Black-hearted System!

"Fuck, that damned bastard."

"Brother Zhang, toss that bead! The Wolf King is clearly coming for it."

Wang Ling cried out in alarm.

At that moment, the Wolf King actually bypassed the beast horde and charged straight at them.

A Fifth-level Beast King was as fast as Rushing Thunder. It could catch up to First-grade Martial Artists like them in an instant.

"Too late! Give me the bead!"

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

"Lin Mo!"

Everyone was shocked. None of them had expected Lin Mo to choose this moment to draw away the beast horde and the Wolf King alone.

"Don't worry about me! Run first!"

Lin Mo erupted with all his strength, moving at astonishing speed.

His words had barely faded when his figure became a black speck before their eyes and vanished into the distance.

"Roar!"

Sensing the Thunder Bead moving away, the Wolf King let out a furious roar, immediately changed direction, and raced toward where Lin Mo had disappeared.

Hundreds of Mutant Beasts also turned as one with a great rustle, chasing after the Wolf King.

"Whew!"

Only after seeing the beast horde move away did Zhang Junjie and the others stop running and look back, letting out long breaths.

Yet every one of them fell silent, their hearts filled with worry.

Though they had only spent a short day together, Lin Mo had already come to hold no small place in their hearts.

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

Even Guo Hong, who had never shown Lin Mo a pleasant face, kept staring into the distance where Lin Mo had vanished.

"He... he'll be all right, won't he?"

It was actually Guo Hong who asked first, the worry on his face undisguised.

At a moment of life and death, this teammate who had been little better than a stranger had been willing to risk his life to save them.

So it turned out that not everyone in this world met others with selfish malice.

"That was a Fifth-level Thunder Horned Giant Wolf King. Lin Mo hasn't even reached Grade 2 yet. He..." Tears welled in Wang Ling's eyes as she choked up, unable to continue.

"Not necessarily."

Qin Bufan suddenly spoke.

Everyone instantly turned to look at him.

"Ahem. The speed Lin Mo burst out with when he left definitely wasn't something a Grade 2 Martial Artist could reach. Even that bastard who shifted the disaster onto us was only that fast."

Surprisingly, Qin Bufan had said so many words at once.

"Huh?"

Hearing that, everyone froze before recalling the earlier scene.

Indeed, Lin Mo's speed had been astonishing. There was no way a First-grade or even Grade 2 Martial Artist could possess such speed.

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

Everyone gaped. Though the guess seemed unlikely, deep down, they wanted to believe it.

After all, only if Lin Mo had hidden his strength would he have a chance of escaping alive from the Fifth-level Wolf King.

"I hope he stays safe." Guo Li also spoke up for the first time in ages.

"Let's go. We'll wait for him outside, and while we're at it, look into that bastard's information."

At the mention of the bastard who had drawn over the beast tide, Zhang Junjie gritted his teeth.

"That's right. That bastard has a conspicuous Scarface on his face. He should be easy to track down."

Guo Hong spoke bitterly as well.

Everyone nodded and rushed toward the outskirts.

At this point, whether they completed the mission or not no longer mattered.

Lin Mo's safety and information about that bastard were what mattered most.

If it had not been for that bastard, they would not have fallen into such danger.

Nor would Lin Mo have had to use himself to lure away the monsters, his life and death now uncertain.

Meanwhile, Lin Mo sprinted all the way and had already become somewhat lost.

He had simply picked a direction after snatching the bead and running. He had no idea where he was now.

Feeling the tremors in the distance, he knew the Mutant Beasts behind him had not given up the chase.

Clearly, his current strength was still not enough to shake off that Wolf King.

If he chose to fight, he could not defeat a Fifth-level Wolf King yet.

But if he kept running like this, he would eventually collapse from exhaustion.

What should he do?

Suddenly, he spotted a vast swamp ahead to his left.

Without hesitation, he leaped into the air and jumped into the swamp, deeply burying the bead in the mud.

He then covered his entire body in mud.

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

"Roar!"

When the Wolf King reached a spot not far away, it suddenly roared, its voice filled with agitation.

At that moment, it had actually lost its sense of the Thunder Bead. Even that human's scent had vanished.

How was that possible?

It stopped where it was, raised its head, and sniffed the air fiercely.

"Roar~"

After searching for a long while without finding the slightest clue, it became enraged.

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

With a crack, accompanied by the Mutant Beast's mournful cry, the Wolf King directly devoured it to vent its rage.

The surrounding Mutant Beasts trembled and let out low whines, yet not a single one dared act out of line.

They all lowered their heads, not daring to look it in the eye.

This was the suppression of rank among Mutant Beasts.

Before a Fifth-level King, no matter what species the other Mutant Beasts were, none dared resist.

"Awoo!"

After devouring half the beast's body, the Wolf King threw back its head and howled, taking the lead as it ran in one direction.

The other Mutant Beasts hurriedly followed.

The mighty procession gradually moved away.

After a while, a string of bubbles rose to the surface of the swamp.

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

"Damn it, I almost suffocated to death."

Lin Mo panted for a long time before slowly recovering.

"Good thing there was such a huge swamp."

Lin Mo was still somewhat shaken.

Fortunately, they had covered it in class: swamps in the wilderness had many uses.

The silt inside could conceal one's aura and block thermal imaging.

The Wolf King had been unable to see him, yet it had chased him all the way here.

Clearly, it had been able to locate him so precisely only by following either his scent or the bead's aura.

That was why he had decided to give it a try.

Fortunately, it was just as they had taught in class.

He had escaped this calamity.

However, Lin Mo did not relax. The Wolf King had only left recently, so it should not be too far away.

He did not dare crawl out of the swamp or take out the bead yet.

So he simply waited there for a while longer.

Only two hours later, when Lin Mo felt certain the Wolf King had gone far away, did he dig out the bead.

"What exactly is this?"

Looking at the bead in his hand, with purple lightning flickering within it, Lin Mo was at a loss for a moment.

Class had never taught them about such rare things.

[დინગ, detected that the host has obtained the Thunder Bead. Would you like to recycle it to the system? It can be exchanged for 500 points of vitality and blood.]

"What? Exchange it for 500 points of vitality and blood?"

Lin Mo was startled when he heard the prompt.

With another 500 points of vitality and blood, he could directly step into the ranks of a Fourth-grade Martial Artist.

His combat power would exceed twelve thousand, approaching the combat power of a Sixth-grade Martial Artist.

But the more that was the case, the more extraordinary this Thunder Bead had to be.

Otherwise, would the system offer such benefits?

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

He did not know until he looked, but once he did, he was stunned.

"Fuck, this is good stuff! System, you're fucking black-hearted! Such a good thing, and you're only offering 500 vitality and blood?"

As Lin Mo rejoiced, he also cursed the Black-hearted System.

He had nearly been cheated.