novelraw Chapter 238: Ranked Third
Chapter 238: Ranked Third
As the golden sunset stretched Li Wei's shadow long across the ground, the silhouette it cast looked like some kind of flowing, mysterious code — a soft knock, and time itself stood still.
Then, as if clipped from a video, a single frame emerged. That frame became a massive card — a full hundred meters tall — slowly rotating within a vast and towering golden palace.
The palace seemed forged from the fire of the sun itself. The golden light that played across its surface was not ordinary gold — it flowed endlessly, like magic made visible.
But Li Wei's silhouette card was not the only one here. There were fourteen in total, arranged from top to bottom, clearly following some numerical hierarchy.
Beyond that, what kept all fourteen cards rotating in unison was a planet — half deep blue, half blazing red.
Within this golden hall, there were three such planets.
But the orbits of these three planets were not the same. One of them also had dozens of cards orbiting it — though those cards were far smaller, none of them even a meter tall.
Footsteps rang out. Night Owl, the Chief Internal Affairs Officer of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, stepped out through a side door of the golden palace. The golden door swung shut behind her, but not before a glimpse of her lavish, enormous office — thick with magical atmosphere — was visible, along with the Ministry's training ground and a corner of Weir City's blue sky.
Almost simultaneously, Black Wolf, the Chief Logistics Officer of the Logistics Department, emerged from another side door. Their eyes met briefly — no ripple of emotion, not even a hint of pleasantry.
Then, one by one, all nine side doors of the golden hall opened, and the heads of nine departments stepped out.None of them spoke. Each flipped through Li Wei's card. It rapidly displayed everything Li Wei had done over the past month — no detail omitted — though the segment where Liang Yuzhi had activated the Four-Star Conspiracy Card was blurred. Clearly, the Four-Star Conspiracy Card carried high-level clearance.
"Anyone want to view that conspiracy segment?"
Someone asked. No one answered. There was no need. They'd been summoned here because this month's end-of-month Pioneering Points ranking was unusually abnormal — enough to make them distrust the information they'd already received, and come to headquarters to see for themselves.
Having seen it, there was nothing left to say.
What was there to say?
That two five-star veterans who could cross dimensions were getting outplayed by a newcomer?
It didn't make sense — and besides, those two had simply had terrible luck. Cross-dimensional missions could fail. Recovery was needed. Karma was a real thing.
But as always, some were happy and some were not.
Back in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Night Owl laughed out loud. Life was good. The future was bright. She'd once only dared dream of cracking second place on the scoreboard — and now she was leading by a wide margin.
Her only hope now was that this kid Li Wei could hold steady — hold onto his current advantage, and not throw it away. This was only the third month. Don't be a flash in the pan. Don't give up halfway.
Night Owl thought it over, then suddenly pulled out a card and swept her hand across it. One figure after another appeared within the card. If Li Wei's camp finished building the city wall, it would upgrade to a Level 4 Scavenger Camp — so she needed to start identifying backup players for him now. Otherwise, that venomous scorpion Li Yue would probably have the last laugh.
But after searching through her options, Night Owl let out a quiet sigh. All the top-tier players with free slots in the Ministry of Internal Affairs were being reserved for Hathaway. Even if Li Wei had a slight lead right now, that didn't mean it would hold. That venomous scorpion Li Yue had recovered from her injuries — she was about to start pressing hard.
Night Owl could even guess Li Yue's tactics. It would be a classic "kill with a borrowed knife" move. Liang Yuzhi would very likely continue as transport team captain next month — and if Li Yue could engineer her death, Li Wei as Head of Household would face an Impeachment. Once that process started, Li Yue could easily dominate it with her item cards.
There was no counter to that.
And to make it worse, Li Yue had built a good relationship with Li Wei from the very beginning. Meanwhile, Liang Yuzhi — that widow — had been a step too slow, and on top of that she was stingy, arrogant, and self-righteous. Damn, what a piece of work.
Night Owl didn't even need to watch the conspiracy segment to know the offer that widow had put forward was garbage. She'd worked alongside the woman before — she knew exactly what she was like. Genuinely talented, almost a prodigy in certain professions, but precisely because of that, insufferably conceited and dismissive of everyone else. Not worth mentioning.
"Flowers in full bloom, oil poured on fire — it's a tough spot. Li Wei, even if you lose this one, I won't blame you."
Night Owl shook her head and temporarily gave up on selecting candidate players for Li Wei. As an Internal Affairs Officer, she had a recommendation quota each cycle — but it all had to go toward protecting Hathaway and indirectly supporting Little John.
Because those two were genuinely stable. Developing at a very steady pace. The mission ran three years — this was only month three.
Of course, if Li Wei managed to hold off Li Yue's offensive in the coming months, that would be a true reversal of fortune. At the right moment, she would send over a heavyweight Internal Affairs player to back him up.
—
The sun slowly sank below the horizon, but inside the walls of the Level 3 Scavenger Camp, the evening was lively. With all the Freemen back today, dinner was set up outdoors. Several large bonfires blazed, and floodlights hooked up from the three electric buses lit everything up bright as day.
Many of the items brought back from the underground base were ready for immediate use — dining tables and chairs, battery arrays stored deep underground, light bulbs, solar panels, and more. As long as these were sealed in lead-alloy boxes and stored underground to survive the radiation storm, they could be brought out and used once the storm passed.
It had to be said: when it came to surviving the apocalypse, these Freemen were all seasoned experts.
Nelson had even started planning to dig a well inside the walls — hand-pumped during radiation storms, electric-pumped the rest of the time. A clever workaround.
There were at least a dozen small projects like this underway. The Freemen's weakness was individual physical strength — but next month should see rapid progress.
Standing here, Li Wei always had the feeling that these Freemen were the real owners of this place.
Now, freshly changed into clean clothes, the Freemen sat with a mix of nervousness and anticipation, long-absent smiles on their faces. The sounds of children playing and laughing rang out clear and bright.
Tables were set out one by one, dishes brought out one by one.
Up on the building's rooftop, four Freemen stood with anti-materiel sniper rifles, scanning the perimeter. The battered old tank sat outside the walls — though it was down to its last armor-piercing round.
Li Wei, also changed into a summer casual outfit, was being led around by Li Yue, chatting warmly with the Freemen and saying all the right nothing-words.
The process was tedious and the effect was questionable — it would probably only reinforce the Freemen's conviction that these two were scripted NPCs. Couldn't be helped. Until they had more information, that's just how it would be.
Though it had been over twenty days since he'd last seen her — Li Yue had only grown more beautiful.
Radiant, full of life, a smile that could light up a room.
Once the formalities were done and all the dishes were out, the cook aunties had even poured everyone a glass of red wine. Quite the luxury.
So they ate.
The table was full of laughter and conversation, glasses raised and clinked, as if the world outside didn't exist.
It started with a few women singing quietly in a corner. Others joined in, humming along or clapping the beat. It was warm and happy — until the singing gradually gave way to quiet sobbing, and joy gave way to grief.
No matter how beautiful the night, it couldn't change the brutal reality that this was the end of the world.
After a long silence, dinner ended. Thomas and Leon directed the Freemen to their rest areas and arranged the night watch rotation. The guards were all now two-star professionals — with 20 free attribute points, their overall capabilities had improved considerably. Among them were seven who claimed to be special operations soldiers, and their combined stats were formidable.
They might have various hidden wounds and chronic ailments when it came to Life — but in Stamina, Endurance, Agility, and Defense, they were measurably above average.
Take the two snipers Li Yue had brought back from the brink: their base Strength was 13, base Agility 9, base Defense 5, base Stamina 150.
Impressive.
In a sense, they could now trade blows with a three-star Ability User for a dozen rounds.
Either way, these Freemen were all precious assets. Cultivated properly, they would become the backbone of this territory.
Once all the Freemen were sent off, the seven players — Li Wei, Li Yue, Liang Yuzhi, Thomas, Leon, Zhang Jinjun, and Zhao Xuanxuan — sat together at the same table.
A few seconds of silence, and a faint gray mist quietly settled over them. To any watching Freemen, they still appeared to be chatting cheerfully about the camp's future development — perfectly normal.
But in reality, their monthly summary had just begun. Lines of information surfaced without a sound.
["This has been a month of abundant harvest and extraordinary achievement. Under the leadership of Head of Household Li Wei, and through the efforts of all members, the Level 3 Scavenger Camp has experienced unprecedented, leapfrog development. This month, the food supply crisis was resolved. Under the wise leadership of Head of Household Li Wei, camp members proactively ventured out to explore, endured difficult and dangerous battles, successfully rescued a natural person survival base, and incorporated 48 natural persons into the Level 3 Scavenger Camp."]
["A large volume of supplies was transported back to the camp this month. The family's fixed assets are steadily increasing. Confident smiles, joyful songs, and the laughter of children all testify to this Scavenger Camp's bright future and tremendous development potential."]
["This month, the Scavenger Camp led by Head of Household Li Wei earned a total of 128 Pioneering Points. The current cumulative total is 240 points, ranking third on the Pioneering Points Leaderboard."]
["Head of Household Li Wei led by example this month and arranged all tasks appropriately. He has earned an additional 15% Clearance Evaluation bonus, bringing his cumulative total to 23%. He has also accumulated a total of 8,100 Contribution points, of which 148 came from Freemen."]