The Gap

At that moment, the scene fell utterly silent.

No one could believe their eyes as they stared at Fang Yue.

"Who is that guy? He can actually match an anomaly in strength!"

"I recognize him. He's one of the refugees Lord Han brought into the village last night!"

"So he's that strong! No wonder Lord Han thinks so highly of him!"

When they came to their senses, everyone looked excited.

The players hidden among the crowd stared wide-eyed at Fang Yue as if he were a monster.

"Impossible! A player can actually stand up to an anomaly's attack head-on!"

"Is this a joke? Those two captains were nearly beaten to death by that anomaly, and he can fight it?"

While everyone was still in shock, the Maid Anomaly moved.

It suddenly opened its mouth wide.

Roar!!

The anomaly's distinctive, piercing shriek rang out.

The next moment, while still locked in a contest of strength with Fang Yue, it thrust the arm with its severed hand straight at Lin Ling, who lay on the ground.

Lin Ling had come to his senses by now. He had no time to ask why Fang Yue had appeared, or how he could stop the anomaly. He quickly turned a pleading gaze toward Fang Yue.

But Fang Yue didn't need him to say a thing.

The moment the anomaly changed its move, Fang Yue had already kicked its arm with the severed hand, intercepting it in time.

Clang!

The kick was like striking an iron door, frighteningly hard.

Fortunately, Fang Yue had been prepared. He'd put every ounce of strength into that kick, forcibly knocking the severed hand off course.

It missed Lin Ling's head by mere centimeters before plunging hard into the ground.

Lin Ling was so scared that all color drained from his face. Before he could recover, he felt a powerful force lift him up and fling him backward in an arc.

By the time he landed, someone had caught him securely.

"Ow! Captain Lin, you should lose some weight. You're so heavy!"

"Yeah, yeah!"

Lin Ling looked at the two people who had caught him. They were both refugees who had entered the village last night.

One was stocky, while the other was rather handsome.

He recognized the stocky one. He was also in the Guard Team, though only a reserve member. His name seemed to be Niu Niu.

The two complained as they exchanged glances, then started ingratiating themselves with Lin Ling and taking credit.

"Captain Lin, you have no idea how much we went through on the way here to support the Focus Fire Order."

"Yeah, yeah, Captain Lin, don't forget what we did. We're just two refugees, and after running around all night, we're nearly out of Lifespan."

They were in the middle of talking when they realized Captain Lin wasn't paying them any attention.

They promptly fell silent and followed Lin Ling's gaze toward the front.

There, two figures were locked in a desperate fight!

"ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA... MUDA!"

-31!

-22!

-15!

-18!

-1!

Fang Yue unleashed a flurry of blows, then leaped up and kicked the anomaly hard, delivering a perfect combo.

The beautiful numbers were like a beautiful melody—what the hell was this ridiculous nonsense!

What did it mean to have the aura of a ten-hit combo and the damage of a one-hit combo? This was it!

Fang Yue looked grimly at the anomaly, which he'd knocked back a short distance and which had blocked his last kick with one hand.

This wasn't how it was supposed to go!

Why wasn't it losing any health when I hit it?!

Sure, it felt great, like beating up a punching bag, but what good was that pathetic damage? Was he supposed to wear it down to death?

Fang Yue felt frustrated.

He clearly remembered Lin Ling and Hua Wuye fighting earlier. Their attacks had been popping up three-digit damage numbers one after another, and Lin Ling had even landed a four-digit critical hit in bloody red.

But when it came to him, his damage barely reached double digits, and sometimes even dropped to single digits.

Damn it! What was going wrong?

When I smashed the Bombardment Anomaly before, every punch had connected solidly. I was awesome!

Why wasn't it working on this one?

Black blood and black eyes—they were both Black Grade Initial Stage anomalies. Why were they so different?

Fang Yue couldn't shake the feeling that he hadn't figured out the trick yet.

After flinging Lin Ling away, he'd followed up with a knee to the anomaly's chin.

-33!

Perhaps because the anomaly had already suffered a severe head injury, the blow hadn't dealt much damage, but it had caused a slight stun.

Then came the scene everyone had just witnessed.

Fang Yue had pounded it with a barrage of punches and finished with a kick, yet the damage had amounted to so little.

The Maid Anomaly stopped moving. It shook its one good hand and tilted its hole-riddled head as if to say—That's it?

Damn it!

The anomaly was mocking him!

For the first time in his life!

Just who was Fang Yue? Apart from that one at the Chen residence, hadn't he smashed every anomaly he'd ever encountered?

You think you can act tough, too?

Fang Yue charged forward to close the distance, channeled his remaining inner force into his fist, and swung a punch straight at the hole-riddled head of the Maid Anomaly.

To Fang Yue's surprise, the Maid Anomaly stood its ground without dodging. It waited until he attacked, then suddenly sprang into action.

In a flash, it threw a punch, trading injury for injury as it aimed a fist straight at Fang Yue's head.

Bam!!

Bam!!

Two explosive impacts rang out almost at the same time.

The Maid Anomaly's fist struck Fang Yue right in the head. Excruciating pain burst through his skull, accompanied by the sound of bone cracking, and he went flying backward as a terrifying number appeared above his head.

-111!

Before he was flung away, Fang Yue's fist also slammed into the Maid Anomaly, knocking it flat onto the ground. The earth exploded with a spiderweb of cracks.

-106!

Had they both taken a hit?!

Everyone stared at the scene in a daze.

No! The anomaly had come out ahead!

The Maid Anomaly, sprawled on the ground, creaked as it slowly got back up.

It touched its forehead, and a small portion of its broken skull came tumbling down.

It shook its head, then began walking toward the direction Fang Yue had been flung.

Despair settled over the crowd.

Fang Yue's defeat meant the complete failure of Ancient Moon Village's defense tonight.

Captain Lin could no longer fight, Captain Hua's fate was uncertain, and Captain Chen was missing.

The other vice-captains could at best delay and distract the anomaly. They had no chance of driving it off or killing it.

"It's over... Ancient Moon Village is finished!"

"So even he wasn't enough..."

"The human body is so much weaker than an anomaly's! Little Ye... no, Brother Ye had the potential to become a captain, but his combat skills are too crude. He can't compare to the captains, and he doesn't have a suitable weapon. He can't even pierce the anomaly's iron skin! If only he'd had a little more time to grow stronger, things wouldn't have turned out like this!"

"Damn it! We were so close to killing the invading anomaly!"

"Run! We can't stop it anymore. Let's scatter and flee to Mo Village next door to ask for shelter!"

Despite what they said, not a single villager moved.

Fleeing the village in the middle of the night and taking the road to Mo Village?

That was no different from asking to die.

At best, they'd die in the place where they'd grown up; otherwise, they'd die on the road in the wilderness.

The choice was obvious.