Chapter 158 - 117: Gimme That, The Final Day’s Sprint

Chapter 158: Chapter 117: Gimme That, The Final Day’s Sprint

It was a dark and stormy night, with a relentless downpour.

2:30 in the morning.

On the hill behind Shen Xing’s villa, a dark figure quietly appeared.

A figure in a black hoodie moved silently through the shadows of the trees.

He carried a small briefcase in his hand, circled the area a few times, and finally chose a hidden slope.

From here, he had a perfect view of Shen Xing’s villa.

Then, he crouched down and opened the briefcase. Inside was a large pile of precision mechanical parts.

He stretched out his hands, and a faint blue light glowed from his palms. The parts automatically floated up and rapidly assembled themselves in mid-air.

A high-precision sniper rifle, pitch-black and 1.2 meters long, materialized in his hands in just two and a half seconds.

The corners of the black-clothed man’s mouth curled into a cold sneer. He raised the sniper rifle and aimed at the security camera outside the villa.

But just as he was about to pull the trigger, the sniper rifle in his hands suddenly vanished into thin air.

"Illegal possession of a firearm. Confiscated."

A lazy voice suddenly sounded from behind him, startling the black-clothed man so much that he jolted and sprang up from the ground.

Before he could even process what had happened, he suddenly felt a chill wash over his entire body.

When he looked down, he found that all his gear, even his underwear, had vanished.

"Who is it!?" His voice was filled with unconcealable terror as he scanned his surroundings.

Just then, a figure in a gray trench coat with his hands in his pockets slowly emerged from the darkness.

"You’re... from the Anomaly Handling Bureau!"

The black-clothed man recognized the newcomer and quickly took a step back. He grabbed his left arm with his right hand, gave it a hard twist, and actually detached the entire limb.

He held his left arm in his hand like a weapon. In the center of its palm was the dark, metallic muzzle of a cannon.

Zhou Zheng, a cigarette dangling from his lips, saw the device and his eyes lit up. "Huh? A portable hand cannon. Now that’s a nice little toy."

He held out his hand and grinned. "Gimme that."

The next second, the hand cannon in the black-clothed man’s hand also vanished into thin air.

His eyes instantly went wide as saucers, his expression one of utter disbelief. "Who... Who the hell are you? What kind of demonic ability is this!?"

Zhou Zheng didn’t speak. Instead, he looked the man up and down, the greed in his eyes unconcealed. "Looks like you have a lot more treasures on you. Hand them all over."

"I... I don’t have anything else." The black-clothed man subconsciously took two steps back.

For some reason, being stared at by those eyes made his skin crawl.

It was as if he was being targeted by a greedy demon.

"How could that be? You still have plenty of good things on you."

Zhou Zheng blew a smoke ring and gave a meaningful smile. "Like your organs, your lifespan, your soul... those are all worth quite a bit of money."

"What... What are you talking about?" The black-clothed man felt like the guy was insane and backed away.

His eyes darted around, searching for an escape route.

The next second, he locked onto a direction and shot off like a hound!

Zhou Zheng watched him flee, unhurriedly reaching out and grasping at the empty air.

Instantly, the black-clothed man, mid-sprint, froze stiff as if seized by a terrifying force.

Immediately after, a bone-deep chill washed over him, emanating from the depths of his body and soul.

It felt as if an invisible hand was pulling something out of his body.

He wanted to scream but found he had lost the ability to even speak.

He could only watch helplessly as his body shriveled.

A moment later, the area returned to calm.

Zhou Zheng snuffed out the cigarette in his mouth and spoke into his communicator, "It’s handled here. It was one of Wind Eagle Country’s hounds."

"There might be others nearby. Keep security tight."

"Check the sky, the ground, and even the water. Don’t miss a thing."

"Yes, sir!"

In the darkness, dark figures patrolled the woodlands, the sky, and even the river water around the villa.

...

...

During the time Shen Xing was resting, the fierce competition in the Land of Mist was still raging on.

After all, it was the final day. The Lords were all giving it their all for one last sprint.

In a certain plains region, thick fog churned under a torrential downpour, with dark figures moving within.

A man with Western features and a buzz cut was commanding his troops to fight in the fog.

His eyes were bloodshot and bulging; he looked like he hadn’t slept in days.

In front of him, a hundred Gun Soldiers and Shield Guards formed a circle, protecting a squad of Mages and Archers in the center.

These troops also had bloodshot eyes, but they maintained a state of abnormal excitement.

"PFFT! PFFT-PFFT-PFFT!"

Waves of attacking monsters were slain by them, leaving the ground covered in mangled corpses.

’Faster! Faster! Or my ranking is going to drop out of the top one hundred.’

The buzz-cut man gritted his teeth and had his troops continue to advance.

Just as they advanced some distance and reached a pile of rubble, numerous bloated figures suddenly appeared in the surrounding fog.

Their bodies were severely decomposed and emitted a shocking stench, like corpses that had been soaking for many days.

They were Abominations!

Because of the heavy rain, the monsters’ footsteps and smell were masked.

The man didn’t notice them until they stepped into the range of the firelight.

"S-so many Abominations!?" The man’s voice trembled. The scene before him was completely beyond his expectations.

"Quick, retreat!"

Just as he was about to order his troops to retreat and break out, the group of Abominations suddenly froze.

Then, as if they had received some kind of command, their bodies began to rapidly swell.

And then.

"BANG! BANG-BANG-BANG!"

Instantly, red and green fluids sprayed out, and the viscous liquid completely covered his entire legion.

This group of Abominations had actually initiated a collective self-detonation.

"No!!!"

The buzz-cut man was drenched in the corrosive liquid. His skin began to ulcerate and his flesh started to melt as he writhed on the ground, screaming in agony.

He pulled out all sorts of items from his backpack, hoping to delay his death.

But clearly, it was all useless.

After all, he had taken a direct hit from the self-detonation of a group of Abominations, which even included an Extraordinary Level one.

Amidst the man’s desperate screams, the area fell silent.

...

...

Meanwhile, in another part of the Land of Mist, inside an abandoned town.

A tall woman in black leather armor, with a curvaceous figure, was leading a legion of two hundred through the streets.

She kicked open doors one by one, dragging out the Walking Dead hidden in closets, under beds, and even in fireplaces for her troops to kill.

Watching her points steadily increase, the tall woman licked her dry lips, excitement showing in her eyes.

’Almost there. If I push a little harder tonight, I can break into the top hundred.’

’But I’ve already explored the outskirts of this town. The hidden Walking Dead are getting scarcer...’

She gazed at the town’s depths, shrouded in fog. After a moment of hesitation, her eyes grew determined.

’I’ll risk it. I’ll go check out the inner town. If it’s dangerous, I’ll just pull back!’

Having made up her mind, she resolutely led her troops down the dark stone-paved road and into the depths of the town.

The party stopped in front of a three-story building.

The tall woman could feel that the building gave her an unsettling feeling.

But seeing how close she was to breaking into the top one hundred, she gritted her teeth and sent two of her soldiers to open the door.

She herself led her troops back a short distance, ready to flee at the first sign of trouble.

As the two soldiers went forward and slowly pushed open the old doors, there was no initial reaction.

But a few seconds later, she heard the sound of rushing water and smelled the thick stench of blood.

Immediately after, a faint tremor ran through the ground, as if something terrible was about to happen.

The sense of crisis in the tall woman’s heart reached its peak!

She was just about to turn and run.

Suddenly, as if she had seen something horrifying, she froze in place, her eyes glued to the house!

"SPLASH—"

A torrent of dark red blood, like a burst dam, surged out of the old house.

In a single instant, it flooded the entire street.

It devoured the woman and her two hundred soldiers along with it.

...

...

Similar scenes were playing out all over the Land of Mist.

The names on the leaderboards were constantly changing. The names of many Lords who were originally in the top thousand, or even the top hundred, gradually disappeared.

But this time, they weren’t being pushed down by other players.

They were being devoured by the monsters in the fog, their lives lost forever.

As the death toll soared, the Lords who were in their final sprint finally had a rude awakening.

This was never a festive scramble for rankings among players, but a trial of life and death.

The Land of Mist was filled with danger, and the monsters were all hidden extremely well.

The slightest mistake, and even a top-hundred powerhouse would be mercilessly devoured.

To survive in a place like this, one had to be cautious, cautious, and even more cautious!

Many players calmed down, no longer recklessly chasing glory, and chose to proceed steadily and carefully.

Compared to the leaderboard rewards, their own lives were more important.

...

...

「The next morning.」

Shen Xing was woken by the sound of lashing rain outside his window.

He propped himself up and opened the motorized curtains.

Outside the large floor-to-ceiling windows, the rain came down in sheets, drumming against the windowsill.

The surface of the river in the distance was turbulent, and the yellow river water rushed past.

"Jeez, this rain is insane."

He exclaimed in amazement, then opened his phone to look at the satellite map.

It showed that over 80% of the globe was covered by thick rain clouds. It was raining in almost every corner of the world.

On the weather website, several torrential rain warnings popped up, along with news of flooding in multiple areas.

Seven or eight consecutive days of rain had left major cities feeling as if they were submerged, making it difficult for people to get around.

However, the deliveryman from the Anomaly Handling Bureau was still on time.

"DING-DONG! DING-DONG!"

The shrill sound of the doorbell snapped Shen Xing out of his thoughts.

Arriving in the living room, he looked at the security monitor and saw that familiar, cheerful young man holding a large umbrella, waiting in the curtain of rain.

’What a tough job, having to go out and make deliveries in such heavy rain,’ Shen Xing mused.

The times may have changed, but for most ordinary people, life went on as usual, one step at a time. Even though they had received the first batch of Soul Stone subsidies from the government and had begun to absorb the Power within them to improve themselves, aside from their bodies becoming a little stronger, there didn’t seem to be any other changes.

But that was to be expected.

The arrival of a new era never changed everything overnight. Instead, like this rain, it seeped into everyone’s lives drop by drop.

By the time people realized it, the world had quietly transformed.

"Mr. Shen, your package has been registered. You can check the item’s current location and matching progress on the website. Have a nice day," the young man said with a smile.

Shen Xing nodded, watching him turn and disappear into the rain.

He also wheeled his wheelchair back inside.

Many messages popped up on his phone.

A glance showed they were from Qin Lang, reminding him in the group chat not to take reckless risks just to climb the rankings.

He also told him that many top-one-thousand players had died last night due to impulsiveness, and that he had to stay steady.