Chapter 145: Girls

So what? If you go out into the wild, you might run into some powerful weirdness and die.

Stop being jealous—we can't even squeeze into the escort team, but he's the leader of it; no amount of jealousy will change that fact.

Get to work—this batch of escort team members has been pulled out, leaving many positions vacant; this is our chance to climb up!

Some players are still being jealous, forcing it.

But other players have already seen the chain reaction this departure will trigger, and are proactively seeking better positions in the village, looking for upward mobility.

These people are destined not to stay at the bottom for long; their lifespan won't bind them—it'll be their motivation.

Fang Yue brought Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu to the village entrance quickly.

There, a large crowd stood densely packed.

Luo Xin was standing there, checking names off a list, acting like some minor leader.

Yet among all these people, the most noticeable wasn't Luo Xin, who was calling names, but the handsome old man holding a blood-red giant dog.

This giant dog had an unusually large head, its fur a blood-red color, while its limbs were ordinary.

But its overall height reached over two meters; just looking at it was frightening enough.

But Fang Yue had seen the dog hole Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu and others used to enter the village—it wasn't nearly that big.

Only when the 【Jushou Xuequan】 retracted its tongue with a "Ha-chi, ha-chi," closed its huge mouth, and lazily lay down did Fang Yue barely recognize that the dog hole could just barely accommodate the 【Jushou Xuequan】.

Come to think of it, aside from its terrifyingly huge head, the 【Jushou Xuequan】 looked no different from an ordinary dog—no one knew where the so-called 【Guilie】 manifested.

Fang Yue still had expectations for the 【Jushou Xuequan】.

"Tail! Tail! Over here, over here!"

Fang Yue was observing the 【Jushou Xuequan】 when Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu suddenly excitedly waved her hands.

Then, a girl with a slightly familiar gaze ran over from the crowd.

"Wu Wu, you're here too!"

Fang Yue looked closely—it was Tail, the girl who had crawled through the dog hole with Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu.

I remember assigning this one to feed horses—how come she's in the team too?

Fang Yue asked a couple questions and learned the situation from Tail.

Such a large team obviously needs horses to pull carts and transport goods; additionally, if any emergency arises, horses are needed for sufficient mobility to relay messages or as a last-resort means of escape.

Of course, such situations rarely occur—it's just a safeguard—but when escape becomes unavoidable, the importance of horses is self-evident.

And Gu Yue Cun… had very few people willing to join the escort team to Mo Cun as horse handlers.

So this responsibility fell to Tail and several others who usually fed the horses.

Horses are important resources; feeding them isn't something you can do casually—you need someone familiar with the horses to care for them and keep them healthy.

Also, if weirdness appears and causes chaos, horses will flee; at such times, the horse handlers must step in to calm them.

In short, having more horse handlers in the escort team is essential.

"So you got your lifespan too?"

"Yeah… I took mine early…"

Tail spoke a bit shyly.

Because she was desperately short on lifespan—even at a loss—she took the reward first.

But as a horse handler, her lifespan reward was only ten days, less than the escort team's fifteen; if she took it early, she got only five days.

Five days is barely enough for a one-way ticket—what if something happened on the road and she couldn't even reach Mo Cun?

Honestly, Tail's move was risky, but she said that as long as she took good care of the horses and completed her duties, she could keep earning lifespan—just not as generously as the one-time reward.

This part of the reward naturally came from the escort team, to be reimbursed by the village after the escort team returned safely.

Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu began catching up with Tail, chattering away; at first Fang Yue thought they were talking about girl stuff and moved away a bit, but soon he noticed they occasionally pointed at him.

…What the hell are they talking about?

Fang Yue felt puzzled but didn't go over to eavesdrop; instead, he walked over to the Blood Hunter.

"Ye Ge! Ye Ge!"

To his surprise, Jing Yan was also there—he hadn't noticed him at all; this guy had a special talent for blending into the crowd—in short, he was just too ordinary.

Fang Yue walked over and found Jing Yan wearing an expression clearly waiting for Fang Yue to praise him.

"Ye Ge, getting the Blood Hunter to join the escort team was my doing!"

"Huh?"

Fang Yue was confused; Jing Yan just started rambling on.

"Why is it my doing? Because I found out the Blood Hunter's true thoughts and did intense persuasion—helping you remove his psychological barriers to join the escort team."

"Of course, my push could've directly gotten him to join. If I failed, I still planted a seed in his mind—so you could eventually convince him to join."

"So I feel I deserve at least one-third of the credit. As for the 【Jushou Xuequan】, two words: fate. I didn't even know if the Blood Hunter would bring it along. Now it looks like we've scored big—having the Blood Hunter join increases safety by at least double!"

"So you don't mind if I tag along for a share of the reward, right?"

Damn, he's got a whole system for claiming credit.

Fang Yue rolled his eyes—if he hadn't made the deal with the Blood Hunter himself, how would the Blood Hunter have joined the escort team?

Fang Yue gave him a couple vague replies and dismissed him.

Jing Yan didn't care—he finished claiming credit and switched on his recording mode, filming the hundred-plus-person team from every angle, clearly preparing another big story.

Fang Yue ignored him and went straight to find the Blood Hunter.

"Woof! Woof woof!"

Despite the 【Jushou Xuequan】's wildly different appearance from an ordinary dog, its bark was still a dog's bark.

But with its massive head and size, baring its teeth like that was quite fearsome.

Because of this, aside from his apprentice, almost no one else dared to approach the Blood Hunter.

The Blood Hunter placed his hand on the massive head of the Giant-Headed Blood Hound, soothing it a couple of times, murmuring a few words, and the Giant-Headed Blood Hound calmed down.

"Is there anything that carries your scent? I'll let Blood Battle sniff your scent a bit more so it gets familiar. We don't want any accidental injuries."

... Accidental injuries? I must have heard wrong.

Fang Yue stared at the Blood Hunter suspiciously. Is this dog reliable?

Seemingly seeing through Fang Yue's concern, the Blood Hunter said calmly, "Blood Battle will listen to me, but once it gets worked up in combat, scent is more reliable."

"Alright."

(End of chapter)