Chapter 45: Chapter 39: Do You Like Me?
The giant snake writhed on the ground in agony. Before retreating, Tang Mo had doused it with a bucket of gasoline. In the firelight, its scales gradually charred, emitting a thick, acrid smell.
"Maybe we’ll have some meat to eat in a bit."
Tang Mo watched the struggling snake like a chef eyeing the meat on their cutting board, her mind already running through all sorts of recipes.
"You..."
Qin Ling was stunned. He couldn’t believe that in a moment like this, Tang Mo’s first thought was about eating. ’Shouldn’t a normal girl be nervous and scared in this situation? What kind of logic is that?’
"Let’s go. If we don’t get out there soon, the meat will be burnt."
Tang Mo was the first to step out of the cave, her knife in hand. Fire alone wasn’t enough to kill the giant snake, but its continuously bleeding eyes had significantly lowered its Life Value and combat effectiveness.
Seeing the two humans who had grievously wounded it reappear, the giant snake thrashed its tail in fury, wishing it could make them drop dead on the spot.
Unfortunately, the prolonged struggle had consumed much of its strength. Its current combat power was not even half of what it was at its peak.
The pain in its eyes, the flames on its body, the hateful realgar all around it.
None of these things could kill it, but each one subjected it to immense pain and torment.
Tang Mo nimbly dodged the giant snake’s attacks, once again flashing to its "seven-inch" weak spot. This time, she swung her arm in a full arc, bringing the knife down on its body with even greater force.
SHLICK...
It was the sound of a blade sinking into flesh.
A flicker of joy rose in Tang Mo’s heart. She glanced down, only to see the knife had sunk in by about three centimeters. For the giant snake, this was basically the equivalent of a human cutting their nails to the quick.
In the moment Tang Mo was stunned, the giant snake rolled violently, sending her and her knife flying.
"Watch out!" Qin Ling yelled, sprinting toward Tang Mo.
But he wouldn’t make it in time to catch her. Instead, he threw himself forward, hitting the ground first and letting Tang Mo land on top of him.
"Are you okay?!"
Having landed on a human cushion, Tang Mo was completely fine. She dropped her cleaver and moved to help Qin Ling up.
"Ouch, I think you might have broken my back... You’ll have to take responsibility for me," Qin Ling said, getting up while holding his lower back.
"Get lost."
She shoved Qin Ling away. ’If he can still joke around, he’s not dying.’
’An Intermediate Beast’s hide is no joke,’ Tang Mo thought, silently picking up her knife and withdrawing from the fight. ’It’s not something humans at this stage can deal with. It’s not because I’m too weak.’
Meanwhile, Qin Ling, wielding Wind Breaker, used his agility to constantly close the distance with the giant snake. He then leaped onto its body, sprang upwards, and once again landed a swift, precise slash at its eye.
’That strength...’
Tang Mo was certain that Qin Ling’s Strength Attribute Value was definitely higher than his agility attribute value—and not just by a little.
The now-blind giant snake let out a final hiss. But unable to see anything, it was a spent force, only able to writhe its body as it was cut down.
Quickly, Qin Ling circled the giant snake, landing several blows on each of its vital points before retreating to Tang Mo’s side.
The giant snake continued to struggle for a full three minutes before it slowly collapsed to the ground, utterly and completely dead.
Only then did Qin Ling and Tang Mo walk over, carefully examining the behemoth.
Pacing back and forth a few times with Wind Breaker in hand, Qin Ling was still unsure where to begin.
"How about trying this spot?" Tang Mo said, using her cleaver to mark a line below the snake’s head.
She knew Qin Ling was looking for the Spirit Stone’s location. The snake was massive; finding a tiny bead inside such a huge body was clearly going to be a major undertaking.
Qin Ling nodded, sliced open the spot Tang Mo had indicated, and reached his hand inside, carefully feeling around.
A moment later, his eyes lit up, and he pulled out his hand, clenched in a fist.
Qin Ling brought his hand in front of Tang Mo and opened his fist. A blue, irregularly shaped, diamond-like Crystal Stone lay there. Although it was covered in blood, its faint, flowing luminescence couldn’t be hidden.
"It really is an agility attribute value Crystal Stone. The intel was right after all," Qin Ling said, his delight growing even more apparent. He asked Tang Mo for a bottle of mineral water and rinsed the Crystal Stone clean.
Red represented Strength, blue represented agility, green represented Life, white represented spiritual power, and yellow represented Space.
This was the data that had been officially released long ago.
However, the blue Crystal Stone in Qin Ling’s hand was several times larger than the red Spirit Stone Tang Mo had previously extracted from the body of a Basic-level Mutant Beast.
A Basic-level Spirit Stone provided only one attribute point, whereas an Intermediate Beast yielded ten.
This explained why, later on, squads would risk their lives to hunt Intermediate Beasts. The rewards were naturally proportional to the risks.
Tang Mo had seen an Intermediate Spirit Stone in her past life, but in that battle, her squad had lost many people. Even in the later stages of the apocalypse, hunting an Intermediate Beast was no easy task.
But for this battle, the stars had truly aligned.
Both of them were well-rested and in peak mental condition, they had a full set of weapons and equipment, and they had secured the most advantageous terrain.
Of course, the most important factor was that Qin Ling was very strong. In the actual fight, he had done almost all the work. Tang Mo hadn’t contributed much at all; after all, with her current strength, she couldn’t even cut through the giant snake’s hide.
The thought alone made Tang Mo want to cover her face. It was just too embarrassing...
"Here, this is for you," Qin Ling said, casually tossing the Crystal Stone in his hand to Tang Mo.
Tang Mo, not reacting in time, fumbled to catch it. After seeing what was in her hand, she exclaimed, "For me? Are you insane?"
She had barely helped in this battle. Qin Ling was different from Shi Xuan; she didn’t believe for a second that Qin Ling was unaware of how precious this Spirit Stone was.
If he hadn’t known, he wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of risking his life to enter the fog, where he nearly died.
"Your Strength is too low. You’ll get yourself killed easily. If you add some points to agility, you can run faster and maybe live a little longer," Qin Ling stated objectively.
"My agility is already higher than yours, and my Strength is greater too. You need it more. Just consider it payment for your cooking these past few days."
’What a steep price for a few meals,’ she thought. ’Most people really couldn’t afford it.’
"But didn’t you come here specifically for this?" Tang Mo didn’t understand. She and Qin Ling should be the same type of person; for people like them, strength was more important than anything.
"To be precise, I came for *that*," Qin Ling said, pointing at the completely cold giant snake.
"I received intel that High-level mutant beasts were going to appear in all the fog-covered areas and was told not to act rashly. I just wanted to prove to them that even if I’m trapped here, I’m not useless."
Qin Ling gave a helpless smile. Being trapped here meant he had lost access to the many resources his family could provide.
Although someone of his status would never be abandoned, he didn’t want anyone to look down on him.
"This is enough for now. Besides, there are many people and things more important than this Crystal Stone."
At this moment, Qin Ling’s eyes were sparkling—even brighter than the Crystal Stone. He stared intently at Tang Mo.
"Do you like me?"
