Logan’s anger had already spiked the moment he saw the stark, crimson handprint on Tang Qingyu’s cheek.
These girls were his people. Striking them was striking him.
Without blowing up instantly, he lowered his Miao dao and gestured to the tense, furious group of girls standing behind him.
"Step back. Give us some space."
Supported by a classmate, Tang Qingyu retreated, tears still streaming down her face.
However, the four girls assigned to the hunter class didn’t move. Gripping their crude machetes, they stood firm right behind Logan, squaring off against the intruders.
"Ha."
The brute calling himself Boss Hao let out a dismissive scoff. He pointed a broken club first at Logan, then at the four girls, wearing a mocking grin.
"What? A handful of girls who can’t even hold a knife straight and one wet-behind-the-ears kid think they can pick a fight with us?"
His companion cracked a wicked smile, his lewd eyes leering shamelessly over the girls’ curves.
"Boss, stop wasting time with these losers! Let’s break this kid’s legs and drag these chicks back. We’re eating good tonight!"
Terror and disgust rippled across the girls’ faces. The four hunter-class students trembled with pure rage.
Logan’s expression, however, cooled into absolute stillness.
These two men had to die. Otherwise, the threat would never end.
He glanced back at the four girls behind him, speaking in a low, steady voice. "Watch and learn."
Ignoring the two men’s trash talk, he casually rolled his wrists.
He would use these two live targets to test just how far his Proficient-grade blade technique had come.
"You little punk, you’re asking for a grave!"
Enraged by Logan’s total indifference, Boss Hao bellowed, swung his heavy wooden club with all his might, and brought it down toward Logan’s skull.
He could already picture this arrogant brat’s head cracking open like a melon.
Logan moved.
Instead of stepping back, he planted his front foot and slid his torso aside at a razor-thin angle.
*Whoosh!*
The heavy club sheared through the air, grazing the tip of Logan’s nose.
Boss Hao’s pupils shrank—he hadn’t even tracked the dodge!
Before he could recover his balance, a flash of silver cut across his field of vision.
*Crack!*
A crisp snap echoed through the clearing.
Boss Hao felt his grip go light. Staring down in shock, he saw his thick wooden club sliced clean in half, the cut as smooth as if it had passed through tofu.
*How is that possible?!* Find the original chapter at g.com.
Logan eyed his blade, a thrill of excitement sparking in his chest.
At that moment, the second man lunged in from the side, roaring as he slashed a rusted machete straight toward Logan’s waist.
Logan didn’t even bother looking, sweeping his blade upward in a smooth counter-arc.
*Clang!*
A sharp ring of colliding steel pierced the air.
An overwhelming shockwave blasted up the man’s arm, instantly splitting the webbing of his thumb. His machete spun out of his grip, clattering away across the dirt.
Two men. One weapon broken, one weapon disarmed.
Scarcely two seconds had passed.
The smug grins vanished from the intruders’ faces, replaced by pure, freezing terror.
They finally realized what kind of monster they had stumbled upon.
"D-Don’t come any closer! Listen, our tribe has over forty men..."
"If you touch us, they won’t let you—"
Boss Hao stammered, backing away step by step.
Logan didn’t care to listen. His verdict was already cast.
His body blurred forward like a phantom.
Boss Hao caught a flash of blinding steel, followed instantly by a cold, stinging bite across his throat.
"Gk..."
He tried to speak, but only a wet, bubbling rattle escaped his lips.
A stream of hot blood spurted from his neck. Looking down in horror, he watched his chest stain crimson as his life drained away by the second.
*Thud.*
His body hit the dirt, eyes wide and fixed on the sky in a dead stare.
"Aah—! Murder!"
Seeing his partner slaughtered, the surviving man lost his mind with terror. Letting out a high-pitched shriek, he whipped around and bolted frantically toward the deep brush.
Logan’s eyes narrowed as he shifted his weight to pursue.
*Thwip—!*
A sharp whistle tore through the air from behind him.
An arrow outpaced his movement, cutting through the trees with ruthless precision to sink deep into the fleeing man’s neck!
*Splat!*
A spray of dark blood erupted. The man didn’t even have time to scream before his legs buckled, pitching him forward into the dirt where he twitched twice and went completely still.
Logan stopped in his tracks.
A few yards away beside a tree trunk, Chu Yufei stood pale as a sheet, her longbow slipping from numb fingers with a soft *clack*.
Staring at the corpse she had just killed with her own hands, her stomach churned violently.
Unable to hold it back anymore, she spun around, gripped a tree trunk, and violently vomited.
Logan watched her quietly. In truth, his own stomach felt unsettled.
Killing wolves and killing a human were two entirely different realities. The sensation of warm blood splattering against skin left a heavy, sour knot in his gut.
Yet he forced the reaction down.
He was the chief, the backbone of the entire group. Showing weakness here wasn’t an option.
Stepping over to Chu Yufei, he rested a hand gently on her trembling shoulder without a word.
After a few minutes of dry-heaving, Chu Yufei caught her breath. She lifted her tear-filled eyes to look at him. "I... I killed someone, Logan... I..."
"You did the right thing."
Logan cut her off, handing her a clean leaf to wipe her face.
"Against trash like that, mercy gets you killed."
The other girls gathered around, speaking in rushed, supportive overlapping voices.
"Don’t be scared, Yufei! You kept us safe!"
"Exactly! Did you hear what they wanted to do? If Logan hadn’t stopped them, gods know what would have happened to us!"
Gu Xinran stepped up fiercely. "Scum like that deserved it! We’re in a primitive death-world now, not playing house! Trying to play the saint gets you killed in Chapter one!"
"Right! No saints here!"
The chorus of reassurance quickly stabilized Chu Yufie’s breathing.
Logan listened, a deep sense of relief washing over him.
Good.
These delicate girls were adapting to this brutal world at a terrifying pace. Their collective mindset was sharper and more pragmatic than he had dared hope.
That was the exact psychological edge needed to survive out here.
Even so, the incident served as a blaring alarm bell.
The appearance of these two men meant their territory wasn’t the only group roaming this vast wilderness.
Where there were survivors, there were predators.
Today brought two scouts; tomorrow could bring an entire hostile raiding party. A tribe of thirty-plus girls and one guy made for an awfully tempting target.
Everyone needed to level up fast, and camp security required an immediate upgrade.
Glancing down at the two bodies, then up at the fading daylight, Logan made his call.
"Starting tonight."
"No more sleeping through the night. We’re setting up a watch rotation."