Victor was heading north through Darkwood Park, and along the way he ran into quite a few other explorers.
Some of them moved in groups, while others acted alone.
Many of those who saw Victor traveling solo tried to invite him to join them.
But Victor didn't trust them, so he politely turned them all down.
Before coming to Darkwood Park, he had done his homework and knew what kind of people they were.
Most of them stayed around the park year-round, with the sole purpose of tricking newcomers like Victor.
They would pretend to offer companionship, but in truth, they just wanted to use students as cannon fodder.
If the student died, they bore no responsibility. If the student got something valuable, they would shamelessly take the bigger share.
Plenty of students, inexperienced on their first trip to the surface, were easily fooled by them.
Since Victor had studied in advance, he wasn't about to pay them any mind.
And when those people noticed Victor's strength, they didn't dare to push him too hard either.
Just then, Victor suddenly heard the sound of an argument.
He turned around and saw, in the distance, a weak man lying on the ground, arguing with a strong guy.
"Simon?" Victor saw the weak man and was a bit surprised.
Simon used to be Victor's classmate, and they were good friends. But Simon had transferred schools two years ago, and they had lost contact over time.
Seeing his old friend arguing with someone, Victor couldn't just stand by.
He walked to the side and quietly listened to the argument between Simon and the strong man.
After listening for a while, he understood the reason for their fight.
Simon was also visiting Darkwood Park for the first time. He was alone, and soon got noticed by the strong man in front of him, whose name was Carter.
Carter lured Simon to go with him and tricked him into entering a dangerous cave alone.
Although Simon finally used a very precious scroll his family gave him to save his life, he also got a valuable item by luck.
Now, the argument between Simon and Carter was about that item. Carter thought it should belong to him because he gave Simon the information. As a compensation, he offered Simon 10,000 federal coins.
But Simon wasn't stupid. The item was worth over 50,000 federal coins on the market!
And Carter only wanted to give him a fifth of that. Of course, Simon didn't agree.
After arguing for too long with no result, Carter got angry. A fierce energy came out of him.
Carter's awakened class was Butcher, so his bloodstained aura was very strong, and it immediately scared Simon.
"I said, without my information, you wouldn't have gotten the Moonstone at all. So getting 10,000 federal coins from me, you should be satisfied! Don't be too greedy, young man!" Carter clenched his fists and coldly said to Simon.
Simon's face turned pale, and his body was shaking as he said, "But I used a short-range teleportation scroll. Just the scroll is worth 5,000 federal coins!"
"That's your problem!" Carter waved his fists and said angrily, "If you keep arguing, I'll just take it from you."
"Are you... not afraid of the Federal Enforcers?" Simon wasn't giving up, using the Enforcers as a way to back himself up.
Carter laughed like he had just heard a very funny joke. He sneered, "Enforcers? I'm friends with the ones here. You want to call them to back you up?"
Simon closed his lips tightly, his face full of helplessness, but he had no choice.
He was just a regular student, without a strong background. Against someone like Carter, he had no chance at all.
After hesitating for a long time, Simon finally sighed and slowly let go of his hand, revealing a shiny, bright stone inside.
"Fine, fine!" Carter smiled happily and reached out to take the Moonstone.
"Leave it there!" Just then, Victor's voice came in, strong and firm.
Carter jumped in surprise. He thought the Enforcers had arrived.
What he said earlier about being friends with the Enforcers was just to scare Simon, a student.
A street thug like him could never know Enforcers.
Only when he turned around and saw it was a young student did he relax a bit.
But then he felt angry from the embarrassment just now.
Carter waved his fists and sneered at Victor, "Where did you come from? Daring to show off like this?"
Simon looked at Victor in confusion. After a moment, he suddenly said in surprise, "You're Victor!"
But he quickly added, "Victor, you should run! Carter is a Level 6 Butcher. You can't beat him."
In his mind, Victor should be just like him, having only awakened his profession a few days ago, so his level must also be low.
Facing Carter, a powerful Awakened who had both higher level and more combat experience, Simon had no idea how Victor could possibly win.
But Victor just waved his hand and smiled, "Because of what you just said, no one can take that stone."
When Simon saw Victor, his first reaction was to tell him to run.
That was enough to show Simon's character. And because of that, Victor didn't mind helping him out.
"Kid, you talk big pretty well," Carter sneered, pulling out a rusty butcher knife from his waist.
In the protected area, fighting between two people is allowed if both agree.
Victor didn't take out his sword. He decided to try his newly awakened skill: "Golden Stone Fist."
"You're dead!" Carter didn't give Victor a chance to live. He swung his knife straight at Victor's head.
It was his second-stage skill, Death Slash.
With this skill, Carter had killed five awakened people in one hit.
Victor watched the knife and used his Golden Stone Fist skill.
In an instant, Victor's fists became harder, and the white fists turned golden.
He raised his fists and hit the knife directly.
"Are you crazy? Using your fists to block a knife?" Carter looked at Victor with contempt and laughed.
But right after that, he saw something terrifying.
Victor's hands were not hurt at all. He himself remained calm, showing no pain at all.
At the same time, Carter suddenly felt a sharp pain in his hand. His knife had cracks on it.
"How... how is this possible?" Carter looked at the cracks on the knife, his face full of shock.
"It's my turn!" Before Carter could react, Victor's fists started hitting him like raindrops.
Carter didn't have time to react. He took several punches and felt like Victor's fists were as hard as stones.
After a few hits, Carter turned pale and started coughing up blood.
At this moment, his health bar had dropped to 10 points.
That meant, if Victor threw one more punch, Carter would be dead.
The fear of death spread over Carter. He no longer had his earlier pride. He dropped to his knees and trembled as he said, "Please, don't kill me..."
Victor looked at him and laughed coldly, "You didn't spare me just now!"
Carter turned pale with fear and stammered, "I... I know a lot of secret information. I can give it all to you. Just please, let me live!"
"Oh?" Victor showed some interest, and his fists loosened a little.
Actually, he had never planned to kill Carter in the first place.
Because according to the federal rules, even though private fights were allowed in the protected area, no one was allowed to kill.
If someone died, the other person would be arrested by the government and locked up for seven days as punishment.
Of course, this punishment meant nothing to a thug like Carter.
But Victor didn't want to spend seven days in prison at this important time.
Carter saw that Victor seemed very interested in the information he could provide. He grabbed at it like a drowning man grabbing a straw, and whispered, "I know, the Gnawfang Rat Swarm to the north, it seems to be hiding something special."
"Proof?" Victor naturally didn't believe a thug like him, and immediately asked.
Carter quickly pulled out a photo from his bag and respectfully handed it to Victor.
Victor took the photo and immediately looked surprised.
It was a photo taken at night. The picture showed hundreds of Gnawfang Rats kneeling on the ground, bowing to a stone platform.
On top of the stone platform was an object with a strange shape, glowing silver under the moonlight, looking beautiful and magical.
"Interesting," Victor said as he looked at the photo, and a little interest stirred in his heart.
The Gnawfang Rats weren't stupid. Something that made them bow must have something special about it.