Chapter 99: The Killing Mode Engages

“Brother, sorry to interrupt, but have you seen the Slaughter Player?”

As Chen Mo was about to leave the area, the group of them quickly closed in around him.

They were mostly young, likely all students. A data scan showed their gear was surprisingly solid. The lowest was Rank E, and the best even had a few Rank C sets. All of them were above level thirty, which meant they had already cleared the novice dungeon and reached Hell difficulty.

Even among the two at the front, one stood out in particular: the girl on the left in a Proud Mage Set had a battle rating of Soldier-grade Advanced, and the boy on the right in the Skeleton Plate looked different altogether. Chen Mo’s scan revealed him as a hidden class, a Shadow Sorcerer who could control shadows, with a rank of General-grade Initiate.

According to Intelligence Report data from the Evolution Forum, power rank is divided into Soldier, General, Marquis, King, Demon, Divine, and Dominator levels, and each level has lower, higher, and peak tiers.
The strongest player known on the globe is Miyamoto Musashi: King-tier Peak. Lei Dongtian is only a little behind, at King-tier Advanced.

This power rating is generated by the system from a player’s practical combat performance inside dungeons. It may not reveal a person’s true strength with perfect accuracy, but it does establish at least that the person can reach that baseline.

A single General-tier rating is enough to show that this team is no ordinary lot.

Chen Mo answered calmly, “Slaughter Player? I haven’t. I just came through here.”

The boy in the Skeleton Plate smiled with quiet confidence. “By your voice, you still sound like a student. I’m a student at Fudan Secondary School. I’m Jiang Ming, pleased to meet you.”

Chen Mo was dressed in a Vampire Set, draped in a vampire cloak and wearing a vampire mask. He had expected those students to be intimidated by him, yet they boldly greeted him anyway.

In truth, he thought, the Vampire Set was no longer a unique costume the way the Annihilation Set was. Since the higher dungeons arrived, D-rank Vampire Sets were no longer rare; there are at least thousands worldwide. Europe alone has hundreds of thousands of bloodline vampires. These so-called vampires, even without Vampire Sets, would still look a lot like him. Students from Fudan Secondary School, especially top-tier ones, are far too worldly to be frightened of the look of it.

Chen Mo gave a dry laugh. “Who told you I’m a student? Are you testing me?”

A flash of sharp calculation crossed Jiang Ming’s eyes. He had not expected this lone opponent to be so wary. He had indeed intended to test whether the man in the vampire garb was a student, then warm up the contact and lure him into lowering his guard for a decisive strike.

This team had already slaughtered many lone enemies along the way. Hearing there was a Slaughter Player in the D-Rank Desert Zone, they rushed there at once. They had failed to find that player, only this mysterious figure in a Vampire Set. Jiang Ming began to wonder if this stranger had already killed the Slaughter Player—and if so, he might be carrying a fortune in gear.

“Brother, you’re taking this way too personally. I only asked casually. If you don’t want us here, we’ll leave.”

He waved his hand and signaled his classmates.

Hah. Chen Mo gave him a dark, contemptuous smile.

The ten-man team seemed to be leaving, but their hands tightened around their weapons without thinking.

As they pretended to pass by him, four of them suddenly struck—quick as whispers, knives in hand, in a viciously oblique angle, launching a direct ambush on Chen Mo.

Swift, hard, precise. No warning at all.

Fortunately, Chen Mo had already prepared for such tactics. He summoned the Annihilation Blade.

The Annihilation Blade.

He tried to leap up and release annihilating edge, only to find his feet locked fast in a vise of his own shadow.

A Shadow Sorcerer indeed. So they can control an enemy’s own shadow and strike with it. Interesting.

And they happened to meet the Demon King of this battlefield.

Even with his feet bound, Chen Mo swung a sword in midair and swept forward.

The Annihilation Blade.

The three arcs of sword energy no longer flew out in straight cuts; they became three semicircular slashes, shooting from the demon sword.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

The four Fudan Secondary students were close-combat assassins—disciples of speed and surprise. They never expected their opponent to move faster than they did. Their daggers had barely entered Chen Mo’s body when the three waves of sword-qi arrived in one line.

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.

One cut of sword-qi might not have killed these assassins, but three consecutive arcs striking the same place meant compounded damage—cleanly waist-severing them.

Thunk—

Blood exploded outward.

The four assassins’ upper and lower halves separated at once, and they screamed in agony.

Combat in an advanced dungeon only outputs fifty percent pain capacity. It was searing and memorable, and the psychological blow of seeing one’s own lower body explode in blood in front of you is its own sort of hell.

“What!?” Jiang Ming, the team leader, was stunned. Their legs had been shackled by shadow; their combat skills should have been hard to execute, and even if executed, greatly weakened. Yet he had never imagined such terrifying force. These four were among his school’s elite, each with 4,000 health! Four thousand! Even the instructors at Fudan, even at Fudan General-tier Peak, don’t reach that.

Chen Mo, however, had activated Killing Mode. His attributes doubled. With the Annihilation Sword Set layered atop, it could expend life force to pierce any armor at will. He did not care for that tiny cost; he simply cleaved all four in an instant.

[Player eliminated: Dungeon Points +20]
[Killing Mode: points doubled]
[Player bounty: 64 points; all acquired. Dungeon Points +128]

[Player eliminated: Dungeon Points +20]
[Player bounty: 59 points; all acquired. Dungeon Points +118]
……

What a haul. Here he had killed two hundred-plus zombies for barely three hundred-some points. A few strokes of his sword, four players dead, and he gained 458 points. After all, killing players is easier.

Jiang Ming’s temples bulged with veins as he shouted, “Form up! Engage!”

Six students remained. A meat tank stood at the front. He layered two shields on himself and a defense buff, swelling his form until he stood nearly two meters tall.

At the tank’s flanks were two warriors in Golden Sets, each with a gold greatsword, standing in strict readiness.

The second line was two mages—one in the Arrogant Mage Set with Soldier-tier Advanced power, the other slightly weaker, clad in a plain Mage Set and lacking a displayed rating, either too weak for Soldier-tier or unassessed after this being his first advanced-dungeon run.

At the rear stood the brain of the squad—the overall commander—Jiang Ming himself.

He gritted his teeth and raised a skull staff. “Damn it! Whoever you are, go bury yourself with my teammates! Summon—Shadow Soldiers!”

The six students’ shadows tore free from their bodies and, as if stepping out of two dimensions into three, rose from the ground as shadow soldiers, each with a shadow spear raised to thrust at Chen Mo.

How interesting. Too interesting.

To see those shadow soldiers stand before him sent a thrill through him. This was magnificent.