76: Chapter 76 Dawn in the Ruins

Void Sea, the outskirts of the ruins.

Lin Ye suddenly raised his hand.

Behind him, Zhao Mengmeng immediately lowered her center of gravity and stopped in her tracks.

Eye of Destiny activated instantly.

Inside the half-collapsed mall ahead, three clusters of red light lay dormant in the shadows.

One large and two small.

However, on the beams of the mall's second floor, the red lines representing geological hazards were bright enough to be blinding.

Forcing their way through would surely lead to being buried.

Lin Ye did not step into the mall's entrance.

He picked up a piece of rubble from beside his foot and threw it at a broken glass frame over ten meters away.

"Smash!"

The sound of shattering was particularly piercing in the silent ruins.

The three Pale Species inside were instantly enraged and rushed out toward the sound.

The Small Pale Ones were fast, darting straight out of the entrance.

However, the Medium Pale-Type, due to its massive size, had its thick shoulders scrape against the broken door frame, getting momentarily stuck.

An opening.

The crossbow in Lin Ye's hand was already leveled.

He pulled the trigger.

"Whoosh!"

The first arrow pierced through the knee of the small monster on the left.

He reloaded and fired again in quick succession.

"Whoosh!"

The second arrow pinned through the elbow joint of the small monster on the right.

The two small monsters fell and rolled one after another.

The Medium Pale-Type had just roared and broken free from the door frame, its head instinctively tilting back.

The third bone-tipped wooden arrow precisely pierced into its lower jaw.

Zhao Mengmeng had already crept up from a blind spot on the side.

She slid on her knees, her daggers plunging into the back of the two small monsters' heads using her forward momentum.

[Small Pale One killed, Points +4]

[Small Pale One killed, Points +4]

The Medium Pale-Type ripped the wooden arrow from its jaw and flew into a frenzy, pouncing toward Zhao Mengmeng with its arms hitting the ground.

Lin Ye raised his right arm.

The Wind-Chasing Claw shot through the air and bit into the protruding bone spikes on its back.

He yanked hard to the side.

The monster's pouncing trajectory was forcibly pulled off course, and with a "thud," it overturned a nearby abandoned checkout counter.

Zhao Mengmeng kicked off the checkout counter with her left foot.

She flipped upward and mounted the monster's broad back.

Holding her daggers in a reverse grip, she thrust them deep into the bone crevices behind the monster's ears.

She pulled the blades out, changed the angle, and stabbed deep again.

Black blood gushed out along the blood grooves.

[Medium Pale-Type killed, Points +10]

Zhao Mengmeng's total points jumped to 407.

Lin Ye's gaze swept toward the street corner.

A straggler with half its body charred black was dragging its mangled remains, trying to crawl away through a pile of waste bricks.

"Enough."

Lin Ye leveled his crossbow and fired again, the wooden arrow pinning into the lower spine of that small monster.

Zhao Mengmeng sprinted over to deliver the finishing blow.

[Small Pale One killed, Points +4]

The points froze at 411.

Lin Ye looked around.

The previous dust explosion had not only cleared the main monster swarm but also caused the surrounding living mutated beasts to keep their distance.

The immediate vicinity was now empty.

Continuously activating his left eye at high frequency had pushed his mental burden to a critical point; the veins on Lin Ye's temples throbbed faintly.

He suppressed the dizziness and summoned the leaderboard.

[No. 3: Soldier King Xu Haifeng (Great Xia) — Points: 428]

[No. 4: Zhao Mengmeng (Great Xia) — Points: 411]

[No. 5: Ivan (Russia) — Points: 404]

Stepping in the black blood, Zhao Mengmeng stared at the translucent light screen and curled her lip.

"Old Xu and that Russian giant must be crazy, right?"

She wiped the bloodstains off her face with the back of her hand.

"In just this short time, these two have farmed another hundred-plus points?"

"It's normal."

Lin Ye walked forward and pulled a complete wooden arrow back from a corpse.

"They don't want to be obliterated by the baseline penalty, nor do they want to lose the top five national destiny rewards. In the final moments, everyone is pushing their limits."

He glanced at Zhao Mengmeng's status.

Her combat suit had several more tears, her left arm had been slashed open by rubble, and her face was pale from physical exhaustion.

Her pollution index must have risen again.

"Let's go." Lin Ye pressed the wooden arrow back into the quiver slot.

Zhao Mengmeng was still gripping her daggers, not yet relaxing.

"Where to?"

"To find a place to wait for the settlement."

Lin Ye looked up toward the depths of the towering buildings. "The smell of blood here will attract other things. We can't stay any longer."

The two quickly maneuvered through the area, moving three streets away.

Lin Ye chose a half-collapsed office building.

The stairs were half-broken, which could block most low-level monsters.

An office on the inner side of the third floor had thick walls and a tiny ventilation window.

It was defensible for holding and had an exit for fleeing.

After climbing in using grappling hooks, the two quickly cleared the shattered glass from the floor and wedged a solid wood office desk behind the door.

After finishing all this.

Zhao Mengmeng slid down against the wall and panted heavily.

"My hands don't even feel like mine anymore; I'm shaking even while holding a knife."

Lin Ye sat in the shadow of the opposite corner and tossed her half a bag of water.

"Moisten your throat, don't gulp it down."

Zhao Mengmeng caught the water bag and took small sips.

Lin Ye took out two pieces of smoked mutton jerky, threw one over, and bit into the other himself.

Only the sounds of breathing and chewing remained in the office.

In the distance, toward the underground warehouse, black smoke and residual fires still swirled in the night wind.

Lin Ye summoned the overall leaderboard.

[No. 1: Lin Ye (Great Xia) — Points: 2386]

[No. 2: Scott (USA) — Points: 824]

In the Great Xia Live Stream, seeing this overwhelming lead in the data, the netizens were absolutely ecstatic.

"2300 versus 800! This is a dimensional strike!"

"Where are those jumping foreign devils from the USA? Come out and bark!"

"This is what you call Great Xia's national destiny! Father Lin is firmly seated on the altar!"

Inside the office.

Zhao Mengmeng looked at the numbers on the light screen and let out a cold laugh.

"Scott is still killing; that mad dog really doesn't get tired."

"Let him kill."

Lin Ye swallowed the jerky.

"Even if he squeezes his bones dry, he won't be able to close this point gap."

Zhao Mengmeng's smile faded, her brows knitting together.

"Do you think this foreign devil will come looking for trouble with you later?"

"It's not a matter of 'if'."

Lin Ye wiped the mechanism of his crossbow with a cloth strip, his movements extremely steady. "It's a 'certainly'."

"Why?"

"I took his top spot on the leaderboard and deprived the USA of the highest national destiny reward."

Lin Ye looked up at the dark night outside the window.

"This isn't just about profit and face; it's a hatred that must be washed away."

Zhao Mengmeng grew furious hearing this, her fingers instinctively tightening around her dagger's hilt.

"If that mad dog dares to come knocking, I'll open a big hole in him for you."

Lin Ye didn't respond.

That Scott's points could soar to over 800 proved he had endured an extremely high concentration of pollution erosion.

The higher the pollution level, the heavier the Spirit Grid erosion.

An opponent with a mutated body and a mind on the brink of madness was definitely not someone who could be dealt with just by talking big.

Zhao Mengmeng pulled up her status bar, and her expression stiffened.

[pollution index: 8.91%]

[Spirit Grid: 96.76%]

She looked up.

"It rose again."

"You've been dealing with monster black blood at close range all night; it would be strange if it didn't rise."

Lin Ye loaded an arrow into the crossbow. "Among the rewards for the top fifteen, there should be a purification potion."

Zhao Mengmeng stared blankly at the back of her hand.

"Can that potion be trusted?"

"I don't know."

Lin Ye laid the crossbow flat on his knees and closed his eyes to rest.

"So once you get the item, don't be in a hurry to take the first bite."

Zhao Mengmeng nodded.

"I'll listen to you."

The office fell silent.

The night wind outside gradually weakened, and a grayish-white rift was torn into the horizon by the dawn.

On the translucent light screen, the blood-red countdown numbers began to tick.

[Time remaining until the end of Scarlet Hunt: 00:05:00]

Amidst the countless ruins of the Void Sea.

Everyone was waiting for the bell of the final settlement to toll.