Chapter 53: You Should Be Quite Familiar With This

What a petty little country, and what bizarre ways they play!

What on earth is all this? Did they ransack some kind of store? They've stuffed his spatial pouch to the brim again.

The crucial question is: can the expiration date on this stuff really be this long? Won't it spoil?

Sorting through the pouch, he had everything destroyed on the spot.

Especially those gaudy things of unknown origin that he couldn't quite make out—Lu Ming didn't even want to touch them!

[Prompt: Sufficient space in the spatial pouch, restarting recycling of remaining items]

[Successfully recycled remaining items, obtained Spatial Crystals * 660]

?

Spatial Crystals? What are those?

Shifting his gaze to the very last slot of the spatial pouch, a stacked cluster of purple triangular crystals came into view.

Click to view:

[Spatial Crystal] (Special Item)

Category: Consumable

Description: A special crystal obtained by disassembling an "ownerless spatial pouch," containing magical spatial power. Gather 1,000 of them to unlock a special ability for the spatial pouch.

...

"Disassemble ownerless spatial pouches... unlock a special ability of the spatial pouch?"

Murmuring to himself, Lu Ming felt a surge of interest.

[Prompt: Spatial crystals detected in the pouch, spatial pouch special abilities tab unlocked]

Swish!

A sound like turning a page echoed out.

On the right side of the spatial pouch interface, a page resembling the talent tree from League of Legends abruptly unfolded.

It featured two columns of options in total: Auxiliary Traits and Functional Traits.

Each category contained five traits, arranged vertically in five tiers from top to bottom.

Currently, only the two traits in the first tier were highlighted, while the remaining four tiers were entirely locked.

The two traits in the first tier were: Spatial Mapping and Vehicle Storage.

[Spatial Mapping]: Unfolds a blank map, allowing markers to be left in previously visited locations.

[Vehicle Storage]: Adds an extra vehicle storage slot to the spatial pouch, capable of holding one mode of transportation.

Good grief, this is kind of awesome!

Seeing this, Lu Ming felt a wave of sheer novelty.

Auxiliary and functional—in short, one aids oneself, and the other enhances the pouch.

These were exceptionally useful traits, yet such immensely useful traits required human lives to fulfill. It felt somewhat dark.

However, looking at the number of spatial crystals accumulated by this group of South Koreans, it was clear that many of them harbored a fondness for slaughter.

If he advanced, he could dish out righteous justice under a legitimate pretext while picking up loot along the way.

If he retreated, he could exploit the "Greedy Hand" trait to intercept others' prey, stir up conflict, and reap the Fisherman's benefit.

No matter which approach he took, he could effortlessly harvest spatial crystals without carrying any burden.

Unfortunately, his current supply of spatial crystals was not enough to unlock a trait, preventing Ultimate Ascension from taking effect.

Otherwise, he would have loved to see what kind of heaven-defying level the two traits would reach after evolving two stages.

Glancing at the two 80-slot pouches resting in his inventory, Lu Ming briefly inspected them.

[Ownerless Spatial Pouch]

Category: Spatial Container

Description: A lost master's spatial backpack. Cannot be used directly for storage. Its slots can be inherited by a spatial pouch with fewer slots, or it can be directly disassembled into spatial crystals.

...

It matched the description of the spatial crystals precisely.

Though the note stating it could not be used directly for storage amused him.

It was presumably to prevent anyone from getting wild ideas and attempting a matryoshka doll-style operation of putting backpacks inside backpacks—which made complete sense.

As for the disassembly, that could wait; after all, there were more important matters to attend to right now.

"Xiaoxue, let them go."

Adjusting his posture as he held Chuxue, Lu Ming said softly.

Chuxue opened her little hands, and the spider threads entangling the eight South Koreans completely dissipated.

Lu Ming looked them over once more. Among the eight, there were two women and six men. The men were mostly pale-faced, with some having wet their pants.

The women were trembling all over, looking somewhat out of their minds.

"Hey."

Lu Ming raised his head and spoke coldly, startling all eight of them so much that their weapons dropped to the ground simultaneously.

"Why so nervous?"

Sporting a genial smile, Lu Ming locked his gaze on the one who looked least pleasing to the eye and asked, "Tell me, is this operation to invade our zone a personal whim, or directed by someone?"

...

No one answered. Lu Ming let out a scoff of derision and swung his arm, hurling his giant ring blade.

With a swift *whoosh*! The man he had been focusing on vanished on the spot.

Before anyone could realize what had happened, a loud crash echoed from the rear!

Following the sound, they looked over to see that the man who had been standing perfectly fine just a second ago was now pinned to a pillar, blood spraying from his mouth and nose as he struggled and convulsed in agony.

"Don't get it twisted. When I ask a question, staying silent is not an option."

Lu Ming's voice pierced their ears like that of a Yama demon, pulling their focus back to him.

The two South Korean women, already terrified out of their wits, instantly dropped to their knees and began shivering. One of them stammered, "I-If we talk, oppa, will you let us go?"

Lu Ming flashed a benevolent smile: "Of course. Not."

Hearing the first three words, the South Korean woman immediately looked relieved, but the moment the last two words followed, her expression was instantly engulfed by an even deeper despair.

Lu Ming consoled her: "Everyone, no need to make that face. I hadn't finished my sentence yet. As long as you answer my questions honestly and help me conquer this shopping mall, let alone sparing you, it wouldn't be a dream to hand out a thousand specialized crystals to each of you. That's a thousand crystals, enough to advance directly to primary hunting warriors. You'll be the ones lording it over the world! So I hope we won't have any more of that unharmonious scene from just now. We're all human beings, all of the same race, just from different countries. If it's not necessary, I don't want to stain my hands with the blood of my own kind. Am I right?"

At these words, all the South Koreans present froze in bewilderment. Why did this speech sound so familiar? It felt like someone had just said the exact same thing moments ago.

"Come on. Do you want to end up like the guy in the back, or would you like to accept my proposal? I'll give you three seconds to think. Ready, three!"

"I'll talk! I'll talk!"

What could possibly be more terrifying than death?

Right now, they finally understood how horrifying it felt to be oppressed and enveloped by the shadow of death.

"It's... it's Kim Tae-sang's older brother, Kim Jung-hyuk, who launched this operation. He obtained a map and discovered that the outer suburbs between zones are connected, and he advocated hunting humans. He said hunting humans is even simpler than hunting mutants, and it yields a 100% drop rate of specialized crystals, so we..."

"So you changed your raiding strategy, abandoning the struggle against mutants and choosing to prey on humans instead."

Lu Ming took over the woman's words, then continued to ask, "Does that mean you even kill people from your own country?"

The woman was silent for two seconds before nodding gently: "Kim Jung-hyuk said the weak do not deserve to live, as that would just waste resources. Rather than that, it's better for them to sacrifice themselves, turning into nourishment for the strong and becoming a part of the strong."

"A famous quote. Well said."

If he wasn't holding Chuxue in one arm, Lu Ming would have genuinely wanted to applaud this person's survival philosophy.

Was it wrong? Of course not. Or rather, his survival philosophy was the only one that truly fit the worldview of the apocalypse.

However, even if he hadn't known such a person existed, now that he knew he was nearby, he could certainly not allow him to grow unchecked.

So, he asked next, "What level is Kim Jung-hyuk at right now?"

The woman shook her head, then hurriedly added, "After we left the Starlight District and entered this zone, we lost contact with our previous zone, so we don't know what level Kim Jung-hyuk is at now. But when we left the Starlight District, he was already at the Limit Soldier King rank."

Lu Ming fell into deep thought.

He was a Limit Soldier King when he set out. Now, a day and a half had passed since they left. Since Kim Tae-sang, his younger brother, was already a primary hunting warrior, Kim Jung-hyuk would only be stronger, not weaker. Intermediate? Probably not, but it wasn't entirely out of the question. Without Ultimate Ascension, if he didn't bother raising his awakening power and solely focused on leveling up through kills, it was entirely possible he could grind his way to the intermediate warrior rank. After all, just as his famous quote went, killing humans gave a 100% drop rate for specialized crystals—no RNG involved, with the weak sustaining the strong.

"You've been very good."

Lu Ming gave sincere affirmation. "The rest of you, pick up your weapons and advance upward in a semi-enclosed formation. And you."

Lu Ming looked at the South Korean woman who had answered his questions. "You will hold a weapon and stand behind them, keeping a close eye on them. Anyone who dares to take a step back or turn around and flee—execute them on the spot. I don't need to explain the specifics; you lot should be quite familiar with how it's done."