The hunt began, and Ye Chen, accompanied by Kabah and the other puppets, tore through the streets of Prais City atop their ultra-futuristic motorcycles, methodically tracing the map from the outermost ring of suburban avenues, searching street by street. Along the way, guided by the bio-radar, they discovered numerous chieftains of the Dark Tribes, each with their retinues, desperately trying to hide in concealed locations.

Throughout this journey, vast quantities of precious metal materials were collected and smelted into the bodies of Kabah and the other two puppets, significantly boosting their strength. The physical robustness of the puppets now reached a full S2 level!

In sheer strength alone, they could rival a mid-tier deity! However, this was purely physical might; their puppet frames were not inscribed with secret Runic Patterns. If pitted against a genuine god of Vibration, a considerable gap would still remain.

Bang!

From afar, Ye Chen peered through the binoculars mounted on his sunglasses, sniping a dark creature hiding in the corner of a wall. He swiftly sped over, rummaged briefly, and retrieved a blood-red jade from the creature's grasp, tucking it away without a second glance.

"The twelfth..." Ye Chen's eyes shone with brilliance. After two hours of hunting, he had eliminated a full twelve chieftains of the Dark Tribes. Most of these were at the peak of Pseudo-God strength, likely chieftains of Level Nine Dark Tribes, with only a few being genuine deity-level beings.

"Onward."

Ye Chen twisted the motorcycle handle, the throttle roaring, and sped toward a distant street. Along the way, any unwary corpses lying on the roadside were mercilessly run over. Under the crushing weight of the heavy metal tires, the skeletal structure of one corpse was instantly pulverized. Stimulated into sudden awareness, it managed to sit up before the subsequent wave of motorcycles carrying Kabah and the others ran it over, crushing its skull completely.

Ye Chen and his group moved like a phalanx of Death itself, furiously harvesting the dark creatures that had entered Prais City. Through continuous hunting, the resources they commanded grew exponentially. Refined via the Nine Cauldrons, their power became increasingly formidable, rendering them virtually invincible, capable of effortlessly annihilating large swarms of the dead.

Having scoured every map sector of Prais City’s periphery, Ye Chen steered them toward the inner city, activating the motorcycle's automated navigation system, determined to sweep every street daily.

Time flowed...

In the blink of an eye, three days had passed.

In this world, the sun and moon in the sky had lost their luster, turning a dull, ashen gray. There was no distinction between night and day; the weather remained perpetually overcast.

Ye Chen hunted tirelessly through three days and three nights, ultimately securing tokens from approximately thirty-eight Dark Tribe chieftains. If these tokens were fed to the Slaughter Blade, it could fully mature into a Divine Artifact! However, Ye Chen was loath to waste them so frivolously.

During the hunt, they encountered two perilous situations. The aggressors wore protective suits impervious to the bio-radar, making them undetectable until they launched their ambush. Yet, these attackers were careless; their initial shots, aimed for a headshot, were neutralized by the energy shields automatically integrated into Ye Chen's increasingly sophisticated equipment before the bullets reached their mark.

Through these days of slaughter, Ye Chen salvaged every worthwhile material, smelting it into Kabah and the others. In just three days, the physical resilience of the three puppets was elevated to the peak of Deity level!

The price for achieving such strength was the massive consumption of over one hundred thousand tons of S2 and S3 grade metals.

Furthermore, Ye Chen brought along immense reserves of metal, which he refined into numerous colossal metal mecha-warriors, and pure metal spacecraft requiring immensely powerful propulsion systems.

What concept was a pure metal spacecraft? It was akin to building a car entirely out of solid gold. What extravagance! Standard starships and interstellar cruisers required only small amounts of metal, relying mostly on alloys and other mineral composites. Otherwise, who could afford the sheer luxury of forging every vessel from monolithic metal?

By the time Ye Chen reached the city center, he was trailed by eight towering metal mecha-warriors, each about a hundred zhang tall, forged entirely of metal. These eight mechas supported a massive, purely metallic vessel, a thousand meters long, beneath which sat a single plasma thruster. Unfortunately, this thruster could not be engaged at full capacity; it required the brute force of the mechas to keep the ship barely airborne. The primary constraint was the extremely powerful gravity of this world.

The feet and legs of the eight mecha-warriors were coated in a layer of metallic plating, with a vacuum layer sandwiched inside. This allowed them to shed the outer layer, which might be contaminated by the virus-laden blood of the corpses, preventing infection from reaching the inner metal structures. After all, these were S-grade metals; infection wouldn't set in instantaneously.

Following the map's directions, Ye Chen and his party arrived before the tallest structure in the city center. This building soared perhaps ten thousand zhang high, piercing the heavens like a thick, sharp steel rod, its surface sleek, beautiful, and aggressively designed.

Ye Chen ordered Kabah to blast open the main entrance. With Kabah’s current physical strength—a mere stomp could shatter S-grade metal flooring—the S2-grade metal-glass door yielded instantly to a single punch, tearing open like tissue paper.

Ye Chen left one puppet behind to guard the breach. The remaining eight S2-grade mecha-warriors and the pure metal spaceship were stationed outside. He proceeded inside with Kabah and the other puppet through the shattered entrance.

The grand hall floor inside was smooth, bright, and gleaming. However, intermittent splashes of vivid red blood stood out starkly against the polish, alongside shreds of torn fabric and scattered human organs, including severed limbs and intestines. Ye Chen and his company were long accustomed to such sights and walked through impassively, following the map's guidance directly toward the building's underground laboratory.

"To leave this world, we must obtain the Energy Core from the laboratory. Only through it can we activate the Spatial Warp Point," Ye Chen murmured, holding his pistol, positioning Kabah to lead the way, with the final puppet following him.

"Are we just leaving like this?" Kabah kicked open a stairway door, glanced inside, saw no immediate threat, and stepped down, casually inquiring, "Shouldn't we raid a few other cities too?"

"Time is limited," Ye Chen replied softly. "Grasp too much, lose everything."

Kabah shrugged, saying no more. The harvest was already immense. Once they returned to the outside world, he only needed to acquire more Law Array Diagrams and imprint them upon the puppets. When the quantity of these diagrams reached the level of peak Deity, he would genuinely rank as a powerhouse at that echelon. In the ancient continent, a realm teeming with formidable experts, a peak Deity was an undeniable force, belonging to the world's foremost strata of strength.

The group descended, dispatching any corpses encountered along the way with a precise headshot, followed by a targeted shot to the heart.

Boom!

Kabah delivered a kick to a metal door. The massive plate shuddered slightly but did not yield. Kabah was surprised; a door that his current strength couldn't breach must be forged from S3 or S4 grade metal. He signaled the puppet behind Ye Chen. The second puppet approached, and together they kicked simultaneously.

CRASH!

The entire metal door exploded inward. Beyond the threshold lay a laboratory. Numerous figures stood within, clad in sterile white dust covers and wearing sterile gloves, meticulously working on unknown substances upon lab benches. Some of the gloves were smeared with thick, nauseating blood.

The sound of the door bursting open seemed to startle them. Under the gaze of Ye Chen's group, these figures slowly, in unison, turned their heads.

"Corpses!" Kabah roared, immediately slamming the trigger of his submachine gun. Bullets sprayed out like rain, piercing the bodies of a large group of the dead. Arms twitched spasmodically as they collapsed.

Rat-a-tat-tat...

The submachine gun fired frantically until the magazine ran empty. Kabah, with lightning speed, swapped in a fresh one. In under thirty seconds, the entire laboratory was riddled with holes, and the dozen or so standing corpses lay strewn on the floor.

Ye Chen ignored the slain zombies. He looked up and spotted, at the center of the lab, a dazzling, luminous crystal sphere suspended within a vertical azure pipeline.

"The Energy Core," Ye Chen’s eyes lit up. He immediately instructed Kabah to retrieve it.

Kabah, maintaining his guard, cautiously entered the laboratory and approached the azure glass tube. Searching nearby, he found a control panel and pressed a switch. The glass tube slowly retracted. Kabah reached out, and the Energy Core floated out, settling into his hand.

Seeing the objective secured, Ye Chen instantly commanded, "Move." He swiftly turned and retreated to the ground level, passing back through the fractured metal-glass door. Outside, the eight metal mechas stood motionless, holding the ship aloft like colossal giants.

Ye Chen took the intensely glowing crystal sphere from Kabah, raised it high, aimed his pistol at it, and fired.

Bang!

The crystal sphere shattered. The fragmented light coalesced while spinning, transforming into a towering vortex of blackness.

"Let's go," Ye Chen stepped forward first.

Kabah and the others cast lingering, regretful glances at the city. They lamented that the entire urban expanse was forged from S-grade metal—an investment beyond measure—which they unfortunately could not carry away. Though the loss stung, Kabah had no desire to remain indefinitely. Thus, he followed closely behind Ye Chen, succeeded by the two remaining puppets, the eight metal mecha-warriors, and the magnificent, purely metallic vessel.

Given the size of the black vortex, it was just large enough to accommodate the eight mecha-warriors and the imposing pure metal ship.

After Ye Chen and his entourage vanished, the entire city returned to its silence, devoid of any life. The black vortex persisted for a time before slowly fading away.