8: Re-entering the contaminated site

The next day.

Xu Le walked into the largest mall in the West City—Chenghui Mall.

Two Qipao Misses came forward to greet him: "Welcome to Chenghui Mall. May I ask what the customer's needs are?"

"Selling a heart of the commander, and looking for a useful skill book while I'm at it."

Xu Le didn't pretend to be poor and directly showed the heart of the commander.

The two young misses' almond eyes widened, and their small mouths formed an 'O' shape. Fortunately, they were professionally trained; after being stunned for three seconds, they immediately welcomed him into the VIP room.

One Young Miss stayed to talk with him, while the other went to call the mall's manager.

Soon, a middle-aged man hurried over with a white-haired old man, his forehead covered in sweat.

"A distinguished guest has arrived, please forgive our lack of a proper welcome..."

Chu Haodong was the general manager of the mall, with his communication skills maxed out. Seeing that Xu Le didn't like pleasantries, he went straight to the point:

"Brother Little Xu, I heard you want to sell a heart of the commander. I wonder if you could let me take a look first?"

Xu Le handed over the heart of the commander. Chu Haodong quickly took it and handed it to the old man. After checking it with various instruments, the old man gave his conclusion.

"Manager Chu, this heart of the commander comes from a Rank 30 Demonic Beast, the Agile Magic Monkey. Its energy reserve is at 100%, and there is no damage."

"Good! Excellent!"

Chu Haodong was overjoyed upon hearing this and excitedly grabbed Xu Le's hand.

Opening a Rank 30 dungeon meant that the money was secondary; more importantly, it meant they could safely train a large number of professionals.

100% energy meant that after the dungeon was set up, a 'First Clear' was possible. The experience, skills, and equipment it would provide were worlds apart from a dungeon like the Goblin Camp that had been cleared millions of times.

"One hundred million Credits!"

Without any hesitation, he directly offered the highest price!

The old man and the two women in qipaos almost had their eyes pop out; this price was set way too high.

Three years ago, a Rank 30 heart of the commander auctioned in the East City only fetched eighty million. This was a direct increase of 20 million.

What a spendthrift!

Xu Le shook his head: "No! I only want to exchange for skills or Legendary-grade equipment."

"That's easy to arrange! Brother Xu, my Chenghui Mall has many skills and equipment for any class. Tell me which class you need, and I'll help you get them."

"Contractor."

"Ga..." Chu Haodong suddenly froze. "This..."

Contractor was an F-Rank class. The attributes gained per Rank were only 4 points, meaning it had almost no potential.

Combined with those ridiculous contract rules, there were no top-tier experts in the Contractor class—not a single one.

Few people collected their skills and equipment because they couldn't be sold, and the mall couldn't afford to be a sucker.

Xu Le also knew the situation and added: "Universal skills or weapons without class restrictions are also fine."

"Fine!" Chu Haodong's mouth felt bitter. Even if the class wasn't restricted, could the attributes be unrestricted too?

However, he was desperate to make the trade now, so he directly notified his subordinate managers to bring over all the skills and equipment without class restrictions.

Xu Le picked and chose, setting his sights on one piece of equipment and one skill.

[Accessory] space ring

[Quality] Special Category

[Usage Condition] Spirit ≥ 80

[Equipment Trait] Possesses an independent space of 3×3×3 cubic meters for storing items.

[Skill] Mind Link

[Quality] Rare

[Learning Condition] Magic-type, Spirit ≥ 60

[Skill Description] Consumes 500 Mana. Can establish a Mind Link with pets within a range of Spirit × 1 meter for mental communication. Continuously consumes 10 Mana per second during the link.

The former could store daily necessities that the item bar couldn't, while the latter allowed for more convenient communication and command of his pets.

The rest of the items and skills were mediocre, and Xu Le didn't care for them.

Afterward, he bought 20 Directional Teleportation Scrolls with a 5km range, 100 Devilish Qi Purification Talismans that lasted half an hour, pet snacks, and so on.

He originally wanted to buy a few high-powered talismans for leveling up, but unfortunately, they were military supplies and could not be sold privately.

Seeing that Xu Le was willing to trade, Chu Haodong slapped his chest loudly: "Brother Xu, if you need any skills in the future, just say the word. I guarantee I'll save them for you."

"The space ring was made by a Space-type powerhouse of Rank 80 or higher; its value is 10 million;"

"Mind Link and the other miscellaneous items total 8.28 million. Let's round it down to 8 million."

"The remaining 82 million Credits, I'll transfer to your card. What do you think?"

Xu Le agreed.

Chu Haodong became even more enthusiastic and handed him a gold card: "Brother Xu, from now on, you are a gold card member of Chenghui Mall. You'll enjoy the lowest discounts. You're always welcome."

Xu Le didn't refuse, took it, and left.

He had a good impression of this shop. Although Chu Haodong's form of address changed three times and he was a bit worldly, he knew when to advance and when to retreat, handling the situation just right.

What was even rarer was that he didn't pry into the source of the heart of the commander, and the price was fair. He was a decent trading partner.

After walking out, the first thing he did was learn Mind Link.

The skill mutated again; not only could it link with contracted beasts, but it could also link with people nearby.

Next, he went to the market to buy a batch of food, tents, and other miscellaneous items, preparing to grind in the contaminated land for a few days to raise his Rank.

He dialed Li Yang's number.

"Brother, let's go to the contaminated land to level up."

Li Yang refused: "Brother Le, thanks! Wait until your Rank is higher, then you can carry me."

"You are in the golden period for leveling up right now; I can't hold you back."

Xu Le tried to persuade him for a while, but Li Yang remained firm. Seeing this, he didn't force it.

This time, he didn't leave from the West City but took a car to the South City first and headed south from there.

He first allocated all the experience points to Little Black Snake. After all, its Rank was low, so it would level up quickly.

"Squeak squeak..."

A Red-eyed Magic Rat jumped out.

Xu Le took a casual glance; it was actually a Rank 25 magic creature, and it had a "Disease Infection" skill, which was very disgusting.

He connected the Mind Link to his two contracted beasts.

Little Yellow Chicken opened its beak, and a white flame shot out, slamming into the magic rat, instantly dealing a massive 5,000 damage.

Even the magic rat, with its enhanced health, couldn't withstand it. Knowing it couldn't escape, it charged forward frantically.

Little Yellow Chicken spat out another fireball. Little Black Snake didn't even touch the monster but directly gained 9,998 experience points. (Last time in the contaminated zone, experience was split between two people and one chicken; now Little Black Snake enjoyed it alone.)

Flash, flash, flash... White light flashed 6 times in a row, and Little Black Snake instantly rose to Rank 6.

[contracted beast] Little Black Snake (Name can be changed)

[Race] Ancient Black Python (SSS-Rank)

[Rank] 6 (3698/6400)

[Strength] 210

[Agility] 210

[Physique] 210

[Spirit] 70

...(Collapsed)

Little Black Snake was incredibly excited and directly revealed its true form, which had already grown to over 3 meters long.

Xu Le discovered another wonderful use of the Mind Link: within the skill range, he could link with the minds of surrounding creatures, which meant he could "see" the surrounding magic monsters.

As for the continuous consumption of 10 Mana per second, it couldn't even keep up with his recovery speed.

The Mind Link guided Little Yellow Chicken. Little Yellow Chicken quickly flew over and killed the magic monsters, further increasing the efficiency of monster hunting.

In less than half a day, Little Black Snake rose to Rank 12 and grew to over 5 meters long, matching Xu Le's Rank.

He set the experience to be split equally.

A terrifying Magic Tree appeared in the Mind Link. Xu Le cast a "Divine Eye" on it, and its terrifying Rank gave him a fright.