The whole nation is trying to survive on the cable car; I'm choosing one of three options at ea

This time, the golden light was even brighter than before.

The Misty Monkey darted swiftly through the mist, but each movement left a brief trail in the air, which was clearly visible to Su Mu's dynamic vision.

It tried to create distance and disappear into the depths of the fog... but Su Mu was faster.

His talent for adapting to any road conditions allowed him to maintain a steady speed in the air, on the ground, and between building facades, so no matter which direction the monkey fled, it couldn't shake him off.

After chasing for less than half a minute, the Misty Monkey was forced to stop at the corner of a collapsed building.

Su Mu's spear pierced its chest. The layer of dark gray mist surged violently the moment the spear tip touched it, then quickly faded and dissipated, revealing the grayish-white, disintegrating body beneath.

The monkey's body twitched a few times on the tip of the spear, then fell completely still, dark gray fragments peeling off its body surface like weathered stone shattering.

[Defeat Lv10 Blue Mist Monkey... Experience +320. Obtain 280 Ghost Crystals. Obtain 1 Ghost Material.]

Su Mu sheathed his spear, squatted down, and picked up a palm-sized piece of bone from the crumbling fragments. It was dark gray and covered with a semi-transparent coating that looked like grease.

The system description popped up: "The Mysterious Artifact - Skull of the Mist Monkey (Blue)... Upon activation, it continuously consumes health to generate a black mist with a radius of 5 meters. Within the black mist's range, the wielder cannot be locked onto or hit by regular physical attacks. The duration depends on the rate at which health is consumed and can be manually terminated."

This stuff is pretty good; it can be surprisingly effective in certain situations.

Su Mu put the bone fragment into his backpack.

Su Mu put the bone fragment into his backpack, then squatted down and placed his hand on the disintegrating monkey corpse.

A system prompt popped up: "Decompose the corpse of 'Mist Monkey (Lv10 Blue)'? Decomposition will take 10 minutes, during which time the body cannot be moved." Su Mu confirmed.

He leaned against the wall, his spear resting on his knees, his gaze sweeping across the fog-shrouded streets... There was no movement, no sign of anyone approaching.

Over the course of ten minutes, he would scan his surroundings every so often to make sure nothing was approaching.

The fog remained a thick, grayish-white mist, like old cotton wool soaked in water, covering the streets, buildings, and pavement. The monkey's carcass slowly decomposed under his hands, its dark gray skin peeling away layer by layer, cracking, and turning into tiny particles, revealing the grayish-white bone tissue beneath.

Chen Jun's avatar lit up, his tone brimming with excitement: "Brother Su! I saw the guild quest number jump up a notch! You killed a monster? That's amazing! I even have to grind through ordinary monsters for ages, and you took down a monster in one go, that's incredible!"

Before Su Mu could reply, Lin Yuwei's message popped up.

She didn't speak in the guild channel, but instead sent a private message: "Did you kill a monster?" Su Mu replied with an "Mm".

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end, then another message came: "I learned from people in other guilds that the monsters roaming outside Ash City during the day are very strong. Those who landed in the red zone and encountered them never returned alive, and most of them didn't even know how they died, or even see the source of the attack."

Su Mu stared at those lines of text, the progress bar in his hand still moving slowly.

He thought for a moment and replied, "They're indeed difficult to deal with. If you encounter them normally, you won't even have a chance to run. I suggest you don't go to the red zone." Just as he finished sending the message, Chen Jun's message popped up again, as if he'd been waiting for him to speak: "Don't worry, Brother Su! With my strength, even if I were teleported to the red zone, I would never leave the teleportation point, and I absolutely wouldn't go inside."

Immediately afterward, Lin Xiaohe replied briefly in the guild channel: "I'm not going." Su Mu glanced at those three words but didn't say anything more.

Lin Yuwei's message came again, this time with even more obvious surprise in her tone: "What level was that strange creature?"

Su Mu thought for a moment and felt there was nothing to hide. Since they had been teammates through many things together, it wouldn't hurt to say something simple. "Level 10, Blue." He pressed the send button.

There was a long silence on the other end.

So long that Su Mu almost thought she wouldn't reply.

Then a line of text popped up, much shorter than before: "Level 10 Blue? You killed a Level 10 Blue monster?"

Su Mu did not reply.

He could picture Lin Yuwei's expression on the other end of the screen, probably repeatedly checking if she had misread the text.

He turned off the communicator and glanced down at the progress bar in his hand... it had reached the end.

Upon completion of the decomposition, he held a palm-sized, dark gray block in his hand... its texture was dense, with a slightly shiny oily film on the surface. A system notification popped up: "Obtained: High-level Monster Fertilizer x1... can be used to cultivate Yin plants or monster-related plants, significantly increasing growth speed, and has an additional affinity bonus for monster-type plants."

Su Mu put the nutrient into his backpack and glanced at the rest of the things on the ground. The monkey's corpse had turned into a pile of grayish-white debris, its skeleton broken into small fragments, like the remains of an animal that had been weathered for decades.

Su Mu stared at the pile of wreckage and remained silent for a moment.

It took ten minutes to dismantle a level 10 blue monster, and all I got in the end was a piece of nourishment.

He shook his head and muttered, "These corpses, after being decomposed and broken down, will only yield some nutrients in the end."

The same thing happened when we dissected those strange creatures in the Dark Zone last time: high-level nutrients, mid-level nutrients, and low-level nutrients—just the same old thing in a different guise.

Although the nutrients were indeed useful, providing bonuses to blood ginseng and plant-based items, he had hardly extracted anything else of value from the monster's corpse.

He stood up, dusted off his hands, and turned around to get his bearings.

Continue heading towards the entrance to the secret realm.

The golden light had faded from the tip of his spear, but he could feel that aura still lingering in his body... like a base color that settles after two bloods have merged.

The extra damage that attack inflicted on the Mist Monkey was clearly related to this new aura.

As he crossed the next intersection, he vaguely heard a low rumbling sound from the fog, as if something heavy was being dragged not far away.

Su Mu stopped and listened for a moment... then continued walking forward.

The sound was coming from another direction, opposite to where he was headed, and it didn't seem to be getting closer.

He quickened his pace, leaving the voice behind.

.......