The City of Terror

 “Hello, Brother Wei? What’s the matter?”

Perhaps because he had trained a lot in the Dust World, Shan Bing’s voice now had a charming and deep quality to it. This was something that he had only dreamt of in the past. After all, having a sexy voice was very handy when trying to chase girls.

Of course, after becoming more mature now, Shan Bing didn’t care too much for the changes to his voice.

“Are you familiar with any antique experts?”

Wei Xiao Bei asked.

“Antiques of what field?”

This question demonstrated Shan Bing’s growth and maturity. He no longer promised confidently to settle the matter immediately. Instead, he started to ask more detailed questions, while also remaining at a bit of distance and not drilling for every bit of information that he could get.

In truth, this was the proper way of doing things. If he immediately agreed to deal with the problem and failed to properly settle it, he would waste time instead.

“Armor from Ancient Rome.”

Wei Xiao Bei thought for a moment before replying, making sure to give a bit more detail.

After all, there were too many countries in Europe. If he wasn’t clear enough, Shan Bing might have trouble finding the related experts.

“Ancient Rome? Ok, I will go and ask around at the archaeology department at Cui Hu University.”

Shan Bing had some ideas in mind and immediately replied.

After leaving the matter with Shan Bing, he turned his attention back to the Scarlet Pheasant meat.

After looking through his storage bag, he realized that he had a few other rare-quality items apart from the Scarlet Pheasant meat. He had the spirit rice and the pickled vegetables from the Local God Temple, along with the last two high-quality roasted T-rex meat.

Unfortunately, the materials he could choose from were far too few.

Xiao Bei shook his head in disappointment. These materials were entirely not enough for creating better dishes.

As an experienced chef whose Cooking Skill was at the Perfection level, he was able to get an answer to the situation without much thought.

It seemed he needed to specially go search for some ingredients.

As he leaned against his deck chair, Xiao Bei’s mind started to recount all the monsters and plants he had seen since he first entered the Dust World. Every single one of them flashed through his mind.

The Green Dwarves. The Fishmen, the Fiendish Man Fish, the black beetles, the zombies. The mutated white mice, the Treeman Saplings, the Sacred Beetle Descendants, the black scorpions, the crows. The Roman footsoldiers…the Shangfu, the Thunder Worm, the Lickers, the Fire Crows…..The T-rex, the Frost Giants, the Big Tree Spirit, the Thousand Eyed Devil, the giant snake, the Radiant Sacred Beetle, the Mutated Farmer’s Market. The Citizen of Long Bo…

He had seen too many monsters, essentially over a hundred different species put together.

However, not many of them could be used as ingredients.

For example, though humanoid monsters like the Green Dwarves and the Fishmen could theoretically be used for cooking, even Xiao Bei himself wouldn’t be able to swallow the dish after it was done.

This was cannibalism. At the very least, Xiao Bei who had grown up in Chinese culture could not accept doing so.

As for the zombies, the Lickers, and the Xuan Hua Broad Axes Monster. Were those things even edible?

The first ingredients that Wei Xiao Bei narrowed down upon included the Fiendish Man Fish. Though that thing did look a bit like a human, it was still a ways off from being humanoid. Moreover, the Fiendish Man Fish Essence that it left behind after being killed could increase a person’s Character by 0.1 and Appearance by 0.2. The flesh of a monster like that would not be any common material.

Meanwhile, the dinosaurs, the Dang Kang, the reindeers, and the Fire Crows were all monsters with normal meat. Naturally, these were all excellent ingredients.

On the other hand, the most accessible ingredient had to be the Fiendish Man Fish. He could also take the opportunity to settle the score with the Thousand Eyed Devil.

Xiao Bei would never forget that he almost died at the hands of the Devil. Death would probably be preferable if he ended up in the hands of the Thousand Eyed Devil.

The Thousand Eyed Devil was a Three-Star Terror Creature, as was he. Though he was still a bit lacking compared to absurdly strong Three-Star Terror Creatures Xiao Bei was confident he could square off against the Thousand Eyed Devil with [Indomitable Spirit].

As per usual, after finishing his dinner, Xiao Bei drove his car to the construction site where his old rented house was at.

Perhaps because he had been reminded by the person in charge, the security guard hurried to open the gate when he saw Xiao Bei’s SUV arrive. He let Xiao Bei enter without any questions.

It made sense once Xiao Bei thought about it. Zhou Xin Yuan’s license plate should be fairly well-known even within the Da Hao Group.

The people at the site were now having food. The project manager immediately hurried over and invited Xiao Bei over for a meal when he saw him arrive.

Xiao Bei knew that the manager was only expressing courtesy. It would be awkward if he actually did agree and went over for some food.

After rejecting the invitation, Xiao Bei walked straight toward his office.

He shut the door and the noise from outside was instantly shut out. There were still some Cui Hu Ten Years Brew remaining from last time. He took out a few bottles of the alcohol, opened all of them and emptied them into a massive jar. He lifted the jar to his mouth and drank everything in a single gulp.

The refreshing liquid flowed down his throat and into his stomach and he instantly felt as if there was a fire burning in him.

A few moments later, his mind started to go dizzy and his body started to go transparent before finally, it vanished.

…..

Xiao Bei woke up and looked around.

He was still lying in a clearing filled with dust but a new building had appeared nearby.

It was a building made of steel and it looked very familiar. Xiao Bei thought for a moment and immediately recalled where he had seen it. Wasn’t this the canteen of the construction site?

He kicked out with his legs and easily flipped onto his feet. He looked at the canteen for a moment and found nothing out of the ordinary.

There was nothing special even after he entered the canteen. The inside was just like the canteen in reality.

That said, apart from this canteen, there were no other structures in the area.

Xiao Bei thought for a moment and theorized that the appearance of this canteen had something to do with the expert skills of the chef. People lived for food. Perhaps this canteen left a deep impression in the minds of the workers, causing it to appear in the Dust World.

Of course, this was only a guess from Xiao Bei.

The sudden appearance of a building in the Dust World might not necessarily match his expectations.

Since there were no abnormalities, he didn’t stay here for too long. After quickly determining the direction, he headed toward the Emerald Lake, Cui Lake.

As Wei Xiao Bei moved, several black beetles started to crawl out from the ashes.

These beetles had all voluntarily jumped into the lake last time. He had thought that they had all died and had never expected them to reappear when he came in this time.

Who knew if these beetles had reproduced on their own or if the Dust World had given birth to them?

Wei Xiao stepped on them as he walked across. The sound of their exploding corpses rang out and it sounded just like bubbles being popped.

He checked his status panel and his face turned green.

Compared to the 0.25 evolution points for every beetle before, every beetle only gave 0.01 points now!

There was no doubt that the benefits that Wei Xiao Bei could reap from these beetles that even an ordinary human can kill had been reduced ever since he reached Three-Star Terror. This meant that he needed to kill a hundred black beetles to obtain a single evolution point.

This efficiency was close to nothing.

Thus, Xiao Bei had no intention to deal with these black beetles that had climbed out of the ashes. He simply caught a hundred of them before he left, placing them in his storage bag after twisting off their heads.

He was prepared to bring them back and see if they could be used as a sauce or be fried in oil.

These beetles might be ferocious little things, but they were fairly succulent. Insects like these were often used to make sauce or fried as delicacies in the real world.

As Xiao Bei walked toward the lake, he could visibly sense that the distance between here and the lake had shortened.

The main reason why this distance felt smaller now was that the rental street was now smaller.

However, Xiao Bei did not look into the deeper reasons behind this and quickly arrived at the lakeside.

Compared to before, the lake was now larger. A glance and Xiao Bei estimated the Emerald Lake to be twice as big as it was in the real world.

It was important to know that the lake in the real world wasn’t that small at all. The total surface area was over ten square kilometers, which was a thousand hectares.

For an inland city like Cui Hu City, a lake like this was already a massive lake. This wasn’t the Jiangnan, so they had no four hundred kilometer-wide water bodies like Taihu and the Chaohu Lakes.

Regardless, when you stand before a lake that is over thirty square kilometers and look beyond, it will already feel boundless to the eye.

The lake was very calm now, much like the one in the real world. It was much quieter as the lake in the real world had plenty of shops and restaurants around it that were filled with people. The sound of traffic was everywhere, incomparable to the silence right now.

Xiao Bei had already prepared for the silence of the lake. He took out a few of the beetles he had taken from earlier and tied them to a vine before throwing it into the water.

Then, he occasionally shook the branch, causing the dead beetle to move through the water as if it was still living.

Not long after, he felt his branch dip slightly. His eyes looked through the surface and discovered nothing. However, he did not hesitate. Xiao Bei pulled hard and the branch was taken out of the water. A strange fish with a human head was pulled out of the lake.

This was something Xiao Bei had never expected. The Fiendish Man Fish could blend into the surroundings while it was in the water, keeping it invisible to the naked eye.

One Fiendish Man Fish in the bag!

Xiao Bei stepped forward and caught the fish with his left hand before it could hit the ground.