Chapter 5

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

As Tang Yu made his way down the path that ran along the middle of the mountain, he was extremely careful. He was beyond the area monitored by his territory, and from time to time, a demonized beast would lunge out… and be smashed into meat paste by Number One.

There was a large clearing in front of the hotel. Before this, a large number of temporary sheds had taken up more than half of the plaza, but now, these sheds had all collapsed.

Number One killed demonized beasts that had been attracted by the noise, and Tang Yu followed and cut open their heads to see if there were any Origin Crystals.

It wasn’t long before he had several bright and shining Origin Crystals in hand.

“I feel like I get more Origin Crystals from killing monsters than from searching the rooms of the Awakened.” Tang Yu just didn’t get it. How were these Awakened so poor? Searching the entire villa area had only been able to get him a hundred-some units of Origin Crystal. That was too sad.

Once the surrounding demonized beasts had been cleared out, Tang Yu ordered Number One into the hotel, with Tang Yu right behind.

Suddenly, a black silhouette descended from the ceiling, and before he could react, boom! There was an intense shudder. As the dust settled, he saw the pulverized body of a demonized beast.

Tang Yu swallowed.

It was hard to say if he was more frightened by the demonized beast or by Number One’s explosive strength… Number One, if you keep this up, what will you do if you bring the entire hotel down?

Suddenly, Number One gripped its spear with both hands and pointed it into the distance, its tip angled slightly upward.

Tang Yu instantly grew vigilant.

This was Number One’s vigilant stance. That it had entered this state meant that Number One was ready to unleash its full might. This was a sign that danger was approaching! After all, back when Number One had been facing those three seemingly formidable demonized beasts, it had not taken this stance and had clearly been holding back its full strength.

As he looked in the direction that Number One was pointing, he soon saw a red silhouette expanding in his field of vision.

…

In the freezer, the survivors panted for breath as they blessed their good fortune.

“We’re… we’re saved?”

“Wonderful!”

“Let’s get out of this place!”

“But could that demonized beast still be outside—”

Boom!

Another massive boom came from overhead, and the shuddering was even more intense, as if there was a demolition team working above them. Some of the survivors staggered and fell onto the floor. 

This boom was only the beginning. The sounds of tearing and collisions rang out incessantly, and the survivors paled as they felt the ground beneath them quake. It felt like the entire hotel was going to collapse.

What was going on?

What had happened?

What should they do?

The survivors didn’t know.

Chen Haiping’s face was grim. He had some conjectures, but he found it hard to believe them.

But it wasn’t long before the shuddering died down.

The survivors looked at each other in consternation. They had just spoken about leaving, but none of them could manage to say it now. They were all afraid of that demonized beast returning.

At this moment, there was movement from the torn-open doors, and the survivors stared and waited with bated breath.

…

On the battlefield, blue and red streaks constantly intersected, toppling walls and fracturing the floor wherever they went.

Tang Yu kept a close eye on the battlefield, and just when he was ready to call over Number Two to help, he realized that the blue streak had the upper hand. Although he didn’t have the eyes to keep up with their movements, he could tell from the blood showering the battlefield that the demonized beast was injured!

As a high-class automaton that was made for fighting, Number One had a formidable battle instinct. Seizing the moment, it began to spin around its spear, stirring dust into the air. The surrounding air seemed almost tangible as it was swirled up in a miniature tornado.

A moment later, the wind stopped.

As Number One drew back its spear, the scarlet demonized beast had already collapsed on the ground with bright red blood gushing from a large hole in its head.

“It’s finally over.”

Tang Yu sighed in relief as he looked around at the devastation, so many holes punched in the hotel that it was now on the verge of condemnation.

This scarlet demonized beast could be considered the strongest demonized beast he had yet met. Fortunately, Number One had put on a good show. Tang Yu could tell that the demonized beast hadn’t been much slower than Number One, but as an automaton, Number One boasted a heaven-defying endurance and defense. In these two aspects, it completely crushed that scarlet demonized beast.

Proceeding down the stairs, Tang Yu arrived at the underground freezer. Here was where all the shelter’s food had been stockpiled.

At this time, the freezer’s doors had already been destroyed. A large pile of miscellaneous objects had been piled up behind the doors like trash, all of the items smashed and crushed.

In the darkness, Tang Yu could hear heavy breathing.

It was people! Survivors!

Tang Yu was instantly struck dumb.

…

“It’s a human! Not a demonized beast!”

When they realized that the newcomer was a human, the survivors exhaled in relief.

Chen Haiping noticed somewhat more. One of these people was an excessively clean youth wearing casual clothes, while the other was a man completely encased in armor. His face wasn’t visible, and all Chen Haiping could see was that the man’s armor was covered in blood.

He had conjectured that the noise upstairs had been so loud that someone had to be fighting with the demonized beast. The moment he saw these two, he immediately guessed that someone had dealt with that frightening demonized beast. It was an absurd conjecture, as in his estimation, only heavy weaponry could take down that demonized beast. But based on the current situation, this was the most likely scenario.

However, the sight of this pair shook Chen Haiping’s confidence.

Whether it was that youth with clean clothes or that warrior in bloodstained armor, he could sense none of the energy of an Awakened on them. Since they weren’t Awakened and didn’t have heavy weaponry, how could the two of them have been any match for that demonized beast?

Was it because the demonized beast had happened to leave and they hadn’t run into it?

He voiced his doubts.

Tang Yu heard this and frowned. “Terrifying demonized beast? Are you talking about the one outside? It’s dead, of course.”

Dead?

The ordinary survivors gasped, and then they felt an irrepressible joy.

Chen Haiping ran out of the freezer and to the first floor. He was cautious at first, but when he arrived at the lobby, he saw the body of the scarlet demonized beast, devoid of life and covered in wounds.

His eyes went round, and words failed him.

He recalled that the mysterious, armored warrior had a spear on its back, its tip stained with blood. Wasn’t that spear an exact match for the fatal wound in the center of the demonized beast’s head?!

“Did they really manage to kill it?”

He took in the destruction around him, the cracked floor and fallen walls. If not for the fact that the supporting pillars were still standing, he truly would have feared the imminent collapse of the hotel.

It was no wonder the shaking had been so intense. From the aftermath alone, Chen Haiping could tell that the scarlet demonized beast had been far stronger than he had imagined. 

He no longer believed that Tang Yu and Number One were ordinary people. How could ordinary people possess this kind of strength?!

Chen Haiping was well aware of the various divisions of strength between Awakened.

To be more precise, when Awakened reached a certain threshold in the amount of Soul Energy absorbed and refined, and then broke through, their bodies would receive a relatively large boost in strength. Chen Haiping was around the middle of the Awakened belonging to the shelter, but he was still only a Tier 1 Awakened.

This meant that while he was somewhat stronger than ordinary Awakened, he had still yet to reach that threshold. But he knew that the strongest Awakened of the shelter had already broken through two thresholds and reached the third.

In this entire shelter, he had only ever heard of that one Awakened reaching the Tier 3 threshold. And that person had already lost their life in the demon flood. Even then, Chen Haiping had seen that person attack before, and their damage had never reached this level.

So, those two were even stronger Awakened?

Chen Haiping was frightened by his own conjectures. Only this possibility could explain it. The gap in strength between him and the pair had to be so great that he simply couldn’t sense their Awakened energy, thus leading him to mistakenly believe that they were ordinary people.

If they weren’t super experts, how could that young man’s clothes be so clean? Only super experts could cross the wilderness and still be completely clean.

That had to be it!