Death!

"Shit, it's just a student?"

The bald, burly man lowered the heavy machine gun he'd been holding, pointing its muzzle at the ground.

The tension in his nerves vanished in an instant, replaced by fury and frustration at having been fooled.

"Kid, where's the Shadow Cat that was here just now? Did you kill it?"

He strode forward, his boots kicking up gravel, and glared down at Lin Fan.

Lin Fan shrank his neck as if the man's ferocious presence had stunned him. He shook his head repeatedly, his cheeks trembling.

"I... I just got here."

His voice quavered, with the distinctive cracking quality of a boy going through puberty.

"I-I didn't see any cats. I just heard a noise and got scared, so I hid."

"Bullshit!"

The skinny team member holding the detector stepped forward and pointed the War Blade in his hand at Lin Fan's nose. Dark red blood still stained the blade.

The tip was less than five centimeters from Lin Fan's eye.

"With this much blood in the air, you're telling me you didn't see anything?"

The skinny team member regarded him with suspicion, his gaze cold. He even reached out to shove Lin Fan's shoulder.

"Did another team of martial artists just leave? What did they look like? Which way did they go? Tell us the truth, or I'll cut your tongue out!"

In their minds, there was no way this student, dressed in work boots with a shabby bag on his back and soft, tender skin, could have killed the Shadow Cat.

What a joke.

A monster as fast as the Shadow Cat could keep an ordinary team of martial artists busy for half a day.

This kid didn't even have a decent blade on him. How could he have killed it?

With his teeth?

At most, he was some unlucky passerby who'd stumbled into the wrong place at the wrong time.

"I... I really don't know, sirs. I just came here to scavenge some scrap metal and make enough to get by..."

Lin Fan took a step back, seeming terrified. His eyes were full of guileless stupidity and helplessness.

"Boss, stop wasting your breath on him."

The skinny team member glanced back at the bald leader, his face impatient.

"This kid looks dirt-poor. Everything he's got on him probably isn't worth as much as one pair of my socks."

"Probably just some idiot student who hasn't graduated yet, sneaking out to get rich."

As he spoke, his greedy gaze fell on the canvas bag on Lin Fan's back.

It looked flat, and there probably wasn't anything valuable inside.

But what if it held some scraps left behind by the experts who'd been here?

Even a few packs of high-energy compressed biscuits were worth money.

"Even a mosquito's leg is meat."

The bald man spat hard on the ground, looking thoroughly put out.

He'd been counting on making tens of thousands from those Shadow Cats, but they'd come up empty. Now the rage in his gut had nowhere to go.

"Kid, leave your bag, empty all your pockets, then get lost."

The bald man grinned, showing yellow teeth stained from years of smoking cheap cigarettes.

"Tough luck for you, running into me when I'm in a bad mood."

That was the law of the Wilderness Zone.

Raw and simple: the strong preyed on the weak.

When there was nothing to be gained, even a passing dog could get slapped twice, let alone a lone scavenger who looked utterly defenseless.

Lin Fan stood there with his eyes lowered.

He seemed uncertain, or perhaps afraid.

But in truth,

his gaze looked dull and vacant as it rapidly swept over the four men before him.

"Bald leader, carrying a modified heavy machine gun. Team members, carrying standard-issue War Blades..."

Having already seen blood, Lin Fan felt more than fear as he faced these vicious scavengers. Mostly, he felt indifferent.

Without the comfort of rules, life had become something he could regard with indifference.

Lin Fan drew a deep breath and lifted his head.

The look of fear and timidity vanished from his face like a receding tide.

In its place was an inexplicable calm.

Even a hint of anticipation?

"Um, I have a question."

Lin Fan spoke.

His voice no longer trembled. It was so unnaturally steady that everyone could hear it clearly over the wind.

"This is the Wilderness Zone, right?"

"If... I mean, if someone dies here, does nobody care? Nobody investigates?"

The four men opposite him all froze at the question, which had come out of nowhere.

Then they burst out laughing.

"Hahahahaha!"

The four of them laughed so hard they doubled over, as if they'd just heard the funniest joke in the world.

The skinny team member even clutched his stomach in exaggerated fashion, nearly dropping the War Blade in his hand.

"Care? Investigate?"

The bald man laughed until tears nearly came to his eyes. He looked at Lin Fan like he was an idiot and pointed at the desolate, lifeless ruins around them.

"Kid, did your schooling make you stupid? Or did a donkey kick you in the head?"

"Open your damn eyes and look around. Do you even know where you are?"

"This is the Wilderness Zone! A lawless land!"

The bald man's expression suddenly turned vicious. He leaned close to Lin Fan and spoke menacingly.

"Here, my gun is the law! My blade is justice!"

"I could kill you right now, chop you up, and bury you in that red soil. Who'd know we did it? Who'd investigate the death of some piece of trash?"

"Got it."

Lin Fan nodded.

"So there's no need to take responsibility."

"Nice."

Lin Fan murmured softly.

"What?"

The skinny team member standing at the front froze.

He had a vague sense that the boy's gaze had changed. It had become terrifying.

As if he were... looking at prey.

But his brain hadn't yet processed the danger signal.

The next second,

Lin Fan's finger twitched, and Calamity appeared in an instant.

But its position was carefully chosen.

Lin Fan's reasoning was simple: at less than a meter away, there wasn't enough room to use a heavy, long weapon, so he had no intention of swinging it sideways.

Instead, he chose the simplest and most brutal method.

Calamity, weighing three thousand kilograms, appeared without warning above the head of the skinny team member closest to Lin Fan.

No swing required.

No skill required.

Just the pure, irresistible—

acceleration of gravity!

"Die!"

Lin Fan spat the word coldly. As he leaped backward, Spiritual Force wrapped around Calamity and slammed it down!

Squish!

A dull thud that made the teeth ache.

It was like a plastic bag full of ketchup being crushed in an instant by a hydraulic press.

The skinny team member didn't even have time to scream.

The sudden three-ton weight crushed him from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet!

There was no time to cushion the impact.

In an instant, he became a meat pancake pasted to the ground!

Blood and bone fragments sprayed wildly in all directions, splattering the bald man standing beside him right in the face.

Warm.

Bloody.

The entire scene fell silent.