The night wind howled eerily between the weathered gallows of the Old Execution Grounds, their ancient wooden pillars rotting away with age. Thick white fog rolled across the rocky ground, carrying a bitter cold that seemed to pierce straight into the marrow.In the middle of that deathly field, time itself seemed to stop.The tip of General Han Rui's heavy steel spear, engraved with a black dragon, remained suspended exactly one millimeter from Wu Chen's forehead. The lethal metal radiated an intensely concentrated Core-level meridian aura, trembling faintly as if genuinely thirsting for blood. A single drop of fresh blood slowly traced a line down Wu Chen's pale face from the slash caused by the spear's wind, yet the former street king did not even blink."Give me one logical reason, you little brat, why I shouldn't sever your head right now and present it to my king as proof of my loyalty," Han Rui growled in his booming baritone. His killing intent pressed heavily against Wu Chen'

Dust an inch thick hung in the stale air inside the ruins of an old pharmacy standing directly on the border between Lantern Sector and the outer area of the Eastern Barracks. The late-afternoon sunlight filtering through gaps in the broken wooden roof illuminated enormous spiderwebs stretching across every corner of the room.Mole coughed violently, covering his nose and mouth with the edge of his robe. His filthy hands busily rummaged through the termite-eaten teak drawers.“Damn, is this a pharmacy or a graveyard? The stench is so strong it’s reaching my damn skull,” Mole grumbled crudely, throwing an empty glass bottle onto the floor and shattering it. “Where the hell are the painkillers? Little Boss really needs a fresh supply for his leg nerves.”“Don’t make so much noise, Uncle Mole,” a small but firm voice warned from behind the medicine counter.Xiao Yu crouched on the floor, her nimble fingers sorting through several brown paper packages filled with dried roots and intact he

The Eastern Barracks of Tingzhao were not merely a collection of canvas tents thrown together at random across an open field. From behind the iron grating of the sewage drainage channel, Wu Chen could see just how terrifying the military fortress truly was.A six-meter-high metal wall surrounded the entire area. Hundreds of tents stood in perfectly rigid formations, leaving not a single blind spot. Watchtowers rose high into the sky, guarded by snipers whose arrows had been coated in liquid asphalt and were ready to be ignited. Torchlight blazed brightly, sweeping across every corner of the barracks grounds until the night looked almost like day."Crazy," Mole muttered hoarsely.The miner leaned against the slimy wall of the sewer tunnel, his breathing ragged from the arrow wound in his back."This isn't a barracks, Little Boss. This is a goddamn meat grinder.""Save your breath, Mole," Wu Chen replied in a voice barely above a whisper. "Keep moving."The two of them crawled slowly th

KABOOOOOOOMMMM!A massive explosion suddenly shook the earth with terrifying force, tearing through the night along the perimeter of the Eastern Barracks. The blast was deafening, sending a shockwave through the entire foundation of the prison-block corridor where Wu Chen stood.The stone ground beneath their boots swayed violently, as if struck by a powerful earthquake.Commander Ma, the copper-armored extremist officer who had been standing there with arrogant confidence, staggered violently to the side. His massive body lost its balance, forcing him to drive the tip of his spiked mace into the stone floor to keep himself from falling flat on his face."Dammit! Where the hell did that explosion come from?!" Commander Ma roared, the arrogance on his face instantly replaced by tension. He turned toward the source of the sound, his eyes wide.Outside the corridor, the highest-level invasion sirens screamed across the night sky. Steel bells rang at a frantic pace, followed by the panick

The wet tearing of flesh, the sound of bones being forcibly snapped, and the hysterical screams that barely sounded human anymore echoed horrifically across the courtyard of the Eastern Barracks.Commander Ma, the extremist officer who had felt in control of the lives of thousands of people only minutes ago, had now been completely swallowed beneath a sea of hundreds of mutant zombies. His massive body, encased in copper armor, was torn apart without mercy by monsters driven mad by the pure extraction pheromones. Every time he tried to fight back, dozens of rotting hands dragged him down again, ripping apart his neck, face, and stomach while he was still alive.Wu Chen did not even turn around to enjoy the spectacle of bloodshed.The former mafia king clutched his right chest, which felt shattered from the impact of the mace's shockwave earlier. His breathing came out in ragged wheezes, every breath triggering a chronic pain that tortured his nerves."Move! Nobody looks back!" Wu Chen