After Chen Bugu activated “Lian Xin,” the arrows in the quiver instantly glowed with a layer of red light.

The next second, the arrow left the string, carrying a stream of air.

Chen Bugu wasn't worried that the arrow would miss, because the Scarlet Hound was too close, already pouncing right in front of him.

He could hit it with his eyes closed!

As expected, the first arrow pierced the Scarlet Hound's left eye and exited through the back of its head.

This arrow was enhanced with 1.5 times Chen Bugu's own strength, giving it an attack power of 31.5.

The monster let out a miserable howl, but its forward pounce didn't stop at all.

And so, the second arrow, which followed closely behind, steadily shot into the monster's brow.

Similarly, this arrow, entirely condensed from energy, was enhanced with 2 times Chen Bugu's own strength, meaning a full 42 points of attack power, easily piercing through the Scarlet Hound's head.

The powerful force unleashed the moment the arrow struck even abruptly stopped the Scarlet Hound, which was still in mid-air in its pouncing posture.

From Bai Ting and the other two's perspective, Chen Bugu, holding that strange crossbow, seemed to have achieved the effect of a sniper rifle.

Two arrow whistles, two bloodlines, one miserable howl.

The Scarlet Hound, which had been so ferocious a second ago, instantly collapsed to the ground.

Chen Bugu put down the Lianxin Crossbow in his hand and let out a sigh of relief.

A close call!

He had successfully killed the monster in front of him.

The Scarlet Hound fell to the ground, its four eyes simultaneously losing their color, completely dead.

Only then did Chen Bugu realize that the Scarlet Hound in front of him was the mutated one.

The red markings on its back gradually faded, finally turning grayish-white.

The moment the Scarlet Hound died, a ball of misty light floated up from its corpse, then split into three different sizes, flying towards Chen Bugu, Bai Ting, and the woman in the black T-shirt.

Here it comes!

This was the energy belonging to the Scarlet Hound.

According to the research of a scholar group under a major power in his previous life, this misty light was the reason for all biological competition in the apocalypse.

It represented the most fundamental energy of a living being.

Generally, higher-level life forms had purer energy and would exhibit different states, but after an ordinary life form died, its energy was always a misty light like this.

And this misty light was not something everyone could see; only the hunters who participated in killing this creature could see it.

Calling them hunters might not be entirely appropriate.

Recalling his memories of three years in the apocalypse, Chen Bugu preferred to call all creatures participating in this apocalypse “Plunderers.”

Plundering energy, plundering resources, plundering the survival opportunities of other lives.

Only by constantly plundering could one survive.

...

Among the three balls of misty light, the largest one surged towards Chen Bugu.

The moment the misty light surged into his body, Chen Bugu felt as comfortable as if he were soaking in a hot spring.

Every cell seemed to be greedily absorbing energy.

Although it wasn't his first time experiencing it, this fragile body, for the first time, underwent changes under the infiltration of energy, and that feeling was truly intoxicating.

With enough energy, Chen Bugu completed his upgrade.

Subsequently, Chen Bugu's attributes changed.

“Virus Type Ability: Cracking”

“Strength: 18”

“Vitality: 16”

“Speed: 18”

“Spirit: 1 / 240”

His strength increased from the original 11 to 18, his vitality from the original 12 to 16, his speed from the original 11 to 18, and his spiritual power increased by 10 points.

Although the changes in his various attributes after the upgrade made Chen Bugu happy, he always felt that something was strange.

Logically speaking, having killed a Scarlet Hound, which was at least equivalent to a Human Black Iron Grade Three-star Awakened, an upgrade was inevitable, but the attribute growth he gained should have been far more than this.

Why was the growth so limited?

It was as if something had taken a share of the energy.

“Hmm? Is this, experience points?”

The girl in black seemed to have also completed the absorption of energy.

At this moment, Chen Bugu finally had time to carefully observe the woman in front of him.

This woman had delicate makeup, long black hair, looked to be in her early 20s, with a standard oval face and large eyes, making her a beauty easily recognizable in a crowd.

The fact that this woman received energy meant that she had taken action in the previous battle.

“Thank you.”

Chen Bugu quickly understood; the Scarlet Hound's strange pause must have been this woman's doing; she saved him.

That's right, Chen Bugu had noticed before that she was an Awakened with a magic-type ability, and that strange freeze also matched the effect of such an ability.

And at the spot where the Scarlet Hound's corpse dissipated, an apple-sized red orb of light rolled out.

Skill orb?

So lucky?

Chen Bugu hadn't expected that the first monster he killed after rebirth would be a mutated one, and that he would get a skill orb from the first mutated one he killed.

In fact, skill orbs were not common in his previous life and were always important resources fiercely contested by various major powers.

After all, only by hunting mutated creatures was there a certain chance of dropping skill orbs.

And having one more skill sometimes meant having one more trump card for survival, so whenever a skill orb appeared, it was always swept away by people.

It was a pity that skill orbs generally had various restrictions; according to the color of this skill orb, it was highly likely to contain a fire-attribute skill, and even more likely to be the Fireball spell.

Chen Bugu had neither a fire-attribute ability nor fire-element affinity, so this skill seemed to have nothing to do with him.

“Pain… pain… pain…”

Yan Kuan's wailing came from one side.

Chen Bugu was surprised; he knew Yan Kuan had fainted from mental exhaustion, but how could he wake up so quickly?

At this moment, Yan Kuan was surrounded by Bai Ting and another girl in a dark green long dress.

Chen Bugu knew Yan Kuan had fainted from mental exhaustion, so he knew the fatty was fine and there was no need to worry, but others didn't know that.

So, when they realized they were temporarily safe, Bai Ting and the girl quickly went to check on Yan Kuan's condition.

Bleeding from the nostrils, pale face, fainting on the spot… it didn't look fine at all.

Chen Bugu stood up from the ground, picked up the apple-sized skill orb in front of him, and then walked towards Yan Kuan.

Halfway there, Chen Bugu finally understood why Yan Kuan woke up so quickly.

The girl in the dark green dress was currently holding her hands towards Yan Kuan's head, emitting a faint golden light.

Magic-type?

Or the rare healing type?

Chen Bugu secretly sighed, what was going on, were these people's abilities all so strong?

He had originally only intended to save Bai Ting and Yan Kuan, after all, one of their abilities had strong offensive power, and the other had flexible support and defensive capabilities; if they acted together, their chances of survival would be greater.

However, these two girls he incidentally brought back not only didn't flee before the battle but were both magic-type abilities, which was truly unexpected.

One must know that among Awakeneds, the reinforced type had the largest base; almost fifty percent of people awakened reinforced-type abilities.

However, among the survivors in the Horizontal Cave now, almost none were reinforced-type.

Old Liu and these two girls were magic-type, Lin Ye was summon-type, Yan Kuan and Wang Bin were elemental-type, and Bai Ting was the rarest, mythical-type.

Plus himself, a virus-type never heard of before.

Although Chen Bugu still didn't quite understand the ability of Breaking, he was clearly more confident about leaving this place alive.

“It's fine, no need to continue healing him. He should be suffering from excessive mental exhaustion; he'll be fine after some rest.”

Chen Bugu stopped the girl from continuing to use her ability; after all, Yan Kuan had already woken up, and continued healing would only waste spiritual power.

“That crossbow, may I see it?”

It was Bai Ting who spoke; after realizing the fatty was fine, he looked back at Chen Bugu.

He had been paying attention to the Lianxin Crossbow in Chen Bugu's hand for a long time.

That Scarlet Hound had taken several of his attacks without suffering fatal injuries, but was instantly killed by this crossbow in front of him, which made Bai Ting full of curiosity about this weapon.

Chen Bugu handed the Lianxin Crossbow to Bai Ting.

Given his understanding of Bai Ting, he wasn't worried that he would claim this weapon for himself, especially since the crossbow bolts were still in his own hand.

In his previous life, many people died trying to wear down that Scarlet Hound.

This time, being able to kill one Scarlet Hound without any casualties was already a victory.

Of course, Chen Bugu automatically ignored Yan Kuan, as in his eyes, mental exhaustion didn't count as an injury.

Bai Ting took the Lianxin Crossbow and immediately showed a surprised expression.

This was the first time Chen Bugu had seen him like this.

Although Bai Ting quickly returned to his usual cool expression and handed back the Lianxin Crossbow without changing his expression, he still praised it aloud.

“This is a good weapon. How many arrows do you have left?”

Chen Bugu looked at the arrow that had just pierced the Scarlet Hound; only the front half of the arrow shaft was deeply embedded in the wall.

He walked forward and pulled it out with force, even bringing out quite a few broken stones.

He shook the arrow in his hand at Bai Ting.

“Ten more.”