Darkness Domain!

In full view of everyone, beneath the glaring lights of military vehicles and helicopters, Xiao Hao's eerie shadow was plain to see.

The shadow writhed, seethed, devoured the ground, and swallowed the light!

It was as though an underground abyss had surfaced, its terrifying darkness consuming everything! It swept through every obstacle at an impossible speed!

The dark horizon swallowed the Giant Tree's remains and consumed the entire battlefield!

Darkness descended, blotting out the sky!

These wild monsters had thought this king would spare them as he had during the day.

But this time, they were wrong.

This king intended to slaughter every last one of them!

The horde grew restless, fear mingling with unease. Their pitiful little brains could not understand why ordinary hunting had provoked the king's wrath.

With the seven Shadow Seahorses, the Darkness Domain was stacked eightfold!

The wild monsters felt parched, as though the moisture in their bodies was constantly being drained away.

Beyond their sight, their vitality was unraveled and extracted bit by bit. Their intangible life force seemed to gather into threads that emerged from their bodies.

The human soldiers were terrified too.

Their flashlights were still on, as were their vehicle headlights and all the other powerful lights, yet everything before them remained pitch-black. They could not even see their own hands!

As though sensing the soldiers' unease, Xiao Hao pulled the Darkness Domain away from the human positions and concentrated it entirely on the Insect Monsters.

Only then did they truly understand how terrifying the number one player was.

Their lights shone into the darkness ahead, only to be swallowed completely, as if by a black hole!

The hellish battlefield seemed shrouded in a dark fog. Nothing could be heard but the helicopters' rotors slicing through the air. The soldiers exchanged looks, still gripping their submachine guns tightly.

Wounded soldiers stared anxiously at the dark fog, ignoring the blood seeping through their bandages.

Soon, the raw sounds of beasts fighting to the death came from the darkness, along with the dull thuds of bodies hitting the ground.

They could hear it clearly. The wild monsters always came within a hair's breadth of escaping the darkness, but whenever they approached the Darkness Domain's boundary, the sound of blades cleaving flesh rang out.

Wang He and the other team leaders spoke quietly over their headsets.

"Do you think he can win?"

"I don't know about winning, but as the number one player, he probably won't die here."

"He created that dark fog. He must be confident."

"One man against a whole horde of monsters-even if they don't kill him, won't he die of exhaustion?"

"Whatever happens, we need to stay ready for combat. Keep the soldiers focused!"

"Understood!"

After just one minute, a figure emerged from the darkness, his steps steady and his presence commanding.

The fog dispersed, revealing devastation everywhere.

Every wild monster was dead. Some had killed one another in the darkness, some had withered and rotted, some looked as though laser beams had sliced them into chunks, and others had been whipped into pieces by some tremendous force.

Even the insect queen that had been continually laying eggs amid the Giant Tree's remains had been chopped into a pulp.

Countless insect eggs had burst, their disgusting contents flowing from the Giant Tree like resin.

A breeze swept past, carrying the pungent stench of monster slime across the battlefield and stirring the hem of the shadowy figure's trench coat.

The soldiers stared openmouthed at the gruesomely slaughtered monsters, then turned their eyes as one toward Xiao Hao.

This was the number one player?

This was the number one player!

The soldiers cheered for victory and their narrow escape from death, but after a few seconds, their joy died away.

Too many of their comrades had fallen.

Suppressing his pain, Wang He said to Xiao Hao, "Join the Dragon Transformation Pool! The Dragon Kingdom needs you!"

Many soldiers turned their attention back to Xiao Hao.

The combat power the number one player had displayed was overwhelming!

He truly was a one-man army!

In fact, he alone could rival an entire army!

Xiao Hao lowered his head slightly. After a moment of silence, he shook it.

"Why!"

Wang He could not keep the accusation out of his voice, and the soldiers around him could not hide their disappointment either.

With such tremendous combat power, why couldn't he join the Dragon Transformation Pool and protect the Dragon Kingdom?

Xiao Hao sighed softly.

The voice beneath the Shadow Mask remained deep and resonant. "You'll understand someday."

With that, Xiao Hao's figure gradually faded, a sign of Shadow Transformation.

"I don't understand! The Dragon Kingdom's players are already at a disadvantage. We need someone like you to shoulder the burden! But you're choosing to run away!"

His fading slowed for a moment. Xiao Hao gently raised his head, turning his shadowed face toward Wang He. "Not all the top players can join the Dragon Transformation Pool."

Without explaining further, Xiao Hao transformed into an Aurora Shadow and shot into the sky.

Once he joined the Dragon Transformation Pool, his every action would represent the Dragon Kingdom.

To him, that would be a restraint, a shackle.

Suppose players from another country used underhanded tactics against him or the Dragon Kingdom. Would Xiao Hao be free to strike back without reservations?

If he belonged to the Dragon Transformation Pool, would his actions have diplomatic repercussions?

The Survival Game had only just begun. He could not put any shackles on himself.

As long as he remained an independent player, his actions would represent only himself, not the Dragon Kingdom.

If players from other countries dared to step out of line, he could retaliate a hundred or a thousand times over, and their leaders would still be unable to use that against the Dragon Kingdom, because Xiao Hao did not represent it.

Failing to shoulder one's responsibilities, or refusing to face one's vulnerabilities-that was running away.

Xiao Hao acted with a clear conscience and had wronged no one. He had merely chosen the path most advantageous to himself.

Xiao Hao had not corrected Wang He's accusation. If that was what Wang He believed, so be it.

As a child, he had feared encountering ghosts when walking at night. As an adult, he feared encountering people.

If humanity could truly stand united, he would not have needed to hide his identity.

Just as he had said, Wang He would understand someday.

After Xiao Hao left, nothing remained of the battlefield but ruins.

The soldiers could no longer hold back. They broke down sobbing.

These hardened men feared neither wounds nor bloodshed, but they feared losing those close to them, one after another.

They cried like children.

The comrades they had lived and worked alongside were dead.

They did not know how to face their families.

Wang He's eyes brimmed with tears, but he fought to keep from making a sound.

The commanding officers did not stop the soldiers from venting their emotions. With their men dying one after another, their own hearts were bleeding too.

The military vehicles and tanks were covered in grime mixed with blood. The soldiers gathered their comrades' bodies, wanting to bring every one of them home.

It was only a cool midsummer breeze, yet it pierced their hearts and chilled them to the bone.

What a cold summer it was.

Only the labored breathing of men carrying heavy burdens remained on the battlefield. No one spoke. The silence was terrifying.

From time to time, someone angrily hacked at a monster's corpse, and no one stopped them.

Xiao Hao watched everything below from midair, leaving only after a long while.