“Wait. What?” Noa’s voice was louder than she intended, catching the attention of a few nearby people for a moment. “Sorry,” She awkwardly smiled and bowed to them in apology before shifting her attention back to Tianzhu, ignoring Lin Fang for a moment. She couldn’t help but point at herself. “How old do you think I am?”

“24,” replied Tianzhu right away.

Noa blinked. “Really?” She crossed her arms with a smirk. “You said that too quickly. Aren’t you worried that you might offend me by giving me a higher age number?”

“Nope.” He leaned back slightly, staring at her. “That’s because I’m confident about my guesses.”

“Oh?” She raised an eyebrow. “But you are off by 3 years then.”

Lin Fang faked a surprise, interrupting with a cheeky remark, “21? Seriously?”

To that, Noa chuckled and shook her head, “Please, stop it. It’s too cliche… I’m 27.”

“Really?” Tianzhu tilted his head, widening his smile. “Then I guess we are born in the same year of the tiger?”

“I guess…” Noa replied slowly and looked away, pretending to brush imaginary dust off her sleeve.

Suddenly, Lin Fang felt like a third wheel between those two.

Intending to talk further, he said. “By the way, there’s something else I forgot to mention, the thing you missed.”

“Hmm?”

“The boy sitting beside my niece is my nephew. They are twins. It was quite easy to see the resemblance. You missed it.” Tianzhu gave off a chuckle. To which, Noa seemed taken aback. “Eh? What boy?”

“What do you mean, what boy? The boy who was sitting…” Tianzhu suddenly snapped his head to look at Theo, only to see him missing beside the girl. “This damn brat…” Tianzhu’s expression changed instantly. He swiftly stood up and looked around. Fortunately, he spotted him right away. He saw that Theo was talking to some hunter nearby, belonging to the Haze Guild.

Tianzhu collapsed to the floor again, letting out a deep breath.

“You alright?” Lin Fang asked.

Tianzhu sighed, shaking his head. “Nothing. My nephew was talking to someone. I thought he ran off to fight those monsters or something.”

Noa nodded and then turned her attention back to Lin Fang, “So, Mr. Lin, I heard that there was a hostage crisis two days ago at the Trial. Is it true?”

At that, Tianzhu gave a glance at Lin Fang, who merely shrugged, “I’m not sure about that. I did hear a rumor of something trouble happened, but nothing happened in our safe zone. We have three zones, you know…”

To that, Noa smiled at him, as if she knew something.

As she continuously stared at him, Lin Fang blinked, “What?”

Noa shook her head, “Nothing…”

The silence returned again, but only for less than ten minutes.

Soon, another alarm rang all over the mall, and both of them turned their heads to look at the timer on the screens at the same time.

01:56

01:55

01:54

Meanwhile, on the fourth floor of the mall;

The vibrations of the Rift grew more erratic as the countdown ticked closer to zero.

The lights above flickered, casting strange shadows as the digital board displayed the remaining time.

The Starlight Guild hunters stood ready with a group of thirty, their armor gleaming under the overhead lights. In the back, freelance hunters, who volunteered to help, stood in support.

At the front, the Vice Leader, the A-rank hunter Mo Xingchen, checked his equipment one last time. His eyes were narrowed, scanning the growing tension in the room.

“Get ready to attack, all of you,” he said, voice steady but sharp. He looked at the group—his elite squad, 6 B-ranked hunters, who stood by him. The rest of the team were C-ranked hunters, not much worth talking about. They were basically the support here and made up the numbers.

“Should we expect a large batch?” asked Arin, a newly promoted A-ranked hunter of the guild, her hand tightening around the hilt of her sword.

She glanced toward the monitor that had been set up to observe the Rift.

Meanwhile, a few media personnel were clustered around the rift while their cameras focused on the growing portal.

“Quite possible,” Mo Xingchen replied to her, nodding toward the rift. “This one looks like a large batch is going to come out. Expect atleast a hundred. Better brace yourselves.”

Arin raised an eyebrow. “A hundred? The numbers are manageable if all of them were Class-3, but I’m just worried about Class-2 monsters.”

Mo Xingchen didn’t respond immediately. Instead, he glanced at the other hunters, noting their readiness. The tension in the air was obvious to notice. The Rift was about to open. Any moment now.

1:05…

As the countdown continued, whispers spread among the A-ranked hunters. They had all seen a dungeon open before, but this felt different from a typical Grade-3 dungeon. The air felt a lot thicker in the surroundings.

“How much did you guys get from this dungeon?” asked Zhao Wuhen, a freelance B-rank hunter who had joined the fight to help out. He was originally a shopper who got stuck inside the dungeon but volunteered to help, like others.

“On an average Grade-3 dungeon…” replied Jing Ruyin, a B-class hunter belonging to the guild. “5 million credits.”

“And the media?” Zhao Wenhua glanced at the media personnel belonging to K-TV.

Ruyin shrugged. “Usually, it is around 250k-500k. But this one, KTV got the rights for 900k. The association takes a 30% cut as taxes.”

“More than 2 million from a grade-3 dungeon, huh? No wonder the association is quite rich.” Zhao Wuhen mumbled, almost impressed. “Sounds like a racket.”

“Pretty much,” Ruyin said with a grin, but her eyes never left the Rift. “But hey, it’s a hell of a lot better than freelancing. Just like other guilds, we have the same system. In the participating raid, the normal members of the guild will receive a fixed 20k credits, elites will receive 150k per raid, and on top of that, the one who kills the monster will receive a 20% share of the gains from that particular monster, whether it is spirit core, bones, organs, meat, etc. If you are an elite, your share will be increased too.”

As Zhao Wuhen went into a daze, his mind reeling in calculations, Ruyin further added, “Moreover, in our guild, there is insurance coverage for each hunter who dies in the dungeon, basically thrice the amount of money they have made during the last financial year. Of course, this insurance coverage only works when one is in the guild for atleast a year.”

Before Zhoa Wuhen was about to react to that, Mo Xingchen warned, turning to face everyone with a sharp gaze. “Down to the last 30 seconds. Focus. We need to make sure everything is under control. No mistakes today.”

As if on cue, the Rift’s core began to pulse, and the floor trembled violently beneath their feet. A wave of heat rushed through the air as the swirling portal began to rip open in front of them.

0:29…

0:28

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0:10

0:09

0:08

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0:03

0:02

The room fell silent.

0:01…

Then, with a loud roar, the Rift tore open.

A blast of dark energy erupted from the Rift as the first wave of monsters began to pour out.

A group of Green Orcs, broad-shouldered and muscular, charged forward.

*Graaaa* *Graaa*

Their skin was a sickly green, and their battle cries reverberated through the floor.

They were Class-3 monsters, big and brutish with each atleast 8-9ft tall, with no magic to speak of but plenty of raw strength, and nearly a hundred of them.

One after another, they surged into the room, their massive feet pounding the ground as they rushed toward the hunters, destroying rows of toys that were in their way.

“Get ready!” Xingchen barked, drawing his sword with a swift motion.

But that was only the first wave.

As the Orcs piled in, the ground shook again. This time, it was bigger.

Purple Ogres followed, stepping through the Rift with thundering footsteps.

Larger than the Orcs, around 11-12 feet tall, these monsters had an eerie glow in their eyes. Their skin was a deep purple, and their thick arms carried large clubs and axes.

Some even shot fireballs from their hands randomly.

Unlike Orcs, these Class-2 monsters were only eleven in number.

*Graaaa*

One of the Ogres let out a roar, lifting its enormous club high before slamming it onto the ground, sending a shockwave across the floor.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep