Seizing the Reward

The instant Wang Zhifan struck the Special Monster's arm with the Wolf Slayer Blade, he felt considerable resistance travel through both hands gripping the hilt. He had not encountered anything like this while slaughtering the dozens of ordinary monsters earlier. After all, the Wolf Slayer Blade was a Rare Grade weapon with a fairly powerful armor-piercing effect of its own. This time, though, he had clearly run into something tough.

But a little unexpected resistance was nowhere near enough to make Wang Zhifan back down. He immediately let out a low shout, driving force from his waist and legs through his shoulders and arms into the long blade in his hands. The power behind his slash surged in an instant, crushing the enemy with brute force.

Crack!

After the burst of strength, the monster's claw, which had initially resisted the Wolf Slayer Blade, snapped clean off. The severed front portion landed before the Long-Haired Female Ghost, who had flashed back in an emergency to protect her master, while the remaining portion rapidly withdrew amid the monster outside the window's shriek.

Wang Zhifan then glanced at the blade in his hand, confirming that his exertion had not caused any chips or bends in the treasured weapon. Then he charged toward the middle of the Bus and began swinging Wolf Slayer at the remaining monsters.

By this point, only a few ordinary monsters remained outside the Bus. Nearly all of them had entered the cabin, though most had done so as scattered chunks of flesh.

After the Short-Haired Girl's Long-Haired Female Ghost summon and Wang Zhifan's slaughter, the aisle inside the Bus and the bodies of the wooden-doll-like passengers were piled high with nauseating monster remains. Fewer than twenty ordinary monsters were still moving.

But their deaths were inevitable as well. Wang Zhifan had taken over from the Long-Haired Female Ghost and begun a precise slaughter, while the Long-Haired Female Ghost, under the Short-Haired Girl's control, flashed outside the vehicle and launched an offensive against the unique individual beyond the window, preventing it from interfering with the Bus again.

This new division of labor once more demonstrated the pair's tacit coordination. With only the corner of his eye and the keen perception granted by his 16 points of Spirit Attribute, Wang Zhifan determined that the Tall Monster outside had been completely tied down by the Long-Haired Female Ghost summon. The two had begun an evenly matched confrontation, allowing Wang Zhifan to focus without paying much attention elsewhere. All he had to do was cut down the remaining monsters in the Bus and clear out the little trash first.

About a minute later, Wang Zhifan, his forehead already beaded with sweat, finally approached the last monster beside a seat near the front of the Bus.

This monster was somewhat unusual. Unlike the others, which had continuously attacked the two players in the Bus like moths flying into a flame, it had quietly hidden here, crouching on a seat and constantly gnawing at the head of one of the wooden passengers.

By the time Wang Zhifan found it, the unfortunate passenger beneath it had been reduced to a neck attached to less than half a skull. He could not have been deader. Yet throughout all this time, Wang Zhifan had not heard even a single cry from that passenger.

It was clear just how miserable non-player humans were in the Gray Domain. They had no possibility whatsoever of escaping monster attacks. The parents of the original owner of Wang Zhifan's body had likely died under such circumstances.

Without hesitation, he beheaded the final monster with one slash. He first narrowed his eyes and used his decent perception to confirm that no stragglers remained inside the Bus. Then he shifted his gaze beyond the Bus, which had become little more than a vehicle for transporting corpses.

Through the window, he could see that on the barren ground some ten to twenty meters away, the huge monster whose claw he had severed not long ago was still fighting the Short-Haired Girl's summon.

Under the girl's precise control, the Long-Haired Female Ghost fought with great cunning. It fully exploited its overwhelming advantage in agility, its figure constantly flashing around the large monster's body. Whenever it caught an opening, it would rake the creature hard with its long, sharp nails, leaving the ugly giant enraged yet unable to strike back.

But that did not mean the girl's side had completely overwhelmed it. Wang Zhifan noticed that her summon seemed somewhat lacking in offensive power. This had not been apparent when it faced the ordinary monsters earlier, but now, after controlling her Long-Haired Female Ghost to attack the huge monster for a full minute, she had failed to leave any obvious wounds on it. It was barely better than scratching an itch.

Apparently having noticed this long ago, the Short-Haired Girl, still standing at the rear of the Bus, saw Wang Zhifan finish clearing the minor monsters and immediately said, "Do you still have stamina? My summon can't break that thing's defenses. It can only hold it back as best it can."

"No problem. I'll go out and help right now."

With his Constitution Attribute as high as 18 points, Wang Zhifan knew very well that he still had plenty of strength left—enough, he believed, to kill the Big Monster outside. He immediately prepared to jump through one of the front windows to support the Long-Haired Female Ghost.

But just as he stepped over the monster corpses beneath his feet and reached the window, ready to leap out, an unexpected gunshot suddenly rang out.

Bang!!! As the gunshot abruptly sounded outside, the Big Monster still entangled with the Long-Haired Female Ghost beyond the window suddenly jolted. Then a hole the size of a bowl appeared in its torso, black sludge beginning to ooze from it.

Wang Zhifan immediately stopped himself from going outside and quickly stepped back, carefully observing through the window from a distance as he searched for the source of the shot.

"Judging by the power, that was probably a Sniper Rifle... Could it be people from the Special Administration Bureau?"

He turned to ask the Short-Haired Girl at the back of the Bus. After all, she had been saying from the very beginning that the official Special Administration Bureau would arrive soon.

But the girl frowned, then shook her head.

"Probably not. Whenever the Bureau enters the Gray Domain, they always rescue civilians first... Whoever's outside is so eager to shoot monsters that I think they're probably other players. They're likely here to steal the rewards."

"Steal the rewards? In the Gray Domain, do the rewards go to whoever kills the monster?"

Wang Zhifan immediately voiced his confusion. As far as he knew, there was no such thing as stealing monster rewards in this world. Everyone in a Dungeon dropped their own Treasure Chest, and stealing someone else's Treasure Chest would trigger the Punishment Round mechanism. The consequences would absolutely make the thief regret it.

"Not exactly."

After hearing Wang Zhifan, the girl immediately shook her head again.

"The rewards for killing Gray Domain Monsters belong to no one. Whoever snatches them can claim them directly," she explained.