Chapter 25: Come Down and Talk?

"What?!"

Luo Hong furrowed her brows, quickly pressing for an answer: "What kind of monster is it? A Blade-Armed Mantis?!"

A hesitant response came through her earpiece: "Uh, no. It looks like an oversized hornet. I've never seen it before, but it’s definitely not a Blade-Armed Mantis."

"Oh, thank goodness it's not a Blade-Armed Mantis..."

Luo Hong let out a sigh of relief, though she didn't realize that in this short, chaotic ambush, the roles of hunter and prey had already quietly shifted.

"Everyone, converge on my position as quickly as you can. Once we're all together, we’ll pull out."

Before the words had even faded, several screams erupted abruptly through the earpiece. Luo Hong froze, a cold sweat breaking out across her forehead. She tried calling out the names of several team leaders, but there was no response.

"How could everything go wrong so suddenly... Is it Lu Li? No... it shouldn't be Lu Li. Maybe it's some other monster catching us by surprise..."

Luo Hong’s voice trembled, and her eyes began to fill with terror. She suddenly remembered something: the monsters near the No. 1 Middle School had supposedly been cleared out by the survivors there long ago. So, what was it that was harvesting lives in the dead of night?

Luo Hong looked sharply out the car window. Outside, it was pitch black. It wasn't the kind of darkness where faint light allowed you to make out the silhouettes of objects with a bit of effort. The darkness outside the window was thick, almost tangible, as if it had congealed into an impenetrable wall. It felt as though it had a life of its own... No, it *did* have a life!

Luo Hong watched in horror as the 'darkness' outside the window writhed!

A low voice suddenly came through the earpiece, making her nearly scream.

"Sister Hong, right? Why don't you step out and we can talk?"

"Who—who are you?"

The question had barely left her lips before the answer surfaced in her mind. Who else could it be but Lu Li?

"I'm the person you’re trying to kill."

The low voice was casual, as if he were simply introducing himself in the most ordinary way. Luo Hong forced herself to calm down, swallowed hard, and said, "I admit you’re strong, stronger than I anticipated. But if you want to take my life, you will definitely pay a heavy price!"

Luo Hong wasn't bluffing. While her own talent lacked combat capability, the subordinates accompanying her in the car were not pushovers.

"Lao Hei, Xiao Ba, A-Kun, upgrade!"

Following her command, the three men in the car immediately pulled out Origin Crystals and absorbed them. Their levels surged, instantly reaching Level 4.

Luo Hong had hoped that this at least would make Lu Li feel a sliver of hesitation. To her surprise, the voice on the earpiece remained light and indifferent: "Looking at you, I take it you don't intend to talk?"

Before Luo Hong could respond, Lao Hei, sitting beside her, opened the car door: "Sister Hong, stay in the car. We’ll go down and slaughter that brat!"

"Right! A guy who isn't even on the level leaderboard is definitely just bluffing!" Xiao Ba and A-Kun echoed.

Before Luo Hong could stop them, the three had already exited the vehicle, their figures disappearing into the dense darkness.

"Lao Hei... Xiao Ba..." Luo Hong stared wide-eyed, trying to catch a glimpse of victory through the glass.

But nothing happened. The darkness outside remained viscous, like a pool of stagnant water. Luo Hong didn't even hear the sound of a struggle. The only movement was the sound of her own panicked breathing.

"...Are you really not coming down to talk?"

Lu Li's voice sounded again, like a thunderclap detonating inside her head.

"Impossible! This is impossible!" Luo Hong scrambled out of the car as if she had lost her mind.

She saw that there was still light outside. A flickering street lamp with an unstable voltage illuminated a small patch of the road in the distance, yet it failed to light up her terror-stricken face.

Surrounding the vehicle was a circle of bizarre, misshapen monsters. They were of all shapes and sizes, some tall, some short. The only thing they had in common was that they lacked any color; they were unnaturally, purely black. It was their sheer numbers and tight formation that had created the illusion of total darkness around the car.

Lu Li stood in the center of the monsters, looking at Luo Hong with a calm expression.

"So... so many of them... what kind of talent did you awaken?!" Luo Hong shrieked, her psyche clearly on the verge of collapse.

"That's a secret." Lu Li’s lips curled upward. "But if you really want to know, maybe I'll tell you after the deal is done."

"A deal?" Luo Hong froze, her crumbling mental state regaining a sliver of rationality. That’s right—if Lu Li really wanted to kill her, he could have done it already. Why talk about a deal? Was he not afraid of the Zhao family behind her?

Thinking of this, Luo Hong felt a surge of confidence. She lifted her chin, resuming her usual haughty demeanor. "What makes you think you have the qualifications to negotiate with me?"

Lu Li found it amusing. He stepped back half a pace, revealing the three corpses behind him. They were Luo Hong's subordinates. Their bodies were covered in wounds, looking nothing like soldiers who had died in battle, but rather like scrap meat that had been shoved halfway through a meat grinder.

Luo Hong’s face shifted, but she steeled herself and stiffened her neck. "If you want to do it, then do it! But don’t say I didn’t warn you—if you kill me, you’ll be offending the entire Zhao family! You will never have a moment of peace under their pursuit!"

Lu Li shrugged. "I never said I wanted to kill you; I just want to negotiate a deal."

Seeing that there was truly no murderous intent in Lu Li's eyes, a spark of joy flashed in Luo Hong's gaze. It was working. This person was indeed afraid of the Zhao family! As long as she confirmed this, she could seize the initiative in the upcoming negotiations.

"What kind of deal?" Luo Hong feigned indifference while listening with rapt attention.

"Origin Crystals." Lu Li smiled. "Eighty-six Tier 2 Origin Crystals and twenty-eight Tier 3 Origin Crystals."

Luo Hong was stunned. The numbers Lu Li quoted were exactly the entire inventory Zhao Jin had collected over the past three days. There were also plenty of Tier 1 crystals, but Lu Li didn't mention them, and Luo Hong wasn't stupid enough to reveal them herself.

"I can't produce that many. Thirty Tier 2 crystals at most." Luo Hong frowned, pretending to be troubled.

The inventory was a classified secret; even among Zhao Jin's men, few knew the exact numbers. She assumed Lu Li was just making a greedy demand and happened to guess blindly.

But the smile on Lu Li’s face didn't falter. He didn't repeat himself; instead, he pulled up his data panel, typed a brief message, and sent it.

A dozen seconds later, a message from Zhao Jin popped up on Luo Hong's panel: "Hong, are you being controlled by Lu Li?!"

Luo Hong’s expression turned bitter, and she helplessly replied, "Yes."

She had hoped Zhao Jin would show some concern for her, but he immediately asked, "How does Lu Li know the exact amount of our inventory? Did you tell him?"

Luo Hong felt wronged, but she calmly replied, "How could I! I don't know how he figured it out; he probably just guessed. Just give him 30 crystals and say that's all we have."

She had thought this would resolve the problem, but Zhao Jin's next message sent a chill straight through her heart...