Inside a room in Block B, the light was extremely faint.

The space here was so cold it resembled a corpse storage cellar.

The black window curtains had been drawn shut long ago, leaving the room with only the faint blue light emitted from the monitoring screen mounted on the wall. That light shone upon Amed’s face, making his pallid skin appear even more gloomy, like a corpse that had just been dragged out of the water.

His eyes stared intently at the screen.

Not blinking once.

In those pitch-black pupils, there was no calmness or alertness of an observer.

Only greed.

Greed so intense it seemed about to overflow.

On the screen, the Ice Wolf General was riding the ice Wolf, clinging to the layer of ice covering the apartment complex, continuously dodging volleys of fire from the Archer Ballista and the Bouncing Ball Launcher, while at the same time using her sword to slash apart spider silk being shot from all directions.

Amed stared intently at her.

He didn’t look at the group of ice monsters behind her.

He didn’t look at the defense towers.

He didn’t even look at the small spiders weaving layer upon layer of traps.

His gaze was glued only to that silvery-white figure.

The tip of his tongue slowly licked across his lips, as if imagining how sweet the taste of her blood would be.

Behind him, Ryu stood with a hunched back, his demeanor cautious to the point of nearly being servile.

He didn’t dare step forward too close.

He didn’t dare make any noise too loud.

He just stood behind Amed, occasionally glancing at the screen, then hurriedly lowering his head again.

A long while later, he finally summoned all his courage to open his mouth: "Master... those spiders... where on earth did they come from?"

Amed still stared intently at the screen, not turning his head back.

"I don’t know."

His voice was deep, hoarse, carrying a kind of coldness like a needle pricking the listener’s ear.

Ryu was startled.

He had thought Amed would know everything.

But hearing that answer, he became even more uneasy.

Amed slowly continued: "But that kind of thing isn’t important."

"What’s important is... the timing is too good."

He smiled.

That smile appeared on his pale face without any trace of joy. On the contrary, it only made the viewer’s skin crawl.

"That wolf-eared bitch has already been pushed to that extent."

"The spiders just happened to appear, wrapping around her."

"The defense towers are also holding her back."

"If I don’t make my move at this point..."

He tilted his head, his voice almost a whisper.

"Then wouldn’t I be a fool?"

Hearing this, Ryu hurriedly nodded.

"Master is right."

"Yes, an opportunity this good would be too regrettable to pass up."

"The people in that room are truly stupid. They’ve worked so hard to fight the Boss to that extent, but in the end, they’ll just be making a wedding gown for Master..."

Before Ryu could finish speaking, Amed slowly glanced at him.

Just that one glance was enough to make Ryu’s back stiffen.

Cold sweat ran down his nape.

He immediately shut his mouth.

Amed turned his head back to look at the screen, his gaze once again locking onto the Ice Wolf General.

"Wedding gown?"

He sneered.

"No..."

"It’s food."

The tip of his tongue once again licked across the corners of his mouth.

In his eyes, there was no longer any way to conceal the greed and craving.

"The blood of such a powerful monster..."

"I wonder how delicious it will be."

Ryu standing behind him felt his scalp go numb.

He didn’t understand what Amed was actually thinking.

But he understood one thing.

At this moment, he absolutely could not go against him.

So he immediately bowed his head lower, smiling sycophantically: "That’s right, Master. Only such blood is worthy of your status."

"If we obtain her corpse, perhaps Master could even refine an even more powerful puppet."

Hearing this, the corner of Amed’s mouth curled up.

It was unclear whether he was satisfied with that flattery, or whether the same idea had indeed surfaced in his head.

Meanwhile, in Rover’s room.

Morie saw that ugly puppet shoot out from below, her expression immediately turning cold.

"As expected..." She softly said.

Elith, while controlling the spiders, frowned and asked: "You know that thing?"

"I do."

Morie stared intently at that puppet holding the cleaver, her jade-green eyes gradually growing sharper.

"Someone wants to snatch the kill from me."

She didn’t need to think for too long to guess the opponent’s purpose.

It wasn’t to save the Ice Wolf General.

Nor was it to disrupt this battle.

It was to steal the credit.

Steal the killing blow.

Steal the largest share of points from this round, right before her eyes.

Morie’s fingers slightly clenched on the control panel.

Her gaze was so cold it could almost cut a person.

She hated this kind of person the most.

Hiding in the shadows, waiting for others to fight to exhaustion, then leaping out to snatch the final result.

"Damn it..." Elith gritted her teeth.

"That puppet is cutting my silk."

Just as Morie was about to change her firing rhythm to prioritize locking down that puppet first, in the distance, another incident occurred.

In a room in Block A, the void suddenly shook.

Right after, a massive circular magic array appeared.

It didn’t appear on the ground.

It opened up in mid-air.

Each pattern of black and purple veins rotated, overlapping each other like countless saw teeth grinding away at an invisible gate. The light from the magic array was not dazzling. On the contrary, it was dark and heavy to a frightening degree, as if the thing about to crawl out from there did not belong to this world.

In the blink of an eye, the entire battlefield seemed to slow by a beat.

The chat channel fell silent for a moment.

All eyes were drawn toward that magic array.

Outside, Amed’s puppet had charged in front of the Ice Wolf General.

It opened its mouth full of tentacles wide, the cleaver raised high, preparing to bring down a fatal slash.

But right at that moment...

BOOM!!!

From the middle of the magic array, a massive hand suddenly extended out.

It wasn’t a human hand.

It was a hand so deformed that just looking at it made one feel suffocated.

It was as large as an entire room.

The outer skin was a grayish-black, rough like the skin of a monster that had been burned then sewn back together. The bone joints protruded in a distorted manner, as if something was trying to break through the skin and crawl out from inside. On the surface of the hand were countless winding dark purple veins, undulating like living centipedes crawling.

The fingertips were long, curved, and as black and shiny as metal that had been soaked in blood for too long.

Just the pressure from that hand alone made the surrounding air distort.

Amed’s puppet hadn’t yet brought its blade down when the massive hand had already grasped at it.

CRUNCH!

Five grotesque fingers tightly squeezed the puppet within the palm.

The puppet’s body immediately emitted ear-piercing crackling sounds, as if its bones were about to be crushed right where it was.

Right after, that hand raised it high, then slammed it hard down to the ground.

BOOM!!!!

The ground exploded.

The layer of ice was crushed into countless large fragments.

The entire exterior of the apartment complex shook violently. Even those standing inside the rooms could feel the tremor rising up from their feet.

In Amed’s room, his expression immediately changed.

His already pale face turned even more ashen.

His eyes widened, the corners of his mouth twitching. A stream of dark red blood suddenly seeped out from his nostrils.

Seeing this, Ryu, standing behind him, was alarmed.

"Master!"

He hurriedly stepped forward half a step, but didn’t dare to actually touch his master.

"What’s wrong with you?"

Amed reached up to wipe the blood from beneath his nose, his gaze gloomy to the point of looking ready to kill.

He growled: "I’ve linked my soul with that puppet."

"Wanting to control it from afar while also wanting it to unleash its full strength, of course there’s a price to pay."

Hearing this, Ryu was slightly startled, then immediately bowed his head, his demeanor like he had just understood something quite terrible.

"So that’s how it is..."

"When the puppet is injured, you also suffer some backlash?"

Amed coldly laughed.

"It’s just minor damage."

But although he said this, his chest was still visibly rising and falling, his breathing also a beat heavier.

On the screen, the puppet that had just been slammed into the ground rolled violently several times, its body twisted, the fake skin on the outside torn open in many places, exposing patches of slimy black flesh inside.

The Ice Wolf General had retreated backward.

She wasn’t stupid enough to continue charging into the middle of that newly emerged eerie battle.

Just one glance at the massive hand that had emerged from the magic array, her azure blue eyes narrowed, her gaze clearly showing wariness.

She pulled the reins. The ice Wolf roared, quickly retreating a distance.

Right after, an ice-cold cry rang out from her mouth.

All the ice monsters below moved simultaneously.

The ice Goblins began to gather.

The ice Wolves split into two flanks.

The ice Golems raised their shields, filling in the holes that had just been blown open.

Clearly, the Ice Wolf General had chosen to temporarily retreat one step, reorganize her formation, wait to see how the situation changed, then decide on her next step.

But Amed couldn’t wait.

The blood from his nose was still seeping out.

His gaze was growing increasingly gloomy.

He didn’t want to let the Boss escape.

Nor did he want to let that monster’s hand smash his puppet to pieces right before his eyes.

"Damn it..." He muttered.

Right after, he pulled out a yellow-amber talisman from his backpack.

The talisman was densely covered with crimson characters that looked like they had been written in dried blood.

Amed pinched the talisman between two fingers, muttering something in some strange language, then waved his hand.

Whoosh!

The talisman caught fire.

The flame wasn’t red, but a dark green color, burning extremely fast. In the blink of an eye, it had turned to ash.

"I’ve already come this far. I can no longer stop."

But at the same time, on the battlefield, the body of the puppet that had just been slammed down began to transform.

Characters identical to the symbols on the talisman began to appear all over its body.

On its forehead.

On its chest.

On its abdomen.

On its limbs.

Stroke by stroke, they crawled out like living maggots, glowing in an eerie red-black color.

Right after...

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

The puppet’s limbs suddenly separated from its body.

Not torn apart.

But self-detaching.

The shoulders separated from the torso.

The elbows separated from the upper arms.

The knees separated from the legs.

The wrists, ankles, even the neck section all split apart.

But those parts didn’t fall completely.

Because between them, they were still connected by countless jet-black threads.

Each thread was as thick as a human tendon, damp, glossy, as if just pulled from within a still-warm corpse. They wound around each other, connecting the disjointed parts into a form even more distorted and horrifying.

And on each thread, at some unknown time, a small blade had been attached.

Some were daggers.

Some were small sickles.

Some were chipped pieces of metal sharpened like shark teeth.

When those threads vibrated, dozens of blades shook along with them, emitting an ear-piercing clinking sound like a chorus of death bells.

Watching this, Ryu’s scalp went numb.

His eyes carried even more fear mixed with sycophancy.

"Master... so impressive..."

He didn’t even know what else to say besides that bland flattery.

Amed didn’t pay any attention to him.

His entire focus was concentrated on the puppet.

Cold sweat gradually beaded on his forehead.

The blood from his nose was still dripping drop by drop.

Out on the battlefield, that massive hand also wasn’t standing still.

It slowly clenched, then opened up, as if getting accustomed to this space.

The closer one looked, the more one had the feeling that this wasn’t simply a summoned arm, but a body part of some monster trying to crawl out of hell itself.

Its wrist was still stuck within the magic array.

The skin at the edge of the wrist seemed torn, oozing a thick black fluid that emitted cold steam.

Each time it moved, the magic array shook as if bearing immense pressure from a creature behind it trying to push its way through.

Amed’s puppet, after completing its transformation, immediately charged forward once again.

It no longer had a complete human form.

It was like a bundle of corpses strung into a chain, flying while dragging dozens of black threads and countless rotating blades around it.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

The threads cut through the air, carrying a venomous whistle.

The massive hand raised up to block.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

The blades stabbed into the monster’s hand skin, emitting sounds like metal striking stone.

Each black thread wrapped around its fingers, squeezing tightly, wanting to sever each joint.

That hand immediately clenched.

CRUNCH!

A bundle of threads and blades was crushed right within the palm.

But the puppet seemed not to feel any pain at all. Its torso was dragged sideways. Each detached arm, each detached leg, each distorted piece of flesh simultaneously swung blades down, crisscrossing like a rain of steel.

BOOM! BOOM! CLANG! SWISH!

Each time the two sides clashed, the air currents exploded.

The layer of ice on the apartment complex wall was hacked apart in patches.

The ground beneath the feet shook continuously.

The monster’s hand smashed down, creating a massive depression.