The air in the top-floor bedroom was scorching hot.
It was a smell mixed with hormones and sweat.
The large bed was a complete mess.
Yao Qian was curled up under the covers like a puddle of mud. Her usually smooth and well-groomed long hair was now plastered to her face with sweat, messy as a bird's nest.
"Yu... Yu-ge..."
Yao Qian's voice was hoarse, as if she'd swallowed sand, carrying a sob, but pleading more than anything else.
"I really can't anymore..."
"I'll die..."
"I'll really die..."
She was genuinely terrified.
After not seeing him for a month, Qin Yu's physical condition was simply inhuman.
If before he was like an astonishingly-endurance athlete, now he was a perpetual motion machine that knew no fatigue.
Even a body enhanced by the System couldn't withstand this kind of torment.
Qin Yu leaned against the headboard and lit a cigarette.
Looking at Yao Qian, who was curled up beside him like a quail, he smirked and reached out, giving a slap on her thigh, which hadn't yet recovered.
Smack.
A crisp sound.
Yao Qian shuddered all over, like a startled little rabbit, hurriedly pulling the covers tighter around herself, only revealing a pair of red, teary eyes, looking at him pitifully.
"Giving up already?"
Qin Yu blew out a smoke ring.
"Who was it that just said I could play however I wanted?"
"We've barely even started."
"Whether before or now, if a person doesn't have some stamina, they'll be eliminated."
Yao Qian shook her head like a rattle-drum.
"Eliminated then, eliminated..."
"I'm useless..."
"I'm a shut-in..."
"I want to sleep..."
Qin Yu shook his head helplessly.
True enough.
This girl was originally delicate, soft, and easy to push over. The only reason she'd lasted this long was clinging on by that thread of longing.
But once that thread snapped, she was done for.
Yet, the fire within him wasn't fully spent.
His adrenaline was still surging.
Right at that moment.
The bedroom door was pushed open.
No knock.
The only person who would dare enter without knocking at a time like this was Li Ruobing.
Li Ruobing was wearing a fiery-hot tank top that barely covered the essentials, paired with denim hot pants so short they couldn't be any shorter.
Revealing those long, wild, beautiful legs.
And that flat, tight abdomen with its defined abs.
She strode in, holding two bottles of ice-cold beer.
Taking in the pitiful scene, Li Ruobing scoffed.
"Tsk."
"Already down for the count?"
"I always told you to exercise more, but you insisted on clinging to your pile of trashy comics."
"Pathetic, isn't it?"
Yao Qian poked half her head out from under the covers. She didn't argue, just buried her face into the pillow with a whimper.
"Easy for you to say, standing there without a care..."
Li Ruobing walked to the bedside, tossing one bottle of beer to Qin Yu.
She herself tilted her head back and took a big swig.
The alcohol trickled from the corner of her mouth, down her slender neck, and disappeared into the deep, unseen cleavage.
This sight.
Wild.
Unrestrained.
Qin Yu's eyes instantly darkened a few shades.
He took the beer but didn't drink it, placing it on the nightstand instead.
Then he reached out.
And grabbed Li Ruobing's wrist.
Applying a bit of force.
"Ah!"
Li Ruobing let out a gasp, completely losing her balance as she tumbled into Qin Yu's arms.
His chest was as hard as steel.
Her face flushed instantly.
But she wasn't a soft girl like Yao Qian.
She was a wild horse.
A madwoman who dared to ram her ship into an iceberg.
She didn't pull away. Instead, she hooked her arms around Qin Yu's neck and saw a blazing fire in those aggressive eyes of his.
"If this bed breaks, you'll have to buy me a new one."
Qin Yu smiled.
A cruel, merciless smile.
"If the bed breaks, it's on me."
"If you break,"
"It's on you."
The next second,
he flipped her over.
"Mmph—!!"
All of Li Ruobing's provocations were stifled in her throat.
The temperature in the room soared once again.
The bed frame groaned under the strain.
"Creak—creak—"
The sound
was even fiercer than waves crashing against a ship's hull.
…
Two hours later.
Dawn was approaching.
The mist over the sea hadn't yet dispersed.
Li Ruobing lay sprawled on Qin Yu's chest like a boneless cat, her fingers unconsciously tracing circles on his pectoral muscles.
She was exhausted.
Truly exhausted.
Even moving a finger felt like a struggle.
What second-place ranker?
What formidable woman?
In front of this overpowered man, she was utterly crushed.
"Had enough?"
Qin Yu leaned against the headboard, looking down at the woman in his arms—wild and untamed just moments ago, now as docile as a kitten.
Li Ruobing rolled her eyes.
But there was no menace in that gesture, only a hint of seductive charm.
"Pervert."
She muttered under her breath.
"Did you take some kind of Enhancement Potion?"
"Even a workhorse from the production brigade isn't as capable as you."
Qin Yu ignored her grumbling.
He picked up the tablet from the bedside table and opened the World Channel.
Red notification dots blinked on the screen.
Private messages.
9,999+.
All of them were filled with curses, threats, or pleas for mercy.
But he didn't bother with the private messages.
He focused on the public chat.
After the initial wave of shock and fear had subsided, the tone in the public chat had begun to shift.
Beyond the early astonishment and dread,
greed now dominated the conversation.
And a certain kind of…
convenient forgetfulness, the kind that makes one ignore past pains once the wounds have healed.
[World Channel]
"So this is Qin Yu? Doesn't seem like much."
"Are you blind? Didn't you see how the Berserker got skinned alive?"
"Pfft, that was a sneak attack! In a fair fight, who knows who would've won?"
"Exactly, the game's different now. Everyone has Plunder Value and can exchange for S-grade weapons. Qin Yu just got a head start."
"Don't be scared, guys! I checked the coordinates—they're near the ruins in the East Sea."
"He only has one ship!"
"So what if it's an S-grade Battleship? We could drown him with our spit alone!"
"Kill Qin Yu! Loot his gear!"
"I heard he has several stunning beauties on his ship, and Li Ruobing is there too!"
"Seize the wealth! Seize the supplies! Seize the women!"
Human nature
is fragile in the face of immense profit.
Especially for the new players who joined after the server merge.
They never experienced the era when Qin Yu ruled with terror.
In their eyes,
Qin Yu was just a name.
A faded legend.
A walking treasure trove.
Li Ruobing leaned over to glance at the screen and sneered.
"Have these people's brains been pickled by seawater?"
"Did the Berserker's miserable state just now not sober them up?"
Qin Yu swiped his finger across the screen.
Looking at the IDs that were shouting the loudest.
Most had unfamiliar prefixes.
[Solomon's Temple·Black Scorpion]
[Twilight of the Gods·Storm Eye]
And some random guilds that had popped up from who knows where.
"This is normal."
Qin Yu said calmly.
"It's like hyenas on the African savannah."
"Even if a lion just killed a leopard."
"As long as the lion takes a nap."
"They'll still gather around."
"Thinking they can get a share."
"And."
Qin Yu pointed at a few of the messages.
"Didn't you notice?"
"Almost none of the old-timers from before in this zone are speaking."
Indeed.
The ones jumping around most excitedly on the public screen were all new faces.
While those who had once survived in this zone alongside Qin Yu.
All chose to remain silent.
Some were even quietly running in the opposite direction.
Because they knew.
The moment Qin Yu posted those coordinates.
It wasn't a call for help.
It was an invitation from the Grim Reaper.
"Yu-ge, the old-timers are sending messages in the private chat group."
Li Ruobing opened another interface.
It was the private channel from the original zone.
"Boss Qin is about to go on a killing spree!"
"Brothers, listen to some advice, run! The farther from those coordinates, the better!"
"These new idiots have no idea what they're facing."
"Don't go join the fun! You'll die! You'll really die!"
"I just saw Boss Qin's ship, that's not a ship at all, it's a monster!"
Looking at these messages.
A faint smile curled at the corner of Qin Yu's mouth.
"It seems."
"The old friends still understand me."
"Since the new friends are so enthusiastic."
"So eager to snatch money, supplies, and women."
"If I don't prepare some return gifts for them."
"Wouldn't that seem too stingy?"