"By the way, Ke Lan, do you have any activities later?" Lao Gou suddenly asked.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Ke Lan was confused for a moment.

"I see you've recovered quite well," Lao Gou suddenly revealed a somewhat obscene smile on his face, and reached out to pat Ke Lan's lower back, "Brothers and I are planning to go to Huacha together - this time the Soma Consortium compensated us with so much money, and we can finally enjoy the feeling of being rich for once."

Logically speaking, as an elite hunter, Lao Gou's income level is relatively high among the civilian class in the Ark. However, every time this guy comes back from a mission, he will use most of his remuneration to support his old subordinates and their families, leaving very little for himself. That's why he usually lives a very frugal life. This time, except for Ke Lan who received 30 million credit points in one go, everyone else who participated in the operation received 10 million as compensation.

The purchase price of the most valuable treasures in the S-level ruins is only about tens of millions. This time, the Soma Group is really generous.

Of course, in the other party's words, this was a thank you gift for saving the entire Pioneer and one of the future heirs of the Soma Group. Compared with the Pioneer, tens of millions of credit points were just a small amount of money, and compared with Zofia's own safety, the Pioneer icebreaker was not worth mentioning.

"How are you going to spend the money? Shopping?" Ke Lan glanced at Layton who was stuffing the body parts into the sealed freezer. "I remember Layton's prosthetics haven't been upgraded yet? This money should be enough to buy a top-notch prosthetics now."

"We have to buy things... but that's not the point." The old dog chuckled. "We've discussed it privately. Asano Akira said he's not interested and won't go. Mongolian is still in the medical cabin waiting for his legs to grow back, so he can't go either. The doctor has just recovered from a serious illness and has a wife who's a good fighter, so he can't go... The rest are just you, me, Layton, and Liao Zilang."

"Wait a minute? Why can't Ivan go since he has a wife? What on earth are you planning to take me to do?" Ke Lan was confused.

"Shit! You are usually quite smart, but why are you so stupid now? Of course I should go to..." Layton was about to say something, but he caught a glimpse of Natasha coming out from the inner room, and swallowed the rest of his words. "Well, you will know it soon anyway. How can I, an old dog, let you suffer any loss?"

…

Two hours later, the filth in the clinic hall was finally cleaned up. All the body parts and dirty blood were collected in a half-person-high metal can, and then stuffed into a refrigerated safe that was kept at minus 35 degrees Celsius all year round.

Asano Akira, Ivan and Natasha stayed in the clinic, while Hound, Ke Lan and the other two slipped out and took a light rail train directly to the North 9th District.

Unlike the maglev train, the light rail is slower and the ticket price is only about one-tenth of the maglev train. The transportation line generally only covers about half of the region, making it the preferred means of transportation for ordinary residents of the Ark.

"North District 9? What are you going to North District 9 for?" Ke Lan was puzzled. North District 9 was one of the districts with the worst living conditions in the North District. It had always been called the "slum". The various living facilities there had been in disrepair for many years. Many areas could not even provide the most basic lighting equipment. In addition, there were many gangs and a mixed crowd. Various vicious cases happening in North District 9 could often be seen in the news... Ke Lan really couldn't understand why Lao Gou said he wanted to enjoy the feeling of being a rich man, but took her to this "remote place" where rich people would never set foot.

"What's available in the North Ninth District... of course it's women! Beautiful... and cheap women! I've been holding it in for a few months, today I'll take you to have some fun!" said the Hound with a smile.

"What?!" Ke Lan was stunned and immediately resisted, "I think... let's just forget it, right?"

"Hmm?" The hound's expression changed. He looked at Ke Lan carefully and suddenly lowered his voice: "You kid...you're not still a novice, are you?"

“Ahem… Is there something wrong with this?!”

Since leaving the public education facility, Ke Lan has indeed been living alone for more than ten years. Due to the special nature of his job, the number of times he interacts with the opposite sex on a daily basis can be said to be pitifully small.

After all, there aren't many women who work in high-risk professions like Ruin Hunters. Even if there are, Ke Lan rarely has the opportunity to team up with them... Even if he really teams up with a female hunter, with his straight-A character, it would be difficult for him to create any sparks with teammates of the opposite sex.

Although she would not say it openly, deep down, Ke Lan still had some resistance to female teammates - from the perspective of physiological structure and psychological quality, in most cases, male teammates were more reliable than female teammates.

This isn't sexism, it's just a fact.

Unless Fang Zhou forcibly assigns him a wife, Ke Lan is still more accustomed to the single life of "one person eats and the whole family is not hungry".

Unlike what is described in most dystopian science fiction works of the Old Era, there is no official assignment of partners on the Ark, nor is there any requirement for people to pair up for the purpose of reproduction and perform so-called "breeding missions" - here, not only can people fall in love and form families freely, but even the marriage laws of the Old Era have been largely retained.

However, in order to ensure the population quantity and quality, Ark has taken corresponding measures - every healthy and physiologically mature young person must undergo a reproductive cell collection operation every six months. These collected cells will be combined after layers of screening, and then gradually develop into a mature embryo in an artificial incubator, commonly known as an "artificial womb."

Ke Lan himself was born this way, and for this reason, he still doesn't know who his biological father and mother are - fortunately, in today's society, the number of humans like him born from artificial wombs has accounted for about one-tenth of the total population, and no one cares about this issue anymore.