2026-04-09 05:15:35Li Ming crouched behind the overturned trash bin, pipe resting across his knees. The hulking brute had moved on down the main street, leaving a trail of smashed cars and broken glass. Qingyun City was getting louder, more screams, more roars.
He checked his status again. The small bonuses from the alley fights had settled in.
Strength: 11
Agility: 13
Vitality: 10
Intelligence: 12
Mana: 8
Luck: 7
Skills:
• Knife Proficiency (Passive Lv.1)
• Street Brawler’s Instinct (Passive Lv.1)
• Scuttler Carapace Fragment (Passive Lv.1)
Nothing flashy, but his body felt a little lighter, reactions that made him confirmed the throne worked. Now he just needed to push it.
A soft chime sounded only in his head.
[Throne Anchor 1 active. Respawn point set.]
[Current absorption range: 50 meters.]
[Note: Absorption activates on any death within range. Proximity increases absorption quality. Distance reduces it.]
Li Ming nodded to himself. Fifty meters wasn’t much, about half a soccer field. He’d have to stay close to the action if he wanted good gains. Too close and he risked dying again. But dying wasn’t the end anymore. It was fuel.
He stood and moved carefully along the back alleys, heading toward the quieter residential blocks behind the school. Fewer people there meant fewer monsters for now, but also fewer deaths to harvest. A calculated risk.
After ten minutes of silent creeping, he found what he was looking for: a small community park, half-hidden by trees. Empty benches, a dried-up fountain, and best of all, no one around. Perfect for testing the anchor.
He sat on the edge of the fountain and focused.
“Create second Throne Anchor.”
Nothing happened.
[Error: Maximum anchors at current Throne level is 1. Evolve Throne or increase Reincarnator rank to unlock more.]
Li Ming frowned. One anchor for now. Fine. He’d have to be careful where he placed it. Moving it later might cost something.
A distant explosion rattled the windows of nearby apartments. Someone had probably found a gas line or a car. Good distraction.
He stood and started circling the park, looking for weak monsters or desperate survivors. Instead, he heard voices, young, cocky, already sounding like they owned the place.
“told you this zone is ours now. Anyone who comes in gets looted.”
Li Ming slipped behind a thick tree and peered out. Four guys, maybe nineteen or twenty, wearing the same high school tracksuits as him but from a different block. One held a metal bat, another had a chef’s knife. The tallest one had a crude leather vest made from what looked like scuttler hide. Level 5, according to the faint tag that appeared when Li Ming focused.
They were standing over two bodies. Fresh kills, probably other students who had tried to hide here.
Li Ming’s pulse quickened. Two deaths already inside what he guessed was fifty meters. The pull came immediately, soft but clear.
[Throne Absorption triggered.]
[Absorbed: Basic Leatherworking Fragment (Passive Lv.1) – Minor crafting insight.]
[Absorbed: Crude Bat Mastery (Passive Lv.1)]
[Minor stat bonuses integrated: +1 Strength, +1 Vitality]
The memories were quick flashes, arrogance, a quick fight, the satisfaction of winning. Li Ming ignored the emotional residue. He needed data only now.
The four guys were laughing, dividing coins and a couple of healing pellets from the corpses.
“These noobs thought they could hide,” the leader said, kicking one body. “When the tide hits tomorrow, we’ll be ready. Join my group and we rule this part of Qingyun.”
Li Ming stayed perfectly still. Four against one. Even with his small boosts, bad odds. But they had just handed him free gains without him lifting a finger. The range had worked perfectly.
One of the guys wandered closer to Li Ming’s tree, unzipping to take a piss. Thirty meters. Maybe less.
Li Ming weighed his options. Attack now? Risky. Wait and harvest more deaths? Safer, but the leader might leave soon.
He chose patience.
The guy finished and turned back. “Hey, let’s check the apartments. Might be more hiding.”
They started moving toward the buildings on the far side of the park. Li Ming followed at a careful distance, keeping buildings and trees between them. He stayed just inside what he hoped was the edge of fifty meters.
Another scuttler appeared from the bushes near the group. The bat-wielder swung and crushed it in one hit.
[Throne Absorption triggered – partial due to distance.]
[Absorbed: Minor Agility Fragment]
[Stat bonus reduced: +0.5 Agility]
Li Ming clenched his jaw. Distance penalty was real. Closer was definitely better.
He crept nearer, using the noise of their bragging to cover his steps. Street Brawler’s Instinct helped him move quieter than before.
The group kicked in an apartment door. Shouts erupted inside, a man and a woman trying to barricade themselves. A short, ugly fight. The bat cracked against bone. A knife flashed.
Two more deaths.
Li Ming was now twenty meters away, crouched behind a parked scooter.
The absorption hit stronger this time.
[Throne Absorption triggered.]
[Absorbed: Basic Cooking Skill (Passive Lv.1) – useless in combat but…]
[Absorbed: Desperate Survival Instinct (Passive Lv.1) – slight boost to pain tolerance.]
[Stat bonuses: +1 Intelligence, +1 Luck]
He almost laughed at the cooking skill. Still, every piece added up. The pain tolerance could be useful when he died again.
The four looters were getting louder, celebrating. The leader wiped blood from his knife.
“See? Easy mode. When the big guilds form, we’ll already have levels.”
Li Ming’s eyes narrowed. These idiots thought they were players. They had no idea one real player was already watching them, harvesting everything they touched.
He backed away slowly, deciding not to push his luck today. Four was still too many. He had gained six small passives and stat bumps without swinging once. Better return to his anchor, rest, and plan the next move.
As he slipped back toward the fountain, the global announcement rang in everyone’s head.
[First Monster Tide will begin in 21 hours.]
[All safe zones will shrink by 30%. Prepare.]
Li Ming reached the fountain and sat down, back against the stone. He pulled up the anchor menu.
“Confirm Anchor 1 stability.”
[Throne Anchor 1 stable. Respawn ready.]
Good. If things went south in the next fight, he’d wake up right here, stronger.
He closed his eyes for a moment, listening to the distant chaos of Qingyun City tearing itself apart.
These four loudmouths would probably die tomorrow during the tide. When they did, if he was close enough, he’d take everything they had built.
And if they somehow survived… he might help them die.
Either way, their power was already becoming his.
Li Ming stood, gripped the pipe, and moved back into the alleys.
He still had a lot of testing to do before the tide hits
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
The Warehouse Door
Li Ming woke before sunrise in the quiet loading yard of the old textile factory. The second anchor felt solid under him, like a hidden safety net no one else could see. He stood, stretched, and checked the global timer out of habit.[Next Monster Tide: 5 days, 18 hours.]The city had grown louder overnight. Distant shouts, he could hear metal being hammered into barricades, and the scream when someone walked too close to a resident pack of shadow wolves or scuttlers. The monsters hadn’t vanished with the tide. They had simply spread out, smaller groups now claimed alleys, rooftops, and abandoned buildings as their territory. The big waves were gone, but Qingyun City remained a hunting ground.He ate a piece of dried scuttler meat from his inventory (the cooking skill fragment actually helped make it edible) and headed straight for the school sports field. The dungeon reset cooldown had nearly ticked over. One more run before the day got too crowded.The black door still hovered above
The Warehouse Door
Li Ming woke before sunrise in the quiet loading yard of the old textile factory. The second anchor felt solid under him, like a hidden safety net no one else could see. He stood, stretched, and checked the global timer out of habit.[Next Monster Tide: 5 days, 18 hours.]The city had grown louder overnight. Distant shouts, he could hear metal being hammered into barricades, and the scream when someone walked too close to a resident pack of shadow wolves or scuttlers. The monsters hadn’t vanished with the tide. They had simply spread out, smaller groups now claimed alleys, rooftops, and abandoned buildings as their territory. The big waves were gone, but Qingyun City remained a hunting ground.He ate a piece of dried scuttler meat from his inventory (the cooking skill fragment actually helped make it edible) and headed straight for the school sports field. The dungeon reset cooldown had nearly ticked over. One more run before the day got too crowded.The black door still hovered above
Echoes in the Streets
Li Ming left the sports field behind without looking back. The five bodies were hidden well enough behind the bleachers. By the time anyone found them, the blood would have dried and the dungeon door would still be his alone. He jogged toward the city center at an easy pace, new stats eating the distance. The leather vest he’d looted from the leader fit better than the old one, tougher, less noisy.Stats had settled after the kills.Strength: 54Agility: 42Vitality: 43Level: 17The Throne was getting greedy. Each death fed it faster now, like it was waking up.Qingyun City’s main roads were waking up too. Groups of survivors moved in packs of ten or twenty, dragging carts of scavenged food and weapons. Makeshift camps had sprung up in the wider intersections, guarded by guys with bats and knives. Li Ming kept to the side streets, fifty meters from the biggest crowds. Close enough to listen, far enough to stay invisible.A global announcement rang out as he passed a burned-out bus st
Second Run
Li Ming stood on the empty sports field,. The city noise was picking up, shouts, arguments, the clatter of people dragging barricades. Survivors were waking up to the new reality. He didn’t care. His inventory was heavier with coins and the new iron dagger. The Mana Bolt skill sat ready in his palm, a faint blue spark he could feel even without casting.He checked the system again.[Dungeon: Abandoned Warehouse – Cleared][Reset available: Once per week.][Resetting will increase all monster levels by 1. Loot scales accordingly.]One week cooldown, but he could start the second run right now. No point waiting. Every hour the other survivors grew bolder, and someone would eventually stumble on this door. Better to farm it alone while it was still quiet.He jumped up, grabbed the edge, and pulled himself through.The warehouse air hit him colder this time. Lights flickered the same, but the shadows felt thicker. The system updated instantly.[Reset complete.][All monsters now Level 5–8
The First Door
Li Ming walked the quieting streets of Qingyun City as the last of the monster tide faded. Dawn light cut through the cracked sky, bodies lay everywhere, human and monster mixed together like trash. The global system chimed once, loud in every survivor’s head.[First Monster Tide complete.][Casualties on Floor 0: 1,847,392 (global).][New dungeons spawning in low-population zones. First beginner dungeon detected within 3 kilometers.][Safe zones have shrunk 30%. Next tide in 6 days.]He didn’t stop to count the dead around him. His own body felt different now, stronger, tighter, the lizard scale fragments making his skin itch less against the new vest. Stats had settled after the reincarnation boost.Strength: 34Agility: 27Vitality: 25Intelligence: 15Mana: 11Luck: 10Level: 9The Throne had turned one stupid death into real progress. He tested Spiked Charge on a lamppost as he passed. The metal dented deep. Good.Most survivors who lived through the night were hiding or forming
First Reaping
Li Ming slipped between two wrecked cars, with his dagger low at his side. The second wave of the tide was worse. Bigger wolves howled through the commercial street, and a few spiked lizards the size of motorcycles had joined them. Survivors were down to maybe fifteen now, scattered and desperate. The four loudmouths’ group was gone, only their leader’s fresh corpse still fed the Throne.He stayed on the edges, always moving, always inside fifty meters of the heaviest fighting. Adrenaline Rush was on cooldown, but the new stats made his steps lighter, his swings harder.A wolf pack of three tore into a small family barricaded behind a flipped truck. Li Ming circled wide, staying forty meters back. The parents went down first. Then the kid.[Throne Absorption triggered.][Absorbed: Family Bond Fragment (Passive Lv.1) – Minor boost to protecting nearby allies (irrelevant for now).][Absorbed: Desperate Throw (Active Lv.1) – Accurate projectile toss once per minute.][Stat bonuses: +1 Ag
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