“Haa…
haa…” Heavy, ragged gasps rasped in his chest like an old, broken bellows.
The burly man ran blindly through the endless dark, nothing before his eyes but an all-consuming pitch black.
The rough texture of the asphalt beneath his feet was his sole proof that he was still on the “road to survival.” His heart hammered violently; every breath burned his throat.
He had no idea what that demon had injected into him.
Top-grade black market stimulants?
High-dose adrenaline?
All he knew was that a near-ferocious surge of power boiled within his body, forcing him to accelerate faster and faster.
But he couldn’t keep running forever.
*God…
send an angel…
please…
I’ll offer anything…* His panicked mind churned in absolute terror.
Perhaps his prayers were actually heard.
A light appeared in the distance.
The roar of an engine drew near, urgent and furious, like a steel beast smelling blood and rushing toward him in frantic anticipation.
“Ah!!” The burly man sprinted toward the blinding headlights with everything he had, waving his hands wildly, his face twisted in a mix of terror, desperation, and pleading.
“Aaaah!!
Save me!!” “Food!!
Don’t run!!” A raspy, metallic roar erupted from the truck’s window.
*Food?* The burly man froze for a fraction of a second, but his survival instinct crushed any doubt.
The lights were too bright for him to make out the shadowy figure behind the wheel, so he just sprinted forward all the harder.
The “driver” coming toward him seemed even more impatient.
Before the truck even came to a stop, the driver-side door burst open, and a dark shadow leapt into the air— —unfurling a massive set of bat wings the instant it became airborne!
The wings snapped open, executing a low-altitude glide before pulling up into a steep climb and diving straight down at the burly man.
“Huh?!” The burly man skidded to a halt.
As the shadow swooped past the glaring headlights, the light illuminated a monstrous, bat-winged silhouette.
That was definitely no human shape!
He looked up with a stiff neck at the shadow diving from above, his face a confused mess of absurdity and utter bewilderment.
What on earth was going on tonight?
Not a single person he met was good—heck, this one wasn’t even human!
*Wheew—!* A sharp screech tore through the air.
In the next second, the swooping shadow erupted into a brilliant fireball in midair!
The medium-range shockwave flipped the burly man off his feet, blood oozing from his ears.
Through his tumbling, blurred vision, he caught sight of a burning figure trailing black smoke as it plummeted diagonally to the earth.
A heavy thud of flesh hitting the ground echoed a moment later, quickly swallowed by the crackle of flames.
“Phew~” Up on a gentle slope, Green whistled, lowered the smoking rocket launcher from his shoulder, and skillfully began to reload.
“Guess my Call of Duty reflexes are still red-hot.” Almost simultaneously, an engine roared below the slope.
A pickup truck leapt over the crest, its nose high, landing heavily as its dual headlights cut through the dark.
“Yee-haw—!” Tony grinned wide, leaning half his body out the driver’s window.
Steering with one hand, he propped a rifle against his shoulder with the other and pulled the trigger.
Muzzle flash spewed wildly, tearing a scorching chain of tracer bullets through the night.
The monster, missing half a leg from the blast, had barely tried to push itself up before being pinned back to the ground, bullets tearing into its flesh and splattering blossoms of blood.
The creature roared and rolled onto its back.
Its hand swept across its waist, hurling several glints of cold light—javelins zipping through the air at terrifying speed!
*Clang!* One struck Tony’s rifle, numbing his arm, while the rest grazed the truck’s body with chilling shrieks.
“This guy would score a perfect game at bar darts!” Tony quickly ducked back inside and slammed the gas pedal all the way down.
The pickup’s front bumper slammed squarely into the monster.
*Bang!* A heavy thud echoed—sounding less like hitting flesh and blood and more like crashing into a solid concrete wall.
Inertia threw Tony forward, his forehead smacking against the steering wheel with a loud *thump*.
“What the fuck?!
How’s it this hard?!” Cursing violently, he kept his foot pinned to the floor.
The tires spun wildly in place, burning rubber and belching acrid white smoke, but the vehicle couldn’t budge another inch.
He looked up right into a pair of blood-red eyes filled with pure malice just beyond the windshield.
The monster had actually stood up, its hands braced against the crushed hood.
Its terrifying face, covered in grayish-brown horny scales, glared at him as its mouth peeled back to reveal rows of razor-sharp teeth.
“Oh, shit…” Tony ducked his head, one hand quickly reaching toward the stun gun in his tactical gear bag.
Yet his eyes drifted over the creature’s jagged facial ridges, his habit of rambling kicking into overdrive under the tension.
“Hey, big guy, did your mom get scratched giving birth to you?
I mean, you are a mammal, right?
But bats usually don’t grow to be this—” “Roar—!” Before he could finish, the monster bellowed.
Monstrous strength exploded from its arms, lifting the entire front end of the pickup right off the ground!
“I was joking!” Tony scrambled around inside the tilting cab, grabbing the wheel and seat to steady himself while jamming his knee against the center console, desperately trying to chamber a round into the taser as fast as possible.
The faint click of metal components was practically swallowed by the monster’s heavy rasping and the groaning of twisting steel.
Just then, a sharp whistle of displaced air sliced through the night!
Green’s figure lunged in like a phantom, landing a devastating roundhouse kick right into the monster’s midsection!
*Thump!* The monster’s massive body flew sideways.
The pickup slammed back onto the pavement, rattling Tony to his core.
Green dropped into a low stance, the rocket launcher already leveled on his shoulder.
He pulled the trigger.
*Chhh—shoo!* A cloud of white smoke erupted from the muzzle.
The propellant ignited with a crisp crack, sending the screeching rocket trailing fire straight toward the monster as it scrambled to unfold its leathery wings in midair.
The creature had barely righted itself when the rapidly expanding warhead reflected in its crimson eyes.
*BOOM—!* A second explosion blossomed in the air.
The fireball enveloped the monster, sweeping its battered body down the slope with a violent crash.
Most of its clothing was charred and shredded, its exposed horny skin black and smoking in numerous places.
Yet the relatively intact flesh began to squirm and stretch slowly, as if possessing a life of its own, reaching out to cover and fill the shredded wounds.
The monster shook its buzzing head, coughing up a plume of black smoke.
*Tap…
tap…
tap…* Unhurried footsteps approached from a distance, clicking against the gravel road with a clarity that tightened the chest.
“Still not dead?
That’s some impressive self-healing.
Guess the intelligence reports actually had some backing.” The monster whipped its head up, a low, menacing growl rattling in its throat.
The horny spikes across its body bristled uncontrollably as the red light in its eyes flared brightly.
In its vision, a strange worm squirmed across the upper body of the approaching human male—yet every ounce of threat emanated from the man himself.
“You half-human, half-monstrous trash are surprisingly durable against explosives.” Green slowly drew the Soul Splitter Katana from the mouth of the Inventory Curse—a long blade with a tuft of white fur at its hilt.
Just then, a beam of pale moonlight slipped through a break in the clouds, glinting coldly off the blade held across his chest.
Green narrowed his eyes, measuring the monster’s body like a ruler from afar, the corners of his mouth curving into a chilly, emotionless smile.
“Don’t move,” he said softly, like a chef inspecting a slab of meat on the cutting board.
“Let’s see how many pieces I can slice you into.” Before the words had even faded, only a few skittering pebbles remained where he had stood.
In the next breath, Green appeared right before the monster.
Grinning savagely, he raised the long blade high and slashed down with ferocious speed!
*Slash—!* The arc of the blade flashed like silk, far too fast for any reaction.
The edge cut through its left shoulder and slid smoothly down past its right ribs without a hint of resistance, slicing it almost completely in two diagonally!
The monster seemed immune to pain.
The instant it suffered such a catastrophic blow, it roared and swung a claw directly at Green’s chest.
*Tear!* Claws ripped through fabric, taking a tiny bit of skin tissue and leaving a few shallow, bleeding scratches across Green’s chest.
Green glanced down, snorted in disdain, and leaned his face close to the creature’s hideous mug.
“That’s it?” “Roar…!” The monster leaned in as well, but just as its bellow was about to burst forth— *Pfft-tch!* The Inverted Spear of Heaven shot out from the Inventory Curse’s mouth.
Green grabbed it in a reverse grip and thrust it straight up beneath the monster’s jaw, driving it all the way into its brain!
The creature’s roar cut off instantly, reduced to a wheezing gasp as the red light in its eyes flickered wildly.
“Ready?
Here it comes!” The wild grin on Green’s face stretched into a near-manic arc.
Pivoting his hips, he whipped both weapons into a blinding web of death, engulfing the monster’s battered body in a split second.
*Shred—shred—shred—!* Sickening sounds of meat being sliced and bones scraped burst forth in rapid succession, blossoming into a rapidly expanding mist of blood against the night sky.
Mounds of shapeless, mangled flesh mixed with a raining spray of blood, splattering outward in a radial pattern centered on Green’s feet.
By the time Tony hurried over with his rifle, trembling with dread, he was greeted by this horrifying scene straight out of a hellish scroll painting.
About ten seconds later, the flashing blades ceased instantly.
Green stood in place, panting slightly.
On his body, his face, and his blades, beads of congealed blood slowly gathered and dripped down.
He casually slicked his wet, sticky hair back and sheathed the Soul Splitter Katana back into the Inventory Curse.
“It shouldn’t be coming back to life after this.” As the crimson mist slowly cleared, a humanoid skeleton, scraped clean down to the bone, was revealed beneath the moonlight.
Only the chest cavity remained intact, housing a pitch-black heart inside the ribs that still beat slowly and powerfully.
Green walked over, used the hilt to snap a few bothersome ribs, severed the attached blood vessels, and scooped out the heart.
He tossed it lightly in his hand before turning to walk back up the slope.
“And here I thought this was gonna be a tough fight,” Tony said, his throat feeling dry as he looked at the messy slaughterhouse before him.
“Yeah,” Green said as he walked past him.
“All that slicing made me hungry.” He glanced casually at the spot where the burly man had collapsed earlier; apart from a bit of blood, the man was nowhere to be found.
Not that it mattered.
He was just bait.
Dead or alive, made no difference.
Back inside the truck, Green pulled a metal container from his tactical bag.
He twisted the top latch half a turn.
Cold mist hissed out, revealing the pale green solution inside.
He tossed the still-throbbing black heart inside; the built-in life-support mechanism would keep it alive.
“Where are we headed now?
Next mission?” Tony walked back to the vehicle, his tone trying to sound eager for more, though his trembling legs betrayed his true feelings.
“That’s all.” Green started the engine, his lips curving into an enigmatic smile.
“Taking you back where you belong.” “Hope everything goes smoothly.” Tony slid into the passenger seat, tossed the rifle into the back, and gingerly touched the large bump swelling on his forehead, wincing in pain.
“Of course.
It’ll be just as you wish.” Green kept his eyes on the road and hit the accelerator.
The vehicle slowly drove off, its red taillights gradually swallowed by the thick darkness.
An hour later, below the nearby gravel slope, a figure poked his head out cautiously.
It was the burly man.
His face was caked in dirt, his eyes hollow as he stared blankly toward the direction where the vehicle had disappeared.
*I survived…
I actually survived…
among these monsters slaughtering each other…* He slumped onto the ground and swore to the dark, silent wilderness: From now on, he would be an honest man, the most ordinary, good-natured person imaginable.
He would never, ever dare again…
never again…