Su Yanran’s heart jolted, and she finally realized something was wrong.
“Damn it, I’ll fight you all!”
Zhao Li and his group roared, charging towards the Blood Mantises again.
“It even comes with difficulty scaling?”
On the other side, Cheng Xing looked at the five Blood Mantises rushing towards him, a grin spreading across his face.
He didn’t know what the people behind this were thinking. If dozens of Blood Mantises had attacked at once, Cheng Xing might have avoided their sharp edge.
But with them coming in waves like this, he might have found it a bit challenging if he hadn’t reached Level 10.
Now, though, these dozens weren’t enough for him to kill alone.
“But since someone has set the stage, I have no reason not to perform.”
This time, it took Zhao Li and his group thirty minutes to deal with the five Blood Mantises.
Among them, all members of the Hunting Dog Squad were severely injured, and the other two squads also sustained minor injuries, while Zhao Li and the other person, who had been responsible for the attack, were barely hurt.
After this battle, five more Blood Mantises emerged, launching another attack on them.
At this moment, they looked towards Cheng Xing with hopeful eyes, wishing he could help, but despair filled their faces when they saw him.
Cheng Xing was panting heavily, leaning on his blade, his body swaying as if he would collapse from exhaustion at any moment.
“Is Big Boss Cheng Xing also about to give out?”
A member of the Hackclaw Squad said with a worried expression.
After eliminating this batch of Blood Mantises, they hadn’t seen Cheng Xing use any more skills.
It made sense; low-level area-of-effect skills all had one drawback: massive stamina consumption.
Su Yanran, however, seeing this scene, her almond eyes shimmering, knew Cheng Xing’s true strength and his combat endurance.
Realizing something was amiss, she instantly understood what Cheng Xing was trying to do.
Seeing Cheng Xing seemingly exhausted, the number of Blood Mantises that appeared next did not change.
At this point, Su Yanran slowly stepped forward.
The two looked at each other, without many words, and seeing this, the Hackclaw Squad also rushed over.
After another forty minutes of fierce fighting, on Zhao Li’s side, all members of the Hunting Dog Squad were severely wounded and lost their combat effectiveness, while everyone else sustained some injuries, the disparity in talent starting to show.
On Cheng Xing’s side, with the help of Su Yanran and the others, they “extremely” difficultly eliminated the Blood Mantises, and in between, all members of the Hackclaw Squad even leveled up.
At this moment, the number of Blood Mantises outside the mall had dwindled to just ten.
Looking at the remaining Blood Mantises, hope couldn’t help but rise in everyone’s hearts.
Sometimes, people don’t know their limits until they push themselves.
After this wave of attacks, two C-rank talent squads also had members level up, recovering from their injuries, and they no longer despaired about the remaining Blood Mantises.
Facing the last batch of Blood Mantises, they roared and charged forward proactively.
Under the boost of high morale, the remaining Blood Mantises didn’t even last thirty minutes.
After a major battle, everyone on Zhao Li’s side was wounded, but their faces were filled with the expression of having survived a great calamity.
Under the moonlight, the entire area around the mall was covered in severed limbs of Blood Mantises, blood saturating the ground, and a pungent, foul smell permeated the air.
Zhao Li and his group didn’t care about the filth and mess, collapsing to the ground, laughing uninhibitedly.
The pressure from the dozens of Blood Mantises earlier had made them overlook many details.
Cheng Xing and Su Yanran supported each other, both looking utterly exhausted.
If there was one major difference, it was the items that dropped.
On Zhao Li’s side, among the many corpses, there were only a few scattered items.
In contrast, on Cheng Xing’s side, the ground was full, some even emitting a faint green light, indicating rare equipment.
As their stamina recovered, Zhao Li and his group also came back to their senses. Greed dispelled the lingering aftertaste of surviving a calamity in their eyes, taking over.
“Leave the woman, kill everyone else!”
Zhao Li sneered, his greed fully exposed, and he waved his hand, giving the order.
Liu Gu, who had experienced several low points in his life, saw hope again, and the malicious intent to harm others resurfaced within him.
All the people behind him who could still fight grinned. Their comrades, who had just fought the Blood Mantises alongside them, now turned their weapons on them.
Seeing this, Cheng Xing frowned. He had painstakingly built a nest, and it wasn’t just for catching small fish.
“What are you trying to do?! Base law explicitly forbids Awakeners from killing each other!”
Su Yanran was a bit too deep into the act at this point, shouting weakly.
But her appearance, resembling a broken high-mountain flower, only further ignited the bestial nature of those men.
“This is a Disaster Area, a lawless land! As long as we don’t say anything, who will know?!”
“Enough talk, everyone attack together in a bit!”
“After this job, we’ll be rich!”
...
“Ah!”
Just as they were about to move, a scream echoed through the entire mall.
Hearing the sound, everyone couldn’t help but stop, instinctively turning their heads towards the direction of the scream.
At the entrance of the abandoned mall, where the Hunting Dog Squad had been positioned, one of their members had his chest pierced by a scythe, and the scream was his.
“Who are you?”
Following the scythe’s handle, a figure slowly emerged from within the mall.
Seeing this, everyone was shocked, not expecting that someone… a squad… was hidden inside the mall.
Before they could get an answer, four more figures successively walked out of the mall.
Their attire was surprisingly uniform: black robes and masks.
Four of the masks had several circles printed on them, while the last person to appear had several circles printed on both the top and bottom.
“Four One-Dots and one Two-Dot?”
“Bandits?”
The masks on their faces resembled the One-Dot and Two-Dot tiles in mahjong.
While everyone was still wondering why the other party wore such strange masks.
The first One-Dot to appear raised his hand and pulled out the scythe, blood spurting out, and that Hunting Dog Squad member died under the terrified gazes of the others.
“Who exactly are you people?”
Seeing a living life vanish just like that made many people feel a physiological discomfort. Zhao Li and his group asked with grim faces.
“Boss, it still has to be you. First, use the Blood Mantises to gather them, then exhaust their stamina, and finally harvest them. Our squad’s performance is much higher than others during the same period.”
Facing the questioning, those One-Dots paid no heed, swiftly dealing with the remaining Hunting Dog Squad members while flattering the Two-Dot behind them.
Watching their practiced movements, everyone couldn’t help but shiver, especially hearing what One-Dot said, their faces turning pale.
For a moment, no one dared to step forward.
Cheng Xing narrowed his eyes. This was what he called a big fish. He then turned to look at Su Yanran.
At this moment, Su Yanran looked at the masks on those people’s faces, her expression full of solemnity.
“You know them?”
Cheng Xing was slightly startled, asking in a low voice.
“Cheng Xing, things are troublesome. They are Fallen!” Su Yanran nodded, saying with extreme gravity.
Before Su Yanran could explain what a Fallen was, the Two-Dot, who had been silent, slowly walked out, his gaze falling directly on Cheng Xing and his group.
“Miss Investigator and the S-rank talent expert, do you know what’s the fastest way to level up?”
......