Why Do Monsters Run Away?

The skill window description hadn't changed at all. Maybe that was just how special skills worked. I'd mastered it once already, but after Elder Togo gave the tower in my inner world a full-scale remodel, it had crashed all the way back down to 1-Star and I'd had to grind it back up.

A giant of pure slaughter energy threw its stubby arms up in a cheer, and the mere act of rising shattered every last seal that had been barely holding it down.

Simply getting bigger shouldn't have snapped seals like dry twigs — but Yu Hee's Transformation skill wasn't a simple size buff. It was closer to a transcendent species, a Giant, forcing its existence into the world. Normally the lower realm couldn't handle that and would just boot the transcendent up to the upper realm. The problem was that Yu Hee was a baby Giant, just barely small enough for the lower realm to tolerate, so it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠couldn't send her anywhere.

And seals, for all their pomp, were just a format for exerting force through the world's laws. Against someone already taking the lower realm's laws to their absolute limit, they did nothing — and got smashed to pieces instead.

Of course, no cultivator alive could have parsed all that in the span of a heartbeat. But every single one of them felt it in their bones: something had gone very, very wrong. The seals had slammed into the Demon Immortal's swelling body, and the cultivators maintaining them were fine — only the seals themselves had shattered.

"Hah!"

With a short battle cry, the Demon Immortal-turned-Giant swung one stubby arm. The cultivators who took the hit head-on watched their barriers and Dharma Treasures explode, then their bodies, dissolving into blood mist that vanished without a trace as if the Demon Immortal had simply drunk them in. Only then did the rest of them snap out of it.

"Run!"

"Kgh! So this is a Demon Immortal!"

They scattered like flies hit with pesticide, and I tried to swat as many of the fleeing neutral NPCs as I could — but I only bagged a few. The area penalty was gone and I still couldn't catch them, for the simple reason that I had no instant AOE. Bombs packed a hell of a punch, but the setup time was brutal, and the cut-rate versions didn't have the firepower to punch through shielded cultivators. My only real ranged option, Chopsticks, got blocked by barriers too.

Tsk. The XP if I'd wiped that whole pack…

What a waste.

Still, I'd managed to beat more than half of them into paste, and that was enough for a level-up. I hadn't even leveled a few days ago! Neutral NPCs really did have the best XP efficiency. Every last one of them was lower level than me, and they still paid out this well. Of course, watching a swarm of lower-level trash bolt in every direction and letting most of them get away made me an idiot too.

"Why the hell do actual monsters run away…"

Wasn't there some law that was supposed to ban this? What kind of game was this? This reality-patch was such complete garbage. If it was going to be like this, just let me fill XP through training alone! Combat didn't even let me skill-grind properly!

"What a piece-of-shit game."

Nothing for it but to keep cursing and keep going. It's not like I could delete the character. I sighed, mopped up the remaining neutral NPCs, scooped the XP out of every instant dungeon marked on the now-revealed minimap, and headed for the next map.

"Hhk! The Slaughter Immortal! The Slaughter Immortal's coming this way!"

"Run!"

Two gray dots on the minimap tore left and right and fled. I stared blankly for a second, then frantically jabbed one and tried to grab it.

"Ah."

I'd only meant to catch them. But I'd forgotten that activating Heavenly Slaughter Art and Transformation had inflated my physical stats into the stratosphere, and the cultivator turned into bone-and-meat slurry like something run through a blender. So much for gathering intel.

"Well. Surely missing one guy doesn't mean every single monster on the map has already bolted. That would be a nightmare."

I burned hope circuits as hard as I could. I still couldn't find a single monster no matter how far I wandered the map.

"Where the hell did you all go?!"

Had they seriously all bailed just because I missed one?

"Um… excuse me, do you happen to know where the other cultivators went?"

"Aigoo, O Immortal of the heavens… please, speak casually to ignorant mortals like us."

"What? Comparing me to the heavens — do you want to die?"

Comparing me to some crooked civil servant?! Even my inner Humanity Clones couldn't stop me on this one. That crossed way too many lines. Equating me with the bureaucrats who managed cultivators' lifespans through Heavenly Tribulation was the kind of statement that would make grinding the mortal in front of me into paste a not-guilty verdict — but I still needed an answer, so I put the question to the trembling mortal again.

"So. Do you know where the other cultivators went or not."

Just shaking. No dialogue options. Was it my killing intent, or the slaughter energy? That mortal who'd spoken ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠up earlier must have been incredibly brave.

"I'm not going to kill you, so eat this and talk."

I flicked a low-level consumable into their mouth. Oh, nice — went in without killing them in one shot. After swallowing the consumable, the background NPC's eyes lit up and they finally interacted.

"I don't know the details, but I saw several cultivators flying off in that direction all at once!"

"Ah, damn, so they already all bailed. Anyway, thanks."

They really had all run for it. I took off immediately, flying toward the place the background had pointed out. No way they'd all escaped in that short a time.

I spun the wheel hard and shot toward the spot the mortal had indicated. And there — on a minimap that until now had been nothing but unresponsive backgrounds — red dots and gray dots finally appeared. I hauled up my slaughter energy at once.

"Demon Immortal! How are you already here?!"

"We thought you'd waste time massacring mortals!"

"Why would I touch backgrounds that aren't even neutral NPCs? Don't smear me!"

"The Demon Immortal is coming! Stop her!"

I fired Chopsticks at the cultivators fleeing first, and before any of them could leave the minimap I activated Double Speed Mod and shouted:

"Auto-Battle!"

Arms and legs moving on their own, my body lunged at the two neutral NPCs trying to escape the minimap first. One red dot tried to block the charge mid-path and got ground into slaughter energy on the spot; I immediately fed that slaughter energy through the wheel and hurled it at a monster fleeing the other way.

Defensive artifacts, attacks meant to stop the charge — they tried all kinds ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of things, but Auto-Battle tanked every last one of them, drove in a straight line, and crushed one neutral NPC under a single palm into dried jerky.

A monster half-shredded by the slaughter-energy wheel, thrashing as it got dragged along, took a backhand from my other hand and exploded. Blood-soaked, I drew weapons in both hands, raised slaughter energy, and — Spoon active — my body burned spiritual power as it slammed into a charging cultivator.

In that brief pause, one neutral NPC and three monsters closed in from all sides, shoving golden-character seals at me to pin my feet. Before I could even turn the wheel, my body painted slaughter-energy characters in the air first.

A single crimson word collided with the golden seals and canceled them out. My body slipped through the gap and kicked a monster so hard it burst with a wet pop.

My Auto-Battle body fought disgustingly well. I just wished it would dodge the attacks I could see coming instead of tanking them.

"You won't regenerate from this, Demon Immortal! My artifact makes wounds rot so they can't heal — wait, eek?!"

Someone did try to exploit the window while my body tanked and regenerated, but they instantly became Auto-Battle's top priority, got smashed flat, and their artifact was crushed under the wheel for ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠good measure. The no-regen debuff, shockingly, got resisted by the Mysterious prefix attached to the Six Great Calamities — I took the damage and moved on. Completely useless.

Auto-Battle took five. I manually finished two more. The remaining three got away clean.

Ah. I actually let those slip.