What If You Run Into the Boss Early?

He Zhao was no longer the clueless rookie he had been when he first obtained the Simulator. From hundreds of deaths, he had realized one truth—strike first and gain the upper hand; strike late and suffer disaster.

Guided by caution, he had long since left dense Blood-Colored Footprints both inside and outside the room. They were there precisely to keep an enemy from catching him unprepared at his doorstep.

Though he did not know who stood outside the door, the warning from the Sixth Sense title could not be false.

"Hmph!!"

A muffled groan came from beyond the door, followed closely by the sound of something heavy hitting the floor.

"Thud!"

He Zhao pulled the Bone Dagger from his chest. Dragging his weakened body along, he opened the door and looked around in all directions. Seeing no one nearby, he immediately grabbed the corpse lying on the floor by its feet and hauled it into the room with all his strength.

"Creak!"

He shut the door and slid the bolt into place.

He slumped onto the floor and let out a long breath.

"Just what immortal are you, picking a fight with me?" He Zhao was rather furious. If not for the trap he had prepared in advance, he might well have gotten Game Over tonight, sending over a thousand Simulation Coins down the drain.

His hand trembled as he reached out and pulled back the cloth covering the corpse's face.

"A'da? No, it should be called Demon Eater. Why did it set its sights on me? With the Divine Concealment Ring concealing me, even if it learned of my existence from Old Huang and the others' memories, it shouldn't have recognized me!"

"Slap!"

He Zhao suddenly slapped his thigh. Now was not the time to be thinking about that.

He hurriedly began looting the corpse. If Liu Da truly had been Demon Eater in disguise, then it was bound to have quite a few good things on it.

In just a few motions, Ruthless He Zhao pulled a Blood Patterned Skull the size of a fist from the corpse.

"Wailing Bone!"

Sure enough, Old Huang and the others had been wiped out to the last man.

"There must be more."

Next, he wiped two jade pieces, each a quarter the size of a palm, off the corpse. One looked somewhat familiar, while the other was entirely unfamiliar. He set them aside for the moment and continued searching the body.

Several dozen Bearer Banknotes worth a thousand taels each. After carefully counting them, there were a full forty-five thousand taels!

As expected of the Gao Family's Eighteenth Concubine. She really knew how to rake in money.

"What a good person!"

Knowing that He the Person was penniless, Demon Eater had actually come to his door to deliver a package.

Next Simulation Scenario, I'll spare your life.

After tucking away the banknotes and loose silver, He Zhao began examining the two jade pieces.

"Hm? Why does this thing look exactly like the Jade Register I drew? No wonder it seemed familiar."

The other was the same size, but the strange characters carved upon it differed. It was presumably another kind of Jade Register, though he had no idea what effect it possessed.

"If nothing unexpected happened, these two Jade Registers should have been stripped from Old Huang's body." With that thought, He Zhao cautiously injected a trace of Spirit Power into one of them.

A hazy green glow lit up, and he clearly sensed what seemed like two whirlwinds beneath his feet, gently lifting him upward.

"This feeling..."

He Zhao took a step forward, and his entire body flashed from the bedside to the door like a phantom.

"What speed!"

So when Old Huang had fled back then, he had not used a Sacrificial Vessel, but a Jade Register with a special effect.

He put away that Jade Register and shifted his gaze to the other one.

He injected Spirit Power into it with one hand, waited for quite a while, yet received no response whatsoever.

"Strange."

He Zhao frowned slightly and chose to give up for now, planning to investigate its use in the future.

His attention then shifted back to Liu Da's corpse, the one Demon Eater had disguised itself as. He first stripped off the other party's clothes and inspected the body from head to toe for birthmarks or anything else that could identify it.

Then, he drew the Short Blade he had looted from the Spirit Realm from his waist. With deft, Proficient movements, he effortlessly peeled Liu Da's face from his skull.

This was to prevent the corpse from being swiftly identified after he dumped it.

After considering it again and again, He Zhao cut off a certain organ used to carry on one's bloodline, making it look like a killing motivated by hatred or love.

"No, I need to add another layer of insurance."

Half an hour later, he threw the bloodstained clothing into the charcoal brazier in the room and burned it.

"I'll dump the body at two thirty in the morning."

This was the time when people were at their most exhausted. The Wancheng soldiers responsible for night patrols were basically dozing off in sheltered spots out of the wind.

Nothing happened through the night, and dawn came in the blink of an eye.

He Zhao unusually did not sleep. Instead, he made a trip to the Herbal Shop and bought some insect-repelling herbs.

He tossed several packets of herbs into the charcoal brazier to burn. The room was immediately filled with a pungent, unpleasant smell, quickly masking the faint scent of blood.

"Perfect. Now I just wonder when that corpse will be discovered."

[Bronze Man Stance:4341/5000(Great Accomplishment)]

[Unknown Breathing Technique:4341/5000(Great Accomplishment)]

Before falling asleep, he glanced at the progress of his Stake Method and breathing technique. Last night had delayed him for four hours, earning him only 120 points of Proficiency.

In the blink of an eye, four days passed.

[Bronze Man Stance:61/10000(Perfection)]

[Unknown Breathing Technique:61/10000(Perfection)]

"With an uninterrupted supply of Aberration Flesh, I'll need fifty-six days. Good thing Demon Eater delivered a package to me, otherwise I'd really have had to risk my life against Pig Woman."

With Pig Woman's enormous body, larger even than a Grassland Mammoth, she had to weigh at least ten thousand jin. Who would have thought that someone surnamed Pig was actually a rich woman?

More than twenty days passed, and the flesh was depleted once again.

[Bronze Man Stance:4621/10000(Perfection)]

[Unknown Breathing Technique:4621/10000(Perfection)]

"The boost Aberration Flesh gives to the Stake Method and breathing technique hasn't weakened. Unfortunately, over this past month, my physical fitness has only increased by around 0.5 compared to before."

From 1 to 3, then from 3 to 3.5—the effect had weakened drastically. Had he developed resistance? Or did strengthening physical fitness become harder and harder the further one went?

"Compared to those two's gratifying progress, the Burning Rage Method is a little slow."

[Burning Rage Method(Incomplete) Great Accomplishment:2005/5000.]

According to the memories, this method was best cultivated at intervals of one month.

"Still thirteen months to go."

In truth, He Zhao's cultivation speed was not slow at all. After all, not everyone was fortunate enough to die hundreds of times with one life.

Death was the finest rage in the world, and the ashes left by burning were even better nourishment.

"Forget it. Time to learn boxing!"

The two-month deadline had arrived. He did not want people to call him Foolish Stone.

The streets were far livelier than usual.

"Did you hear? This morning, they fished a corpse out of a well in the west of the city. It's such a horrid sight over there now—vomit is everywhere."

"I saw it with my own eyes! The killer was vicious. Not only did they peel off the victim's face, they destroyed the eyes and knocked out every tooth in the mouth. The palms and soles were charred black, like they'd been pressed into a charcoal brazier and burned."

"You missed one thing. The manhood was cut off. If you ask me, it had to be a crime of passion. Otherwise, they wouldn't have tortured the victim like that. Killing someone only calls for a nod of the head—unless it's the hatred of a murdered father or the grudge of a stolen wife."

A crowd chattered noisily, each giving their own opinion.

They had no idea that the killer had just passed them by, expressionless.

Halfway there, He Zhao, who had been pretending nothing was wrong, suddenly had his pupils shrink. His heart thudded, and he inwardly cried, This is bad!!