The RV made its way up the slope, and there were no monsters tailing it in the rearview mirror.
The road up the slope wasn’t as clear as he had hoped. Halfway up, they met several cars coming down the two-lane road.
Just then, the driver of a Class C RV leaned out, waving and shouting, "Hey, man, is the back gate a no-go? It’s way too dangerous to be heading back there! A whole bunch of fire-breathing, electricity-generating monsters have shown up at the campground."
Seeing this, Su Chen slowed down and rolled down his window to reply, "The riverbank road only leads to the Mysterious Forest. There is no back gate. It’s very dangerous there."
"For real? Then we’re screwed!"
The man opposite him was dumbfounded. There was truly no way out.
In stark contrast to his own confusion about their reality, the little girl on the booth seat was completely innocent and carefree, still staring in awe at the flicker of fire dancing in her hands.
The Qingye Collection campground did indeed have front and back gates. When the unknown disaster struck, many people had immediately rushed to the parking lot, but the road from the main gate was a total dead end.
The crowd of refugees couldn’t move forward, and their retreat was blocked by a traffic jam. In this precarious position, they were then invaded by unknown, terrifying monsters. As one could imagine, the area outside the main gate had turned into a horrifying slaughterhouse.
But pinning their hopes on the village road by the back gate was a desperate gamble. That route led completely away from the city, heading straight for the Mysterious Forest.
Not to mention, the entire main building at the back gate had been left behind in the real world.
As things stood, the only way back to town was to abandon their vehicles and then... risk being hunted by aerial predators while crossing the mountains, or traverse the edge of the forest to loop back to town.
For any normal person, the odds of dying were incredibly high.
And that was to say nothing of the fact that returning to the city didn’t guarantee safety.
"You’d better find a building to hide in, and fast." That was all Su Chen said before stepping on the gas and speeding up the slope.
The man on the other side sighed in resignation. With his family in tow, he couldn’t afford to take such a gamble. Sensing a compelling conviction in the young man’s words, he gritted his teeth and, urged on by the honking from the cars behind, finally turned his vehicle around.
However, the slope wasn’t as clear as he’d hoped. An SUV was driving toward him in the wrong lane. Su Chen, being in the right, honked his horn and refused to yield an inch.
At first, the driver of the other vehicle didn’t seem to think he was in the wrong. He even stepped on the gas, inching his car further forward.
But the brawny man wasn’t completely reckless. Seeing the grim expression on the approaching driver’s face and the bloodstains on his shirt, he couldn’t help but feel a pang of unease.
Huh...?
The brawny man noticed the young man’s gaze shift to the woods on one side. Confused, he followed his line of sight and saw a monster, built like a cross between a tiger and a leopard, dart out from the trees along the slope.
Its build was truly as robust as a tiger’s, and its body was covered in strange, cloud-like markings.
"HOLY SHIT!!"
The brawny man felt his heart leap into his throat. With a trembling right hand, he hastily threw the car into reverse. After a moment of shock, his wife in the passenger seat began to shriek uncontrollably.
But in that life-or-death moment, there was another SUV right behind him, also driving in the wrong lane. As he tried to reverse, he ended up slamming hard into the other car’s front bumper.
FUCK!
"HAVE YOU NO FUCKING SENSE?!"
the brawny man roared, his road rage flaring up instantly.
But before the words even left his mouth... the tiger-leopard creature, as if it were blind—or perhaps it simply didn’t consider the glass an obstacle—lunged forward. With a powerful kick of its hind legs, it smashed through the window like a cannonball and landed in the driver’s seat.
The next instant, with a guttural roar, its sharp claws flashed with lightning. Arcs of electricity began to crisscross and flicker inside the car.
And that wasn’t all. As it tore and bit, its mouth sprayed searing streams of plasma, wantonly destroying the car’s interior.
As the lightning was unleashed, the remaining windows shattered. The dashboard, the steering wheel, and even human flesh were all torn to shreds.
In the blink of an eye, the screams from the driver’s seat ceased. The passenger door opened a crack, but the woman’s body suddenly went rigid as a roaring surge of plasma blew her neck apart.
This bloody, terrifying scene sent the nearby drivers into a panic, and they all floored it to get away.
Su Chen slipped quietly out of his RV. As his canvas tote bag hit the ground, a red brick was already in his hand. The tiger-leopard, having just finished its slaughter, seemed to be reveling in the thrill of the hunt, not having taken a single bite. Its pair of eerie blue, slitted pupils stared right at him.
The thrill of the hunt had yet to fade. Seeing new prey, the tiger-leopard let out a delighted snarl.
In a single breath, its lithe, powerful body emerged from the shattered car window. But before it could push off and accelerate, a brick came flying at it. The explosive power contained within instantly alerted it to the danger.
In the nick of time, its leaping body veered sharply to the right.
The brick, which had been aimed at its head from close range, instead struck it solidly in the flank.
BANG!!
A violent, surging wave of Fire Element Power slammed into the tiger-leopard’s flank. The force was so great it blasted the creature back into the driver’s cabin like a cannonball.
In that moment, the Flame Burst Rune displayed its destructive power. Upon impact, it scattered a shower of brilliant sparks as the red brick disintegrated.
Flames churned inside the cabin. The tiger-leopard’s left flank was a bloody, mangled mess, the wound so deep its bones were visible. It shrieked in pain, its flailing, lightning-wreathed claws even slicing through the car seat and the corpse within.
Su Chen calmly pulled the long-handled axe from his tote bag. He took a few steps forward, then took a running leap and landed squarely on the hood of the SUV.
Then...
From his commanding position, the axe blade ignited, flaring like a torch and casting out waves of fire. He unleashed two consecutive crimson Blade Radiances, both of which shot through the air and struck the tiger-leopard.
"Gah!"
The monster’s remaining ferocity kept it going. It dragged its mangled body in a desperate, last-ditch attack, sending tendrils of electricity lashing out like a spiderweb. But in a flash, a descending axe blade plunged precisely into the crown of its skull, snuffing out its final struggle.
By now, Su Chen had lost count of how many skulls he had smashed open.
’If this were a game, I’d probably have unlocked the ’Skull Crusher’ achievement by now.’
When he wrenched the axe free, he saw that the Fire Axe, after so many violent blows, had two small chips on its blade. Its crimson surface was now covered in cracks, and even the head felt a little loose on the handle.
Before long, two bluish-purple Elemental Essences materialized from the tiger-leopard’s corpse.
The small, crackling orbs of light that refracted lightning were clearly Thunder Element Essences.
’Now came the question. If I fed both Essences to the battle-axe, it would probably form a brand-new, special Rune. This Fire Axe might finally be upgraded into a true Rune weapon.’
’It would become a Thunderfire Axe!’
’But then again, the axe was clearly about to break. I could feel it couldn’t withstand the power of the Flame Burst Rune anymore. Besides, I also want the Fire Element Essence that’s already inside it.’
’If my theory is correct, monsters drop the Essences within them upon death. The same principle might apply to weapons when they shatter.’
’If I shatter it and it spits out this Fire Bead, that would be enough to meet my upgrade requirements.’
’Besides, Fire + Thunder + Thunder = ? That might not even create the kind of Rune effect I’m looking for.’
’Thanks to my throwing skill, the Flame Burst Rune already covers my needs for close-to-mid-range attacks.’
’What I really want now is a support-type Elemental Rune.’
After weighing the pros and cons, he decided to absorb the Thunder Element Essences himself. At the very least, he would be guaranteed to obtain the Thunder Element’s Elemental Energy.

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