Wasteland's Only King-Chapter 43: Value

"Dawn City Guard Team?"

Brother Gang’s eyes widened.

"What’s in it for me?"

Brother Gang was the pragmatic type, and he immediately zeroed in on the key issue.

"Join the Guard Team, and you’ll have a shot at becoming the New City Lord’s personal guard, maybe even his right-hand man."

Yin Yao spoke with a serious tone.

"Right below one, above the masses?"

Brother Gang wiped some remnants of poop from his face, his eyes lit up.

"Exactly!"

"It’s highly possible!"

Yin Yao nodded affirmatively.

Although bumping into Brother Gang in the wild was an accident, recruiting him to her side was something Yin Yao had planned before even leaving the city.

She was going to infiltrate the New City Lord’s inner circle as a traitor, and one day brutally stab him in the back to help Yu Jin take over.

No doubt, it was risky.

The risk was—

If Yu Jin actually treated her like the City Lord’s closest confidant, then what?

Or, even bolder—

By the time Yu Jin reached Dawn City, he was already strong enough to slap the City Lord dead in one blow.

She might not even have a chance to betray or show her skills, and would immediately become "the former City Lord’s leftover scum."

Not to mention whether Yu Jin would settle scores with her, but she’d definitely get zero "Contribution of Following the Dragon."

Compared to that...

If she could rope in Chen Gang, Yu Jin’s roommate and good bro, it’d be a whole lot safer.

Because of this—

Yin Yao even decided to reveal her plan to betray the City Lord to him ahead of time.

"What?!"

"Betray the City Lord?!"

"And not just a betrayal—a brutal one?!"

Chen Gang was totally blown away.

As far as he knew, the New City Lord was scary strong—a genuine "Thunder God!"

"But why?"

Brother Gang was lost.

"Because..."

Yin Yao had her excuse ready to go.

"There’s someone more suitable to be Dawn City’s Lord."

As soon as the words dropped—

Brother Gang’s face shifted as he looked at Yin Yao.

Well damn!

He watched plenty of TV dramas, but he’d never seen someone like Yin Yao—already plotting to backstab before even making it "official"—the purest kind of rebel!

And...

This so-called "more suitable Dawn City Lord"—you’re talking about yourself, aren’t you Yin Yao?

Brother Gang saw right through it, but kept his mouth shut.

"So, have you made up your mind?"

Yin Yao looked at Chen Gang, face lost in thought.

"I think... I’m in!"

Chen Gang nodded, agreeing to join up.

We’re extraordinary people—how could we stand under others for long?

In his heart, there’s someone even better for the job than the New City Lord or Yin Yao.

"My Thunder wouldn’t lose out either!"

Brother Gang felt fired up inside.

"Great!"

Yin Yao saw Chen Gang’s nod and finally let out a sigh of relief.

With "Chen Gang" as backup, her future betrayal of the City Lord—defecting to Yu Jin’s side—became that much more convincing.

Betray, follow the dragon, grab a golden thigh!

At this moment—

Yin Yao had never felt the path ahead in the wasteland was so bright, so full of promise!

"For today, let’s hunt mutant beasts out here in the wild."

"Let’s see if both of us can hit Tier Two, then we’ll be able to join the Guard Team selection sooner!"

Yin Yao laid out the plan to Chen Gang.

"No problem!"

Electricity crackled from Chen Gang’s hand, he was more than ready.

...

...

Blue Star.

Time flew by in a hurry.

Before you knew it—

A night had passed.

September 6th, early morning.

The Environmental Protection Club’s freshman members yawned groggily as they crawled out of bed.

Today was Friday—everyone had class.

So—

Yu Jin had already arranged buses to bring the freshmen back to Jiangcheng University.

"So sleepy..."

The freshmen were yawning nonstop.

Last night’s team building got wild—they barely slept.

Now, half-awake, they could barely open their eyes.

But...

Class is class—no way around it.

Unlike the juniors and sophomores, freshmen—especially those who just enrolled—almost nobody dared to skip.

In their eyes, credits were worth more than gold.

"Huh?"

"Where’s the president?"

The freshmen, swaying sleepily as they reached the parking lot, finally realized there was no sign of President Yu Jin.

Everyone looked at Vice-President Tang Yunxuan, whose eye bags could rival a panda’s.

"Oh—Old Yu?"

Tang Yunxuan hadn’t slept all night either, and was slow to react.

He pulled out his phone and waved it around for everyone to see.

"Old Yu messaged me."

"He said let’s head back first, he’s not returning to Jiang University today, planning to swing by Gunzhou on his way."

"Oh, you guys probably don’t know, Gunzhou is where your president’s hometown is—it’s only like a few dozen kilometers from here..."

Just as Tang Yunxuan stopped talking—

Off in the distance—

Yin Yao came over, looking as tired as he was, with dark circles under her eyes.

"Yu Jin left?"

Yin Yao looked stunned.

Last night, she’d taken Brother Gang and Ye Fan out hunting mutant beasts all night in the wild.

It was tough as hell—they fought till daybreak—but...

She and Chen Gang both leveled up to Tier Two, hitting the minimum bar for the Guard Team selection.

The only reason Yin Yao didn’t immediately go take the test, but rushed offline, was to find Yu Jin and talk about something.

Last night, grandpa wanted her to invite Yu Jin over for a family dinner...

"Yeah, he’s gone." 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

"Let me see..."

"Texted me at six this morning; it’s six-thirty now—so half an hour ago."

"He must’ve left about half an hour ago."

Tang Yunxuan held up his chat log for Yin Yao to see the time stamp.

"Alright..."

Yin Yao nodded, then fell silent.

Ten minutes later—

Two double-decker buses started up and rolled out of the parking lot.

And Yin Yao, just like Yu Jin, didn’t go back to Jiang University either.

"Miss?"

The housekeeper came up behind Yin Yao.

"Get the car. We’re going to Gunzhou."

Yin Yao covered her mouth, yawning hard.

"Yes, Miss."

The housekeeper didn’t ask any questions, and quietly backed off.

Five minutes later—

A fleet of black sedans lined up in front of Yin Yao.

The driver, dressed in a suit with white gloves, got out and opened the door for her in person.

Yin Yao hopped in, gave the address, then shut her eyes for a nap.

After an all-nighter, she was beat and could hardly stay awake.

...

...

Whoosh——

Six-thirty in the morning.

Even during the blazing days of September, there was a coolness to the morning breeze rushing in from the car window.

A private car with a new energy plate roared down the highway.

Yu Jin sat in the backseat, next to a voluptuous, well-dressed woman in her thirties.

This was a carpool ride.

Just a while earlier—

Yu Jin had left the Celestial Lake Tourism Area, stood in the parking lot ordering a Didi for ages, but no driver would pick up.

Celestial Lake was remote, nothing but countryside nearby.

After nearly twenty minutes of waiting, all he got was a split-ride carpool.

That’s how he ended up with the woman sitting next to him.

Yu Jin shook his head, reeling in his wandering thoughts.

The woman’s perfume was strong, but not enough to distract him.

Yu Jin stared at the translucent interface only he could see in mid-air before him.

On the panel was all his current personal info.

Line after line of stats and skills, dazzling to the point even Yu Jin’s head spun a bit.

Last night—

While the freshmen members were busy partying, he snuck out of the villa and headed deep into the Celestial Lake’s forest reserve.

In the depths of the forest, Yu Jin consumed all the rewards from purifying the polluted river.

Five Tier Six Energy Crystals, ten Tier Five Energy Crystals—he burned through them all in one go last night.

Because of that, his Tier jumped from Five to Six.

And per the system’s words, he was now "one step closer to Tier Seven."

After reaching Tier Six, both his awakened ’Light’ and ’Thunder’ attributes granted him a new skill each.

Both new Tier Six skills were kind of similar—

[Tier Six Light Attribute Ability: Light Elementalization Level 1]

[Active Effect: Transform body into photons, enter elementalization mode for a set time, immune to energy attacks not more than one Tier above self]

[Tier Six Thunder Attribute Ability: Thunder Elementalization Level 1]

[Active Effect: Transform body into thunder, enter elementalization mode for a set time; while in this mode, thunder-element attacks gain +100% damage]

But those new Tier Six skills weren’t where Yu Jin was focusing.

What he was staring at was the [Attribute] section on his personal panel—the text right after ’Thunder’ and ’Light.’

Last night—

After using three Attribute Activation Stones, Yu Jin successfully awakened a new attribute.

[Third Attribute: Value]

This new attribute offered zero combat ability, yet the system marked it as a ’Special Attribute.’

Special Attribute meant it was even rarer and more precious than ’Thunder’ or ’Light.’

Except...

This attribute... was just a tad different from what Yu Jin had imagined.

Like right now—

Yu Jin glanced sideways at the well-endowed woman sitting beside him in the back seat.

Numbers popped up before his eyes.

[83 (65E)-62-89]

"..."

Yu Jin sank deep into thought.