Dawn.
On the plains of the wilderness, three uniquely styled pickup trucks kicked up huge clouds of dust as they sped northward.
The trucks were silver, with glowing blue and purple light strips along the edges, looking like fireflies in the night.
Waterproof tarpaulins covered the truck beds, bulging with what seed to be a full load of cargo.
The side of the trucks displayed the words "City 10" and "Wilderness Hunters," followed by the serial number 0291.
This was an officially registered Wilderness Hunters team with legitimate hunting licenses.
Deafening music blared from the trucks. Five n and two won were in high spirits at this early hour.
But at that mont, they spotted a campfire in a sheltered spot beside a small hill in the wilderness.
And beside the campfire, a boy sat on a rock warming himself.
On the bleak, dusty wilderness plain, that cluster of orange-red fire was like a lighthouse in a black sea, drawing the eye.
The boy sitting there looked utterly alone.
Seeing their vehicles, the boy stood up, ca to the dirt road, raised his hand, and gave a thumbs-up.
It was the universal hitchhiking gesture in the wilderness.
Soone on one of the pickup trucks turned down the music and used the vehicle's intercom to ask, "Sothing's not right. Who would be alone in this wilderness in the dead of winter?"
"Maybe their car broke down. In this awful weather, if you don't turn off the car in ti, you can easily drain the battery."
"Judging by his clothes, he's probably from the Federation, not a wilderness dweller."
"He looks at most 18 years old. Low threat level."
"Should we pick him up?" soone asked.
"Don't ddle. Let's just drive past," said a calm young man in the lead pickup truck via the intercom. "We have important things to do tomorrow. It's best to keep this kind of thing from outsiders."
As the convoy passed the boy, the young man glanced at him.
The boy watched them drive away with a helpless expression.
The next mont, when the young man looked in the rearview mirror, he found the boy had sohow fallen to the ground, reaching out toward them with difficulty, as if pleading with them not to leave.
He looked as miserable as could be.
Over the intercom, a girl said, "Should we help him?"
"But Tuanzi, what if he follows us back to the Federation and reveals what we're doing tomorrow?" a young man said.
The girl thought for a mont and said, "Chuci, we're not like those people. Our upbringing teaches us not to stand idly by while soone is in need."
These people were all relatively young, only a year or two older than the boy they'd just passed.
Then another young man suddenly said, "It's too cold out here. It's at least 300 kiloters from here to City 10. I just checked, and he hasn't cooked anything over his fire. He probably hasn't been able to find any food in the winter wilderness. If we don't pick him up, he'll likely starve or freeze to death."
"Maybe we can avoid him when we trade with the Wildlanders tomorrow? We can't just let him die here."
Silence fell over the three pickup trucks.
Everyone seed to be thinking hard, waiting for soone to make a decision.
The next mont, Sun Chuci, the calm young man in the lead truck, slamd on the brakes: "Old Five, cover us. I'll go pick him up."
At this point, everyone in the convoy seed to relax.
Sun Chuci drove back to the boy. The girl beside him held an automatic rifle, alert, while he approached the boy and said, "You want a ride, right? To City 10?"
The boy stood up, brushing off the dust from his clothes: "Yes, I'm going to City 10. Thank you so much. I didn't expect you to give a ride."
The boy seed surprised as well. Most of those who road the wilderness were ruthless, and he hadn't expected anyone to pick him up. He'd only done it on a whim.
Yet, after they had driven off, they had turned around.
Sun Chuci looked at the boy: "Sorry, although we're willing to give you a ride, we have to search you and confiscate any weapons you have."
The boy nodded, allowing Sun Chuci to search him.
To Sun Chuci's surprise, the boy didn't have any weapons on him, only a basic lighter.
Carrying a lighter was normal. The winter air was dry, so even without fire-starting equipnt like a Thor, one could light a fire. Thor was for damp wood, and not everyone could afford it.
But soone coming to the wilderness without any weapons? That was strange.
He asked the boy, "Excuse , why are you here alone? What are you doing in the wilderness?"
The boy replied, "I was traveling with friends from City 1 to City 10, but we got into an argunt, and they left on the road. I thought they'd co back after a couple of days, but they never did. They even took my weapons; I didn't even get a chance to grab them."
Sun Chuci and Tuanzi, who was holding the automatic rifle, were both stunned: "That's incredible?"
The boy nodded: "I still have cash and gold bars in my backpack, but they didn't leave any. If you take to City 10, I can pay you sothing once I find my friends and get my money."
Tuanzi suddenly whispered, "That sounds like that Qin Shi Huang , "Give money, and when I find my mausoleum, I'll split half with you.""
The lone boy in the wilderness didn't change his expression, but he had heard every word.
Sun Chuci didn't respond but looked at the boy: "Excuse , what should we call you?"
The boy smiled: "Just call Qing Xiaotu."
The boy was Qing Chen. With his current hearing, even though the girl's voice was very soft, he heard it clearly.
He imdiately realized: This was a Ti Traveler team. Otherwise, how would they know about the Qin Shi Huang ?
No wonder they were willing to pick up a stranger in the wilderness. If they were from the Inner World, they would have learned the harsh realities of the world by their teens, and would have been wary.
But these young people looked like college freshn. Their upbringing emphasized helping others and being kind. It was the gentle nature of their people.
They probably didn't expect Qing Chen's hearing to be so good, nor that Qing Chen was also a Ti Traveler.
At that mont, two other pickup trucks were parked nearby. People in those trucks were aiming their automatic rifles at Qing Chen, in case he posed a threat to the convoy.
Qing Chen glanced at them. They were kind but not stupid. They had at least taken necessary precautions.
He guessed this might be a Ti Traveler organization of students from Zheng City University. After becoming Ti Travelers, they had banded together for survival.
Cities were dangerous, so they ca to the wilderness to make a living.
There's a saying on Outer World: In the cities, not only Ti Travelers have a hard ti, even the survival of the locals is often a problem. You can't judge a book by its cover. It's better to be in the wilderness, at least wild animals are only ferocious, not as scheming as humans.
A famous Outer World philosopher once said: I fear ghosts, but ghosts have never hard . I don't fear people, but people have hurt deeply...
Then, Sun Chuci raised his right arm, his index finger and thumb curled, apparently signaling that the alert was over in the other two vehicles.
Qing Chen found this interesting. They had their own tactical gestures.
After Qing Chen was searched by Sun Chuci, he sat in the back of the pickup truck. The air conditioning ward him, and he breathed out a sigh of relief: "Are you Wilderness Hunters?"
In the car, the girl next to Qing Chen, Tuanzi, casually asked, "We are Wilderness Hunters... By the way, what are you and your friends doing in City 10?"
Qing Chen rembered Jiang Yichen's excuse and explained seriously, "We're going to City 10 for tutoring to prepare for the spring Qing He University independent enrollnt."
Qing He University was the most famous university in the Federation. City 10 was the main campus, while City 18 was a branch campus. Every year at this ti, aspiring students from all over the Federation would travel to these two cities.
There was also Ember Military Academy, which was as famous as Qing He University, but Ember Military Academy did not have an early admission independent enrollnt, so everyone would take the exam in their respective cities.
This excuse was perfect.
Tuanzi was stunned when she heard Qing Chen was a student. She suddenly said, "I wanted to go to Qing He University too, but I failed. Since you say you're a student, can I ask you a few questions? Don't worry, I just want to confirm your identity."
Although Tuanzi and the others were Wilderness Hunters in the Inner World, they were undergraduate students in the Outer World, so in Tuanzi's view, if soone wanted to pretend to be a good student in front of them, they were greatly mistaken.
As she spoke, the girl kept her hand hidden under her coat, where she held a pistol pointed at Qing Chen.
Qing Chen chuckled inwardly. Wasn't this what he'd said to Jiang Yichen? Almost exactly the sa!
Except, he wasn't a slacker like Jiang Yichen!
Qing Chen smiled: "Ask away, if I know, I'll answer."
Sun Chuci quietly pressed the intercom, and Tuanzi, recalling her high school knowledge, quickly asked ten math problems, all of which Qing Chen answered.
Soone said over the intercom, "Amazing."
Among these ten problems, Tuanzi even included a problem on finite-dinsional linear equations, from linear algebra.
This was the only topic that was beyond the scope of Inner World high school compared to Outer World high school.
And Qing Chen still answered it correctly, which indirectly proved that Qing Chen was indeed a high school student preparing for the exam in the Inner World, eliminating the suspicion of being a Ti Traveler.
After all, Outer World high school students didn't learn this.
Of course, this wasn't enough to prove it completely.
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