Chapter 18: The Magical Little Fruit Reappears

As that pigeon-egg-sized cloud of white mist was absorbed by the mysterious little tree, a piece of information surfaced in Lin Li's mind.

"One percent."

What did that mean? Was it telling me that I had to kill ninety-nine more of these exotic beasts before you would grow another one of those magical little fruits?

Although such questions popped up in Lin Li's mind, no further information appeared in his consciousness.

"Keep at it! It's only ninety-nine beasts; I'll finish soon enough."

Giving himself a mental pep talk, Lin Li shifted his thoughts and departed from the mysterious little island.

...

The golden sun slowly climbed the horizon. As it rose higher, the heat it cast upon the earth intensified, drying out parts of the damp wilderness.

Near noon, in the uninhabited wasteland, a tall figure was in hot pursuit of a small one.

It was a game of cat and mouse. Just as the small figure, fleeing for its life, reached the edge of a stream and prepared to dive into the water to escape, it was overtaken by the tall figure relentlessly chasing from behind.

*Puchi.*

A spiritual tool longsword, radiating a faint golden light, thrust out as fast as lightning, instantly piercing the head of the rabbit beast.

*Bang.*

The rabbit beast, which had just been about to leap into the stream, was killed instantly. Due to inertia, its body lunged forward, tumbling several times across the ground before coming to a halt.

"Whew..."

Watching the rabbit beast he had killed with a single strike, Lin Li panted heavily while muttering, "This guy sure knows how to run! One step later and it would have escaped into the stream."

After returning to the real world from the mysterious little island, Lin Li had begun searching everywhere to hunt exotic beasts.

Having been busy all morning, including the one he just killed, he had hunted a total of six rabbit beasts.

Killing only six rabbit beasts in a morning left Lin Li very dissatisfied.

If his efficiency remained the same in the afternoon, he would only manage to hunt thirteen or fourteen beasts a day at most.

His current goal was to kill ninety-nine beasts. At his current pace, it would take about a week to complete the task.

Too slow.

There weren't enough beasts around here! It took him forever just to find one.

Maybe after lunch, he should venture a bit deeper into the wilderness?

Easily killing several beasts throughout the morning had greatly boosted Lin Li's confidence, making him want to break the one-kilometer radius he had initially set for himself.

The outskirts of the wilderness had been raided many times by beast hunters, causing most of the beasts living here to instinctively flee into the depths of the wilderness at the slightest sign of trouble.

Originally, a group of relatively bold rabbit beasts lived in this area, but after Lin Li killed several of them in succession, many others caught wind of it and began to flee.

This made it increasingly difficult for Lin Li to find more rabbit beasts as time went on.

"It's decided. After lunch, I'll move a little further into the wilderness... five hundred meters! Going five hundred meters further shouldn't pose too much danger."

To speed up his progress, Lin Li pondered for a moment and made his decision.

Then, he approached the rabbit beast whose head he had pierced with his sword, extended his right hand, and pressed his index finger against its body.

With a thought, the rabbit beast was pulled into the mysterious little island by Lin Li.

A blood-stained rabbit beast corpse appeared out of thin air on the mysterious little island.

Within seconds of the corpse appearing, it transformed into a cloud of white mist and was absorbed by the nearby mysterious little tree.

After absorbing the flesh and blood of six consecutive rabbit beasts, the mysterious little tree, which had previously looked somewhat malnourished, appeared much more spirited.

Some of the yellowish leaves began to turn green, and a tiny, rice-grain-sized green fruit actually grew on a brown branch.

If one didn't observe closely, it would be impossible to spot this tiny green fruit with the naked eye.

............

"Cicada, cicada..."

By the crystal-clear stream, Lin Li found a large tree where the sound of the cicadas was slightly muffled.

He stepped into the shade, preparing to eat lunch.

Having been busy all morning, he hadn't consumed much spiritual energy, but his physical stamina had been heavily depleted from chasing those frantic rabbit beasts. His stomach was now growling with hunger.

With a thought, Lin Li retrieved a black backpack from the mysterious little island.

He unzipped the bag and took out a box of self-heating rice.

After opening the packaging, he went to the stream to fetch some water, and the rice began to heat itself.

A few minutes later.

Leaning against the lush, leafy tree, Lin Li held the heated self-heating rice in his hands. He enjoyed the cool breeze of the wilderness and the sound of the cicadas while eating the meal, which didn't taste particularly good.

When one is hungry, even self-heating rice that one doesn't usually enjoy tastes like a gourmet delicacy.

It should be noted that the self-heating rice Lin Li was eating so heartily was something he had bought online six months ago.

At the time, he had bought three boxes at once. After eating one, he felt the taste wasn't great, but it felt like a waste to throw it away... so he had tucked the remaining boxes away in his storage room.

Lin Li had actually forgotten about the two boxes in storage, but now, his entire net worth consisted of only a few dozen yuan.

It was poverty that reminded him he still had two nearly expired boxes of self-heating rice left to eat.

*Burp~*

Having finished his meal, Lin Li let out a burp. The lingering taste of the self-heating rice made him frown slightly.

When hungry, this mediocre-tasting rice felt like a feast; now that he was full, he felt a bit of disdain for it.

"Sigh, I've become a pauper. If I don't earn some money soon, forget about eating—I won't even be able to pay the electricity bill at home."

Lin Li, whose electricity bill averaged nearly two hundred yuan a month, suddenly remembered that today was the day to pay it.

He felt that for the time being, he should stop providing the mysterious little tree with beast flesh and blood. His priority was to hunt some beasts and earn some money to maintain his livelihood.

*Rustle, rustle, rustle...*

A sudden movement came from a thicket over a meter high, and a rabbit beast nearly a meter tall darted out from the bushes.

This rabbit beast had just woken up in its burrow and felt a bit thirsty, so it had thought to head to the stream for a drink.

What kind of luck was this! Simply terrible.

Just as the rabbit beast darted out of the bushes, intending to quench its thirst at the stream, it saw a human standing under a lush tree by the water. At that moment, the human's face was full of pleasant surprise, and he was staring at it with a greedy gaze.

............

(End of Chapter)