In the moment when Wang Zhifan struck the special monster's arm with the Wolf-Slaying Blade, he immediately felt a considerable resistance transmitted through his hands gripping the hilt. This situation was unprecedented when he had just annihilated those dozens of ordinary monsters; after all, the Wolf-Slaying Blade was a rare weapon with its own formidable defense-breaking effect. But this time, it seemed he'd met a tougher challenge.
Yet, this unexpected resistance couldn't make Wang Zhifan retreat. He immediately let out a low shout, channeled strength from his waist and legs through his shoulders and arms to the long knife in his hands, causing the power of his strike to surge instantaneously, hitting the enemy with sheer force.
Crack!
After unleashing his power, the monster claw, which previously posed resistance to the Wolf-Slaying Blade, broke directly. The front part fell at the feet of the long-haired female ghost who had flashed back to protect her master, while the back part quickly retracted amidst the monster's wailing outside the window.
Wang Zhifan then glanced at the blade of his long knife to ensure that his exertion hadn't caused any nicks or bends to the treasured weapon before charging towards the center of the bus to swing the blade and deal with the remaining monsters.
By this time, there were hardly any ordinary monsters left outside the bus; almost all had entered the compartment but had mostly turned into fragments instead.
Under the fierce battles of the long-haired ghost summoned by the short-haired girl and Wang Zhifan, the aisle inside the bus and the bodies of the human dummy passengers were piling up with disgusting monster remains, leaving fewer than twenty ordinary monsters still active.
But they were already doomed because Wang Zhifan had taken over the precise slaughter from the long-haired ghost, while the long-haired ghost, under the short-haired girl's control, flashed outside to launch an offensive against the special entity outside the window, preventing it from causing further interference inside the bus.
This round of task distribution once again demonstrated the tacit cooperation between the two. Wang Zhifan confirmed that the towering monster outside was completely contained by the long-haired ghost summon using only his peripheral vision and the keen perception brought by his 16 points in Spirit. The two sides had started a evenly matched confrontation, allowing Wang Zhifan to focus on slashing the remaining monsters inside the bus without diverting too much attention elsewhere, ensuring all the small annoyances were dealt with first.
About a minute later, with sweat beading on his forehead, Wang Zhifan finally approached near the front of the vehicle, closing in on the last monster.
This monster was somewhat peculiar; unlike other monsters that foolishly charged to attack the two players inside, it silently lay hiding here on a seat, gnawing continuously on the head of an oblivious wooden passenger.
When Wang Zhifan discovered it, the unfortunate passenger beneath it was left with only a neck connecting to a small part of the skull, beyond dead. Yet, even so, Wang Zhifan never heard any cries from this passenger in the previous moments.
This highlighted how tragic the situation for non-player humans in the Gray Realm was, utterly incapable of escaping monster attacks. The parents of the character Wang Zhifan had crossed over into probably died under similar circumstances.
Without hesitation, Wang Zhifan decapitated the last monster, then squinted his eyes slightly, using his heightened perception to ensure that there were no more hidden threats left inside the vehicle before shifting his gaze beyond the bus that had turned into a corpse-carrying vehicle.
At this moment, through the window, he could see roughly a dozen meters away on the barren land outside, the gigantic monster whose claw he had severed not long ago was still battling with the short-haired girl's summoned female ghost.
Under the girl's precise control, the long-haired female ghost was fighting quite cleverly, fully leveraging its overwhelming agility, its figure continually flashing around the large monster's body. At every seized opportunity, it would viciously scratch with its long, sharp nails, tormenting the ugly giant monster into a rage but making it hard to counterattack.
But this didn't mean the girl was utterly overwhelming the opponent because Wang Zhifan observed that her summoning seemed somewhat lacking in offensive capabilities. This was not apparent when it faced the ordinary monsters before, but now she controlled her long-haired ghost to attack the big monster for a full minute, barely leaving any notable injuries on it, little more effective than a scraping session.
Apparently already aware of this, the short-haired girl standing at the back of the vehicle glanced at Wang Zhifan, who had completed the task of clearing the small monsters, and immediately spoke up:
"Do you still have the stamina? My summon can't break through that thing's defense outside; it can only try to entangle it."
"No problem, I'll head out to help now."
With his physique attribute reaching an impressive 18 points, Wang Zhifan knew he still had considerable strength left, enough to slay the bulky figure outside. So he immediately prepared to jump out from an open window upfront to assist the long-haired female ghost.
But just as he stepped on the monster corpse pieces beneath his feet and reached the window edge to jump out, an unexpected gunshot suddenly rang out.
Bang!!!
With the abrupt sound of gunfire outside, the massive monster entangled with the long-haired female ghost outside the window quivered suddenly, then a bowl-sized hole appeared in its torso, leaking black ooze incessantly.
Observing this, Wang Zhifan immediately halted his outward action, swiftly stepped back, and cautiously peered through the window from a distance, searching for the gunshot's origin.
"Judging by the power, it should be a sniper rifle… could it be from the Administration Bureau?"
He then turned to the short-haired girl at the back of the vehicle for confirmation, after all, she had been saying from the beginning that the official Special Administration Bureau would soon be arriving.
However, the girl merely furrowed her slender brows and shook her head.
"Unlikely, people from the Administration Bureau always prioritize rescuing civilians… Whoever is shooting outside in such a rush to kill monsters, I reckon it's other players trying to snatch the reward."
"Snatching rewards? Does killing a monster in the Gray Realm mean claiming the reward for whoever does it?"
Wang Zhifan immediately questioned, as he was confused. In his understanding, there was no concept of snatching rewards in this world for killing monsters since everyone's loot box would drop in dungeons, and trying to take someone else's loot box would trigger a punishment mechanism, a fate that would certainly make the snatcher regret deeply.
"Not exactly."
After hearing Wang Zhifan, the girl shook her head again.
"The rewards for killing monsters in the Gray Realm are ownerless; anyone can directly claim them if they seize it."
She then explained.