"Little Wei, you're finally awake."
Liang Yuzhi's voice ca from the doorway. Li Wei turned weakly and saw her looking travel-worn but in excellent spirits. He could faintly catch the scent of over a dozen herbs and wild plants on her.
His sense of sll felt sharper than before.
"Second Aunt, how long was I asleep? I feel completely drained." Li Wei said with a wry smile.
Liang Yuzhi looked at him, a flicker of envy crossing her eyes. "You were out for a full twenty days. But that's actually a good sign — the longer the sleep, the milder the other side effects. It also ans the elixir was well-absorbed. Of course, you were on liquid food the whole ti, so naturally you're weak. Look at you — you're practically a skeleton. But don't worry. Second Aunt will cook for you personally. I'll have you back to full strength before the end of the month."
"Second Aunt, how have you been these past few days?"
Li Wei asked casually. He knew Liang Yuzhi had taken Spirit Elixirs before — her side effects probably hadn't been as severe as his. So had she managed to roll a Rare Scholar Card?
"? I'm perfectly fine. Though, speaking of which — Second Aunt does need a small favor. Little Wei, could you lend Adai for a few days? I want to go farther out to gather herbs."
"Sure. But Second Aunt — Adai has expensive tastes. You'll need to bring good food for him, or I'm afraid he'll slack off."
Li Wei nodded. During a period of cooperation, he was loyal to his partners. And if Liang Yuzhi found sothing valuable, Adai could report back to him. Who knew — maybe he'd even get a glimpse of how to roll a Rare Scholar Card.
Why not?
"Don't worry. I won't shortchange Adai."
Liang Yuzhi left, satisfied.
Li Wei lay back down. He was still too weak to do much else.
Shortly after, Li Yue ca hurrying in with food. After thoughtfully feeding him, she said with careful indirection: "Brother, we were short on so supplies, so I took a team back to the underground base. We found signs of Ability User activity there again. Brother — the Fla Duke to the west is a persistent threat. I think once the walls are finished, we need to deal with him."
"Little Yue, don't rush. I promised you — I won't go back on my word."
Li Wei replied with equal double aning. He understood what Li Yue was thinking. But this couldn't be rushed — at minimum, he needed to send Adai to scout first.
Li Yue was genuinely anxious, though. She turned and closed the door and window, then casually activated another four-star conspiracy card.
Li Wei stared at her, speechless.
"Sister, you have so many four-star conspiracy cards you're not even counting them? If you have too many to use, give one. I, Li Wei, keep my promises — unless the special boss doesn't show up, if we kill it, that Universal Gold Card is absolutely yours."
But Li Yue ignored that entirely and went straight to the point.
"I trust you. I trust my contract item card even more. But Li Wei — we're running out of ti. What kind of Spirit Elixir did Liang Yuzhi give you that knocked you out for twenty days? Is she pulling another sche?"
"She wasn't. She just gave a Spirit Elixir. I lent her Adai in return. She's probably trying to roll so kind of Rare Scholar Card. Is there anything suspicious about that?"
Li Wei answered honestly.
"A Spirit Elixir? Hmph. You must have caught her in sothing important — otherwise that stingy old widow would never give you a Spirit Elixir. You're lucky. Spirit-type elixirs are hard to co by, and most have severe side effects — mild cases leave you brain-damaged, severe cases leave you a vegetable. A Spirit Elixir without side effects costs tens of thousands of gold per dose. I was genuinely worried she was using you as a test subject."
"That said — she is trying to roll a Rare Scholar Card. No deception there. But that's not the issue. Li Wei, we actually only have one month left. The camp's developnt has been going well on all fronts, but the Fla Duke to the west — I think he's the most likely candidate to beco the special boss when the radiation storm hits. We need to weaken his forces in advance, kill them if possible. Your weapon, Thomas's shield, Zhao Xuanxuan's hamr, Leon's greatsword — all of it needs further enhancent. We need to build a well-rounded, powerful, coordinated team."
"Do you understand what I'm saying?"
"I understand. You're saying we need at least four more Universal Gold Cards."
"Exactly. So attacking the Fla Duke is non-negotiable."
Hearing that, Li Wei couldn't help asking: "Can I ask — what are the other Pioneering Branches generally doing? Would they also push the extra difficulty to 180%?"
"They wouldn't. Only inexperienced idiots do that. The optimal play is to lock the difficulty at 150% — that still yields five Universal Gold Cards while avoiding the special boss trigger. The top five on the Pioneering Scoreboard are all elite seed players with the strongest builds and the best team compositions. Surviving the first two radiation storms is trivial for them. And I'd guess by the end of this month, they'll all have upgraded to Level 4 Pioneering Camp just like us — gaining one more population slot. That extra slot is crucial."
"Because in the second year's spring, the camp needs to expand further, seeking resource points at greater distances. Current resources won't be enough. Once the search radius expands, it becos very easy to trigger a raid war. At that point, every Level 4 Scavenger Camp gets 2 population — one is a reserve ordinary player, and the other is at minimum a strong four-star or weak five-star powerhouse. The top five seed players might even get matched with powerful cross-border players."
"Do you understand? Not half-crippled, Destiny-damaged ones like and Liang Yuzhi — but five-star cross-border players at peak combat power. Believe : one player like that has combat strength comparable to the special boss we're about to face."
"Let be clear: Liang Yuzhi and I will be gone in three months. Even if you give Thomas, Leon, and Zhao Xuanxuan each a Five-Star Retention Card, that only buys them three extra months. Once they're gone, new reserve rookie players will flood in. What will you use to fight off high-tier players raiding your base?"
"This Pioneering Mission — year one is developnt, year two is raids, year three is all-out war. Players plunder and rge Pioneering Cards. Pioneering Cards can be rged, you know?"
"In year two, you won't dare leave your camp. Leave and you'll co back to nothing. Can't leave, can't develop — you're locked down from the start."
"So the only way is to use year one to cultivate at least five Freen with combat strength comparable to Zhang Jinjun. You need to give them Universal Gold Cards — break them down into Bronze Clearance Tokens so they can level up."
"And all of that cos back to right now. If you don't find a way to enhance Thomas, Leon, Zhao Xuanxuan, and yourself, you won't deal enough damage in the upcoming monster siege, and you won't get more Universal Gold Cards."
After listening to all of this, Li Wei thought for a mont and asked: "As you said — at the end of this month, when the Scavenger Camp upgrades to Level 4, is there any chance I'd be assigned a five-star cross-border player?"
"No. Because of and Liang Yuzhi's presence, no one would want to co. Your boss Night Owl won't send anyone either — she has her own trusted favorites. You're not even a footnote to her."
"There's another reason too: five-star cross-border players with open schedules aren't common. Even those who are available won't guest-star unless there's enormous benefit or a massive personal favor involved. Honestly — Liang Yuzhi and I are at the lowest tier of the table. The cross-border players the departnts will send as reinforcents will mostly be at our level. The truly outstanding cross-border players with real power are either in high positions or planning even higher-difficulty missions. They won't appear here."
"Of course, Night Owl won't be completely unreasonable. She'll probably send you one strong four-star player. But that depends on the political dynamics — her recomnded slots are limited. She can't cover everything. If other departnts decide to target you because you've been too visible these past two months, she won't be able to protect you. In that case, you'd end up with a powerful four-star player who's openly hostile toward you."
After listening to Li Yue's earnest, detailed explanation, Li Wei was finally moved. "Alright. My body's still a bit weak right now. Next month — next month I'll scout first. Once I confirm it's safe, we'll take out the Fla Duke."
"Fine. I genuinely have no ulterior motives at this point. I've said everything I should and shouldn't have said. You figure out the rest yourself."
Li Yue gave Li Wei a resentful look, then turned and left.
Li Wei, full and content, drifted back to sleep — deeply and peacefully. Everything else could wait.
By evening, Adai and Liang Yuzhi returned. Liang Yuzhi imdiately went to cook for Li Wei personally. Adai, anwhile, casually tossed him fifty images and went off to eat and sleep.
"Good work, buddy."
Li Wei praised Adai with a grin, then started going through the images. He trusted Adai's judgnt — anything Adai had specifically captured was there for a reason.
But where had Liang Yuzhi gone?
Wait — she'd gone north. Based on the mountain silhouettes and terrain features, she'd traveled at least fifty kiloters, crossing three mountain ranges along the way. Her destination was a moderately large town, its buildings still fairly well-preserved.
She'd had Adai circle outside the town while she slipped in herself. And then — she'd gone to the library.
Li Wei was genuinely shocked. So the secret to rolling a Rare Scholar Card was just... studying like mad?
Through Adai's sharp eyes, Li Wei could tell there was at least one five-star mutant creature sowhere in that town. But Liang Yuzhi seed to know its behavior patterns intimately — she moved through the entire place as if it were empty.
Adai, ever the quick learner, had followed Liang Yuzhi's route inside and captured images of her frantically flipping through books in the library.
Flipping through books — while drinking potions.
What the — it was almost certain that Liang Yuzhi hadn't brewed just two doses of Spirit Elixir. Because she'd spent five hours in that library, drinking three doses during that ti.
And she'd gone through at least a thousand books.
What kind of insane efficiency was that?
So there really was no shortcut to learning.
Li Wei stared in disbelief.
He thought back to how he'd rolled his own Rare Scout Card — nearly two years from start to finish, walking roughly five thousand square kiloters, morizing every terrain feature along the way...
Success didn't co by luck.
In that mont, Li Wei completely gave up any thought of rolling a Rare Scholar Card himself. It was even harder to roll than the Rare Scout Card. That path wasn't for him.
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