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

West side of the square.

Wang Ze also made a move.

He drew a long sword about eighty centimeters long from his waist. The moment the tip of the sword touched the ground, an invisible force field spread outward from him.

The monsters that rushed into the force field instantly became slow and clumsy. Each time they lifted their limbs, it took three or four times more effort than usual, and each time they fell, it was like wading through a quagmire.

"Xia Yan!"

Wang Ze's voice boomed across the square.

Xia Yan's figure vanished into thin air the instant he finished speaking.

One second she was standing two meters behind Wang Ze, the next she appeared behind a monster.

She held a short dagger in each hand.

Before the first monster could even turn around, Xia Yan's dagger had already pierced its nape.

The blade cut into the space between the cervical vertebrae with the precision of a surgeon's scalpel.

The thing's body stiffened for a moment, then went limp like a machine that had lost power.

Xia Yan's figure disappeared again, and the next second she appeared on the side of another monster three meters away.

Both were on the back of the neck, both were in the intervertebral space, and both were made with a precise incision.

Her movements were completely unpredictable; one second she might be in the east, the next in the west, and the next in the north.

The monsters within the force field couldn't pinpoint her location at all; they didn't even know when they had died.

On the east side of the square, Jiang Ning's team also found their rhythm.

The roar of the Emperor's engine echoed throughout the entire East District, its thumping sound like a never-ending engine.

His agility attribute proved overwhelmingly advantageous in combat that required high-speed movement and quick reactions.

The pale red figure weaved through the monster horde, and with each pause, a monster's head was crushed or its throat slit.

He only had an ordinary longsword in his hand.

The blade traced silvery-white arcs in the night, each strike precisely hitting the monster's most vulnerable spot.

Although his strength was not as great as Chen Ye's, his high agility brought him speed and reaction speed, which made him very effective in this kind of one-to-many melee.

With Jiang Ning at the core, the five A-level team members formed a high-speed fighting machine under his leadership.

Some were responsible for frontal containment, some for flank cover, and some for eliminating any survivors Jiang Ning missed.

Although their teamwork wasn't as refined as Wang Ze and Xia Yan's, their efficiency was still quite high given their overwhelming speed and power.

Just then, Jian Lan, who was next to Jiang Ning, suddenly stopped in her tracks.

Her face was as white as paper in the dim light of the streetlamp, her lips trembled, and she pointed to a monster charging towards the north side of the square.

"Brother Ning...that...that's Zhu Peng's face...that's Zhu Peng?"

Her voice trembled, and each word seemed to be squeezed out from between her teeth.

Jiang Ning followed her gaze.

The monster rushed towards them at high speed.

Its form is no longer entirely human; its limbs are twice the length of a normal human's, and its joints are bent backwards, supporting the ground like a spider's legs.

But its face is indeed Zhu Peng's face.

A strange smile hung on his face, the corners of his mouth turned up to the limit, almost reaching his ears.

His eyes were wide open, the pupils dilated to fill the entire eye socket, devoid of any emotion, just a blank blackness.

Its right hand was also holding something.

That was a dagger.

That was the white-quality weapon that Jiang Ning snatched from the boy in carriage number five; it had +1 Agility.

During the day, Zhu Peng led four people into a house with the door open, saying they were going to investigate the situation inside, and then they never came out again.

"That's not Zhu Peng anymore."

Jiang Ning's eyes turned crimson in the dim light of the streetlights, and the Emperor Engine roared deep within him.

"Thump thump—thump thump—thump thump thump—"

The sound grew faster and louder, like an engine being pushed to its redline.

Jiang Ning's body sprang from the spot, and she slashed her long sword at Zhu Peng's head, who had turned into a monster.

The moment Jiang Ning's blade slashed down, "Zhu Peng" raised his head.

That face, which once belonged to a human, was now twisted at an eerie angle, its mouth stretched to its ears, revealing two rows of uneven teeth.

Its eyes were completely black, without any luster, like two bottomless black holes.

"when--!"

The blade struck the dagger Zhu Peng had raised, sending sparks flying.

Zhu Peng's strength was surprisingly great. Jiang Ning used 70% of his strength in this 18-point slash, yet Zhu Peng still managed to catch it steadily.

Even more bizarrely, its expression remained unchanged; the smile on its face seemed to be glued in place, the curve of its lips unchanged in the slightest.

"Brother Ning! What happened?"

Jian Lan's voice had changed. She stood three meters behind Jiang Ning, the long sword in her hand trembling slightly.

Jiang Ning did not respond.

His blade slid off Zhu Peng's dagger, his body spun half a circle in place, and the long sword slashed out from the other side, aimed at Zhu Peng's neck.

Zhu Peng's body bent backward at an angle impossible for a human to do, like a bamboo pole bent under pressure. Jiang Ning's blade grazed the tip of its nose, shaving off a few strands of its hair.

Then its knees snapped straight, and its entire body shot back like a slingshot, its right hand's dagger stabbing straight into Jiang Ning's chest.

Jiang Ning turned to the side, and the dagger grazed his left rib, cutting a hole in his windbreaker.

His right hand loosened its grip on the knife handle, changed its move to a grab, and seized Zhu Peng's wrist, twisting it sharply.

The sound of bones cracking was particularly jarring in the night.

Zhu Peng's right wrist was twisted and broken, and the dagger fell from his hand, making a crisp metallic clanging sound as it hit the ground.

But Zhu Peng did not react.

It didn't even look down at its broken wrist.

Its other hand, the one without a weapon, suddenly shot out from below, its five fingers like hooks, plunging straight into Jiang Ning's abdomen.

Jiang Ning's abdominal muscles tightened instantly, and her body retreated rapidly.

But Zhu Peng was faster than he had imagined.

The fingertips of that hand still touched his clothes, tearing five rips in his jacket and leaving five shallow bloodstains on his abdomen.

If his reaction had been a fraction of a second slower, those five fingers would have been inserted into his abdomen.

Zhu Peng did not pursue them.

It stood there, head tilted, that eerie smile still on its face.

The angle of the tilted head was getting bigger and bigger, so big that a normal person's neck would have broken long ago, but it was still tilted, and the cervical spine made a series of teeth-grinding "crackling" sounds.

Then, it opened its mouth.

"Ning... Brother..."

Its voice was hoarse, broken, and distorted, as if it were coming from a broken radio, or as if it were being squeezed out by someone choking it.

But that was indeed Zhu Peng's voice.

Jian Lan's pupils contracted sharply, her lips trembled violently, and the long knife almost slipped from her hand.

Jiang Ning's expression finally changed.

It wasn't fear, but something more complex. His brows furrowed, the veins on his temples bulged, and the red in his eyes deepened.

"You are not Zhu Peng."