Chapter 12: Someone in This Place?!

Yu Sheng said his goodbyes to Erin before logging off, but this time, after speaking, he did not disconnect immediately.

It was not because the thing on the other end had turned vegetarian; rather, this terrifying beast seemed for some reason to have fallen into a state of confusion.

It stood in the night wind, dozens of chaotic eyes overlapping on its fleshy balls staring fixedly at the prey before it with a strange "gaze"; though it sounds odd to say so, Yu Sheng felt he could truly see the meaning of "confusion" in those eyes—the kind of confusion where the mouth and stomach have been trying to reconcile accounts for half an hour with no success.

Erin was still calling out anxiously in his mind, but Yu Sheng's entire attention was fixed on the terrifying monster before him; Erin's voice seemed as distant to him as if separated by a thick curtain—he tensed his muscles, feeling his heart pound like a drum, every twitch of muscle and pulse of blood vessels on that creature reflected clearly in his eyes.

Although he had prepared himself for something when he "respawned" from the ruined temple, facing the weight of death again, Yu Sheng still felt immense tension.

The only difference from last time was that the fear mixed in with this tension had greatly diminished, replaced by something he himself felt was unfamiliar... excitement.

Then, he suddenly sensed something.

It was muscles contracting, foul thick blood gathering, hunger surging in his heart, and an order to eat coming from his muddled mind—in that extremely brief instant, a warning sign rose sharply in his heart, and he accurately outlined the contours of that warning.

The monster was about to strike, from the left, but it was only a feint; the true killing move was a snake tail that would whip over from behind, bearing barbs and blades.

The monster lunged fiercely, a blood-filled maw suddenly splitting open from one of its limb ends and biting toward Yu Sheng's left side—but before it leaped, Yu Sheng had already reacted; without much thought, he followed the prompt in his heart and suddenly twisted his body sideways, then immediately threw himself forward, moving so fast he himself could not believe it.

He noticed that his previously sprained waist had somehow fully recovered; it seemed that since "respawning," the state of this body had been inexplicably good.

The beast lunged and missed, and the snake tail that had attempted a sneak attack from a tricky angle only just grazed the "prey's" back; Yu Sheng felt the air pressure coming from behind him, the sensation of skirting the edge of death making his hair stand on end, but compared to this terrifying feeling, he felt something even more incredible in his heart:

He had actually dodged?! What exactly had just happened?

But he had no time to think carefully, because the next wave of danger came from behind again; this time there was not enough time to dodge, and he could only clumsily roll over after landing, only to see a sharp claw smashing down toward his head and face.

In his desperation, he could only instinctively raise his arm, using that weak human limb to block the claw that fell like a meteor.

With a loud boom, the air surged, scattering grass clippings and dust for several meters around; pain spread through his entire body, and Yu Sheng felt as if more than ten bones in his body had been smashed simultaneously; he grunted, failed to catch his breath, and retreated two steps—

But he had blocked it; he had truly blocked that strike just now.

Yu Sheng stared in shock at his own hands; he saw his left hand bent at an unnatural angle, obviously the bones had indeed been shattered, yet the pain was receding at an astonishing speed, and the twisted bones seemed to be slowly restoring themselves.

He still clearly remembered when that monster first attacked him, remembered the monster's true strength; every inch of muscle on that thing could easily crush a human body, and Yu Sheng was one hundred percent certain that when that monster lunged with full force, he would not have been able to block it—not even if dozens of bones broke.

But the monster clearly would not give him much time to think; after landing, it adjusted for only a second or two, then this hungry beast let out a chaotic and furious roar, lunging once again at the annoying "prey" before it.

A gale struck bone-piercingly, the leaping monster like a small mountain falling from the sky; Yu Sheng reacted in advance again, rolling ungracefully to the side, then immediately getting up and jumping away to dodge a tail whip that split mountains and cracked stones, yet the next second, Yu Sheng, who had not yet stabilized his footing, was swept to the ground by that retracting tail; immediately after, the beast actually split open from its midsection, and a disgusting, constantly writhing "long tongue," like a tentacle, shot through the night, tightly wrapping around the off-balance Yu Sheng and dragging him back fiercely.

Yu Sheng forced his hands to support himself, trying not to let that "long tongue" snap his chest in half, at least not so quickly; he watched helplessly as he was dragged before the monster, whose body had split open a large hole in the middle, with countless sharp teeth rising and grinding within that hole, like a ravenous giant mouth.

In the instant before being dragged into that giant mouth, Yu Sheng suddenly pushed off with both feet; the rock beneath his feet cracked with a boom, and the massive recoil force even made the monster stumble.

Yu Sheng had no time to wonder why he possessed such strength; seizing this brief moment to catch his breath, he used nearly all his strength, roaring as he snapped the long tongue wrapping him, then immediately picked up a sharp piece of gravel from the ground and lunged at a turbid eyeball on the monster's side that was trembling wildly.

The long tongue broke, and the monster let out a chilling roar; blood sprayed from its midsection; it stumbled, struggling to regain balance, while dozens of eyes, filled with madness and hunger, stared at the prey before it—

So fragrant, so fragrant...

The scent of blood drilled into his nostrils, stimulating the nerves of the hungry one, awakening some instinct that had slept for a long time...

It really is so fragrant.

Yu Sheng felt his heart beating wildly, felt something scorching, almost boiling, surging in his blood; a wild joy was gradually rising in his heart; he tried hard to distinguish what this joy was, and finally, he understood.

It was the joy of about to eat, the reward of hunger about to be satisfied.

That beast, that pile of flesh and blood, that chaotic and fallen spirit, that...

Prime meat.

The sharp gravel in his hand was gradually crushed into powder; he breathed heavily, feeling everything around him slow down. He lunged at the monster, the monster lunged at him, food embracing food—in a daze, he even had a feeling that he seemed to have never eaten in the past twenty-plus years, or at least had never eaten "real food"; he embraced the grotesque limbs on the monster's side, while the monster "embraced" him with even more astonishing strength, until it snapped bone after bone in his body.

But Yu Sheng seemed to feel nothing; he had already bitten into the monster's flesh and blood; unlike last time, when it was a final, angry and desperate counterattack before death, he now had a new mindset—

He would not die; he would return again; this beast could kill him once, twice, or countless times, but he would return.

And each time, he would understand better than the last time how to deal with this beast.

This might take a long time.

But he would savor this piece of good meat little by little.

More than a dozen eyes on the monster's side trembled wildly; several of those eyes seemed to sense something, and finally slowly focused on Yu Sheng.

A giant mouth full of sharp teeth was already gnawing at Yu Sheng from the side, yet a layer of fear seemed to gradually rise in those eyes.

Yu Sheng felt his body being gradually torn apart by the monster; he knew he had lost again this time, as expected—he would die, eaten by this monster.

At least this time, he could not win.

Regardless, the time he held out this time far exceeded expectations; he had originally thought he would perish on the spot after a single exchange, yet he did not expect to fight this monster back and forth.

!.

"Erin..." Before his consciousness sank into darkness, Yu Sheng tried calling out in his heart.

Erin's voice sounded almost immediately: "Yu Sheng! Yu Sheng, are you okay?! I've been calling you and you didn't answer..."

"I'm fine, I just logged off too early; now I'm going to disconnect..."

Then he ignored Erin's loud exclamations and simply waited quietly for death to descend.

However, just before that heavy darkness descended, he suddenly heard a voice nearby—a clear voice, truly existing in this valley.

"Don't be afraid! I'm coming to save you!"

Yu Sheng's consciousness was already very unclear, yet at this moment he suddenly became clear for a brief instant; a thunderous impact exploded in his mind—

Someone?!

This place, someone?!

He struggled to open his eyelids, looking toward the direction the voice came from, and saw a figure rushing urgently from the distance; he vaguely saw that it seemed to be a girl in tattered clothes, but the next second, he saw other silhouettes flying in the night behind that girl.

What was that?

A tail?

A fox?

A person?

No, it was a supersonic headbutt.

Yu Sheng watched in despair as the figure that had shouted it was coming to save him accelerated a second time in mid-air like an extended-range projectile, head down, charging straight ahead, while the monster gnawing on him happened to turn its body slightly (likely on purpose), so he became the target that figure was charging straight at.

"Fuc..."

He could only squeeze out two syllables from between his teeth.

The Miss rushing over hadn't even seen the situation ahead.

A subsonic headbutt smashed into Yu Sheng's chest, and then he had no chest left.

Everything below the neck was gone.

As if he had evaporated.

"Miss, you f***... missed the mark..."

And then, Yu Sheng was saved to death.

(End of this chapter)