Chapter 231: Hunger Awakens and the Doctor's Feast

"Hunger."

The word, like a final judgment, was coldly branded into Xiang Lingna's fading consciousness. More of them... awake? Could there be more than one of these terrifying dark-red entities?

She struggled to roll her eyes, her blurred gaze sweeping across the hall. In the brief lull while the gold-green barrier barely withstood the first wave of attacks, she saw the dark-red moss-like matter covering the scavenger remains around her—matter that had been in a state of relative stillness—seem to truly be roused by the attack behavior of the central one of its kind, beginning to writhe and converge with renewed vigor!

Wisps and strands of dark red peeled away from the remains everywhere, like streams drawn by an invisible attraction, flowing toward the dark-red humanoid at the center that kept attacking the barrier! With every wisp absorbed, the humanoid's volume swelled a fraction, its color deepening, and the malice and devouring hunger it exuded grew ever more suffocating!

It wasn't just attacking—it was absorbing the power of its own kind, growing ever stronger!

And what made things even more despairing was that, in the farther corners of the hall where the light could hardly reach, new, smaller dark-red individuals seemed to be slowly coalescing out of the ruins and withered bones! Like newly born hungry cubs, they instinctively sought energy they could devour!

Beneath this dead, silent ecological garden, so many terrifying monsters had lain dormant! The Doctor's scavenger squad's earlier total annihilation had clearly awakened them!

The gold-green barrier, under the dual assault of the dark-red humanoid (perhaps it should now be called an aggregate) and the scavenger units, was dimming rapidly, cracks already appearing on its surface. After all, it was merely the instinctive response of an ancient system briefly activated—water without a source, fundamentally unable to last.

Xiang Lingna could even feel faint tremors from the ground beneath her, as if the entire ruin's structure had grown more unstable because of this sudden battle.

Must... must do something...

The instinct to survive and the will to protect that child propped up Xiang Lingna's consciousness, which was nearly extinguished entirely. She tried to move her body, but every tiny attempt brought heart-tearing agony and worse bleeding. Her vision grew darker and darker; in her ears remained only the hum of energy fire, the hiss of the dark-red aggregate attacking the barrier, and the groan of straining structures.

She was like a small boat about to capsize in a storm, liable to be swallowed whole the next second.

【Warning: Multiple high-intensity unknown energy signatures detected, rapidly intensifying! Structural integrity dropping sharply! Recommend immediate evacuation! Repeat, immediate evacuation!】 The Sentinel's voice was filled with unprecedented urgency, even tinged with a barely perceptible... dread? Even an artificial intelligence felt fear?

Evacuate? How? She couldn't even move a single finger.

Just as Xiang Lingna fell into utter despair, preparing to close her eyes and meet the end—

Fweee—!

An exceptionally precise enhanced energy beam, far more powerful than any ordinary scavenger weapon, like the gaze of death, suddenly lanced in from the hall's entrance! It wasn't fired at the barrier, nor at the dark-red aggregate, but cleverly, by a hair's breadth, grazed past Xiang Lingna's body and struck the ground not far from her!

Boom!

The ground was blasted open into a small crater; the shock wave sent Xiang Lingna's Already Heavy wounded body tumbling again, rolling twice, carrying her farther from the central battle—but also slamming her against a pile of relatively sturdy carbonized plant roots, temporarily pulling her out of the most direct attack range.

Who?!

Xiang Lingna struggled to look up. At the hall's entrance, three figures had appeared at some unknown moment. No longer low-grade scavenger units, but three "Scavenger Commanders" clad in sleeker, more refined pale armor, wearing full-coverage helmets, and wielding specially modified pulse rifles. Their armor bore the Doctor's distinctive insignia; they moved in utter silence, perfectly coordinated, radiating a cold, professional air of killing.

They didn't immediately join the attack on the barrier, but calmly observed the battlefield—especially the dark-red aggregate that kept growing stronger. That shot just now had clearly been fired by one of them, and the purpose seemed... to be to temporarily isolate her, this "priority target," nodeline" from immediate danger?

Does the Doctor want her alive? Or do they have some other scheme?

The lead commander gestured; the other two immediately fanned out left and right, taking up advantageous firing positions. They didn't seem surprised by the dark-red aggregate's existence at all—instead, they looked as if they were... collecting data?

"Target 'Chaos Devourer' activity level has risen to forty-seven percent; aggregation speed exceeds projections. Record energy absorption patterns and attack patterns." The lead commander reported calmly through his helmet comms, his processed voice utterly devoid of emotion, as if describing an experimental phenomenon.

Chaos Devourer?