were personally created by him, but he had a lot of respect for these loyal partners. The reason was very simple, since they will be loyally serving Han, then Han will treat them nicely, regardless of them being humans or animals.
Next up was Han. He walked to the center of the battlefield which was covered in blood and let out the Demon Claw. This thing had a blank look like usual, it scratched its head once and then laid down on the ground motionlessly.
When Han’s opponent came down to the stage, the scene suddenly came a stir.
Han raised his head, saw his opponent, and couldn’t help but feel shocked for a second and frowned.