112: Chapter 112 The Price of Greed

The cold wind of the ruins poured in through a hole on the seventh floor of the building.

The accumulated snow on the ground was blown into swirling drifts.

Lin Ye leaned against a thick load-bearing stone pillar, half of his body hidden in the shadows.

His right leg was half-bent, and the Fire Axe in his hand rested diagonally against his leg.

The corrosion-induced notches on the axe blade were glaringly obvious.

Even more eye-catching was his right arm.

The skin at the edge of his arm guard had been chafed raw, and blood trickled down his wrist into the snowy ash.

His entire right arm was trembling slightly, beyond his control.

Coupled with the scorched animal-hide cuffs and the tattered clothing on his chest, he exuded a sense of exhaustion, as if he were at the end of his rope.

In the wind and snow outside the building, greedy eyes were gathering in increasing numbers.

Behind the water tower on the east side, two India Challengers exchanged glances.

The man holding a scimitar swallowed hard and pointed at the tottering figure on the seventh floor.

"The Great Xia man is done for."

He whispered to his companion in an extremely low voice.

"He just finished digging out the heart of that ten-meter monster, and now even his hand holding the axe is shaking."

"That small crystal, even if we turn it over to the state, it could at least be exchanged for hundreds of pounds of clean food and weapons!"

"If someone else beats us to it, we won't even get to eat the dried meat on him."

The man with the scimitar stared intensely at the blood-stained animal hide on Lin Ye's chest.

The two India men hesitated no longer.

They skirted around the Pale Species still gnawing on scraps of meat on the perimeter and climbed up using the thick, remaining drainpipes on the outside of the building.

Behind a ruined wall on the west side, two Kangaroo Country survivors could no longer restrain themselves.

"Only that woman is left with any combat capability."

The Kangaroo Country man holding a piece of rusted rebar lowered his voice.

"The woman won't dare to fire her crossbow casually right now; if she attracts monsters, we'll all die. Let's sneak up the back stairs!"

Several United Kingdom Challengers also crept over from the ruins on the south side, aiming directly for the partially collapsed stairwell at the back of the building.

Everyone was crowding towards the upper floors.

The Great Xia Live Stream was filled with anxious comments.

[Damn! These foreign scum are trying to scavenge!]

[Brother Eye just finished a big battle, his stamina is exhausted; it breaks my heart to see his hand shaking like that.]

[How can Mengmeng defend against so many directions all by herself? It's over, it's over!]

The overseas livestreams, however, were filled with jubilation.

[Lin Ye from Great Xia's luck has run out!]

[Our Kangaroo Country Challenger will be able to snatch the crystal soon!]

[The warriors from India have almost climbed to the seventh floor; the Great Xia man can only wait for death!]

Inside the seventh-floor ruins.

Lin Ye was still leaning against the pillar, breathing heavily.

His right hand was shaking more and more noticeably.

Yet, his left foot reached out silently.

His toes hooked onto the corpse of a bandit on the ground.

It was the severed half-corpse of the Cactus Country man who had been shredded by the Dark Weaver earlier.

Lin Ye exerted force from his waist and flicked his foot.

The remains slid across the blood-slicked floor, slipping towards the edge of the partially collapsed stairwell at the back.

It got stuck perfectly at the edge of the top step of the stairs.

After completing this action, Lin Ye kept his head hanging low.

His constantly trembling right arm's wrist turned half a circle in a highly concealed manner.

The micro-mechanism clicked silently into place.

Several invisible Nano-wires shot out, skimming across the floor.

They passed directly under the remains, and the other ends bit into the load-bearing walls on both sides.

An invisible cutting net locked the only path through the stairwell horizontally.

Zhao Mengmeng was crouched behind another stone pillar.

She didn't even look at the stairwell.

Her crossbow was leveled, covering the broken window on the east outer wall.

A faint sound of metal scraping came from the wind and snow.

It was the sound of clothing rubbing against the rusted drainpipe.

Zhao Mengmeng flicked the safety catch of the crossbow with her thumb, sinking into the shadows of the wall corner.

A hand, frozen purple, gripped the broken window sill of the seventh floor.

The India man with the scimitar poked half his head out.

He instinctively looked towards the pillar Lin Ye was leaning against.

Confirming that Lin Ye was still there, panting heavily.

The India man grinned.

He turned to jump into the floor.

Twang!

The muffled sound of the bowstring vibrating exploded inside the ruined building.

The wooden arrow tore through the wind and snow, burying itself in the India man's throat.

The arrowhead brought out a viscous column of blood, piercing straight through the back of his neck.

The smirk on the India man's lips hadn't even set.

His shattered throat bone blocked all sound.

The hand gripping the window sill lost its strength and let go, and he toppled straight backward.

He fell straight down from the seventh floor.

Thud!

The corpse crashed through the roof of the abandoned shop below.

The other India companion who was still climbing hugged the drainpipe, not even daring to lift his head.

"Damn it! How dare you steal my kill!"

Zhao Mengmeng cursed, her left hand quickly grabbing a second arrow and pressing it onto the string.

But it was precisely during this gap of changing arrows.

A burst of chaotic, heavy footsteps erupted from the partially collapsed stairwell behind.

The coalition hiding in the stairwell was waiting for exactly this opening.

The Kangaroo Country man holding the piece of rebar was the first to rush out of the stairwell.

Closely followed by two United Kingdom Challengers.

The Kangaroo Country man didn't care at all about the severed half-corpse lying across the floor.

Even if he had noticed it, he would have stepped over it without hesitation.

His shoe sole stepped directly over the remains, pressing onto the ground.

Lin Ye, leaning against the stone pillar, suddenly stopped his trembling right hand.

His right fist clenched instantly.

Hum!

The Dark Weaver engine erupted at high frequency.

Extremely sharp tension tightened simultaneously from both sides of the load-bearing walls.

The Kangaroo Country man's forward-rushing body suddenly halted.

His legs were smoothly dislocated at the ankles.

Blood gushed out in a radial spray.

His upper body lost support, and due to the momentum of his forward rush, he face-planted onto the stone slab.

The United Kingdom Challenger following closely behind couldn't stop his feet.

He stepped down, and his lower leg bone hit the second taut Nano-wire perfectly.

Skin and flesh separated, and his tibia snapped.

Half a leg was sliced off at the root.

A horrific howl erupted in the stairwell.

Warm blood splattered onto the grayish-white concrete walls and the stone steps.

Severed limbs twitched wildly in the pool of blood.

The two people rushing at the front were dismembered on the spot.

The survivors behind were splattered with hot blood and scrambled backward for their lives.

Several Challengers who had originally wanted to scavenge slipped directly on the bloody steps, trampling over each other.

The Great Xia Live Stream exploded across the board.

[Holy crap! Blood everywhere!]

[Brother Eye's trembling hand was an act! Damn! He had already set a trap!]

[Hahahaha, which foreign internet dog said Lin Ye was done for? Come out!]

[Fishing enforcement! This meat grinder just sent them all packing!]

The howling still echoed through the seventh-floor ruins.

The remaining bandits at the stairwell had weak limbs and scrambled down the stairs, rolling and crawling.

Lin Ye moved.

His body suddenly exerted force, his boot soles crushing the blood-ice on the ground as he catapulted out from behind the stone pillar.

With his left hand, he snatched up the damaged Fire Axe from the ground.

He took long strides over the remains and severed limbs, heading straight for the stairwell.

A tall Russia man had his retreat blocked by his companions and couldn't back down.

Seeing Lin Ye rushing over, he raised the sharpened piece of thick rebar in his hand.

"Great Xia man! Die!"

The rebar thrust straight at Lin Ye's chest.

Lin Ye shifted his body half an inch to the left.

The sharp rebar grazed past his tattered animal hide, sparking and tearing the fabric.

The distance closed.

The Russia man's previous momentum was spent.

Lin Ye placed his right hand below the axe handle.

He gripped it with both hands.

Leveraging his forward momentum, he swung the Fire Axe in a violent semicircle.

The axe blade with the corroded notch slashed down diagonally.

Splat!

The Fire Axe hacked into the left side of the Russia man's neck.

The grayish-white neck bone was cleaved through, and half his neck was ripped open.

Hot blood sprayed wildly, splattering half of Lin Ye's face.

The thick rebar clattered to the ground.

The Russia man's massive body convulsed as it crashed onto the stairs.

The corpse rolled down, knocking over two Challengers behind who were trying to escape.

The stairwell fell into a deathly silence.

The remaining survivors froze in place.

They looked up, staring at Lin Ye standing on the high steps.

Lin Ye's face was stained with blood on one side.

The Fire Axe in his hand was still dripping with a thick red and white mixture.

The United Kingdom man behind, holding a dagger, had legs shaking like a sieve.

Pale yellow liquid flowed down his pant leg into the blood, and a pungent smell of urine spread out.

Only then did they realize that this Great Xia man was not prey at all.

He was a living Yama king cloaked in a tattered disguise.