Death Train: SSS-level talent right from the start!

On the south side of the square, on the second floor of a building facing the street.

Chen Ye and his four companions squatted under the windowsill, and none of them spoke.

The sky outside the window had completely darkened, and the fog was even thicker than at dusk. The grayish-white fog looked like a thick layer of cotton wool in the twilight, wrapping the entire city tightly.

Across the street was the square, but now the situation there was obscured. Only a few blurry points of light could be seen flickering in the mist; those were the flashlights turned on by the people in Jiang Ning's team.

Qin Zhaoyang squatted under the windowsill, curled up into a ball.

His expression was strange, as if he was holding something back. His face was flushed red, and his lips were trembling, as if he wanted to say something but dared not.

Chen Ye noticed his unusual behavior and asked in a low voice, "What's wrong?"

"Brother Ye..." Qin Zhaoyang's voice was extremely low, with an almost manic tremor: "There is a new kill record on my system panel, showing that I killed the elite monster 'Lizard-Headed Demon' and gained 100 points."

His eyes shone like light bulbs, and his whole body trembled slightly as if he had been electrocuted—a sign of extreme excitement.

Chen Ye raised his eyebrows slightly.

100 points.

Zhao Hai only got 10 points for killing the gray-skinned monster, while the lizard head got ten times as many points as the gray-skinned monster.

"Did you really manage to snag one?"

Wang Shuo's eyes widened instantly.

"Sure, Zhaoyang."

Li Zheng's mouth formed an "O" shape, and he almost couldn't make a sound.

Chen Ye took a deep breath, reached out and patted Qin Zhaoyang's shoulder with a light touch: "Well done. I told you your talent, if used properly, is at the conceptual level."

"It's all thanks to Brother Ye's excellent command."

Qin Zhaoyang scratched his head.

Just now, Chen Ye told him to throw the three knives as projectiles. His innate ability is that within range, without obstruction, throwing and ranged attacks will always hit the target.

"Alright, calm down." Chen Ye lowered his voice. "Now is not the time to be happy."

He opened the system panel, and Zhao Hai's message popped up.

[Zhao Hai: You guys killed the lizard-headed guy, right? I got the Gale Crossbow, so this wasn't a complete loss. It's just a pity we can't get the dropped items. It might have been a skill book, but they can't seem to pick it up right now. I guess we'll have to wait a while.]

Chen Ye quickly replied.

[Chen Ye: This result was unexpected. Zhao Yang got 100 points, and you got a piece of equipment. We are no match for Jiang Ning's team now. We'll remember this grudge and make him pay double sooner or later.]

[Zhao Hai: I'm quite exhausted, my strength is almost depleted, and I won't be able to recover for a while. Jiang Ning, send people to search the nearby high-rise buildings, but make sure they don't discover us.]

Chen Ye turned off the panel, looked up, and glanced at the four people beside him.

"Hai said Jiang Ning sent people to search the nearby high-rise buildings. Let's go up first. The fog is already very thick, so it won't be easy for them to find us."

Wang Shuo nodded and was the first to crouch down and move towards the stairwell.

Li Zheng followed behind him, Zhou Yating was third, Qin Zhaoyang was fourth, and Chen Ye brought up the rear.

The five people walked up the stairs to the twelfth floor, pushed open the door to the rooftop, and were greeted by a night breeze carrying mist.

Chen Ye walked to the edge of the rooftop, squatted down, and looked towards the square.

The view from here is clearer than from the second floor.

The beams of flashlights were still flickering in the mist; this was the team searching the building.

Chen Ye's gaze drifted further into the distance of the square; it was now completely dark.

Just then, a strange change occurred.

A roar came from not far away.

Then came the second tone, the third tone, and so on, more and more.

The roars came from all directions: from the municipal area to the north of the square, from the commercial street to the east, from the residential area to the west, and from the platform to the south.

They were all too familiar with that sound; it was the howl of the Gray Mist Walker.

The roars rose and fell, echoing each other, like some ancient call reverberating through the ruins of the city.

All the monsters have awakened.

"What...what do we do?"

Qin Zhaoyang's face turned deathly pale instantly. He squatted on the edge of the rooftop, gripping the railing tightly with both hands.

"Those monsters seem to have woken up. Nighttime is definitely their most active time. Aren't we just waiting to die on the roof?"

Wang Shuo gripped the fire axe tightly, the veins on the back of his hand bulging.

Li Zheng wanted to retrieve his butcher knife, only to remember that Qin Zhaoyang had just thrown it away. Without the butcher knife, his talent couldn't be activated, and his combat power plummeted.

Zhou Yating didn't speak, but she took half a step closer to Chen Ye, her shoulder almost touching his arm.

Chen Ye squatted in place, motionless.

His gaze swept across the square, over the flashlight beams of those running back, over the increasingly dense roars deep in the fog, and over the entire ruined city shrouded in twilight and thick fog.

"Don't do anything, just stay here."

His voice was calm, so calm it was almost cold.

"When the monsters come, they'll attack Jiang Ning in the square first. They'll help us lure the monsters away. This might be our chance. Come on, the more the better."

Li Zheng frowned: "Qin Zhaoyang threw all our weapons out, and Hai Ge isn't here either. If the monster finds us, we're doomed!"

"Is it really safe to go out? Not necessarily. If we go down now, we might run into hordes of monsters, and that would be certain death. Let's stay here and not go anywhere. From now on, don't speak or make any noise."

Chen Ye immediately lay down on the ground.

The other four followed suit and lay down as well.

……

on the square.

Jiang Ning's pupils suddenly contracted.

The roars came from all directions, so dense that they made one's scalp tingle, as if the foundations of the entire city were trembling.

"Damn it, didn't we clear out all the monsters around here?"

He glanced at the fallen items on the ground. The book, covered by a light shield, shimmered faintly in the night, like a gem lost in the ruins.

The priority pick-up right will not disappear for at least another twenty minutes.

Zhu Peng ran back from the edge of the square, panting, followed by the men he had called to search the building.

"Brother Ning! So many...so many monsters are coming this way!"

His voice trembled as he pointed towards the north side of the square.

The ground was trembling slightly; it wasn't an illusion.

It wasn't just one or two monsters, but a resonance caused by a large number of monsters running.

Jiang Ning's gaze quickly swept across the square.

In the mist, the outline of a shadow began to emerge.

The shadows were a size larger than those seen during the day; the largest one was nearly three meters tall, resembling a moving hill.

"Brother Ning, let's get out of here! There's no one else here anyway, we'll figure out how to come back and get it later!"

Zhu Peng's voice rose several octaves.

"No." Jiang Ning's voice turned cold. "We have to get the dropped items before we leave. There must still be people here, otherwise, who threw those three knives on the monster's head?"

"Even if someone was there, they would have run away long ago. We can't handle so many monsters! We'll all die if we don't leave, Brother Ning!"

Zhu Peng practically roared it out; his eyes held fear, anxiety, and a hint of anger.

The other A-level underlings also gathered around, their expressions largely the same: fear, anxiety, dissatisfaction, and some had even started to back away.

"Brother Ning, let's go!"

"There are so many monsters, we can't fight them all!"

"Even if you get your hands on that book, you'd better be alive to use it!"

The other underlings also began to try to persuade him.

They followed Jiang Ning because he was strong enough, and their chances of survival were greater if they followed him. Now that Jiang Ning had put them in danger for the sake of this book, they naturally felt resentful.