Hunted

Oh, come on! I only came back to grab something. Was this really necessary?

Did monsters seriously spawn wherever I went?

This time, Xu Le did not hesitate. He took off running.

He was certainly curious about why there was a corpse inside the safe zone and where it was.

But he no longer had time to find out.

These fifteen seconds were his window to escape.

Besides, an Oddity's spawn time did not necessarily match the time given in the notification.

Old Zhou's transformation had happened a few seconds earlier than the notification indicated last time. Not much earlier, but it had definitely happened ahead of schedule.

In short, all he had to do was run. At a time like this, nothing mattered more than escaping.

Just as Xu Le charged downstairs and broke into a sprint,

a girl with shoulder-length hair stopped him.

"Excuse me, could I ask you... Huh? It's you, Xu Le!"

Xu Le?

Fine, I admitted your voice was pretty nice, but you weren't going to tempt me!

He instinctively looked at the girl. She had a rosy, oval face, bright, lovely eyes beneath her brows, and thick, silky black hair.

Beneath that sweet exterior, she also had a curvaceous figure.

Compared to Zhou Tingting's flat figure, the difference was night and day.

Yet the original owner's memories contained absolutely nothing about the girl before him. Were some memories missing?

Never mind. There was no point thinking about that now.

Although you called me Xu Le, I still had to run. Whatever our relationship was, it wasn't worth more than my life.

"Let go. I'm trying to escape with my life."

Xu Le tried to leave immediately, but the female student was quicker. She grabbed him before he could get away.

To Xu Le's embarrassment, he actually failed to break free.

Xu Le wanted to explain properly, but there was no time left.

"Let go already! There's an Oddity behind us!" he roared at the girl.

The girl was bewildered. An Oddity?

Even if the Black Tide was tonight, surely an Oddity wouldn't appear already? There should still be several hours until midnight...

Wait, what was that?

The girl had clearly caught sight of something out of the corner of her eye. Xu Le saw it too.

Something extremely muscular charged toward them.

A Living Corpse. Although Xu Le had only seen one before, he was certain that the thing behind them was a Living Corpse!

Its form differed from Zhou Ke's transformed state, with those elongated joints.

The Living Corpse before him was covered in bulging muscles. Its powerful body and almost protruding skeleton instantly reminded Xu Le of a monster from a certain game.

A Tyrant!

"If you want to die, do it yourself! Why drag me into it?"

Xu Le hurriedly pried the woman's fingers loose and prepared to turn and flee.

"But, Xu Le... aren't you taking me with you?"

Panic had begun creeping into the girl's voice. Although the grip she had just displayed was clearly much stronger than Xu Le's,

but she did not seem any braver than Xu Le.

And after the girl saw the Oddity, Xu Le received a new notification.

[Regional Heart Energy is rising sharply. Please exercise caution.]

[All Oddities savor fear. Fear is the delicacy that draws them.]

Fear. Heart Energy.

Xu Le had received similar notifications before, but what happened afterward showed that his fear did not attract Oddities.

He could even absorb the Psyche Worm's emotions, so he generally did not worry about Heart Energy.

But the woman before him was different.

If she became frightened enough, she would undoubtedly turn into a beacon in the eyes of the Oddities.

After all, this Living Corpse was not the only Oddity here.

Five Heads, the Ghost-Type Oddity that had left earlier, was somewhere on campus too.

Faced with the girl's question, Xu Le did not know how to answer for a moment.

He did not even know what relationship he had with the girl before him. Could they be dating?

"Motherfucking fuck! Bleeding hearts usually don't survive three episodes!"

After swearing, Xu Le seized the girl's arm, and the two began sprinting.

The Living Corpse gave chase. Judging by its clothes, it had probably been a dorm supervisor here before it died.

Had the dorm supervisor died in one of the rooms upstairs? Next door to his own room?

The Living Corpse chasing people had already drawn the attention of some students.

"What's that?"

"An Oddity?"

"How could there be a Living Corpse at school?"

"Aah!"

When the Living Corpse appeared among the crowd, the students' first reaction was likewise to run.

But compared to them, Xu Le was in an even worse situation!

As the Living Corpse rushed toward the two of them, it opened its enormous mouth.

Its main target was the girl Xu Le was pulling along. Fear held an irresistible allure for the Oddity.

Clearly, the effects of Heart Energy had begun to take hold.

Xu Le pulled the girl through a window. At that moment, he was as fast as a cheetah and as agile as a lemur.

The Medallion against his chest grew slightly warm, and Xu Le's mind entered a state of unprecedented clarity.

This felt pretty good!

What surprised him was that the girl beside him could keep pace with all his running and jumping.

Perhaps they really could shake off the Living Corpse.

Boom!

The sound of a wall shattering rang out behind them.

Xu Le stole a glance and felt a little despair.

Fine. They couldn't.

Reality was often worse than he imagined. The Living Corpse was clearly faster than Xu Le and the girl, and its strength and physique were overwhelmingly powerful.

Whenever it encountered an obstacle, it simply smashed straight through. All Xu Le and the girl's jumping and rolling made them look like a pair of clowns.

"Xu Le, are we going to die? I don't want to die!"

The girl cried as she ran, moving even faster than before.

Xu Le, meanwhile, felt thoroughly unlucky, because he realized he could not outrun her!

A famous scholar had once said that when a lion chased you, you did not need to run faster than the lion. You only needed to run faster than the other humans.

But now someone was running faster than me. What was I supposed to do? Waiting for answers. Urgent.

Still, Xu Le had underestimated just how enticing Heart Energy was to an Oddity.

The Living Corpse caught up with them, but instead of attacking him, it lunged at the girl ahead and to his left.

"Hey! Motherfucking fuck!"

Xu Le could not help swearing again. He drove hard off his rear leg, the Veteran’s Soul granting him unprecedented strength.

He thrust out a foot and kicked the girl ahead of him clean away.

Whoosh!

Sharp claws swept between them.

Xu Le narrowly dodged the strike, while the girl lost a few strands of hair.

After its attack failed, the Living Corpse stared at the girl for a moment. Then, surprisingly, it abandoned that delicious, enticing fear and turned to look at Xu Le, who had spoiled its meal.

It bared its teeth and flicked its long tongue across them.

Xu Le took a few steps back. Once he had put some distance between them, he tightened his grip on his sword's hilt.

Facing a Living Corpse once again, Xu Le was surprisingly calm.

It was a strange sensation. He did not think he was incapable of feeling fear.

Rather, some force was absorbing that fear.

After his fear and panic were absorbed, what flowed back to him was unparalleled calm and mental clarity.

"Guyinduo Soul Tree! If you really belong to me... then give me a hand!"