14: Chapter 14 Night Watch

The Ant Queen's nest backed against a fissure, and with half a concrete roof overhead to block the wind, it was an ideal campsite.

The sky had darkened, transitioning from a grayish-yellow to a deep gray, and the wind outside the nest swept across the ruins, carrying grit with it.

He Ming built a fire pit using loose stones, and Zheng Tong rummaged through his backpack to pull out several pieces of Rift Wolf hind leg meat wrapped in cloth—it was meat they had butchered and stored after fighting the Rift Wolves earlier. As soon as the cloth was opened, a faint smell of blood wafted from the meat.

"We still need to eat something hot," He Ming said, skewering the meat onto sharpened wooden sticks and placing them near the fire. "I've been gnawing on that dry ration stuff for two days; if I keep eating it, my tongue is going to be ruined."

The fire wasn't large, but the heat was sufficient to roast the surface of the meat until it sizzled with golden-brown oil. The fat dripped into the fire, making a faint crackling sound, and the aroma of roasted meat slowly overpowered the sour, rotten smell in the nest.

He Ming handed the first piece of roasted meat to Lin Yan, who took it and bit into it. The wolf meat fibers were coarse, and it was quite tough to chew, but as the scorching hot fat melted in his mouth, he couldn't help but chew a few extra times. It was his first hot meal since entering the Dungeon.

Su Wan took the second piece, tearing off small bites to eat.

"Were you all teleported together on the day you Awakened?" Chen Qi asked while chewing his meat.

"Yeah. Ninth Public Awakening Middle School in District 7, all ten thousand students in the school were teleported together," Lin Yan said, swallowing the meat in his mouth. "What about you guys?"

"Same here, I'm from District 23. Among the ten thousand or so of us who Awakened at our school, we've already seen over a dozen corpses in the two days since entering the Dungeon," Chen Qi said, pushing up his glasses as the firelight flickered on his lenses. "Some were bitten to death by Rift Wolves, some killed by elite monsters, and one place was the result of people turning on each other. Their belongings were looted, and their bodies were left lying in a drainage ditch."

Silence fell around the fire for a few seconds, and He Ming slowed his chewing.

"It's normal," Zheng Tong said, resting his dagger on his knees. "The survival rate for the novice Dungeon every year is just over half. If ten thousand of us from ordinary schools enter, it's considered decent if five or six thousand make it to the Evacuation Point."

"Some aren't killed by monsters, but by other people. The Federation doesn't care about conflicts inside the Dungeon; that rule is implied." His tone was very flat, as if he were stating a common fact he had long accepted.

"Why doesn't the Federation care?" He Ming asked.

"They can't, and they don't want to," Chen Qi said, drawing two lines on the ground with his dagger. "The Dungeon is an independent dimension; what happens inside cannot be seen from the outside. The Federation's investigative methods are limited to post-evacuation testimonies and settlement data. Even if someone reports it, there's no evidence."

"Besides, the Federation's core attitude is that only those who survive the Dungeon have value, regardless of how you managed to survive."

"Speaking of which," Chen Qi pushed up his glasses, the firelight dancing on his lenses. "Have you ever seen anyone with an A-Rank Talent?"

"I've seen one from a distance," Zheng Tong said, resting his dagger on his knees and slowly sharpening the blade with a whetstone. "During the live broadcast of the Federation's annual awards ceremony last year, an A-Rank Awakened from the 23rd Safe Zone went on stage to receive an award. They were wearing custom equipment, with runes embedded on their chest armor, and the scabbard of the sword in their hand alone was worth more than our entire class combined."

"Their starting equipment for entering the Dungeon is very good," Chen Qi said. "Before entering the Dungeon, A-Rank Awakened can receive a set of Level 1 white transitional equipment and an exclusive Level 5 green set, plus they have storage space items."

"Storage space?" He Ming widened his eyes. "The kind that can hold a huge pile of stuff without adding any weight?"

"Right. Waist pendants, rings, bracelets, they all have them. The capacity isn't huge, but it's enough to carry potions and crystals. Do you know why the Federation gives them these?"

"Because they have a high probability of coming out alive. With an A-Rank Talent, their survival rate is several times higher than ours. Since the probability of them surviving is high, they bring back more resources. The Federation calculates the return on investment when they provide equipment for them. If they invest one green set, those people can bring back ten times the resources."

"What about us?" He Ming asked.

"Us?" Chen Qi pushed up his glasses and let out a laugh. "For people like us with C-Rank or D-Rank, the Federation gives us a standard issue dagger, three bottles of low-level health potion, some dry rations, and sends us into the Dungeon. If we make it out alive, it's a profit; if we die inside, it's no loss."

He Ming lowered his gaze. "What is this, raising Gu?"

"It is exactly like raising Gu."

"The stuff they teach in school is just to make the Federation look good; everyone knows the reality. They only give equipment to those with B-Rank or higher, and the rest don't even get white equipment."

"Logically speaking, white equipment is the most abundant, but the Federation would rather melt it down than give it to us. Because the Federation wants to raise Gu in this novice Dungeon. Only if you can survive under such cruel circumstances does the Federation consider us to have value and be willing to spend the effort to continue training us."

"After all, we are just subjects of mass cultivation."

He Ming lowered his head, looking at the roasted meat in his hand, and remained silent for a few seconds. "So we were cannon fodder from the very beginning."

"Only those who survive the Dungeon have the right to speak," Zheng Tong said, sheathing his sharpened dagger back at his waist. "Talent rank is just the starting point. If the Federation doesn't give us resources, we grab them ourselves. Monsters in the Dungeon drop crystals, elite monsters drop equipment, and resource points can yield potions and materials. If you can grab them, you can survive. If you can't, even if you were given an A-Rank Talent, you'd just be a stepping stone for someone else."

"Not everyone wants to accept their fate," Su Wan suddenly spoke up.

"I knew a senior at school, E-Rank Talent, who Awakened last year. She was one of the few E-Ranks who managed to make it out alive. After she returned, she said one thing: the most terrifying thing in the Dungeon isn't the monsters, it's believing the saying 'low-rank talents deserve to die.' If you believe it, you're truly dead."

Lin Yan hadn't spoken just now, from when Chen Qi talked about the Federation not caring about the killing inside the Dungeon, to He Ming lowering his head and saying "we were cannon fodder from the very beginning," and then to Zheng Tong calmly repeating, "only those who survive are the strong."

He hadn't interrupted, not because he agreed, but because these words made his chest feel like it was blocked by something, feeling heavier and heavier.

In his past life, he was born under the red flag and raised in a country that had "human life is paramount" written into its very bones. Even after transmigrating to this world overrun by Dungeons and being uniformly cultivated in the orphanage for eighteen years, the bottom line in his bones had never bent.

Treating living, breathing people as expendable materials, calling it "normal" for half to die every year.

No matter how nicely they phrased it—the growing pains of development, helpless choices, necessary sacrifices—he didn't believe a single word of it.

Disdain. From beginning to end, pure disdain.

He glanced at Su Wan. The young girl was leaning against a broken wall with her short blade resting on her knees, her lips still holding the slightly pursed curve from when she had just spoken.

Her senior with the E-Rank Talent who returned and said, "If you believe that low-rank talents deserve to die, you're truly dead"—the fact that she could say this showed that she was also struggling and resisting.

He looked at He Ming again. This boy, who carried a round shield and was cheerful every day, had just looked down at the roasted meat and remained silent for several seconds, his Adam's apple bobbing several times. He wasn't ignorant; he just didn't know who to hate.

It wasn't just them. When he was mocked by the whole school as an F-Rank trash, standing on the stage and enduring thousands of scornful gazes, he had already understood the rules of this world: it was to use the weak as stepping stones.

Before, he hadn't had the ability to change anything, but now it was different. He had the hextech system. He didn't know where the system came from, nor did he care.

He only cared about one thing: from now on, he, Lin Yan, would not let the people around him be treated as expendable materials again. Whether it was He Ming, Chen Qi, Su Wan, Zheng Tong, or any other ordinary person being trampled underfoot by this screwed-up world.

He would not accept this fate, nor would he accept the iron laws of this world.

Lin Yan raised his eyes, the flames of the fire dancing in his pupils like two clusters of light, cold yet scorching hot. "I am F-Rank," he said.

He Ming almost spat out the meat in his mouth.

"Weak Constitution, adds 2 points to Constitution," Lin Yan said, his tone very calm. "When I Awakened, the whole school was laughing. A one in ten million probability, the same rarity as an S-Rank, but the trashiest talent. Everyone thought I would die in the jaws of a Rift Rat."

"Then your HP..." He Ming pointed at him.

"You can understand it as: although my talent is F-Rank, it has one special feature—it's growth-type." Lin Yan paused.

"The Weak Constitution itself only adds 2 points of constitution, but it doesn't stay static. As long as I keep fighting, it keeps getting stronger. My health and physique are all results of its growth."

This wasn't a lie; the hextech system was bound to him, and Heartsteel and Heavy Hitter were indeed constantly strengthening his attributes, he just didn't mention that the system was driving it from behind the scenes.

The concept of a growth-type talent was understandable, explainable, and the safest approach.

"A growth-type talent?" Chen Qi's glasses nearly slid off the bridge of his nose. "The textbooks have never mentioned that an F-Rank could be growth-type."

"Now you do."

"No wonder." Zheng Tong leaned back. "I was wondering how an F-Rank could kill an Elite Ant Queen with two punches. Your talent isn't F-Rank at all; it just wears the label, but inside, it hides a monster capable of infinite growth."

"The Federation's talent grading can't measure this kind of growth potential. It only looks at the initial attributes; adding 2 points of constitution makes it a Weak Constitution, and it doesn't care what you can stack it into later on."

"Talent rank is just the starting point." Lin Yan picked up another piece of meat and flipped it over the fire. "In the Dungeon, only those who survive count as the strong. Once you're dead, it doesn't matter how good your talent was."

This sentence silenced everyone present.

He Ming took a gulp of water to wash down the meat, while Zheng Tong looked down at the standard issue dagger in his hand, the surface reflecting the dying light of the campfire.

"Well said." Zheng Tong sheathed the standard issue dagger back at his waist and looked up. "People like us, C-Ranks and D-Ranks, have been fighting for our lives in Dungeons from the start. Who ends up stronger in the end is still up for debate."

"Speaking of which," Chen Qi suddenly asked, "Boss, where do you plan to go next? Just grinding all the way to the Evacuation Point?"

Lin Yan didn't answer immediately; he picked up a wooden skewer and poked at the edge of the campfire, sending up a few sparks from the charcoal ash.

"I want to find this Dungeon's boss."

The air went silent for another second.

"A boss?" He Ming repeated, his voice filled with hesitation as he tried to confirm he hadn't misheard.

"The Rift Wasteland is a 1-star Dungeon, so it should have a Dungeon boss. It's usually at the boundary between the middle layer and the core area, or in the central zone between the three Evacuation Points."

"Find it, then kill it. The drops from a boss are at least one grade higher than those from an elite monster."

Chen Qi pushed up his glasses: "The Level 3 Elite Rift Wolf leader we encountered earlier had 1,200 HP, 60 Attack, and the Rend skill. The Level 5 Elite Ant Queen had 5,000 HP, 150 Attack, and Acid Spray. Following this pattern, the Dungeon boss should be at least Level 6 or higher, with over 10,000 HP, Attack power likely over 500, and definitely more than one skill."

"Isn't that perfect?" He Ming wiped his mouth. "Lin Yan now has over 20,000 HP. If they really fight, the boss would have to take a detour just seeing him."

"I don't know if the boss would panic," Zheng Tong chimed in, "but if I were the boss and saw those stats, I'd turn around and run."

Several of them laughed, and even Su Wan curled the corner of her lips.

Lin Yan listened to their laughter, but inwardly he thought, 'I'm already nearly invincible in this Dungeon. While I'm still standing on the line of total domination, I should eat up every resource I can.'

He would take as many levels, equipment, materials, and crystals as he could carry, secure the boss kill, and while other Awakened might start heading toward safety on the last day of the evacuation countdown, he wouldn't. He would go the opposite way, heading into the deepest parts of the Dungeon.

After stepping out of this Dungeon, he couldn't afford a single misstep. To break the iron law that treats the weak as expendable resources, a single S-rank rating wasn't enough, and being invincible in one Dungeon wasn't enough either.

He needed to grow faster than everyone else, so fast that by the time the Federation's rules could react, he would already be standing above them.

The campfire crackled once, and the group looked at each other.

"Then let's do it." Zheng Tong said, his tone decisive. "The Evacuation Point isn't going anywhere; we just need to make it there in the last two hours."

After finishing the roasted meat, the fire gradually dimmed. Zheng Tong stood up and brushed the ash off his hands: "Time to sleep. Let's set up a watch shift."

"I'll take the first watch," Zheng Tong said.

"I'll take the second watch," Chen Qi said, pushing up his glasses.

"I'll take the third watch," He Ming raised his hand.

"He Ming, can you handle the third watch?" Zheng Tong glanced at him.

"I have to handle it, the boss has to fight the Dungeon boss tomorrow." He Ming patted his chest armor. "The boss doesn't need to keep watch. The four of us rotating is just enough."

Lin Yan was just about to speak when Zheng Tong raised a hand to interrupt him.

"It's not up for discussion."

"I haven't even said anything yet."

"Your expression already said it." Zheng Tong crossed his arms. "The boss is responsible for the fighting; leave the logistics to us. If we can't even handle this little thing, how could we have the face to take the crystals you share with us?"

He Ming had already placed his round shield by his leg as a pillow and lay down, adding with his eyes closed: "Exactly, this is called a reasonable division of labor. I'm responsible for sleeping, Zheng Tong is responsible for guard duty, and the boss is also responsible for sleeping. Perfect."

Su Wan leaned against a broken wall a bit further from the fire, placing her short blade within reach. Before closing her eyes, she whispered: "Good night."

Lin Yan leaned against the base of the broken wall opposite the fire and closed his eyes. The embers of the fire cast a faint glow on his face. The surrounding chatter slowly died down, leaving only He Ming's steady snoring and the occasional soft crackle from the fire.

On the morning of the third day, Lin Yan was Awakened by a low humming sound. He opened his eyes; the fire had completely gone out, leaving only a pile of grayish-white charcoal ash.

The sky had changed.

Three golden beams of light fell vertically from the top of the sky, like three red-hot iron pillars plunged into the earth. The beams pierced through the Rift Wasteland's perpetually grayish-yellow clouds, burning three clearly defined golden rings into the cloud layer.

[Dungeon Announcement: Evacuation Point has been activated.]

[The current Evacuation Points consist of three fixed locations. All Awakened can complete the evacuation by reaching any of the Evacuation Points; no additional conditions are required.]

[Evacuation countdown: 20 hours. Awakened who have not reached an Evacuation Point after the countdown ends will be lost within the Dungeon.]

"Someone activated the Evacuation Point, and there are three of them?" He Ming rubbed his eyes and looked up at the sky. "Didn't the textbooks say that 1-star Dungeons usually only have one fixed Evacuation Point?"

Chen Qi pushed up his glasses, the lenses reflecting three thin golden light trails. "What the textbooks write is just the most common scenario. 1-star Dungeons sometimes spawn two, sometimes three, and in extreme cases, even five. The more there are, the friendlier it is for the Awakened, making it easier for everyone to find the nearest one to evacuate. Getting three is considered pretty lucky."

"The textbooks also said F-Rank is a trash talent."

"The system says three, so there are three. The closest one is to the northwest, about four or five hours away. On the way, we'll pass through a small area of Rift Wolf activity, and there are at least four or five energy fluctuations from resource points."

"These aren't the ordinary resource points hidden in corners like before; they are legitimate Elite-level ones with very strong energy fluctuations."

Zheng Tong stood up and brushed the charcoal ash off his pants: "Boss, what do you think?"

Lin Yan stood up. "There are 20 hours left in the Dungeon time limit. Evacuating now would mean wasting a third of our time. The Evacuation Points are already activated; we just need to arrive in the last few hours. While we're still in the Dungeon, we should get as much as we can."

Chen Qi closed his eyes and sensed for a few seconds: "There are two Elite-level resource points with particularly strong energy fluctuations on the road to the east. Also, there's one more thing: in the south-southeast direction, roughly in the central zone between the three Evacuation Points, there's a very blurry energy reaction. It's too far for an accurate reading, but the intensity definitely exceeds that of the Ant Queen."

"A boss?" He Ming instantly became fully awake.

"It's 80% likely."

Lin Yan looked in the direction Chen Qi pointed, but nothing could be seen on the grayish-yellow horizon. He stood straight and flexed his wrists.

"Let's hit the resource points first, and have Chen Qi keep scouting on the way. If we find the boss, we kill it; if we don't, we evacuate in the last two hours."