Chapter 4

"Your mental power index is now comparable to that of a high-level psychic, but you are unable to fully unleash its true strength. I will now explain your upcoming training plan. You will use this old rifle to hunt monsters, earning points while improving your mental power. The reason I chose this old rifle is twofold: first, the lower the lethality of the thermal weapon, the less it restricts you, which is more beneficial for enhancing your mental power; second, I chose a thermal weapon over a cold weapon to conceal your extraordinary mental power, to avoid drawing unwanted attention. You should know that the earlier you expose yourself, the more detrimental it will be to your growth."

"Ah, I understand." Wang Yan immediately grasped the true intention of the skeleton mentor, but he soon thought of another issue. "However, carrying so many bullets is a hassle."

"Uh... Haven't you opened the black lotus petal you activated?" The skeleton was taken aback and appeared, pointing at Wang Yan with a speechless expression.

"Um... Sorry, mentor, I don't quite understand what you mean?" Wang Yan scratched his head, looking embarrassed under the skeleton mentor's gaze.

"I'm dizzy!"

The skeleton mentor looked thoroughly defeated by Wang Yan, patting his skull and trying to remain rational. "After becoming an entry-level controller, you can activate a black lotus petal for every 1,000 second-level souls you successfully reincarnate. You currently have 53.6 points, so you should have activated four black lotus petals. Is that correct?"

"I'm not sure if they're activated, but four black lotus petals have indeed lit up," Wang Yan said meekly, feeling as if he had committed a grave sin from the skeleton mentor's expression.

"That means they are activated." The skeleton mentor looked frustrated. "Each black lotus petal forms its own space. Once activated, that space belongs to you. In other words, you now have four storage spaces. The smallest storage space should be about 20 square meters. It can easily hold 10,000 bullets, or even 10,000 rifles."

"Ah... That's amazing." Wang Yan's mouth dropped open, momentarily at a loss for words. This was like an invincible artifact from a game.

"There will be more good things to come. This is just the beginning." The skeleton mentor waved his hand, interrupting Wang Yan's shock. "Just focus your attention on the petal, and it will open. By the way, there is an item in each space. Don't throw it away; it will be very useful to you."

"Ah..." Wang Yan was dazed by the continuous 'bonuses,' but he quickly calmed down and focused his mental power on the first activated petal as the skeleton instructed.

Click...

Wang Yan felt a bright light, and he found himself in a space of about 20 square meters. In the corner was a black lotus petal. With a thought, the black petal appeared in his hand, heavy and clearly not ordinary metal. However, he had no idea what it was for, despite examining it thoroughly.

Next, Wang Yan entered the second, third, and fourth petal spaces. Each space was larger than the last, roughly 20, 30, 40, and 50 square meters. Each space also contained a lotus petal, but they all felt different in his hand, though they looked identical. Wang Yan compared them carefully, finding no discrepancies.

"Skull mentor, what are these black lotus petals?" Wang Yan asked, knowing the skeleton mentor could hear him, after failing to figure them out.

"You don't need to know now. Once you activate all nine petals, you will understand naturally." The skeleton mentor's answer was direct, leaving Wang Yan speechless. "What you need to focus on now is how to purchase the required equipment within three days and then begin your trial journey."

Wang Yan shrugged. Since he couldn't figure it out, there was no point in wasting time. He casually threw the four metal petals into the fourth space and headed out of the Qing City ruins without hesitation. His destination was Shunqi City, the nearest human base to the Qing City ruins, which was part of the North China Base.

It was easy for Wang Yan to buy ten rifles within three days, but gathering 10,000 bullets was not. These old rifles, which were only used in schools for basic shooting classes, were rarely stocked in weapon specialty stores due to their low sales and profit margins. However, Wang Yan grew up in Shunqi City and was familiar with the black market. Even so, it took him considerable effort to gather the required number of bullets. During this time, he also purchased some other low-end, obsolete thermal weapons. Since the skeleton mentor chose the rifle, other guns were similar in most aspects, except for slightly lower magazine capacity. Some even had better features. Since the goal was to avoid drawing attention, any weapon would do. Wang Yan spent all the money he earned from hunting in the ruins on guns and bullets, believing the investment would be worth it for his future growth. If he could get into the Zhuque Military Academy, the high tuition could be borrowed from his close friend. Su Jianting aside, Guan Pan was definitely wealthy, and the tuition would be a mere drop in the bucket to him.

This time, Wang Yan did not choose the Qing City ruins but took the maglev train to the Penglai City ruins. Compared to the Qing City ruins, the Penglai ruins had a greater variety and higher level of monsters, and it was even rumored that there were lord-level monsters.

Wang Yan's courage to choose the Penglai ruins mainly came from the 'Universal Rebirth System.' He had figured out that if he encountered a high-level monster, he could hide in the black lotus space. According to the skeleton mentor, the four activated spaces could only store items; living creatures would not survive for long, except for Wang Yan himself, who could enter without any issues.

Thus, to improve his combat and reaction skills more quickly, Wang Yan decided to target the Penglai ruins after much consideration.

"Attention, martial artists, we are approaching the final stop, Penglai ruins. Please gather your belongings and prepare to disembark."

The announcement on the 1019th maglev train from Shunqi City to the Penglai ruins woke Wang Yan from his nap.

Three minutes later, the train stopped, and Wang Yan slung his backpack over his shoulder and followed the crowd off the train.

"Sir, I have the latest information on the Penglai ruins, 100 Chinese yuan per copy..."

"Brother, don't listen to him. I have the most detailed information, including the locations of the monster lords and the territories of warlord-level monsters, all clearly marked. Only 80 Chinese yuan, brothers, come and get one."

"Buy mine. The many islands in the Penglai ruins are filled with countless treasures and even some herbs that are hundreds or thousands of years old..."

"Brother, the Great Cataclysm was only over 200 years ago. If there were really herbs that old, would they still be available to me?" Wang Yan couldn't help but interject; these guys were really exaggerating.

After shaking off the group, Wang Yan went directly to the Zero Point Mall, where he could buy the latest, most authentic, and most comprehensive information. This was his first time entering the Penglai ruins, and although he had a survival space, he still needed to be cautious. He also wanted to gather more information to help with his trial journey.

Wang Yan spent 100 Chinese yuan at the Zero Point Mall to buy a map of the Penglai ruins. The map marked the territories of some monsters and provided a brief introduction to the habits and combat abilities of warlord-level and above monsters. With this map, he wouldn't be like a headless fly.

Fanghu Mountain, Penglai ruins.

Bang! Bang!...

With the continuous sound of gunfire, a G-level monster, the Earth Collapse Wolf, fell to the ground. Wang Yan, holding a rifle, approached. This was the seventh G-level monster he had killed in four days. If he included H-level monsters, it was around twenty. The yield was low, mainly due to the low lethality of the rifle, which made it difficult to inflict fatal damage on these level monsters.

Wang Yan then used his mental power to throw the still-alive Earth Collapse Wolf into the '101' space. According to the skeleton mentor, Wang Yan had specifically marked the black lotus spaces. '101' referred to the first petal of the first black lotus activated by the Universal Rebirth System, forming an independent space.

These black lotus spaces, which he carried with him, were now being used extravagantly as a mobile warehouse, storing monster corpses. If anyone knew, they would surely be shocked.

Previously, as an intermediate warrior, Wang Yan could only handle H-level monsters, and even then, it would take some effort and risk. However, after four days of inhuman training by the skeleton mentor, he now had a high success rate in hunting G-level monsters. If he encountered the Horned Wild Boar again, he was confident he could eliminate it.