Chapter 44: Frenzied Slaughter

Ah, that was getting a bit too carried away.

Reining in his inner thoughts, Lu Ming went back to slurping his noodles.

Just as he finished the noodles and was about to drink the broth, that resounding chime rang out once again.

The next second, the familiar tune of "Tomorrow Will Be Better" echoed across the land like a reveille.

At first, as background music synthesized electronically, Lu Ming hadn't paid much attention to it. After all, they were just old tunes, and his mind was preoccupied with confusion over the Great Transfer.

Listening to this song again now, however, brought a sense of immersive realization: the first time you hear a song you only know the tune, but the next time you hear it, you are already living the lyrics.

"Does the sunrise awaken the early morning?"
"Does the earth regain its brilliant glow?"
"Let the music swept by the gentle breeze?"
"Compose the movement of life?"

The song ended right there, failing to conclude with the thematic line "Let us look forward to a better tomorrow," which gave him an even stranger sense of eeriness, as if implying that humanity might not have a better tomorrow at all.

Silently finishing the last drop of broth, Lu Ming temporarily set those thoughts aside.

His top priority was to replenish specialized crystals as quickly as possible.

Aside from raising his own specialization level, he had a pile of things to do.

The random skill book needed to be sublimated and activated as soon as possible, his weapons needed timely upgrades, plus the consumption required for advancing his awakened power—the pressure on him was immense.

Therefore, on his way to the northern suburbs, he needed to get as close to the inner ring as he could.

Judging by the distribution of the transferred people, the closer one got to the inner ring, the denser the population of variant creatures.

While dealing with a group of sickle-fiends might currently be a bit challenging for him, handling sickle-fiend larvae that hadn't yet entered an erect state wouldn't be like cutting melons and vegetables?

Speaking of the northern suburbs, however, he couldn't help but think of that Tier 3 supply crate.

The mere mention of that Tier 3 supply crate gave him a headache bigger than two.

Because upgrading it to level five required consuming 3,500 specialized crystals.

3,500... That was too difficult; anyone else given this problem would know how to solve it.

Sighing softly, Lu Ming pulled back the light-blocking curtains.

Intending to take in the wasteland scenery of the early morning, he never expected that his gaze would fall upon fat, wriggling sickle-fiend larvae everywhere.

The corners of Lu Ming's mouth curved upward visibly. As much as he had been disgusted when he first saw these larvae, he now adored them this much; his trypophobia didn't even flare up.

He truly hadn't expected that after a single night, the previously empty alleyways would be packed tight with larvae.

The factory opposite was covered three layers deep.

Although normal larvae crawled and their overall volume might not be as spectacular as the vertical, clustered erect larvae from before,

when added to the larvae in the alley, the total was certainly no less than yesterday's.

Pry open the window, and a stench of decay hit him head-on.

Lu Ming felt not an ounce of disgust; instead, he took a deep breath.

Those were all walking specialized crystals delivered right to his doorstep, so how could he possibly have any reason to refuse?

With a thought, the Hawk-eye Compound Bow appeared in his hand.

Drawing the bow and nocking an arrow, he activated the Eye of Truth and unleashed a rapid-fire volley locked onto the alley.

Puff, puff, puff, puff, puff!

Arrow after arrow rained down, precisely piercing the core of every single larva.

Countless larvae collapsed one after another, their life force draining away as they turned into heaps of dead flesh.

It wasn't until all two hundred arrows were completely exhausted that Lu Ming finally stopped his shooting spree. He needed to go down and harvest the corpses, and incidentally retrieve his arrows.

He glanced back at Chuxue. The little one was earnestly replenishing her protein when she noticed him looking and returned a clear gaze, which seemed to carry a hint of inquiry.

Lu Ming pointed downward and smiled lightly, "Be a good girl, Chuxue. Wait for me here a moment, I'll be right back."

With that, Lu Ming leaped down, landing in the gaps between the corpses, and began harvesting specialized crystals in a frenzy.

"Greed."

【Successfully recovered sickle-fiend larva corpse, obtained Specialized Crystal *400, High-purity Variant Protein *400】
【Successfully recovered portable compound bow arrow *200】

Four consecutive rounds of area harvesting instantly cleared out the previous pile of corpses.

The surrounding larvae seemed to smell human flesh and swarmed toward him, writhing and closing in with him at the center.

Lu Ming let out a sneering laugh. Legless prey actually wanted to encircle him, a hunter with two legs? Hilarious.

Lu Ming turned around, preparing to leap back up, but as his gaze swept back, a familiar petite figure entered his field of vision.

"Chuxue?"

Lu Ming was utterly astonished. Just as he froze in a daze, several sickle-fiend larvae closed in on Chuxue and lunged at her!

Lu Ming's expression changed drastically, and he flipped his hand to draw the precision crossbow to kill them!

Before he could even pull the trigger, however, six black shadows shot out from behind Chuxue with a metallic clanging sound. Without even seeing what the shadows had done, they snapped back into Chuxue's body. By the time he recovered his senses, the larvae that had lunged at her collapsed with a loud thud, utterly and irreversibly dead.

"..."

Twitching the corner of his eye, Lu Ming didn't ask what had happened.

Because seeing the wounds pierced by sharp weapons on those corpses made it all entirely clear.

Spider spear + Weakness Insight, precise and decisive.

Was this what a god-tier mighty being was like? Truly extraordinary, killing ordinary variants as easily as reaching into a pocket for something.

Blocked by those six corpses, there was now a natural defensive line behind Chuxue, so Lu Ming stopped panicking. He put away the hand crossbow, walked up to her, pressed her shoulders, and said, "Didn't I tell you to wait for me? How did you get down here?"

Chuxue reached out and made a grasping motion in the empty air, where a golden thread leading straight to the fourth floor quietly materialized.

"I see, thread-weaving?"

Indeed, Spider-Man could swing freely through skyscrapers, so how could the most ancient divine beast of his household be any less capable than him?

Knowing now that Chuxue possessed formidable combat instincts, Lu Ming realized there was no need to stay upstairs slowly picking them off while keeping her company. He could just stand right where he was and use the precision crossbow for rapid-fire elimination!

"Chuxue, protect yourself. I'm going to start fishing in a barrel."

The precision crossbow went to work, continuously cutting down the surging larvae.

Seeing that his shooting speed couldn't keep up with the advancing tide of larvae, Lu Ming quickly took a moment to sublimate three more steel-grade "portable crossbows" and 150 steel-grade "portable bolts."

Then, he used both hands to alternate rapid firing with twin crossbows, swapping and reloading with two spare ones!

"Greed!"

【Successfully decomposed sickle-fiend larva corpse, obtained Specialized Crystal *100, High-purity Variant Protein *100, portable crossbow bolt *100】
【Successfully decomposed sickle-fiend larva corpse, obtained Specialized Crystal *100...】
【Successfully decomposed sickle-fiend larva corpse, obtained Specialized Crystal *100...】

Wave after wave of larvae were wiped out, and their shrill shrieks upon death attracted even more surrounding companions.

They came wave after wave, rising like a tide without a single gap.

Until the entire street was cleared once again, until every last larva inside the factory was slaughtered, Lu Ming finally lowered his somewhat sore and aching arms.

It was utterly absurd. Considering he was a primary hunting warrior capable of lifting thousands of pounds with brute strength, he actually showed signs of fatigue after killing sickle-fiend larvae for just a short while. The crucial part was that he was hungry again, as if what he had eaten for breakfast wasn't instant noodles, but plain water that had merely rolled through his stomach and vanished without a trace.

"Greed."

【Successfully decomposed sickle-fiend larva corpse, obtained Specialized Crystal *100, High-purity Variant Protein *100, portable crossbow bolt *100】

Reaping the final wave of corpses, Lu Ming opened his spatial pouch. Before he even had time to check his spoils, he was startled by the time displayed next to the inventory.

8:30.
8:30?!

An hour and a half had already passed?

Lu Ming couldn't believe it.

In his impression, the entire extermination process had taken at most ten minutes or so. Could it be that he had been too focused on killing to notice the passage of time?

Turning his gaze back to the stored specialized crystals, he met with his second shock.

11,668.