I became a god through frontier slaughter, and I crushed the academy's prodigies!

The wind stopped.

The dust from the ruins is still slowly settling in the air.

One-Eyed felt a dryness in his throat.

He subconsciously swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing with difficulty.

The sound was particularly jarring in the deathly silence.

As the captain of the Hyena Squad and a mid-stage Tier 1 martial artist, One-Eyed had spent a full ten years in the wilderness.

He had seen too many dead people.

But he had never seen such a bizarre scene before.

That was a Windblade Wolf.

The speed king among early-stage Tier 1 beasts, known for its cunning and extreme speed.

Even a fully armed regular army squad would have a headache dealing with this thing, and might even get a few wounded.

But now.

It was lying right at its feet.

His head was neatly split open, and he didn't even have time to let out a final scream.

A knife.

Just one cut.

The one-eyed man stared intently at the cuts on the wolf's carcass.

Smooth as a mirror.

There wasn't a single stubble of broken bone, just like a hot knife slicing through a piece of tender tofu.

This requires more than just an extremely sharp knife.

What is needed is an explosive force and control that is terrifying to the extreme.

One-Eyed frantically replayed the scene from that instant in his mind.

If I were in Shen Tian's position...

Facing the oncoming Windblade Wolves.

Is it possible to do that?

the answer is negative.

Even if he is a mid-stage first-tier martial artist, even if he has been immersed in the Bone Tempering Realm for many years.

He couldn't do it with such ease.

He might be able to kill the wind wolf, but that would be through his rich experience and desperate ruthlessness; even at the risk of being bitten, he would still put the knife into the wolf's belly.

That was a life-or-death struggle.

What Shen Tian just did was execute someone.

High judgment.

One-Eyed felt a chill run down his spine, straight to the top of his head.

Earlier in the car, when that female officer from the lousy military headquarters looked at Shen Tian differently, he thought it was because the kid had gotten lucky, or because his fair complexion had won over a woman.

Even earlier, when he sensed that faint aura of danger emanating from Shen Tian, ​​he thought it was just a hallucination caused by not sleeping well the night before.

Now it seems...

That was not an illusion.

That was a frantic warning from the instincts of a wild beast.

This seemingly harmless high school student in his school uniform is not a lamb to the slaughter at all.

even……

His strength is probably even greater than mine!

One-Eyed took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the turmoil in his heart.

He raised his head and looked at Shen Tian.

The boy's face remained expressionless, showing neither the relief of surviving a disaster nor the excitement of his first kill.

It was eerily calm.

"team leader?"

Seeing that no one spoke, Shen Tian asked again.

"How do you calculate this?"

One-Eyed suddenly came to his senses.

The fat on his face twitched twice, and his previous arrogance vanished instantly.

Instead, a complex expression appeared, a mixture of fear and ingratiation.

"It's yours."

The one-eyed man's voice was somewhat hoarse.

"That's the rule."

"Whoever killed him, he gets to keep him."

In the past, if other bait had killed the monster, One-Eyed would have forcibly taken most of the spoils under the pretext of "borrowing team equipment" or "providing protection."

They can even hack it outright.

But in the wilderness, the rules are set for the weak.

The strong are the rules themselves.

Facing a ruthless individual capable of instantly killing a Windblade Wolf with a single strike, only a one-eyed person with water in their brain would be tempted to take advantage of such a small gain.

"That's good."

Shen Tian nodded.

He crouched down and skillfully used a boning knife to pry open the wind wolf's chest cavity.

The movements were fluid and graceful.

It felt as natural as killing a fish at a market.

He was searching for the beast's core.

pity.

After searching for a while, Shen Tian stood up with some disappointment.

There is no animal core.

The probability of a low-level beast producing a beast core is already low, so this wolf is obviously a poor wretch.

However, its fur and claws could fetch some money.

"Bald guy, give me a hand."

Shen Tian suddenly spoke.

The bald man, who had been in a petrified state, suddenly jolted awake.

"Ah? Ah! Coming, coming!"

This muscular man, standing two meters tall, was now running over like an obedient schoolchild.

That last strike completely impressed him.

I'm even scared of watching it.

He was thinking, what if that knife had been aimed at his neck...

The bald man touched his thick neck and felt a chill in it.

That's a speed that a spiked club could never stop.

Just as the two were dealing with the wolf carcass.

in the corner.

The monkey remained in that stiff posture.

His face was ashen, and his forehead was covered in cold sweat.

The dagger that fell to the ground remained stuck in the soil, as if mocking its owner's incompetence.

The monkey's heart was pounding wildly in its chest, almost bursting out.

afraid.

I'm really scared.

Just minutes before, he was making sarcastic remarks about Shen Tian in the car.

They called him "the young master".

They said he would "pee his pants in fear".

They even wanted to see him cry and scream in agony inside the beast's mouth.

But reality gave him a resounding slap in the face.

No.

This is more than just a slap.

It was as if a knife was held to his neck.

The monkey secretly lifted its eyelids and glanced at Shen Tian, ​​who was wiping the blade.

The boy's profile looked particularly cold and aloof in the shadows.

Looking back on her attitude towards Shen Tian along the way.

Various forms of ridicule, sarcasm, and even malicious pranks.

The monkey felt cramps in its calves.

This kid...

Will they hold a grudge?

Having such strength, he kept it hidden until the crucial moment when he finally revealed his fangs.

This kind of person has a terrifyingly deep mind.

He must have remembered it all.

The more the monkey thought about it, the more terrified it became.

In the wilderness, a lawless place, it's all too easy for someone to die.

If Shen Tian wanted to, he could easily stab himself in the chaos and then blame it on the alien beast.

No one would doubt it.

No one would investigate the truth about a dead thug.

Even a one-eyed person would probably turn a blind eye, since who would offend a powerful person for the sake of a good-for-nothing?

An emotion called "despair" spread through the monkey's mind.

But soon.

This despair began to turn sour.

It fermented and twisted in the soil of fear, eventually becoming something darker and more insane.

Murderous intent.

The monkey's eyes gradually turned cold.

Then we absolutely cannot let him go back alive!

Before he makes a move against me, before he knows that I have murderous intent.

Get started first!

In a head-on confrontation, the monkey knew that even a hundred of them couldn't defeat Shen Tian.

But in the wilderness, killing doesn't necessarily require strength.

Traps, poison, luring herds of animals...

There are plenty of solutions.

Once you get to that abandoned commercial district, to that armored lizard's territory...

Chaos ensued.

The opportunity has arrived.

The monkey stared intently at Shen Tian's retreating figure, a cruel and twisted sneer curling at the corner of its mouth.

genius?

Humph.

A dead genius is just a pile of rotten flesh.

"Are you all packed?"

The one-eyed man's voice interrupted the monkey's thoughts.

"alright."

Shen Tian stood up.

The wind wolf's most valuable fangs and several intact pelts had already been cut off and stuffed into his backpack.

As for the wolf meat, it was too heavy to carry, so it could only be given to the scavenging creatures here.

"Let's go then."

One-Eyed gave Shen Tian a deep look.

The tone was less commanding and more inquiring.

"The target is still three kilometers away."

"Since you have this skill, the original plan is off."

One-Eyed paused for a moment, then continued.

"We don't need you as bait anymore."

Using you as bait is a terrible waste.

"When we get there, you and I will lead the attack, and Baldy will provide cover."

"As for the compensation..."

One-Eyed gritted his teeth.

"What was originally agreed upon as 10% has been increased to 30%."

"How is it?"

This is a huge concession.

It's also a way of showing goodwill.

Although One-Eye was greedy, he knew better than anyone that to survive long in the wilderness, one had to learn to assess situations and act accordingly.

It's far more worthwhile to recruit a young, powerful individual with unlimited potential than to take an extra 20% of the profits.

Shen Tian did not refuse.

"Can."

He said it calmly.

Kill points are the main thing; money is just a side benefit.

As long as it allows me to kill monsters, being the main attacker is exactly what I want.

"Then let's go."

One-Eyed waved his hand.

The team set off again.

This time, however, the formation has undergone a subtle change.

Shen Tian no longer walked at the very back.

He was intentionally or unintentionally placed on the flank of the team by One-Eye, a position that allowed him to both attack and defend.

The monkeys that were originally responsible for guarding the right flank were pushed to the back.

The monkey lowered its head and silently followed at the back of the group.

His gaze never left Shen Tian's back.

Like a venomous snake hiding in a ditch, patiently waiting for its prey to make a mistake.

The wind picked up.

From deep within the ruins, several muffled roars of beasts could be faintly heard.

It was as if they were welcoming this group of reckless intruders.

Shen Tian gripped the boning knife tightly in his hand.

On the system panel.

[Kill Value: 62]