Chapter 49: Cultivating the Cloud Vine

Immediately after most of the rodent monsters in the surroundings were completely scattered, Wang Kun appeared before Lu Gang in a flash.

"Lu Gang greets Councilor Wang."

"Mm! The rat horde has now been fully dispersed. I'll leave the rest to you," Wang Kun nodded, speaking with casual ease.

With his current strength, dealing with a level-three rat tide was a task he could accomplish effortlessly. As for Lu Gang before him, Wang Kun, well-versed in the plot of the Swallowed Star universe, was no stranger to this man—he knew Lu Gang was the first War God to die in that world.

Now, having intervened to resolve the rat tide, Wang Kun had changed what would otherwise have been Lu Gang's fatal destiny.

On the other side, once Wang Kun had easily dealt with the rat horde, Luo Feng and many other warriors in the county town received a notification from the military.

"Ah, Councilor Wang handled the rat tide," Luo Feng read the message, and for a moment, he was deeply shaken.

He and Wang Kun had taken the quasi-warrior assessment at the same time, yet now the other had become a powerful councilor, while he remained only at the War General level.

This time, the perilous rat tide had been resolved so effortlessly before Wang Kun. The strength of a councilor-level powerhouse once again refreshed Luo Feng's understanding of power.

At the same time, Luo Feng’s desire for strength grew even stronger.

Having resolved the rat tide, Wang Kun kept his achievements hidden and quietly returned to Jiangnan Base City.

Time flew by. After the rat tide incident ended, Wang Kun waited another ten days or so before traveling to the Australian continent to bring back Xia Tian and Zhang Yijun, his two loyal subordinates.

It’s worth mentioning that during this mission to Australia, where Xia Tian protected Zhang Yijun during actual combat training, she successfully broke through to the Planetary level.

With this breakthrough, Wang Kun now had his first subordinate who had reached Planetary strength.

Xia Tian’s awakened special ability at the Planetary level was wind manipulation, which granted her greater speed and a clear advantage over other Planetary warriors when flying.

Overall, while Xia Tian’s talent could not be called peerless, it was still quite remarkable. In terms of talent and perception, she was certainly far superior to Wang Kun.

Given Wang Kun’s own ordinary aptitude, if not for the aid of the system’s plug-ins and strength-boosting treasures, reaching even the standard for a quasi-warrior would have been his lifelong limit.

After all, in the world of Swallowed Star, those who could become warriors were truly one in a million.

Not everyone could become a warrior; if they could, even a vast supply of villas would never be enough.

By mid-December, Wang Kun tidied up his affairs and activated a new dungeon world.

After a swirl of space and time, Wang Kun found himself standing on a bustling street.

Just as in previous crossings into dungeon worlds, Wang Kun’s sudden appearance attracted no attention whatsoever, as if he had always belonged right there.

Surveying the street, and recalling the information in his mind, Wang Kun realized he was now in the Hong Kong Island of this universe.

Wang Kun was fairly familiar with Hong Kong Island, but compared to the previous world’s version, this one lagged behind by at least a decade in development.

"Naked Agent… I wonder how far along the story has progressed," Wang Kun mused, checking the system interface for information about this dungeon world.

He remembered the plot spanned several years. If the story was only at the beginning, then the heroine would still be a girl of about ten, just newly captured by the assassin organization and undergoing training on a remote island. According to the requirements for using the Death Warrior Card, the heroine, not yet a killer and having never killed, would certainly be ineligible.

Thus, Wang Kun’s immediate task was to determine exactly where in the story’s timeline he now stood.

If it had only just begun, he would have to wait several years.

After all, the only benefit he could gain in this world was using the Death Warrior Card on several of the assassin protagonists.

Otherwise, given his strength, any one of his subordinates could easily eradicate any assassin organization in the world.

A short while later, Wang Kun found a secluded spot and summoned his two female subordinates.

"This world has an organization that specializes in training female assassins. The leader is known as Madame M. Your task is to locate her and the organization behind her."

"Understood, Master!" Xia Tian and Zhang Yijun, both cold-blooded killers, replied with utmost respect.

In this world, the system had only granted Wang Kun an ordinary identity. As for his subordinates, they had no legal status here.

But such matters were trivial to these two women; in their original world, their identities had always been shrouded in darkness.

A few days later, after some investigation, Xia Tian and Zhang Yijun reported back, confirming that the story had only just begun.

Through information obtained from the CIA, they learned that, in recent times, over a hundred young girls around the world—each with outstanding athletic talent—had disappeared.

With this news, Wang Kun instructed the two to continue their investigation.

Now that he had determined the story’s timeline, Wang Kun felt no urgency. According to the plot, it would be several years before the main events truly began.

This span of time would be more than enough for Xia Tian and Zhang Yijun to find Madame M’s assassin-training island.

"I can remain in this world for eight years. My attributes have already reached 400 points. I wonder if, in eight years, I can reach the second stage of the Planetary level."

"Also, it’s about time I properly cultivated my Moyun Vine."

By his reckoning, Wang Kun had possessed the seedling of the Moyun Vine for two years.

So far, he had only used one Wood Crystal on his Moyun Vine, which had already grown it to the second stage of Planetary level.

According to his knowledge of Swallowed Star’s storyline, in one of the three great danger zones—the No. 12 Ruins—having Planetary level nine strength was sufficient for self-preservation.

But Wang Kun himself, without rapid-strengthening treasures, would need countless years to reach that level through training alone.

If, however, he used Wood Crystals to nurture the Moyun Vine, it would likely take only a few years for the vine to reach Planetary level nine, or even Stellar level.

With the help of the Moyun Vine, even if Wang Kun’s own strength was lacking, he could still complete the clock-in mission at the No. 12 Ruins.

Having clarified the current timeline of the dungeon world, Wang Kun next used some underhanded means to acquire enough money to purchase a hillside villa on Hong Kong Island, where he began his training in this world.

…