Chapter Fourteen: Heading to the Countryside in Search of a Side Quest

Over the next two days, Li Yunfei continued to diligently grind through the dungeons. He did not let a single Ant Nest slip by—he cleared all three levels, from 3 to 5. He had assumed that after finishing all three, he would pocket at least eighty or a hundred thousand. However, he soon realized that after reaching level 6 within the level-3 dungeon, the ants stopped dropping any loot. It turned out that when the difference between his level and the dungeon's level reached three, only the Ant Queen boss would drop items—the regular monsters would yield nothing, and the experience points would plummet to nearly nothing. If the difference exceeded three levels and reached four, there would be no experience at all. This discovery dashed his hopes of getting rich by repeatedly running low-level dungeons.

Still, despite the lack of loot from regular monsters, Li Yunfei persisted in clearing all five levels of the Ant Nest dungeons. His sole motivation was the chance to obtain the Ant Queen’s powerful Ant Armor Set and the Corrosive Ant Leg Blade. On the third day, after clearing the level-5 Ant Nest in the morning, he ran it again in the afternoon, wanting to confirm whether the Ant Queen only dropped a full set the first time. As expected, on his second run, the Ant Queen only dropped some coins and a single piece of superior Ant Armor, no longer the full set.

A standard Ant Armor Set sold to the system store for 4,000 yuan, while purchasing one cost 10,000. The superior set fetched 15,000 yuan when sold, or 42,000 if bought. A regular Ant Leg Blade could be sold for 1,200 yuan or bought for 3,000. The Corrosive Ant Leg Blade, however, sold for 5,000 and was priced at 12,000 for purchase. Ant Powder was 20 yuan a pack to sell, 50 to buy; Queen's Powder was 65 to sell, 200 to buy.

Out of the five superior Ant Armor Sets, Li Yunfei kept two and sold the remaining three. He couldn’t bring himself to part with the five Corrosive Ant Leg Blades—they all went into his reserve arsenal. He sold off all the regular Ant Powder, but kept the Queen’s Powder. Over two days, he made over 53,000 yuan selling gear and consumables, bringing his system balance to 116,153.8 yuan.

Having cleared all five levels of the Ant Nest dungeons, both Li Yunfei and the little fox companion had reached level 8. With the fifteen attribute points gained, he distributed six to strength, four to agility, three to constitution, and two to energy—still prioritizing strength and agility. His attributes now read: Strength 29 (base 10), Agility 22 (base 8), Constitution 23 (base 10), Energy 13 (base 7).

He was approaching triple the stats of an average person. With the Ant Nest no longer yielding worthwhile rewards or experience, it was time to seek the next tier of dungeons.

Li Yunfei wandered through the residential community and its outskirts, discovering several new dungeons. Near a garbage dump, he found a Cockroach Nest dungeon for levels 6 to 10, a Rat Nest for levels 11 to 15, and even the dump itself was a dungeon, also 6 to 10. The sewers, too, were a dungeon—levels 20 to 25—utterly out of the question for now; entering would be certain death.

Li Yunfei immediately dismissed the dump dungeon—too disgusting, crawling with all manner of filth. The main enemies were flies, mosquitoes, maggots; not only were the first two airborne and hard to kill, but the environment alone was enough to put him off. The same applied to the sewers: unless there was no other choice, he wouldn’t set foot in there even when he was ready. As for cockroaches, just the thought made his skin crawl. They thrive in damp, dark places, eat, regurgitate, and defecate all at once, and secrete foul-smelling liquids. One could only imagine the stench and filth of a Cockroach Nest—far worse than the ant dungeons, whose inhabitants preferred dry environments. Cockroaches deserved extinction. Worse yet, they moved quickly, were agile, and though flight wasn’t their strong suit, they did have wings.

Eliminating all the dungeons he refused to enter or wasn’t sure he could handle, only the Rat Nest remained as an option in the neighborhood—a dungeon for levels 11 to 15, still a bit out of his league.

After careful thought, he decided to leave the city and search for dungeons in the countryside or rural areas, which would also help keep his secret safe.

After a moment’s consideration, Li Yunfei pulled out his phone and called Zhang Ziying. She picked up quickly.

“Hello, Da Fei?” came Zhang Ziying’s voice.

“Yingzi, I’m planning to go back to my hometown for a while. If you can’t reach me these days, don’t worry.”

“What are you going back for? It’s not Tomb-Sweeping Day or New Year’s—no need to visit the ancestors now!”

“No real reason. Just felt like going back to take a look.”

“Be careful, then. The villagers all moved out twenty years ago. I heard the wild boars in the hills have gone out of control—practically a disaster. The township government has applied to the county for a cull later this year to keep the numbers down.”

“Don’t worry! I’m just going to check out the old house. I won’t be wandering up the mountains.”

After explaining things to Zhang Ziying, Li Yunfei went to the supermarket and stocked up on food and water. He prepared a variety of hot meals at home and stored them in his system inventory, sparing himself the need to cook over a wood fire in the countryside. The little fox’s chicken, eggs, and dog food were well supplied, too, and his camping gear was already tucked away in the system inventory, so there was nothing else to prepare.

Once everything was set, the next morning, a little after nine, Li Yunfei set out with the little fox in tow, driving along the national highway toward his ancestral village.

Li Yunfei and Zhang Ziying’s hometown was Qingyuan Village, in Phoenix Township, about forty kilometers from the county seat. The little mountain village had long since been officially erased—its entire population moved out years ago. Their parents had left as teenagers, only returning annually at Tomb-Sweeping and New Year’s for ancestral rites, never to live there again.

Qingyuan Village sat deep in the mountains. To reach Phoenix Township required walking five or six kilometers of mountain trails, then taking a ferry across a wide river, followed by another three or four kilometers to the township itself. The village lay nestled among several large peaks, with almost no cell signal—one had to climb to the summit to make a call.

In the 1990s, the state had built a hydroelectric station here, carving a road into the sheer cliffs from the township to the station. This shortened the journey by three or four kilometers, but after crossing the river, one still had to trek five or six kilometers over the mountains to reach the village.

Most of Qingyuan’s villagers had settled in the city; those less able or more attached to their roots had built homes near the hydropower station by the river. Their farmland was mostly across the river, and when not busy with crops, they fished for a living—almost every household had a boat.

A little over an hour later, Li Yunfei’s SUV pulled up outside the hydroelectric station. Hoisting the little fox onto his shoulder and slinging his pack, Li Yunfei headed to the dock. The backpack was for appearances—otherwise, showing up empty-handed and living for days in a remote mountain village would draw too much attention.

He barely knew the villagers here, but when his parents were alive, they would introduce him during visits: this is so-and-so, here’s how you should greet them. So he still recognized a few people, such as the family living near the dock—he was supposed to call the master of that house “Fourth Granduncle.”

He had set out a little after nine in the morning, and by now it was almost ten-thirty. Yet for the villagers, this was just breakfast time. Mountain folk ate only two meals a day, rising before dawn to take advantage of the cool hours to work in the fields. Once the sun rose and the heat set in, they returned home to eat and rest, only heading back out to work or cut firewood in the afternoon, when the sun was less fierce.