Early the next morning, before dawn, Jiang Lingyue was woken up by noises downstairs.
Rubbing her sleepy eyes, she walked over to the window and saw Gu Han and Lu Xiao standing at the hotel entrance like two imposing gate gods one on the left, one on the right.
One radiated a cold, “keep away from me” aura.
The other crossed his arms, his face screaming, “I’m the best in the world.”
Neither looked at the other, yet the tension between them was so palpable it could be felt from a distance.
Jiang Lingyue yawned and checked the time it was only 6:30 a.m.
There was still a full hour and a half before work.
These two really were taking things seriously.
She shook her head helplessly and went back to sleep.
When she slowly strolled down to the lobby at 7:50, they were still in the exact same positions, as if they hadn’t moved an inch.
“Good morning, you two,” Jiang Lingyue greeted with a smile.
Both looked at her simultaneously.
“Open the door,” Gu Han said.
“Hurry up, don’t waste my time!” Lu Xiao impatiently urged.
“Why rush? It’s not even eight yet,” Jiang Lingyue said, deliberately walking slowly to the control desk to pour herself a glass of water.
She wanted to make them wait.
A boss’s authority had to be maintained at all times.
Finally, when the clock struck precisely 8:00, Jiang Lingyue pressed the button to open the door.
“The competition begins good luck.”
The moment she spoke, both figures shot out like arrows from a bow!
Ice and lightning, two powerful forces, dashed off in opposite directions.
“Tsk tsk, full of energy,” Jiang Lingyue murmured, sipping her water and watching the two tiny dots disappear quickly on the surveillance screen.
Her employees were so motivated; she could finally relax as the boss.
In the west of the city, an abandoned shopping mall.
This place was a zombie hotspot, with hundreds of ordinary zombies wandering aimlessly.
On the roof lurked a C-class mutated zombie a “Sensor.”
It could sense living beings in a wide range and command lower-level zombies through special sound waves.
For ordinary ability-user teams, this was a tough nut to crack.
But today, a harbinger of doom had arrived.
“Ice and snow!”
With a cold shout, a visible wave of chilling air radiated from Gu Han, instantly sweeping across the entire first floor of the mall!
“Crack! Crack!”
The ground, walls, and shelves were all instantly covered in ice.
The wandering zombies hadn’t even reacted before being frozen into lifelike ice sculptures.
Gu Han walked expressionless among the frozen zombies, casually swinging his ice blade.
“Crash ”
The ice sculptures shattered into piles of ice shards and broken corpses.
He didn’t even bother checking for crystal cores in the ordinary zombies’ heads.
His target was the “Sensor” on the roof.
Only by killing it could he possibly obtain a C-class crystal core.
He ascended, freezing everything in his path.
The entire mall became his hunting ground.
Meanwhile, in the south of the city, an industrial area.
Here, the situation was even more complex.
There were not only numerous zombies but also many animals mutated by industrial pollution.
The most difficult opponents were a swarm of giant mutated worker bees.
They were extremely fast, their stingers highly venomous, and their hives built atop tall, abandoned chimneys easy to defend, hard to attack.
Many ability users collecting resources here had died under the bees’ relentless attack.
And Lu Xiao chose this exact spot.
“A bunch of little bees, daring to buzz in front of me?”
He hovered in midair, staring at the dense swarm below like a dark cloud, a proud grin on his face.
“Time for a bath!”
He raised his right hand, summoning a thunderstrike.
“Boom!”
A thick bolt of lightning shot down from the sky, striking the bee swarm!
“Fzzzzz ”
The violent electricity exploded, forming a huge electric net that enveloped hundreds of worker bees!
The air filled with the smell of burning protein.
Countless bees electrocuted to charred crisps rained down.
“This is just the appetizer!”
Lu Xiao laughed loudly, his form turning into a streak of lightning as he charged toward the giant hive.
His target was the B-class queen bee inside!
The day passed quickly.
5:59 p.m.
Both figures appeared at the hotel entrance almost simultaneously.
Gu Han and Lu Xiao.
Both looked a little disheveled.
Gu Han’s combat suit had several corrosion holes, showing signs of a fierce battle.
Lu Xiao looked even worse; one cheek was red and swollen, as if stung, making him look a bit comical.
Yet their eyes were equally bright, full of fighting spirit and confidence.
Each carried a bulging backpack.
The doors opened on time.
They walked into the lobby, one after the other, dropping their backpacks in front of Jiang Lingyue.
“Clatter ”
“Clatter ”
Shiny crystal cores spilled onto the floor, nearly blinding her.
She glanced over roughly, her heart skipping a beat.
So many crystal cores!
More than all of last week combined!
“I got here first,” Gu Han said coldly to Jiang Lingyue.
“Bullshit! I got in first! I was 0.1 seconds faster!” Lu Xiao immediately retorted.
Seeing them about to bicker over who entered first, Jiang Lingyue quickly intervened.
“Stop! Stop! Stop!”
“The competition is about crystal cores, not who entered first!”
She crouched down and began counting their loot.
Gu Han: 45 D-class cores, 3 C-class cores.
Lu Xiao: 42 D-class cores, 2 C-class cores, and one… B-class core!
Jiang Lingyue’s eyes went wide at the B-class core, noticeably larger than the others and crackling with electricity.
A B-class core!
Her first time seeing one!
According to the system mall rules, ten cores of the same rank can be exchanged for one of the next higher rank.
This single B-class core was equivalent to ten C-class cores, or a hundred D-class!
Was there even a competition?
The result was obvious.
“I announce today’s winner is…” Jiang Lingyue stood up, clearing her throat.
Lu Xiao looked smug, chin practically in the air.
Gu Han’s expression darkened, his aura cooling several degrees.
But just as Jiang Lingyue was about to announce the result…
A deafening roar erupted outside the hotel!
“ROOOAAAR!!!”
The sound was full of violence and madness, sending chills down the spine.
All three turned pale and rushed to the monitors.
On the street outside the hotel, a towering creature over five meters tall had appeared!
It was a “stitched giant zombie,” crudely assembled from countless zombie limbs, oozing disgusting pus.
Embedded in its chest was a basketball-sized S-class crystal core, glowing with ominous red light.
“S-class mutated zombie!” Gu Han’s pupils shrank.
The S-class zombie, seemingly drawn by the hotel’s dense aura of living beings, began its heavy march toward the hotel entrance, step by step.