After that unpleasant voice finished speaking.

Chen Ye saw a bleeding countdown slowly materialize between him and the masked man.

“00:00:59”

“00:00:58”

With every pulse of that blood-red countdown, Chen Ye’s heart thumped in sync.

A feeling of urgency, of oppression, grew stronger and stronger with the descending numbers.

Chen Ye understood!

He completely understood the truth behind the rule-based killings.

The thin veil obscuring the final truth was ripped away at this moment.

Inside each civilian residence, the occupants were one’s closest people.

Take Wu Dawei at the very beginning, for example. According to the proximity principle of the Gilded Mask.

His first enemy was his own girlfriend.

Based on the investigation, Wu Dawei had already been living with his girlfriend.

Following the proximity principle, the two of them were the closest distance.

In the end, he survived.

Second round.

According to the proximity principle.

He encountered the married couple who were his good friends, all sharing the same roof…

This was a game that tested human nature to the extreme.

The one who survived in the end was him.

But clearly, he too had broken down under such extreme tests of humanity.

Finally, in a state of mental collapse, he stumbled and swayed his way to where Chen Ye and Chu Che were.

The knife raised high came swinging down.

It was also a form of release.

Chen Ye remembered that man was still frantically apologizing before he died, saying he had no choice, that he didn’t want to die either.

Everything made sense now.

Then later, Zeng Qiang…

Whether it was one person killing from start to finish, slaughtering all their closest people clean.

In such an environment…

It was the ultimate torment to human nature.

Those who had experienced the apocalypse cherished the emotions they had regained immensely.

Only those who have lost know the true value of feelings!

Chen Ye had seen many newly formed families in the Divine Elephant Village.

These families all shared one characteristic: they were exceptionally harmonious.

To lose, then regain, only to lose again.

And even worse, the feeling of destroying it with your own hands.

No one could bear that!!!

That woman who survived in the end.

Even if her reputation in the Divine Elephant Village wasn’t good, it didn’t mean she didn’t value her own family.

One must remember, among those dead were her child, her parents, and her boyfriend.

Chen Ye wasn’t sure how that woman survived.

Faced with such a situation, even if you weren’t a madman to begin with, you’d probably be driven insane.

Chu Che had previously speculated that the woman might be pretending to be crazy.

Squad Leader Chu was only half right. That woman probably didn’t want anyone to know she had personally killed her own family.

Or perhaps she was already in a semi-mad state.

Finally, under the brewing pressure, she made the same decision as the others.

“00:00:55”

The bleeding countdown.

The upward-curving crescent moon shape of the Gilded Mask.

It seemed to be mocking the ridiculousness of humans.

And now, the Anomaly’s target was Chen Ye.

Chen Ye had just been on the main street of the Divine Elephant Village. According to the proximity principle.

The residents on either side of the street were closest to Chen Ye.

Thus, this timid Divine Elephant Village villager appeared.

If Chen Ye and his teammate hadn’t left by then, the final result would have been…

“Hehehe… time is running out. Make your choice!”

“You die… or he dies?”

The voice of the Gilded Mask sounded again.

The timid man beside him was already so scared his legs had turned to jelly. He looked at Chen Ye in terror, his legs kicking wildly as he tried to put as much distance between himself and Chen Ye as possible.

Chen Ye pulled Blasting Star from the small of his back.

“Boom! Boom! Boom!”

Three consecutive shots.

The gunshots echoed far down the quiet street.

But the civilian houses on either side of the street weren’t stirred by the gunfire;
no sounds came from within.

It was as if the houses lining the street were uninhabited.

Chen Ye’s target wasn’t the timid man, but the Gilded Mask-wearing Man.

The timid man trembled all over in fear, covering his ears and shrinking to the side.

The bullets passed through the figure of the masked man, not causing him the slightest bit of harm.

“Hehehe… it’s useless, Superhuman. We are not in the same dimension. You cannot kill me!”

“Superhuman, I smell the scent of blood on you. This decision shouldn’t be difficult for you!”

Blasting Star hadn’t caused the masked man any damage at all.

Chen Ye stuffed Blasting Star back into the small of his back.

He drew Hatred.

Hatred trembled slightly, seemingly excited by the impending battle.

As the blade left its sheath, the dense web of blood vessels reluctantly detached from the blade’s surface.

Chen Ye didn’t answer the masked man’s question. Instead, with a reverse grip, he maneuvered the blade. The machete, carrying a faint, almost imperceptible sound of weeping, shot towards the masked man.

Chen Ye wasn’t having a sudden surge of benevolence, planning to sacrifice himself to let this man live.

Such foolishness didn’t exist in Chen Ye’s world.

But Chen Ye wasn’t a murderous maniac either. He couldn’t just kill this timid man without a second thought just because an Anomaly told him to.

He wasn’t that obedient!

He also wasn’t used to being led by the nose.

Whether the other party was human or Anomaly!

Chu Che had once earnestly told Chen Ye that humanity’s numbers were dwindling, and if they could spare one life, they should spare it.

From the start of the apocalypse until now, the number of living people Chen Ye had encountered was less than two thousand.

One must remember, before the apocalypse, you’d easily run into more than two thousand people just walking down a busy street.

Fifty seconds left.

Chen Ye wanted to try if he could break this spatial domain within fifty seconds.

If he truly couldn’t break it, then by that time…

For Chen Ye.

His own survival was far more useful than this man’s.

Moreover, the primary enemy right now wasn’t this timid man.

It was the Anomaly wearing the Gilded Mask before him!

Hatred returned to Chen Ye’s side, seemingly unwilling.

Chen Ye sheathed Hatred back into its blood-colored scabbard.

Who would have thought Hatred’s first appearance would end with nothing accomplished.

Chen Ye took off his Sunglasses.

His blood-red pupils emitted a faint light, the runes in the center of his pupils rotating slightly.

“Oh… you are… an Anomaly Symbiont? No, you are a Wonder Symbiont!”

“Tsk tsk… I never imagined you humans could achieve such a level!”

“No, wait, this is… you’re not even a full Wonder Symbiont!”

“You are merely a Wonder Symbiont candidate!”

“How interesting, how interesting!”

“If we were in the same spatial dimension, and your Blood Eye was in its complete form, I might indeed have some trouble!”

“But right now…”

“Superhuman, make your choice!”

The masked man chuckled, the upward crescent moon on his face seeming to emit a mocking sound.

Suddenly, fiercely blazing orange-red flames erupted around the masked man.

Those flames had absolutely no effect on him.

The bleeding countdown had forty seconds left!

Chen Ye tried using Abyss control.

The power of the Blood Eye clashed with the two black holes of the Gilded Mask, but there was always a feeling of having strength but being unable to apply it effectively.

A single drop of blood-red tear flowed from the Blood Eye.

The Blood Eye, not yet fully fused, still caused some stinging, almost unbearable pain when used.

He tried sending over the smoke mist from Absolute Aura Concealment.

Absolute Aura Concealment wasn’t solely for defense.

The result was still the same: he could only sense an emptiness opposite him, as if there was nothing there.

“Superhuman, I never expected you to have so many methods!”

“I underestimated you, hehehe… but no matter what you do, it’s all futile in the end!”

“We are not in the same dimensional space!”

“Thirty-five seconds left. Make your decision!”

“Will you die, or will that waste of space!”

“This choice isn’t that difficult!”

He simulated the Death God’s scythe slicing across the man’s neck.

But it had no effect whatsoever.

That detestable mask still looked at Chen Ye with that same grinning expression.

“Thirty seconds left!”

“Man, what other tricks do you have? Hurry up, or there won’t be any time left.”

As time passed, this space imposed a powerful sense of oppression on Chen Ye.

As if not following the rules.

Something truly terrible would happen in the end.

With every pulse of the bleeding countdown, this oppressive feeling grew stronger and stronger.

Beside him, the timid man’s eyes also began to turn red, and a crazed aura started to emanate from his body.

But something strange happened.

Perhaps this man’s courage was simply too small. Even under the spatial pressure, the man still didn’t dare do anything excessive to Chen Ye.

Ignoring the man’s reaction, Chen Ye reached back and took off the backpack from his shoulders.

This time, he planned to use his trump card.

Perhaps in the Spirit Infusion state of the Human-Faced Scorpion, there would be a way.

If that really didn’t work, then he’d have to use the Eight-Limbed Human Face.

If even the Eight-Limbed Human Face didn’t work…

Chen Ye always felt that the value of a Superhuman far exceeded that of an ordinary person.

However, this was only the first round.

First round: one person!

Second round: two people!

Third round: three people!

Fourth round…

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep