Gao Wu: If this BOSS isn't nerfed, is it even playable?

Chapter 49 The Secrets of the Ruined City
Abandoned city.

Nightfall concealed the desolation and deathly silence of the day.

At night, this place becomes a paradise for countless mutated beasts.

It is also Lin Ye's hunting ground.

He only has three months.

Every day, he pushes himself to the limit.

Lin Ye remained cautious and careful.

Lin Ye first swiftly and decisively killed a LV7 mutated beast.

He then picked up the mutated beast's corpse, which reeked of blood, and threw it into an open area.

This was a method he figured out during his last visit to the ruined city to level up, a way to increase efficiency.

The mutated beasts in the abandoned city also have a kill-and-be-killed relationship with each other.

A freshly killed mutated beast carcass can serve as excellent bait.

Lin Ye lay in wait in the shadows, patiently awaiting the arrival of the other mutated beasts.

Sure enough, the incredibly strong smell of blood, like an invisible torch, quickly attracted other mutated beasts in this deathly darkness.

Rustling sounds and strange hissing noises came from all corners.

In the darkness, pairs of beast eyes, emitting eerie glows of different colors, lit up like will-o'-the-wisps.

Gradually, Lin Ye discerned the types and levels of these mutated beasts.

The first to emerge from the shadows were three LV6 mutated tarantulas.

Its eight legs, like sharp scythes, scraped across the ground with a screeching sound.

The sound of wings flapping could be heard in the air.

Two LV7 mutated giant bats flew over and hung upside down on the broken window sill of a building not far away, their scarlet eyes fixed on the mutated wolf spiders.

Further away, several figures, though slightly weaker in aura, were equally filled with greed, lurking in the darkness, waiting as well.

If it were before obtaining the [Crush] mechanism, Lin Ye would have chosen to retreat.

But tonight, these monsters of lower level than him will become his experience points.

Lin Ye burst out of the shadows, pushing his speed to the limit. He was like a black arrow, heading straight for one of the mutated wolf spiders that had begun to feast.

boom!
With a heavy blow, Lin Ye smashed through the unfortunate tarantula's abdomen, spilling its internal organs all over the ground.

Its eight sharp claws twisted and struggled, emitting a series of hissing sounds.

Seeing their kind in danger, the other two tarantulas let out a sharp hiss, and two streams of milky white silk shot out from their mouthparts, trying to bind Lin Ye!

Lin Ye's eyes were icy cold. He stomped his foot and advanced instead of retreating. While dodging the spider web spray, he continued to thrust his long staff forward!
The crushing aura spread out.

The two mutated wolf spiders paused in their movements.

He was eventually beaten to death by Lin Ye with several blows.

Squeak! !

Lin Ye's ears twitched slightly.

He heard the sound of wings flapping.

He knew that the two mutated bats were planning to take advantage of his fight with the mutated wolf spider and clam.

Lin Ye stood there, but not in a daze.

As the air currents converged, a visible energy ripple spread across the staff!

After two seconds of charging, the giant bat was already within arm's reach, its scarlet eyes and two sharp canine teeth almost touching his face!

It's now!

Lin Ye's arm muscles tensed and bulged, and the long staff that contained all his strength and anger crashed down with a shrill whistling sound that tore through the air!

boom! ! !
A deafening roar, far more muffled than any before!

Before the mutated giant bat could even let out a scream, its skull was smashed open on the spot by this blow!
Not finished yet.

A terrifying force swept through its entire body with overwhelming force!
puff!

The crimson fluid mixed with shattered internal organs exploded with a bang!

This LV7 mutated beast was smashed into a pile of minced meat from head to toe!
The other mutated giant bat, still flying in mid-air, had its greed instantly replaced by terror. It let out a shriek and frantically flapped its wings, trying to stop itself.

It made a sudden stop and turn in mid-air, ready to escape.

"Want to go?"

A cold glint flashed in Lin Ye's eyes. He raised the long staff in his hand and instantly exerted force in his arm muscles, like a fully drawn bow!
Whoosh!
The long staff transformed into a streak of black light, accompanied by a sharp whistling sound, and pierced through the giant bat's wing with perfect precision!

The giant bat let out a miserable cry, lost its balance, and spiraled down from a height of tens of meters.

Lin Ye moved like lightning, rushing to the falling giant bat. Before it could struggle, he pulled out his long staff and unleashed a barrage of heavy blows.

You have killed 3 Level 6 Mutant Tarantulas!

You have killed two LV7 mutated giant bats!

[Due to the influence of the "Five Qi Guiding Techniques," the experience multiplier is set at 150%, and you have gained a total of 180 experience points!]

Experience is not limited, and there is even a 150% multiplier bonus.

Lin Ye can kill one now, which is equivalent to three of them in the past!

Lin Ye heard the sounds of several mutated beasts that had been hiding in the shadows gradually running away.

These mutated beasts are not stupid.

After witnessing Lin Ye's brutal killing, they certainly wouldn't be foolish enough to rush over and die.

……

Time flew by amidst the frenzied killing.

Lin Ye was like a tireless war machine, setting up bait in different locations and then slaughtering all the other mutated beasts that couldn't resist the temptation.

If someone is two levels lower than him and only LV6, they will be instantly killed within three strikes!

At level 7, thanks to the crushing mechanism, it only takes a little more effort to solve the problem!
Only when Lin Ye sees a mutated beast of the same level as himself will he choose the most cautious 1-on-1 approach to complete the hunt.

Unbeknownst to him, Lin Ye discovered that the outer ring of the abandoned city had become his personal slaughterhouse.

His experience bar was rising at an unprecedented and terrifying speed!

At midnight, the bracelet's communicator vibrated slightly.

It was a message from my mother.

【Xiaoye, why aren't you back yet?】

Lin Ye stood beside the corpse of a mutated creature whose head he had just smashed, his chest rising and falling slightly, his body covered in thick, foul-smelling blood.

As he looked at the line of concerned words on the screen, the murderous intent and rage in his heart subsided somewhat, as if quenched by a clear spring.

He took a deep breath to calm himself down, afraid that his mother would hear the hoarseness in his voice, and then replied to the message using voice-to-text.

"Mom, my teacher is giving me extra help, so I'm staying in the school's temporary dorm tonight. You and my sister should get some rest."

The mother's reply was almost instantaneous.

Okay, then you should also take care to rest and not overwork yourself.

After turning off the communicator, the tenderness in Lin Ye's eyes faded, replaced once again by a cold killing intent.

He looked up at the other areas of the ruined city that he had not yet set foot in.

Leveling up, on!
……

A pale, fish-belly white dawn appeared on the horizon.

The first rays of sunlight pierced the darkness, casting a golden outline over the desolate, abandoned city. Lin Ye stood on the rooftop of a tall building.

As dawn broke, the wind in the abandoned city softened.

As Lin Ye smashed the skull of the last mutated beast with the alloy rod in his hand, the long-awaited system notification sounded in his mind.

Your level has been increased to LV9!

You have gained 1 free attribute points!

You have gained 1 skill points!

After a series of killings, Lin Ye didn't even have time to recover his health and escape the battle.

Only when his stamina is almost at its limit, or when Lin Ye sees a monster of the same level as himself, will he sacrifice some efficiency and wait for his condition to fully recover before engaging in battle.

Lin Ye exhaled a long breath of foul air, which smelled of blood, and then found a flat spot to sit down.

My muscles were slightly sore from the extreme exercise, but the soreness disappeared after about ten seconds.

He was promoted one level overnight—an efficiency he had never dared to imagine before.

Lin Ye looked down at the alloy rod in his hand, which was already pitted and even had a crack.

Just hours earlier, he had encountered a Level 9 mutated pangolin.

That mutated beast was not large in size and had weak attack power, which is why Lin Ye dared to provoke it despite being above his level.

However, its defensive capabilities reached an extremely abnormal level.

He used every trick in the book, even employing the [Charged Strike], but it only managed to make the enemy dizzy and disoriented, failing to completely penetrate its armor.

In the end, it took him a full half hour, until his hands were numb from hammering, before he finally managed to smash the pangolin's internal organs and tissues under its shell and achieve victory.

In the past twenty-odd days, Lin Ye has changed countless hairpins.

From hardwood sticks at the beginning to alloy long sticks now.

He discovered that without a significant increase in his strength, the limits of his stick skills might have been reached.

Learning to shoot is imperative.

Moreover, I need to start saving money to see if I can buy a weapon forged by a real weapon-making workshop.

Otherwise, as his level and strength continue to increase, inferior weapons will become a hindrance because they are not easy to use.

Lin Ye sat on the high place until he watched the horizon gradually be tinged with a brilliant sunrise before standing up again.

This was the first time he had stayed in the abandoned city until dawn.

In the past, in order not to worry his mother and to conceal his whereabouts at night, he would go home or to school long ago.

I've rested enough, time to get back to leveling up.

The abandoned city during the day presents a completely different kind of deathly stillness and desolation compared to the night.

As far as the eye can see, there are only broken walls and ruins, with no sign of life.

Unbeknownst to him, Lin Ye returned to the place where he had previously hunted the LV9 mutated pangolin, only to discover an unusual phenomenon.

The pangolin's carcass lay perfectly intact in its original spot, and it was extremely unusual that it had not been eaten by any other mutated beasts in this dog-eat-dog world of ruins.

Lin Ye cautiously scanned his surroundings, and only after confirming that there was no danger did he slowly step forward to observe carefully.

He discovered that the blood flowing from the pangolin's mouth and nose due to severe internal injuries had long since dried, leaving behind some powdery crystals emitting a faint blue light on the dusty ground.

Lin Ye's pupils contracted slightly.

This sight instantly reminded him of the mutated black panther that he had painstakingly hunted down and finally killed.

The blood of that black panther, after it congeals, will also release these strange blue crystals.

What are these powders...?
Filled with questions, he carefully poked at the pangolin's carcass with the tip of a stick, trying to find more clues.

Just then, he discovered a string of numbers that were clearly branded on by humans in a very well hidden place on the pangolin's abdomen, covered by thick scales.

【132】!
How could artificially assigned numbers appear on mutated beasts?

Lin Ye felt a chill run from the soles of his feet straight to the top of his head, as if an invisible hand was gripping his throat.

In that instant, he realized that the secrets hidden behind this vast, abandoned city might be far more complex and terrifying than he had imagined.

From the first day he stepped into these ruins, Lin Ye was curious about one thing.

Why are there so many different kinds and so many mutated beasts here?

It's not uncommon for mutated rats and cockroaches to appear in a city's sewers.

But it seems strange that so many different species of mutated beasts could exist in an almost completely isolated area, even forming a complete and cruel ecological chain.

For a long time, Lin Ye had been asking himself this question: Where did these mutated beasts come from?
After seeing this string of numbers.

An answer that sent chills down his spine gradually took shape in his mind—

It's man-made!

This also explains why this abandoned city has existed for nearly a century, yet it has never been completely cleared by the Dongjiang Municipal Government. Instead, it has been allowed to grow wildly here, as if it were a deliberately preserved experimental base.

Just as Lin Ye was lost in thought and his mind was in turmoil, a series of light footsteps and hushed conversations came from behind a dilapidated building not far away.

A chill ran through him, and almost instinctively, he dodged and instantly hid in a dark, narrow crevice between buildings.

As the footsteps drew closer, Lin Ye slowed his breathing to a minimum.

He was like a cold rock, pressed tightly against the deepest shadow of the building's crevice, even the beating of his heart was forcibly suppressed.

Darkness is the best disguise.

Light couldn't reach this place, and the heavy, pungent smell of his body, mixed with the blood of mutated beasts, blended into the smell of this ruin.

Lin Ye's vision was extremely compressed through a hole the size of a fingernail in the broken wall in front of him, and he could only see a small area.

A splash of pure white suddenly entered his field of vision.

It was a figure wearing a bulky white protective suit, completely covered from head to toe, with only a pair of dark goggles showing.

someone!

Lin Ye couldn't be sure from the footsteps earlier.

Upon seeing the attire, Lin Ye was absolutely certain that this was a person!

The other party was clearly unaware that a pair of cold eyes were lurking in a dark corner just a dozen meters away.

Soon, a second figure dressed in the same attire appeared.

"That's really strange. We've gone around in circles, but we haven't seen a single mutated beast that escaped..."

"It seems like the number of mutated beasts in the entire contaminated area has decreased significantly in the past month!"

A person with a clear, youthful voice suddenly muttered.

"This is a good thing! It's better for us to make money easily than for those unlucky guys who get torn to pieces by mutated beasts and sent to the intensive care unit! What's there to complain about..."

Another person spoke, their voice hoarse, clearly older.

His voice was filled with relief.

“Yeah, this job makes money too fast. Brother, let’s finish this job and then go back to the village.”

"Get married, have a baby..."

"How wonderful it would be to live a comfortable life!"

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(End of this chapter)