Chapter 102
Chapter 102
What felt better than crushing a bug under your heel?
Crushing a whole lot of bugs under your heel.
Could it get any better than that?
Yes, brother. Yes, it could.
You could get stronger every time you crushed one.
Once Qin Lan discovered that “completely killing” these 2-Star anomalies strengthened his Curse Core, the Safe Zone became the site of a feast meant for him alone.
Like a rabid dog guarding its food, Qin Lan claimed every spatial fissure in the Safe Zone for himself.
Whenever one showed abnormal activity, the anomaly inside might not have stuck its head out yet, but Qin Lan would already be standing nearby with shining eyes. His gaze practically screamed, “Brother, I’m starving.”
Rush over. Wait. Kick it to death. Leave satisfied.
Then repeat.
The low-ranking Anomaly Hunters who had once been run off their feet stared after Qin Lan as though he were a monster. For a moment, they honestly could not tell who the fucking anomaly was.
Someone whispered in private, “You think that guy might be an anomaly wearing human skin?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Anomalies take a detour when they see his face.”
“Damn… That’s kind of terrifying.”
[You have drawn power from an enemy’s complete death.]
[Maximum Curse Energy permanently increased: 3]
…
[Strength permanently increased: 0.2]
…
[Speed permanently increased…]
…
[Curse Resistance permanently increased…]
…
Sometimes the reward was Curse Energy. Sometimes it was curse resistance. Sometimes it was a basic attribute.
The 2-Star anomalies Qin Lan normally could not be bothered to hunt had become supplements. He swallowed them one after another like pills.
Figuratively. He was not actually eating them.
This slowly but steadily pushed up the attributes that had already surged after Dead Silence Academy.
The improvement from each anomaly was negligible, but there were plenty of them.
No one understood the power of accumulation better than Qin Lan.
He did not absorb the corpses of these 2-Star anomalies, however.
His Curse Core had already reached Tier 3, so absorbing curse energy from a 2-Star anomaly yielded very little. It was better to leave the remains for the other Anomaly Hunters.
After all, the spatial fissures would only grow more numerous and larger in the future.
When that happened, ordinary 1-Star and 2-Star Anomaly Hunters would also be crucial to the defense. Helping them become stronger could only benefit Safe Zone 088.
Qin Lan would therefore deliberately “miss” one or two anomalies from time to time. He would pretend not to notice them, turn around, and leave them for the others to hone their combat skills on.
Tang Qingqing’s progress during this period was equally astonishing.
After reaching Tier 2, she could acquire 2-Star guardian spirits. That meant she almost always crushed opponents of the same rank.
The anomalies crawling from the fissures barely had time to work out what was happening before her three guardian spirits mobbed them like stray dogs fighting over food and tore them to pieces.
Her Curse Core was also growing steadily more substantial, like a seedling beginning to sprout.
After a little more time to accumulate strength, she could attempt to break through the threshold of Tier 3.
“Even I have to admire that speed of yours,” Qin Lan said sincerely, with a hint of envy.
Back when he had tried to advance his Curse Core to Tier 2, he had needed to search painstakingly for instances and kill anomalies. One unlucky step could land him in a high-difficulty instance where he got beaten half to death.
Sure, he could not stay dead, but being pinned down and pounded was still infuriating.
Tang Qingqing, on the other hand, had perfectly timed the fissures’ appearance. Fresh anomalies were being delivered right to her. It could not have been more comfortable.
Tang Qingqing’s face reddened at his praise, and her voice turned hesitant.
“Not really. It’s all thanks to your guidance… If you hadn’t helped me, Senior Qin, I never would have achieved what I have…”
“Oh, right, Senior. There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you. It’s about the bond from my Talent–”
Tang Qingqing lowered her eyes and twisted the hem of her shirt nervously between her fingers. It seemed to take all her courage to get the words out.
Qin Lan blinked. Only then did he remember that Tang Qingqing’s What Joy in Life? Talent included an attribute-sharing bond.
The trouble was, she could bind herself to only one target, once.
The only difference between it and marriage was that divorce was not an option.
Looking at Tang Qingqing, Qin Lan had no intention of accepting her bond.
Attributes or Curse Core–given enough time, he could improve either on his own.
Whether by seeking death or killing anomalies, he was always growing stronger. He had practically no bottlenecks.
Using the bond on him would be something of a waste.
And Qin Lan already had a more suitable candidate in mind.
What? You thought he meant Xue Chuan?
What kind of fucking joke was that?
Qin Lan did not even need to think to know what would come spilling out of that mutt’s mouth if he heard, “A beautiful girl wants to link with you.”
He would ask things like, “What kind of linking are we talking about?” and “Can I link with several at once?”
No. The person Qin Lan had in mind was Luo Yue.
How many people still remembered Luo Yue’s Talent?
That was right: she could double summons.
Whether a summon came from a cursed artifact or a Talent, she could duplicate it with her own ability.
And by shortening their duration and burning Curse Energy at full force, she could create one additional copy on top of that.
The same applied to guardian spirits.
In other words, pairing Luo Yue with Tang Qingqing would produce a terrifying combination–one summoned, while the other enhanced.
Tang Qingqing’s shared attributes would also compensate for Luo Yue’s weak physical stats. They were practically made for each other.
Tang Qingqing looked faintly disappointed by Qin Lan’s explanation. The light in her eyes dimmed for a moment.
She had thought Qin Lan would accept the bond. Then she could stay beside him with perfect justification as his “dedicated support” and see him every day.
Unfortunately, legendary martial-arts couples belonged in martial-arts novels.
Disappointed or not, Tang Qingqing trusted Qin Lan’s arrangements unconditionally.
Senior had to have his reasons.
After receiving Qin Lan’s urgent message, Luo Yue soon came hurrying over. She had run the whole way, leaving her hair slightly disheveled.
“What, what, what? What happened?”
“I’m busy, so if you need something, hurry up and–”
Tang Qingqing activated her Talent.
Luo Yue’s eyes widened. She stopped dead, frozen in place.
A request to establish a bond appeared in her mind.
“What… is this?”
She looked at Tang Qingqing in confusion. Luo Yue had read her file before and knew about the life-sharing effect, but she had never heard a word about this attribute bond. The file had not mentioned it at all.
The girl really had concealed part of her Talent.
“Accept it and you’ll understand.” Qin Lan stood to one side with his arms folded, smiling as though he were waiting for a show. “This gift is worth a fortune. You’d better thank her properly later.”
Luo Yue gave him a doubtful look, but selected accept in her mind.
A torrent of power instantly surged into her body, rampaging through her veins.
“Ah!”
Luo Yue stumbled several steps and nearly fell. Fortunately, she caught Qin Lan’s arm in time.
Her body had not yet adjusted to the abrupt increase in her attributes.
“What in the world…”
It took Luo Yue a long moment to recover, astonishment plain on her pretty face.
The way she looked at Tang Qingqing changed. She seemed to be staring at a radiant pearl, or perhaps a walking mountain of gold.
“Don’t tell me this is her Talent?”
Qin Lan smiled. “What else would it be?”
“You think you used muscle-building body wash in the shower and suddenly got stronger?”
“Oh my God…” Luo Yue’s voice shook with excitement. She grabbed Tang Qingqing’s hand and squeezed it tight. “Qingqing, your Talent is… it’s incredible!”
The Curse Codex Luo Yue practiced also focused on enhancing her Talent and did little to improve her physical condition.
Hard attributes like Strength and Speed had always been her weakness. That was why Lu Xingshan was reluctant to let her enter the Fallen Zone. He feared one careless mistake would get her killed there.
But now that she shared fifty percent of Tang Qingqing’s attributes, that weakness had vanished.
She could practically feel that one punch from her current self would knock out her former self.
How could she not be thrilled?
“Why didn’t you tell me earlier that her Talent was this powerful?” Luo Yue demanded indignantly. She punched Qin Lan hard, with considerably more force than usual. “If I’d known, I would’ve made Uncle Lu cough up some of his best Curse Codices for her.”
“She’s still using low-grade Codices bought with the Bureau points she saved herself, isn’t she?”
Qin Lan’s expression turned awkward. He rubbed his nose and let his gaze drift away.
That was true.
He had not saved many Bureau points and had never found time to prepare a Curse Codex for Tang Qingqing. She really had earned every Codex she used by completing missions and killing anomalies, slowly piling up points like an ant moving grain.
If Luo Yue had not mentioned it, the thought might never have crossed his mind.
He had seriously let Tang Qingqing down.
“No, this won’t do. I’m messaging Uncle Lu right now. He has to bring out the good stuff he’s been hoarding…” Luo Yue muttered as she opened her communicator and jabbed rapidly at the screen, ready to pressure a certain helpless middle-aged man. Her expression plainly said that if he refused, she would make a scene.
At that moment, the ground of Safe Zone 088 began to shake.
Qin Lan’s expression changed sharply. His smile vanished, and he instinctively pulled Tang Qingqing and Luo Yue close, shielding one with each arm.
More precisely, it was not the ground trembling.
It was space.
The air bucked violently, as though clenched in an invisible hand. Even their vision began to blur.
Amid a rolling series of booms, new spatial fissures appeared out of thin air, like gashes torn open across the Safe Zone all at once.
Anyone standing in the Anomaly Hunter Bureau’s command hall would have seen red markers flashing dangerously across the map.
They spread one after another like a crawling spiderweb.
Five. Six. Seven…
Ten new spatial fissures opened in total.
Wave after wave of curse energy rolled out. Anomalies were struggling to force their way through. Some sounds were as deep as muffled thunder, others as shrill as a wailing child. Together, they made the scalp crawl.
Driven by the lust for slaughter, they were about to break into human territory.