The so-called stealth assassination is, in the absence of the enemy's awareness, to circle behind them and strike them down.
To prevent being besieged by monsters, this is a commonly used technique, and it is also the most suitable method for clearing the monster kitchen.
The space within the crack was not large, with just a kitchen and a dining area besides the entrance.
Chen Qi advanced and squatted quietly at the doorway, peering into the kitchen through the crack of the door and counting the number of monsters.
"One, two, four..."
A total of fifteen chef hats.
Each gripping a kitchen knife, they chopped fish after fish and some rotten vegetables into pieces at an alarmingly fast speed.
Clearly, they were preparing a sumptuous feast for their boss.
Chef hats had low attributes, and in terms of individual strength, they could not compare to an ordinary adult human.
Yet newcomers to the monster kitchen who died were certainly not few.
As Cup Phase monsters, their real difficulty lay in their high ability for health regeneration.
Chef hats could gain significant attribute bonuses and restore their health by eating fish or the corpses of their own kind.
One bite, and their health would be fully restored; two bites, and their strength would double; three bites, and they could match an elite monster!
Because many newcomers did not even read the monster introductions, directly engaging without caution, there were some who enjoyed brutalizing the monsters.
Thus, not a few newcomer squads were wiped out.
When killing these monsters, one must be quick, precise, and ruthless, giving the opposition no chance to eat and regain health.
The chef hats continued to hack away with their knives, murmuring crazily.
"This is not enough; we need food that is more wonderful and fresh!"
"Eat! Eat! Eat!"
"Chop! Chop! Chop!"
They were extremely focused, wholeheartedly preparing a sumptuous feast.
If someone were to die within the crack and got turned into a meal by the chef hats, allowing them to indulge in enough food, there would be a high probability of causing a mutation in the crack's stability.
The chef hats' perception was not strong, and when they were cooking, they could hardly notice someone right in front of them.
There should be no problem... Chen Qi found the visual dead spot and carefully entered from the doorway.
He crouched and then inched quietly along the edge of the kitchen counter.
Unknowingly, he had positioned himself behind eight chef hats, taking the advantage.
"Stealth successful."
Chen Qi stood up, holding his breath.
At this moment, he was behind an elite chef hat.
Sniff sniff sniff—
The elite chef hat in front of him finally sensed something wrong, stretched out its head, and sniffed with its sharp nose.
It grinned and said,
"Ah! The delicious scent of humans..."
Slash!
The ash-covered black blade, as if gliding through tofu, split the elite chef hat before him in half in an instant!
[You have killed an elite chef hat, gaining 22 Spiritual Points.]
Along with a heavy scent of blood, the chef hats realized what was happening, bared their fangs like wild beasts instantly.
A human dared to intrude on their territory!
They had been discovered.
Unfortunately for them, the movement to turn around was... too slow...
By the time they thought to resist, they were already dead.
After drawing and slashing with his sword, Chen Qi's eyes narrowed, he immediately switched grips, and exerted force with one hand, swinging from left to right, delivering a Horizontal Slash to the line of chef hats.
In that instant, seven chef hats were cut in half, just like vegetables on a cutting board.
"Kill, kill you..."
"Chop, chop you..."
"Eat, eat you..."
"Desecrate, desecrate you..."
The remaining seven chef hats saw their comrades dead and revealed their beastly fangs, wielding their knives and charging ferociously forward.
They all came straight on and, incredibly, didn't even use their throwing skills.
Chen Qi expeditedly executed three more slashes.
Just like chopping down fruits, the heads of six chef hats hit the ground.
At this moment, only one chef hat was left, standing afar and with a sluggish reaction.
"You, you are seeking death. Shark Boss, Shark Boss won't let you off..."
It backed away while trying to reach for the food on the cutting board to eat.
Chen Qi grabbed a kitchen knife from the counter and threw it fiercely at its head.
Slash!
Along with a crisp decapitation sound, the interface jumped with considerable enlightenment.
[You have killed a chef hat, gaining 6 Spiritual Points...]
[You have killed a chef hat, gaining 7 Spiritual Points...]
...
Having killed a total of fifteen chef hats, including the one by the door, he had gained a total of 105 Spiritual Points.
It was quite a good haul, considering career tasks to be the main source of Spiritual Points.
Chen Qi looked around to ensure there were no more enemies and smiled,
"More than half of the monsters didn't notice me; it was quite a decent stealth speed run."
In this brief battle, eight chef hats died without even having a chance to see him.
These eight monsters fit his definition of stealth kills.
Chen Qi took out bandages and wiped the foul-smelling blood off the black blade.
With Hunter Yu Huo's enhancement, his movements could be described as smooth and flowing.
But actually, there were some small flaws, and that was his strength.
Although the bodies of chef hats were not tough, he still felt a slight resistance during the slashing process.
His strength was only at 13 points, which was somewhat low.
More of it relied on the sharpness of the black blade.
Of course, for an E-rank crack, that was completely sufficient.
After confirming there were no fish that had slipped through the net, Chen Qi quietly turned toward the other large door of the kitchen, the one leading to the dining room.
Behind that door was this crack's final enemy.
As long as he could kill it, he could declare the crack cleared.
Chen Qi used the black blade to open a small slit in the door and peered inside.
On a huge dining table, there was only one enormous monster covered in blue scales.
Unlike the slim build of a Chef's hat, it stood three meters tall, its limbs abnormally developed, its muscles bulging like those of a wild ox.
This stature had already left the category of humanoid.
However, the most frightening part was the terrifying shark head.
It was ferociously swallowing the food given by the Chef's hat with its wide-open jaw.
Crunch! Crunch!
If it was a newbie seeing this scene on their first entrance to a crack, they'd probably be scared enough to run away.
This is the final boss of the Witch Sea Monster Kitchen—Chef Shark.
"Just finished eating, encountered a low-probability event, huh…"
Chen Qi's eyes became focused.
This wasn't good news.
In Monster Kitchen, if the final boss had just finished eating, its strength would be much greater than under normal circumstances.
Some squads, no matter how well-prepared, couldn't contend with Chef Shark.
This was one of the reasons why Monster Kitchen led to the annihilation of newbie teams!
In the moment the door slit opened, Chef Shark lifted its head, and its blood-red shark eyes met Chen Qi's.
It then revealed a hearty smile; hungry saliva flowed from the corner of its mouth.
"Tasty little dessert~"
Seeing an even more delicious meal, Chef Shark stood up, picked up the huge cleaver beside it, its leg muscles tensed, and then it lunged violently!
Shark Charge!
Boom! Its huge body violently smashed through the door!
It thought it could slam Chen Qi against the wall directly, but instead a terrible pain came from its thigh.
In the moment it charged, Chen Qi had already struck with his blade, a solid Horizontal Slash to its thigh.
A large amount of blood splattered!
After eating, Chef Shark's health was high and its agility not low.
He couldn't kill it in one slash; the best strategy was to cut its legs first!
Feeling the pain in its thigh, Chef Shark swung the cleaver fiercely, chopping down.
Clang!
Chen Qi blocked with a horizontal blade, took the opportunity to step back, and increased the distance.
Seeing Chen Qi being pushed back, Chef Shark let out a boisterous laugh.
"Hahahahaha!"
Its appearance seemed to mock Chen Qi, as if the feeble attack just now could never kill it.
Indeed, after eating, that slash couldn't kill it, not even disable its leg.
Chef Shark's muscles tensed up, ready to charge again and trap the little guy in front of it underneath, then slowly pull out and eat its limbs.
However, in the next second, the leg it had tensed up abruptly broke off, and a large amount of blood spurted out.
The fight was over…
Chen Qi calmly looked at Chef Shark.
The black blade, as the weapon of the Third-tier Transcendent Black-eyed Captain, was not just sharp, it was that simple.
Once it hit the enemy, it would also deal a high amount of dark energy damage.
It was just that the weaklings he had encountered before had too little health, there was no chance for the dark energy to show off.
Now, at the wound of Chef Shark, eerie black smoke slowly rose.
In the next moment, the black energy, like the sharp blades of a meat grinder, danced on that robust thigh, violently shredding Chef Shark's left leg.
With half its leg useless, it meant Chef Shark had no chance of getting close to him.
Now, it was nothing more than a floundering little fish on a cutting board.
"Roar!"
Chef Shark let out a furious roar, unwilling to give up, and tried to stand on one leg, attempting to kill the guy in front of it.
It tried to throw its cleaver as a last-ditch effort!
However, before the cleaver could leave its hand, the next second, the barrel was aimed at its scarlet shark eyes.
Bang!
The bullet pierced the eye, striking a vital point!
As the enemy lost vision, Chen Qi found the angle, gathered all his strength in the blade, and executed a Stepping forward Slash.
Slash!
With a crack, Chef Shark's head rolled off like a tumbling stone.
Chef Shark was a typical melee monster, and with its vision gone, it was easy to attack its neck directly.
As the sound of the rolling head echoed, a prompt appeared in front of him again.
[Killed Chef Shark, gained 100 Spiritual Points.]
"Huff, huff—"
Seeing the prompt, Chen Qi adjusted his breathing and exhaled.
Normally, Chef Shark only offered 50 Spiritual Points, but the Chef Shark in front of him actually gave 100 Spiritual Points.
Luckily, he had enough advantages from his gear.
Chen Qi smiled, wiped the sweat off his forehead after confirming there were no extra enemies, and felt pretty good.
Then, an even more wonderful enlightenment appeared before his eyes.
[Final enemy killed, rift clearance…]
[Calculating rift clearance…]