Normally, when Exotic Beast Hunters caught massive prey in the wild, they couldn't take the whole thing. They could only carry away as much as they could manage.
But with today's advanced technology, that method was long obsolete.
If you caught a huge creature, you could take the entire thing with you as long as you were willing to pay a certain fee.
With a thought, Lin Li retrieved his backpack from the Mysterious Small Island. He unzipped it and took out his phone.
He unlocked the screen and opened an app called "Superfast Recycling."
Superfast Recycling was a logistics company that specialized in serving Exotic Beast Hunters, with operations in every city across the country.
After an Exotic Beast Hunter killed a Mutant Beast in the wild, they could use the company's app to summon a transport drone to their location.
Then, all you had to do was place the slain Mutant Beast onto the transport drone.
The drone would then safely deliver the Mutant Beast you killed to one of the massive refrigerated warehouses in the city.
After that, Superfast Recycling would even help Exotic Beast Hunters sell the Exotic Beast Meat. It was a truly thoughtful, all-in-one service.
After opening the app, Lin Li pinpointed his location and placed an order for a small transport drone.
But wait. Lin Li only had thirty yuan to his name. How could he afford to summon a transport drone?
Summoning a small Superfast Recycling transport drone cost three hundred yuan per trip. With only a few dozen yuan on hand, Lin Li definitely couldn't afford it.
Well... the truth was, Lin Li could afford the service because the Superfast Recycling logistics company supported a "serve now, pay later" model.
After they collected the customer's slain Mutant Beast and helped sell it, they would automatically deduct the drone-summoning fee from the sales revenue.
...
At around 1:20 in the afternoon, the sun was at its most intense. The temperature in the wilderness had climbed past thirty degrees.
"CHIRP, CHIRP..."
The higher the temperature and the fiercer the sun, the more excited the cicadas became, their chirping growing ever more frenzied.
After placing his order, Lin Li saw a notification on the app: his order was received, and a transport drone was being dispatched to his location. The estimated arrival time was about fifteen minutes.
'Fifteen minutes until it gets here. That's pretty fast,' Lin Li mused to himself. He then locked his phone and put it in his pocket.
"HISS..."
The movement of his hand tugged at his injury, causing him to suck in a sharp breath of air in pain.
During the fierce battle with the Wild Boar Beast, he had been struck by its rump and thrown hard to the ground.
While it hadn't caused any serious damage, his left palm had hit the ground first, and a small stone had gouged a five-centimeter-long cut into it.
The tension of the battle had made him oblivious to the pain, but now that the fight was over, the intense agony seized his full attention.
He'd never suffered such a "severe" injury in his entire life. Fortunately, the wound wasn't deep. It was bleeding, but not uncontrollably.
He took the medical supplies he had prepared from his backpack: medical alcohol, sterile gauze, cotton swabs, and a small, thirty-gram tube of healing ointment that had cost him three thousand yuan.
"AARGH..."
As he cleaned the wound on his left hand with the medical alcohol, the stinging sensation made Lin Li, who had never experienced such pain before, let out a low cry of agony.
"This is killing me! My god, why does it hurt so much..."
Although Lin Li was as gentle as possible while cleaning the wound with the alcohol, the level of pain wasn't something he could control.
He clenched his jaw, treating the wound on his hand as beads of sweat formed on his forehead.
After finally managing to disinfect the wound, Lin Li let out a breath of relief, his body relaxing slightly.
"Whew... treating this wound is even harder than fighting that Wild Boar Beast!
Time to apply the ointment. I hope it doesn't sting like the alcohol did when I put it on."
Lin Li, who was a bit afraid of pain, picked up the ointment that had cost him three thousand yuan. A hesitant look appeared on his face; the memory of the alcohol's sting still made him shudder.
He hesitated for a few seconds, but when he saw the long cut on his hand start to ooze blood again, he gritted his teeth and twisted off the cap.
He sniffed it first and discovered the ointment had the fresh, herbal scent of medicinal plants, not a harsh, irritating smell.
He squeezed out a little and applied it to the wound on his palm.
The moment the white ointment touched the wound, a cool, soothing sensation spread through his palm, making Lin Li let out an involuntary groan.
"Mmm~"
"It doesn't hurt at all. This feels amazing!"
Realizing the ointment wouldn't cause any piercing pain, Lin Li quickly squeezed out some more and gently spread it evenly over the wound with a cotton swab.
In just a moment, the oozing wound was evenly coated with the white ointment.
'Just like that pretty salesgirl said, this ointment's hemostatic effect is really good. No wonder it's so popular among Cultivators. It would be even better if it were cheaper.'
Lin Li looked at the long gash on his left hand. The bleeding had stopped immediately after he applied the white ointment. 'That three thousand yuan was worth every penny,' he thought.
Then, Lin Li wrapped his treated left hand with sterile gauze, tying it off with a tight knot. His simple self-treatment was complete.
Now, all he had to do was wait for the transport drone he had ordered to arrive.
The Superfast Recycling transport drone didn't keep Lin Li waiting long. It arrived more than two minutes earlier than the time shown in the app.
A circular, eight-rotor transport drone with a five-meter diameter appeared on the horizon, speeding toward the coordinates Lin Li had set.
'The transport drone technology on Blue Star is way more advanced than on Earth!' Lin Li muttered to himself as he looked up at the small drone speeding toward him.
"WHIRRR..."
A miniature shipping container was suspended beneath the circular, eight-rotor transport drone.
It flew directly over Lin Li's head. A camera on the drone scanned the area below, and then it slowly descended toward the corpse of the Wild Boar Beast.
"THUD."
The miniature container landed steadily on the grass. Once the airborne drone sensed the container had touched down, it stopped its descent.
It hovered there in mid-air, waiting for the customer to place the quarry into the container.
...