111: Chapter 111 Greed Surrounds

Lin Ye raised his right arm.

The Dark Weaver's anchor sliced through the wind and snow, biting into a thick load-bearing pillar of the seven-story ruined building.

His body rose from the center of the street.

A Medium Pale-Type pounced beside the giant beast's corpse, its bone blade slashing past the soles of Lin Ye's boots.

Grayish-white bodily fluids splashed into the air as the bone blade carved through the corrosive mire.

The Pale Species let out a strange shriek and plunged its head into the giant beast's mangled fascia to gnaw frantically.

Using the pull of the Nano-wire, Lin Ye surged toward the broken wall on the seventh floor.

Zhao Mengmeng lay at the edge, reaching out to grab his shoulder strap.

"Get up here!"

Lin Ye flipped over the broken wall, stumbling slightly as his feet hit the ground.

His shoulder nearly slammed into a stone pillar.

Zhao Mengmeng grabbed him and forcibly dragged him into a blind spot behind the ruined wall.

"Did you get it?"

Lin Ye nodded.

Zhao Mengmeng immediately pulled over a piece of semi-dry animal hide and draped it over him.

"If you had been half a second slower, those things down there would have torn you apart alive!"

Lin Ye sat down against the stone pillar.

"So I wasn't."

Zhao Mengmeng glared at him, her chest heaving violently.

It took a long time before she managed to squeeze out a sentence.

"You're going to scare me to death sooner or later."

Lin Ye placed the Fire Axe by his side.

The once-sharp axe blade was now pitted with several coin-sized notches from corrosion.

"Then don't look so much."

"Bullshit! If I don't look to see if you're dead, should I be looking at the pot instead?"

In the Great Xia Live Stream, the bullet chat was scrolling so fast the screen was a blur.

[Well said, Mengmeng!]

[When Brother Eye rushed into that pile of monsters just now, my heart almost stopped.]

[earth source blood crystal! Just from the name, you can tell it's no ordinary item!]

[Upload it quickly! Wait, no, it's not nighttime yet!]

[Whatever the case, survive first!]

Zhao Mengmeng raised her crossbow.

She peered out through a crack in the broken wall.

The Red Tide in the ruined district was receding.

After the main Blood Vine lost its nodules, it lost its central commands.

The dark red remnants of the tide slithered back toward the ridge through the outer cracks.

Along the way, it frantically swept away corpses and severed vines.

A large number of the remaining Pale Species followed it out.

Only a few Medium Pale-Types remained in the center of the street.

They were biting and fighting over the giant beast's corpse.

The corpse of the Bone-crowned Giant Beast was piled up like a mountain of rotten meat.

Two Medium Pale-Types stepped on the steaming, corrosive bodily fluids and shoved their heads directly into the cracks in the carapace to gnaw madly.

The wind and snow gradually intensified.

Snowflakes fell onto the mire of flesh and blood, melted into dirty water by the heat.

The entire ruin seemed to be covered anew with a layer of coarse white cloth.

Lin Ye took the earth source blood crystal from his breast.

He only revealed a small corner.

The interwoven gold and red patterns on its surface shimmered in the dimly lit room.

Zhao Mengmeng asked.

"Can it be uploaded?"

"Probably."

Lin Ye carefully wrapped the crystal in animal hide and tucked it into his innermost pocket.

He pulled out a bark rope and tightened it across his chest.

Zhao Mengmeng pushed the backpack on the ground back to his side.

"Are you still going to wear the Wolf Skin?"

"You take it first."

"Don't act generous; your sleeves are in tatters now."

"I just finished a fight; my body temperature is still high enough."

Zhao Mengmeng stared at him fiercely.

"If you say one more word of that bullshit, I'll slam the pot over your head."

Lin Ye glanced at the Aluminum Pot hanging outside her backpack.

"That thing just saved your head; don't misuse it."

Zhao Mengmeng couldn't hold it in and let out a laugh while cursing.

But the short, dry laugh came to an abrupt halt.

Her gaze moved past the ruined walls.

Behind a water tower on a low six-story building to the east, two torsos emerged.

Two Indian Challengers' lips were frozen purple.

The man holding a scimitar stared intently at the seventh-floor opening where Lin Ye was.

His shriveled Adam's apple bobbed up and down.

The rusty scimitar in his hand moved forward half an inch.

Wary of the Pale Species still feeding in the center of the street, he stopped abruptly.

To the southwest.

Near the office building where Kane's group from Kangaroo Country had died.

Two more survivors crawled out from the shadows.

One had a dirty cloth wrapped around his shoulder and held a piece of rebar dripping with foul water.

The other was so thin his eyes were sunken, with only a few empty tin cans hanging from his waist.

Their gazes crossed over the giant beast's corpse.

They were locked straight onto the seven-story ruin.

Zhao Mengmeng's thumb silently flicked off the crossbow's safety.

"Brother Lin, they've set their sights on us."

Lin Ye leaned against the stone pillar and slowly rotated his right shoulder.

The intense soreness caused by the extreme contraction and pulling of the Armguard Engine was still deeply embedded in his muscle fibers.

"As many as come, that's how many I'll kill."

Inside the seven-story ruin, the corpses of the multinational bandits they had just slain were not yet cold.

Dark red blood seeped down through the cracks in the stone slabs of the stairwell.

From the outer walls in the distance, the ear-piercing sound of Pale Species' claws scraping against concrete occasionally drifted in.

Zhao Mengmeng glanced at the corpses on the ground and curled her lip.

"At least they can still bleed and help lure the monsters after they're dead; I guess they didn't come for nothing."

On the ninth floor of the office building to the north.

A Russian Challenger, dragging a bleeding companion, stood before a shattered windowsill.

On the rooftop of the shopping mall to the south.

A John Bull woman wrapped a tattered animal hide around her head, clutching a short spear tightly in her hand.

Her gaze was fixed firmly on Lin Ye's position.

Further away.

A temporary squad composed of Challengers from three countries straightened up from behind the ruins of a collapsed overpass.

An encirclement was quietly forming on the outskirts.

Everyone's gaze crossed through the wind, snow, and monster remains.

They all focused simultaneously on the seven-story ruin.

They focused on Lin Ye's corroded and burnt cuffs and his slightly trembling right arm.

They had all seen clearly just now.

That Great Xia man had dug a treasure out of that terrifying giant beast's belly!

He even had Wolf Skins, dried meat, and flint.

And an Aluminum Pot that could boil water and cook meat.

A frenzy of bullet chat erupted in the Indian Livestream.

[Get that crystal! It's a gift from God!]

[There are only two Great Xia people, and they're injured!]

[Charge! That's the hope for survival!]

The Kangaroo Country Livestream was similarly inciting madness.

[Kane is dead; those supplies are what the Great Xia people owe us!]

[He won't dare jump off the building again; take back the treasure!]

The Great Xia audience watched the screen full of malice, their anger soaring.

[Robbing? Haven't you seen enough of those corpses yet?]

[Brother Eye just slew the giant beast, and these hungry ghosts want to come and scavenge?]

[Hold on, Mengmeng! Don't let them get close!]

The howling cold wind swept through the hall.

Lin Ye slowly slid down against the load-bearing stone pillar.

His right leg was half-bent.

His right hand, holding the damaged Fire Axe, rested weakly against his leg.

The rising and falling rhythm of his chest's breathing lengthened.

The group of living people remaining in the ruins had become vultures that smelled blood.

Circling relentlessly above their target, waiting only for the prey to bleed out its last drop.

Zhao Mengmeng's peripheral vision swept over his posture against the stone pillar.

Her index finger tightened on the crossbow's trigger.

The sole of her boot slid back half a step along the ground.

The muzzle of the crossbow subsequently retreated into the shadows of the corner.

The wind and snow outside grew increasingly dense.

Large areas of the street were cleared after the Blood Vine tide receded.

Surviving Challengers from various countries emerged from their hiding places.

Across the wind, snow, ruined buildings, and monster remains, they set their sights on the seven-story ruin.