Trembling At A High Altitude

"Smash you to death, you beast!" Li Teng vented all his bitterness from the previous bite on this Giant Rat, and it wasn't long before he had beaten it into a bloody, barely alive mess, incapable of moving.

With another swing, Li Teng ended the life of the Giant Rat completely.

After killing the Giant Rat, Li Teng quickly checked the Time Index on the wall.

It had actually increased by 1000 points! That was almost equivalent to the points Li Teng could earn from running for two hours.

This efficiency was so much higher than the treadmill, it was indescribable.

Of course, this was a privilege that came with Li Teng's advancement to Minor Special Contract Extra as the first-place winner. Without this watch, he wouldn't be able to hunt Giant Rats at all.

Among all four groups, only he could accumulate Time Index points this quickly.

It seemed that the mission to lead everyone to a successful Prison Break had fallen on his shoulders.

Looking at the Giant Rat on the ground... Despite its disgusting appearance, it had a layer of fat under its skin and plenty of meat on its body.

Could it be edible?

First, he would kill a few more to gather the necessary equipment, then bring the carcasses back to the big house and try frying them in a pan to eat.

This way, he would take care of food as well.

Li Teng was invigorated. He opened the door and once more lured another Giant Rat into the house.

After a desperate struggle, another Giant Rat was dead, and Li Teng had earned another 1000 points of Time Index as well as a rat carcass.

...

An hour later, Li Teng had earned twelve thousand points of Time Index.

At the same time, his frying pan was almost destroyed.

The trial period for the free Exploration APP had also come to an end.

Ten thousand points of Time Index were exchanged for a special alloy Wolf Tooth Hammer.

Two thousand points of Time Index were exchanged for the full version of the APP.

At the same time, the 30-day countdown had decreased by more than three hours.

Liu Yin had previously slept and used up the scant remaining time of the 30-day countdown; this decrease was mostly due to the consumption of these twelve thousand points of Time Index.

According to Li Teng's previous calculations, sleeping consumed the 30-day countdown at roughly a 4:1 ratio: four hours of sleep would cause the counter to recede by an hour.

If both of them slept, it would recede by two hours.

Therefore, the current speed at which he was earning Time Index points was still not enough to clear the 30-day countdown quickly.

He had to find an even faster way to earn Time Index points.

Soon, Li Teng lured another Giant Rat into the room.

Seizing the opportunity, Li Teng swung his hammer.

An unexpected scene took place.

The Giant Rat was actually killed by his swing! It came as no surprise that the alloy hammer, covered in countless metallic spikes, was far more lethal than the frying pan, making a one-hit kill not so strange.

Efficiency had greatly increased again!

After fighting to the death with more than a dozen Giant Rats, Li Teng was very clear about their attack patterns. He simply stopped luring them into his room and stood at the doorway instead, positioning himself to face the incoming Giant Rats as indicated by the watch. When a Giant Rat charged into his field of view and leaped to attack him, he timed his strike perfectly to end the battle with a single blow.

Efficiency had greatly increased once more.

An hour and a half later, the room was filled with the carcasses of giant rats.

Li Teng had also successfully put on the leg and arm guards.

The 30-day countdown had decreased by more than eleven hours.

Even if Li Teng and Liu Yin slept together for eight hours, they would still have more than seven hours of surplus for the day.

The 30-day countdown had officially entered the final countdown stage.

It was almost ten o'clock in the morning.

Li Teng had been hungry enough to eat a horse, sustaining himself only on the sense of achievement and excitement from hunting the giant rats.

After completing the task of gathering all his equipment, he could no longer hold on.

Carrying the carcasses of four giant rats, Li Teng observed the exploration conditions on his wristwatch while walking; he killed another giant rat that tried to ambush him on his way and brought its carcass back to the big house safely.

After knocking on the door and exchanging the secret code, Liu Yin opened the security door.

Upon seeing Li Teng, Liu Yin breathed a sigh of relief, but then screamed in fright at the sight of the giant rat monsters he brought back.

"Don't be afraid, they're all dead." After closing the security door, Li Teng carried the five giant rat carcasses into the kitchen and started to skin and gut them.

Liu Yin came over and, seeing the bloody scene on the ground, quickly stepped back.

"What are you wearing? Looks like COSPLAY," Liu Yin asked Li Teng.

"Armor I got from killing the giant rats," Li Teng answered Liu Yin.

"Armor? Are you playing a game?" Liu Yin was utterly confused.

"Yeah, something like that. There's a room outside where they sell weapons and armor. Killing one giant rat gets you 1000 points of Time Index, and I traded those points for this equipment," Li Teng explained to Liu Yin in detail.

"No wonder I saw the Time Index on the wall constantly going up; I thought something was wrong!" Originally, Liu Yin had wondered if it was because of Li Teng, but the index increasing by one thousand at a time was terrifying. How fast would one have to run on a treadmill to match that?

"After we've eaten, I'll go out and kill some more. Then we can buy even more and better ingredients," Li Teng said as he quickly skinned and cleaned one of the giant rats. He rendered some fat from the rat in the pan, fried its meat pieces in the fat, and then sprinkled salt on them.

The aroma was mouthwatering.

In no time, several pieces of meat were fried, and Li Teng took a bite, surprised at how good it was.

He had expected it to be smelly and tough and hard to eat, but apart from a bit of an earthy taste, it didn't have many other strange flavors—it tasted quite like wild rabbit meat.

"It's delicious, try a piece," Li Teng offered a fried piece of giant rat meat on a plate to Liu Yin standing at the door.

Although he called it giant rat meat, in reality, it had nothing to do with rat meat.

"Can you actually eat this?" Liu Yin grimaced, and while it smelled good, the terrifying appearance and the glossy look of the huge tail, resembling a large rat's, was a bit much to stomach.

"It's similar to rabbit meat. If you have had rabbit meat before, then you should be able to accept this," Li Teng reassured Liu Yin.

"Rabbits are so cute, how could you eat them?" Liu Yin was immediately displeased upon hearing this.

Li Teng rubbed his forehead, realizing his blunder—Liu Yin always referred to herself as Little Bunny.

Mentioning rabbit meat in front of her...

"I misspoke, actually, it's somewhat like dog meat," Li Teng corrected himself.

"Dogs are so cute and the most loyal friends of humans, how could you eat dogs?" Liu Yin was even more upset.

"I misspoke again, this meat... it's similar to mouse meat," Li Teng had no choice but to correct himself again.

"You... actually ate mouse meat?" Liu Yin's eyes widened in shock.