So-called stealth assassination meant sneaking up behind the enemy while undetected and killing them from behind.

To avoid being swarmed, this was a commonly used technique—and the ideal method to clear the Monster Kitchen.

The space inside this Crack wasn’t large. Besides the entrance, there were only two areas: the kitchen and the dining room.

Chen Qi crouched silently at the door, peeking through the gap to count the monsters inside.

“One, two, four…”

Fifteen Chef Hats in total.

Each of them held a cleaver and chopped one fish after another, along with some rotting vegetables, into pieces at high speed.

Clearly, they were preparing a grand feast for their boss.

Chef Hats had low stats. Individually, they were weaker than average adult humans.

But a lot of newbies had still died inside Monster Kitchen.

As Cup-aligned monsters, their real danger lay in their massive regeneration ability.

Chef Hats could gain huge stat boosts and health regen by eating fish—or corpses of their own kind.

One bite, full health. Two bites, double strength. Three bites, and they rivaled an elite monster!

Since many newbies didn’t read monster info and just charged in—or worse, tried to toy with them—

It often led to their entire team getting wiped out.

When killing these monsters, you had to be quick and precise. Never give them the chance to heal by eating.

The Chef Hats continued hacking away with their cleavers, muttering in crazed whispers.

“These aren’t enough—we need fresher, tastier ingredients!”

“Eat! Eat! Eat!”

“Chop! Chop! Chop!”

They were fully immersed, completely focused on preparing the perfect feast.

If someone died inside the Crack and got cooked into a meal for them, and they got to eat enough—

It could cause the Crack’s distortion level to rise.

Chef Hats had weak perception. While they were cooking, they could barely detect people in front of them.

Should be fine… Chen Qi found a blind spot in their vision and carefully slipped through the door.

Crouching low, he moved silently along the edge of the counter.

Before he knew it, he was right behind eight Chef Hats—gaining a huge positional advantage.

“Stealth successful.”

Chen Qi stood up and held his breath.

He was now behind an elite Chef Hat.

Sniff sniff sniff—

The elite Chef Hat in front of him finally sensed something was off. It leaned forward, sniffed with its long nose.

Then grinned:

“Ah! That’s the delicious smell of human…”

Slash!

The ash-covered Black Knife cut through the elite Chef Hat like tofu, slicing it clean in half in an instant!

【You have slain Elite Chef Hat. Gained 22 Spirit Points.】

With the scent of blood now thick in the air, the other Chef Hats realized what had happened, baring their fangs.

Someone had dared to trespass into their kitchen!

They’d been discovered.

Unfortunately, they turned too slowly…

By the time they reacted, they were already dead.

As soon as Chen Qi drew and swung his blade, his eyes sharpened. He shifted his grip and, with a single-handed motion, slashed horizontally across a row of Chef Hats.

In a flash, seven Chef Hats were chopped in half like vegetables on a cutting board.

“Kill, kill you…”

“Chop, chop you…”

“Eat, eat you…”

“Rpe, rpe you…”

The remaining seven Chef Hats bared their beastly fangs, brandishing cleavers and charging at him in fury.

All rushing head-on—and they weren’t even using ranged attacks?

Chen Qi struck out three more times at lightning speed.

Like slicing fruit, six Chef Hats’ heads dropped to the ground.

Only one remained, standing at a distance, stunned and slow to react.

“You… you’re dead… Big Chef Shark… Big Chef Shark won’t let you…”

It stammered as it backed up, trying to grab food off the cutting board to eat.

Chen Qi picked up a cleaver from the counter and hurled it straight at its head.

Swoosh!

With a crisp headshot, several prompts popped up.

【You have slain Chef Hat. Gained 6 Spirit Points…】

【You have slain Chef Hat. Gained 7 Spirit Points…】

…

He’d killed fifteen Chef Hats in total, including the one at the door, and earned 105 Spirit Points.

Not a bad haul, considering profession quests were still the main source of Spirit Points.

Chen Qi looked around, and after confirming no enemies remained, he smiled:

“More than half didn’t even see me—not bad for a stealth speedrun.”

In this short battle, eight Chef Hats died without even seeing his face.

These eight matched the definition of a stealth kill.

Chen Qi pulled out a cloth and wiped the foul blood off Black Knife.

With the boost from Hunter Ember, his moves were fluid and efficient.

But he still noticed a minor issue—his Strength.

Chef Hats weren’t particularly tough, but he still felt a bit of resistance when slicing them down.

Right now, his Strength was only 13—somewhat low.

He was mostly relying on Black Knife’s sharpness.

Still, for an E-rank Crack, it was more than enough.

After confirming there were no stragglers, Chen Qi looked quietly at the other door in the kitchen—the one leading to the dining room.

Behind that door lay the final enemy of this Crack.

Once defeated, the Crack would be cleared.

Chen Qi used Black Knife to gently push open a narrow gap and peeked inside.

At a massive dining table sat a huge monster covered in blue fish scales.

Unlike the thin, wiry Chef Hats, this one stood a full three meters tall, with absurdly muscular limbs like a bison.

Its body had already surpassed human form.

But the most terrifying part was its shark-like head.

With its giant maw, it devoured the food offered by the Chef Hats in huge bites.

Gawk! Gawk!

For any first-time Crack explorer, just seeing this would probably make them turn and run in terror.

This was the final boss of Witch Sea’s Monster Kitchen—Chef Shark.

“He just finished eating… that’s an unlucky RNG roll…”

Chen Qi narrowed his eyes.

That was bad news.

If the final boss had just eaten, it’d be much stronger than normal.

Even well-prepped teams might not be able to handle a fed Chef Shark.

This was one of the main reasons Monster Kitchen was a newbie killer!

As soon as the door opened, Chef Shark looked up. Its blood-red shark eyes locked with Chen Qi’s.

It grinned wide, saliva dripping from its mouth in anticipation.

“A tasty little dessert~”

Seeing such a delicious new dish, Chef Shark stood up, grabbed a massive cleaver, flexed its powerful legs—

Then lunged forward!

Shark Rush!

Boom! Its massive body smashed through the door!

It thought it could slam Chen Qi straight into the wall—but instead, pain shot up its thigh.

At the moment of impact, Chen Qi had already drawn his blade and landed a solid slash across its thigh.

Blood sprayed!

Chef Shark had high health and decent Agility after eating.

One hit wouldn’t kill it. Best strategy: cripple its legs first!

Feeling the pain in its thigh, Chef Shark swung its cleaver down hard.

Clang!

Chen Qi blocked with a horizontal guard, using the momentum to leap backward and gain distance.

Seeing him pushed back, Chef Shark let out a booming laugh.

“HAHAHAHAHA!”

Its expression clearly mocked Chen Qi’s feeble strike as incapable of hurting it.

And indeed, after eating, that strike had neither killed it nor crippled its leg.

Chef Shark flexed all its muscles, ready to charge again—planning to pin this tiny pest and devour him slowly, limb by limb.

But in the next moment, the muscle it had just tensed up suddenly tore apart. Blood gushed everywhere.

The battle… was already over.

Chen Qi stared calmly at Chef Shark.

Black Knife, the weapon of Tier 3 Transcendent Captain Blackeye, wasn’t just sharp.

When it landed a hit, it also inflicted high dark energy damage.

The earlier small fry had such thin blood that the dark energy never had a chance to show itself.

But now, black mist slowly rose from Chef Shark’s wound.

In the next instant, it twisted like the blades of a meat grinder, shredding Chef Shark’s leg into minced flesh.

With one leg gone, Chef Shark had no way of closing the distance.

Now, it was nothing more than a flopping fish on a chopping board.

“Roar!”

Chef Shark let out an unwilling roar. It struggled to stand on one leg, determined to kill the man before it.

It tried to use a throwing skill, to hurl its cleaver!

But before the cleaver left its hand, a gun barrel was already pointed at its bloodshot shark eye.

Bang!

Bullet to the eye—straight to the weak point!

As its vision vanished, Chen Qi stepped forward, channeling all his strength into Black Knife for a thrusting slash.

Swoosh!

With a crunch, Chef Shark’s head dropped like a rolling boulder.

Chef Shark was a typical melee monster. Take away its vision, and a neck strike finished the job.

As its head rolled to the floor, a prompt appeared again.

【You have slain Chef Shark. Gained 100 Spirit Points.】

“Huff, huff—”

Seeing the prompt, Chen Qi regulated his breathing and let out a long breath.

Normally, Chef Shark only gave 50 Spirit Points. This one gave 100—clearly a special variant.

Good thing his gear was way above spec.

Chen Qi smiled, wiped the sweat off his forehead, and felt pretty satisfied.

Then, an even better prompt appeared before his eyes.

【Final enemy defeated. Crack cleared…】

【Crack Settlement in progress…】