The Human-Faced Bears were playing a bear-kills-human game.
And Xie Litang was the bear hunter in the dark.
In Building 3, where she currently was, another Human-Faced Bear lurked inside one of the rooms, roleplaying as a human to spread misleading information in the group chat.
Xie Litang picked up the dead bear's phone and drafted a message: “As expected of natural humans, their hearts and livers taste amazing! I want more.” She clicked send.
Sure enough.
A roar echoed from the fifth floor of Building 3.
A message also popped up in the Human-Faced Bear group chat: 【There are only a few natural humans in Building 3. We agreed on half an hour of game time per bear. Don't break the rules.】
A smirk curled the corners of Xie Litang's lips.
Soon, she vaulted out the window and climbed up the building.
Inside a room on the fifth floor, a Human-Faced Bear sat on the sofa, seemingly furious.
In the dark, a hand suddenly wrapped around its neck. “Take a deep breath. Feeling dizzy is completely normal.” Then, a longsword sliced across its throat.
There were six buildings in total in the complex. Xie Litang began her hunt in the order of Buildings 3, 2, 1, 5, and 6.
After clearing out the two Human-Faced Bears in Building 2, the group chat suddenly erupted into chaos.
Xie Litang felt a sudden jolt of surprise.
“I couldn't have been discovered, could I?”
She unlocked the phone and checked it.
Inside the Human-Faced Bear group chat:
【There's a dangerous person in Building 5! He tricked a bear into a room and set the apartment on fire! He's approaching with a fire axe! Save me...】
【You can't even deal with a single human? What a useless waste.】
【You're hereby expelled from the bear lineage.】
【Who's going over?】
【I can go, but all the natural humans in Building 5 will belong to me.】
【Bullshit! Nobody come over! I'm not like that useless waste—I can handle this myself!】
Xie Litang glanced out from a window in Building 2, and indeed, thick billows of smoke were pouring out of Building 5.
However, the tenant group chat for Building 5 was far from peaceful.
The person who set the fire and killed the bear was rallying everyone to fight back together.
Yet more people were cursing him, demanding to know why he set the fire when they could have just waited for rescue.
Ten minutes later.
“Building 1 is cleared.”
Xie Litang skipped Building 5 entirely.
She had to admit, the resister in Building 5 was a ruthless badass. Using homemade Molotov cocktails and rigged electrical wires, he actually slaughtered the remaining Human-Faced Bear himself.
Roar, roar~
The Human-Faced Bears also realized something was wrong.
Their leader began calling its subordinates together.
Two Human-Faced Bears burst out of Building 6, launching an indiscriminate massacre against the people fleeing the buildings.
An ear-splitting alarm sounded above the residential complex.
Seeing this, Xie Litang's face darkened. “Are these people out of their minds?”
Humans always believed that luck was on their side.
They always assumed they could run out and escape.
Little did they know that the greatest disaster awaited right at the entrance.
Xie Litang turned and sprinted toward the security booth—not to save those people, but because the highest-value target, the Human-Faced Bear leader, was right there.
Twenty meters.
Ten meters.
Roar~
A foul-smelling wind brushed past Xie Litang's cheek. Grazing the edge of a bear claw, she swung her sword in a slash.
“Steel Tempest.”
Clang~
The Human-Faced Bear leader's health bar instantly dropped by a fifth.
Roar, roar~
Enraged, the Human-Faced Bear leader slammed a claw into the wall of the security booth behind Xie Litang.
The tiny booth instantly burst apart under the terrifying force, nearly half of it collapsing.
Heartsteel had a thirty-second cooldown when triggering against the same target repeatedly.
Once the cooldown ended—
Clang.
Finally, as Xie Litang landed her last blow,
the Human-Faced Bear leader let out a final furious roar and collapsed unwillingly.
Seeing this, the remaining two Human-Faced Bears abandoned their pursuit of the humans, turning and fleeing into the mountain forest.
More and more people emerged from the buildings, casting cautious glances toward the exit.
Xie Litang paid them no mind.
She skinned the bear and harvested its gallbladder.
Ugh...
Witnessing such a bloody scene, someone vomited on the spot.
Someone tentatively walked past her. Seeing that Xie Litang didn't stop them, more and more people sprinted outside.
They wanted to go home.
Yet where could "home" possibly be?
That city was merely another cage.
Xie Litang didn't stop them, either, because she lacked the capability to bring so many people back herself.
“Hello.”
A somewhat weak voice spoke up.
Xie Litang looked up to see a boy around seventeen or eighteen years old staggering toward her, clutching his arm, with terrifying claw marks bleeding on his back.
Xie Litang folded the hide of the Human-Faced Bear leader, stuffed it into her backpack, and said, “You're the guy from Building 5? You saved them, yet they abandoned you.”
The boy's face was pale as he shook his head. “None of that matters anymore.”
Xie Litang asked, “What do you want?”
The boy took a deep breath, mustered his strength, and said, “I have a few questions I want to ask you.”
Xie Litang checked the time and said, “You have two minutes. Those things will be here soon.”
“What are those bears?”
“Human-Faced Bears.”
“Why are we here?”
“Because you're natural humans.”
“I...”
“No time left. Last question.”
“Tell me, what should I do?”
“Don't trust anyone—not your parents, your relatives, or your friends. The only person you can trust is yourself.”
Xie Litang slung her backpack onto her shoulders and walked outward.
“My name is Xiao Bai.”
“Xie Litang. Litang as in 'a tree of pear blossoms presses upon the begonia.'”
She paused to think for a moment.
Xie Litang pulled out a bottle of recovery potion, tossed it over, and added, “Drink it, then act like you know nothing. Lastly... you can try heading due north, though the danger might be ten times, even a hundred times greater than today.”
With that,
she hotwired a car.
Slamming the gas pedal to the floor, the engine roared as she sped down another small road out of the complex.
It wasn't her car anyway, so she drove it recklessly without a care.
Bumping along the way, the little city was soon left far behind.
“System, panel.”
【Name: Xie Litang】
【Ability: Teammate Sacrifice, Uses Remaining: 0】
【Class: Swordmaster, Wind-Style Swordsmanship (Minor Accomplishment) 5454/10000】
【Vitality: 5689, Spirit: 45】
【Equipment: Heartsteel】
【Gold Coins: 320】
“How do I only have three hundred and twenty gold coins?”
Xie Litang couldn't help complaining.
Deer beasts, Old Tapirs, Human-Faced Bears—among them, the Old Tapir and the Human-Faced Bear leader counted as elite mobs, giving forty gold coins each.
Yet compared to what she owed the system, this was barely pocket change.
“Then again...”
“Does killing Skin Corpses give gold coins?”
“I should try it next time if I get the chance. Otherwise, with this lend-nine-return-thirteen deal, the system is way too ruthless.”
Three days later.
Xie Litang finally caught sight of Jianghai City.
The car had broken down completely after running for little more than two hundred kilometers.
After thinking it over, she decided to visit the Demon Beast Hunter Association to report what happened in Liyang City.
After all, there really were natural humans living there.
“Are you saying that as a One-Star Hunter, you ventured over seven hundred kilometers outside the city?”
The receptionist showed a look of complete disbelief.
Xie Litang nodded. “Mm-hmm.”
The receptionist's face turned serious, and she lowered her voice. “Please wait a moment. I need to report this to my superiors.”
A few minutes later.
“Miss... um, Langmie, please follow me. Our supervisor wants to see you.”
Xie Litang nodded. “Alright.”
Just a supervisor receiving me?
It seems the priority of this matter really isn't that high.
Rate on N.U.
