Chapter 57: A Sliding Tackle!

Lu Wenwu was somewhat unhappy.

Killing that psychotic woman had only yielded 50 free attribute points.

What a piece of trash, she wasn't even as useful as Lai San!

What made Lu Wenwu feel even more aggrieved was that after the psychotic woman died, the ghost haunting her body broke free and revived.

Its power level was quite high.

Yet after being beaten to death by Lu Wenwu in just a few punches, it didn't provide a single attribute point!

No win-win situation!

He was annoyed!

Very annoyed indeed!

What was the point of such useless things existing?!

"Cassan, is there any other information?" Lu Wenwu asked. "For example, how they got here, or the location of their settlement, and things like that."

"Yes."

The socially awkward little succubus nodded hurriedly, transmitting a burst of information to Lu Wenwu.

"The Phantom Settlement..."

Lu Wenwu murmured, leaping into the air. Looking toward the east of the Giant Bone Settlement, he pulled out the atlas he had found earlier and compared the locations.

Geographically speaking, the Phantom Settlement was extremely close to a major city from the old era, practically acting as neighbors.

The way these ghost-controlling practitioners had arrived was far more unpretentious than Lu Wenwu had imagined.

They had simply relied on the power of ghosts to conceal themselves and then walked all the way here on foot...

Among them, three unlucky souls had even died of thirst because their drinking water ran out.

Well... that wasn't eerie at all.

Therefore, most of the time, the events leading up to a boss fight shouldn't be scrutinized too closely.

Once you examine them in detail, you realize that the boss and his minions completely lose their aura of intimidation.

Just like a demon king couldn't possibly sit on his throne all day doing nothing while posing, waiting endlessly for the hero to come and chop him down, right?

Even a dark lord as fond of posing as Tom Riddle still had to take a dump when he got hungry, and then wipe his backside with paper, didn't he?

It was the same principle.

After a brief discussion among the five of them, their next course of action was determined.

Remaining here was pointless; heading toward the Phantom Settlement near the old-world city should yield more information.

After a quick search to ensure no clues were left behind, the five of them set off on their journey once again.

"Pui, pui, pui! It tastes awful... completely trash indeed..."

Along the way, Lu Wenwu spat out a mouthful of metal scraps, rinsing his mouth with the watermelon juice provided by Anthony.

Judging from the half-metal component he was holding, its predecessor should have been a well-aged Gauss rifle.

Swallowing heaven and earth yielded no attribute bonuses, and it tasted terrible.

Lu Wenwu decisively discarded it.

Good thing he only took one!

Before leaving, the five of them hadn't taken much; only the old monk had dismantled a small heavy particle accelerator as a weapon supplement, leaving the rest untouched in their original places.

If they had taken everything away, the Giant Bone Settlement would truly become history the next time a horde of aberrations passed through.

"Tell me, do you have pica, you big tyrannosaurus? Even Anthony and Cassan's diets aren't as bizarre as yours," Su Qinghong said with considerable disgust.

Lu Wenwu slanted a glance at her and retorted righteously: "As a chef, is there anything wrong with having the courage to try new ingredients? Not at all! This is in preparation for future sales!"

"Yuck!" The great fox lady shivered with disgust. "I can understand you eating other things, but who on earth are you planning to sell a Gauss rifle to by eating it?"

"To the Cybertronians, why not?"

Lu Wenwu casually pulled out a muscular-flesh sausage and began chewing on it, producing a continuous "crunching" sound in his mouth.

The ordinary version provided no attribute bonuses; it was just for fun.

"There are so many dungeon worlds, bound to be encounters with silicon-based life forms. My move counts as exploring customer preferences in advance. You, a stupid fox who doesn't even understand traditional arts like this, know nothing."

"Awooo! I'm going to bite you!"

Pricked where it hurt, Su Qinghong flew into a rage, opening her small mouth and biting down directly.

With a fierce chomp, four sharp little canine teeth accurately clamped onto Lu Wenwu's wrist.

"Awoo-oo-oo... Are your muscles made of iron?! So hard!"

The fierce yet muddle-headed big fox lady immediately retreated with a small open mouth, making whimpering and whining noises as she squatted down in a corner to pout and cry.

Lu Wenwu casually shoved the remaining half of the sausage into the fox's mouth, vigorously ruffled her fluffy white fox ears a few times, and stroked her plump fox tail twice as well.

"Stupid fox, go bite on that obediently."

"Wuu-wuu-wuu-blech... cough, cough, cough! You bastard tyrannosaurus! Did you seriously try to choke me to death by stuffing that in so suddenly?! Have you no self-awareness of how big that thing of yours is? I..."

"There's a situation."

Just as the man and the fox were matching wits and driving the old monk to chant sutras in exasperation, Cassan, who had been diligently observing the outside world, suddenly spoke up with a warning.

"A huge, huge aberration is charging toward us. Its strength is only tier five, but its speed is very fast. It looks a bit like an ugly, oversized tiger."

" Huh? Fast speed is great, just in time to catch it and use it as a substitute for walking."

Lu Wenwu instantly became interested. Rolling up his sleeves and tucking in his cuffs, he gave a push with his feet and sprinted out, heading straight for the direction Cassan pointed out.

Sure enough, behind a small hill, a giant tiger was running wildly, its body length at least twenty meters.

"Roar!"

With a single roar that shook the mountains and forests—not just a saying.

A slight curve formed at the corner of Lu Wenwu's mouth as he charged straight toward the aberrant giant tiger.

As he got close, utilizing the sandy terrain, Lu Wenwu suddenly threw himself flat on the ground, sliding directly underneath the giant tiger's head.

"My signature sliding tackle!"

When he reached the middle of the giant tiger's body, Lu Wenwu sprung upward with an incredible force that defied the laws of physics, punching fiercely toward its soft belly.

"Ha! Rising... Tiger Fist!"

With a muffled thud, the aberrant giant tiger whimpered as it was sent flying upward against its will, its charging momentum completely interrupted as it tumbled sideways and rolled over several times.

"Good thing I was a physical education student; the sliding tackle was a total success. But come to think of it, this place was probably the Inner Mongolia grassland in the old era. Why would a tiger-like creature appear here? Beats me."

Lu Wenwu muttered to himself, walking unhurriedly over to the giant tiger's big nose while unleashing his aura to the fullest.

"You, be my mount, capiche? If not, you get a beating and die a miserable death, understand?"

Aberrations above tier four possessed a certain degree of sentience and could understand a portion of human speech; this wasn't playing the lute to a cow.

Of course, if it couldn't understand, it would simply turn into attribute points.

The giant tiger sniffed Lu Wenwu a few times. In an instant, its expression changed drastically, and it hurriedly nodded, rolling over to expose its belly to show submission.

Looking at it now, those tiger eyes had suddenly become much clearer.

They held boundless fear, as if it had encountered some natural predator.

It was hard to imagine that an aberration, controlled by mutation and chaotic instincts, could ever have a moment of "clear-eyed" clarity.

"So easy? Has the protagonist halo finally taken effect? Did I awaken some sort of supreme king's aura or overlord haki?"

The process was unexpectedly smooth—so smooth that even Lu Wenwu found it hard to believe.

He had originally prepared to subdue the tiger through virtue, but now it seemed that wouldn't be necessary.

When he rode the giant tiger back, the other four were all astonished by the beast's behavior.

An aberration, a creature whose inner world essentially consisted solely of slaughter, could actually become docile?

Anthony asked curiously, "Tyrannosaurus, did you master some kind of beast-taming skill? You finished taming it so quickly, and the results are so incredible!"

"Did I?" Lu Wenwu was still puzzled himself. "I just gave it a punch, explained the reasoning to it, and it became obedient all on its own."

At the mention of this, the giant tiger even took the initiative to emit a submissive whimper, which sounded somewhat aggrieved.

Wait, what?!

Is your punch really that effective?

Anthony was utterly baffled.

With the giant tiger acting as a mount, the traveling speed of the group increased significantly.

In less than a week, they reached the other end of the aberrant wasteland and arrived in the vicinity of the Phantom Settlement.