Lord of the Myriad Worlds

Chapter 195: Invalid Donation

The family of five split into three groups.

Second Uncle Li Guilin's group would search the southern part of the town. Li Wei and Li Yue would cover the northern side — but neither group would venture more than two hundred meters from the parking lot.

As for Li Jiao, he produced a siege crossbow that looked devastatingly powerful, tucked himself into a concealed position at the parking lot entrance, and took on the role of lookout and backup for everyone else.

This was their first day in the mission world. No matter how much preparation they'd done beforehand, everything about this world was still unknown. Maximum caution was non-negotiable.

The five of them needed to stay alive as long as possible — dead members couldn't contribute to the family. But at the same time, no one could be allowed to develop too quickly.

It was a delicate balance to maintain.

As the saying goes: you worry about your brother suffering, but you also worry about your brother pulling ahead.

At this moment, Li Wei held his Three-Star War Bow with three hardwood arrows pinched between his fingers, following a few steps behind Li Yue and keeping a sharp eye on everything around them.

He was here for cover, not as the primary worker — so he couldn't walk in front. He had no idea which building materials Li Yue intended to haul, so she had to lead the way.

His new little sister looked delicate, but she worked like a machine. She'd even brought professional deerskin gloves. Once she'd picked a ruined building, she got straight to work — sorting through wood, bricks, concrete chunks, and rebar with practiced efficiency.Li Wei pricked his ears and pressed himself behind a concrete pillar about ten meters away, watching everything around him with intense focus — including the sky and the ground.

There wasn't much vegetation nearby, unlike a mountain forest, so he felt somewhat at a disadvantage. Moments like this made the value of the Perception attribute crystal clear — it could provide high-sensitivity early warning across any terrain, in any conditions, at any hour.

Time passed. The sun climbed higher and the temperature rose. Li Yue's collection work went smoothly. She was currently hauling concrete blocks back to camp — each one close to a hundred kilograms — picking them up and walking without so much as a labored breath. That meant this seemingly delicate girl had at least 20 points of Strength.

Over on the southern side, Li Guilin was doing the hauling, and he was even more impressive — shouldering blocks of nearly a hundred and fifty kilograms and striding along with powerful, vigorous steps. His Strength had to be at least 30.

It was a reminder that nobody who made it into a Pioneering Mission was weak.

About two hours in, Li Guilin and Liang Yuzhi swapped roles on the southern side. Li Wei was just about to suggest switching with Li Yue when he suddenly snapped his head toward the south — something didn't sound right over there.

Almost immediately, Liang Yuzhi let out a short, sharp cry — a startled yelp — but caught herself and cut it off at once.

Good nerves.

Because the ruined building she'd been rummaging through had just erupted with dozens of gray rats, each one the size of a Teddy bear, pouring out like a flood.

And these rats showed no fear of humans whatsoever. They launched themselves straight at Liang Yuzhi.

She wasn't carrying a weapon, but she was wearing leather armor and deerskin gloves. Relying on her strength and agility, she punched them away one by one — fierce and effective.

When Li Guilin came charging in with his mace, it turned into an absolute slaughter.

Less than a minute later, the two of them had wiped out the entire pack of gray rats.

Li Jiao even snagged one with a crossbow bolt — a rat's head, claimed from range.

Li Yue had started moving toward the commotion, but after a few steps she saw the situation was already under control.

As for Li Wei — he hadn't moved a single muscle from start to finish.

"Little Yue, take a break. Let me take over."

"Big brother, I'm not tired yet. You'll be on night watch tonight — rest while you can during the day." Li Yue declined warmly, even going so far as to hand Li Wei the important and dangerous job of night watch.

In this map, night watch was absolutely a dangerous but lucrative assignment. A full day of hauling concrete might not match a single night's worth of rewards.

But with Li Yue's words now on record, Li Wei taking tonight's watch was essentially set in stone.

After all, he hadn't done any physical labor all day — that was a fact. Given that logic, even Li Guilin, Li Jiao, and Liang Yuzhi couldn't reasonably compete with him for the slot.

As for why Li Yue was being so generous — it was because the reward for killing the gray rats had turned out to be surprisingly good.

[Family member Li Guilin has killed 30 mutated gray rats. Note: these are Level 1 mutated creatures with a one-star kill difficulty. He receives 30 Family Contribution points. He has donated these mutated gray rats to the family, earning an additional 3 Family Contribution points. Total accumulated: 33 Family Contribution points.]

[Family member Liang Yuzhi has killed and donated 10 mutated gray rats. She receives 11 Family Contribution points. Current total: 26 Family Contribution points.]

Those two notifications said everything.

There was still no Contribution for hauling building materials — that clearly required the Scavenger Camp to actually be built and have some defensive capability before it would pay out. No telling yet how Li Jiao would handle the construction.

After that, Li Guilin, Liang Yuzhi, and Li Yue all threw themselves back into the work with renewed energy, while Li Jiao continued his attempts at building the camp.

Only Li Wei remained idle — he hadn't even shifted his position from where he'd first taken cover.

On the southern side, Li Guilin had clearly found his groove. He kept his mace in hand and stayed within three meters of Liang Yuzhi at all times, ready to pounce at the first sign of trouble.

Liang Yuzhi, on the other hand, was too busy hauling materials to keep a weapon ready — by the time she could have drawn one, the action would already be over.

Over on this side, Li Yue was working alone, and she had no worries about Li Wei stealing her kills.

Sure enough, just before eleven in the morning, Li Yue disturbed another nest of mutated gray rats from a ruined building. Her reaction was lightning-fast — she drew her longsword and cut through them in a flash, wiping out the whole pack solo. She claimed all 25 rats for herself, earning 25 Contribution points.

But when she went to donate them, she got a rude shock.

[The family currently has more food of this type than the maximum storable amount given the current environment. Furthermore, the family lacks a cook to process this food in time. This donation is invalid. Current invalid donation count: 1.]

[Warning: if food of this type is not properly processed before sunset, it will spoil or attract unnecessary danger. Previous donations will be considered invalid.]

——

What?!

Ha!

Nobody had expected an invalid donation warning to trigger this quickly. It was becoming clear that the Pioneering Mission was considerably harder than the Rookie Mission.

On the southern side, Liang Yuzhi quickly handed off to Li Guilin and hurried back. She must have had a Three-Star Chef profession among her cards — a family of five couldn't possibly be without a cook.

It was just a question of how she planned to process all those rat carcasses in half a day.

But right at that moment, Li Wei noticed three large birds approaching from the south. Their wingspans were each close to five meters. They looked something like vultures — mutated vultures?

Without hesitation, he reached into his Resource Card and drew out three Three-Star Sniper Armor-Piercing Arrows. He'd prepared these specifically for moments like this — he'd even packed less food than usual to make room for more arrows.

He didn't need to say a word. Everyone spotted the three mutated vultures at the same time.

Li Jiao mounted his siege crossbow. Li Guilin produced another siege crossbow. Even Li Yue pulled out a compact, elegant hand crossbow.

As for Liang Yuzhi — she drew a Three-Star Compound Bow with complete confidence. Full ranged team.

The three mutated vultures, however, were flying slowly and showed no signs of aggression. They circled at three or four hundred meters in the air, like casual passersby.

At that range, even Li Wei with his Three-Star Sniper Armor-Piercing Arrows had no guarantee of a kill.

Had the smell of blood drawn them here?

Turning the thought over in his mind, Li Wei still didn't move.

Then, suddenly, the three mutated vultures began to accelerate — and started to dive.

In an instant, everyone nocked their arrows and drew their bows, aiming and locking on, waiting for the birds to enter range. But just as the three mutated vultures were about to reach two hundred meters above the ground, they let out a simultaneous screech — and in that same instant, three dark-green spheres the size of fists were spat out at tremendous speed.

Then they immediately pulled up, not giving anyone a chance to shoot them down.

"Get clear!"

Li Guilin shouted. Liang Yuzhi was even quicker — she stowed her bow and sprinted away with impressive agility.

"Thud! Thud! Thud!"

The three spheres hit the ground and instantly generated a spreading cloud of dark-green smoke, accompanied by a crackling, sizzling sound — deeply unsettling, and clearly highly corrosive.

Fortunately the wind was light, and the dark-green smoke spread no more than twenty square meters.

But the problem was, the three mutated vultures immediately dove again, spitting another three corrosive smoke bombs that sent Li Guilin and Liang Yuzhi scrambling in all directions.

"Dad! Mom! Get in here!"

Li Jiao shouted urgently — but his siege crossbow had disappeared.

Li Wei understood immediately what he was planning. He wanted to set up an ambush. The three mutated vultures were clearly intelligent; if they spotted the siege crossbow, they might not come close. So he was going for a surprise attack.

But could his siege crossbow hit a flying target two hundred meters in the air with any accuracy?

Li Wei had his doubts. Even his Three-Star War Bow with Three-Star Sniper Armor-Piercing Arrows couldn't guarantee it — because these mutated vultures, slow as they looked in flight, executed their dive-spit-ascent sequence with startling speed. It was as if the magical corruption had accelerated their evolution, turning them into living dive bombers.

So Li Wei still hadn't moved. He was waiting for his moment. Against aerial targets like these, running around in a panic, shouting, or trying to be clever probably wouldn't accomplish much.

Li Yue, for instance, had made the smart call — she'd slipped behind the ruins of another building and was pressing herself flat against the wall, moving like a gecko, trying to gain height for a potential opportunistic shot.

And she wasn't the only clever one.

Li Jiao was shouting for Li Guilin and Liang Yuzhi to run back to the underground parking lot — but in reality, the two of them had split left and right, looping wide around the parking lot and heading for the few multi-story buildings that were still standing in the distance.

They were looking for advantageous terrain.

Running straight back to the underground parking lot would be suicide. The mutated vultures could just seal the entrance and lob smoke bombs in — a turtle in a jar, no way out.

What a filial son you are.