Chapter 60 The Late 1% Reward, and the Courier is Him?

Feng Mu did not carry out that insane experiment, as it would have been far too cruel for the mummified remains.

Above all, the vibe was simply too wicked, and he neither had the inclination nor the time to silence everyone at the scene.

He was not some remorseless supervillain; he merely wanted to retrieve the black core that had been forced upon him through unscrupulous business practices. The bloodshed he had committed today could not be blamed entirely on him either—at least a large half of the fault lay with the black market merchants led by dark-faced number two.

With [Feast] replenishing [Frenzied Blood], the tyranny in Feng Mu’s heart was dispelled. After drinking a single person's share of blood, the hollow, bloodthirsty craving was also alleviated.

Feng Mu successfully rediscovered his hypocrisy—bah, I mean, his inherently pure and peace-loving nature.

"I cannot let these deceased people down; I must retrieve my black core."

Feng Mu sighed, following the coordinates in his mind as he dashed back into the building.

His own blood was the best tracking device.

Without any delay, Feng Mu entered the bedroom. On the way, he happened to bump into several constables with broken legs who were crawling up the stairs. He amicably leaped right over them.

The constables were practically frightened out of their wits, smashing their heads against the floor before tumbling down the steps in a flurry.

Opening the wardrobe, he used his wrist bones like a blade to slice open the hidden compartment in the wall, retrieving his black core and handbag.

He swore that he merely wanted to take back his own black core, and as for why that suitcase had mysteriously and inexplicably adhered to his hand, he truly had no idea.

Perhaps it was because the large, seemingly "sturdy and adult" black cores inside the suitcase were worried about these "fragile and emaciated" little black cores, and so they stubbornly clung to him~

"Strange, the number isn't as full as I expected, but their sizes are exceptionally large."

"Where did something go wrong? Can normal black cores be this massive?"

"Could it be that black cores, much like my [Feast], can devour each other?"

"Still, regardless, the big black cores in the box smell hundreds of times stronger than the small ones. I really, really want to eat them right here and now."

Harboring both confusion and desire, Feng Mu gripped the suitcase in one hand and the handbag in the other, sprinting wildly downstairs.

Downstairs, the people who had just moments ago been hiding their heads between their legs had all vanished. The severely wounded and crippled constables were too busy caring for themselves, tacitly lowering their gaze to avoid looking at the masked monster about to leave.

Except for one person...

Feng Ji woke up from his unconsciousness, feeling as though the ribs in his chest were all broken.

Having missed the climax while fainting, he was undoubtedly the most fearless constable in the arena at this moment. He gritted his teeth against the piercing pain and dragged himself up from the ground.

The moment he struggled to his feet, the first thing that entered his vision was once again that sinister mask.

Feng Ji: "???"

Why did this scene feel so painfully familiar? Could it be that time had rewound, or had he never actually lost consciousness at all?

"I'll hold him back! Everyone, open fire and shoot him to death!"

Feng Ji roared at the top of his lungs, blocking the mask's path dead-center. Lacking a gun or a blade, he simply half-crouched, opened his arms wide, and lunged toward the masked figure.

From fainting to waking, time had suffered a blank gap in Feng Ji's mind. The second he opened his eyes, all he saw was the mask once more; he completely failed to notice that apart from him and the masked figure, not a single other person was standing.

His heroic, aspiring roar did not summon a volley of gunfire. Instead, the only response he received was an utter, pin-drop silence.

"Why do you keep crawling back up? Wouldn't it be better to just lie there and play dead? Why must you force me to slay my way to enlightenment?" Feng Mu's heart was ice-cold.

Carrying things in both hands, Feng Mu's pupils behind the mask contracted slightly. The very moment he took a step sideways to dodge, several bone thorns suddenly popped out from his left shoulder.

Sharp and ferocious, they exuded a piercing and wicked aura.

"Bones growing right out of the flesh? What kind of freakish thing is this?"

Feng Ji's feet froze in place, his mind blanking for a split second before he felt a stab in his shoulder. Immediately following that, a tremendous force struck him, and his entire body was sent airborne once more.

Spurted blood flew into the air alongside him, splashing across his face before he slammed heavily back onto the ground. A jaggedly torn arm, as if chewed apart by a wild beast, spun through the air and crashed down onto his chest.

"My shoulder was ripped off? Am I crippled now?"

His fractured ribs emitted another crisp crunch. Feng Ji coughed up a mouthful of urgent blood, his vision blackened, and he completely lost consciousness once again.

"Sigh, why did you have to try and stop me?"

"Just like you said yourself, people without ability who still harbor vain ambitions of advancement only end up harming themselves."

"It's a fortunate thing I wasn't held up by you, otherwise, Feng Ji, you would have gotten your entire family killed—no, everyone in our residential complex would have perished~"

At the very last moment, Feng Mu ultimately held back. It wasn't out of any deep affection for Feng Ji, but rather because he recalled the way Wang Xiuli had spent the whole night anxiously waiting outside.

He could remain indifferent to Feng Ji, but Wang Xiuli's affection for him was genuine. Feng Mu was not completely cold-hearted, and a shred of pity had stirred within him for Wang Xiuli.

Oh well~

He would spare Feng Ji's life and let him become the very thing he looked down upon the most—a cripple—to be raised at home.

Of course, viewed from Feng Mu's perspective, this might be even more agonizing for Feng Ji than if he had simply been killed outright.

"Ah, I'm just someone who cannot bear to accept even the tiniest bit of kindness from others; my heart is far too merciful. Being a villain with a disposition like mine is such a disadvantage. I must change this in the future," Feng Mu thought to himself.

40 minutes later.

Feng Mu appeared sneakily inside an abandoned bridge culvert. Because of disrepair, half of this culvert had collapsed, and neither scavengers nor vagrants dared to live inside it.

Feng Mu scanned his surroundings without spotting any sign of life. He carefully walked into the culvert, and moments later emerged carrying two suitcases.

These two suitcases were the ones Ma Wei had hidden inside according to his instructions.

The suitcases had no locks; Feng Mu pressed the latches and they popped open. One of them was packed to the brim with non-sequential paper banknotes, while the other held 50 small gold bars, commonly known as little yellow croakers, along with two martial arts manuals.

The box of paper bills contained 1.5 million, the 50 little yellow croakers had an estimated value of 1 million, and the two manuals—one third-tier and one second-tier—were together worth about 300,000.

In total, the two suitcases meant he had extorted 2.8 million from Ma Bin.

This was equivalent to the salary he would earn at the incineration plant if he worked for 70 years without eating or drinking.

Indeed, in no matter what world, once a person begins to stray from the righteous path, money sticks to them like dog-skin plaster, frantically diving into their wallet.

Looking down at the three suitcases, Feng Mu calculated internally: "I have the money, I have the manuals, and I have the upgrade materials. All that's left is to run, find a safe place to hide out, and grow in low profile."

If everyone in the old, dilapidated residential complex was dead, the courier dispatched by [Destiny] surely couldn't have escaped. In the best-case scenario, they were all completely wiped out, meaning he wouldn't need to flee.

The worst-case scenario was being captured alive, or even having already confessed overnight and exposing the recipient's information as well.

A fifty-fifty probability.

However, when it concerned life and death, Feng Mu only recognized the difference between zero and one. To be on the safe side, he decided to bolt the moment he got his hands on the goods. Without even talking about escaping District 9, he had to at least get far away from the urban area first.

He had mapped out his escape route a week ago: first head west out of the city, then travel straight north past the suburban forest. There was a small town there that could serve as a transit point for a temporary foothold to gather intelligence.

If there were no problems, he would double back; if there were problems, he would plunge deeper into the northern scavenging zones, and if that still didn't work, he would push even further into the deep ruins zones.

Buzz—

His phone vibrated. It was a message sent by Ma Bin, and a multimedia message at that.

Text: Sorry, matters arose suddenly, so I didn't get a chance to notify you. I've dealt with Boss Zheng, but I deliberately left him breathing. As per our agreement, the final strike must be left to you. Meet me at the following location in 2 hours: xxxxxxxx.

Picture: Zheng Si covered in bloody filth, tied to a chair with his head drooping, looking as though he was on his last breath.jpg

Feng Mu glanced at the multimedia message and let out an internal sigh: "Ma Bin is truly a hypocritical person. Clearly, he was just afraid I would show up and cause complications, which is why he deliberately didn't inform me."

"Heh—agreeing in advance to my extortion and handing over the money was just our tacit mutual understanding. Yet when it comes out of your mouth, you make it sound so noble."

"And you even specially left him breathing for me?"

Feng Mu sneered in his heart. If he had genuinely been out to avenge Wang Xiuli, he might have actually lost his head and rushed over to keep the appointment right now.

Unfortunately, Feng Mu wasn't being hypocritical—he was just a compulsive liar who didn't even know who Wang Xiuli was~

—I didn't even make a move, so I won't steal your kill. You can just do the honors instead.

Drafting text message...

Before the message could be completely edited, another text arrived, sent directly to his own phone number.

—Encrypted message.

Feng Mu paused. The sender field displayed no number, only a brief note: This text message cannot be monitored or tracked and will automatically self-destruct 1 minute after being read.

Message content: Diver of Destiny, your downstream agent has been activated. Please proceed to the secret contact point at xxxxxxxx within 1 hour to receive them. The passphrase is—My face is not my face!

Feng Mu's pupils shrank almost to pinpricks, and the expression on his face gradually turned bizarre.

For no other reason than the fact that the location appointed by Ma Bin and the address of the secret contact point in the encrypted message were an exact, character-for-character match, save for a one-hour difference in the appointed time.

At the same instant, a prompt box quietly popped up in Feng Mu's field of vision.

[The 1% inheritance reward has arrived. Please player promptly seek out your courier to collect it. Wishing the player a pleasant game!]

Feng Mu: "???"

Feng Mu: "……"