Early the next morning.
Lin Feng, who had woken up bright and early, was brought by Tighnari before the assembled forest rangers.
In front of everyone, Tighnari announced that this black-haired young boy would be joining their ranks.
To Lin Feng's surprise, the rangers were delighted—the exact same expression his coworkers in his previous life had whenever a new unfortunate soul got tricked into "volunteering" for a workload meant for an entire team.
A subtle sense of danger prickled at Lin Feng's spine.
Seeing his confusion, Tighnari explained with a smile:
"Forest rangers are official civil servants, technically speaking. But working in the rainforest means dealing with the environment, wild beasts, and monsters. We've always been short on manpower."
"Recruitment barely gets anyone. So your arrival is a huge help. Don't feel pressured."
He patted Lin Feng's head.
"You don't have to comfort me. Honestly, the rainforest isn't really dangerous for me."
Lin Feng swatted his hand away.
He understood Tighnari was just trying to ease his mental burden. If ranger work were truly that awful, no young people would try to join.
Lin Feng didn't call him out—it wasn't hard to read between the lines.
For his first day on the job, Lin Feng was simply asked to inspect the lamps along the pathways—bioluminescent plant-based lamps that amazed him.
Natural, eco-friendly, and basically zero energy cost. "Truly high-end," he thought.
After that, he checked some rain shelters deeper in the forest.
By the time he finished, his first workday had gone smoothly.
What shocked the other rangers, though, was Lin Feng's physical stamina and agility.
Some of the younger rangers, once proud of their athleticism, suddenly started questioning life.
Evening.
After work, as promised, Tighnari tutored Lin Feng in reading and writing.
Lin Feng had originally expected the learning to be excruciating.
Instead, he found that his memory and comprehension were far better than before—maybe youth really did affect learning ability.
His progress was shockingly fast.
"That's it for today's lesson," Tighnari exhaled, putting away the materials.
"By the way, have you considered joining the Akademiya as a scholar? If I hadn't confirmed you truly started out knowing nothing, I would've thought you were making fun of me."
"Even within the Akademiya, this learning speed counts as genius-level," Tighnari praised generously.
"But this grammar… what's going on? A Liyue dialect habit?"
He looked down at Lin Feng's sentences—which were full of "foreign charm" and heavily "translated Chinese" structure.
Lin Feng: "…"
He'd learned so happily he'd accidentally started writing in Chinese syntax.
Teyvat's written language leaned more toward Western structures, so his beginner writing had strong "ESL student" flavor.
After Tighnari left, Lin Feng washed up and prepared to sleep.
The next morning, just as Lin Feng finished washing up, he heard a knock.
Opening the door, he saw the ranger who had patrolled with him yesterday—Nasreen. She looked around twenty, a soft-spoken girl with the vibe of someone freshly out of school.
Lin Feng invited her inside. Nasreen glanced around his tidy room and seemed surprised:
"It's so clean! I thought boys your age all hated making their beds."
Lin Feng blacklined. "I'm not a little kid. I can tidy my own room."
Nasreen stuck out her tongue apologetically. "Sorry, sorry! You just remind me of my younger brother. If only he were as capable as you."
Then she placed several books on the table.
"Tighnari-senpai said your learning progress is unbelievable, so he asked me to bring you some of the ranger's required reading materials."
Lin Feng nodded. Rangers did need a lot of knowledge.
He remembered how NPCs in the game constantly referenced the Rainforest Survival Guide, yet the player could never actually find it.
Nasreen pushed the books toward him, and the one on top had exactly those words: Rainforest Survival Guide.
"These are yours now. Every ranger needs these. Please take care of them. If you lose one, you can request a replacement from me." She smiled.
"Yesterday was just to let you get a feel for the work environment. Now I'll explain what forest rangers mainly do."
"It's not complicated—I'll explain it simply," Nasreen said, her eyes crescenting as she spoke.
"For ordinary rangers like us, our daily duties are:
checking road conditions,
maintaining forest facilities,
removing fire hazards,
and assisting travelers or residents."
"A bit tedious, but not dangerous."
Lin Feng understood—they were basically Teyvat's version of forest police.
With his current strength and learning ability, none of this sounded difficult.
"As for Tighnari-senpai," Nasreen continued, "he handles the dangerous areas in the rainforest. Only he can—we don't have Visions, so we can't support him in combat."
She sounded regretful.
"So, what will I be in charge of?" Lin Feng asked.
He didn't mind anything—even dealing with Withering Zones eventually. Worst case, Little White would simply bulldoze everything.
But Nasreen smiled and offered another option:
"Actually, our team is short one Hazard Scout."
"The job is to locate new Hilichurl camps, track dangerous monsters appearing in the rainforest, and compile reports for Tighnari-senpai."
"You've seen it—most of us don't have your physical abilities. Facing monsters is too difficult." Nasreen shrugged helplessly.
"Of course, this job is too dangerous for now. Before you pass Tighnari-senpai's evaluation,
you'll temporarily work with me maintaining forest facilities."
After explaining, she stood and headed for the exit. Lin Feng walked her out.
"There's no assigned work for you today. You can read the books or explore the town," she said.
"Oh—don't go too deep into the rainforest. It's dangerous."
Lin Feng, who had just crawled out of said rainforest, naturally wasn't eager to dive back in.
But he still appreciated her concern. "Thanks. I understand."
Nasreen left.
Lin Feng—on his first day officially employed and already on vacation—walked outside with Little White in his arms.
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