78: Chapter 78 Fishing

From within the shadows behind the ruins, a pitch-black figure suddenly darted out like a ghost.

The newcomer was wrapped in dark, tight-fitting clothing, his body almost blending in with the shadows of the ruins. He held a short dagger that gleamed with a faint blue, icy light, and his footsteps were so light they didn't make a sound.

He was an Awakened of the agility type, specializing in stealth and assassination, having been lurking at this resource point for a long time.

This assassin had decent luck; relying on his stealth ability, he had successfully ambushed and killed two frail Awakened with low health in one blow each, gaining quite a few points and bounties.

He had originally planned to stay here, using the temptation of the resource point to continue camping and killing passing Contestants, maximizing his gains.

But Lin Yan's appearance completely shattered his plans.

Seeing that Lin Yan was alone, a fierce glint flashed in the assassin's eyes. Instead of choosing a head-on confrontation, he used the terrain for cover, circled behind Lin Yan, poured all his strength into the short dagger, aimed at a vital point, and thrust it out fiercely!

Puchi!

The sharp dagger easily sliced through the outer armor, precisely piercing Lin Yan's waist near his liver. This strike was angled tricky and executed with ruthless force; it was his tried-and-true lethal ambush.

- 15217

A damage value that wasn't very high popped up above Lin Yan's head.

The assassin, having succeeded in his ambush, was initially overjoyed, but the next second, his joy instantly froze on his face. The scene of an instant kill or serious injury he had expected did not occur; the man in heavy armor before him merely paused for a moment, not even letting out a groan, as if he hadn't been stabbed in a vital spot, but merely grazed by some gravel.

"How is this possible?!" A storm surged in the assassin's heart.

His short dagger, combined with his Awakened talent, had always made killing frail enemies of the same tier a breeze. Yet, this stab to a vital point had dealt ridiculously low damage. The opponent's constitution was strong to the extreme; his physical defense was comparable to a high-tier monster, almost like a humanoid beast clad in armor.

Just as he was in shock, Lin Yan had already recovered from the acute pain of the ambush. A stinging pain came from his waist, but his massive amount of health provided a solid buffer, and this minor injury was of no consequence to him.

His eyes narrowed, anger surging. He swung his heavy tyrant set battle axe horizontally, the fierce wind of the axe chasing after the attacker.

Seeing Lin Yan counterattack, the assassin dared not linger. He pushed off the ground, his figure turning into an afterimage. Utilizing the broken walls of the ruins and the heavy shadows, he instantly disappeared into the darkness again, vanishing without a trace in the blink of an eye, leaving only a few swaying withered grasses on the ground.

Hiding in the shadows, the assassin's heart pounded, filled with frustration.

"Damn it, I actually ran into a pure constitution-strengthened tank!"

His assassination advantage was non-existent in front of such an opponent with super-high health and super-high physical defense.

The surprise attack failed to heavily injure the opponent and instead completely exposed his tracks. Moreover, he had used stealth attacks twice in a row, consuming most of his mana. With the Mana Depletion rule still in effect, constantly draining mana every second, if he kept dragging this out, he wouldn't even be able to use his stealth skill.

He had originally planned to camp the resource point, waiting for more Contestants to come so he could harvest points, but now it seemed that plan was completely unfeasible. It was a pity that the elite resource point hadn't even opened yet.

This place was not safe for long; fleeing was the only option. The assassin made up his mind, prepared to completely abandon this resource, and quietly retreated toward the depths of the wasteland.

At this moment, a layer of dark red light suddenly shone on Lin Yan's body.

[Detected close-range attack, passive effect [tyrant set: Fury] triggered!]

[Effect: Reduces target's attack speed and movement speed by 25%, lasting for 6 seconds.]

The assassin's surprise attack just now had accidentally triggered the passive slow effect of the tyrant set. Even though the opponent had vanished into stealth, the slow debuff remained firmly attached to him.

A cold arc curled at the corner of Lin Yan's mouth. The opponent wanted to run? Too late.

Blood Aura Perception!

He no longer searched the shadows aimlessly; he gripped his battle axe tightly with both hands, his internal power exploding to the fullest.

[Active skill: Tyrant Cleave released!]

[Effect: Deals 220% physical damage to a large area in front; when the target's health is below 30%, deals an additional 40% damage.]

Hum!

The heavy battle axe, wrapped in a gust of wind and carrying the momentum to crush everything, swept out toward the direction the assassin had disappeared. The large-scale physical shockwave swept across the entire ruin area, covering all possible escape routes for the opponent.

The next second, in the place of shadow that had been empty, a figure was forced out of stealth state by the massive impact force.

- 14000!

- 9300!

Tyrant Cleave combined with the blood rage ring; exaggerated damage numbers suddenly popped up.

The assassin screamed, his blood and energy surging, and he stumbled out of the shadows, his stealth state completely broken. His face turned pale, his heart filled with disbelief.

He had originally thought that such a heavy-armored tank would inevitably be slow and cumbersome, and that with his agility talent and stealth ability, it would be easy to escape. But when he exerted his full movement technique to flee, he was horrified to find that the opponent's movement speed was actually on par with his own!

"How is this possible?!"

A warrior on a pure tank route, and his speed could actually match his, a top-tier agility assassin? And why was his damage so high?

Constitution, strength, agility—all terrifyingly high; just how many attribute points had he added?

The massive shock caused his movements to falter for a split second, and combined with the 25% movement and attack speed reduction from [tyrant set: Fury], his movement technique was greatly compromised.

In just a few seconds, Lin Yan had already caught up to him, his battle axe raised high, the cold blade aimed at the opponent's head.

The assassin's health was now critically low, his mana was nearly exhausted, his stealth skill could not be used again, his movement speed was heavily reduced, and all directions were blocked; he was completely trapped in a hopeless situation.

Despair flashed in his eyes, and he wanted to make a desperate counterattack, but just as he raised his short dagger, Lin Yan's battle axe had already descended.

Puff!

One axe sealed the deal.

High damage erupted once more; the assassin couldn't even complete his final struggle, his body falling heavily onto the gravel ground.

[Successfully defeated a Contestant Awakened!]

[Obtained 1500 base combat points, seized 10% of the opponent's existing 500 points, and fully transferred the opponent's 2000 bounty points.]

A series of point notifications rang out one after another. Lin Yan glanced at his fallen opponent, whose body was glowing with the white light representing elimination; his figure gradually turned translucent and was teleported away by the Dungeon protection mechanism.

After dealing with this stealth assassin, the battlefield returned to silence. Lin Yan raised his hand to check the wound on his waist; the wound from the dagger was still throbbing with pain, but relying on his massive base health and physical recovery ability, the impact of the injury was minimal.

He ignored the surrounding movements and walked toward the rune stone in the center of the ruins that was glowing with a faint cyan light.

Reaching out to gently touch the rune, a soft light bloomed instantly, and a solid wood treasure chest slowly rose from the ground.

[Successfully opened the elite resource point, obtained 5000 points.]

Lin Yan casually flipped open the chest lid. Inside were three bottles of Intermediate Sustained Healing Potions (recovers 1% health per second for 15 seconds), along with an Intermediate Agility Boost Scroll and an Intermediate Strength Boost Scroll. He stowed the items one by one into the storage space of his carapace belt. Now that his supplies were increasingly abundant, he felt more confident in his survival and combat capabilities in this dangerous misaligned battlefield.

He opened his personal points panel to check.

[Accumulated points: 12000; Bounty points: 3100]

In just a short time, his points had skyrocketed.

The wind on the wasteland continued to howl. Lin Yan continued hunting monsters; the two-hour time limit was drawing closer, and the entire terrain and the brand-new mandatory rules were about to welcome their first refresh.