7 Chapter 7: Upgrades and Entering the City

Whoosh—

A sharp sound broke the silence in the mountain forest, and an arrow swiftly pierced through the leaves and buried itself in the neck of a rabbit amidst the bushes.

The rabbit struggled a couple of times before it was silenced.

Lu Yuan pushed aside the weeds in front of him, picked up the rabbit, skillfully pulled out the arrow, put it back in the quiver, and tossed the prey into a basket on his back.

After finishing all these tasks, he glanced at his skills in his mind: [Crude Archery (Minor Success)], and couldn't help but nod in satisfaction.

"In the past month, I've fired thousands of arrows, killed hundreds of rabbits and wild chickens, and my archery skills have finally improved."

Lu Yuan pondered the feeling of shooting that arrow just now.

Although the minor success in archery was not much improved compared to the entry-level archery skills.

However, at the moment of shooting the arrow just now, he still felt that his grasp of the bow and arrow's strength and capturing the prey with his eyes were much stronger than before.

If an accurate evaluation had to be given, it would probably be one in a scale of ten for entry-level archery and three for minor success.

In other words, his improvement had gone from one in ten to three in ten, which is quite remarkable progress.

"Not only has my accuracy improved, but my vision and arm strength seem to have increased as well."

Lu Yuan casually pulled the bowstring in his hand and felt effortless.

But one must know that before the skill improvement, it took all his might to pull the bowstring.

But now, it seemed that only about eighty percent of the effort was needed to pull the bowstring that could only be opened at full strength before.

"Is it because of the increase in my skill that my physical fitness has also improved?" Lu Yuan thought, looking forward to it.

This was just the minor success of archery that he had improved. After the improvement, his arm strength had changed so much.

However, in the game he prepared to play before crossing, the basic skill levels had four layers: entry-level, minor success, major success, and perfect.

If his archery were to advance to major success or even perfect, how strong would the increase be on his body?

"I'm afraid that when my archery skills are perfect, my strength would double, right? And this is just Crude Archery. If I could acquire martial arts secret books or even divine immortal techniques, how much improvement would there be?"

Lu Yuan couldn't help getting excited just by thinking about it.

Although crossing over initially seemed like an unfortunate event to him, as his golden finger's effectiveness was discovered, Lu Yuan felt that things might not be so bad after all.

It's terrible to be a struggling hunter.

But if he became an immortal who could travel through heaven and earth, scale mountains and cross seas, and have longevity and freedom, that would be wonderful.

"So in the days to come, I must continue practicing archery."

Lu Yuan put away his bow and arrow, glanced at the quiet surrounding woods, and frowned, "But rabbits on the west side of the mountain are almost all hunted down by me. To practice archery next, I have to go to the east side of the mountain."

...

Seven days later, Lu Yuan had to put down his bow and arrow, temporarily ending his rabbit-hunting routine, which allowed the rabbits on the east side of the mountain to breathe a sigh of relief.

Afterward, he only carried a short knife and a large basket, leaving the mountains where he had lived for more than a month.

This time, Lu Yuan planned to go to Dayu County at the foot of Dayu Mountain.

Since he had crossed over for so long, the original supply of rice had been completely consumed yesterday.

As for salt, most of it had already been used up when he made smoked meat earlier. Even if he was frugal, it had run out half a month ago.

If it were not for the salt content in the smoked Wild Yellow Dog meat he made, which was enough to replenish his body's consumption, the date to leave the mountains would have been advanced.

After all, one could go without rice and just eat some wild vegetables and wild beast meat to replenish the energy.

However, without salt, even a strong man with a good physique would lose strength and become weak.

This situation was quite fatal for Lu Yuan, who lived in the deep mountain forest and was always accompanied by wild beasts.

He could go hungry, but he couldn't be without strength, because that could lead to death.

Dayu County was located at the foot of Dayu Mountain, and the county town was situated by a large river, about ten miles away from the mountains.

However, the place where Lu Yuan lived was somewhat remote, and to get to the county town, he had to take a detour of more than ten miles, making a total of more than 30 miles.

So he set out at dawn, and when he arrived at the county town, it was already two hours later, around ten o'clock in the morning.

Lu Yuan, carrying his basket, wiped the sweat off his forehead and lined up at the gateway.

The two gatekeepers took a look at his clothes and checked his baskets. Seeing that it was full of pelts, they said with disgust, "A hundred cents entry fee."

Lu Yuan took out a string of coins from his pocket and paid it.

Actually, the normal entry fee wouldn't be as much as a hundred cents.

After all, he was just one person, not one of those merchant teams that made a living by transporting goods into the city. It was reasonable to charge more for them.

Ordinary vendors were usually charged only a few cents or up to ten cents, which was the maximum.

However, Lu Yuan's current status was that of a mountain people hunter.

Mountain people hunters were unregistered citizens, not on the government's census rolls, had no identity, and belonged to black households.

With such a status, even if someone killed you, the government wouldn't interfere.

However, under normal circumstances, no one would specifically target mountain people hunters just for fun. After all, psychopathic killers were a minority among the vast crowd.

But if no one targeted you, you still had to know your place.

Just like now, these two tax collectors took advantage of your black citizenship and asked for ten times the normal entry fee. Would you pay or not?

Pay it, and be free of further distress.

Don't pay, and they would arrest you on the spot. The charge of having no identity as a black citizen would be enough for you to visit the prison.

If you dare resist, you'd face execution.

However powerful a hunter is, can he really fight against the government?

Lessons from the past were painful, and Lu Yuan didn't want to risk his life to verify this again.

After paying honestly, the two tax collectors didn't make it difficult for him and let him into the city.

The market in the city was located in the east, with a large number of merchants and shops gathered there.

Lu Yuan needed to go there to sell his pelts.

He knew the way to the market from memory, and after wandering around the city for a while, he arrived at the marketplace.

Just as he was about to head to a store that bought pelts in the market, a few figures came over to him.

"Biao Ye."

Seeing the leader, a burly man wearing a large jacket, Lu Yuan put a smile on his face and greeted him proactively.

The man called "Biao Ye" and his men were all members of the Black Wolf Gang in Dayu County.

This gang controlled the mountain trade in the county, and all those who made a living from the mountains and wanted to do business in the city had to pay them protection fees.

Now, these people were here to collect the money.