Chapter 20: A Difficult Problem

Lin Lei devoured the corpses of the Tier 2 and Tier 3 grotesques one by one.

The vast majority of the "feeding" was converted into gluttony energy, though he did leave the carcasses of a few grotesques behind as blood packs to ensure he could trigger "Plunder" at any moment later on.

Afterward, he walked up to a Tier 4 grotesque.

Without hesitation, he triggered "Plunder"!

In fact, had his time in the restricted zone not been limited, he wouldn't even have wanted to trigger "Plunder" in such a hurry.

However, since he now needed to eliminate as many grotesques as possible within a limited timeframe, he naturally couldn't afford to be too miserly.

Even though this Tier 4 grotesque was not exceptionally powerful in combat, plundering it still consumed nearly four hundred units of gluttony energy for Lin Lei. One had to admit that the consumption of a Tier 4 grotesque was terrifying.

As this four-armed grotesque was plundered, Lin Lei's injuries, along with the bone mass he had lost from firing bone bullets and condensing bone swords, were replenished significantly.

At the same time, a brilliant light flashed in his eyes, and with a thought,

Swish.

A layer of red halos rippled out around him, and simultaneously, a layer of red spiritual light shield appeared over his body.

The spiritual light shield could last for about ten minutes if it took no damage, but if attacked, its dissipation would accelerate. If the damage exceeded its limit, it would dissipate even faster!

"With my current source energy level, I can trigger the spiritual light shield a maximum of five times consecutively. Any more than that, and I wouldn't be able to handle it..."

The good news, however, was that this spiritual light shield was affected by Lin Lei's source energy level. The higher Lin Lei's own level, the stronger the protective power of the spiritual light shield would be.

It was an ability with considerable potential.

With Lin Lei's current Tier 3 source energy level, maintaining it made it very difficult for ordinary Tier 3 grotesques to break through, further increasing his defensive capabilities.

Additionally, as he triggered the ability, Lin Lei also felt a slight enhancement in his mental state and strength.

This enhancement wasn't particularly strong and could even be called extremely minuscule.

"After all, it's a group effect; the enhancement to a single individual is naturally very limited..."

The reason those grotesques had been able to experience such a massive enhancement earlier, and inflict such heavy negative effects on him, was because a total of nine Tier 4 red crystal grotesques had triggered their abilities!

It was equivalent to nine "auras" stacking together to produce such a potent effect.

When used by Lin Lei alone, the effect was naturally limited.

"Aside from this 'spiritual light shield', the 'aura' itself has a negligible effect on me, and practically no negative effect on those grotesques..."

Although Lin Lei's "aura" could theoretically inflict negative effects on them as well, compared to the sheer number of "auras" on their side, his meager negative effects could only slightly diminish the bonuses of the other Tier 4 grotesques...

Because he had only "plundered" a single Tier 4 grotesque, Lin Lei had nearly recovered to his peak condition. Yet, he chose not to continue "plundering" the other Tier 4 grotesques, instead leaving them around as blood packs.

Returning to the corner, he picked up his schoolbag, took out some food and water, and rested briefly. Then, licking his lips, Lin Lei walked past the corner once again and headed toward the location of the crystal tower.

As Lin Lei stepped out of the labyrinth corridor, a large number of grotesques quickly rushed over.

After drawing in another wave of grotesques, Lin Lei turned tail and ran.

He charged back into the labyrinth corridor.

However, perhaps having learned from their previous losses, these grotesques had grown cleverer. This time, the grotesques they dispatched far exceeded the previous wave in both level proportion and total quantity.

There were a full three to four hundred grotesques deployed, with the proportion of Tier 3 and Tier 4 grotesques vastly increased.

In truth, the other grotesques were manageable; the crucial issue was the Tier 4 red crystal grotesques.

This time, more than twenty of them had come!

The stacking of their "aura" effects caused the overall combat effectiveness of the remaining grotesques to soar, while Lin Lei's own strength was suppressed even further.

Although Lin Lei could sense that the more these "auras" stacked, the smaller the incremental effect became, and that their aura coverage had a limited range—meaning not all other grotesques were subjected to the stacked power of every single Tier 4 grotesque, nor did Lin Lei suffer from all the negative effects simultaneously—he had to admit that his strength was still reduced to an exaggerated degree.

After activating all his abilities such as [Demonization], [Physical Activation], and [Blood Boiling], his overall strength was still roughly the same as when he wasn't buffed at all under normal circumstances.

His strength had been cut almost in half.

If that were all, it would be one thing; the problem was that the other grotesques had also received massive buffs.

The difficulty for Lin Lei to kill them had increased exponentially.

Even a Tier 3 grotesque required him to unleash four or five full-strength consecutive slashes just to take it down!

Amidst such a dense swarm of grotesques, the difficulty of killing a single Tier 3 grotesque was ridiculously high.

Killing Tier 2 red crystal grotesques, on the other hand, remained exceptionally easy, but slaughtering more of them would do nothing to influence the overall battlefield situation.

Yet, he did possess his own advantage, which was sufficient mobility.

He had enough tricks up his sleeve and moved fast enough. Those Tier 4 grotesques invariably hid at the very rear of the grotesque horde. As long as he widened the distance, he could break out of the "aura" range of the Tier 4 grotesques, and if he wanted to flee, these monsters could do nothing to stop him.

"This can't go on..."

Using his mobility, Lin Lei tangled with them for a full twenty minutes, yet he had only managed to eliminate two or three Tier 3 grotesques.

At this rate, with the remaining dozen hours or so, he would undoubtedly achieve very little harvest.

Lin Lei's goal was the other tens of thousands of grotesques, so he naturally was unwilling to waste time here over just a few creatures.

His body transformed into a phantom as he sprinted wildly through the labyrinth corridor. He grabbed the schoolbag left on the ground, instantly turning into a blur to put distance between himself and the pursuing horde of grotesques. Reaching a hand into the bag, he fumbled around for a moment before pulling out a small glass bottle filled with crimson liquid.

Inside the glass bottle was none other than the [Blood Potion].

The Blood Potion was an extremely formidable, high-grade potion with various effects such as enhancement and recovery, vastly superior to lower-grade concoctions like the [Enhancement Potion]. Naturally, as a signature proprietary potion of the Blood Sakura Society, its side effects were by no means negligible.

Lin Lei had never consumed a [Blood Potion] before, but the item was exorbitantly expensive—even drawing the covetous eyes of someone like Boss Lao—so its efficacy went without saying.

He shoved the ceramic-capped bottle of [Blood Potion] into his mouth.

However, he did not immediately bite down and drink it.

Instead, he turned his head, his gaze piercing deep into the heart of the grotesque horde.

"To break this deadlock, I must first eliminate these few Tier 4 red crystal grotesques. The remaining ones are nothing more than turtles in a jar..."

No matter how potent the potion's effects were, its duration was bound to be limited, and he naturally had to utilize this crucial window of time reasonably.

With the overwhelming number of Tier 2 and Tier 3 grotesques, even if he drank the [Blood Potion], he wouldn't be able to kill very many of them.

As the saying goes, sharpening the axe does not delay the work of chopping wood. Once the team's support units were taken out, wouldn't the other grotesques become mere clay in his hands once they lost their buffs?

Lin Lei tossed the backpack in his hand backward and then proactively charged back toward the grotesque horde.

Swish!

Hundreds of grotesques were packed tightly together inside the narrow labyrinth corridor, crammed shoulder to shoulder. For an ordinary person, trying to bypass so many grotesques to approach the Tier 4 red crystal grotesques in the rear would have been immensely difficult.

Lin Lei, however, was different.

He charged forward furiously, but before coming into contact with the horde, he violently stomped the ground and catapulted himself high into the air, tracing an arc through the sky.

Simultaneously, the grotesques below also leaped high into the air one after another, attempting to intercept Lin Lei.

Yet, before these grotesques could reach him, Lin Lei's body suddenly vanished, transforming into a billow of bloody mist!