Just as Zheng Tian and the others passed by earlier, the sensor on their hover truck indicated that there was an extremely weakened First Level Ruined Beast here.
Following the principle of taking advantage of a free opportunity, they detoured a few hundred meters to come over and check the situation.
And then they saw this scene in front of them.
A strange man, unarmed, exuding a weak aura from head to toe, was sitting there with his legs crossed as if he had anticipated their arrival all along, waiting for them.
What was even more bizarre was that he immediately called out Zheng Tian's name.
Zheng Tian was merely a small scavenger team leader in Starfire Town, far from being famous enough to be well-known.
This stranger obviously wasn't from the town; there was no reason for him to have heard of Zheng Tian.
All these strange occurrences added an extra layer of mysteriousness to him.
"How I know you is not important."
Seeing that his act of mystique had successfully intimidated them, Ren Zhong secretly breathed a sigh of relief, "My name is Ren Zhong. I need to go to Starfire Town, but an unexpected incident happened on the way, and I no longer have the ability to protect myself. I would like to offer the corpse of this Crystal Winged Dragonfly as a reward to ask if you can take me to Starfire Town. Is that okay?"
Zheng Tian's eyes rolled, "A chance meeting is still fate. We can take you to the town, but the reward is unnecessary. Time is of the essence, Hanyu, help Brother Ren Zhong dismantle the crystal chip."
Ren Zhong: "Thank you."
Zheng Tian: "You're welcome."
Two and a half minutes later, the tall woman dismantled the crystal chip, and then, with a consultative look, glanced at Ren Zhong.
Ren Zhong shook his head and said, "I didn't bring a box with me, please help me pack it."
With Zheng Tian's enthusiastic support, Ren Zhong climbed up the ravine.
A nearly ten-meter-long box truck was parked on the ground ahead.
The truck had no wheels and looked like a shipping container.
The blue sun in the distance was about to set.
A burly man lifted the corpse of the Crystal Winged Dragonfly with one hand, opened the cargo door at the back of the truck, and casually tossed it inside.
Glancing in, Ren Zhong observed quite a few animal corpses that he didn't recognize piled inside the cargo area.
Although they were called animals, at least half of their bodies gleamed with a metallic sheen.
By now, Ren Zhong already knew what these things were, collectively known as Ruined Beasts.
There were two rows of seats in the front of the truck, with Zheng Tian sitting in the driver's seat.
The burly man sat in the more spacious passenger seat.
The back row was originally meant to accommodate three people, consisting of the long-armed man, the baseball cap guy, and the tall woman, but with Ren Zhong added, it became somewhat crowded.
The tall woman sat by the leftmost window, with Ren Zhong to her right.
The two were squeezed quite closely, unavoidably bumping into each other.
There was nothing to be done about it.
Fortunately, the silent and reserved tall woman was magnanimous, not taking issue with Ren Zhong.
Or perhaps she was simply insensitive to physical contact, whereas Ren Zhong felt somewhat awkward but suppressed the feeling inside without showing it.
Having witnessed the cold-blooded nature of this group, Ren Zhong couldn't feel truly safe now.
He believed that all the friendliness they displayed was just a superficial facade, with each person hiding a devilish mask that would devour others without a trace.
So at this moment, his every move was a performance to maintain his high-level persona.
As long as they couldn't see through him, they wouldn't act against him.
On Ren Zhong's right side was the sharp-faced, narrow-eyed baseball cap guy who had once sentenced him to death.
The long-armed man sat by the rightmost window.
The interior of the vehicle was filled with a pungent odor, unsure if it was engine oil or a burnt circuit.
The dashboard at the front was chaotically arranged.
Amid the gaps in the dashboard, two or three metal wire ends would mischievously peek out now and then.
Zheng Tian first placed her palm on a plastic panel the size of a mouse pad, below which a faint light glimmered.
An electronic voice filled the vehicle, "Authentication successful."
Driver Zheng Tian whistled, "Heading home!"
The vehicle shakily levitated, eventually settling at a height of two meters above the ground, and began accelerating forward.
Throughout this process, the car bottom clanked and rattled, giving the impression that it might fall apart at any moment.
Zheng Tian looked back at Ren Zhong, who appeared a bit dazed by the shaking, and offered an awkward smile, "Sorry, our turtle-style hover truck is a patchwork picked by Wen Lei from the junkyard. Everything makes noise except the horn."
Ren Zhong waved his hand considerately, "It's nothing, it's nothing."
Wen Lei muttered, "Having a vehicle to drive is good enough. It didn't cost us anything, so stop being picky. Besides, next time it breaks down, I won't fix it."
Zheng Tian: "My bad, my bad!"
After a few minutes, as they drove on, Zheng Tian started chatting with Ren Zhong while driving.