Black Rock Giant Ape

Deep in the Wilderness Zone of City 003.

Weeds had overrun the streets, and a black blur raced across the cracked, broken asphalt, speeding between abandoned overpasses and collapsed buildings.

At that speed, making that much noise, there was no way he was trying to hide.

The blur was, of course, Lin Fan.

He looked nothing like a student scavenging for junk anymore. He was downright reckless, acting as if the monsters of City 003 were nothing to him.

Naturally, his brazen sprint drew plenty of attention.

In the shadows of the surrounding ruins, countless pairs of greedy, savage eyes lit up, fixed on the foolish human.

But Lin Fan was moving way too damn fast. Some monsters had wanted to pounce on him, but before they could even rush out, he was already gone. All they could do was let out furious roars.

After charging several kilometers deeper into the zone, Lin Fan's expression suddenly changed.

Almost at the same time,

ROAR!!

A deafening roar rang out from his side.

Lin Fan turned to look. A hulking beast, over five meters long and covered in scarlet scales, smashed through a thick load-bearing wall and lunged at him with its jaws wide open.

"A high-level beast general—Red-Scaled Fire-Tail Leopard!"

The Red-Scaled Fire-Tail Leopard's scarlet scales gleamed with a metallic sheen in the sunlight. Each pounding stride made the ground rumble.

Two streams of scorching white vapor blasted from its nostrils. A sharp, meter-long horn on its head glinted coldly as it pointed straight at Lin Fan.

"Just what I wanted."

A flash of excitement lit Lin Fan's eyes.

He didn't slow down. Instead, he stomped hard on the ground in the middle of his high-speed charge.

Using the tremendous recoil, he pushed his speed even higher.

Rather than dodge, Lin Fan charged head-on at the Red-Scaled Fire-Tail Leopard as it barreled toward him.

Man and beast raced toward each other in the middle of the abandoned street.

At the instant they were about to collide, black light flashed in Lin Fan's hand.

Calamity, heavy and massive, cleaved through the air, sweeping out in a terrifying black arc.

The shriek of the blade tearing through the air drowned out the monster's roar.

"Mountain Collapse!"

Lin Fan barked the skill's name, his arm muscles instantly tensing.

His grasp of the technique was still shallow; he couldn't yet achieve a true shock that shattered the target from within.

But he had more than sixty thousand kilograms of brute strength, along with Calamity's astonishing weight of over ten tons.

He didn't need any fancy technique. This was the sheer force of overwhelming strength!

Whoosh!!

It was like a hot knife slicing through butter.

The Red-Scaled Fire-Tail Leopard's prized skull and its horn were cut off as easily as paper the moment they met the blade.

Its tough scales were no match for Calamity's edge.

Carried by its tremendous momentum, the headless leopard's body hurtled forward for dozens of meters. It crashed through a wall before finally slamming to the ground.

Blood gushed from the Red-Scaled Fire-Tail Leopard's corpse like a fountain, instantly staining the ground red.

Its massive body twitched a few times, then went still.

"Too weak."

Lin Fan glanced at the Red-Scaled Fire-Tail Leopard's body where it had fallen, then gave his wrist a slight flick to shake the blood from his blade.

He walked over and stowed the corpse in his Space Ring.

To ordinary warriors, this high-level beast general would have been the stuff of nightmares. But now it wasn't even worthy of making him break stride; he could kill one with ease.

In the course of the afternoon, he had killed more than ten high-level beast generals.

From agile feline monsters to the incredibly well-defended Iron-Armored Rhino, every one of them had been cut in two by a single swing.

"Looks like high-level beast generals aren't enough for me anymore. Time to find a lord-level monster..."

Lin Fan glanced at the sky. Before he knew it, night had fallen.

And nights in the Wilderness Zone were more than ten times as dangerous as the daytime.

The scavenger squads had all returned to the Base City, while all kinds of ferocious beasts that preferred the night were emerging from their dens.

With one factor decreasing and the other increasing, the danger had multiplied several times over.

But Lin Fan didn't care. He had no intention of returning to the Base City.

He headed to the top floor of an abandoned shopping mall.

The view was wide open, overlooking most of the surrounding streets.

This was also the boundary between the territories of two lords.

Just then, a low, oppressive growl came from deep in the street below.

"Roar..."

The sound wasn't particularly loud, but every monster that heard it scattered and fled.

As the rumble of the ground grew louder, Lin Fan looked down.

Beneath the moonlight, a hulking figure slowly emerged from the shadows.

It was an ape-like monster that walked upright, nearly fifteen meters tall and resembling a moving hill.

Its body was covered in a thick layer of black, rock-like hide. The layers were so dense they seemed even tougher than alloy.

Its arms reached past its knees, thick as support pillars, and swung gently at its sides as it walked.

Its crimson eyes shone in the dark like two searchlights, radiating savagery and cruelty.

"An elementary lord-level monster, the Black Rock Giant Ape."

Lin Fan watched the giant ape, a grin slowly spreading across his face.

The Black Rock Giant Ape was an ape-type monster. Not only was it highly intelligent, but it combined strength with formidable defense, making it one of the most difficult monsters to deal with.

And as a lord-level monster, it was even more troublesome.

An ordinary junior-level God of War would probably have to go out of their way to avoid it.

"Finally, you're out."

Lin Fan flipped his wrist and gripped Calamity crosswise. Then, without hesitation, he leaped straight off the roof of the dozens-of-meters-tall building.

He adjusted his position in midair, then crashed into the middle of the street like a black meteor.

The enormous impact sent dust billowing into the air. The concrete road burst apart, and fragments of stone went flying.

The Black Rock Giant Ape stopped and looked at the little figure who had suddenly appeared before it, puzzled.

As the dust cleared, a remarkably human look of suspicion appeared in the Black Rock Giant Ape's eyes.

"ROAR!!!"

The Black Rock Giant Ape bellowed and actually took several steps backward, away from Lin Fan.

It stared at Lin Fan, who held a scythe in his hand. Since reaching lord level, it hadn't felt like this in a long time.

Today, it had sensed an intensely dangerous presence coming from this tiny human.

That wasn't the scent of prey.

It was the presence of a predator of equal rank.