Chapter 39: Circle of High-end Harvesters
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Even though Meng Chao only received sixty-eight contribution points from Chu Feixiong teaching Demon Yan Reckless Bull Technique, once he was certain of Demon Yan’s status as an “elite monster”, Meng Chao could often go to him to play. He believed that he could farm buckets full of contribution points from him.
Chu Feixiong made an agreement with Demon Yan that after they went through the test in school which was the first round of the national college examination, Demon Yan could teach Reckless Bull Technique to the entire school, and Demon Yan promised that he would get a huge load of cultivation resources for Chu Feixiong from the princ.i.p.al.
Overcharging the school for this was much more rewarding than the small profit from other students. Meng Chao was absolutely fine with it.
After Demon Yan understood the technique and the students in the study group sparred with each other, Meng Chao acc.u.mulated 1,758 contribution points.
He went to the toilet and activated an Initial Stage Healing Skill, and his healing progress went up to seventy-one percent.
He threw the remaining contribution points into the Skillfulness of Basic Harvesting Skill.
Even though a few hundred contribution points were not enough to push his Basic Harvesting Skill from Specialist Level to Master Level, with each increase in his Skillfulness, he would regain some memory fragments stored in the depths of his mind. They allowed him to gain a brand new understanding toward harvesting.
He also managed to come up with a few ways to cure Ning Shewo.
It was the day of the material trade fair.
After school, Meng Chao did not join the self-study period at night. He took the public bus to a building called Clouds Soar.
He could vaguely remember attending monster material trade fairs in his past life as well. They might sound grand, but in truth, they were no different from markets that sold fresh pork. There were hearts, livers, spleens, lungs, and kidneys all over the place, and everyone competed by placing their bids.
When Meng Chao saw the sparkling Clouds Soar, the various grand cars parked in front of the building, and the men and women dressed magnificently, he lowered his head to look at his wrinkled school uniform and realized that there was something off about him.
There couldn’t be any talk about him owning a grand car. There was limited s.p.a.ce in Dragon City, and an exorbitant amount of money was needed for parking fees, fuel surcharges, and vehicle taxes. Anyone could gain the status of n.o.bility even if they just attached four wheels to two couches and installed a crystal engine, but that was as long as the vehicle could be driven on the road legally.
‘I might have been a harvester for more than ten years in my previous life, but I was always at the bottom of the field. At that time, the trade fairs I attended were all like markets. But this time, I was invited to attend by White-haired Ghostly Hands, so the standard will naturally be different. My appearance is indeed a little ill-fitting and eye-catching.’
Meng Chao did not have the habit to pretend to be someone weak so that he could take advantage of the powerful.
If he had realized the problem earlier, he would have changed to a cleaner pair of clothes so that he could show Ning Shewo respect.
But since he was already here, he could not be bothered to go back to change. Besides, he did not have any other clothes at home that looked decent.
He flung his school bag over his shoulder and let out a dry cough. Then, without ever changing his expression, he walked among the impeccably dressed men and women into Clouds Soar.
To show off its n.o.ble status, the five-star hotel had installed an elevator.
The number of times Meng Chao took an elevator since he was young could be counted on one hand. When he saw the others operate it with familiar ease, he watched them curiously.
When the young men and women saw him reacting in this manner, they could not help but snicker.
A teenage girl decked in jewelry whispered into her male companion’s eyes about how he stuck out like a sore thumb.
When they reached the entrance of the trade fair, the security guard and ushers stared at him in puzzlement and wariness. They verified his ident.i.ty thrice before they let him in with a troubled look.
“My apologies, my young friend. I’ll only arrive ten minutes later. Are you alright?” Ning Shewo soon called him.
“It’s fine. School ended early for me today. You can take your time, Elder Ning.” Meng Chao was not bothered by it.
The trade fair was held in the style of a buffet.
Compared to markets selling pork, this was more akin to a banquet for rich and powerful families, as well as those of the upper-cla.s.s members of society.
As they toasted each other, it was clear that the trading of monster materials was only secondary. The main goal of the trade fair was to expand connections, strengthen relationships, and negotiate business deals.
After walking around a few times, Meng Chao heard a few important people with extraordinary presences settling a few “small” business deals worth tens of millions.
He also saw a few harvesters with strange lights shining in their eyes and spirit marks on their hands. It was clear that they were top-cla.s.s harvesters who had transcended worldliness and attained sainthood. All of them boasted about themselves in a reserved manner while they spoke to each other.
The contents of their talks were all about “So and so was incredibly rash and turned insert-monster-name-here’s organs into mince meat with just one punch. Others would have had problems dealing with it, but I could perfectly separate the utterly destroyed organs, and their value remained the same.”
Sometimes, those conversations shifted to “Mr. Whatever The Name Is possesses unmatched strength but only feels at ease if I harvest the superbeasts he kills. If I have something to do, he would rather not go into the fog.”
And such other conversations.
Based on their words, the peerless fighters who intimidated Dragon City were children who did not understand the importance of things. Every time they reduced the monsters into a pulp, the harvesters were the ones who had to deal with the aftermath.
Meng Chao knew that this was just businessmen boasting about themselves, but he still found his emotions surging as he listened. The harvester field was indeed the top among all supporting careers!
Meng Chao was also completely unbothered by the gazes the people cast on him, the lavish environment, and the grand food around him.
True, he was just an average high school student, but he was also someone who had witnessed the end of the world.
During the apocalypse, no matter how lavish a five-star hotel was, it was turned into rubble; no matter how exquisitely and impeccably dressed a beauty was, she was reduced to a skeletal frame; the peerless fighters who stood supreme above others and had the entire city at their beck and call became ants who struggled to survive. No matter how high a person’s position was in society, how great of an authority their family possessed, how matchless their martial art was, how rich they were, all of that turned into a dream and became meaningless.
When faced with such a Dragon City, was there a place where Meng Chao could not enter? Was there anyone he would need to bow his head to?
He smiled and went straight to the buffet table.
Kindling was great, but the energy consumption rate was extremely high every time he exchanged things with it using his contribution points. He needed to replenish a lot of “fuel”.
Since this was a buffet in a five-star hotel, it would be a waste if he did not replenish the “fuel” he would need for the subsequent week.
No one would really be paying attention to eating when it came to this sort of high-end banquet anyway.
Because Meng Chao was the only one with two plates full of food in his hands, even more people stared at him.
He was completely fine with the stares, but he had to preserve some of Elder Ning’s dignity, so he found a corner behind a pot and sat down with his legs crossed. He then started munching on his food.
While he was eating heartily, he suddenly heard people discussing him among themselves.
“Hey, did you see a high school student? He’s eating like he’s starving.”
“He was also staring at the b.u.t.tons in the elevator for a long time just now. It’s no wonder why he came into the elevator with us. If he were alone, he might not have been able to reach the second floor.”
“I thought that everyone needs an invitation to enter this trade fair. Who invited him?”
Meng Chao narrowed his eyes and looked through the gaps of the plant. He discovered eight young men dressed in huafu. All of them had an air of supremacy about them, and they looked like people who would boss others around.
The person who stood at the center had a handsome face, but his eyes were a little puffy, and he also had a rather wicked air about him. All the other people called him Young Master Jun.
However, they only spoke about Meng Chao briefly. Soon, they changed the topic and talked about the world outside the fog.
“I heard from my teacher that the s.p.a.ce and time torrent will calm down within three years, or eighth at max. At that time, Dragon City will completely infiltrate the Other World. The army of Dragon City will be able to sweep through the world and suppress everything in its sight!”
“That means that the world will belong to the people in our generation. We will be the ones achieving great things and create history.”
“I heard from the people in the Other World Research Center that there are not just monsters in the Other World. There are also all sorts of strangely shaped things and even low-grade humanoid-shaped creatures. They look like the cavemen on Earth. I wonder if they’re strong?”
“How could they be strong? The Other World has many local creatures, but they’re all very afraid of monsters. They named the place we transmigrated to Demon Mountain, b.l.o.o.d.y Mountain Range, Monster Mountain Range, Cursed Land, and other things. The monsters are the strongest beings in the Other World.”
“Earthlings have managed to start beating up those monsters mere decades into transmigrating to this place. Ha! Once we completely vanquish those monsters and the fog is gone, regardless if it’s the other Other World creatures or the savages who can only swing their sticks and stone axes, they’ll all be useless before us. They’ll only be able to wait for us to take them down.”
“What a pity. That won’t be exciting at all. There’s no fun in that.”
The aristocratic children shook their heads and sighed.
Meng Chao wanted to laugh when he heard them.
There were Other World locals all over Monster Mountain Range, and they were indeed fearful of the monsters and treated them like demons, but that was nothing.
On Earth, there was a place called Amazon rainforest. It had giant snakes, crocodiles, piranhas and other fierce creatures, which were respected by the locals in the area.
If a group of unfortunate aliens transmigrated into the depths of the Amazon rainforest and spent decades there, what would happen after they finally destroyed the giant snakes, crocodiles, piranhas, and even the locals in the forest?
They would think that they had faced the peak fighting force of Earth. If they defeated the Amazon rainforest, they could conquer Earth. Then, they would happily leave the forest and would find the armies of human nations watching them quietly with their guns pointed at them.
The scene was too amazing. Meng Chao could not bear to continue imagining it.
He snickered.
“Who is it?”
“Who are you?!”
“What’s so funny?”
The children of the aristocrats did not expect that there would be a person hiding behind the pot and eavesdropping on them. He even laughed at them.
Once Meng Chao came out with the residue of the food he ate on two large plates, the group’s expressions turned incredibly strange.
They could be described as something along the lines of them wanting to step on him, but being afraid that doing so would soil the soles of their shoes.
The wicked-looking young man called Young Master Jun cast him a deep look.
Meng Chao did not want to get into conflict with them and cause trouble to Elder Ning, so he held back his laughter and quickly left.
When the aristocratic children found that he smelled like food and saw that his hands were greasy, they avoided him like the plague.
Ning Shewo finally arrived.
Along with him was Ning Xueshi, and she was impeccably dressed.
She wore a low-cut, wine-red gown. On her fair, long neck was a crystalline necklace, and she gave off a faint bewitching fragrance.
She was dressed in a mature manner, and it showed off her figure. Her inborn pride was etched on her face, and it made her look older than she was. Even so, she still gave off a rather youthful air, which made her look like an adorable girl trying to pretend to be a strong woman. Right after she appeared, she attracted everyone’s attention.
“Is that Ghostly Hands Ning’s granddaughter?”
“She’s a famous beauty in the harvester field.”
“Forget it. She’s a very cold person. She refused to show respect even to Young Master Jun. Last time, Young Master Jun wanted to—”
Ning Shewo was dressed in a huafu that was tailored and meticulously made with a lot of monster materials. His white hair was combed neatly, and there was a jade ring on his right thumb. He looked n.o.ble and domineering.
When everyone saw this gorgeously dressed grandfather-granddaughter pair walk to the high school student who looked like a country b.u.mpkin, they were shocked.
“Ghostly Hands Ning invited that country b.u.mpkin here?”
When Ning Shewo saw how Meng Chao was dressed, he was also stunned.
After coming into contact with Meng Yishan, Ning Shewo knew that Meng Chao did not have a strong family background. He was just a normal high school student.
But the more he thought about Meng Chao’s Seven Dissection Methods Performed in Reverse, the more significant he found it. He thought that Meng Chao must have gained a fortuitous encounter. His master should be an incredibly important person in the field. Since he agreed to attend the banquet, his master should teach him the basic rules.
Who would know that the current genius youths would all act in such... unique and eccentric ways?
Ning Shewo thought about it and said hesitantly, “My young friend, are you... pretending to look like a country b.u.mpkin?”
“Huh?”
Ning Xueshi piped in then. “What Grandpa means is did you dress up this way intentionally to make others look at you in disdain so that you can look for a chance to stomp on them and become famous in the harvester field?”
Meng Chao was shocked. “What? No! Don’t spew nonsense like that! Why is everyone’s thought process so strange nowadays?”