Landlord World - Start with SSS talent-Chapter 274: Alex vs Garek (3)

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The wind howled louder and louder, and the snow thickened by the second.

Garek frowned as he looked up at the sky, watching the black clouds twist into a spiraling vortex, slowly expanding. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com

"A snowstorm?" he muttered, then turned to the Orc King beside him. "Gather those idiots—now! I don't want them all dying out there!"

"Yes, Master," the Orc King bowed and replied.

But the moment he turned to leave, a sudden gust swept in from the distance, carrying a flurry of snow with it.

"What the hell?!"

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Garek's scowl deepened as he cursed, "Goddamn it! The snowstorm's coming this fast?!"

He felt a sudden chill seep into his bones, causing him to shiver.

The temperature was dropping rapidly, and with the wind and snow intensifying, Garek had a bad feeling about what was coming.

"Damn it! Get back here! All of you—return immediately!"

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

But no voices answered—only the relentless howling of the wind.

"Damn it all!" Garek cursed under his breath, glancing around, trying to find a way back—but the world was already swallowed by white.

The wind blew snow into the air, lifting it from both the ground and the treetops, sending it spinning in every direction.

"You bastards! Get back here!"

"Goddamn it! Where are you all?! Are you deaf?!"

Garek shouted until his throat began to ache.

It was then that he realized—he was lost. His Orcs and Orc Kings were nowhere to be found.

"Tsk!" Garek shuddered, his body trembling from the cold. His vision was now limited to a radius of about five meters.

And that radius was shrinking rapidly as the full force of the blizzard approached.

"Damn it… I can't stay here." Garek muttered, forcing himself to choose a random direction and start walking.

🔔 [Ding! One of your summoned soldiers has been killed.]

A sudden system notification made him stop in his tracks. "Goddamn it! That bastard can move around in this blizzard?!"

"No… he must've gotten lucky and stumbled upon one of my minions."

"Hah! You're lucky it was just a soldier. If my Hero had found you, you'd be dead for sure."

🔔 [Ding! Your Hero – Orc King – has been killed.]

"What the hell?!" Garek stared at the system message in disbelief, his eyes wide with shock.

What the hell just happened? His Hero... his Orc King – Rank C | Level 1 had been killed.

That wasn't one of his soldiers—it was his Hero. Goddamn it, that was a Rank C | Level 1 Hero!

"Damn it! What the hell is going on?!" Garek began to panic—but then, he forced himself to calm down.

"Hah… That Orc King was only Rank C, Level 1," he muttered. "If that bastard runs into the other two, he's dead for sure."

That's right—the one who had just died was the weakest of the three Orc Kings under Garek's command.

But the other two were different. One had already reached Level 2, and the other had reached Level 3.

At Rank C, each level represented a massive leap in power. So seeing that the dead Orc King had only been Level 1, Garek merely snorted in disdain.

…

The blizzard had arrived. The entire landscape was consumed by snow.

In the middle of the storm, a young man stood panting heavily next to the lifeless body of the Orc King he had just killed.

Though the Orc King was dead, Alex wasn't faring much better. His abdomen had been torn open, bleeding profusely. His entire body was covered in wounds.

One of his arms was broken, hanging limp at his side. Only his right hand remained functional, pressed tightly against the gaping wound in his stomach.

"Damn it…" Alex gasped, his face pale from blood loss and the unbearable cold of the blizzard. He looked like a man on the verge of collapse.

Even though he had lived for years in the frigid conditions of snowy mountains, that didn't mean he enjoyed weather like this.

And now, on top of being injured, he had only a shred of strength left in his body.

Still, Alex searched through the Orc King's corpse, desperate. After a moment, luck smiled upon him.

He found a blood-soaked Energy Crystal.

He didn't have time to rest. He couldn't even seek shelter to safely absorb it.

In the end, he made a split-second decision and swallowed the crystal on the spot.

🔔 [Ding! You have successfully absorbed a Rank C Energy Crystal. Current power advancement: 55%.]

"Damn it! Only 3%?!" Alex growled in frustration.

Still, even though it only gave him a small boost in power, the crystal helped stabilize his condition. Many of his wounds stopped bleeding, and some had already begun to heal.

The worst injury—his internal damage—had only been stabilized, not fully healed.

But thanks to the crystal, Alex was no longer at immediate risk of death.

He looked around. Even though he had lived atop snowy peaks, at the end of the day, he was still human. In this raging blizzard, he couldn't tell which way was which.

"This is bad," Alex muttered. "Even if my wounds are mostly healed… if I stay out here any longer, I'll freeze to death."

He looked at his hands, now turning purple from the cold. His face twisted with worry.

Alex looked around. He had no idea which direction to go. In the end, he simply picked one and pressed forward, hoping it was the right path.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The blizzard intensified. Alex trembled violently from the cold, the wound in his abdomen throbbing with unbearable pain.

"Just a bit more... hang in there," he whispered, trying to reassure himself.

He didn't know where he was headed, or where he was supposed to go—but he needed to believe in something. Without hope, he'd die in this cursed world for sure.

Suddenly, a tall shadow over two meters high appeared ahead of him.

Alex instantly recognized what it was and staggered backward in panic. But as he stepped back, he collided with something else.

Slowly turning his head, he saw it—an Orc King.

"What the hell?!" Alex gasped, panic rising. He tried to flee.

But the Orc King was faster. It lunged forward and grabbed Alex by the throat.

"Ack! Damn it—!"

The Orc King hoisted him into the air like a chicken, gripping his neck with terrifying force.

Alex burned with fury, but his strength was almost completely depleted. It felt like there was nothing left in his body.

Grinding his teeth, he summoned every last bit of power he had left—because he knew that if he got captured by an Orc King, death would be a mercy compared to what awaited him.

He kicked forward, his foot enveloped in a layer of white energy, aiming for the Orc King's stomach.

BAM!

"Huh!" The Orc King grunted, seemingly unfazed, and snorted in disdain.

But a moment later, a burst of light erupted from the point of impact, surprising the Orc King.

BAM!

A shockwave exploded outward, forcing the Orc King to release him.

Alex fell into the snow. He didn't dare rest—not for a second. He immediately turned and ran.

But as he turned, another Orc King was already standing in his path.

"Damn it!" Alex cursed under his breath, trying to move—but the Orc King was faster.

BAM!

It kicked him in the stomach, sending him flying over ten meters, crashing into a massive tree before slumping to the ground.

"Ack! Ack!" Alex writhed in the snow, his already pale face now ashen.

Blood spilled from his reopened stomach wound, staining the snow in a vivid splash of red.

"You damn mutt!" Garek appeared, slowly approaching Alex. "You've really driven me insane, you filthy dog."

"You thought killing a few Orcs made you invincible?"

BAM!

"AAAA!!!"

Garek stomped down on Alex's wound, forcing a scream from his throat.

"Scream louder, you worthless mutt!" Garek bellowed.

But Alex, through gritted teeth, snarled, "You're worse than a dog! Hiding behind your lackeys—what's so great about that?!"

"You—" Garek's fury boiled over, veins bulging on his forehead. "Looks like you really do have a death wish."

"Fine! Hahaha… The more you want to die, the more I'll make sure you live—long enough to beg me for death."

"Hahaha… Hahaha…"