"I'm Liu Hong, Advanced Warrior, awakened B-grade Flame Leopard bloodline. With your abilities, you shouldn't need to join our demon extermination team, after all..."
After Sister Liu briefly introduced herself, she asked with some confusion, her gaze carrying hints of suspicion.
"Magic crystals... I need magic crystals, but War General level demon beasts are too difficult to kill. I need helpers. Experienced teams surrounding and killing early War General demons with Warrior levels isn't difficult."
Without beating around the bush, Su Jiu looked up at her, her voice still cold but her expression particularly honest.
"For cultivation? But indeed, joining our team gives you a certain probability of obtaining magic crystals, and even without them, saving up for a while can buy one or two. But with your strength, joining Dragon Hunters would get more resources, wouldn't it?"
Sister Liu was still puzzled. Though she hoped her team would add some capable people, the opponent's excessive power made her suspicious.
"Is this acceptable?" Su Jiu took out a Zhiyuan Middle School student ID from her pocket and waved it, then said softly: "Dragon Hunters have to serve the government. I'm used to freedom and can't do that stuff."
Though her face was expressionless, she was actually cursing internally. She wanted to go too!
But that required being eighteen and normally graduating high school. Once entered, they'd be secretly trained and such. From the novel's description, it was roughly equivalent to an alternative military academy.
Liu Hong nodded lightly, seeming to agree with Su Jiu's viewpoint. After exchanging QQ numbers with Su Jiu, knowing the other party disliked trouble,
"Soul-Devouring Demon Mole, Advanced Warrior level, extremely fast movement speed, possesses certain intelligence—this is our target."
"This is a photo taken by chance."
Speaking, Liu Hong immediately sent Su Jiu a picture. It was a demon with sharp serrated teeth, scarlet eyeballs revealing threads of bloodthirst.
When Su Jiu saw those scarlet eyes again, she was slightly stunned, involuntarily recalling the scene on the bus that day.
It seemed that day, she had also seen such eyes. Unlike those Crimson Flame Wolves on the mountain, this bloodthirst wasn't simple ferocity but a greedy, devouring sensation.
Was it artificial?
"What? Scared?" Liu Hong joked. She had a feeling this fox-masked girl wasn't very old.
"What's the reward?"
Su Jiu shook her head lightly. Just an Advanced Warrior—she could kill it with one hand. Her purpose in joining the team was War General level demons.
Liu Hong smiled. Being able to ask about price definitely meant the other party was fully confident, and she was happy to see this: "Five people, fifteen thousand each in bonuses. The government side has subsidies too, probably magic crystals, since this demon killed quite a few people."
Su Jiu's eyelids drooped slightly. One hundred fifty thousand seemed like a lot, but compared to her goal of 2.5 million, it was still too slow.
Could only do this...
She took a light breath, her eyes carrying some confidence as she spoke: "Five hundred thousand. I'll take five hundred thousand... you just need to provide the demon's location."
A moment of silence.
"What do you mean? Looking down on us?" A bare-chested man in the demon extermination team who had been quietly sitting suddenly stood up, looking at Su Jiu with some anger.
Not just the big man—even the fragile-looking girl showed traces of dissatisfaction.
"She indeed has the ability to face the Soul-Devouring Demon Mole alone."
The seemingly hot-tempered Liu Hong now waved her hand to stop them. Having done adventurer work for so long, she had good judgment.
Then she asked very seriously: "You really need money badly?"
"Very badly."
Su Jiu nodded lightly.
"Fine, but if you don't successfully kill this demon in these two days, we'll still act together." Liu Hong looked down at her phone, inputting some website, then looked up again, taking out a QR code and continuing: "Use QQ to scan this QR code and fill in your real personal information."
"Personal information?" Having just finished scanning and seeing rows of oaths on the webpage's front page, Su Jiu's brows furrowed slightly.
Seeming to know Su Jiu's concerns, Liu Hong comforted: "I won't know, and the people below won't know either. This information will only be transmitted to Dragon Country's official database. Though we city demon exterminators belong to the Adventurer Guild, we're nominally Dragon Country's official civil servants."
"For example, I... am a deputy section-level cadre." Sister Liu somewhat proudly puffed out her chest, causing massive peaks to sway wildly in front of Su Jiu. Seeing Su Jiu remain silent, she continued:
"After real-name authentication, download the two apps inside. When you complete missions, photograph the spoils and directly upload them to the review app—funds will come down quickly. The other app shows you more of our Dragon Country's dark web content based on your rank."
"What's the difference from Dragon Hunters?"
Su Jiu filling out information was slightly stunned. Was she now a national civil servant in her senior year? She didn't want to be like the male protagonist, rushing to the front lines when northern border ice and snow demons attacked.
She fucking didn't need materials above War God level, though early access to the dark web was nice.
"The difference is we're very free, but relatively speaking, money and resources are far less than Dragon Hunters. After all, they're properly legitimate, while we're equivalent to career establishment."
Liu Hong patiently explained.
Su Jiu had finished filling out the information and asked somewhat curiously: "How do you improve rank levels?"
"Hunt high-level demons with government bounties, or do other related things. For example, what you just saw on the first page: 'I will unconditionally fight the Ancient God Cult and protect every citizen's interests.' Dragon Country's official attitude toward cults has always been zero tolerance. Kill their followers and you can advance quickly." Liu Hong paused, then joked:
"If you die in the line of duty, you might jump three levels."
"Hehe..."
Su Jiu's eyelids twitched lightly. She didn't find this joke funny. Unlike demons, fighting those Ancient God Cult lunatics meant one careless moment could get you stabbed by someone who looked normal beside you.
"I have things to handle. When the demon appears, just send the phone location."
It was already noon. Su Jiu had pretty much finished these things. After exchanging QQ numbers, she waved goodbye to Liu Hong and the others.
She needed to return to school to show her face, or her old man would always think she was dead.
Watching Su Jiu's departing figure, Liu Hong leaned back in her chair holding her phone, her face calm as water—completely different from usual.
"Captain, what's wrong?" the fragile girl asked in confusion.
"That girl's attitude is really annoying. I'd rather get scolded by the higher-ups than see her unable to kill the demon and cry." The big man also sat down, his eyes full of anger.
"Her information is very ordinary, even her family is very ordinary—mother is a housewife, father is a civil servant... Do you know what this means?"
Liu Hong scanned the surrounding people and said in a deep voice. She had seen such ordinary-to-the-extreme information before, but clicking deeper into such ordinary information revealed complete blanks.
After a pause, she said softly: "This is disguised, disguised by the state. The information's confidentiality level may have reached top secret."
"Top secret?" The surrounding people looked confused.
At this time, the originally elegant long-haired man looked gravely at Liu Hong and said: "Archive levels are divided into three types: top secret, confidential, secret. I was student council president in university. His family had a War God level direct relative, but his archive was reportedly only secret..."
Hearing this, everyone around took sharp breaths, making outstanding contributions to global warming. They looked at each other with very interesting expressions.
"This should be some important figure's descendant training. Her saying she needs money is probably her family's training conditions..."
After more than a minute of silence, Liu Hong spoke. She instantly made some decision.
"We must do everything to help her. If such a person becomes War God or something in the future, just the scraps falling from her fingers might make achieving War General as easy as drinking water for us."
Then she smiled lightly again,
"Moreover... just providing location to earn fifty thousand—isn't this better treatment than those sitting in offices?"