Chapter 24: To Actually Be Met With Looks of Sympathy

Half an hour later, after trekking along the highway, Lin Li finally arrived at Chenghua Avenue.

He stepped into the shade of a roadside tree to escape the intense glare of the sun.

Pulling his phone from his pocket, he opened a ride-hailing app. After placing the order, he leaned against the tree trunk and closed his eyes to wait.

A moment later, a taxi approached from the distance. The driver was a young man, perhaps only five or six years years older than Lin Li.

Seeing someone waving from under the roadside trees, the driver immediately pulled up in front of him.

"Are you the one who called the car?"

"That's me! Let me show you my order number!"

"No need, just get in. I've been driving along this way, and there's no one else here but you."

*Click... Thud.*

Lin Li nodded, opened the door, and climbed into the back seat.

The young driver turned the steering wheel, maneuvered the car around, and began driving toward the city center.

Having spent half a day struggling in the perilous wilderness, Lin Li sat on the soft seat, and the exhaustion weighing on his body immediately gave way to sleepiness.

Through the rearview mirror, the driver observed Lin Li, his gaze lingering on the poorly bandaged gauze on the young man's left hand.

Wearing camouflage fatigues stained with grass clippings, a face full of fatigue, an injured hand, and appearing on Chenghua Avenue—this passenger was an Exotic Hunter, and most likely a rookie.

"This rookie has it rough!"

The driver had chauffeured many Exotic Hunters; they almost never traveled without their backpacks and weapons—it was practically standard equipment for them.

But this young hunter, who looked a few years younger than himself, had nothing but the camouflage clothes on his back.

He probably encountered an Exotic in the wild and had to flee in a panic.

The idiom "to lose one's armor and weapons" instantly flashed through the mind of the imaginative driver.

The more he thought about it, the more certain he became, and his gaze turned sympathetic as he looked at Lin Li.

He wanted to offer some comfort, to say that losing weapons and gear didn't matter as long as he kept his life.

But as the words reached the tip of his tongue, he felt it might be inappropriate to say.

Because it was said that the weapons used by these Exotic Hunters were specialized Psionic weapons for practitioners, with even the cheapest ones costing hundreds of thousands of yuan.

Hundreds of thousands! He worked himself to death driving a taxi all month just to earn six or seven thousand yuan; it would take him years of work just to afford a single Psionic weapon.

This young man, a few years younger than him, had gone to the wilderness to hunt Exotics only to come back empty-handed, and to top it off, he had lost his expensive Psionic weapon. *Sigh... how tragic!*

At this moment, the exhausted Lin Li had no idea that in the driver's eyes, he had become a tragic, pitiful figure.

Of course, even if Lin Li knew how the man saw him, he wouldn't have cared. Right now, all Lin Li wanted was to get home, take a hot shower, and lie in bed for a nap.

…………

*Screech...*

The journey was smooth, and twenty minutes later, the taxi pulled up to the entrance of Ping'an Garden residential complex.

After paying the twenty-five yuan fare, Lin Li stepped out of the taxi. As he was about to enter the complex, he saw a girl eating ice cream by the roadside. After a moment of thought, he pursed his lips and walked toward the convenience store at the entrance.

Spending five yuan on a chocolate popsicle, Lin Li tore open the wrapper, tossed it into a roadside trash can, and began eating as he walked.

With those last five yuan spent, Lin Li was effectively penniless, but he wasn't worried in the slightest.

He had checked the app earlier; the "U-Speed Recovery" company had already placed his hunted wild boar and rabbit Exotics into a cold storage warehouse.

The next step was the sale process. It shouldn't be long before he received a sum of money.

"Eh? Xiao Lin, didn't you go camping with your friends? Why are you back so early? Your hand... why is your hand injured?"

As Lin Li finished his popsicle and prepared to enter the stairwell of Building 6, Auntie Wang, who was out taking out the trash, approached from a distance and spotted him.

*Sigh, I actually ran into Auntie Wang. In the future, I should leave my camouflage clothes on the Mysterious Island first and only change into them once I reach my destination, to avoid this kind of trouble...*

Seeing Auntie Wang looking at his injured left hand with concern, Lin Li explained with a smile, "I accidentally tripped while camping and hurt my hand, so I came back early."

"Is it a serious injury?"

"Just a minor scratch, nothing serious. It'll be fine after a few days of rest..."

Hearing this, the worry in Auntie Wang's eyes immediately dissipated.

"Auntie Wang, you go ahead with your business, I'm heading home."

"Alright."

Lin Li turned to enter the stairwell. As he prepared to take the elevator, he saw it had been sealed off.

A notice was posted on the door stating that the elevator had malfunctioned and required maintenance, so it was out of service for the day.

"..." After reading the notice, Lin Li muttered a curse about his bad luck and turned toward the emergency stairs.

Fortunately, he lived on the sixth floor. It wasn't a high climb, and he reached his front door in no time.

With a thought, he retrieved his backpack from the Mysterious Island, unzipped it, and pulled his house keys from a compartment.

*Click.*

He opened the door, stepped inside, and pulled it shut behind him.

"Finally home. Home is the most comfortable place!" Lin Li kicked off his shoes, placed them in the shoe cabinet, and walked quickly into the living room in his indoor slippers.

*Thud.*

He tossed his backpack onto the sofa, turned into his bedroom, and a moment later, emerged with a change of clothes to head to the bathroom for a shower.

…………

The sun was setting. Having labored all day, the sun was packing up its things to go home, leaving behind a brilliant crimson glow as its final silhouette.

*Click.*

The bedroom door opened, and a yawning Lin Li walked out.

After his nap, his depleted physical strength had been fully replenished. He felt that in his current state, he could go another three hundred rounds with that wild boar Exotic he had killed earlier.

Turning to look out the window, the sky was darkening; the streetlights would flicker on shortly.

Lin Li sat down on the living room sofa, wanting to eat some fruit, but unfortunately, the fruit bowl was already empty.

He picked up the TV remote from the coffee table and pressed the power button, only to find that the television didn't respond.

"No way? The TV is broken?! I just bought this last year!"

Seeing that the ultra-thin widescreen TV he had spent over six thousand yuan on was broken, Lin Li's face was filled with shock.

…………

PS: Thanks to "08a" for the 200-point tip.

(End of Chapter)