After all, the Crimson Iron Ore Walls of the small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalagu, which are only twenty meters thick, are in the minority; most walls are tens or even hundreds of meters thick.

Therefore, under normal circumstances, cleaning still requires detouring, especially since detouring is indeed faster than directly breaking through the wall when the wall thickness is relatively high, particularly with his current double sound speed movement speed.

So, even though Zhang Yanhang's speed has greatly increased, it would still probably take him an hour or even two to complete the task.

Two hours wouldn't normally seem like much, but the problem is that the transmission channel of the small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalagu only stays open for a total of eight hours. Wasting a quarter of the maintenance time of the transmission channel to save less than one-tenth of physical strength seemed unnecessary to him and would definitely increase his chances of staying in the Crimson Iron Ore Vein for five days.

As for why Zhang Yanhang decided to immediately re-clean the small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalagu upon entering, there were two reasons. One was to test the drop rate of killing First Tier monsters, or rather, to test how severe the Third Tier rank penalty was.

The other reason was that he wanted to obtain more Crimson Iron Rings from these ants to enhance his Charm attribute, since he still had more than ten empty fingers. If he upgraded the Three-Headed Six-Armed skill, that would leave a significant shortfall of over twenty fingers in need of filling.

Thus, about this matter, Zhang Yanhang had actually decided while he was in the Main World. Moreover, apart from gaining Crimson Iron Rings, he could also somewhat fill the upgrade gap of the S-Class Talent "Bear Power" with the Ant Power that comes with the drop treasure boxes.

Regarding the S-Class Talent "Bear Power," Zhang Yanhang was truly determined this time. He felt that if he was going to clean a new area, he at least needed to elevate the Bear Power to an SSS level or even above in the new area. Otherwise, it would really feel like a loss.

"Now that the target has been set, let's start cleaning right away, but before that, there's a small preparatory step I need to complete," Zhang Yanhang said as he triggered Time Pause and scanned the current respawn quantity of Crimson Iron Ants in the small nest of Dalagu.

It should be said that coming back to the small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalagu really made Zhang Yanhang feel completely different. Before he learned Teleportation, it took him at least half an hour to travel back and forth between the C-shaped channel and the Core Area where the Crimson Iron Ant Queen was located, but this time, it took him about three minutes to scan the entire small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalagu.

Although the time consumed during Time Pause is quite meaningless, in some sense, it is also very meaningful. After all, time pause is time pause, but subjective time is subjective time.

Although time was indeed paused, his subjective time still changed. If he truly worked for a long time during a Time Pause, although there was no actual consumption, he would feel a kind of psychological or spiritual fatigue, briefly called mental fatigue.

But this kind of mental fatigue generally occurs when doing something meaningless, under which circumstance anyone normal would feel tortured and thus feel mentally tired. However, if the work being done is meaningful, then it's not too big of a problem.

After scanning all the Crimson Iron Ants in the small nest of Dalagu, Zhang Yanhang found that not only did it spawn the weakest First Tier One-star Ordinary Monster Crimson Iron Worker Ants this time, but it also spawned the First Tier One-star Elite Monster Crimson Iron Flying Ants, and not a few—roughly one to two hundred of them.

However, other stronger ants such as Crimson Iron Soldier Ants, Crimson Iron Breeding Ants, and the likes of Crimson Iron Ant Kings showed no signs of respawning at all.

Of course, Zhang Yanhang wasn't particularly concerned about the Crimson Iron Soldier Ants or the Crimson Iron Breeding Ants. His main concern was the Second Tier Second Star Elite Monster, the Crimson Iron Ant King. After all, he was still hoping to obtain another pair of Makarov Earrings. However, it now seemed unlikely.

According to Zhang Yanhang's scan results, although the stronger Crimson Iron Ants hadn't respawned, the good news was that there had been a relatively large number of Crimson Iron Worker Ant respawns.

In the past five days, nearly seventeen hundred Crimson Iron Worker Ants and around two hundred Crimson Iron Flying Ants had respawned, totaling nearly nineteen hundred Crimson Iron Ants.

"I didn't expect that in just five days, nineteen hundred Crimson Iron Ants would have already respawned. This respawn rate is a bit faster than the last time I was here, but it still maintains an average of about three hundred per day."

Zhang Yanhang felt that this might be his last time clearing out the Crimson Iron Ants in the small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalagu, as next time he might have already reached the Fourth Tier, and the region of the small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalagu was only at the Second Tier, preventing him from entering a zone one Rank lower than his own.

"Thinking about it, the chances of getting the Makarov Earrings really do seem hopeless... but luckily, aside from my Charm attribute, I don't really need any more attribute bonuses. After all, all four main attributes have already reached the Rank limit of seventy-five points."

Apart from the Charm attribute, Zhang Yanhang felt the biggest role of the attribute value bonuses was to help him through the vulnerable period just after a Rank promotion since, unlike other Awakeners, he would eventually reach the Rank limit with all his attributes, making it impossible for him to continue using attribute bonuses.

Moreover, he had transitioned through this vulnerable period particularly quickly this time. Previously, advancing from a promoted Rank to Rank Peak would take several days, but this time it only took four and a half hours to evolve from a newly promoted novice to Rank Peak, thus making the attribute value bonuses provided by Makarov obsolete this time.

This is also why Zhang Yanhang could say that even if he were able to get the Makarov Earrings now, it wouldn't be useful until he reached the next Rank.

As for now, it was still too early for his next promotion; he had only just been promoted and hadn't even reached twelve hours. Thinking about advancing to the Fourth Tier, that wouldn't happen until at least next week.

Therefore, during this intervening period, if he could get some artifacts that would enhance his attribute values, that would be far more useful than just the Makarov Earrings, which only provided a plain attribute bonus. This could help him transition through the newly vulnerable period faster after the promotion.

For this reason, compared to equipment that just added to his attribute values, Zhang Yanhang, on this trip to a new area to hunt monsters, actually hoped to get some new equipment that offered percentage bonuses, preferably something related to the Three-Headed Six-Armed equipment.

Failing that, even getting some new clothes would suffice. He was still wearing the White Ten-piece Set and urgently needed a replacement.

"Although I'm not sure how high the Rank penalty for the Third Tier is, I guess that even if I kill all these nineteen hundred Crimson Iron Ants, I probably can only get a few dozen Drop treasure boxes at most."

After a brief contemplation, Zhang Yanhang decided to end the Time Pause. Despite the scan taking only about three minutes, he still felt quite dissatisfied.

After all, when he was in the Main World, with his Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Evil scan range of sixty square kilometers, an area as small as forty square kilometers like the small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalagu would be scanned instantly and continuously monitored.

Unfortunately, the Crimson Iron Ore hindered his performance; although he had just increased the penetration of his Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Evil skill by leveling it up, his performance in the small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalagu remained unimpressive.

Zhang Yanhang remembered that the last time he was in the small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalagu, his perception range was over 6,000 meters, but after being interfered with, it barely remained just over 1,000 meters. This time, although he did increase his perception range substantially, it only grew to about 2,500 meters.

One could say that this densely core environment heavily suppressed his Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Evil skill—after all, his perception range in the Main World was a full 8,750 meters. Even though he had increased both the upper limit of his perception range and its penetration power, the final outcome was that his perception range had grown by less than 1.5 times, which really made Zhang Yanhang quite uncomfortable.

Of course, while only having a 2,500-meter perception range, it was still sufficient, especially in the small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalagu. Whether it would be enough in a new area remained unknown.

However, sufficient as it might be, the reason Zhang Yanhang needed three minutes to scan the entire small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalagu was definitely because the narrow perception range was to blame.

After all, even just the forty kilometers of the small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalagu now required Zhang Yanhang to scan about ten times to complete the scan—from one time to ten, this was a weakening of over tenfold. This solid environment was truly unfriendly to him, and he dearly missed the vast grasslands of the Goblin Plain.

After completing the scan of the monster spawns within the small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalagu, Zhang Yanhang started considering a question: whether he should clear out the third prize pool of the Lucky Slot Machine in the small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalagu now, especially since the slot machine was right beside him.

"If I clear out the small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalagu, I will probably go directly to the new area and not come back here. So, it's better to clear it now rather than make a special trip later,"

Zhang Yanhang said while skillfully pulling the metal lever on the side of the Lucky Slot Machine. Although it had been less than twelve hours, he inexplicably felt as if it had been a long time since he had last pulled the lever, perhaps due to his rapid ascension to the Peak Third Tier, which might have disoriented his perception of time.

As he pulled the metal lever, time paused instantly across the small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalagu, and at the same time, Zhang Yanhang could distinctly feel the familiar damping sensation in the air around him.

Moreover, the even more familiar dialogue box listing the prize options, already too familiar to be more so, appeared before him along with the time pause.

[Please select the specific outcome for this session of the Lucky Slot Machine]

[Option One: ❂❂❂ (Third Prize, Crimson Iron Worker Ant, First Tier One Star, Ordinary Monster.)]

[Option Two: ❂❂❂ (Third Prize, Crimson Iron Breeding Ant, First Tier Three Stars, Ordinary Monster.)]

[Option Three: ❂❂❂ (Third Prize, Crimson Iron Flying Ant, First Tier One Star, Elite Monster.)]

...

[Option Forty-eight: ❂❂❂ (Third Prize, Crimson Iron Soldier Ant, First Tier Two Stars, Ordinary Monster.)]

...

[Option Ninety-nine: ❂❂❂ (Third Prize, Crimson Iron Ant King, Second Tier Second Star, Elite Monster.)]

...

[Option One Hundred Forty-six: ✭✮✭ (Fourth Prize, thanks for playing, no physical prize.)]

...

After quickly reviewing the entire prize pool list, Zhang Yanhang found that the entire list remained unchanged, exactly the same as before, with neither more Second Tier Two Stars Elite Monsters nor any signs of first or second prizes appearing.

"Since the earliest Lucky Slot Machine in Raccoon City didn't show any signs of refreshing, it's only normal that the small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalagu hasn't either, though it's still a bit disappointing."

But disappointment is something you get used to after encountering it repeatedly, even though Zhang Yanhang really didn't want to get used to it in such cases.

Honestly, although the second prize Purple Quality "Crimson Iron Ant King Concentrated Hormone" from the Lucky Slot Machine in the small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalagu, which had a usage limit of under twenty-five points, was now useless to him,

the first prize Dark Purple Quality "Crimson Iron Ant Queen Hormone Essence (Solid Compression)" was still very useful as it could increase three Charm Attribute Points, and its usage was limited to under fifty points only.

Despite Zhang Yanhang's Charm Attribute already being at 67 points, much of it was due to equipment bonus. If only considering his base attribute without equipment, his Charm was actually just 41 points, still eligible for use. This was why Zhang Yanhang still hoped for a refresh in the Lucky Slot Machine.

Sadly, his wishes were clearly unfulfilled for the same reason as before—it was probably his last visit to the small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalagu before his promotion to the Fourth Tier.

Unless the final refresh in seven hours could possibly bring a first prize to the third prize pool of the Lucky Slot Machine, this wish was definitely unattainable, and the probability of refreshing that first prize in seven hours was undoubtedly not high.

Therefore, rather than hoping for a refresh of the first and second prizes in the Lucky Slot Machine of the small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalagu, Zhang Yanhang thought it better to look forward to the prize pool of the Lucky Slot Machine in the new area, which might be a bit more reliable.

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