69novels Chapter 184 - 127: Linchuan Ruins, Another Breakthrough
Chapter 184 - 127: Linchuan Ruins, Another Breakthrough
"But there’s one thing you absolutely have to watch out for!"
At this, Zhang Fu swallowed hard, his expression turning grave.
"Iron-Eating Beetles!"
"Those bugs... individually, their combat power is nothing special. Their threat index might not even break a hundred. But they never operate alone. If you see one, it means there are hundreds, even thousands, nearby!"
"And every so often, a bug tide erupts in the city!"
"Tens of thousands of Iron-Eating Beetles converge into a black wave of death. Wherever they pass, they can chew even reinforced concrete down to nothing!"
"If you’re unlucky enough to run into them, don’t even think about fighting. Just turn and run! If you’re too slow, there won’t even be a bone fragment left of you!"
Lin Ye silently committed all the information to memory and stood up.
"Thanks."
Zhang Fu had no reason, nor any need, to lie to him about something like this.
He placed the 500 Alliance coins on the table and prepared to turn and leave.
"Hey, young man, wait!"
Zhang Fu saw Lin Ye’s movement and quickly called out to him. His usual vendor’s smile now held a trace of sincerity.
He fumbled under his stall, pulled out an unopened bottle of purified water, and pressed it into Lin Ye’s hand.
"Young man, I can tell you’re a sharp one, not one of those arrogant greenhorns with their heads in the clouds."
"This water is on me. Let’s just say it’s to make a friend."
"Even if the deal fell through, the goodwill remains."
"If you hunt anything good in the city that’s inconvenient to carry out, or if you want to trade it for some quick cash,"
"you can come find me anytime!"
"The prices I offer are absolutely the fairest in this entire camp!"
Lin Ye glanced at the water in his hand, then back at Zhang Fu.
He accepted the water.
"Alright."
It was an acceptance of the favor.
...
After bidding farewell to Zhang Fu, Lin Ye officially stepped into the Linchuan Ruins.
Not long after entering the Linchuan Ruins, the smell in the air changed completely.
The unique, metallic tang of Source Crystals, mixed with the stench of rot and dust, was nauseating.
But Lin Ye was all too familiar with this smell.
Less than a kilometer into the city’s outskirts, he encountered his first wave of enemies.
Three mutated beasts that looked like gray wolves, their bodies covered in steel-like barbs, shot out silently from the shadows, fanning out in a triangular formation to surround him.
[Steel-backed Gray Wolf LV. 18]
This was a mutated beast with an officially designated threat index of around 150.
Lin Ye made a mental calculation.
’The official threat index, divided by nine or ten, probably corresponds to the specific level detected by the system panel.’
’I can use this conversion as a reference for future actions.’
Faced with the three pouncing beasts, Lin Ye didn’t break his stride.
As he moved forward, the Star-Piercing Spear in his right hand became a blurry, dark afterimage.
PTHK! PTHK! PTHK!
After three muffled thuds that were almost a single sound, the three ferocious Steel-backed Gray Wolves froze stiff in mid-air, then fell limply to the ground. They twitched a couple of times and then went still.
In the exact center of each of their skulls was a perfectly smooth, bloody hole.
A single, fatal strike.
Without breaking stride, Lin Ye moved like the wind, continuing deeper toward Yong’an Station, which was marked as the city center on his map.
Along the way, he saw many figures roaming the ruins.
Like the scavengers from the camp, most of them wore heavy protective suits.
They moved in groups of three to five, with some even forming hunting parties of seven or eight to collaboratively take down mutated beasts.
Seeing Lin Ye, a lone wolf without any protective gear, many of them gave him surprised looks.
But more than surprise, they were wary.
In this lawless, chaotic land, traveling alone usually meant one of two extremes.
You were either an ignorant fool, or a powerhouse so strong you didn’t need companions.
Lin Ye’s blood-free combat suit and his strangely shaped Star-Piercing Spear made him look more like the latter.
Therefore, everyone tacitly kept their distance. They kept to themselves, and he kept to his.
Lin Ye couldn’t be bothered with them either.
When he saw a team in the middle of hunting a mutated beast, he would proactively go around them, showing no intention of kill-stealing.
However, his solitary style and terrifying efficiency—killing nearly any mutated beast in a single strike—inevitably attracted the attention of an observant individual.
A rough-looking man passing by saw Lin Ye casually take down a mutated beast with a single thrust of his spear, and his eyes lit up.
"Hey, young man! Nice moves!"
"Interested in teaming up? We’re the Black Wind Hunting Team! We’ve got a bit of a name for ourselves around here! If we hunt together, we’ll split the loot with you fifty-fifty!"
Lin Ye simply refused, not pausing for a second as his figure quickly vanished into the depths of the layered ruins.
"Damn it, what’s his problem!"
A team member spat on the ground, indignant.
But the rough-looking man’s eyes went cold, and he slapped the man across the face. "Shut up! Did you see how he moved? He killed an Armored Wild Boar with extremely high Defense Power as easily as piercing a piece of paper! That’s not someone we can afford to provoke!"
"Even if he won’t cooperate, don’t show any hostility!"
Lin Ye, who was already some distance away, heard their words carried on the wind.
’As expected, the people who manage to survive out here are no fools.’
He continued deeper.
Along the way, the Source Crystals growing out of the ground and walls became visibly more numerous.
But most of these exposed Source Crystals were dull and gray, their surfaces covered in fine cracks, having lost their proper luster.
Too much time had passed. The vast majority of the energy they once contained had dissipated as radiation.
What little energy remained was impure and chaotic.