The violence erupted and ended with terrifying speed. It was so fast that the mind struggled to catch up with the eye.

It wasn’t until four bodies hit the sand that the survivors realized Sequence Beyonders had just been slaughtered.

The reactions were a chaotic mix. Some felt a dark, vindictive pleasure they dared not voice. Others screamed in sheer terror, their minds unable to process the shift in power.

Sun Qianqian moved like a pink blur. She rushed to Iron Lion’s side, ignoring the blood soaking the sand. Her hands, usually steady with a sword, trembled violently as she picked up his massive head and tried to press it back against his severed neck.

Blood coated her clothes, her face, her hair. She didn’t seem to notice.

She let go, hoping it would stay. The head rolled off.

She grabbed it again, holding it in place with desperate force, as if sheer will could knit flesh and bone back together.

“Big Guy… Big Guy, you’re a Titan Sequence, right?” she pleaded, her voice cracking.

“You’re unkillable! You told me you were unkillable!”

“Come on… wake up! Hurry up and wake up!”

“Tell me you’re okay!”

“Iron Lion! Big Guy!”

Tears the size of beans rolled down her cheeks, mixing with the blood on Iron Lion’s face.

Sun Qianqian had known Iron Lion longer than she had known Chen Ye. Before Chen Ye Awakened, the two of them had scavenged together in the wasteland. They had saved each other’s lives more times than they could count.

To the pink-haired girl, Iron Lion was the one person she could trust with her back. And he felt the same about her.

She knew that in this apocalypse, death was inevitable. Everyone had an expiration date.

But she never expected it to come like this. So sudden. So brutal.

There was no romance between them, only a bond of blood and survival tighter than siblings.

“Iron Lion, wake up! Please!”

Her strength gave out. She let go, and his head rolled away like a discarded ball.

She slammed her fists into his silent chest, her composure shattering completely. The dam broke, and she wailed, lost in the grief.

In that moment, she was no longer a cold swordswoman. She was back in that horrific morning, a helpless girl watching her family be devoured by a monstrous tree, unable to do anything but watch.

A tide of guilt surged up, choking her.

Chu Che stood frozen, his gaze drifting from Mo Huairen’s headless corpse to the fallen Titan.

When the reality of Iron Lion’s death settled in, the Captain’s spirit seemed to plummet into an abyss. He walked toward his fallen friend barefoot, his steps heavy and trembling.

His grief was naked, etched into every line of his face.

On the school bus, survivors began to weep aloud. Many of them owed their lives to Iron Lion. He was the shield that had protected them when the world tried to eat them.

Chen Ye was ruthless, inspiring fear. Chu Che was detached, his kindness abstract. Sun Qianqian was aloof, ignoring everyone but the other Beyonders.

But Iron Lion? He had a silly, honest smile for everyone. To him, a Sequence Beyonder and a starving refugee were the same—human beings.

For the convoy, Iron Lion’s death felt like the sky collapsing.

If there was one person who remained terrifyingly rational amidst the sorrow, it was Chen Ye.

He liked Iron Lion. But his bond wasn’t as deep as Chu Che’s or Sun Qianqian’s. More importantly, Chen Ye accepted the brutal truth of their reality: anyone could die at any moment. Even him.

Iron Lion’s death was a tragedy, but it didn’t cloud Chen Ye’s judgment.

His burning gaze was fixed on the corpse shrouded in the black hooded cloak not far away.

Chu Che had once explained that the Demon Sequence possessed vitality that rivaled, or perhaps even exceeded, the Titan Sequence.

Chen Ye suspected the “corpse” was lying.

He even suspected the Beast Tamer who had fled on the wolf might be playing dead somewhere.

But the priority was the Demon Sequence 2.

Chen Ye drew the Heavy Machete from his waist and slowly approached the black-robed youth. This enemy was the most dangerous variable. He had too many survival tricks.

Check if he’s dead.

If he’s not, give him another chop.

“He’s already dead. No one survives a heart strike like that.”

The hoarse voice came from Ding Dong, the plain-looking woman.

Indeed, the body under the hood had a gaping hole in its chest. The bleeding had stopped.

But unseen by the others, a mass of black mist was coiling around the wound inside the cloak. Countless tiny tendrils of flesh were sprouting wildly, stitching the heart back together.

Liu Yang wasn’t dead.

The sword strike had grievously injured him, yes. But give him a few minutes? He would recover. And when he did, he would slaughter every single person here.

The sound of weeping filled his ears, fueling a hatred that grew like a cancer. Cry all you want, Liu Yang thought. In five minutes, I’ll be back to seventy percent. Then you all die.

Suddenly, he heard footsteps crunching on the sand.

He knew who it was.

The One-Eyed Dragon.

Cunning bastard, Liu Yang thought. Coming to double-check the kill?

He slowed his breathing to a near-stop. He gathered his remaining dark energy. Come closer. Just a few more steps. When you lean over to check me, I’ll punch a hole through your skull.

The footsteps stopped.

Liu Yang waited. Why did he stop?

Confusion turned to a sudden, screaming alarm. A sensation of impending death, sharp as needles, pricked his back.

Not good! This old fox… he’s too cautious!

Liu Yang tried to move, to trigger his ambush early.

It was too late.

Whack.

His head was severed cleanly from his neck by a flying Heavy Machete.

As his head spun through the air, his dying vision caught a glimpse of his own body. Then, he saw his arms and legs being hacked off in rapid succession.

And finally, he saw the killer.

That insidious, one-eyed bastard… was standing a full fifteen meters away.

He hadn’t come close at all. He was simply manipulating the Heavy Machete remotely using a willow branch, guiding it through the air like a puppeteer.

Endless darkness swallowed his consciousness.

The Demon Sequence 2, a monster with limitless Potential, died not in a glorious duel, but because he was outsmarted by a paranoid pragmatist.

At the same moment, the Beast Tamer named Zhan Lei—who had been knocked off his mount earlier—saw the whole thing.

He had been feigning unconsciousness, peering through slit eyelids to gauge the situation. He witnessed the sheer, breathtaking cunning of the one-eyed man.

He stopped fifteen meters away! Who does that?!

Zhan Lei watched as the machete flew through the air and dismantled Liu Yang like a butcher dressing a hog.

Liu Yang is a Demon Sequence 2! Even I wouldn’t mess with him. And he just got processed like meat.

This One-Eyed guy is really fucking sinister.

Fuck this. If I stay, I’m dead.

Zhan Lei scrambled up from the sand, leaped onto the back of his waiting Wolf King, and kicked it into a full sprint. He didn’t look back.

Chen Ye watched the figure disappear into the desert heat.

He sighed, momentarily at a loss.

What a waste of Slaughter Points.

Killing Mo Huairen and the Demon Sequence youth had triggered notification chimes from the System, awarding him a hefty sum of points. Letting one escape felt like losing a wallet.

The setup for this massacre had begun the night before.

The first person Chen Ye approached was Ding Dong, the plain-looking woman.

Chen Ye had been observing her. She was completely out of place in the slaver team. When Old Man Mo introduced his “little wife” as a famous influencer, Ding Dong had looked disgusted and walked away, giving the captain zero “face.”

More importantly, when the Hooded Youth abused the slaves, no one dared to stop him. But whenever Ding Dong appeared, the youth stopped immediately. The slaves didn’t fear her; some even looked at her with gratitude.

Chen Ye found her and pitched his plan simply.

To his surprise, she didn’t even hesitate. She agreed instantly. Her decisiveness was shocking.

The second person was Sun Qianqian.

He instructed the pink-haired girl to coordinate with Ding Dong. Their target: the Hooded Youth.

Thanks to Chu Che’s lectures on Sequences, Chen Ye knew the Demon Sequence was dangerous—potentially stronger than Sun Qianqian. He wasn’t going to take chances. He assigned two Beyonders to ambush the strongest enemy.

As for Mo Huairen?

The Pathfinder Sequence was a support class. Their strength lay in detecting Anomalies and navigating dangers, not combat. Crucially, a Sequence 1 Pathfinder couldn’t sense human malice.

Killing a non-combatant support standing right next to you wasn’t difficult. It just required acting skills.

As for Iron Lion…

Chen Ye had left him out of the plan.

Iron Lion was injured and currently useless in a fight. Furthermore, the big guy was stubborn. If Chu Che said “don’t fight,” Iron Lion would listen to Chu Che, not Chen Ye. Even if he were healthy, convincing him to betray the “code” would have been impossible.

Chen Ye just never expected the price of that exclusion would be Iron Lion’s life.