Chapter Fifteen: The Burly Man ‘Big Bear’!

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Having finished discussing the monsters, they turned their attention back to the tower city.

Wanderers establish an altar through a special ritual, offering both a cornerstone and a brain orb, to found the most basic tower city.

Every tower city, once established, possesses not only fundamental functions but also a randomly assigned unique ability. These abilities vary widely—some are powerful, others trivial—and acquiring any particular one is purely a matter of luck.

The tower city where Murong Ziyan once lived had the ability to accelerate plant growth by one-third, a highly beneficial auxiliary power for agriculture.

Thanks to this ability, Murong Ziyan’s father ordered the cultivation of rare medicinal herbs and food crops. The growth speed boost led to increased yields, allowing the tower city’s inhabitants to live quite comfortably.

However, this agricultural advantage also attracted enemies who coveted the tower city. They breached its defenses, seized the cornerstone, and slaughtered all the original residents.

The ability tied to a seized cornerstone is clear: when re-sacrificed to establish a new tower city, there is a 50% chance the original ability will be retained. This is an advantage over wild tower cornerstones.

For these reasons, each tower city guards its special ability as a closely held secret, fearing that if word leaked out, enemies would covet it.

Rumors circulate among tower city leaders that sacrificing a rare wild tower cornerstone results in a newly built tower city with stronger abilities—though whether this is true remains unknown.

After establishing a tower city, upgrading it in height and size requires investing large numbers of brain orbs.

Creating a powerful tower city demands massive resource input, which explains why many strong tower cities have histories spanning centuries or even millennia.

The cornerstone of a tower city comes from different wild towers, and the appearance of the tower city reflects the form of its original wild tower. Thus, tower cities in other worlds vary widely: some resemble castles, others residential buildings, and still others fortresses.

To have a certain style of tower city, one must possess the corresponding wild tower cornerstone.

Near the Wanderer’s Town lies the Black Rock Tower City, shaped like a skyscraper—the most common appearance among tower cities. Such commonly styled tower cities are said to possess mostly ordinary abilities.

Time passed slowly as the three discussed tower cities at length, covering many topics.

When the discussion ended, Tang Zhen suggested returning first to Wanderer’s Town before seeking the location mentioned earlier by Qian Long.

No one objected, and they immediately set their plan in motion.

While Qian Long helped the two sisters pack their belongings, Tang Zhen stepped outside and retrieved the set of bow and arrows from his spatial storage.

Back in their hideout, he handed the bow and arrows to Qian Long, gave the war sword left by the bandits to Murong Ziyan, and strapped his own war sword to his back.

Qian Long cherished the bow and arrows, admiring their exquisite appearance and formidable lethality, convinced they were valuable indeed.

His judgment was correct: the bow and arrows were imported goods from the American Federation, with nearly eighty pounds of draw weight—capable of piercing a wild boar with a single shot.

Such a weapon was unquestionably deadly for killing people.

As Qian Long handled the bow, he thought to himself that following Tang Zhen was the right choice—after only a few days, he had already upgraded from a toy gun to serious weaponry!

Perhaps one day, he could truly become a resident of a tower city, marry, have children, and live a happy and stable life.

Smiling at the thought, Qian Long’s odd chuckle caught Tang Zhen’s attention, prompting him to glance at him a few times.

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With preparations complete, the four set out at once.

Carefully emerging from the abandoned factory, Qian Long took point, the Murong sisters walked in the middle, and Tang Zhen brought up the rear, handgun in hand. Amid the grass nearly taller than a person, their small group appeared as inconspicuous as ants.

Though the path ahead was difficult, the tall grass shielded them from the monsters’ sight. As long as the monsters did not possess especially keen smell or hearing, the group was relatively safe.

Still, they remained vigilant, knowing a monster could pounce from the grass at any moment.

Suddenly, Tang Zhen caught a strong stench of blood. Startled, he instinctively raised his gun toward the source.

The grass before them was quickly trampled down, and a massive figure rose up. Tang Zhen instinctively disengaged the safety and pulled the trigger.

Before he could fire, Murong Ziyan pressed his arm down.

“What are you doing?” Tang Zhen snapped, annoyed. At such a critical moment, how could she cause trouble? Someone might get killed!

Murong Ziyan shook her head, about to explain, when Qian Long’s lazy voice drifted over: “That’s a human, and we just scared him.”

Tang Zhen blinked, looking closely. The “monster” was covered in black grime and emitted a foul smell. Standing about 2.2 meters tall and weighing over 200 kilograms, he was a genuine giant.

As Tang Zhen stared, the man stared back—his face as black as a cast-iron pot, but his eyes sharp and clear.

Strangely, Tang Zhen felt as if this man were trying to act cute.

A few more glances confirmed the man was truly human, albeit in dire straits.

If it weren’t for the tattered big leather shorts tied with two hemp ropes—one hanging only from a shoulder strap—this man might have been running around naked.

“Who are you? What do you want?” Tang Zhen lowered his gun slightly, probing.

The black giant did not answer but stared intently at the biscuit in Murong Ziyan’s hand, mumbling with a finger in his mouth, “Smells so good, smells so good! Big bear’s hungry, big bear wants to eat!”

Claiming to be “big bear,” he reached out toward the biscuit but retracted his hand halfway, looking hesitant yet unable to hide his craving.

Tang Zhen thought for a moment, then pulled out a biscuit from his space and waved it in front of the black giant. “Want some?”

The man nodded eagerly, eyes shining with anticipation like a pet.

Suppressing his curiosity, Tang Zhen tossed the biscuit over. The black giant skillfully caught it and shoved it into his mouth.

After finishing, he licked his lips with lingering desire and looked at Tang Zhen again, pleading silently.

Tang Zhen smiled, handing over more biscuits.

After tossing six biscuits, the giant still wanted more, but Tang Zhen shook his head to indicate they were out. The man’s expression turned disappointed and aggrieved.

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Seeing this, Tang Zhen chuckled and said, “I have plenty of biscuits at home. Why don’t you come back with me? You can eat as many as you want then.”

The black giant’s eyes lit up, and he nodded vigorously, obedient as a child.

Tang Zhen tilted his head. “Then come with me.”

He signaled Qian Long to continue forward while the black giant followed closely behind. Due to his height, his head was visible from afar, turning this way and that.

Murong Ziyan glanced back at the tall figure and whispered, “You’re planning to bring him along? That’s good. Although his intelligence is about that of a child and he eats a lot, with training he could become a fine warrior!”

Tang Zhen smiled silently in appreciation of her insight.

What Murong Ziyan said was true: food precious to other wanderers was nothing to Tang Zhen. If they trained the black giant carefully, he would be a loyal and useful aide.

Not to mention his intimidating size alone!

Originally a party of four, they were now five, yet their pace did not falter.

In truth, the black giant was forcibly restraining his urge to run wildly. This man, usually as swift as the wind, was now taking tiny steps at the back, much to his frustration.

However, since they possessed his favorite food, he had no choice but to endure the snail’s pace.

Watching the giant’s stifled misery, Tang Zhen wondered how he had survived in this monster-infested wilderness with such a low intellect—and yet managed to get so fat.

Traveling through the wild grass was undoubtedly arduous, especially with a little girl in the group whom they took turns carrying.

For some reason, the soil in this wilderness was hard and remarkably flat. Except for the tenacious wild grass, other plants were scarce.

Tang Zhen guessed that if he had an off-road vehicle here, it would perform to its fullest. Unfortunately, his spatial storage wasn’t large enough to hold one; otherwise, he would surely try.

Since the appearance of wild towers always brought hordes of monsters, the number of monsters increased on their way back.

During their journey, the five encountered a battle: a dozen or so four-armed, sharp-toothed, long-tailed beasts charged at them.

Before Tang Zhen and the others could react, the black giant—“big bear”—excitedly let out a roar and charged forward like a tank.

Swinging his fists with tremendous force, he struck one of the creatures, identified by the system as a “four-armed weasel,” sending it flying, spewing blood.

His second punch sent another four-armed weasel flying.

The black giant was like a grown man in kindergarten, mercilessly beating the 1.2-meter-tall “little friends,” who howled in agony.

Though some of the weasels’ claws scratched him, they only left pale marks.

Tang Zhen and the others were stunned. Though these four-armed weasels were only level-one common monsters, they were still monsters. A normal person one-on-one might not have the advantage.

But this guy was utterly dominating; his combat power was off the charts!