The words had barely left his mouth when...

  Poof! Poof! Poof!

  The surrounding sand exploded into pits as over a dozen giant, earth-yellow scorpions—each the size of a hound—burst from the dunes!

  They brandished hideous, massive claws, their dark green stingers arched high with lethal tips glinting in the sun.

  They swarmed the two from all directions!

  Crag roared, preparing to initiate a charge to smash a path for Kane with his granite-like body.

  However, a hand pressed down on his shoulder.

  "Back off," Kane said, his voice calm and ripple-free.

  "Just watch."

  Crag froze.

  In that brief moment of distraction, the battle erupted.

  The fastest Sand-Scorpion charged low across the sand from Kane’s left, its massive stinger transforming into a streak of green lightning aimed straight for his heart!

  Crag’s heart leaped into his throat.

  Yet, Kane’s silhouette vanished abruptly from the spot.

  Hum!

  The air distorted for a fraction of a second.

  The lethal stinger pierced nothing but air!

  A second later, Kane reappeared five meters away, positioned perfectly in the blind spot of another Sand-Scorpion.

  [ Earth Flash ]!

  Before the beast could react, Kane’s air-compression pistol, The Cyclone, was already pressed against the seam of its carapace.

  Bang!

  The bullet, reinforced by air currents, instantly tore through its central nervous system.

  The entire sequence was blindingly fast!

  Infuriated by the death of their kin, the scorpion swarm erupted in high-pitched hisses, launching frantic ambushes from beneath the sand.

  Lethal stingers, like venomous thorns growing out of the earth, repeatedly shot toward Kane.

  But within this zone of death, Kane’s figure was like a ghost that didn't exist.

  Each activation of [ Earth Flash ] allowed him to evade every attack by a hair’s breadth.

  His movement trajectory defied all logic; one second he was to the east, the next he appeared in the west.

  He calculated the ten-second cooldown with surgical precision.

  During the intervals, he relied on [ Kinetic Boost ] and his terrifying instinct for danger to drift through the gaps in their assault.

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  Crag was completely mesmerized.

  He realized he couldn't even find an opening to help.

  The Sand-Scorpions that he found so troublesome were, in front of Kane, nothing more than a group of fools being toyed with.

  The kid who once needed Crag’s back to shield him had now grown to a height that required Crag to look up.

  There was no jealousy in Crag’s heart.

  Only a sense of heroic pride in his partner's success, mixed with a subtle... slight trace of melancholy, realizing he might soon be unable to keep up with his footsteps.

  After killing three scorpions in this cat-and-mouse fashion, Kane seemed to tire of the game.

  His gaze instantly turned sharp.

  Facing seven or eight Sand-Scorpions closing in from the front, he no longer dodged.

  Instead, he pushed off with explosive power, launching himself into the sky!

  The moment he reached the apex of his leap, he triggered the fusion skill.

  [ Vortex Slash ]!

  Sss-laaa—!!!

  In mid-air, Kane’s entire body transformed into a teal cyclone interlaced with countless microscopic wind blades!

  The whirlwind moved horizontally in a move that defied the laws of physics!

  Puchi! Puchi! Puchi!

  The sound of blades carving into flesh rang out in a dense, continuous rhythm.

  The teal cyclone tore straight through the thickest part of the swarm!

  Boom!

  Kane’s figure landed steadily fifteen meters away, without making so much as a sound.

  Behind him.

  Those seven or eight ferocious Sand-Scorpions all froze in place.

  A second later, countless fine lines of blood simultaneously surfaced across their hardened carapaces.

  Then, as if sliced by a high-precision instrument, the monsters shattered into a scattered mess of remains!

  Blood and viscera stained the scalding yellow sand red.

  On the ground across that fifteen-meter span, only a deep, straight slash mark remained.

  Crag stood there slack-jawed, his mouth wide enough to swallow a fist.

  One strike.

  Just one strike!

  Kane flicked the non-existent blood from his blade and habitually checked the battlefield.

  No Essence Orbs dropped.

  He had expected this, but it only served to highlight the rarity of his Blue-rank skill, [ Shadow Veil ].

  After several more days of long-distance travel and combat practice, Kane’s mastery over his two new skills had reached perfection.

  They finally arrived at the outer edge of the Silt Flats.

  The duo found a tall, weathered rock hill to serve as a vantage point.

  Using military-grade binoculars, they observed the silhouette of the abandoned military base in the distance.

  The wind and sand were heavy, resulting in poor visibility.

  But Kane’s alertness had already reached its peak.

  "I’m going over to take a look. Wait for me here."

  Kane was in no hurry to approach. He left his backpack and rifle with Crag.

  Crag nodded. He knew that following along would only make him a liability.

  Kane took a deep breath and activated [ Shadow Veil ].

  His figure merged silently into the shadows cast by the rock hill, vanishing completely.

  Like a true ghost, he glided at high speed toward the base, hugging the contours of the rolling dunes.

  He came to a halt behind a sand dune about five kilometers from the base.

  In the wind, he caught a scent that didn't belong to the desert.

  It was the smell of low-grade tobacco mixed with sweat.

  Kane’s gaze swept across the sand. He soon discovered a row of tire tracks, mostly covered by the wind and sand but still discernible.

  He followed the tracks, creeping forward noiselessly.

  Ultimately, behind a massive boulder, he found a concealed observation post constructed with camouflage netting.

  Two soldiers wearing Kunlun Corp standard-issue combat uniforms were leaning against the rock, chatting idly out of boredom.

  "Dammit, the boss is being way too cautious, making us eat sand in this hellhole. Is that 'Ghost' guy really brave enough to come to the Silt Flats to die?"

  "Who knows. But Director Andrew gave strict orders—the net must be foolproof this time. I heard Lord Greg is already getting impatient from the wait."

  The conversation drifted clearly into Kane’s ears.

  It confirmed all his suspicions.

  Kane didn't alert the sentries.

  He quietly retreated and continued deeper.

  Soon, he discovered more similar outposts, acting like nodes in a spiderweb, completely sealing off a ten-kilometer radius.

  On several high points of the base, there were faint, metallic reflections.

  Those were the lenses of heavy sniper rifles.

  An inescapable net.

  This place had indeed been arranged into a massive snare designed specifically for him.

  Kane retreated to a safe distance and slowly revealed his form within the shadow of a dune.

  He looked up at the military base crouching in the distance like a steel behemoth.

  Beneath his hood, a cold, cruel smile bloomed silently.

  "Your net is well-woven."

  "Unfortunately..."

  "You seem to have mistaken one thing."

  "Who is the prey, and who... is the hunter."

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