Chapter 165

Mark's elbow slammed into the other man's ribs, sending the can of beef crashing to the New York subway tracks.

This was the last unexpired can of food they found in the abandoned station. At a temperature of 62°C, even spoiled food became a luxury.

He lunged to pick it up, but another tall, thin man stepped on his hand. With a hiss of pain, the tall, thin man's steel pipe was already pressed against his neck: "The canned food is mine, or I'll push you down to feed the rats right now!"

A rustling sound came from deep inside the subway station, like countless claws gnawing at metal.

Mark stared into the tall, thin man's eyes, then suddenly shouted behind him, "Look! It's a swarm of carrion rats!"

The tall, thin man instinctively turned around, and Mark seized the opportunity to shove him aside, grab the can of food, and hide in the abandoned train in the corner of the platform.

He had seen this kind of first-tier monster last week. Its 50-centimeter-long body was covered with dark brown bristles, and its teeth could bite through soda cans. If a group of them came down, not even bones would be left.

Sure enough, within ten seconds, a dark mass of carrion rats surged into the platform, with the first few jumping to the feet of the tall, thin man Mark had just pushed aside.

The tall, thin man swung the steel pipe wildly, killing two rats, but more rats pounced on him, tearing through his trouser leg and causing blood to seep out instantly.

"Help me! Mark! I'll give you back the can!" He reached out towards the train, but Mark held the door shut—he knew that opening the door meant death together, and no one cared about anyone else's life or death at this moment.

Outside the train window, the tall, thin man's body was quickly engulfed by the swarm of rats, leaving only intermittent screams before the sound faded away, leaving only a pool of dark red blood. Mark leaned against the train door, opened a can of food, and swallowed the cold, hard beef jerky mixed with sweat. Suddenly, a message popped up on his communicator: "USA-Los Angeles: A Tier 3 giant crocodile stormed into a temporary water source and swallowed three people! Does anyone have high-level armor-piercing rounds? I'll trade all my points for them!"

He clicked on the video attached to the message. In the video, the crocodile's scales were hit by a regular laser gun, leaving only a white mark. And when it opened its big mouth, it could bite a person's waist in half.

In a slum in New Delhi, Raj knelt on the cracked earth, collecting rainwater dripping from the roof bit by bit with a broken bowl.

This was the first water source he had found in three days. Before the bowl was even full, a bearded man kicked it over, yelling, "This water is mine! You think you're worthy to drink it?"

The machete in the bearded man's hand gleamed in the sunlight. Just as Raji was about to resist, he saw a yellowish-brown shadow moving swiftly in the sand behind the man—it was a second-tier demon beast, the "Sand Scorpion," whose half-meter-long pincers could easily snap a person's arm.

"Sand Scorpion! Run!" Raj shouted, turning and running towards the abandoned hut next to him.

The bearded man didn't move. He stared at the sand scorpion, his eyes gleaming with greed: "A second-tier demon core can sell for a lot of points!"

He raised his machete and swung it at the scorpion's head, but the machete was caught in the scorpion's pincers as soon as it touched its shell, snapping in two with a "crack".

The sand scorpion's stinger shot out instantly, piercing the bearded man's thigh. He screamed and fell to the ground, his body quickly beginning to convulse—the sand scorpion's venom could suffocate someone within five minutes.

Raji hid in the hut, looking out through the hole: sand scorpions were slowly gnawing on the bearded man's corpse, people were fighting over a half-full bottle of murky water in the distance, a woman was pushed to the ground, her child fell to the ground, and no one helped her up.

He touched the last 10 points in his communicator, clicked on "Number One Store in the World," only to see the message "Second-Tier Armor-Piercing Rounds Sold Out," and felt a wave of despair wash over him—without weapons, without water, he might be the next to die.

In an abandoned stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Anna is holding her child in her arms, huddled in the shadows of the stands.

The stadium's iron gate had long been smashed open by the third-tier demonic beast "Giant Python," whose 20-meter-long body was covered in bluish-black scales and flicked its forked tongue. It had already swallowed two people who were trying to escape.

"Does anyone else have 'I Am the God of Wealth' armor-piercing rounds?" a man in camouflage shouted from the top of the stands, holding a laser gun in his hand. "I have two more here, enough to pierce its vital point!"

Someone in the crowd raised their hand: "I have one! But first, make sure my child and I survive!"

Anna wanted to raise her hand too, but then she touched her pocket—

She failed to secure armor-piercing rounds last week and now only had an unpowered laser gun. The man in camouflage took the rounds, loaded them into the gun, aimed at the python's vital spot, and pulled the trigger—

A pale blue bullet hole flashed past, piercing the python's scales. It let out a deafening roar, and with a flick of its tail, it swept the man off the top of the stands, sending him crashing to the ground, lifeless.

"Run!" The crowd erupted instantly, pushing and shoving each other as they ran toward another exit of the stadium.

Anna, holding her child, was squeezed in the middle when she tripped over something and almost fell. Looking back, she saw the giant python had caught up. The woman at the front, trying to escape, had pushed an elderly man aside. The man was caught in the python's tail and instantly fell silent.

Anna gritted her teeth and used all her strength to push forward with her child in her arms, her mind focused on only one thing: to survive and find a weapon to fight this monster.

As night fell, Mark, on a train in New York; Raj, in a hut in New Delhi; and Anna, amidst the ruins of Rio, all opened the system chat area—

The screen was filled with images of devastation from various places: "France - Paris: Flocks of winged birds attacked a bakery, even overturning the ovens!"

"Sydney, Australia: Kangaroo mutates into a Tier 1 monster and kicks two people to death!"

More messages came from @“我是财神” seeking help: “Looking for high-level weapons! I can’t even scratch third-tier monsters!”

"Could you please provide a guide on using demon cores? I got a second-tier core but don't know how to enhance my abilities!"

Anna looked at these messages and typed a line: "Rio: Tier 3 Giant Python breaks through defenses, armor-piercing bullets are useful but not enough! Requesting pre-orders of Tier 3 weapons!"

She knew that the only one who could save them now was "I Am the God of Wealth," who could create tracking laser guns and second-tier armor-piercing rounds. This made everyone in the chat room wait for Su Jing's response.