Chapter 158: Don't Be Afraid, Little Skeleton

Although soloing the small skeleton had not required much effort, that one million health pool had still been whittled down skill by skill through his own hard work. Yet, the final sliver of health had been abruptly snatched away right from under his nose!

Even with the best of tempers, Chen Mo would not let this slide—not to mention that Chen Mo never had a good temper to begin with.

Chen Mo swept his gaze across the scene, his expression freezing as a murderous intent welled up: "What is the meaning of this?"

Originally, this would have been a profoundly cool line!

But...

"Where is the gear?! Why didn't it drop any gear!"

The Poppy Squad from the High School Affiliated to the Normal University completely disregarded Chen Mo's feelings. They rushed straight to the Skeleton King's pile of bones at the very first moment, attempting to snatch whatever equipment might have dropped.

Mu Xiaoyi looked around left and right. Aside from a scatter of white bones on the ground, where was anything else?!

A mage from the Poppy Squad pointed at Chen Mo with his magic wand and shouted, "Could it be that this boss already dropped its gear, but we just can't see it? This punk took it all!!"

Vice Captain Zheng Haonan chimed in, "That's entirely possible. Generally, boss loot is distributed based on threat generation, the final blow, and dealing the most damage. This kid has been fighting here for so long, so his damage output should be the highest. It's very likely the gear has already been taken by him!!"

The lightning-wielding mage said with a disdainful expression, "I never expected this boss to be so weak, letting this punk reap such a huge benefit. Hey, kid! Where's the gear? We worked hard to fight our way here, you can't just swallow all the loot by yourself..."

Splat—

The lightning mage's words were cut off mid-sentence. Before he even had time to finish, his head had already parted from his body.

Chen Mo transformed into a lingering afterimage and appeared right behind the mage, wielding the Fire-Lightning Sword and decapitating him with a single stroke.

Mu Xiaoyi was stunned stupid. This—this wasn't the Ball of Evolution, nor was it some game instance! This was a place where people actually died for real!! Her squad had already lost three members fighting their way here, and now yet another one was dead.

Mu Xiaoyi shrieked furiously, "Which school are you from?! Have you lost your mind?! You're actually killing your own people!!"

Chen Mo replied coldly, "My own people? Is that so? Who can prove it? All I know is that your squad tried to ambush and gang up on me to steal the boss. I was forced to fight back in self-defense and accidentally killed one of your people by mistake!!"

With Zheng Haonan's explosive temper, he instantly flew into a rage: "You son of a bitch! Spouting absolute nonsense with your eyes wide open! Did we attack you? We just saw you fighting the boss alone, worried that you might get hurt, and came to help! I never imagined among students there would be such an insidious and shameless scoundrel like you!"

"Captain, stop wasting breath on him! We have to avenge Ah Lun!" A female mage could no longer hold back her tears; the one who had just died was her boyfriend.

A flash of ruthless determination crossed Mu Xiaoyi's face. The Poppy Squad had always been notorious for their viciousness, both inside instances and in the real world. She never expected to run into someone even more ruthless than themselves—someone who would resort to murder over a single disagreement and had even fabricated an excuse beforehand. This meant the other party was fully prepared to leave no witnesses.

Besides, this skeleton instance was clearly different from the ones in the Ball of Evolution. As a boss, there was no way the Skeleton King dropped nothing, especially when even ordinary skeleton mobs had dropped A-grade gear!

The only explanation was that the equipment was definitely on this kid!!

Although Mu Xiaoyi was only fifteen years old, her mind was more mature than an adult's: "For the sake of gear, you actually slaughter students from a fellow school! You have no conscience left!! All members of the Poppy Squad, get ready! To uphold justice and avenge our fallen classmate, attack!"

Zheng Haonan activated his B-grade equipment, the Purple Flame Dragon Armor. Not only could the Purple Flame Dragon Armor reduce physical and magical damage by 20%, but it could also automatically counterattack by shooting a stream of purple flames from the two small dragon heads on the armor's shoulders!!

Sturdy Shield! Solid Wall! Heavy Armor!

Zheng Haonan cast three defensive buffs on himself in succession, then took the lead alongside two senior warriors to spearhead the charge!

Meanwhile, two other mages locked onto Chen Mo: Triple Compressed Fireball! Earth Spike Fissure!!

Mu Xiaoyi's feet left the ground as her long black hair fluttered wildly, making her look like a sorceress. A guqin floated in mid-air, and her fingers plucked the strings rapidly like streaks of lightning!!

In less than a single second, the six members of the Poppy Squad fell into a well-coordinated battle rhythm.

Triple Slash! Z-Shaped Slash! X-Execution!!

Zheng Haonan and the two senior warriors unleashed their combat skills, completely surrounding Chen Mo in a net of attacks!!

Chen Mo gave a cold smile, *swish!!*

Although he couldn't match the Archdemon's hyperspeed of 400 meters per second, leveraging the repulsive force of the fiery heatwaves, Chen Mo's speed still reached nearly 300 meters per second!!

In an instant, Chen Mo vanished from his spot, dodging the joint execution of the three warriors and evading the skill barrage of the two mages.

As for the soundwave attack from Mu Xiaoyi's guqin, it was impossible to dodge entirely, but it had virtually zero effect on Chen Mo!

Chen Mo's Mind Power was at 300! In Slaughter Mode, it even hit 600!! With such formidable Mind Power, let alone soundwave attacks, Chen Mo could forcefully alter the trajectory of enemy magic using his sheer mental force alone! This was the tangible effect brought by Mind Power reaching a certain extreme realm!

Die!!

Chen Mo fused fire and lightning into both hands, forging a pair of Fire-Lightning Swords!!

He thrust them directly into the chests of the two mages hiding behind the warriors. *Thud! Thud!*

The Fire-Lightning swords easily pierced through the chests of the two mages!

Without even looking back, Chen Mo morphed into a blurred afterimage and charged once more toward the three warriors led by Zheng Haonan.

A true man never looks back at explosions.

The two mages stared blankly at the Fire-Lightning swords protruding from their chests, their faces turning pale as they reached out with trembling fingers toward Mu Xiaoyi: "Captain! Save me! Captain!"

Mu Xiaoyi was paralyzed with fear by the terrifying power Chen Mo had just unleashed. Was this—was this fucking a mage?!

A close-combat warrior who forged weapons using magic?!! That was simply too absurd!

"Get away! Hurry up and get away! Don't come near me!" Seeing her two teammates running frantically toward her with Fire-Lightning swords stuck in their chests, Mu Xiaoyi hurriedly changed the direction of her guqin to block her teammates from approaching!

*Clang clang!!*

A flurry of heavy guqin chords crashed into her two teammates.

Triggered by the external pressure, the two Fire-Lightning swords instantly detonated!

*Boom! Boom!!*

Flesh and blood flew everywhere. This wasn't the Ball of Evolution where death resulted in a clean disappearance into particles; here, the explosion blew flesh to smithy-shreds, making it sickeningly and horrifyingly gruesome!!

Even Mu Xiaoyi, who always considered herself ruthless and deeply calculating, was thoroughly horrified by the gruesome deaths of her two teammates.

Madman! This madman! Which school on earth did this lunatic come from?!

Zheng Haonan and the other two senior warriors had eyes burning red with blood. A man's hormones simply would not allow them to feel fear or retreat!

"Go to hell!"

Meteor Rain!!

Chen Mo held up the Pupil of the Phoenix in one hand, *hum hum!*

A blazing eruption of fire violently burst from the Pupil of the Phoenix!

Sensing the powerful magical element fluctuations emanating from the Pupil of the Phoenix, Mu Xiaoyi screamed at the top of her lungs, "Run!!"

However, everything was already too late!

*Screeech—*

A phoenix shriek echoed through the air!

Over a hundred shattered rocks fused together with blazing fire, transforming into the advanced-tier magic, Meteor Rain!

*Boom boom boom boom boom!*

The two senior warriors were already reduced to charred charcoal under the very first wave of the Meteor Rain attack.

As for Zheng Haonan, he was still struggling desperately to hold on, relying entirely on his B-grade Purple Flame Dragon Armor!!

*Boom! Boom!*

Wave after wave battered down, and Zheng Haonan was reaching his limit!

Suddenly, Mu Xiaoyi dropped to her knees with a heavy thud, tears streaming down her face like a broken dam: "Stop killing! Please stop killing! Big brother, we beg you, we were wrong!! We were truly wrong!!"

True to form, Chen Mo actually reined in his attack. Zheng Haonan was left with only a breath of life remaining, collapsing weakly onto the ground at death's door.

Chen Mo hadn't suddenly found his conscience; rather, he found this scene chillingly familiar. *Hah!*

A cold smile crossed Chen Mo's inner thoughts. He turned around, gazing at the tear-stained, pitiful, and seemingly fragile Mu Xiaoyi. Last time, in order to save her teammates, Mu Xiaoyi had actually stripped off her own top. He really wanted to see what trick Mu Xiaoyi was going to pull this time!!