Chapter 54 You Knew All Along

"I... understand."

The Southern Korean woman's expression shifted repeatedly before she finally picked up the samurai sword, pointing it at her former teammates.

Seeing this, her teammates all wore complex expressions. Realizing she had no other choice, they could only pick up their weapons with reluctance and walk toward the interior of the fourth floor.

Holding Chuxue, Lu Ming followed at the very end. Passing by the pillar where the giant ring saber was embedded, he locked his gaze on the corpse of the Southern Korean and silently chanted greed.

[Successfully decomposed the corpse of "An Jae-hyun", obtained Specialization Crystal *410]

Another pinnacle soldier king.

It seemed that hunting humans was truly efficient.

As long as one was in good health, they qualified as an intermediate soldier.

With some exercise, fitness training, or even a favorable physical talent, one could reach the advanced soldier tier.

First, kill intermediate soldiers to accumulate specialization crystals; 20 people would yield 100 crystals, enough to elevate oneself to the advanced soldier level.

Then, leveraging weapons and numerical superiority, hunt advanced soldiers—each yielding 50 specialization crystals, and six of them would yield 300, allowing one to advance to the pinnacle soldier king rank.

If designed even more maliciously, utilizing a gu-like internal competition, and finally having Kim Tae-sang and Kim Jung-hyuk finish off the rest, it would simply be a business with infinite returns and zero cost.

This just goes to show: once a person casts aside their worldview and humanity, they can find a shortcut to anything.

[Successfully recovered ownerless spatial pouch, obtained 80-slot spatial pouch *1, Specialization Crystal *256, silk thread *75, Farmer's Three Fists purified water 5 boxes, beef instant noodles 5 boxes, various drinks 4 bottles, dagger *1, Park Ha-na's dedicated intimate underwear set *1, biscuit-type snacks *6 varieties]

Park Ha-na again.

Disposing of those unsightly items in speechlessness, Lu Ming leaped up and pulled the giant ring saber out of the pillar.

The seven people in front of him sensed the movement behind them and turned their heads reflexively.

Just in time to witness the bizarre posture of Lu Ming holding the angel sister in his arms while wielding the giant ring saber.

Their already freezing hearts instantly turned to ice, and the shadow of this figure was carved directly into their souls!

"What are you looking at? Move forward."

Holding the saber level, the seven hurried forward in terror, slaughtering any sickle-owl larvae they encountered.

Having already learned the larvae's weaknesses from the previous group, they faced no pressure in killing them.

However, the gaze from behind constantly induced a vague urge to urinate, bringing a constant risk of failing to hold it in.

"Wait."

Seeing the larvae falling in large numbers, Lu Ming stopped them: "Leave the corpses right there. You don't need to harvest them."

Are you kidding me? As the dignified Hand of Greed, ignoring prey ownership and obtaining a hundred percent double drop of corpse essence, did he need a group of unlucky, low-yield people to harvest at a loss?

The others were extremely confused. The larvae they killed couldn't be harvested by anyone else anyway; wouldn't leaving them here be a waste?

Yet since the demon had spoken, how dared they voice any objections? They could only let it be and continue paving the way forward.

True to their status as pinnacle soldier kings, their efficiency in slaying low-level variants was quite impressive.

In less than half an hour, the majority of the larvae on the entire fourth floor had been slaughtered, their corpses piling up to form a safe passage leading straight to the fifth floor.

Lu Ming was rather appreciative and issued a command: "Keep going up."

The few exchanged glances, offered no resistance, and stepped onto the halted escalator.

Upon reaching the fifth floor, everyone realized that this place was actually the built-in cinema of the shopping mall.

The spacious lobby and counters had only a scattered few larvae wriggling about.

Meanwhile, in the corridors leading to the various screening halls, not even half a variant was in sight.

Could it be that the fifth floor had nothing? Had they cleared it successfully on the first try?

A surge of joyous anticipation arose; this meant they had a high probability of surviving.

"Judging by those relaxed expressions, you aren't actually feeling relieved, are you?"

Lu Ming's voice sounded once again.

Hearing this, the several people jolted violently, turning back repeatedly to indicate they dared not.

Lu Ming smiled and sighed: "Actually, even if I hadn't shown up and disrupted your plans, you would still have died here. Because the moment you stepped onto the fifth floor, the Grim Reaper's sickle was already laid against your necks."

At these words, the seven Southern Koreans were greatly startled. Just as they were about to turn back to look at Lu Ming and ask what he meant, their vision abruptly stalled. A giant variant with a metallic sheen, its entire body engraved with dark red patterns and standing nearly two and a half meters tall, raised its chilling blade—over a meter long—and swept out an arc of blades spanning seven or eight meters!

Slash—!

The leading seven were cut clean in half at the waist! Internal organs and blood sprayed all over the ground!

They watched with their own eyes as their field of vision dropped from normal height straight to the floor.

The excruciating pain of tearing flesh struck violently!

"Ahhhhh!"

The shrill shrieks echoed throughout the entire cinema, growing even more distant through the vastness of the mall.

Holding Chuxue, Lu Ming descended from mid-air, landing before the fourteen severed pieces of the Southern Korean men, and said unhurriedly, "Mutant Sickle-Owl, Elite Class E+. Once you step into their territory, you will be hunted down relentlessly until you are completely slaughtered. In terms of strength, they surpass ordinary junior hunting warriors. And as for beings of this level, there are three more on this entire fifth floor."

Of the seven Southern Koreans, aside from the two unlucky fellows on the extreme left who were decapitated and instantly killed due to the cutting angle, the remaining five, despite suffering fatal injuries and losing blood to the limit, could still endure for a few seconds.

The excruciating pain prevented them from blacking out, while a surge of adrenaline kept their minds lucid.

Hearing Lu Ming's detailed explanation, the woman whom Lu Ming had shown preferential treatment to gave a bitter smile: "So you knew all along."

Lu Ming dodged the mutant sickle-owl's secondary slash amidst a chuckle, without answering the woman's question.

Because the moment she finished those words, her life force had already drained away completely along with her blood.

"Godspeed."

Silently chanting the name of Godspeed, his figure flickered and vanished.

When he reappeared, he had already bypassed the mutant sickle-owl.

Raising the giant ring saber high to the heavens, he gathered all his strength and slashed downward!

The blade's shadow cleaved the sickle-owl apart, shattering all three cores simultaneously!

Before Lu Ming's overwhelming strength, the mutant sickle-owl could no longer inflict even half a point of damage upon him.

A deafening roar echoed through the hall, and the mutant sickle-owl collapsed heavily, dark green blood plasma spilling all over the floor alongside a mess of colorful viscera.

Lu Ming did not rush to decompose the corpse, for the next wave of attacks followed closely behind.

This time, what appeared was no longer a mutant sickle-owl, but the fifteen elite-grade ordinary sickle-owls.

Flapping their transparent wings and brandishing chilling blades, they launched a surprise attack from all directions—above, below, left, and right.

Lu Ming shifted and maneuvered, his giant blade slashing through the air. With every flash of cold light, with every blinking charge, another sickle-owl fell with its heart cleaved through.

In a mere twenty seconds, not a single one of the fifteen elite sickle-owls remained.

"Three mutant sickle-owls and one quasi-owl queen left, Xiaoxue."

Looking down gently at Chuxue in his arms, Lu Ming said softly, "Bear with it a little and get on my back first. It will be over very soon."

Chuxue shook her head, clenched her pink fists, and signaled that she could fight too.

Instead, Lu Ming planted the giant ring saber into the floor, raised a hand to pinch her cheek, and smiled lightly: "When I can handle things myself, how could I let my future wife dirty her hands casually? Be a good girl."

He lifted her above his head and gently placed her onto his back.

Chuxue's face flushed red, but she acquiesced, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Hold on tight."

Fearing that the intensity of his combat would be too violent, Lu Ming hurriedly instructed.

To his surprise, Chuxue's little hands clenched into fists as she decisively used her silk threads to firmly bind herself to his body...