Chapter 20: Madness
“Why did so many go out?”
The young man with glasses looked quite young—likely just a high school student originally. At the moment, he frowned slightly as he looked at the few companions remaining in the cafeteria.
However, he clearly knew the nature of his companions well. With fresh prey appearing, they had of course rushed out eagerly. Those who stayed behind didn’t lack the desire; they just knew there were already too many ahead and that even if they went, they wouldn’t get a share—so they didn’t bother moving.
So, he didn’t wait for anyone to answer and simply continued: “We’ll go out and catch more people tomorrow. We still need three more. I’ll give you some addresses—whoever captures one gets the right to have one.”
“But no more killing the prey before bringing them back.”
His speech was clear and logical, clearly different from the other lunatics. From his words, Xu Zhi deduced that he probably had a way to locate living humans. That might be how they found her previously.
Moreover, the demand to bring people back alive must have a special purpose. Still short three? It sounded like they were gathering some kind of quota.
Unfortunately, Xu Zhi had no interest in learning his plan—she just wanted him dead. Whatever he was plotting didn’t matter; once he was dead, it would all be over.
On screen, Yi was sneaking closer to the man in the center of the crowd. But his position was too central for Yi to sneak up silently. So, once within range, Yi suddenly expanded to its maximum size.
In an instant, a massive serpent seemingly appeared out of thin air in the cafeteria. Its tail swept directly into the center of the crowd—no one had time to react.
On Xu Zhi’s screen, several lunatics were sent flying into the walls by Yi’s sweeping tail. Even the man in the center wasn’t spared.
The difference was that while the others quickly got up, eyes red with rage, the man with glasses needed help from his companions just to barely stand—and even vomited blood.
“So it’s true: having a smart brain comes at the cost of a weak body…”
Only a dozen people remained. They launched themselves at Yi madly, ignoring the size and strength difference. Against ordinary people, even ten of them would have no effect—but these weren’t normal people. Their physical prowess rivaled wild beasts.
For a moment, Yi was truly entangled. But only for a few seconds.
In the next instant, it shrank its body, slipping through the gap and darting straight to the bespectacled man attempting to flee. This time, Yi didn’t repeat its previous move—it darted to his ankle and bit down hard!
Lv6 poison. A single drop was deadly to an ordinary person.
In the next second, a companion beside the man swung a heavy axe at Yi.
Luckily, Yi’s tough hide meant the axe didn’t inflict serious damage. But it gave the glasses-wearing man time to escape. While not as physically strong as the others, he was clearly an ability-user—his resilience far surpassed a normal person’s.
The fact that he was injured again seemed to enrage the rest. They attacked Yi with even more frenzy—willing to die for him.
“Truly insane.”
Their suicidal assault was a problem for Yi. Their teeth and claws were sharp like wild beasts’. Under their bites and slashes, even Yi lost many scales, and blood gushed from its serpentine body. Yet it still had the upper hand.
These lunatics were slowly being killed off or rendered immobile. The man with glasses, now overwhelmed by the poison and his wounds, could barely run.
Eventually, Yi made it to the schoolyard and finished off the last clinging attacker. The man with glasses collapsed from exhaustion, poison overtaking him.
Yi’s once-sleek body was now battered, bloodied, one eye swollen shut. Seeing this, Xu Zhi felt thankful for teaming up with Shen Jinwen to lure some away first—if they’d all stayed behind, the outcome could have gone either way.
The man on the ground seemed to give up. His breathing was ragged, like a broken bellows. Looking at Yi, he struggled to speak: “Why?”
His voice was full of confusion.
Naturally, Yi didn’t respond. It simply swung its mangled tail down once more, crushing the life from him.
Xu Zhi hadn’t read many novels, but she’d watched countless dramas. She’d grown tired of stories where villains always escaped at the last second or completed their plans, only for the protagonist to narrowly turn the tide.
So she chose to strike early—wipe out this lunatic nest before anything developed.
Any villain who showed up in her life—she’d give them no chance to grow stronger.
After killing the glasses-wearing man, Yi didn’t immediately go looking for Gouzi as planned. Instead, it shrank and moved to the man’s body, searching for something.
Within seconds, a message popped up in the lower-right corner of the game screen:
[Attribute Core +1]
“It actually dropped a core?”
Xu Zhi was surprised—and even more so when she saw Yi retrace its path, stopping at several corpses on the way. After each pause, the same message flashed:
[Attribute Core +1]
By the time Yi was done, the message had appeared eight times in total.
“That’s a pretty high drop rate. Have they become stronger?”
Xu Zhi could tell these people were far stronger than the girl from before. But how?
Did they naturally grow stronger in the mist, like other mutations? Or was there another reason?
Like… murdering people?
One perk of the game console was that the bonded creatures could sense each other’s locations. Seeing Yi heading toward Gouzi, Xu Zhi opened the inventory to inspect the cores just obtained.
She found eight identical, blood-red cores. When she clicked on one, a single word appeared next to it:
[Cup]
“They all share the same attribute? That can’t be a coincidence…”
The core’s vivid red color reminded Xu Zhi of the blood-drenched cafeteria. That confirmed it—the dismembered remains in the cafeteria weren’t just for show.
She decided that once Yi recovered, she would go there in person.
Maybe her own eyes could see something the screen couldn’t.
