Destroying the Corpses and Covering the Tracks

Gan Ming stuffed the giant scorpion's corpse into the largest ring.

The four-meter-long scorpion body took up at least ten cubic meters, but the two-hundred-cubic-meter space could hold it.

He stood and looked up at the sky.

The sun was already hanging over the ruins' horizon.

After sunset, monsters grew fifteen to thirty percent stronger.

He remembered the rules the security personnel had mentioned.

"I really need to head back."

But before leaving, there was still one thing he needed to do.

Gan Ming took several rings from his pocket.

The four Awakened corpses were stored separately in three of the rings.

Carrying these things around was no different from carrying four time bombs.

Since he had done it, he had to clean up properly.

Relying on his discounted Beast Scent, he wandered through the depths of the Ruins Zone for another half hour.

During that time, he deliberately avoided every Awakened scent.

He specifically headed into remote areas.

In the end.

Near the remains of a partially collapsed underground parking lot, he caught the scent of a pack of Rustclaw Hounds.

Not bad. There were five of them.

Gan Ming circled around to the downwind side.

Then tossed the first corpse out of the ring.

Thud.

The corpse slammed onto the rubble, and the smell of blood instantly spread.

Less than three seconds later, the nearest hound leaped out with a howl.

The second followed, then the third.

All five hounds pounced on it.

The sounds of biting, cracking bones, and low growls as they fought over the food.

Gan Ming crouched behind a broken wall twenty meters away and watched expressionlessly.

He tossed out the four corpses one after another, two or three minutes apart.

The five hounds ate with great enthusiasm.

From beginning to end, not one hound glanced in his direction.

It was not because he had concealed himself particularly well.

It was because the smell on him was simply too complicated.

Hound blood, scorpion ichor, lizard scale powder...

Along with several hours' worth of his own sweat and dust.

Mixed together, the stench was so overpowering that even a hound's nose could not distinguish his human scent.

Even his own [Beast Scent +7] had been fumigated into uselessness.

During this time.

Gan Ming remained crouched behind the broken wall, watching while handling the real business.

He took out all four people's equipment from the rings and counted it item by item.

Weapons, armor, ammunition, consumables.

He stuffed all of it into his rings.

Later, he would find some inconspicuous channels to sell it off in batches, one item every few days instead of dumping it all at once.

By the end, only four identity cards remained in his hand.

Gan Ming discovered that all four were Formal Cards.

The cards were made of sturdier material, embedded with a ring of dark silver Source Essence patterns.

They were different from his Temporary Awakened Identity Card.

Gan Ming recalled what the review officer had said that morning.

Once he reached level 60, he could return to the center to complete the formalization procedures.

But these four people were only level sixteen or seventeen. How had they gotten Formal Cards?

Forget it.

Thinking about such questions for even one extra second was a waste of time.

He could ask someone from the association whenever he had the chance.

Gan Ming turned the four cards over in his hands, hesitating for several seconds.

The Contribution Points balances on the cards... he could not touch them.

These days, everything could be traced.

If he used a dead person's card, even to withdraw just one Contribution Point.

The backend would record the time, location, and terminal number.

Every one of those was a potential problem.

Since the law did not interfere with fighting between Awakened.

It certainly would not interfere with vendettas between Awakened either.

Gan Ming stacked the four identity cards together.

Then pressed down with the thumbs and index fingers of both hands.

Crack.

The sound of the Source Essence patterns breaking was very faint.

He snapped them one by one.

Making sure each card had been bent into at least three pieces.

He dug out the chip sections with his fingernails and crushed them separately.

He ground the fragments into powder in his palm.

Then flung them into rubble piles in different directions.

"Not making money when you can is stupid. Making money that will get you killed is suicidal."

Gan Ming wiped the debris from his hands onto the wall.

Only after the last corpse had been gnawed completely clean did he rise and draw his twin swords.

The five hounds had just eaten their fill and did not even have a chance to react.

Two minutes later.

They were all dead.

Gan Ming stored the hound corpses in his ring and kicked some rubble across the ground.

Not perfect, but good enough.

Anything monsters ate could not be reconstructed by any detection method.

It was part of the Fallen Zone's ecosystem.

Even if someone came to investigate, they would only see traces of a battle.

After finishing all this, Gan Ming let out a long breath and turned toward the entrance of the Ruins Zone.

Good.

From this day onward, there would be no evidence left in the world that those four people had ever existed.

By the time he reached the sentry post's iron gate, the sky had already started turning orange.

The outlines of the distant ruins were edged in gold by the setting sun.

Inside the iron gate, several security personnel were changing shifts.

When the security officer in charge of registration saw Gan Ming approach, his eyebrows rose.

"Oh?"

He pushed open the gate and looked Gan Ming up and down, taking in his filth-covered appearance.

Grayish-brown hound fur clung to his shoulders.

Dried scorpion ichor had crusted over the surface of his chest armor.

Lizard scale powder had dyed his leg guards gray-white.

No one knew what had smeared onto his helmet, but its original iron-gray color was completely unrecognizable.

Those two holes in his leather armor?

They could not be seen at all.

They were completely caked over with all kinds of grime.

As for those few drops of Awakened blood?

They had long been drowned out by the monster fluids covering his body, without a trace left to find.

The security officer wrinkled his nose.

"Brother, did you pickle yourself?"

The two security officers chatting nearby looked over at the sound.

One of them immediately covered his nose.

Gan Ming naturally noticed their expressions.

But he could not smell himself.

With Beast Scent active, his nose had already gone numb.

After turning it off, the world instead felt much fresher.

The registration officer looked Gan Ming over for several seconds, then nodded.

"Good enough that you came back alive."

"Making it back from the depths in that gear takes some skill."

Another security officer leaned over.

His tone carried a hint of curiosity.

"You went in alone? Didn't join a team?"

Gan Ming smiled at that, his face full of relief at having survived a disaster.

"Don't mention it. Things were fine when I first went in. I found a small team."

"Then we ran into a few hounds. When the fight started, I could barely keep up with the pace."

"But later, I don't know if we went too deep or what, but we ran into a giant scorpion. It nearly sent all of us to our deaths."

He slapped the dry shell of insect ichor on his chest armor.

"They thought I was too useless, so they kicked me out."

"That's why I came out. I even got lost for over twenty minutes along the way."

The registration officer laughed at Gan Ming's words.

"Normal. The Ruins Zone's terrain is complicated. Eight out of ten solo freelancers get lost the first time they enter."

"Getting out in one piece already puts you ahead of most people."

"Just luck." Gan Ming waved his hand. "I can probably break even today."

The security officers did not mock him.

A solo freelancer wearing three pieces of gray gear who dared enter the Ruins Zone alone, came back alive, and claimed he had broken even.

Someone like that was either weak but absurdly lucky.

Or deeply concealing his strength.

But the security officers did not care about that.

What they cared about was changing shifts and getting off work.

"All right, scan your card and get going."

The registration officer handed over the terminal.

Gan Ming scanned his card and was about to turn away when the registration officer added:

"If you're coming again tomorrow, come early."