As long as there’s drama in your heart, life is a stage everywhere. A true movie king performs with life.
Unlike Zheng Tian’s courtyard where the table could only be set outdoors in the open air, behind the Lin Wang Manor building was a spacious and bright dining room.
A long table about six meters long was set in the dining room.
The table was filled with exquisite white tableware, indistinguishable by the naked eye whether it was made of plastic or Ruined Beast tusks.
Lin Wang sat at the head of the long table.
Bei Lihui sat closest to Lin Wang on the side, to Lin Wang’s left.
Following everyone into the dining room, Ren Zhong headed straight for the end of the long table.
Lin Wang patted the empty seat on his right, "Ren Zhong, come sit here. Sit closer to me."
Ren Zhong was startled at first, nervously glancing at Pan Fenglian who was originally approaching that seat.
Then he quickly came to his senses, lowered his head to hide his joy, and walked forward.
As he passed Pan Fenglian, Ren Zhong made an apologetic gesture.
Pan Fenglian gave a charming smile, indicating she didn’t mind at all.
Once everyone was seated, scantily clad maidservants of the wasteland came in, carrying over ten exquisite dishes, placing them on the elliptical conveyor belt above the dining table.
Lin Wang picked up his chopsticks and called out to Ren Zhong, "It’s your first time here, I didn’t deliberately hold a welcome banquet, just some home-cooked dishes, help yourself. We can all start eating."
The dishes weren’t any high-end delicacies, but delicious specialties from local restaurants.
The meal continued in a joyful and harmonious atmosphere.
The topics of idle chat at the table offered little substance.
A certain company launched a new car; what about its performance?
A certain squad was completely wiped out by a suddenly appearing Level Six Ruined Beast in a certain area.
A beautiful Citizen lady fell from grace, becoming the top girl of a brothel; when there’s time off, an encounter is a must.
A small enterprise in Liao Yuan County announced bankruptcy, and a small boss, who once strutted proudly before everyone, failed to repay debts and, unwilling to become wastelanders, led his family into slavery, and so on.
Ren Zhong listened with "great interest."
However, in truth, he instinctively compared the atmosphere at this table with his life in Zheng Tian’s courtyard.
The surface atmosphere of both places was similar, but fundamentally different.
Here it was dull, stagnant, and lifeless.
Lin Wang appeared kind but, in every detail, he profoundly showcased the sense of hierarchy and respect, just like Yang Bingzhong’s mold.
The conversation was cordial but lacked jokes and banter, creating a barrier among everyone, including himself.
Moreover, when chatting with Zheng Tian and others, aside from Ou Youning often ruining the mood, the main topics were often about summarizing experiences and lessons learned, reminding each other not to make the same mistakes next time.
Or like how Zheng Tian learned from Ren Zhong, listing information she queried in the Ruined Beast database using an official Wrist watch, and then excitingly analyzing and pondering over the Ruined Beast’s weaknesses with a few others, strategizing with their own methods.
Ren Zhong taught them how to efficiently use the Ruined Beast database.
He thought it was easy, as the standard answer was clearly written there.
But when others trusted his suggestion, bought official Wrist watches, and excitedly tried to unearth treasures, they found it wasn’t simple.
There was once such a conversation in the courtyard.
Zheng Tian: "Brother Ren, you used the Crystal Winged Dragonfly as an example with us. But I don’t see in the database that a neodymium-iron-boron strong magnet can handle the Crystal Winged Dragonfly."
Ren Zhong slapped open a piece of paper, "Look, here’s the structure of the Crystal Winged Dragonfly’s head. Look at the thin thickness of the shielding layer and the distance between the crystal chip support and the skin, so we only need to make the magnetic flux greater... In any case, a palm-sized neodymium-iron-boron strong magnet will definitely do the trick."
Zheng Tian: "You also used the example of the Blade Mantis."
Ren Zhong: "That’s even simpler. Look at its body structure, especially focus on its joint parts..."
Hanyu: "And the Bloodthirsty Giant Mosquito?"
Ren Zhong pointed at the database, "Isn’t it clearly written here? This is the ladder-like structure of its brain center. Look at its material density and rigidity-toughness. We just need to simply calculate its resonance frequency with a formula, and it’s easy to find the infrasonic frequency that can trigger resonance. I usually do these calculations in my head, but since I need to explain it to you, I wrote a draft."
Zheng Tian and Hanyu each took a side of the draft paper and were speechless for a long time.
Both were dumbfounded.
Ren Zhong looked at the two people, whom he still considered to be relatively smart, and seeing them reveal such expressions simultaneously, opened his own Ruined Beast database again, and flipped through the Ruined Beast illustrated book, squinting and taking a long look, slowly realizing.