The Black-hearted System!

"Fuck, that murderous bastard."

"Brother Zhang, throw away that bead—the Wolf King is clearly after it."

Wang Ling cried out.

At this moment, the Wolf King had actually bypassed the beast horde and was charging straight at them.

A fifth-level beast king, its speed like rushing thunder, could catch up to them—mere First-grade Martial Artists—in an instant.

"No time! Give me the bead!"

Seeing the Wolf King closing in, Lin Mo shouted. Without waiting for Zhang Junjie to react, he snatched the bead and bolted in another direction.

"Lin Mo!"

Everyone was stunned. No one had expected Lin Mo to choose this moment to lure away the beast horde and the Wolf King alone.

"Don't worry about me—you all run!"

At this moment, Lin Mo erupted with full force, his speed astonishing.

His words still hung in the air as his figure shrank to a black dot in their eyes, vanishing into the distance.

"Roar!"

Sensing the Thunder Bead moving away, the Wolf King bellowed in fury, immediately pivoted, and charged after Lin Mo's disappearing form.

The hundreds of Mutant Beasts also turned in a chaotic mass, following the Wolf King in pursuit.

"Whew!"

Seeing the beast horde retreat, Zhang Junjie and the others, still running, finally stopped to watch and let out long sighs of relief.

But now they were all silent, their hearts heavy with worry.

In just one short day together, Lin Mo had carved out a significant place in their hearts.

Especially what Lin Mo had just done—it moved them deeply.

Even Guo Hong, who had never shown Lin Mo a kind face, was now staring fixedly in the direction Lin Mo had vanished.

"He... will he be okay?"

It was Guo Hong who asked this first, his face unable to hide his concern.

At a moment of crisis, this teammate—barely more than a stranger—had been willing to sacrifice himself to save them.

So it turned out the world wasn't full of selfish, malicious people after all.

"That's a fifth-level Thunder Horned Giant Wolf King. Lin Mo isn't even Grade 2 yet... he... wuwu..." Wang Ling choked up, tears in her eyes, unable to finish.

"Not necessarily."

Suddenly, Qin Bufan spoke up.

Everyone's eyes snapped to him.

"Ahem. The speed Lin Mo showed when he left just now—that's absolutely not something a Grade 2 could achieve. Even that bastard who lured the disaster here was only that fast."

Unusually, Qin Bufan said so much in one go.

"Huh?"

Hearing this, everyone froze, recalling the scene from before.

Indeed, Lin Mo's speed just now was astonishing—impossible for a First-grade or even Grade 2 Martial Artist.

"Could it be... he was hiding his strength?"

They stared in disbelief. Though the guess seemed unlikely, their subconscious wanted to believe it.

After all, only if Lin Mo had hidden his strength could he possibly escape from a fifth-level Wolf King.

"I hope he's safe." Guo Li also spoke up, breaking her usual silence.

"Let's go. We'll wait for him outside and also look into that bastard's information."

When mentioning the bastard who had lured the beast tide, Zhang Junjie ground his teeth.

"Right. That bastard has a conspicuous scar on his face—should be easy to track down."

Guo Hong added with hatred.

Everyone nodded and hurried toward the outer perimeter.

Now, the mission or whatever didn't matter anymore.

Lin Mo's safety and that bastard's information were the only things that counted.

If not for that bastard, they wouldn't have fallen into such danger.

And Lin Mo wouldn't have had to lure the monsters away with his own body, his life hanging in the balance.

On the other side, Lin Mo had been sprinting nonstop and was now somewhat lost.

Just now, he had snatched the bead, picked a direction, and run—he had no idea where he was now.

Feeling the tremors in the distance, he knew the Mutant Beasts behind him hadn't given up the chase.

Clearly, his current strength wasn't enough to shake off that Wolf King.

Choosing to fight—a Fifth-grade Wolf King—he couldn't win right now.

But if he kept running like this, he'd eventually exhaust himself.

What to do?

Suddenly, he spotted a large mud pit on the left ahead.

Without hesitation, he leaped into the air, plunged into the mud pit, and buried that bead deep within the mire.

He himself was now covered head to toe in mud.

Sensing the beast horde closing in, Lin Mo immediately held his breath and sank into the mud.

"Roar!"

The Wolf King, having run not far away, suddenly let out a furious roar, its voice laced with agitation.

At this moment, it had lost all sense of the Thunder Bead, and even the human's aura had vanished.

How was that possible?

It halted in its tracks, lifted its head, and sniffed the air fiercely.

"Roar~"

Then, after half a day of searching, it found nothing at all—and grew enraged.

With a furious roar, it bit down on a nearby Third-grade Mutant Beast.

"Crack." Accompanied by the beast's mournful cry, the Wolf King swallowed it whole to vent its anger.

The surrounding Mutant Beasts trembled and whimpered, but none dared to act out.

They all lowered their heads, not daring to meet its gaze.

Such was the suppression of rank among Mutant Beasts.

Before a Fifth-grade king, no other beast, regardless of its kind, dared to resist.

"Aoow!"

After devouring half the carcass, the Wolf King threw back its head and howled, then led the charge in one direction.

The other beasts hurriedly followed.

The vast procession gradually faded into the distance.

After a while longer, a string of bubbles rose to the surface of the mud pit.

The next second, a figure crawled out, gasping for air.

"Damn, that almost suffocated me."

Lin Mo panted for a long time before slowly coming to his senses.

"Good thing there was a big mud pit."

Lin Mo felt a lingering fear.

Fortunately, the academy had taught that these wild mud pits had many uses.

The mud inside could block aura detection and thermal imaging.

The Wolf King couldn't see him, yet had chased him all the way here.

It must have been tracking him by his aura or the bead's aura to pinpoint his location.

So he decided to give it a try.

Luckily, it worked just like the lesson said.

He had escaped this calamity.

But Lin Mo didn't rush. The Wolf King hadn't left long ago, so it probably wasn't far yet.

He didn't dare climb out of the mud pit or take out the bead just now.

So he waited there for a while longer.

Not until two hours later, when Lin Mo felt sure the Wolf King was far away, did he dig out the bead.

"What is this?"

Staring at the bead with purple lightning flickering inside, Lin Mo was momentarily baffled.

These rare things hadn't been taught in class.

[Ding, detected that the host has obtained a Thunder Bead. Recycle to the system? Can exchange for 500 points of Vitality.]

"What? Exchange for 500 Vitality?"

Hearing this prompt, Lin Mo was startled.

With an extra 500 Vitality, he could directly step into the Fourth-grade Martial Artist realm.

His combat power would reach over 12,000, nearly rivaling Sixth-grade strength.

But the more that was the case, the more it proved that this so-called Thunder Bead was extraordinary.

Otherwise, would the system give such a reward?

So, Lin Mo took out the GPS phone he had prepared earlier and directly searched online.

He hadn't known what he was looking at, but once he saw it, he was shocked.

"Holy shit, this is a good thing. System, you're really damn shady. Such a great item, and you only give 500 health?"

Amid his surprise, Lin Mo also cursed the black-hearted system.

He'd almost been tricked!