Chapter 27: Midnight Battle

The Fangtooth Fiends were already prowling within the residential complex. Upon hearing the roar, they immediately changed direction, heading straight for the building where An Ziheng resided.

Serpent Demons could climb, while Fangtooth Fiends could invade the rooms; once they found the stairwell, they could pour in unhindered. However, before they could act, these Fangtooth Fiends encountered Qin Hao downstairs.

Qin Hao had already slain a Serpent Demon in midair, then leapt upon its corpse to sweep through the surrounding Fangtooth Fiends. The Fangtooth Fiends stood no chance against the Starcleaver Divine Blade; with a single strike, their heads rolled.

Yet more Fangtooth Fiends surged forward.

Qin Hao hunted with ferocity.

Each sword stroke claimed a head.

Each thrust strung together another.

Qin Hao exulted in the slaughter.

Another Serpent Demon slithered over, its massive body forcing aside the Fangtooth Fiends beside it. It reared up, gaping its maw wide to swallow Qin Hao whole.

But Qin Hao suddenly leapt, soaring a full three meters to evade its attack, and in the same instant drove his blade into the Serpent Demon’s skull.

A piercing shriek tore the night.

Qin Hao rolled, sliding down its body, and split the monster in two.

Another Serpent Demon fell.

Surveying the swarm of alien creatures in the darkness, Qin Hao’s face twisted into a savage grin.

His strength now far surpassed any of the bioforms deployed by the Claw Civilization. This massacre only served to further augment his power.

While the Fangtooth Fiends and Serpent Demons were indeed formidable at night, Qin Hao had absorbed their gene fragments and mastered a god-tier genetic code, granting him all the Fangtooth Fiends’ superior combat instincts.

The nocturnal power surge applied to him as well.

What’s more, his enhancement was greater than any Fangtooth Fiend, for he wielded a god-level gene.

The more he fought, the stronger he grew.

At that moment, An Ziheng also reached the ground floor, standing in the entryway.

He witnessed the Fangtooth Fiends pouncing on Qin Hao, only to be mercilessly cut down—a sight etched deeply into his mind.

An Ziheng pondered that if he were just an ordinary person, he would have undoubtedly worshipped Qin Hao, offering him Hero Points.

As this thought crossed his mind, An Ziheng became aware of a peculiar notion arising within his mind power—a thread-like tendril of thought detached from his consciousness and stretched toward Qin Hao.

An Ziheng was stunned, but quickly deduced that this must be the manifestation of his admiration.

He hadn’t expected that after becoming a hero himself, he could still revere another hero.

But Qin Hao was indeed worthy of awe.

Perhaps the man had once been a martial arts master, or perhaps his battle prowess came from having accessed the hero system longer than An Ziheng.

There was no time to speculate further. At that moment, An Ziheng flung open the gate to the complex. The Fangtooth Fiends that had not yet attacked Qin Hao immediately lunged at him.

An Ziheng bore the hero system as well. The monsters had the gods’ command embedded in their minds: kill all heroes.

As soon as he appeared, all the alien creatures turned their attention toward him.

“Be careful!”

An Ziheng tensed, then his mental tendrils landed upon Old Wine, Mo Mo, and Si Si—the three great hounds.

Strengthened by Serpent Demon flesh, the dogs had become even more formidable. In a flash, they brought down a Fangtooth Fiend, tearing it apart.

Yet more Fangtooth Fiends appeared, forcing An Ziheng to direct the dogs in battle.

He even wielded a ceramic kitchen knife; if a Fangtooth Fiend came near, he did not hesitate to strike.

Nor was he alone.

Beside him stood a woman—Xu Qian, whom he had just given food.

Seeing the monsters approach, a feral glint filled Xu Qian’s eyes. She raised her cleaver and, with a single blow, chopped off a Fangtooth Fiend’s head.

Though these creatures were small and crawled along the ground, it was their hideous appearance, speed, and powerful jaws that made them deadly to humans.

Most people feared pain; even dogs trembled before them, let alone people.

But armed with tools, and fueled by courage or hatred, humans could unleash startling power.

She hacked with savage determination, cleaving off the creature’s head in one strike.

Realizing these monsters were not as terrifying as they seemed, Xu Qian fought with even greater ferocity, like a female butcher gone berserk.

Qin Hao cast a glance at Xu Qian and An Ziheng. Seeing they were safe for the moment, he paid them no further heed.

Slaying as many alien creatures as possible to strengthen himself was what mattered most.

Qin Hao’s eyes blazed with bloodlust.

One Serpent Demon.

Two Serpent Demons.

Ten Serpent Demons…

The corpses of monsters piled up upon the ground.

Blood pooled, forming a crimson lagoon.

He had slain too many monsters to count.

Two hours passed and midnight arrived. The moon hung at its zenith, bathing the world in pale light as spatial rifts began to open.

One of the rifts was fully ten meters in diameter—tall as a two-story building.

The humans trembling in the shadows, watching Qin Hao’s battle, were filled with despair.

Were even more monsters coming?

Had those terrifying creatures before not been the limit?

As these thoughts tormented them, more creatures crawled out from the spatial rifts.

Once again, it was Fangtooth Fiends and Serpent Demons.

The Claw Civilization deployed monsters in numbers equivalent to one percent of the human population. As the day wore on and their numbers were reduced by slaughter, the rifts would open at midnight to replenish their ranks.

After a day of catastrophe, the human death toll had reached a million. Yet the Claw Civilization maintained its quota—ten million monsters, regardless of how many humans remained.

If a hundred million humans survived, they would still face ten million monsters.

If ten million remained, the same.

If only one million humans were left, the Claw Civilization would still unleash ten million monsters.

Only by wiping them all out could this tide be stemmed.

The Claw Civilization’s resources were not infinite.

Now, Qin Hao’s task was to hunt relentlessly—and he was not alone in this battle.

With ten thousand heroes, even with odds as steep as one in six hundred thousand, a metropolis of twenty million would produce at least thirty or forty heroes.

He was certain that, beyond An Ziheng, others who had received the hero system would seize opportunities to hunt these creatures.

Had not An Ziheng done so already?

With this thought, Qin Hao felt a wild urge seize him.

He surged forward, unleashing a frenzy of slaughter, then suddenly dashed beneath the yawning spatial rift.

“Trying to come through? Die where you stand!”

A murderous light blazed in Qin Hao’s eyes.