Zhang Yanhang walked silently on his way home, nearly there, he no longer ran but strolled slowly on the brick-and-stone path inside the residential area, surrounded by a quiet atmosphere.
However, one could occasionally hear the sounds of parents going crazy over teaching their children homework, but soon enough, those sounds would transform into the purest form of physical collision and even purer crying. When facing such stubborn and unyielding kids, there really was no choice but to lay down some discipline.
That sound echoing over the district oddly seemed familiar to him; it sounded a bit like his neighbors Wang Fugui and Wang Fumin. But due to excessive fatigue, Zhang Yanhang was too lazy to further investigate the origin of the sound using his Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Evil ability.
Zhang Yanhang made it back home smoothly without incident, like suddenly being ambushed by an unidentified assailant after returning from the Ashen World or encountering someone being mugged and stepping in to rob the robber or playing the hero to save a damsel in distress; none of that happened.
But that was normal; after all, the internal security of the Empire was good, even after the Spiritual Qi Recovery, and ordinary individuals with reclusive nature, who preferred staying home and had nothing to do with any secret organizations, wouldn’t usually encounter such situations.
Besides, presently Zhang Yanhang was of low strength, only at the Peak First Tier, so even if he wanted to be opportunistic, he didn’t have the capability, at least not until he reached the Second Tier, when Zhang Yanhang might have the confidence to step in where he saw injustice.
Moreover, Zhang Yanhang felt that such windfalls should logically be categorized as special events, and since he had just triggered one, it was unlikely for another to happen so soon.
Thus, the only small episode Zhang Yanhang encountered on his way was when he reached the downstairs of his building to open the entrance door, he coincidentally met a young woman also pushing the door to go out.
The young woman, startled by the sight of Zhang Yanhang in his black riot police uniform, took a big jump, but Zhang Yanhang just nodded calmly at her and directly went upstairs.
A young woman going out in the dead of night easily conjured associations with particular professions, but according to Zhang Yanhang’s observations, this woman didn’t appear to be the type worth reporting, she was probably just picking up a takeout order.
In the Xingfuli District where Zhang Yanhang lived, delivery riders were allowed entry during the day as long as they registered, but not after ten at night; so, if one wanted a late-night snack, they’d have to go to the main gate to fetch it.
After returning to his bedroom, Zhang Yanhang switched his equipment to hidden mode, then lay down on the bed to sleep; he was indeed exhausted and urgently needed to recover from this fatigue through sleep.
October 10th, the second day after the end of the Mid-Autumn and National Day holidays, 7 AM, Unit 505, Xingfuli District, bedroom.
Zhang Yanhang opened his eyes, bleary with confusion, and looked up at the white ceiling of his home, "Ah, the familiar ceiling, that’s good. Wonder how many hours I slept..." he mumbled as he picked up his phone from beside the bed to check the time.
"Only seven? I actually woke up this early?" Zhang Yanhang was surprised he had only slept for seven hours. It might have been his biological clock at work, knowing he had a class at eight in the morning, so it woke him up rather early.
"Should I sleep some more? But if I do, I have this feeling I’ll be late..." Although the allure of a bit more sleep was strong, Zhang Yanhang struggled to sit up in bed and changed his equipment back to normal status.
After stretching lazily on the bed, Zhang Yanhang stood up and headed to the bathroom. Even as an Awakener, because his Rank was still quite low, he needed to maintain bodily functions. Later, when his Rank increased, he should be able to forgo such inefficiencies.
Returning to his bedroom from the bathroom, Zhang Yanhang sat at his computer desk, took out several plates from his Waist Bag, placed the youtiao and meat pastries that he had packed from a stall yesterday on the plates, and finally took out a large bottle of cola from his Waist Bag.
As a plain Awakener and part-time university student who neither smoked nor drank, Zhang Yanhang mostly stuck to drinking plain water and soft drinks, occasionally indulging in some tea.
Although Zhang Yanhang previously mentioned eating Crimson Iron Ant Meat, he currently couldn’t be bothered to cook, feeling that it was more convenient to have something ready-made for breakfast.
Of course, the key issue was his lack of confidence in his cooking skills; he could manage simple grilling or frying, but anything beyond that was beyond his scope.
Zhang Yanhang spent a few minutes eating breakfast, then cleared away the dishes. With fifty minutes left before needing to do anything, he thought he might use the free time to open a Treasure Box. Newest update provided by novel※fire.net
But before opening the Treasure Box, Zhang Yanhang checked his balance of Soul Points.
[Soul Points: 3598 (+2171)]
"As expected, the number of Monsters killed this time was too few, only a two-thousand-plus increase in Soul Points. And some of those points came from the six White Treasure Boxes of the Crimson Iron Worker Ants."
Zhang Yanhang remembered that each Crimson Iron Worker Ant’s Treasure Box could yield ninety Soul Points, adding up to five hundred forty from the six boxes. So, subtracting those five hundred forty points, the rest, just over a thousand points, were the true rewards from this Monster hunt.
The six boxes previously opened had upgraded his E-ranked Ant Power to the D-ranked "Ant Power", and after upgrading his Talent, Zhang Yanhang altogether took down roughly four or five hundred Monsters, among which there were over four hundred Crimson Iron Worker Ants and around thirty Crimson Iron Flying Ants.
Mainly, Zhang Yanhang’s location wasn’t deep enough, so he mostly encountered the lowest level Crimson Iron Worker Ants, resulting in only taking down about thirty Crimson Iron Flying Ants. As the saying goes, "It’s hard to cook without rice." Since there weren’t many Crimson Iron Flying Ants on his path, naturally he couldn’t kill too many.
"But over a thousand Soul Points isn’t too shabby; after all, I haven’t opened the Treasure Box yet. Probably after opening the Treasure Box, I could gain a few thousand more Soul Points..."