Pretending To Be A Boss

```

This task had cost him dearly, as he poured all his years of savings into it, not for anything else, but just to seek revenge for his fallen comrades.

But just two days ago, the military elite, the high ranks of the Li family, released news that a calamity-level creature existed in the Tree Sea, and it was a boss-level entity.

The Tree Sea was then marked as a red zone.

Jiang Ming was certain that he probably wouldn't be able to avenge his comrade. Hunters competed for rankings to gain fame and fortune. However, the mightier the hunter, the less likely they were to approach dangerous areas.

They were all elites focused on survival, and the strongest knowledge for staying alive wasn't various hunting skills, but three words: Don't seek death.

"Forget it, I've done all I could."

Letting go of the thought, Jiang Ming began to deal with other matters.

As a civil servant, his primary responsibility was the review of temporary worker's permanent employment applications.

For this reason, he would often conduct inspections at the lower levels. He went down there just yesterday.

The lower levels are now in chaos, and it seems like the nefarious organizations are undergoing a major power reshuffle.

Jiang Ming heard some news, some of which carried the exaggerated flair of wuxia novels.

For example, the biggest foreign power in the lower levels, the Xiang Family, had their most profitable casino smashed by a lone individual.

It is said that the person wore a hat and mask, making it difficult to see their true face, but they had mastered the long-lost Vajra Invulnerability Skill of the martial world.

Jiang Ming also heard about it from his secretary Liu and found it somewhat amusing.

But the troublesome power of the Xiang Family, these past two days have been quite eventful for them.

The third in command, Xiang Peng's wife had an affair, and the lover turned out to be Xiang Peng's confidant. The investigation also revealed the true identity of this confidant, who was actually a hall master from another power, the Six Element Society.

Decay Street has been a complete mess these days, but for the law enforcement of the lower levels, it's actually a good thing.

The various forces of the lower levels fight and trip each other up, such as reporting someone for hiding ancient furnaces capable of producing addictive tobacco.

This tobacco was extremely addictive. Long-term use made people listless and reduced the mining efficiency of temporary workers in the lower levels.

All along, the higher-ups had been investigating in secret and had suspected targets but no evidence.

After the conflict between the Xiang Family and the Six Element Society erupted, both sides began to puncture each other's defenses, and evidence that law enforcement couldn't find was actively being delivered to them.

Consequently, many other forces were also uncovered in the process.

With evidence in hand, the regular army could intervene, and for the merchants of the third, fourth, and even fifth levels, it was a good opportunity to take over the industries of Decay Street.

Jiang Ming believed that in a few days, the forces of the lower levels would be quickly swept away. Even if there were remnants, they would be greatly weakened, and for a long time, there'd be no need to worry about the security of Decay Street.

This matter even made it into today's morning paper for Fortress No. 39.

Jiang Ming had read it as well. According to second-level journalists, everything stemmed from a single sentence uttered by a masked person.

Now, the Xiang Family was offering a high reward for this masked individual.

...

...

In the mining zone, the Tree Sea.

Five days had passed, and Tang Xian had been living quite comfortably these days. He had also encountered some of the zone's wildlife on several occasions.

A herbivorous animal from the Tree Sea, the Ironbark Giraffe.

Ranked as an elite-level ordinary creature, it didn't meet the boss standard, so Tang Xian couldn't communicate with this type of animal.

But looking at its long neck, he thought of a delicacy called duck neck.

"What a pity, its skin is tough as ironbark, can't bite through it."

Tang Xian sighed and gave up the idea of planning against this creature, as herbivorous animals could be aggressive toward humans as well.

In essence, to the animals of the mining zone, humans belonged to the chaotic evil alignment.

But Tang Xian found it strange that he seemed to naturally radiate a kind and lawful aura.

He noticed several times that the Ironbark Giraffe, upon seeing him, showed a joyful demeanor.

Even though the creature couldn't speak a human language, its likeability in the panel read [Delighted to Meet], and had Tang Xian not applied Red Line Grass, perhaps this three-meter-necked Ironbark Giraffe might have even made friendly gestures typical of the Deer Tribe.

It wasn't just the Ironbark Giraffe, but also the Spiked Pigs he encountered by the lake, which were among the weakest of the enhanced-level creatures. Of course, they were still ones Tang Xian couldn't beat. These creatures were omnivores and extremely aggressive towards humans.

When Tang Xian was fishing, he saw one as well. Its likeability wasn't at [Delighted to Meet], but it showed no animosity whatsoever.

After giving Tang Xian a couple of looks, it left.

Tang Xian even felt that there probably would be no danger without the Red Line Grass. This feeling was very comforting.

A sense of unity with heaven and earth, living in harmony with nature.

But he never let his guard down.

After all...

He really wanted to eat these creatures.

Roast them, steam them, sauté them, fry them, boil them.

For most animals, so long as the meat wasn't too tough and they couldn't turn into humans, he thought they could be eaten in any way.

The evolution of thousands of years of human civilization was so that we could have the right to eat meat.

Still, there were some creatures Tang Xian didn't want to eat.

Last time, Tang Xian found animal paw prints on his tent, and this time, he saw the creature itself.

It was a Lyrebird.

Somewhat similar to a parrot but a few sizes larger. Sitting on a human shoulder, it wouldn't look out of place.

Tang Xian was struck dumb.

This was one of the least researched animals known to humans in the mining zone. It was only mentioned in the New Classic of Mountains and Seas.

It possessed feathers of five colors, was extremely intelligent and understood the speech of hundreds of animals.

```