Chapter 034: Hunter and Prey

Southern outskirts of BS City, JL Province, Huaxia.

It was around 6 p.m. on the twenty-second day since the game began.

Here, deep in the heart of the Changbai Mountains, peaks rose and fell in endless waves, their valleys intertwined, rivers crisscrossing the land.

Within the forest, a light summer rain had just ceased half an hour before, and a faint mist now clung to the air, swirling gently around the trees.

Two bedraggled figures were running swiftly into the depths of the woods: a middle-aged man and a young man with blond hair.

Not far ahead of them floated a semi-transparent virtual display, roughly one square meter in size. If one looked closely, it revealed a topographical map of the surrounding area.

Three bright dots glowed on the map. In the very center, two dots were pressed closely together—one yellow, one green. A short distance below, a solitary red dot flickered ominously.

The virtual interface moved through the air as the two men ran, always maintaining a half-meter distance from the middle-aged man.

In the Ten-Year Life-and-Death Hunting Game, every contestant possessed a personalized smart wristband. Its tracking feature identified positions: yellow for oneself, green for one's ally, blue for strangers, and red for marked enemies.

The middle-aged man had an unremarkable face and short hair, but his expression was grim, touched with terror and unease. His designer clothing, now caked with mud, bore the marks of their frantic flight.

The young blond man was strikingly handsome, yet in this moment, all trace of charm was gone. Breath coming in gasps, his face was pale with fear. As he ran desperately, he kept casting nervous glances over his shoulder, as if pursued by some monstrous terror.

Suddenly, his foot slipped in a patch of mud and he fell hard to the ground.

The middle-aged man, seeing this, didn’t pause or offer a hand. He simply kept running, as if he hadn’t even noticed his companion’s fall.

But the next moment, with a rustle and a scramble, the blond youth was up again, catching up to the other man in just a few quick strides.

“Zhao Ming, focus on what’s ahead. Watch your step. The rain just stopped—the forest floor is slick. And stop looking back so often. With the tracking map, we can always monitor his movements,” the middle-aged man admonished in a low voice, his expression unchanged as Zhao Ming caught up.

“Uncle Li, I don’t want to either, but that man is just too terrifying. If I don’t see for myself whether he’s gaining on us, I can’t calm down,” Zhao Ming replied breathlessly, his words trembling with fear.

Hearing this, Li seemed to catch some of Zhao Ming’s panic; a flicker of terror passed through his own eyes.

They had thought they’d found a lone, weak target, only to discover their supposed prey was, in fact, a powerful hunter.

In just a brief skirmish, Li realized the man’s strength and ferocity. Even working together, they had nearly been wiped out by him in an instant.

During the confrontation several hours earlier, both had been forced to use a full recovery opportunity, and thanks to Zhao Ming’s driving skills, they’d barely escaped with their lives.

Li Xiangyang, formerly a foreman on a construction site in BS City, had been napping in a prefab unit when the gods erased humanity. Waking for the afternoon shift, he found the place deserted.

At first, he suspected a workers’ strike—after all, he’d just announced that morning that last month’s wages would be delayed again. But the silence was too deep to be natural. The site, usually muffled to minimize city noise, now seemed utterly lifeless. Even the bustling streets beyond were eerily quiet.

Only then did Li recall the conversation with his friends the night before, as they grilled skewers and reminisced about the events of a decade past. Back then, all of them were nearing thirty, and they’d each experienced the night the gods issued their decree. With the ten-year mark approaching, they’d joked, perhaps a little uneasily, that this might be their last meal together.

“Could that event from ten years ago really be coming true today?” Li wondered, connecting the dots. He immediately ran out of the construction site.

He soon confirmed the impossible: everyone had been erased by the gods. Astonishingly, he was among the ten thousand chosen to survive.

Li hadn’t become a foreman by luck alone; he was clever and resourceful. Though he couldn’t guess the gods’ intentions in leaving ten thousand alive, he spent the first ten days of the game both indulging in luxuries he’d only dreamed of and gathering essential supplies, valuables, and weapons.

During one of these forays, he encountered Zhao Ming, the blond youth, in a large shopping mall, also there to scavenge goods.

After a brief conversation, the two decided to stick together.

Once the game commenced, they quickly formed a team and an alliance. Having analyzed their strengths, they chose complementary enhancement paths.

Yet, neither truly trusted the other. In this post-apocalyptic world, especially after the gods announced on the tenth day that a mysterious reward awaited anyone who successfully hunted another, how could they not be wary?

Though they discussed their enhancement choices, each had only boosted their own strongest attribute. For Li Xiangyang, that was strength. After enhancement, he found his body struggling to handle his new power—sometimes, he injured himself simply by exerting too much force. So, with his remaining opportunities, he focused on building up his endurance.

Zhao Ming’s highest base stat was speed, followed by strength, endurance, and finally, mental acuity. After a brief hesitation, he used his first tenfold enhancement on speed.

The results astonished him: moves he’d never managed before now came effortlessly. Even when learning new skills, his mastery was almost immediate. For example, after half a day’s practice, his marksmanship became uncanny—nine out of ten shots striking dead center, a level even those with natural talent would require months or years to reach.

Aside from saving two full recoveries, Zhao Ming followed Li Xiangyang’s advice, investing his remaining enhancements in endurance and strength.

Just as they were adjusting to their newfound abilities, testing their synergy and preparing to leave the city in search of isolated contestants, they spotted a lone figure entering their surveillance range.

The solitary newcomer seemed to have wandered into their territory by chance.