"This place is like every herbivore and carnivore just packed up and left. Can't find a thing to hunt."
A mont later, Zhang Jinjun returned empty-handed, looking helpless.
"Little Zhang, stop complaining. Co eat sothing — keeping your strength up is what matters."
Li Wei called him over.
"Thanks, Brother Wei." Zhang Jinjun was touched. Since arriving in this world, he hadn't eaten a bite or drunk a drop of water, and he'd just marched over forty kiloters. He wasn't hungry, but he was anxious.
Right now he was like a firefly on a dark night — a glowing ember in the blackness, conspicuous and eye-catching. Running into native Ability Users wouldn't count as a violation of the storyline, but it would absolutely make him a target.
"From here on, Leon and I take point. Thomas, Little Zhang, Xuanxuan — you three handle the wheelbarrows."
Li Wei gave the order. The three of them understood imdiately, and without a word each grabbed a wheelbarrow and stored it in their Resource Cards. That wasn't a violation — but a standard wheelbarrow counted as ten units, so taking and storing one cost twenty units right there.
And a One-Star Resource Card only had a capacity of a hundred units.
Either way, if you didn't want to store it, you could just push it. Or carry it. Whatever worked.
Nobody was going to make Li Wei do the hauling.
After another half hour of rest, the five of them set off again — leaving the road and heading straight south.
Li Wei led the way. They covered over five kiloters without spotting a single snake, rabbit, or pheasant. All they saw were insects, field mice, and a few small birds. This was a wasteland abandoned by anything dium or large.
To see a mass migration of animals, they'd probably have to wait for a monster siege.
Li Wei was actually curious about that — why had the Mutant Rat King and the mutated rats stayed behind when everything else had left?
And in certain areas, it was clear that so mutated creatures had remained, including so Ability Users.
After about two hours of hard going, the sound of rushing water reached them from ahead.
"Water — there's a river! Cousin, you're incredible."
Leon, scouting ahead, called back in a low, excited voice.
"Combat ready. There may be mutated creatures in the river. Everyone draw your weapons and put on your armor. Rest in place for thirty minutes."
Li Wei signaled with a hand gesture and gave the quiet order. The group snapped to attention, imdiately crouching in the tall grass to rest and gear up.
Nobody wore armor on a march like this. If food were plentiful, maybe — but burning stamina unnecessarily when rations were already tight was a sin.
Li Wei pulled out his Three-Star Noble Crest Armor and Three-Star War Bow — courtesy of the Resource Card Thomas had sent over, so he could afford to be a little extravagant.
He strapped on the armor and strung the bow, projecting the unmistakable air of an archer who wasn't sharing his lane with anyone.
Of course, the Bloodthirsty Spear was already hanging from his tactical backpack, the heavy wooden sword tied at his waist, and the three-star dagger at his side. Li Wei was ard to the teeth.
He also took the opportunity to eat every last bit of food and water he was carrying.
Conventional wisdom said not to eat before intense exercise — but he needed to be able to switch to the Tracker title mid-combat depending on the situation.
The truth was, the mont he switched to that title, whatever he'd eaten would be burned through at a terrifying rate. Within seconds he'd feel a sharp, gnawing hunger.
So Li Wei was different from the others.
At least right now, nobody else was eating.
Thomas produced what appeared to be a three-star blank half-body scale armor — plus 25 Defense. He was built around Defense, and his own base Defense had to be 25 or more, putting him at 50 combined. Absurd numbers.
He also pulled out a three-star blank steel shield. Clearly the team's tank.
Leon had his two-star leather armor and a two-handed greatsword. Leon the Executioner — he had a finishing combo.
Zhang Jinjun, surprisingly, also had a three-star blank half-body scale armor. Shield in his left hand, iron spear in his right, three more iron spears strapped to his back, and a long blade at his waist.
A close-combat fighter — could block, had durability, had output.
Last was Zhao Xuanxuan. She was the weakest of the group — only one-star leather armor and a hamr. But to have made it to the Pioneering Mission reserve list, she had to have sothing going for her.
"Everyone knows how to work together, right? We don't have any special advantages — just numbers. I won't go into detail; you've all been through the Chaotic Killing Battlefield. You know how mutated creatures work."
Li Wei gave a brief pre-battle summary. The others exchanged slightly confused looks. There were countless types of mutated creatures — could you at least describe what they were dealing with? What kind of scout just says 'you know how it is'?
But Li Wei genuinely didn't know. He only knew there were mutated creatures in the river. Everything else would have to be improvised.
Without switching to the Tracker title and getting close, he had no way to identify their specific weak points.
Thomas glanced at Leon — asking silently about tactics. Leon looked at Li Wei. Li Wei looked back: 'What are you looking at?'
Zhang Jinjun glanced at Zhao Xuanxuan — implying 'how does a weakling like you belong on a battlefield like this, don't drag us down.' Zhao Xuanxuan looked back: 'What are you looking at?'
In that strange silence, ti passed.
Li Wei signaled, and the group fanned out.
Thomas took the front. Leon positioned himself to his rear-flank. Zhang Jinjun stood about ten paces to Thomas's side.
Zhao Xuanxuan fell in behind Zhang Jinjun's flank.
Li Wei held the center.
They advanced slowly toward the riverbank. When they were about three hundred ters out, Li Wei quietly called Adai's na.
Adai launched — but not straight up. It flew backward a few hundred ters at low altitude before climbing, then swept toward the river, circling back and forth along its length as if searching for sothing.
Thomas stopped ahead. Everyone understood: Li Wei was using his hunting pet to locate the mutated creature. That was the thing — nobody feared a fight, but fighting blind, in total chaos, was a nightmare. This was exactly what a scout was for on the battlefield.
Adai flew up and down the river for about ten minutes, at one point ranging over ten kiloters away, before finally turning and racing back.
"Here it cos. Combat ready."
Li Wei spoke suddenly. Everyone blinked. Wait — Adai could also pull aggro?
That was impressive.
The river erupted. Massive waves surged as if a dragon were charging through the water, and water spears shot skyward at intervals — but Adai dodged every one with fluid ease.
Everyone stared, a little dumbstruck. Those water spears were terrifying — launching three or four hundred ters in an instant, fast and accurate. Nobody had expected Adai to be that agile.
At that exact mont, Li Wei moved like lightning — he drew his dagger, stepped forward, grabbed Zhang Jinjun's right hand, and sliced across his palm. Blood poured out imdiately. Zhang Jinjun was stunned. 'Brother Wei — you're supposed to be my guy! Have rcy!'
"Run!"
Li Wei slapped him on the shoulder. Zhang Jinjun, to his credit, was quick on the uptake — he turned and sprinted back the way they'd co.
Almost simultaneously, a thunderous crash of water rang out, and sothing enormous leapt from the river. It abandoned Adai entirely and ca charging straight after Zhang Jinjun — as if he were so rare and precious treasure it simply couldn't resist.
Right. A crocodile. Or sothing that looked like a crocodile.
The reason for the hesitation was this: when the creature burst from the river, it was a massive black crocodile, easily twenty ters long. But once it hit land and started running, it began to transform — like a druid shapeshifting. Its enormous body shrank, its tail diminished, its front claws retracted, and its upper body and head began shifting toward an upright posture.
In under ten seconds, right before everyone's eyes, it had beco a miniature T-Rex.
Yes. Genuinely.
Smaller than a full-sized one — under three ters tall, under five ters long — but on land, this thing was fast. Easily over sixty kiloters per hour.
A speedy T-Rex?
Could they actually fight this thing?
"Hold your ground!"
Li Wei drew a Two-Star Sniper Armor-Piercing Arrow, drew the bow slowly, and when the mutant crocodile charged within a hundred ters, he released.
But the next second, sothing strange happened. A water shield materialized in front of the creature — and with a splash, it smacked the arrow clean out of the air.
The mutant crocodile didn't slow down at all, still locked onto Zhang Jinjun as if he were so once-in-a-millennium delicacy it absolutely had to have.
Right — this wasn't a bug. This was the extraordinary effect of pure, unmodified human blood.
"Boom—"
In an instant, the miniature T-Rex was on them.
"Stop it!"
Li Wei roared.
Thomas was already moving — shield raised, he leapt forward and slamd into the creature. In that mont, sothing erupted from him: a weight like a mountain, a solidity like a fortress wall. He'd activated his City Builder title.
"CRASH!"
A thunderclap of impact rolled across the open ground. A yellow light flared around Thomas, and he was driven back seven or eight steps — clearly he'd taken a serious hit, his face going pale for a mont.
But he'd stopped the creature cold. And that gave Leon and Zhao Xuanxuan their opening.
No — to be precise, it gave Leon his opening. Zhao Xuanxuan wasn't quite in that league.
Leon's footwork shifted — three quick steps like a basketball layup — and his two-handed greatsword flashed blue. He leapt over three ters into the air and brought the blade down on the creature's head in a textbook decapitation finisher.
Flawless.
In an instant, the mutant crocodile's head was split clean in two. The finishing move hit hard.
But almost simultaneously, the creature's severed head dissolved into a wisp of black smoke — and that smoke poured back into its body. A heartbeat later, with a wet, fleshy sound, a new head grew back. Then its body split open like a blooming flower, radiating outward from the skull — cracking into eight segnts and transforming into sothing resembling a giant octopus with a gaping maw at the center.
It seized Leon in a firm grip.
Not because Leon hadn't tried to dodge — it was because his ultimate move left him locked in place for a few seconds after the release.
Who in the world could have anticipated that cutting off its head wouldn't kill it?
Even Magic Zombies in the normal Chaotic Killing Battlefield weren't this bizarre.
Fortunately, Zhao Xuanxuan arrived — late but present — and brought her hamr down on the creature's back. No effect?
Didn't matter. She kept swinging, hamring away with everything she had. Whether it was doing anything, she couldn't say — but she was giving it her all.
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