Wang Cheng sat inside his aircraft, watching the radar screen where the aircraft rented by Wang Hao and his wife was displayed up ahead. Seeing that they had no idea they were being followed, he nodded in satisfaction.
"Not bad, at least the money wasn't wasted. I wonder how long they'll linger in the inner zone... But it doesn't really matter. I doubt they'll stay for three whole months. Fortunately, renewing the lease is easy—this aircraft has a built-in payment system, no need to travel back and forth."
Having an aircraft was indeed much more convenient. With an energy shield surrounding it, there were no sonic booms even at supersonic speeds.
An A1-class aircraft could reach up to 20 times the speed of sound. In contrast, apprentice-level aircraft maxed out at 10 times the speed of sound.
The inner zone of the wilderness was over a thousand kilometers away. Even traveling at 10 times the speed of sound, it would take at least 10 minutes to get there.
Wang Cheng began to inspect the layout of the aircraft. It truly lived up to its planetary-class designation.
The cockpit lacked many complex buttons, but the flight suit inside allowed the pilot to operate the aircraft at 20 times the speed of sound—comparable to a low-orbit manned rocket on Earth.
As for manual operation, Wang Cheng wasn't even interested in trying. These days, aircraft all came equipped with AI systems, and AI piloting was far more comfortable than manual control.
He also saw the onboard weapons. Though their power levels could be adjusted, using them to kill beasts would be a waste.
That's because the aircraft ran on precious A1-grade energy blocks. Using one of those to kill a single lord-level beast would cost as much as the materials from more than ten high-tier apprentice-level beasts—unless it was a rare apprentice-level monster.
As they reached the inner zone, Wang Hao and Leng Yan's aircraft didn't stop right away. It only slowed down and continued heading deeper in.
Along the way, Wang Cheng also saw many beast hunters with the same idea, flying into the inner zone to search for treasure.
Not just in the sky—there were many beast hunters on the ground as well, advancing from the outer zone into the inner region.
"Looks like everyone wants to take advantage of this opportunity to try their luck in the inner zone. But this will definitely lead to sharp conflicts. If nothing unexpected happens, we'll see people killing each other for loot."
The aircraft flew at a high speed. After several hundred kilometers, Wang Hao and Leng Yan's craft finally began to descend.
Once they jumped out, the aircraft ascended again and activated stealth mode.
Watching this unfold on radar, Wang Cheng naturally understood their reasoning.
This area had scattered high-tier apprentice-level beasts. Luckily, the couple wasn't foolish—they used radar to scan and avoid areas where those beasts roamed.
Wang Cheng didn't plan to land just yet either. He kept his aircraft cloaked in the sky and used radar to lock onto Wang Hao and Leng Yan's position.
"They sure are bold. There might not be high-tier apprentice beasts below, but there could still be planetary-level ones—or even special types that evade radar…"
Of course, Wang Hao and Leng Yan never imagined there was a stealth aircraft over a thousand meters above them spying on their every move.
Now that they were in the inner zone, they didn't dare to search as freely as they did in the outer zone.
"So this is the inner zone? It really is completely different from the outer one. Look, honey! There's a clover here. It may be useless to us as mid-tier apprentices, but it'll help Ah Cheng—it could boost his strength by over a hundred units."
As Leng Yan spoke, she dug up the herb. In the outer zone, finding a plant like this would take a lot of effort.
But they had only been here an hour and already found one. Its value was no less than the materials from a sixth-tier apprentice beast.
Wang Hao, though not as detail-oriented as his wife, was excited to see her make such a find.
"Definitely. Ah Cheng will find this useful. In the outer zone, most mid-tier apprentice hunters search relentlessly. Even if they can't use the herbs, they sell them or save them for their kids."
"But here in the inner zone, only high-tier apprentices come. They don't have time to pick low-level herbs—it's not worth the effort."
Their conversation didn't escape Wang Cheng's notice. He raised an eyebrow and thought, "Heh, who would've thought the inner zone had these kinds of opportunities."
"That said, herbs can enhance strength. I wonder if they can be enhanced themselves? I'll need to test that out. I was planning to follow them just from the aircraft, but I should get down there and do some proper searching too."
Unlike Wang Hao and Leng Yan, who could only search with their eyes, Wang Cheng's mental energy gave him a huge efficiency advantage.
He left the aircraft hovering invisibly above and jumped down. Then he linked his mind to the aircraft's radar to track the couple from a distance of over a thousand meters.
But the difference was, any herbs within Wang Cheng's mental detection range couldn't escape his notice and collection.
Who knows—there might even be other beast hunters tailing Wang Cheng now. But if they were hoping to follow his lead and profit, they'd likely leave empty-handed.
Time flew by. More than a week passed in a flash.
While Wang Hao and Leng Yan continued their exhausting search, Wang Cheng's gains were enormous.
Instead of putting everything in his backpack, he stored the items in the internal space of his origin core.
Meanwhile, Wang Hao and Leng Yan finally found a herb that suited their own cultivation needs.
"Honey, look! Is that a Tricolor Ganoderma? I think it is! And it's big too. It could definitely boost you to high-tier apprentice level."
Wang Hao followed her gaze and beamed with delight.
"It really is a Tricolor Ganoderma. Normal ones only have one color. Only after evolving do they get a second color—but that's only useful for low-tier apprentices. To benefit a mid-tier one, it has to be at the tricolor stage."
Leng Yan, thrilled, moved forward to pick it, but Wang Hao quickly stopped her. "Wait! Be careful—there might be a monster nearby guarding it."
But when they approached the Ganoderma with shields raised, they found no monster in sight, which confused them.
"Could it be that the beast here was killed during the previous beast tide? Looks like we really came at the right time!"
(End of Chapter)