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The moment the Mutated Beast appeared,
an alarm sounded near the supermarket.
The nearest city Patrol Martial Artists rushed toward it as fast as they could.
Within cities where humans lived,
creatures did sometimes undergo Alienation and become Mutated Beasts.
But the odds were slim.
About the same as an ordinary person finding an Abyss Fruit inside the city and using it to unlock a Sequence.
Roughly the odds of winning the lottery.
The city's Patrol Martial Artists
handled all kinds of emergencies.
Cases of creatures becoming Mutated Beasts through Alienation were rare.
But Mutated Beasts finding ways into the city were all too common.
Inside the supermarket,
Jiang Fu soon reached the edge of the Seafood Area.
He hid behind a shelf, in a Surveillance Camera blind spot.
In this world,
the Open Sea was full of Mutated Beasts.
Even farmed seafood was a luxury.
So there hadn't been many people in the Seafood Area.
By now, they had all fled elsewhere.
The Blue Abyss Emperor Crab was enormous.
Including its eight legs, it measured over five meters across.
But it had only just undergone Alienation and become a Mutated Beast.
It hadn't yet adjusted to its suddenly larger, stronger body.
Its eight legs flailed against the floor.
Jiang Fu's eyes lit up.
"The legs of a Blue Abyss Emperor Crab... They must taste good."
A palm-sized blade floated out of Jiang Fu's trouser pocket.
He had cut it from another Battle Knife using the one imbued with Shi Jiu's Blade Intent.
Then he had subjected it to a series of Multiply by Ten enhancements.
The edge held none of Shi Jiu's Blade Intent,
but its small size made it easy to conceal.
It was more than enough to defend himself in the city.
The next instant,
Jiang Fu gave his Spirit Power a slight nudge.
A dark flash of steel shot straight into the Blue Abyss Emperor Crab's mouth.
In an instant, the huge crab that had been flailing its claws collapsed.
It lay motionless.
Jiang Fu swept it with his Spirit Power.
"A crab that big died the moment I pierced its weak point?"
Just like the Silver Moon Wolf before it.
Jiang Fu had cut through its waist,
and it had died without even struggling.
Could it be that if I strike a weak point shown on the System Screen and break through its defenses, I can kill it in one blow?
...I'll go with that for now.
I can test it more later.
Thoughts raced through Jiang Fu's mind.
His hands, however, were anything but slow.
A blade flashed.
The Blue Abyss Emperor Crab's eight legs came right off.
Jiang Fu wrapped them in his Spirit Power
and stashed them in an empty corner outside the supermarket.
...They're my spoils. Taking them should be fine, right?
With that done,
Jiang Fu pushed his Shopping Cart leisurely toward the checkout.
Not long after he left,
three figures burst through a window into the supermarket.
They were three burly young Martial Artists in matching dark blue-black combat uniforms.
When they reached the Seafood Area,
they immediately spotted the Blue Abyss Emperor Crab on the floor, missing both its legs and its life.
"Good thing another Martial Artist was nearby."
"No one got hurt."
The three let out long sighs of relief.
One of them joked, "That person must be strong. They killed the Blue Abyss Emperor Crab in barely ten seconds."
"Judging by the missing legs, they must be a foodie who's been out to sea. They know how good those crab legs taste..."
Before he could finish,
Rumble—
The entire supermarket suddenly shuddered.
The floor tiles split open.
Three dark red octopus tentacles covered in blue rings
shot up from below
and swept toward the three Patrol Martial Artists.
"There's another Mutated Beast!"
The three Martial Artists' expressions changed.
They reacted quickly,
dodging in an instant.
Jiang Fu was pushing his Shopping Cart toward the checkout without a care.
At the sight, he paused.
His Spirit Power locked onto the underground parking garage beneath the supermarket.
At some point, an enormous octopus had appeared there.
Its thrashing tentacles were easily over twenty meters long!
Blue rings covered its body, giving off a faint blue glow.
[Species: Blue Ringed Octopus] [Level: 2] [Weak point: As shown] [Most valuable part: Poison Gland] [Note: The octopus has not undergone Alienation. It has unlocked its Genetic Lock!]
At the bottom of the System Screen
was a three-dimensional image of the Blue Ringed Octopus.
A tiny red dot marked one part of its body.
That was its weak point.
But the red dot on the image wasn't fixed.
It kept moving inside the octopus.
Jiang Fu was dumbfounded.
The octopus hasn't undergone Alienation. It unlocked its Genetic Lock?!
What does that mean?
For a moment,
what Jiang Fu knew about octopuses surfaced in his mind.
Octopuses were strange creatures.
They had nine brains and were remarkably clever and perceptive.
They were excellent at learning and imitation.
But some kind of Genetic Lock seemed to exist within them.
Once they had reproduced, their lives drew to an end.
Newborn octopuses couldn't inherit knowledge or experience from the previous generation.
They had to figure everything out from scratch.
So octopuses had always alternated between predator and prey.
Which means...
The Blue Ringed Octopus in the parking garage didn't mutate. This is its full form after unlocking its Genetic Lock?
The System Screen showed
that it was a Tier 2 Blue Ringed Octopus!
It had reached Tier 2 without undergoing Alienation and becoming a Mutated Beast.
Did that mean
octopuses could raise their Level through training or other means, just like humans?
Jiang Fu drew a sharp breath.
"That's no damn Mutated Beast. It's practically a monster!"
Bin City was a coastal city.
And at the city's far end,
the Safety Passages from District One through District Six led to the boundless Open Sea.
The City Walls and Safety Passages in those six districts
faced attacks from sea-dwelling Mutated Beasts at any moment.
In other words,
Bin City was a fortress on the coastline,
a barrier against Mutated Beasts from the sea.
Now,
the Blue Ringed Octopus in the parking garage had probably come ashore from the Open Sea...
And worse!
Like the Blood-Eyed Golden Tiger Jiang Fu had encountered before, it was a sneaky bastard.
It used a Mutated Beast as bait to trap human Martial Artists.
...Wait!
No!
Jiang Fu's heart tightened again.
The Blue Abyss Emperor Crab had only just undergone Alienation!
How did that Blue Ringed Octopus know the crab was about to change?!
Coincidence? Or... did the octopus have something to do with it?
At that thought,
Jiang Fu narrowed his eyes.
Another Mutated Beast suddenly came to mind.
That Black Giant Python with a crown on its head.
Whatever's going on, I'll find out when I catch it.
With that in mind,
Jiang Fu wheeled his Shopping Cart to an untouched part of the store.
Then he fetched a Duckbill Cap that still had its tag on and a black face mask from another section.
After putting together a simple disguise,
Jiang Fu crouched low
and slipped silently past the toppled shelves to another spot.
At the same time.
The three Patrol Martial Artists finally got a clear look at the tentacles flashing with blue rings.
Their expressions changed drastically.
"Oh no! It's a Tier 2 Blue Ringed Octopus!"
"Call for backup, now!!"
A Blue Ringed Octopus was not a mutated beast, but it was even more terrifying than one!
Its body contained a terrifying nerve toxin.
Even the slightest exposure was enough.
Even an Advanced Martial Artist with over ten thousand blood energy would die in short order.
"Protect yourselves! Don't let its tentacles wrap around you!"
"And hold it here! We absolutely cannot let this beast get anywhere else!"
The three City Defense Martial Artists gritted their teeth.
Angry shouts rang out from their mouths.
At the same time, they kept making noise to draw the Blue Ringed Octopus's attention.
If the Blue Ringed Octopus reached a residential area...
Even if an Advanced Martial Artist came to kill it...
There would still be mass casualties.
At that moment...
A cordon had already been set up around the supermarket, sealing it off completely.
It had become a battlefield.
Jiang Fu crouched in a corner.
The razor-sharp blade slipped silently through a crack in the floor and into the Underground Parking Lot.
What a chance!
Suddenly...
Jiang Fu stirred his psychic power.
Whoosh!
The Dark Blade became a blur.
It stabbed toward the Blue Ringed Octopus in the underground garage.
The Blue Ringed Octopus's enormous eye suddenly turned.
The blade was reflected in its amber eye.
Smack!
But in the next instant...
A tentacle swept past in a blur.
It struck the blade hard.
And slapped it away.
At the same time...
The Blue Ringed Octopus's amber eye, with an abyss-like horizontal slit across its center...
Instantly turned toward Jiang Fu's hiding place.
Immediately afterward...
Two tentacles quivered slightly.
They instantly pierced the reinforced concrete and lashed toward Jiang Fu.
So fast!
Jiang Fu's expression changed. It can see me!
Then...
His body blurred.
He instantly left the corner.
Boom!
A thunderous crash rang out.
The shelves in that area were overturned completely.
By then...
The three Patrol Martial Artists had spread out.
From three directions, they kept drawing the tentacles' attention.
When they saw another person suddenly appear in the supermarket, their eyes lit up.
But when they got a clear look at Jiang Fu's clothing...
They could not help feeling disappointed again.
He was just a passerby, not backup sent by headquarters!
Besides...
Judging by his blood energy, he was not very strong. He barely met the threshold for a Quasi-Martial Artist.
One of them dodged a tentacle's attack.
At the same time, he shouted, "Hey, get out of here! It's dangerous!"
Against a Tier 2 Blue Ringed Octopus...
A mere Quasi-Martial Artist did not even qualify as cannon fodder.
Jiang Fu lowered the brim of his cap.
At the same time, he swayed aside, avoiding the two tentacles trying to coil around him.
His voice was hoarse. "Do your best to keep its attention. I'll kill it."
The three Patrol Martial Artists froze at his words.
They were just about to speak...
When they saw a shelf beside Jiang Fu suddenly rise into the air.
It directly blocked the two tentacles attacking from either side.
Then it spun rapidly in midair.
Using its tremendous momentum, it twisted the two tentacles together like a braided rope.
"Holy shit, a Psychic Master!!"
The three exchanged glances across the distance, each seeing the delight in the others' eyes.
Blue Ringed Octopuses, especially ones like this that had unlocked their genetic locks...
Were covered in deadly poison.
Ordinary martial artists did not dare get close.
But Psychic Masters who could use Object Control from a distance were different!
"All right!"
"Leave it to us!"
The three exchanged a glance.
From their scattered positions, they instantly converged.
At the same time, they swung their battle knives, chopping hard at one of the tentacles.
Bang!
Three slashes landed.
Blue blood sprayed.
The Blue Ringed Octopus's eight tentacles twitched slightly.
And in that very instant...
The blade that the Blue Ringed Octopus had slapped away moved.
*For this strike, **Speed multiplied by ten!***
Damage dealt multiplied by ten!
Whoosh—
Thwack!
One strike.
It pierced straight through the Blue Ringed Octopus's body.
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