Trembling At A High Altitude

There was no vision at all in the darkness.

The difficulty of killing the Giant Rat had doubled.

However, after battling the Giant Rats for an entire day and killing dozens of them, Li Teng had become keenly aware of their movements and attack patterns, and he had also mastered the subtle sounds they made when moving and attacking.

With the help of his wristwatch detection, even in the dark, when a Giant Rat launched a surprise attack at close range, he was able to respond in time. Although he could not kill it with a single blow like he could during the day, the chances of driving them off or even inflicting serious injuries were still very high.

After driving away two Giant Rats that attempted to attack him along the way, Li Teng smoothly arrived at the Hunting Cabin.

Inside the Hunting Cabin, there was a light, which shared electricity costs with the big house.

Although the lighting was dim, it was sufficient for combat.

His goal for today was to continue hunting a large number of Giant Rats to expand his Exploration APP's scanning range as much as possible.

To expand from ten meters to twenty meters, an additional 4,000 Time Index points were needed; to expand from twenty meters to thirty meters, an additional 8,000 Time Index points were needed, with the cost doubling for each additional ten meters. If he could expand it to a hundred meters, then his wristwatch's scanning could cover the entire area.

But this was not a very realistic thing.

Because to expand to 100 meters, he would need to hunt 2,044 Giant Rats to obtain 2.04 million Time Index points.

From yesterday's experience, hunting ten in an hour was already the limit, possibly related to the density of Giant Rats and even their refresh rate. At the start of the hunt, the density of Giant Rats was high, and he could come across one every three minutes or so, but later on, the density significantly decreased, and it could take ten minutes or even longer to find one.

If he hunted non-stop from now until noon without eating or drinking, he could at most kill 100 of them.

Therefore, Li Teng's initial goal was to expand the scanning range of the Exploration APP to fifty meters.

This way, he would only need to hunt 60 Giant Rats.

Hunting 60 Giant Rats would take roughly seven to eight hours, possibly longer, as he would need to take breaks in between, go back to fry meat, and so on. If the density of Giant Rats decreased significantly, he would need to wait even longer for them to replenish.

How they appeared, or rather, how they refreshed, Li Teng did not yet understand.

His Exploration APP currently only had a scanning radius of ten meters and did not have the capability to monitor most of the area in real-time.

Now that he had a goal, he didn't need to think too much, just start working toward it.

He opened the door, creating a noise, and after a while, a Giant Rat was attracted.

Li Teng lured it into the room, and with a precise blow to the head, he killed it with a single hammer strike.

Then he left the cabin to lure the second target.

The process repeated itself.

After a while, he would start feeling somewhat frustrated.

During this process, Li Teng found his Observation, Reaction, Arm Strength, Stamina, and Overall Physical Fitness all gradually strengthening. These enhancements were not the kind found in fantasy or game novels where Attribute Points increased, but the improvement of human capacities after extreme training. These improvements would not only play a role in this plot but would be highly beneficial when he faced similar scenarios in the future.

This should also be considered a good thing.

By the time dawn broke at six o'clock, Li Teng had hunted more than forty Giant Rats, earning over 40,000 Time Index points. He spent 28,000 of these points to boost his Exploration APP's scanning range to 40 meters.

I simply couldn't bear the hunger anymore.

Li Teng chose the four healthiest giant rats, killed two more on the way back, and returned to the big house with a total of six giant rats.

After tossing the six giant rats through an unlocked window, Li Teng also climbed back into the living room of the big house.

Liu Yin, indeed, wasn't dead. She sat on the sofa, staring blankly at the ceiling.

She showed no reaction to Li Teng's return, as if she were a walking corpse.

Li Teng glanced at her, moved all the giant rats to the kitchen, and one by one, he gutted and butchered them, extracted their fat and meat. After disposing of all the waste out the window, he finally started the fire, melted the fat into oil, and began frying the meat chunks in the oil.

The aroma of the meat immediately filled the entire house.

Li Teng scooped up a bowl of the fried meat and brought it to the living room for Liu Yin to eat.

Liu Yin ignored him.

Li Teng had no choice but to place the bowl on the coffee table in front of her and then went back to the kitchen to continue frying the meat while he savored his hard-earned meal.

After a while, Li Teng exchanged for a few bottles of beer from the fridge door, then sat drinking beer and eating meat, he even hummed a little tune, feeling pleased with himself.

"You wouldn't care if I died?" Liu Yin suddenly appeared at the kitchen door and questioned Li Teng.

"You can't die here," Li Teng answered Liu Yin.

"The things that happened yesterday don't affect you at all? How can you act as if nothing happened?" Liu Yin continued to question Li Teng.

"Yesterday? What happened yesterday?" Li Teng tried to recall; he didn't have an argument with Liu Yin, did he? Why was she so angry?

"Not just yesterday, but the day before too—the severing of limbs, carving of flesh; does none of that affect you? And you still eat so heartily! Drink beer! Sing songs?"

"What is the meaning of living like this?" Liu Yin looked at Li Teng with a baffled expression, as if any normal person would already want to end their life by now.

Hearing Liu Yin's words, Li Teng was taken aback.

"The meaning of life? To live is... to eat meat, right?" Li Teng answered Liu Yin, and then he stuffed a piece of meat into his mouth and took another sip from the beer can.

"Just for that reason, you can keep on living? And to endure such great pain while living? I don't believe it!" Liu Yin was distraught at Li Teng's answer.

"To live is to have hope, for instance, I want to fulfill my promise to her, to eventually become the Best Actor in the future and go find her to help her finish her film. Then... she also needs to keep her promise to me." After some thought, Li Teng gave another answer.

"Who is she? The director from before?"

"Who she is doesn't really matter. What's important is that I indeed have such a goal," Li Teng pondered for a while before he spoke again.

"Is becoming the Best Actor that important to you? Even if you become Best Actor, you're just an actor being toyed with in Film and Television City. You still can't escape a fate of being controlled! Just such a vague goal or reason becomes your belief to continue living? I still don't believe it!" Liu Yin felt she had not found the answer she was looking for.

"I think, the most fundamental reason might... involve the biggest difference between you and me. You really want to hear it? Then I'll explain it thoroughly," Li Teng put down his beer can, his expression turning serious.

"Go ahead, I'm listening."