Chapter 250: Low-Ranking Hunters Establish a "Random Hunter Alliance"

An abandoned subway station deep within the Yellow Zone, on the outer perimeter of the Jianghuai defense line.

In the dimly lit subway station hall, several bonfires were lit using mutated beast bones and waste engine oil. There were no guild surveillance cameras here, nor were there those opportunistic supply exchange counters.

This is an underground black market formed entirely by hunters from the bottom rungs of society.

Old Ding sat cross-legged by the campfire, a military dagger in his hand. He was skillfully slicing the hind leg meat of a first-tier Shadow Leopard into thin slices, which he then skewered onto a wire and grilled. His clothes were open at the back, and the dark red bio-root, illuminated by the firelight, resembled a breathing crimson dragon, rising and falling with his movements with remarkable smoothness.

In just one month, Old Ding's demeanor underwent a dramatic transformation. He was no longer the hunched-over, deathly-looking old soldier. The continuous nourishment from the demonic blood not only turned his gray hair black again, but also caused his muscles to bulge, exuding the ferocity and oppressive aura of a second-tier demonic beast.

Not only him, but also Little Stone and the other dozen or so team members sitting around the campfire had all switched to bio-based spiritual roots. Their eyes gleamed with the same wild light.

"Uncle Ding, try this."

A familiar hunter emerged from the shadows in the distance and tossed a heavy bomb bag at Old Ding's feet. "Two armored rhinoceroses I just slaughtered yesterday in the ruins to the west. Two Tier 1 inner cores, traded for three boxes of high-explosive armor-piercing rounds and two spare hydraulic bearings. Interested?"

"Good quality." Old Ding used his military dagger to pry open the bag and glanced inside. He nodded readily. "Stone, get him the goods."

In this underground black market, hunters barter directly or use demon cores as the only hard currency.

The mortal hunters were astonished to discover that once they were freed from their dependence on the guild's repair fluid, their wealth began to multiply. They could use complete demon cores to exchange for hacked versions of fire control systems on the black market, and for black market armor parts that had not been implanted with backdoor programs by the guild.

"Bang!"

Just as the transaction was completed, the tightly closed blast-proof iron gate of the subway station was suddenly blasted open by a huge external force.

The heavy iron door twisted and flew in, smashing through more than a dozen concrete steps.

Amidst the flickering firelight, a squad of fully armed elite soldiers, clad in insignia bearing the "Hunter's Guild Special Enforcement Team" emblem, strode in. Leading them was a bald enforcement captain wearing a custom-designed fourth-generation exoskeleton. His mech shimmered with an exceptionally pure light of spirit stones—a privilege reserved for the watchdogs of the Green Zone's powerful figures.

"What a lively underground market!"

The bald captain glanced coldly at the hundreds of hunters who had stood up in the subway station, and cocked his heavy psionic rifle.

"No wonder the number of demon cores recycled at the distribution center on the 17th of this month plummeted by 40%. It turns out it was you bunch of peasants who were conducting private transactions behind the guild's back."

The bald captain strode up to Old Ding's campfire and arrogantly stomped out the flames with his military boots.

"Ding Yu, ID S-7-0992. You're quite the hotshot on the guild's blacklist lately." The bald captain used the barrel of his gun to pick up a blast bag on the ground, glanced at the Ironclad Rhino's inner core inside, and said, "According to the guild's wartime management regulations, all unauthorized private transactions in the Yellow Zone are considered smuggling of military supplies. All participants will have all their demon cores and mechs confiscated. Anyone who resists will be killed on the spot."

The air in the subway station instantly plummeted to freezing. The eyes of the hundreds of hunters turned extremely dangerous in an instant, and countless hands reached for the weapons behind them.

"What? Trying to rebel?" The bald captain sneered disdainfully.

He raised his left hand and pressed a red command key on the microcomputer on his wrist.

"You lowly trash, do you really think you can escape the guild's control just by changing your bio-based spiritual root? The armor you wear, the low-level formations you use—they're all the guild's patents! As soon as I press this forced hibernation command, your exoskeletons will lock instantly, turning you into a pile of iron coffins!"

drop--!

Accompanied by a piercing electronic sound, a strong electromagnetic pulse signal instantly covered the entire subway station.

Many new hunters who had just joined the Yellow Zone and whose equipment hadn't even been upgraded felt a dull, mechanical creaking sound from their exoskeletons. The hydraulic rods locked, the fire control system lost power, and dozens of them froze on the spot, unable to move.

The bald captain laughed triumphantly. In the era of cyber cultivation, those who control the resources at the bottom are forever gods looking down upon all living beings.

"Search them for anything of value. If they resist, smash their heads!" He waved his hand at his law enforcement officers.

However, just as the two law enforcement officers approached Lao Ding with cold smiles.

A thick arm suddenly emerged from the darkness and grabbed one of the law enforcement officers by the neck.

Click!

With a crisp cracking sound of neck bones breaking, the well-armored law enforcement officer was lifted up with one hand like a rag doll and slammed against the wall like trash.

The bald captain's laughter abruptly stopped. He stared in shock at the figure slowly rising from beside the extinguished campfire.

Old Ding.

Old Ding's third-generation exoskeleton armor was indeed flashing a glaring red light due to the guild's hibernation command, losing all mechanical power. This meant that this steel armor, weighing several hundred kilograms, had now become a complete physical burden on the wearer.

But Old Ding acted as if nothing was wrong, casually twisting his neck.

The dark red bio-engineered spiritual root on his back suddenly erupted with an extremely dazzling crimson spiritual light. That light rapidly spread along the membrane to his limbs and bones. Without needing the mechanical transmission of the exoskeleton, Old Ding relied entirely on his powerful body, which had undergone abnormal evolution by being nourished day and night by second-tier demon blood, to support the hundreds of pounds of scrap iron!

"You're right. This piece of scrap metal is indeed your patent."

Old Ding's eyes, which had transformed into dark gold vertical pupils, exuded a chilling coldness, as if he were looking at a dead person.

He violently ripped off the electronic locking mechanism of the exoskeleton in front of his chest, and with a few "crack" sounds, he actually tore the powerless alloy chest armor apart with his bare hands and threw it on the ground.

"But this body of mine, this strength I gained from drinking demon blood, I forged myself from piles of corpses!"

boom!

The concrete ground beneath Old Ding's feet instantly blasted open, creating a deep crater. Freed from the constraints of heavy armor, and fueled by the burst of his bio-engineered spiritual root, he moved with the speed of a dark red lightning bolt!

The bald captain was terrified and was about to pull the trigger.

But Lao Ding had already closed in. Without using the high-frequency vibration blade, Lao Ding's right fist, covered with fine keratinous scales from absorbing the essence of the Mad Lion, slammed into the bald captain's fourth-generation custom shield with an extremely ear-piercing sonic boom.

Snap—Bang!

Under the punch of Lao Ding's extremely pure body, which was full of the violent kinetic energy of a second-tier demon beast, the high-level spiritual energy shield shattered like glass.

Old Ding's fist continued its relentless momentum, brutally smashing through the bald captain's breastplate and sending him flying like a cannonball, embedding him firmly into the load-bearing wall of the subway station.

One-hit kill.

The entire subway station fell into a deathly silence. The remaining law enforcement officers, guns in hand, stared at Old Ding, who stood like a demon in the center of the scene, but none of them dared to fire.

"Did you see that!"

Old Ding turned around, opened his blood-stained right hand, and let out a deafening roar at the hundreds of dumbfounded low-level hunters in the subway station.

"Their armor will lose power, their back doors will lock! But the strength we gain through battle cannot be locked down by them!"

Old Ding grabbed the heavy psionic rifle that the bald captain had dropped on the ground and roughly folded it in two with his bare hands.

"In the past, powerful clans controlled the spirit stones, forcing us to risk our lives to fill the trenches in the Yellow Zone. They thought that by replacing our spiritual roots with bio-engineered ones, we would become more obedient and efficient dogs, continuously supplying them with demon cores!"

Old Ding's voice echoed in the dark underground space, carrying a surge of anger and ambition that had been suppressed for countless years.

"But times have changed! We no longer need their worthless repair fluid, we no longer need to live at their mercy! The demonic beasts are in the wilderness, and the spiritual energy is in the demon cores! We can completely carve out our own path!"

Little Stone was the first to react. He also ripped off the exoskeleton cables that were locking him in place, pulled out the military dagger from his waist, and shouted with bloodshot eyes, "Uncle Ding was right! To hell with the guild! I'm not a dog anymore!"

"I'm not going to be a dog anymore!"

"We want our own demon core!"

The crowd was in a frenzy. At this moment, the hundreds of hunters completely shed their fear of the powerful elites in the Green Zone. Those ordinary people who were previously lost and confused finally saw, through Old Ding's punch, their ultimate path within the cyber cultivation system.

Exoskeletons are merely a transitional tool. Physical evolution, consuming demons and cultivating demonic arts—that is the true path for mortals!

Old Ding gave the terrified law enforcement officers a cold look: "Go back and tell those vampires in the Supreme Council. We'll keep the demon core in the Yellow Zone for ourselves. We'll defend the Yellow Zone ourselves!"

"From today onwards, there will be no more Hunter's Guild supplies in the Yellow Zone."

Old Ding slammed the broken half of his psionic rifle into the cracked concrete, making a declaration that would completely overturn the entire cultivation landscape of Earth in the future.

"We are the Alliance of Casual Players!"

A spark was ignited amidst mud and blood.

This vast training ground, once designated, was no longer a one-way street of exploitation and slaughter. The ordinary people at the bottom of society, relying on the extremely barbaric law of "eating demons," officially tore open the iron curtain of class stratification and established the first armed force in the wasteland that was completely independent of powerful clans.