SOLAK Chapter 17

An hour passed, and He Huan had gradually mastered the rhythm of fighting inside this secret realm.

She had assumed that with her years of combat experience, she wouldn’t necessarily crush everything here, but at least she’d glide through like a fish in water. The truth, however, proved otherwise.

The monsters in this world did respond to her battle-hardened instincts, and her past scars and blood-soaked training weren’t useless—but they weren’t the decisive factor.

The true key inside a secret realm was simple: find the monster’s weakness.

Take the tumbleweed she’d faced at the very beginning. Rated only two stars in danger, yet if she’d relied solely on her crossbow and dagger, she might have hacked at it until exhaustion, with the tumbleweed still merrily rolling along.

But tumbleweeds are plants—dried thorns and dead grass. Toss a torch into them and the fire does the work for you. That, its fear of fire, was its fatal weakness.

In fact, most of the monsters in this realm shared that flaw. Likely because the environment itself was a dry, flammable wilderness.

So in her first hour within the realm, He Huan had used fire to deal with seventeen waves of three-star monsters, four waves of two-star ones, and even a four-star encounter.

She had cleared everything blocking her way to the oasis.

The plant-based monsters were the easiest—light them up and just wait for the drops. The animal types were trickier, requiring follow-up stabs and bolts after the flames weakened them.

For her, though, this was nothing more than a warm-up. The only sting came from the torches consumed in the process.

Each one was single-use. Every throw, every spark, was money burning in her heart.

But that ache vanished once she started collecting loot.

The drops here were generous beyond reason. Not only were treasure chests abundant, but even the most basic materials were all Tier 2.

As she glanced at the neatly stacked second-tier resources in her pack, the endless grind of synthesis outside suddenly felt laughably petty.

Before entering the oasis, she counted her haul:

Five bronze chests. Nine wooden chests.

She hadn’t opened a single one, worried they’d clog her pack space. Arranged together, they gleamed with a noble aura, like a hoard of miniature suns.

With gains like these, no wonder the Taishan Mutual Aid Society had slapped a bounty on her.

In her place, she would’ve done the same—chased the thief to the ends of the earth. Looting someone’s wealth was no different than digging up their ancestral graves.

Finishing off two sand ants with her dagger, she claimed four cuts of fine meat and three pieces of sturdy carapace.

Then she lifted her head and looked toward the oasis now within arm’s reach.

It was a picture of tranquility and beauty.

A clear spring rippled at its center, its bubbling sound crisp and refreshing. Coconut trees stood in scattered clusters, their shade spilling across lush grass, butterflies fluttering among the wildflowers.

Perhaps not the grandest scenery in the world, but after hours of trudging and fighting in a barren desert, it was an irresistible vision of cool relief.

Yet He Huan’s scalp prickled as lines of system prompts scrolled rapidly across her sight.

This secret realm was structurally simple: a vast stretch of wilderness, ending in this oasis.

Anyone could guess the oasis hid a final battle. The so-called boss fight.

But no one would imagine what sort of nightmare lurked within.

[Warning! You have entered the edge of the Wilderness Oasis. Move with caution!]

[Calculating monster count within the Oasis… please wait.]

[Calculation complete: 199 monsters detected.]

[Breakdown: 50 two-star monsters, 70 three-star, 60 four-star, 16 five-star, 3 rare elites.]

[Note: Oasis monsters are linked. They must be slain in a fixed sequence. Breaking sequence will trigger a unified assault.]

[Monster distribution map of the Oasis generated. Print copy?]

The cascade of golden text left He Huan reeling.

All those creatures—packed into an area no larger than a football field?

Her throat tightened. “Yes.”

A scroll materialized in midair, dropping neatly into her hands.

Unfurling it nearly gave her vertigo.

The parchment displayed an exquisitely detailed map of the oasis. Dotted across it, dense as a swarm of ants, were colored marks—each one a monster, with numbers denoting kill order.

The first was not some hulking beast in plain sight, but an inconspicuous four-star scorpion hidden in a corner.

Without this map, even a heavenly immortal would never guess the correct sequence began there.

She took one look at the field of dots and shuddered at the thought of what would happen if she made one wrong move.

So she backed away, circled carefully, and approached the marked location from the safest angle.

To her eyes, the oasis still looked like a screensaver-perfect paradise.

[Five meters ahead: a scorpion lies dormant. Defense: high. Weak point: beneath third segment of carapace. Weakness: fire. 100% drop chance: Observation Glasses. Danger Rating: 4 Stars]

The system prompts repeated insistently, guiding her toward the exact target.

He Huan fished out a stone she’d picked up earlier—perfect for pulling aggro. With practiced ease, she lobbed it into the seemingly empty patch of sand.

She didn’t wait. She ran.

It wasn’t that she doubted the system, but her life was on the line. What if she misread? What if her hand slipped?

Two seconds later, she heard the crackling sound behind her.

Turning mid-sprint, she saw it: a scorpion the size of a small car burst from beneath the sand, sunlight glinting off its glossy brown shell.

Its massive pincers clacked with bone-snapping menace, and its tail arched high, dripping with venom.

A four-star beast indeed. Not an easy fight.

Luckily, the prompt had been accurate. Her stone had struck true, and no other monsters stirred nearby.

Slowing her pace, she shifted into an S-shaped run, measuring distance carefully.

At the perfect moment, she hurled a torch.

Flames raced across its carapace. The scorpion screeched, charging faster despite the fire, its movements frantic with pain.

He Huan darted around it, loosing bolts from her crossbow whenever she could spare the arrows. Were her stock less limited, she would’ve turned the monster into a pincushion.

Fire and steel whittled it down. Its movements slowed, its strikes grew sluggish.

Then the system flashed again:

[Warning: Scorpion entering critical state. Preparing to use skill “Rage.” Attack, defense, and speed will increase by 150% for 20 seconds.]

By then, He Huan had closed in.

The hiss of air behind her made her spine tingle.

Without pause, she grabbed onto a raised plate on its back, bent low like a serpent, and vaulted up onto its carapace.

A thunderous crash split the ground where she’d stood—the scorpion’s stinger striking like a hammer.

Had she been there still, her guts would already be splattered across the sand.

Balanced atop its back, she wasted no time. Her dagger plunged into the seam beneath its third segment.

The monster spasmed violently. Its tail stabbed wildly at its own body, but each thrust fell short by inches.

He Huan stabbed again. And again.

Moments later, the massive scorpion collapsed with a final shudder, lifeless in the dust.