Of course, Zhang Yanhang's lack of time can't always blame time itself; it's more because the area he cleans increases in size, naturally leading to longer required times.

This also results in the fact that even though Zhang Yanhang's cleaning efficiency has been improving, time just occasionally becomes insufficient.

The best example is Raccoon City. With his current cleaning efficiency, it only takes a few seconds to clean up Raccoon City, which used to take him a week. After all, Raccoon City is only 42 square kilometers,

but facing the 40,000 square kilometers of the Umbrella Biochemical Test Field, it's entirely different. It's a thousand times the size of Raccoon City, so naturally, it requires consuming a thousand times more time, plus the even more time-consuming task of opening treasure boxes, and recovering treasure boxes and monster corpses, leading to time running short.

If he chose not to open treasure boxes at all, not even recovering treasure boxes and monster corpses, Zhang Yanhang would be fully confident to kill all the monsters in the Umbrella Biochemical Test Field in just an hour and a half.

But alas, that's impossible. Even if he doesn't open them, he still has to recover drop treasure boxes, which naturally would double the cleaning time, making it three hours to completely clear the Umbrella Biochemical Test Field.

Of course, the reason it's possible to clear the Umbrella Biochemical Test Field in three hours now is mainly thanks to the Movement Speed Coin significantly boosting his movement speed.

Otherwise, calculating with his cleaning efficiency from when he first arrived at the Umbrella Biochemical Test Field, even if he was only hunting monsters and recovering drop treasure boxes and monster corpses, it would still take six hours or even more to clear the entire Umbrella Biochemical Test Field.

"Since time is insufficient now, it's better to return directly to the Main World. Staying on the Ashen World doesn't make much sense."

Zhang Yanhang repacked the drop treasure boxes on the ground into his Waist Bag and then checked if there was anything left behind. After confirming everything was organized, Zhang Yanhang immediately made an active choice to return to the Main World.

Meanwhile, the Time Pause once again descends upon Raccoon City shortly after, and a large row of very familiar text option boxes also floated before Zhang Yanhang.

[Continue hunting monsters in the Ashen World?]

[Option One: Yes (Although you have long coveted the Umbrella Biochemical Test Field on the opposite side of the abandoned transmission channel in Raccoon City's sewer, this is indeed your first time entering the Umbrella Biochemical Test Field after repairing the transmission channel and hunting monsters there.

Even on the first time, your good hunting habits and rich hunting experience allowed you to immediately devise a related hunting plan and begin executing it. Despite having a hunting plan, you did not rigidly stick to it, occasionally making flexible adjustments based on the situation.

For instance, now you feel that although the transmission channel leading to the Main World from Raccoon City is about to close, you don't feel any real need to return to the Main World immediately. You can completely stay a bit longer in the Ashen World and explore the surrounding areas of the Umbrella Biochemical Test Field.]

[Option Two: No (Since you strictly executed the hunting plan for the Umbrella Biochemical Test Field, you took less than twelve hours to completely clear the entire 100,000-square-kilometer huge Umbrella Biochemical Test Field, leaving none of the biochemical monsters inside.

But after a long period of high-intensity hunting, you gradually feel a bit out of energy, your physical strength is gradually depleting. At this moment, you know that the transmission channel from Raccoon City to the Main World is about to close, and you feel it's time to return to the Main World for a rest.)]

[Option Three: Go home (Since the transmission channel in Raccoon City is only ten minutes away from closing, you returned early to Unit 301 of the Dulda Apartment, lying on that familiar old wooden bed, resting and waiting for the transmission channel to end.

But while waiting, you suddenly feel like you don't even want to wait ten minutes. Now you just want to hurry back to the Main World and immediately advance to a higher rank after returning. Although you haven't waited too long to advance to Fifth Tier, your desire to advance is extremely strong at this moment.)]

"As expected of the options triggered by my active choice. In the past, when passively triggered, typically two out of three options would urge me to stay in the Ashen World to continue hunting monsters, but this time, it's clear that it understood my intention, with only the first option suggesting I stay in the Ashen World.

But both the second and third options are all urging me to return to the Main World quickly.

Especially the third option, even directly urging me to immediately advance to a higher rank after returning to the Main World."

Although Zhang Yanhang is indeed eager to advance to a higher rank, he is not in such a hurry. He still plans to finish opening the drop treasure boxes and Ashen Treasure Boxes before advancing, which at most would delay half an hour, making little difference.

"As for the first option, speaking of which, I really haven't explored the surrounding areas of the Umbrella Biochemical Test Field."

The reason why is simple, because Zhang Yanhang doesn't have the time. Yes, it's that simple; he had just solved everything within a minute by saving time along the way, and immediately after resolving matters, he was transported to Raccoon City. Where would there be time to explore the surrounding areas?

Due to his eagerness to return to the Main World, Zhang Yanhang definitely won't explore the surrounding areas this time, but next time, he probably will.

Therefore, Zhang Yanhang feels that the option that currently aligns best with his true intention is only the second option.

Of course, it only partially aligns since he hasn't really felt fatigued or that his physical strength is gradually depleting like the option suggests.

Since opening treasure boxes indeed consumes time, and opening treasure boxes involves sitting still, this has resulted in the physical strength consumed during battles being directly recovered during the process of opening treasure boxes and alchemy. In fact, Zhang Yanhang's physical strength is currently almost full.

However, this is mainly because the time consumed by opening treasure boxes now exceeds the time consumed by hunting. If it was the usual case where hunting took up most of the time, and opening treasure boxes and organizing rewards took only a small part of the time afterward, the current strange situation wouldn't happen.

Simultaneously, because of this, Zhang Yanhang has always been thinking of solving this issue after advancing to Fifth Tier. Although it certainly cannot be completely resolved, being able to compress the time it takes to open treasure boxes would still be acceptable.

Otherwise, if things continue to develop this way, it's possible that in the future, the time spent opening treasure boxes could be ten times that of hunting, which would be truly unbearable. He might even have to wait to open the treasure boxes until after returning to the Main World.

But if matters reach that extent, it is also possible that because of accumulating too many treasure boxes, they might not all be opened during the cooling period of the transmission channel, delaying the clearing of new areas. Such extreme situations could also occur.

Therefore, for Zhang Yanhang right now, the priority is to find a way to solve the problems and difficulties. If all else fails, then he can rest easy. But if he gives up from the start, there is no hope left.

"So, I choose Option Two, no."

After reviewing all three options, Zhang Yanhang immediately chose the most reliable second option.

After Zhang Yanhang made his choice, the Time Pause disappeared instantly, followed by a moment of darkness before his eyes, and then there was light.

Probably because it's getting close to winter, and the centralized heating will start in half a month, the mornings seem particularly bright now.

Of course, Zhang Yanhang felt that the brightness in the room was unrelated to the approaching winter, since even in winter, the day normally starts to brighten around six-thirty. So, it's simply because his vision is very good now, making the dim light seem like broad daylight. After all, he is a Fourth Tier Awakened.

As for outside the window, because it's only early November, it can only be considered slightly illuminated.

From this, Zhang Yanhang inferred that he must have left early last night, and forgot to draw the curtains, allowing the outdoor light to seep in.

In the past, when he'd return late at night, he'd always draw the curtains before leaving, but yesterday, he left at six o'clock.

Despite it being the season where it gets dark around five, he definitely didn't draw the curtains yesterday.

Fortunately, Zhang Yanhang is no longer afraid of being spied on through the windows by outsiders, given his 'outstanding' abilities within the Awakener community.

In fact, there are times when Zhang Yanhang even wishes someone would come and cause trouble, just so he could show off a bit and save face.

However, in the Main World, Awakeners generally have a peaceful mindset and don't fight each other. So far, he has only witnessed others fighting, quickly being apprehended by the authorities, but he has never encountered such a situation personally.

It's probably because he's genuinely quite reclusive.

After all, how would people cause trouble without knowing or recognizing him?

After returning to the Main World, Zhang Yanhang lay down on his reassuring bed for a while in the bedroom to relax. Only afterward did he take out the drop treasure boxes from his waist bag, intending to continue opening them.

But before proceeding, Zhang Yanhang first opened his soul points balance to check. Even though he only killed some low-level monsters, theoretically, it shouldn't add up to a lot of soul points, but he decided to take a look regardless.

[Soul points: 109678167 (+815260)]

"As expected, merely relying on killing those low-level monsters, even after nearly taking down over ten thousand, didn't yield much soul points. It only increased my balance from 108,860,000 to 109,678,000, adding just 815,260 soul points."

Moreover, of those meager 815,000 soul points, a significant portion comes from the hundred Fourth Tier monsters he eliminated in the Lucky Slot Machine's third prize pool at the Umbrella Biochemical Test Field.

It's safe to say that those hundred monsters alone contributed at least 700,000 in soul points, with the remaining 110,000 being the total kill rewards from the other ten thousand-plus monsters.

For Zhang Yanhang, this outcome is familiar because high-level monsters indeed hold much more value than low-level ones, which is why he prefers high-level ones.

"Previously, I thought that by clearing the monsters in the Umbrella Biochemical Test Field, Demonized Swamp, Goblin Plain, and Raccoon City, I could directly boost my soul points balance past 110,000,000. But now, it's clear that I was overthinking. I still need another 330,000 soul points to reach 110,000,000."

But the bright side is that Zhang Yanhang hasn't opened any treasure boxes yet. Once he does, he should surely accumulate enough soul points. By opening treasure boxes, he could easily gain at least one to two million soul points, making it simple to elevate his balance to 110,000,000.

Speaking of the drop treasure boxes, after checking his soul points balance, Zhang Yanhang immediately began counting the number of drop treasure boxes.

Upon completion, Zhang Yanhang discovered that this time, he acquired over 400 drop treasure boxes, nearly reaching 500. Including the Ashen treasure boxes, there are a total of 466 treasure boxes; without them, there are 465 drop treasure boxes.

Despite the soul points balance not having increased by much, the treasure boxes gained from the sheer number of monsters compensated for it substantially.

Out of these 465 drop treasure boxes, the majority naturally came from the Goblin Plain. This time, the Goblin Plain alone contributed 215 drop treasure boxes, nearly half of the total.

However, despite the large quantity, they are all green quality boxes, with most being Big Saber Goblin drop treasure boxes, totaling 167. The rest are composed of 25 Goblin Spear Thrower drop treasure boxes and 23 Goblin Wolf Cavalry drop treasure boxes.

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