I Can Control Resources

"A one-in-a-hundred-thousand chance?" Li Tiannan’s brow furrowed. He subconsciously glanced up at the Magnetic Mountains floating overhead.

"See? I was right, wasn’t I? This kid might really have some connection with the Magnetic Mountains..."

"Let’s wait and see!" Li Tiannan waved his hand, cutting Sword Elder off. "My bet with him was for fifty stalks of attribute raw materials and five evolutionary species. I’d like to see how he manages to find them now that Fang Tangtang is leading the way!"

"Alright, then. As you wish. We’ll keep watching," Sword Elder nodded.

The two of them vanished on the spot again.

Meanwhile, Gao Neng and the others were arduously navigating forward under Fang Tangtang’s lead.

Fang Tangtang was the one choosing which path to take at every fork.

This made reaching their destination in a short amount of time relatively difficult. However, it wasn’t a problem for Gao Neng.

Because he had the panoramic map.

Even if he couldn’t lead them directly to their destination, he could subtly guide them. Plus, he could even "win a prize or two" at random along the way.

For instance, after walking for half an hour, Fang Tangtang finally "stumbled" to the edge of an area with an attribute raw material.

Gao Neng didn’t hold back. He "accidentally" bumped into Fang Tangtang, conveniently knocking her into a crevice between two rocks.

As a result, they bumped right into a fire-attribute raw material.

Awesome!

And most importantly, after discovering the attribute raw material, Fang Tangtang completely forgot about the minor detail of Gao Neng bumping into her.

Not only was she not angry, she even boasted loudly that Gao Neng hadn’t bumped into her at all—she had discovered the attribute raw material herself and deliberately charged in.

This was a meritorious achievement for her, Death God Fang Tangtang.

To this, Gao Neng and Shen Ning’Er both expressed their agreement.

"Classmate Fang Tangtang, you should be the one to personally gather this fire-attribute raw material. And you can keep it in your backpack as a reward for finding your first attribute raw material!" Gao Neng said generously.

"Really? This one’s for me?" Fang Tangtang was overjoyed. She felt a huge sense of accomplishment, not because of the price of one fire-attribute raw material, but because she had found it all by herself.

What did this mean?

It meant she was also a favorite of the heavens!

She was the luckiest cub in Restricted Area No. 317!

"Mhm, Gao Neng and I both agree. This fire-attribute raw material is yours!" Shen Ning’Er nodded as well, a very sincere smile on her face.

"Hahaha, so I’m this amazing too! I have to preserve this carefully and show it to my grandpa and the others when we get back to the surface. This is the first time I’ve ever found an attribute raw material outside the Underground City with my own abilities." While speaking, Fang Tangtang immediately began to gather it.

Unlike Gao Neng’s method of yanking it out forcefully,

Fang Tangtang was extremely careful when gathering the attribute raw material.

Moreover, her tool kit was impressively complete.

A small shovel, small tweezers, a small hoe...

A whole pile of them.

Most importantly, there was also a small robot.

Once the robot was placed next to the attribute raw material, it would start excavating and probing the soil bit by bit. Finally, it would carve a pattern into the ground designed to avoid the root system as much as possible.

The entire process took Fang Tangtang a full fifteen minutes just to complete the preparations.

Then, just as Fang Tangtang was about to start digging...

A hand reached out.

SNAP!

The fire-attribute raw material was yanked forcefully out of the soil.

"..." Fang Tangtang froze for a moment. Then, she looked at the pattern drawn on the ground, and then looked up at Gao Neng behind her, who was holding the fire-attribute raw material. "Ah! Gao Neng, you liar! You said you’d let me gather it, but you just had to snatch it! I, Death God Fang Tangtang, will fight you to the death!"

"Fight my ass. Can you even beat me? Here." Gao Neng really couldn’t stand to watch anymore. She’d spent fifteen minutes on prep work alone; heaven knows how long the actual digging would have taken.

’If I had known Fang Tangtang was such a noob at gathering, I would’ve never said I’d let her do it. What a waste of time.’

Gao Neng tossed the attribute raw material over.

"Hmph!" Although Fang Tangtang was furious, she still caught it with both hands. Then, grumbling under her breath, she carefully stored the raw material in her backpack.

’My long-awaited first time...’

’...ruined by Gao Neng’s hands, just like that!’

’What a beast!’

Naturally, Gao Neng paid no mind to Fang Tangtang’s petty thoughts. He was considering how to "correct" her way of thinking. Otherwise, if they kept searching like this, heaven knows when they’d ever collect fifty stalks.

As for Shen Ning’Er, she didn’t offer any more opinions. She just diligently observed their surroundings, seeming more like a "bodyguard."

"Let’s go! We’ll head left this time!" After her anger subsided, Fang Tangtang was back to her energetic self, and with even more confidence than before.

"Right one moment, left the next... that’s not a great idea, is it?" Gao Neng glanced at the two paths and casually offered his opinion.

"Is that so? Then right it is." Fang Tangtang thought for a moment before accepting Gao Neng’s suggestion and turning her sights to the right.

Gao Neng sighed in relief internally.

’Thankfully, this girl is pretty easy to fool. I steered her back on track without much effort. The path ahead should be much smoother now.’

However, the closer they got to their target area, the closer they were to the Underground Swamp.

’Will it be dangerous?’

An environment like the Underground Swamp was unique to Restricted Area No. 317 among all the C-rank restricted areas. Other places with such environments were basically B-rank or higher, some even A-rank.

With his panoramic map, Gao Neng naturally knew about the environments in other restricted areas.

Therefore, his sense of danger was relatively strong.

Of course, having the panoramic map didn’t mean he could avoid all danger. After all, the images he saw were already three days old.

If some unusual change had occurred in the past three days... he would have no way of knowing.

But Gao Neng didn’t dwell on it.

’Cross that bridge when we come to it.’

The three people and one cat began to head right.

Just then, he faintly saw a few figures swaying in the distance ahead. In the dark wilds of the Underground City, they looked just like phantoms.

’Ghosts? No, people?’ Gao Neng’s eyes narrowed. As he shone a beam of light in their direction, the other party seemed to notice his presence as well.

Several pairs of eyes met.

The figures up ahead began walking toward them.

Soon, both parties could see each other clearly.

It was none other than the five-person team of Yi Qinglian, Shaximo, and Wei Ya.

Talk about a small world for enemies.

"Hmph, so it’s you lot," Yi Qinglian spoke first, then prepared to turn and leave.

However, Wei Ya and Zhou Jin showed no intention of leaving immediately. The two of them exchanged a glance after seeing Gao Neng’s group.

Then, Wei Ya spoke up.

"Gao Neng, are you heading to the Underground Swamp too?" This was a probing question, meant to see if Gao Neng was going in the same direction.

"More or less," Gao Neng replied. He knew that if they were running into each other here, both parties basically had the same destination.

"Mm, our group was planning to check it out too. By the way, how’s your haul?" Wei Ya nodded and continued to ask.

"Nothing much. Just over twenty magnolia vines and three Purple Magnolia Vines," Gao Neng said with a very modest lift of his lips.

"..." Wei Ya was rendered speechless.

’Three more evolutionary species?!’

’And he calls that ’nothing much’!’

’My god!’

’Does he have to be so demoralizing? We came in from the same entrance, and our destination is the same—the area around the Underground Swamp.’

’But all we’ve gotten along the way are some basic raw materials, not even attribute ones.’

’But what about Gao Neng?’

’Another huge haul.’

Wei Ya truly felt like he had just been slapped across the face.

And Yi Qinglian, who had been about to leave, froze. The expression on her face was extremely ugly, and her eyes looked like they were about to shoot fire.

"I’m so pissed! Brother, let’s go!" Yi Qinglian made no effort to hide her anger, nor did she conceal her disgust for Gao Neng.

"Alright. Gao Neng, Shen Ning’Er, Fang Tangtang, we’ll be taking our leave then." Yi Qingge was relatively calm. He bid farewell to Gao Neng’s group before turning to leave.

"Great Sun Buddha!" Shaximo chanted a Buddhist name.

Wei E and Zhou Jin actually wanted to chat a bit more with Gao Neng’s group, or perhaps travel together, but since Yi Qinglian was unwilling, they didn’t bring it up.

Besides, and more importantly, they didn’t think Gao Neng would be happy to team up with them. After all, the guy could find attribute raw materials on his own. They weren’t keen on the idea of shamelessly latching onto him.

The five of them left.

But their pace had clearly quickened.

"They’re probably trying to reach the Underground Swamp before us. Is that going to be a problem?" Shen Ning’Er watched the backs of Yi Qinglian’s group as they disappeared, then slowly turned her gaze to Gao Neng.

This question was actually loaded with meaning.

Fundamentally, it was a difficult question for Gao Neng to answer.

Because if he said it was a problem, it would imply he knew for sure there were attribute raw materials in the Underground Swamp. And if he said it wasn’t a problem, it would likewise imply he knew there weren’t any.

Either way, his answer would reveal something.

So, when Gao Neng heard the question, he actually hesitated for a moment.

However, Shen Ning’Er wasn’t just anyone.

Besides, Gao Neng already sensed that Shen Ning’Er had probably figured some things out. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have fallen into that deep trench earlier.

’In that case...’

’...I might as well pull Shen Ning’Er over to my side.’

’And while I’m at it, I can use Shen Ning’Er to interfere with Li Tiannan’s judgment.’

With this in mind, Gao Neng leaned in close to Shen Ning’Er, so close that his lips were almost touching the base of her ear.

This action made Shen Ning’Er’s body tremble slightly, but she showed no intention of dodging, instead allowing Gao Neng to get closer and closer.

"The Underground Swamp is huge," Gao Neng said, speaking only those five words.