Ashen God
Chapter 639 - 638: I Am Just a Slide Tackle

Chapter 639: Chapter 638: I Am Just a Slide Tackle

I must say, compared to the first tier demonized monsters Zhang Yanhang had previously cleared out in the Demonized Swamp, monsters like the Demonized Emperor Crocodile, which is a second-tier demonized monster, proved to be much smarter when faced with an enemy like Zhang Yanhang and did not hesitate to initiate their demonization skills immediately.

Unfortunately, even though the Demonized Emperor Crocodile managed to achieve a second-tier three-star level due to the attribute bonuses gained after demonization, Zhang Yanhang still managed to pass through the valve in the mouth that was supposed to stop the flow of water without any hindrance.

Propelled by inertia, he punched through the Demonized Emperor Crocodile’s mouth like a drill, continuing to the tail until the middle section of the tail, where the passage’s diameter forced him to drill out of the body of the Demonized Emperor Crocodile.

However, even if the body of the Demonized Emperor Crocodile was indeed large enough, its bodily tissues and structure still seemed rather fragile in front of Zhang Yanhang.

After taking Zhang Yanhang’s full-force slide tackle, parts of the Demonized Emperor Crocodile burst apart, including not only its widest middle abdomen but also its mouth filled with sharp conical teeth, originally the strongest defensive areas like its head, neck, and lower body.

The flesh and blood mixture and sewage sprayed semi-circularly into the surrounding lake, stirring up waves while turning the already blood-red surface of the water even redder and more vivid.

[Successfully killed a second-tier two-star monster ’Demonized Emperor Crocodile (Normal)’ ×1, Soul points +75.]

After drilling out of the body of the Demonized Emperor Crocodile, Zhang Yanhang immediately went into the water to rinse off the dark red blood, flesh, organ fragments, and even intestinal tissues that clung to the outermost energy shield covering his body, making himself spotlessly clean again.

This was also because of the presence of water, Zhang Yanhang did not hold back as he had done when sliding into the demonized saber-toothed tiger, stopping only at the abdomen. Instead, he drilled straight from the head through the chest, abdomen, buttocks, all the way to the tail.

Without water, using the elasticity formed by the expansion and contraction of the energy shield to completely eject those blood stains would indeed be problematic.

After an experience in the sewers of Raccoon City, the current Zhang Yanhang really did not want to replicate that iconic scene again, hunting monsters while covered in excrement. It was unnecessary and frankly, he detested it. Perhaps this was in some way ’easy to shift from simplicity to luxury but difficult to revert from luxury to simplicity.’

After successfully killing these two Demonized Emperor Crocodiles, there were no other Demonized Emperor Crocodiles in the vicinity rushing to confront Zhang Yanhang, so he quietly stood on the water surface, watching the sinking pieces of the Demonized Emperor Crocodile bodies and limbs as he quietly waited for the treasure box to refresh.

Maybe because he was lucky, although he had only killed two Demonized Emperor Crocodiles, it did bring Zhang Yanhang a blue-quality drop treasure box.

Alright, this drop treasure box must be related to previously engaging the lucky slot machine in the Demonized Swamp and achieving third prize after killing ten Demonized Emperor Crocodiles but only obtaining one treasure box.

Including these two, the total number of Demonized Emperor Crocodiles Zhang Yanhang had killed reached thirteen. Calculating the average, about one box dropped every seven kills, which really is a pretty normal drop rate.

As for the specific and accurate drop rate, he would need to kill a few more Demonized Emperor Crocodiles before he could calculate it. Conservatively estimated, at least a hundred Demonized Emperor Crocodiles had to be killed to get a meaningful drop rate—although there were only three hundred and fifty Demonized Emperor Crocodiles in the Demonized Swamp area.

Quickly picking up the blue-quality drop treasure box and placing it in his waist bag, Zhang Yanhang quickly continued towards the locations of other Demonized Emperor Crocodiles. Based on the current hunting situation, he should be able to completely clear the lake area soon.

...

October 27, Tuesday, the day after Double Ninth Festival and also the third day Zhang Yanhang had been in Ashen World, 7:41 PM, Demonized Swamp, Lake Area, Lake Heart Island.

Bang!

Zhang Yanhang, using both hands and his tail, simultaneously lifted two Demonized Emperor Crocodiles and slammed them hard onto the rocky shores of Lake Heart Island.

The Demonized Emperor Crocodiles, smashed to pieces, bursting out a large cloud of blood, didn’t even have time to make any sound before they fell silent; their broken bodies hit the lake, stirring up large splashes of white water and red blood.

This was accompanied by the killing notification sound by Zhang Yanhang’s ear.

[Successfully killed a second-tier two-star monster ’Demonized Emperor Crocodile (Normal)’ ×1, Soul points +75.]

[Successfully killed a second-tier two-star monster ’Demonized Emperor Crocodile (Normal)’ ×1, Soul points +75.]

It had only been about half an hour since Zhang Yanhang entered the lake area, but during this half-hour, he tirelessly and persistently maintained an efficient pace in clearing the Demonized Emperor Crocodiles.

He had managed to kill about one hundred eighty Demonized Emperor Crocodiles using an ultra-high efficiency rate of only one minute per square kilometer, accounting for more than half of the Demonized Emperor Crocodiles present.

At first, Zhang Yanhang was also surprised that he needed only one minute to clear a square kilometer, as he had initially estimated two minutes per square kilometer.

Moreover, this one-minute clearance rate was still due to the difficulty involved in dealing with those hidden at the bottom of the lake.

Otherwise, if he had only needed to clear those floating on the surface of the water, Zhang Yanhang could have reduced the clearance time per square kilometer to seconds—after all, an unobstructed plain-like area such as a lake was perfect for him to leverage his speed advantage.

"Just in half an hour, I’ve already cleared an area of 30 square kilometers in the Demonized Swamp Lake Region. If converted into the progress of the fourth stage of the Demonized Swamp cleaning plan, it’s exactly 50% completion.

And if we count this part of the progress in the Demonized Swamp Lake Region into the total progress of the Demonized Swamp cleaning plan, then my current total progress in the Demonized Swamp cleaning plan has smoothly increased from 73.8% to 81.3%, an increase of a total of 7.5%.

Earlier, the total progress of my Demonized Swamp cleaning plan was about three-quarters, and the completion rate of the Evaluation Settlement Treasure Box was about four-fifths.

But now, the total progress of the Demonized Swamp cleaning plan has finally reached four-fifths, even more than four-fifths. That’s really great, and I even feel that reaching five-sixths or even six-sevenths soon is not impossible."

Zhang Yanhang was exceptionally satisfied with his cleaning pace this time. Initially, when he scanned the entire Demonized Swamp, he had been quite troubled by the entire lake area, as Qin Island City is a coastal city, but he was not very good at swimming.

But unexpectedly, just by acquiring the Ocean Rhythm Talent, everything became so much easier. All I can say is, Talent, forever exceptional.

Zhang Yanhang stood on Lake Heart Island, gazing into the distance and quietly waited for the Drop Treasure Box to refresh. Soon, a Blue Quality Drop Treasure Box appeared approximately half a meter above where one of the Demonized Emperor Crocodile’s heads unfortunately hit a rock and was directly killed by a headshot.

Having already cleared half of the entire lake area and, rounding up, having killed about two hundred Demonized Emperor Crocodiles, Zhang Yanhang had successfully calculated the drop rate of Second Tier monsters in the Demonized Swamp.

The specific result was roughly what he had initially estimated; indeed, an average of only seven Demonized Emperor Crocodiles needed to be killed to obtain one Drop Treasure Box.

"Now it’s just seven-forty in the evening, and I’ve already cleared half of the lake area. According to the current situation, I likely need only another half an hour, which means around a bit past eight, I should be able to clear the entire lake area smoothly.

In that case, isn’t it actually possible that today I might be able to continue on to clean the swamp area after clearing the lake area, and might even incidentally take down the Demonized Four-Eyed Wild Boar Queen Pei Qi?"

Although Zhang Yanhang had initially been very optimistic about his cleaning progress, he indeed had not expected that he could directly move on to take the life of Pei Qi today.

"Since this is the case, I need to proceed with even more serious hunting next." Zhang Yanhang quickly approached and picked up the Blue Drop Treasure Box that was floating above the Demonized Emperor Crocodile’s corpse and put it into his Waist Bag, and soon he was rushing off towards the distance again.

October 27, Tuesday, the day after Double Ninth Festival and also the third day Zhang Yanhang entered the Ashen World, 8:12 PM, Demonized Swamp, Lake Region, Outer Zone.

Zhang Yanhang had already moved from the outer zone of the lake area to the inner side and then back to the outer zone again; he was only a few demonized Emperor Crocodiles away from completely clearing the Demonized Swamp Lake Region.

Looking at the several Demonized Emperor Crocodiles huddled together at the bottom of the lake, not knowing what they were up to, Zhang Yanhang took a dive straight into the water.

However, swimming was definitely out of the question. Since he was in a liquid environment, the related judgment automatically took effect—his legs moved as if he were on land, unhindered, propelling his body quickly toward those few Demonized Emperor Crocodiles.

In other words, Zhang Yanhang was actually running in the water. Thanks to the "As Flat As A Pancake" ability provided by the Ocean Rhythm, the usually soft water around him seemed to solidify into a hard surface beneath his feet whenever he stepped, allowing him to move normally, even at full speed, in the lake water.

Despite being able to move at full speed, the depth of the lake was a good one to two thousand meters, which meant it would still take Zhang Yanhang about ten seconds to reach the bottom and hunt down the Demonized Emperor Crocodiles.

This was precisely why Zhang Yanhang had earlier mentioned that clearing those hidden at the bottom of the lake area was troublesome, mainly due to the distance and the time involved.

Seconds later, Zhang Yanhang reached the location of the last few Demonized Emperor Crocodiles in the lake area and immediately pulled out his Six Roots Pure Soul Gun and began to strafe.

Although the surrounding water created some resistance against the cannon bullets, reducing their flight speed and, consequently, their attack power, it was still more than sufficient to kill Demonized Emperor Crocodiles of Second Tier with two stars.

After all, even without mentioning all the bonuses like Attack Power Bonus, Remote Attack Power Bonus, Physical Attack Bonus, Attack Speed Bonus, Life Form Special Attack Bonus, Extra Physical Damage, Defense Reduction, etc., which could easily cause his damage output to explode.

The Six Roots Pure Soul Gun alone, being a Dark Purple Quality Weapon belonging to the Third Tier, even just in the early Third Tier, was definitely capable of completely overpowering a Second Tier monster.

Not to mention that the Demonized Emperor Crocodile was only a Second Tier Two Star monster, not even a Late Second Tier monster but merely an Early Second Tier one, making it almost ridiculous if merely being in water could prevent it from being killed.

And if all the various damage-enhancing effects that Zhang Yanhang had were added,

Even in water, facing a genuine prehistoric giant beast like the Demonized Emperor Crocodile, which was over ten meters long and weighed several tons, the cannon bullets from the Six Roots Pure Soul Gun could still blow a big hole in its body and then penetrate part of the lake’s rocky bed before completely stopping.

In fact, Zhang Yanhang’s cannon bullets, aside from easily killing the Second Tier monsters like the Demonized Emperor Crocodile, could also easily take down Third Tier monsters, like previously in the Goblin Plain with the Third Tier One-star Lord Monster Goblin Chief Nu Shan.

It was just that Zhang Yanhang preferred the melee combat experience, the feeling of flesh-to-flesh contact when fighting bosses, which was why he did not use the Six Roots Pure Soul Gun then; otherwise, with all those enhancements he had, even taking on a Third Tier monster would definitely result in massive overflow damage.