Chapter 3 I'll Call You Jin Cancan

Wen Lechou's hair has turned white because of this mission.

No one wanted to team up with him. When others passed by him, they either looked disgusted or simply ignored him. There were many half-grown children like him on the abandoned planet, and there were a lot of homeless children who were stronger and smarter than him. Why would people want a skinny and obviously malnourished child like him?

Besides, on this abandoned planet, these street kids could only help carry things, search for water, or serve as guinea pigs when encountering unknown creatures. As for whether they survived, that depended on luck. In other words, a child like Wen Le was completely useless in the eyes of the adults.

After all, so many children need to eat. They run long distances every day to find water, and then bring the water back, which can only be exchanged for a little food every day. Anyway, even if they are not full, they will not starve to death. However, in the eyes of some people, this is a waste of resources.

These people openly treated the children this way, but whether they were engaging in more sinister activities behind the scenes was hard to say. After all, even in ancient times, there were cases of disaster victims exchanging children for food. The slums on Abandoned Star were horrific, and just looking at the living conditions there was enough to tell. Such things probably existed, but they weren't exposed. In the week since Wen Le arrived, over a dozen children he'd met had disappeared, and there were probably even more he hadn't seen.

Therefore, Wen Le didn't dare stray too far from the crowd, fearing danger if he were alone. He was small and weak, and in a real fight, he was no match for the adults. Furthermore, there were dangers lurking on this abandoned planet. Besides the gray rats that preferred to hide in caves, there were also desert spiders. While those spiders weren't social, they were highly venomous and powerful, practically killing anyone who came into contact with them.

Wen Le was terribly anxious, both because of the system's task and the mandatory mission the safe zone leader had just issued. If he teamed up with someone, there might still be a glimmer of hope. But if he didn't, he wouldn't even be able to produce one sable skin in ten days, let alone a day. There was no other way; he was still a child.

Wen Le looked down at his tender hands and gave a helpless smile. "Never mind, things will work out in the end." He could talk about the future later. For now, he should just figure out how to fill his stomach.

Moreover, it was less than three hours until dark. The night on the Abandoned Planet was extremely dangerous. Not only was there a high probability of another energy storm, but even the animals outside would become even more brutal and ferocious due to the darkness. Humans would definitely not survive in such an environment.

So Wen Le didn't dare to waste time. He quickly put all his thoughts aside and caught up with those who were going out.

However, Wen Le didn't dare get too close to those people. Because the slums were so poor, everyone was fighting for even the smallest bit of supplies, and they were always hostile to others approaching. Last time, Wen Le was almost beaten to death by those people because he didn't understand the rules and got too close to them.

Fortunately, he was lucky and survived in the end, but he suffered a lot during that time.

Wen Le was careful not to stray too far from the crowd while looking around, hoping to find some food to fill his stomach. However, this was obviously a luxury in a place where all he could see was yellow sand.

However, Wen Le accidentally discovered a white worm hidden in the sand. This worm was not only plump and tender, but also tasted very sweet. The taste was no worse than those liquid nutrient solutions. More importantly, this sandworm was non-toxic and cost nothing to buy.

Wen Le has been relying on finding these sandworms to fill his stomach these days, which is why he has been able to survive until now. Otherwise, he would have starved to death long ago.

Of course, there were other strange-looking creatures in the sand, but they either smelled too bad or looked too bizarre, so Wen Le didn't dare eat them, fearing some adverse reaction. If he died instantly from the poison, it would be fine, at least it would be a relief. But if he didn't die and his body became increasingly weak, that would be fatal.

He met a man who had eaten a strange plant by mistake and ended up being poisoned by it. This poison made him weaker and weaker, and he suffered from extreme pain every night. Finally, he could not stand the torture of the poison and committed suicide.

Wen Le didn't want to relive the unlucky guy's experience.

However, sandworms aren't easy to find. You have to dig deep pits in the slightly moist sand to find them. Wen Le also didn't want too many people to know about the existence of this food. It wasn't because he was selfish, but because he had to keep it secret to survive. There were so many homeless people in the slums. If everyone knew about these worms, they would probably be eaten up by the hungry in a few days.

Wen Le sighed. If he wanted to help others, he had to consider whether he had the power to do so. Self-sacrifice was obviously not suitable for his current situation.

So Wen Le looked around at the groups of people around him, frowned slightly, and sighed in his heart: As expected, everything is relative. If you want to get the necessary protection, you must expose yourself to others, which makes him feel very insecure.

Wen Le rubbed his stomach, his eyes gradually becoming determined. He was too hungry to care about so much. Besides, he was not completely without protection now. Thinking of this, Wen Le quietly reached out and touched the broken dagger hidden behind his waist. He had picked it up by accident, then secretly polished it and hid it for self-defense.

He was incredibly hungry, and time waited for no one, so Wen Le pursed his cracked lips and, while no one was paying attention, he found a shady spot behind a sand dune. Looking around and finding no one paying attention, he took a deep breath, flexed his hands, and began to dig rapidly at the sand.

Suddenly, a small sandbag at his feet moved, and a whimper came from inside.

Wen Le's ears twitched, and he immediately jumped away in alert, staring intently at the restless little sandbag. One hand quietly reached for the dagger hidden at his waist, his mind debating whether to gamble or escape now. Ultimately, though, Wen Le decided to take the gamble. He desperately needed a hide in his current situation, and he hadn't eaten meat in a long time, craving it. The sound coming from the sandbag was clearly very childish. Perhaps it had lost the herd, or perhaps its parents had gone out foraging and hidden it there.

However, this did not prevent Wen Le from taking advantage of the opportunity.

As Wen Le held his breath and watched nervously, the little sandbag began to move violently, and then a golden, furry head emerged from the sand. The little thing sneezed violently, looked around confusedly, and when it saw Wen Le, it couldn't help but whimpering in grievance.

Don’t ask Wen Le how he knew that there was grievance in the little thing’s voice, he just heard it.

The little thing took a long time to dig out from the sand, shook off the sand on its body, and then stood there, looking at Wen Le with its head tilted for a while. It probably felt that Wen Le was not in any danger, and then ran towards him happily with its short legs.

Just at this moment, the system's side quest suddenly popped up, asking Wen Le to adopt this little thing, and he was actually rewarded with 100 proficiency points and 500 credit points.

Wen Le raised his eyebrows. He didn't expect that this little thing was so valuable and the reward was more than the main task.

Although Wen Le was reluctant, as he struggled to support himself, how could he possibly support such a small creature? However, given the system's threat of annihilation, Wen Le could only reluctantly bend down and pick up the little creature that was rubbing against his trouser leg.

Wen Le observed the creature carefully for a while and found that except for the silver "king" on its forehead, the rest of its body was golden, and it even shone brightly in the sun. Wen Le even wondered if the creature's appearance was made of gold.

Wen Le scratched the little thing's moist nose and said, "Little thing, since you are golden all over, I will call you Jin Cancan from now on."