Before Jiang Le could say a word, the little wolf flew into a rage and immediately let out a low growl.

However, to the ears of the men who treated the young wolf as a mere puppy, this growl only made them laugh even harder.

These men were covered in a mixture of blood and sweat, and the ferocity in their eyes was all too familiar to Jiang Le. In his previous life, Jiang Le had encountered countless such villains—those accustomed to burning, killing, and looting, who felt nothing but excitement at the arrival of the apocalypse.

Jiang Le had no desire to provoke them; it would be best if he could leave peacefully.

“Let’s part ways. We’ll pretend we never met here. How about that?”

Jiang Le’s words made the three men closing in on him laugh as if they’d heard the biggest joke in the world.

“Damn, this little master must think we’re still living in some golden age where people leave their doors unlocked at night—actually trying to negotiate with us.” 

“Hahaha, do you know how the last fool like you met his end?”

Jiang Le had barely taken a step forward when the speed-type superpower user darted in to block his path. The other two—one with a bare arm wrapped in a vine, likely a plant-type superpower user, and the other with massive muscles who moved more slowly, likely a strength-type superpower user.

However, since they were all in the early stages of mutation, compared to the Level 5, 6, 7, or 8 superpower users Jiang Le had frequently encountered in the post-apocalyptic world a few years later, their self-perceived intimidation held no sway over him. Still, a peaceful escape might prove difficult.

Eager to see the fear on Jiang Le’s face, the three superpower users took turns recounting the killings they had committed.

“That show-off thought he could buy us off with money. We shattered the bones in his hands and feet and flayed him alive, hahaha. At this point, who needs that worthless cash anyway?”

“I am money.” The superpower user raised his arm, flexing his muscles, revealing the thick, darkened bloodstains caked on his sleeve.

The plant-type superpower user, stroking the vine in his hand, chimed in: “Exactly. If you bow down and apologize now, and call my big brother ‘Grandpa,’ we might just let you go.”

Hearing this, the burly man cursed, “Bullshit.” He pointed at Jiang Le and said, “I can’t stand these pretty-boy types.”

The malice in his eyes was practically spilling over. Jiang Le’s neat appearance and unflappable demeanor were unbearably irritating to him.

Before the apocalypse struck, he had been just an ordinary food delivery driver, rushing around every day, working himself to the bone for a pittance—sometimes not even enough to cover the cost of a single meal ordered by a rich person on a whim.

When the apocalypse struck, and he awakened his supernatural abilities, he was ecstatic. Heaven had finally smiled upon him; now it was his turn to take whatever he wanted from this world.

The first person he wanted to take revenge on was the security guard he’d argued with a few days earlier. When he went looking for him but couldn’t find him, his anger boiled over, and he casually killed another guard in the security booth before striding away.

He was still afraid when he killed for the first time, but he soon discovered that in the apocalypse, murder came at no cost—because might made right.

Jiang Le understood that these people didn’t necessarily kill to steal anything; they simply relished the thrill of lawlessness, just as people in peacetime might casually crush a bug on the ground with the toe of their shoe. Now, ordinary people were nothing more than those bugs in their eyes.

Jiang Le recalled his death in his previous life. His gaze slowly turned cold as he looked down at the little wolf and said, “I’m letting you go now, but you mustn’t wander off, understand?”

At this moment, Xiao Lang had no desire to run away. It had never harbored any goodwill toward humans to begin with; its bond with Jiang Le was merely a system-imposed necessity. Moreover, having been fed by him over the past few days, Xiao Lang had reluctantly come to believe that Jiang Le posed no threat to it. But faced with these hostile superpower users who looked down on it, Xiao Lang’s mind was filled with nothing but the desire to kill them.

The cub responded with a low growl, indicating its agreement.

The group assumed Jiang Le was telling the dog to flee first. The muscular thug sneered, “I’ve always hated people like you who treat their dogs like their own children or their very lifeblood. They feed them better than they feed themselves. I’ll let you watch as I stew this filthy dog into dog meat soup.”

As he spoke, his face contorted with rage as he reached out to grab Xiao Lang from Jiang Le’s arms, intending to throw it to the ground and stomp it to death.

At that moment, Jiang Le let go, allowing the little wolf to leap from his arms. The burly man moved to chase after it, but to his surprise, the little wolf didn’t run once it hit the ground. Instead, its fur bristled with rage, and its body suddenly swelled to several times its original size right before everyone’s eyes—transforming from a puppy into a sturdy medium-sized dog, fangs bared, looking fierce and imposing.

This surprised even Jiang Le a little. It seemed that when he first encountered the little wolf, it had been completely exhausted by the blood vine, which was why he hadn’t seen its transformed form.

“That little bastard has mutated!” the plant-type superpower user shouted.

“No wonder it didn’t run,” the muscular man sneered. “But you don’t really think this dog can protect you, do you?”

Tired of them still calling him “dog,” Xiao Lang couldn’t take it anymore. He lunged forward, pouncing on the speed-type superpower user who had first called him a dog. But compared to a superpower user specialized in speed, Xiao Lang’s movements—though already fast—were still insufficient, and he missed his target.

“You beast, you actually dared to touch your old man.” The speed-type superpower user dodged to the side, smirking triumphantly, but suddenly his wrist was seized. He turned in shock to find Jiang Le—whom they’d overlooked earlier—had appeared behind him without a sound.

He was fast but lacked strength. Jiang Le applied a slight pressure with his fingertips, and with two sharp cracks, the Speed superpower user’s arm went limp and fell from his shoulder. The searing pain made the Speed superpower user scream out in agony.

The plant-type superpower user, who had been watching the spectacle, wiped the smug look off his face. “Damn, boss, this kid’s no ordinary guy.”

“Let’s take him down together. We’ll have him on his knees begging for mercy in a minute.”

Jiang Le kicked the howling Speed-type superpower user aside. He spread and clenched his hand in the air, and a mountain-splitting machete appeared in his grasp. He dodged the muscular thug’s flying punch and blocked the vine whipped at him by the Plant-type superpower user with a backhand. Although Jiang Le hadn’t awakened any abilities, his physique—enhanced through several levels of training—held its own against these low-level Level 2 superpower users.

The muscular man’s hand couldn’t react in time and slammed heavily into the wall, leaving a small dent in the concrete surface.

The plant-type superpower user’s vine had wrapped itself around the Kaisen Blade; the vine was sliced open by the sharp blade, and, in pain, it snapped back instantly.

The burly man angrily withdrew his fist, ready to follow up, but then heard a dull thud from the shelves. Looking up, he saw that Little Wolf had already leaped to the very top of the shelves, just inches from his neck. Little Wolf’s speed was too slow for a speed-type superpower user, but it was more than enough for this strength-type superpower user, whose movements were already relatively slow.

Man and wolf locked eyes. The next second, even though the muscular man had already started to back away, he couldn’t dodge in time. The little wolf bit a chunk of flesh from his neck; a dull pain surged through him, and blood spurted out.

“Holy shit, you damn beast.” The wound wasn’t fatal, but it ignited his rage and a more intense desire to kill.

The burly man clutched his wound and spun around to grab the little wolf, but the wolf dodged and weaved, making the burly man’s movements look even clumsier.

The speed-type superpower user, gritting his teeth against the pain, darted in front of the young wolf to help pin it down. Instead of dodging, the wolf charged straight at him, flipping the speed-type superpower user hard onto his back. Long fangs bared from its mouth, and thick paw pads pressed down on the man’s neck, holding him firmly in place.

A sense of impending doom washed over him. Only as the wolf drew near did the speed-type superpower user realize his face wasn’t that of a dog at all, but of a ferocious beast. The pain of his broken bones hadn’t yet subsided, and in a moment of panic, he actually considered begging for mercy from a beast.

However, the wolf gave him no chance to utter a single word. Resenting the contempt shown by such a filthy human, the wolf bit through his neck in one gulp, ensuring he would never again speak a single unwelcome word in his life.

Meanwhile, the plant-type superpower user, his hands trembling, flung out his vines once more. This time, he successfully entangled Jiang Le’s limbs. The vines were about to tighten around him like a python under his control, but before a smile could reach his lips, the vines—which had restrained Jiang Le for only an instant—sensed the aura of the blood vine nucleus crystal in the air and instantly scattered to the ground like a tangle of straw.

Confused, the plant-type superpower user crouched down to pick up the vines that had gone limp from fear. But when he looked up again, having just realized what had happened, Jiang Le’s mountain-cleaving knife was already pressed against his neck. The blade instantly sliced through his skin, drawing blood—life and death were now a hair’s breadth apart.

The plant-type superpower user immediately wailed, “B-brother. I’ve never killed anyone. They forced me to join them.”

“Bullshit. Why didn’t you say you didn’t want to when you were feeding your vines with other people’s corpses?”

The burly man watched helplessly as his companion died. Turning to see Jiang Le holding another hostage, he realized he had lost the upper hand. Meanwhile, the young wolf had already turned to face him, closing in step by step.

A numbing sensation gradually spread from the wound where the wolf cub had bitten him moments ago, as if it were the life force slipping away from him.

Sensing the threat of death, the burly man assessed the situation, dropped to his knees, and begged for mercy, forcing a grim smile: “Grandfather, you are my grandfather. I beg you to spare this good grandson’s life.”

Looking back now, this young master’s attire wasn’t naivety; it was clearly a display of utter arrogance.

Jiang Le couldn’t be bothered to respond. He turned and crouched down to pick up a can of goat milk powder that had rolled onto the ground, exposing his back to the burly man.

This was his chance. In an instant, the burly man’s expression changed. He silently raised his hand, gathering his strength, and, seizing the moment, aimed a punch at the heart in Jiang Le’s back, intending to end his life on the spot.

However, before his fist, cutting through the air, could fully land, a Kaisen blade—struck simultaneously with his attack—pierced his abdomen from behind.

The burly man stared at his abdomen in disbelief. The excruciating pain drained him of all strength, and with a look of resentment in his eyes, he crashed to the ground. Jiang Le withdrew his knife, raised his gaze to the plant-type superpower user, and with a swift swing, restored silence to the supermarket.