The Butcher!

“Fire!” Zhao Jin's words completely infuriated Zhang Shuling. She couldn't imagine how someone could be so arrogant.

As the command fell, hundreds of rifles fired simultaneously, briefly illuminating the pitch-black interior of the mall.

Bullet after bullet pierced Zhao Jin's body. One moment, the rounds tore his flesh apart as they exited through his back; the next, the shredded areas instantly healed.

His arms, his head, his top hat, his abdomen, and even his notebook.

They were all blasted with gaping holes by the continuous gunfire, only for those holes to rapidly shrink and close up a second later.

The wall behind Zhao Jin shattered under the barrage of bullets and collapsed with a loud rumble, kicking up a massive cloud of dust that enveloped the area.

Zhang Shuling's expression grew increasingly grim. “Bullets are ineffective?”

The sight of him bathing in gunfire while continuously regenerating strained her nerves. Gritting her teeth, she waved her hand again.

Several squad members carrying black shields over a meter long immediately stepped forward, forming a defensive barrier several meters high and wide in front of her.

The rocket launchers and short-range cannons that had already been set up opened fire one after another.

As the whistling sounds echoed through the mall, Zhao Jin raised his head, and a shell hit him dead-on.

The shell exploded, and the fiery shockwave tore his body to shreds, sending fragments of his notebook scattering in all directions.

But it wasn't over. A rocket struck the stack of tiles he had been sitting on, triggering another explosion.

Concrete debris and gravel pelted the shield wall from the blast. Feeling the deafening explosions ahead, Zhang Shuling sneered inwardly. ‘A clown-like joke. Did you really think you were invincible?’

Violent explosions rang out in rapid succession, lasting for a full minute. Zhao Jin's position was bombarded with nearly a hundred shells and rockets.

Only then did Zhang Shuling wave her hand, prompting the squad members to cease fire.

On the third floor, Team B's leader, a middle-aged man, stared down at the thick dust kicked up by the explosions, which now filled the entire first floor. “Is he finally dead?”

“With this level of firepower, we could overthrow the government of a small country. How could he possibly survive?” the voice of Team D's leader echoed from the second floor.

All the secret investigators around stared intently into the dust, which was so thick that it temporarily blocked their devices from capturing the scene below.

Near the first-floor entrance, the shield wall parted.

Watching the dust slowly dissipate, Zhang Shuling barked, “Team F, move forward to assess the situation! See if there's anything unusual left behind!”

On the other side of the first floor, Team F received the order and slowly advanced toward Zhao Jin's position with their rifles raised.

Just as they made it halfway there...

A calm voice drifted over. “Ordering your men to advance before even confirming the target's death... you really aren't much of a commander.”

Hearing this voice, the advancing members of Team F instantly froze, their faces filled with shock.

Zhang Shuling's face darkened as she stared at Zhao Jin's position through her visor.

Zhao Jin was standing there, holding his notebook in one hand and adjusting his top hat with the other.

“How is this possible?! You were blown to pieces! How are you still standing there?!” Zhang Shuling couldn't help but roar in anger.

Ignoring her, Zhao Jin pulled a fountain pen from his breast pocket. “Nothing is impossible. The gap between our levels is simply too vast. How could mere ants ever comprehend a god?”

In his perception, something on the fifth floor was beginning to stand up. A tyrannical, violent aura emanated from its body.

Zhang Shuling clenched her fists. Born into an influential family, she had never been subjected to such repeated humiliation in a single day.

“Save your breath. You don't have much time left. You should use it to think of your last words instead.” Zhao Jin turned to look at her, a faint smile playing on his lips.

“The one who's going to die is—” Zhang Shuling shouted.

But in the next instant, her voice caught in her throat as a figure crashed heavily through the open atrium above, landing on one knee.

A piece of stone debris zipped past her, leaving a bloody scratch on her cheek.

Her single eye contracted violently as she stared at the figure. She wasn't the only one.

Every secret investigator in the vicinity felt an uncontrollable surge of terror well up inside them as they looked at the figure.

The smile on Zhao Jin's face widened as the figure behind him slowly rose to its feet.

The figure stood two point seven meters tall, with long black hair draped over its back. Its upper body was bare, revealing grey skin, while its lower body was clad only in a pair of black pants.

Its muscles were swollen to the extreme, and its face was covered in thick, aggressive folds of flesh. Its triangular eyes gleamed with a dark crimson light.

In its left hand, it held a rusted, straight broadsword that was two meters long and half a meter wide. A rusted chain was wrapped around its right arm. Just standing there, it exuded an overwhelmingly powerful pressure that weighed heavily on everyone present.

Looking at the crowd, it threw its head back and let out a furious roar: “Aaaaaah!!!”

A gust of wild wind actually whipped outward with it as the center, forcing everyone around to take a step back.

Zhang Shuling's face paled dramatically. “What is this? Where on earth did this monster come from?!”

“Everyone, I hope you can walk out of this mall alive.” A sinister grin spread across Zhao Jin's face, his eyes cold.

His figure faded, dissolving into thin air.

Once Zhao Jin vanished, the Butcher suddenly snapped its head toward the nearest team, Team F, its gaze burning with violent bloodlust.

The chain wrapped around its right hand suddenly whipped toward the ground.

The chain struck the floor, instantly shattering the concrete and sending countless stone fragments hurtling toward Team F at supersonic speeds.

Before the twenty members of Team F could even react, they were shredded into a bloody mist by the flying debris, painting the floor red.

“Fire! Fire! Kill this monster!” Zhang Shuling's heart pounded wildly as she roared, scrambling backward.

Intense gunfire erupted once more as artillery shells and rockets flew toward the Butcher from all sides.

Bullets struck the Butcher's body, kicking up showers of sparks, but its leg muscles merely tensed.

In the next instant, before a shell could hit, the Butcher vanished and reappeared right in front of the squad protecting Zhang Shuling.

They were still firing their weapons forward when the Butcher raised its straight sword. Only then did they realize the monster was right in front of them.

“Damn it! So what if it's a monster?!” A young man carrying a rocket launcher fearlessly aimed it at the Butcher.

The rocket shot forward. Just as it was about to hit, the Butcher swung its raised broadsword with immense force, swatting the rocket aside.

The rocket exploded between the Butcher and the squad members. Without even a chance to scream, the seven or eight men standing at the front were engulfed in the blast.

The moment the Butcher batted the rocket away with its sword, Zhang Shuling turned on her heels and bolted for the exit.

She could no longer maintain her cold, aloof composure. Her face was twisted in sheer terror. “Contact the garrison immediately! Have them send reinforcements!!!”

Further outside, other personnel were stationed on standby. Hearing Zhang Shuling's shout, their expressions changed drastically.

They had originally planned to only notify the garrison to enter the city as an absolute last resort.

Near the entrance, the Butcher, its face contorted in a savage grin, stepped out from the flames of the explosion.

Standing before it was the young man who had held the rocket launcher.

The young man stared at the sight, his eyes wide as despair washed over his face. “Fuck!!!”

The Butcher slammed its massive sword into the youth. The moment it connected, fine cracks spread across his body before he was instantly reduced to a bloody mist.

The remaining squad members fired as they retreated, but the Butcher raised its broadsword once again.

A dark shadow flashed past, and everyone present froze in their tracks.

Then, a thin red line appeared around their waists, and their upper bodies slid off their legs, their faces frozen in shock.

Blood and organs spilled across the floor.

Looking at the bloody carnage, a savage grin spread across the Butcher's grey face.

It turned back toward the interior of the mall, just as a shell fired from the darkness struck it dead in the chest.

The shell exploded, forcing the Butcher back a few steps and leaving a dark scorch mark on its torso.

In the next second, a barrage of bullets and shells rained down on it, the sheer volume of firepower temporarily halting its advance.

At the edge of the second-floor atrium, the leader of Team C watched the Butcher, who was only taking slight steps back despite the heavy bombardment.

His body was trembling. “Damn it, what the hell is that thing?! Not even artillery shells can kill it!”

Their ammunition was limited, and they had already burned through nearly half of it attacking Zhao Jin.

Two minutes later, the gunfire began to slacken, and the Butcher started advancing step-by-step from the entrance.

The sound of the chain dragging across the floor drowned out the remaining gunfire. The leader of Team B stared at his empty rifle.

He then looked down at the towering, oppressive monster below and spoke quickly into his earpiece, “Captain Zhang, we're completely out of ammo. Requesting permission to retreat.”

“Bzzzt!” There was no response from the other end, only the crackle of static.

“Ah!” A scream echoed from below as the Butcher grabbed a female investigator with one hand and crushed her to pieces.

“Leader, let's fall back! Our weapons can't do anything to this damn thing!” The squad member beside him was pale.

If they were facing any other enemy, even foreign elites, they wouldn't have flinched.

But the monster below didn't even care about artillery shells. How were they supposed to fight that?

“Retreat!” Team B's leader gritted his teeth as he watched the Butcher slaughtering the other teams below.

Hearing the command, the surrounding men let out sighs of relief.

Not just Team B, but the other teams also began to withdraw after running out of ammunition and failing to contact Zhang Shuling.

Outside, Zhao Jin stood beneath a streetlight, his gaze icy. ‘Run? Escaping the Butcher's hunt is not that simple.’

He opened his notebook and quickly wrote down the internet lore regarding the Butcher.

The Butcher.

State: Mindless slaughter mode. Physical body harder than steel!

Appearance: Entire skin is grey, stands at 2.7 meters tall. Spawns with its own straight sword and chain weapons!

Ability: Hunting Space. Targets locked by the Butcher will be temporarily pulled into a pocket dimension identical to reality. No matter how much they run, they cannot escape until they are killed!

Looking at the notebook, he closed it and tucked it away. Without turning around, he spoke to the darkness behind him, “Go. Kill her.”

As his words fell, the sound of wooden joints grinding together echoed.

On the adjacent Haiwu Avenue, Zhang Shuling ripped the device off her head, her face pale. “Hurry! We have to get out of here!”

Behind her, a squad of guards followed closely, keeping a vigilant eye on their surroundings.

There were still quite a few pedestrians on the street. Seeing the armed guards with rifles, they fled in panic.

Soon, the street cleared out completely, leaving only her group.

Just fifty meters from the street corner...

A strange noise echoed from around the corner. The guard leading the pack immediately raised his rifle, on high alert.

“Beneath the monument of loyalty... lie loyal souls...”

“Beneath the brush of the underworld... no vengeful ghosts remain...”

A raspy operatic chant drifted from around the corner. With the street completely deserted except for them, the sound was incredibly eerie.

The others slowed their pace. Zhang Shuling's expression flickered. “What kind of freakish thing is it this time? If I'd known, I would never have come to this godforsaken place!”

She regretted it. She shouldn't have let her curiosity about these non-humans get the better of her. Now, she might very well die here.

From around the corner, a puppet wearing a faded white opera robe emerged.

Its face was painted with peeling makeup resembling a human face, and its eyes locked onto Zhang Shuling's group.

The moment the Opera-Robed Puppet appeared, the guards opened fire. Twenty rifles firing simultaneously created a dense hail of bullets.

In the next second, Zhang Shuling heard that familiar sound again.

The bullets clanged against the puppet, sounding like metal hitting metal.

Then, the heads of the three guards at the front suddenly snapped backward in unison. Their eyes, filled with utter bewilderment, stared back at Zhang Shuling and the others.

‘Run!’ Seeing this, Zhang Shuling felt a dread even more profound than when she had faced the Butcher.

She spun around and bolted.

The sound of bones snapping echoed repeatedly behind her, making her scalp tingle with fear.

She stole a glance back and gasped. The heads of all twenty guards had snapped backward, their dilated pupils staring fixedly at her.

This bizarre, horrific sight assaulted her mind. She desperately tried to run faster.

A crisp snap sounded near her ears. Trembling, she looked down. Her left lower leg had folded upward at the knee, initiating the Folding technique.

Losing her balance, she crashed forward as agonizing pain flared from below. “Ahhh!!!”

Snap! Her right lower leg folded upward in the exact same manner.

Snap! Then, the two folded legs folded upward once more.

“Help me!!!” At this moment, Zhang Shuling completely broke down.

She dragged herself forward frantically with her hands, screaming for help.

But there was not a soul on the street; only her screams echoed.

With her arms folded from the technique, Zhang Shuling lost her last bit of mobility.

She could only lie on the ground in despair, writhing like a maggot.

Her phone slipped out, its screen lighting up with an incoming call.

But she no longer had hands to pick it up.

This time, the folding began at her abdomen, followed by her neck snapping. Her eyes bulged, her face frozen in a horrific grimace.

The folding continued until Zhang Shuling lay on the ground, contorted into a perfect square.

A leather-clad foot stepped down in front of the ringing phone. With a calm expression, Zhao Jin picked it up and answered.

“Hello, Shuling? What stage is your plan at? There might be a change of plans. Hold off on taking action for now!” As soon as the call connected, Lu Senyu's voice came through.