All Thanks to Acting—This Time, He Was Playing on the Fifth Level

Gan Ming moved quickly through the Woodland, his steps fast and steady.

Movement kept coming from both sides.

Pig Monsters behind the trees snorted as they rooted through the ground.

In the distance, the Tree Spirits' dead branches rustled in the wind.

Ten minutes ago, all of those had been experience points.

Now?

They were all obstacles.

Suddenly, an Iron Bristle Wild Boar burst out of the bushes and blocked his path.

Its three-hundred-pound gray body sprawled across the middle of the trail, tusks jutting outward as its beady eyes glared at him.

Gan Ming glanced at the Pig Monster without even drawing his blade.

He turned sideways and squeezed through the gap between the boar and a tree trunk.

The Pig Monster was clearly stunned as well. It snorted twice but did not give chase.

It was not that Gan Ming did not want to kill it. It simply was not worth it.

What he needed to do now was far more important than killing pigs.

He needed to run for his life!

Gan Ming's face was livid.

Not from pain, but from rage.

No, even rage was not quite the right word.

It was something he had long since become familiar with while surviving in the Lower District.

He was being treated like an animal.

When his wages were docked while hauling cargo, he could endure it.

When someone stole his only blanket while he slept beneath a bridge, he could still endure it.

When a security guard from the proper districts kicked him while he was running deliveries, he endured that too.

Because back then, he really was an animal.

He had no right to resist, much less the means to do so.

But today was different.

Today, he was no longer an undocumented nobody huddling beneath a bridge, wrapped in cardboard to survive the winter.

He was an Awakened.

He had Soul Snatch.

So he remembered this debt.

Gan Ming began considering how to take revenge.

To kill someone like that, he would need to do it in a single fatal strike.

He absolutely could not give him a chance to draw his bow, call for help, or flee.

But right now, there was a five-level gap between them, and their equipment was several tiers apart as well.

What about skills?

The other man had nine combat skills and two specializations, while Gan Ming had four Soul Snatch skills and one healing skill.

The difference in quantity was not great, but their quality was on completely different levels.

That man's skills formed a complete archery system—ranged attacks, movement, Tracking, Stealth, all capable of working together.

Gan Ming's skills had been stripped from pigs and trees. They were useful, but they were all close-combat and defensive abilities.

To kill an archer, the first problem was figuring out how to get close.

Then he had to consider how to stop the lackeys from interfering.

If he could not end it quickly, everything else was meaningless.

So he could not rush.

Wait!

Wait until his level crushed the other man's, until Soul Snatch stripped more skills from more targets.

Wait until he stood before that archer and the man did not even have time to think of resisting.

People who came from the Lower District had a bad habit.

If they did not take revenge, fine. But once they did, they went for the kill.

Gan Ming's pace grew faster and faster.

He did not deliberately check his direction, because he had been memorizing the route on the way in.

Eight minutes later.

He caught the scent of people from the direction of the entrance.

More precisely, he smelled smoke.

Someone was smoking near the entrance.

Gan Ming slowed down.

After taking a deep breath, his livid expression instantly changed into that of a newbie who had spent all afternoon hunting monsters, made a decent haul, and was in a good mood.

There was excitement, exhaustion, and a touch of satisfaction.

It was just right.

Metal railings came into view.

The two security officers had not changed their positions.

The one on the left leaned against the railing with a cigarette between his fingers, while the one on the right squatted on the ground, playing with his terminal.

They were both Second Tier.

The moment Gan Ming stepped out of the Woodland, the security officer on the left was the first to raise his head.

The instant he recognized him, the man was visibly stunned.

Then, he quickly exchanged a look with his colleague on the right.

The meaning was obvious: How was this kid still alive?

Gan Ming had clearly noticed something was off.

Yet he pretended not to see it, smiling as he walked toward the railing.

The security officer on the left stubbed out his cigarette and came forward on his own.

"Yo, Little Gan, right? Why are you heading back so early? Not hunting a little longer?"

His tone was quite friendly.

It was completely different from the indifferent attitude he had shown when sending Gan Ming in four hours ago.

Gan Ming smiled and replied, "Just as you said, there aren't many people here today."

"Naturally."

The security officer glanced into the woods and continued,

"On weekdays, it's mostly solo hunters. Students and new guild members only come in crowds on weekends."

"Go ahead and kill as many monsters as you want today. You can hunt until four, and no one will fight you for them."

"I'd like to keep hunting."

Gan Ming showed him his ring with a pained expression.

"But this thing isn't very useful. It only has fifty cubic meters."

"With the size of Pig Monsters and Tree Spirits, it fills up after only a few kills."

The security officer's brows rose slightly.

Filled up?

A fifty-cubic-meter storage space was not large,

but even if it was packed tightly with Pig Monster and Tree Spirit corpses, it could hold around fourteen or fifteen.

This kid had killed seventeen or eighteen in one afternoon?

"What level are you now?" he asked afterward.

"Level 5."

Gan Ming answered quickly, his voice carrying the joy of someone who had just leveled up.

Level 5.

The security officer sized him up.

He had gone in at Level 1 and come out at Level 5.

Four levels in two hours was not especially fast.

But for a poor bastard with only the three basic pieces of equipment, it was believable enough.

"Not bad, Little Gan." The security officer nodded. "From Level 1 to Level 5 in three or four hours—pretty efficient. Your innate talent must be pretty strong, huh?"

Gan Ming gave a faint smile and did not answer.

He neither admitted nor denied it.

But that very response—smiling without saying a word—made the two security officers exchange another glance.

Their way of thinking was simple. If he would only smile and not speak, then he probably really had something up his sleeve.

Having a strong talent but not wanting to reveal it was standard practice for an Awakened.

The more someone hid, the more they had.

Gan Ming understood that perfectly well.

That was exactly the direction he wanted the two of them to guess in.

Go on, guess.

What did it have to do with him if they guessed wrong?

"All right, then. Give me back the communicator." The security officer held out his hand.

Gan Ming lowered his head, removed the thumb-sized black device from the shoulder strap of his leather armor, and handed it over.

"Thanks."

The security officer took the communicator, weighed it in his hand, and slipped it into his pocket.

"Then I'll head back to the city first and come again tomorrow."

Gan Ming looked down at his tattered clothes, stained with pig blood and Tree Spirit sap, and made a disgusted face.

"Once I sell the materials, I'll buy some clothes and take a bath while I'm at it."

The two security officers chuckled at that.

Sure enough, people from the Lower District never beat around the bush.

"Go on, then. Get some good rest. See you tomorrow."

"Yeah. See you tomorrow."

Gan Ming nodded to them, then stepped lightly past the railing and headed down the asphalt road he had come by.