2026-04-06 19:41:05Lin Feng's POV
The damp stone of the Gravel-Run seemed to pulse in time with my shattered arm. Kenan stood frozen, his eyes wide and vibrating with a primal, soul-deep terror. The violet mist of the [Soul-Devouring Counter] snaked up his arms like hungry vines, turning his tan skin a sickly, translucent grey. "My... mana..." Kenan managed to choke out, his voice sounding like it was being dragged through gravel. "What are you... doing to me?" "I’m not doing anything, Kenan," I whispered, the [Phantom Rib] hovering inches from his throat, though he couldn't see the invisible blade. "The Void is just hungry. And you brought a feast." I could feel it. The Tier-2 Earth mana he had spent a decade cultivating was being ripped from his meridians. It didn't flow into me like a refreshing spring; it hit my core like molten lead. My [Devouring Void-Body] groaned under the pressure, the "Zero-Percentile" vacuum in my soul finally finding something to grind into dust. [MANA ABSORPTION IN PROGRESS...] [Target: Kenan (Tier 2 Elementalist).] [Conversion Rate: 100% Efficiency (Void-Attribute).] [Physical Strength: +300% (Surge)] "Your parents were dogs," Kenan hissed, even as his knees began to buckle under the soul-paralysis. "They died in the mud, just like you. A Commoner... playing at being a cultivator... it’s an insult to the heavens." The mention of my parents didn't trigger a burst of hot rage. It triggered a cold, clinical curiosity. I wondered how much "Agony" I could harvest from his fear if I took my time. [CRITICAL EMOTIONAL TRIGGER: PARENTAL INSULT.] [LUCK MULTIPLIER: 2x.] [POINTS HARVESTED: 1,500.] I didn't use the [Phantom Rib]. That was too clean. Too quiet. For the first time in my life, I felt the heavy, intoxicating weight of power coiling in my muscles. I let the invisible blade dissolve back into my marrow. I stood up. My broken arm gave a wet, sickening thud as the bones knit themselves together, forced into place by the sheer pressure of the stolen mana. I towered over Kenan as he fell to his knees, the paralysis finally breaking, replaced by a crushing spiritual weight. "You talk a lot about 'Natural Order', Kenan," I said, my shadow stretching long and jagged across the tunnel walls. "Let’s test your theory." Kenan scrambled backward, reaching for a dagger at his belt. "Stay back! I’m a citizen of the Spire! You’re just…” I didn't let him finish. I stepped forward, my movement a blur of stolen speed. I didn't punch him. I didn't stab him. I wound back my right hand, the absorbed Earth mana coating my palm in a shimmering, crystalline gold. WHACK. The sound wasn't a slap. It was an explosion. My palm connected with Kenan's jaw with the force of a battering ram. The impact sent a shockwave through the tunnel, extinguishing his torch. I felt his mandible shatter like cheap porcelain under my fingers. His body didn't just fall, it was launched sideways, slamming into the stone wall of the drake pen with a crunch that made my own teeth ache. He slumped into the filth, his face a distorted ruin of blood and bone. His eyes were rolled back, his Tier-2 pride leaking out of his ears in the form of dark, spent mana. [OBJECTIVE COMPLETE: DELIVER THE FIRST FACE-SLAP.] [BONUS REWARD: 2,000 AGONY POINTS.] I walked over to his twitching form. I felt... light. The starvation was still there, but it was being drowned out by the sheer adrenaline of the harvest. I reached down and ripped the Silver-Spire Hunter’s Badge from his chest, the metal cold against my palm. Then, I slid the spatial ring off his broken finger. A quick pulse of my new, stolen energy cracked the ring's primitive soul-seal. [INVENTORY ACQUIRED:] [30x Low-Grade Spirit Stones.] [1x Tier-2 Healing Salve.] [1x Map of the Extermination Trial Grounds.] I uncorked the healing salve and smeared the glowing green paste over my shoulder wound and my chest. The relief was instantaneous, the cooling sensation washing away the rot and the fever. I crunched down on a spirit stone, the raw energy sparking against my tongue like lightning. I looked back down the tunnel, toward the faint light of the upper world. For all of my life, I had been the punching bag. I had been the "Void," the "Nullity," the "Trash" that everyone stepped on to reach the light. I gripped the Hunter’s badge until the edges bit into my skin. "Nineteen years of hell," I whispered to the darkness, the red Gacha screen flickering one last time before I stepped into the shadows. "Now, I start the harvest." [NEW QUEST: THE EXTERMINATION TRIAL.] [GOAL: SURVIVE THE HUNT.] [REWARD: ???] The Tablet in my pocket gave a final, hungry throb. The "Zero" was gone. The predator was hungry.
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 15: The Alter Of Bone
Lin Feng's POVI looked toward the center of the forest. Toward where it all led.If the nobles were the true target… then everything happening here, every chase, every kill, every drop of blood, was just a setup.A funnel.“They’re herding them,” I said slowly. The mercenary didn’t respond.I could see it now, the structure, the design.“They’ll gather at the Altar,” I continued, my voice quiet. “All of them.”And then…. Fire, consumption and then finally refinement.Everyone here had been given a role.A script.And none of them ended in survival.“I’ve told you…” the assassin croaked, his strength fading now that the pain had passed. “I’ve told you everything.”His eyes darted toward the distant perimeter.“Let me go,” he pleaded. “I can still make it out. I can disappear. You’ll never see me again.”I looked back at him, the fear, the desperation.The broken remnants of arrogance clinging to a man who now understood exactly how close he was to death.“You served your purpose,” I s
Chapter 14: The Mercenary's Choice
Lin Feng’s POV“Tuehhhh,”The mercenary’s blood hit the mud with a wet slap, right next to where he’d just spat. The sound was thick, it sounded more like something being sealed. Even with my [Phantom Rib] buried into the soft tissue of his throat, angled just enough to threaten everything that mattered, the man’s composure didn’t waver.Up close, I could see fully the details of his face now, the jagged scar cutting across his forehead, the faint twitch in his jaw, the stubborn defiance burning in his eyes even as death hovered just an inch away. “A deal?” the assassin wheezed, a bubble of red foam forming at the corner of his lip, popping with a faint hiss. “I don’t make deals with walking corpses.”His voice shook, but the contempt in it didn’t.“You’re a stain, Lin Feng. A Zero.” He coughed, shoulders jerking as more blood welled up. “Your father was a failure… and you’re just the rot he left behind.”I quivered my lips in mockery to what he was saying. “Tell me more….” I said w
Chapter 13: The Hunter Becomes The Prey
Lin Feng's POV‘Because I’m not done,’ I said in my mind. The world twisted violently. The forest warped around me, trees stretching into streaks of pale white and violet, the ground dissolving into shifting shadows. The blood on the leaves, the dark sky above, everything collapsed into a swirling storm of red and gold.The Gacha was consuming.I clenched my teeth as my heart gave another painful, irregular beat.Just then, I heard the other assassins scatter around the forests, perhaps taking new positions.Give me something to end this quickly, I thought, desperation threading through the clarity.I don’t need a weapon, I need vision. I need to see through their bullshit.The spinning slowed.The colors blurred together, then stopped. A thunderclap echoed through the void.CONGRATULATIONS!You have pulled a Passive Utility Skill: [Eye of the Weak] (Rank: Unique).Description: "The strong hide behind walls of mana; the weak find the cracks."For a heartbeat, nothing happened.Then,
Chapter 12: Farming The Shadows
Lin Feng’s POV“oh shitt!” I did not have the time to adjust my neck so the needle would enter my shoulder or literally anywhere else. The sharp piercing pain hit me instantly. The venom was a cold, invasive sludge, crawling through my veins like a thousand frozen spiders. It didn’t burn, it settled, threading itself into every artery, every nerve. My throat constricted, the “Heart-Stopper” toxin living up to its name as my pulse began to skip, thudding with the heavy, uneven rhythm of a dying engine.One beat, accompanied by a pause that was just too long. Then there was another, a weaker one. My fingers twitched, slow to respond, like they no longer belonged to me. My chest constricted as my breathing dragged shallow, incomplete pulls that did nothing to satisfy the growing pressure in my lungs. I coughed, a little crimson liquid spilling on the floor. But in the center of my vision, the Gacha interface wasn’t just flickering, it was hemorrhaging gold.STATUS: LETHAL POISONING
Chapter 11: Into The Mouth Of Hell
Lin Feng's POV Honestly I was extremely disappointed with the number that turned up. I needed him to send more men, more! I needed to farm more. But unfortunately, we'll have to make do with ten. I smirked though the smile didn't quite reach my eyes, I could barely contain my anger. When they had all stepped fully into the forbidden forest. The gates did not just close, they groaned with a finality that vibrated in the marrow of my bones. *Thud.* The sound was a guillotine blade hitting the block. It was a bit satisfying, no lies. Around me, the air in the Forbidden Forest felt thick, like exhaled breath. The other "Nullities,” the commoners I had spent days training in the Pits disappointed me. They panicked. They were scurrying like rats in a flooding cellar, their boots splashing through the black mud of the Outer Wastes. I can't say I was surprised by their actions, but come on, I expected at least a few to have the balls to stand and see what happens. To them, this
Chapter 10: Information War
Lin Feng's POV The damp heat of the Scavenger Pits felt different now, heavy with the weight of Yue’s revelation. If this Tablet was one of seven, I wasn’t just a glitch in the Academy’s system; I was a target for the masters of the world.I needed eyes in the high places.I sat cross-legged in the center of my "throne room," the Cursed Tablet pulsing against my shins. I had 15,000 points left from the duel with Tie Yan. I didn't need a sword. I needed a secret.Pull, I commanded.The wheel didn't scream this time; it hissed. The thorns of the interface twisted into the shape of a thousand overlapping ears.[TOTAL POINTS EXPENDED: 10,000.][EXECUTING 'SUBTERFUGE-GRADE' PULL...][CONGRATULATIONS!][You have obtained the 4-Star Skill: "The Whispering Shadow".][Type: Reconnaissance Manifestation.][Description: Detach a sliver of your own shadow. It is weightless, silent, and can pass through any mana-barrier below Tier-6. Anything it hears, you hear. Anything it sees, you see.]I fe
You may also like
The Golem Mage
Destiny Foromeh146.3K viewsThe Invincible Arthur Gardner
Herolich102.2K viewsMastering the fates with Role-play system
De_law1720.5K viewsThe Ability Steal System
Icemaster36044.9K viewsZero Logic: The Hunter Gambits
StaryUll381 viewsI Grow Endlessly In A Fantasy World
Abyssal622 viewsWarrior God With A System
Chris Ahafa746 viewsSSS: THE LAST ANTIDOTE
Neenna 749 views