Chapter 13: Chapter Thirteen: The Weakness of Feline Creatures

Partial digitization has many advantages, such as allowing him to directly understand his own strength.

Thinking this way, the method to grow stronger becomes much simpler: while enhancing physical attributes, also improve combat ability.

No matter how strong the attributes are, if they cannot be unleashed in battle, they are meaningless.

Moreover, Su Xiao guessed that since he could be transported to the Pirate World, he would surely be sent to other worlds too, offering plenty of opportunities to grow stronger.

His current attributes are: Strength 7, Agility 7, Stamina 5, Intelligence 6, Charm 3, and Luck, a pitiful 1.

Strength and agility need no explanation—their effects are very direct and closely tied to his close-combat ability.

Stamina represents the strength of life force and resistance to damage; Intelligence relates to spell-based abilities, but its function is currently unclear.

Charm is even more puzzling—does increasing it make him more handsome?

Su Xiao shook his head; Charm probably isn’t about looks—it should enhance social or summoning abilities.

As for the final Luck attribute, it should be a crucial one, incredibly powerful, but likely very hard to improve.

Su Xiao excels with a blade; his future development may relate to Strength, Agility, and similar attributes, but he hasn’t yet determined his path—this is his first derivative world, and thinking about such matters is premature.

While Su Xiao was pondering, distant forest sounds of snapping branches echoed—a massive beast was approaching.

Here it comes!

The creature drawing nearer was the master of Kebo Mountain, a gigantic tiger.

This tiger resembled an ordinary tiger in appearance, but its size was enormous—over four meters tall and at least seven to eight meters long, even larger than an elephant from Earth, as big as a house.

The tiger’s deep yellow fur had rich texture, glossy and reflecting faint glimmers under the bright sunlight.

Su Xiao hid atop a large tree, fixing his gaze on the tiger below, even suppressing his breathing.

Such a predator could detect even the faintest sound, so Su Xiao was extremely cautious.

After approaching Su Xiao’s trap, the tiger twitched its nose, as if sensing danger, and hesitated to draw closer.

Yet those few dried fruits on the trap held a deadly allure for this tiger.

These dried fruits were bought by Su Xiao from a general store in the capital, named Moutianzhi.

Moutianzhi is a dried fruit unique to the Pirate World; in the real world, a plant with similar effects is catnip.

Though the master of Kebo Mountain was massive, it could not overcome the instinct of feline creatures—it had no resistance to Moutianzhi, which resembled catnip.

Catnip is known as the “cat drug,” with lethal allure for most feline species.

Seeing the tiger’s drooling gaze, Su Xiao knew his plan had succeeded.

The tiger paced around the trap, extremely cautious; it smelled unfamiliar scents but detected no immediate danger.

Finally, under the lure of Moutianzhi, the tiger slowly edged toward the trap’s center.

It took a few cautious steps forward, then immediately stopped, turning its head to scan the surroundings.

Su Xiao, perched on the tree, twitched his eyelid and sighed inwardly—the intelligence of animals in the Pirate World far exceeded that of ordinary beasts.

Judging by the tiger’s behavior, its intelligence was at least equivalent to that of a ten-year-old child, possibly higher.

Time slipped through his fingers as a long stalemate began—a test of patience.

Eventually, the master of Kebo Mountain could no longer resist the lure of Moutianzhi and lunged forward.

“Boom.”

Dust erupted as the master of Kebo Mountain swallowed all the Moutianzhi on the ground and began chewing.

The taste of Moutianzhi was unpleasant—bitter and astringent—but the master of Kebo Mountain savored it with relish.

After chewing for a while, the master of Kebo Mountain reacted: it shifted from its lying position to lie on its back, rubbing its spine against the grass.

The master of Kebo Mountain was rolling around~.

Domestic cats exhibit this exact reaction after consuming large amounts of catnip—hallucinations and rolling on the ground.

Though the master of Kebo Mountain looked fearsome, it could not suppress this instinct; the drool dripping from its mouth revealed it was lost in hallucinations.

The moment was ripe. Su Xiao raised his flintlock pistol and aimed not at the tiger, but at the ground beneath it.

Yes—the ground. Even if he fired directly into the tiger’s eyeball, the flintlock’s bullet wouldn’t kill it, and his marksmanship couldn’t guarantee a hit on the eyeball.

Beneath the tiger’s feet, Su Xiao had buried numerous explosives, and above them, he’d added extra modifications—enough to make this tiger regret its greed.

He extended his arm and pulled the flintlock’s trigger.

“Bang.”

The gunshot echoed through the forest, shattering its stillness and startling a flock of birds into flight.

After being heated by the gunpowder’s explosion, a scorching bullet shot from the barrel, pushing through the air in waves, spinning as it plunged into the soil—a small green blade of grass was severed, its shattered leaves spraying outward.

The red-hot bullet pierced the surface soil, then struck one of the buried gunpowder barrels; the hundreds-of-degrees heat instantly ignited the powder.

The sudden gunshot made the rolling master of Kebo Mountain shudder—it tried to rise and flee, but it was too late.

“Boom.”

A deafening explosion ripped through the forest; every animal within a kilometer flinched and turned toward the source.

More than a dozen buried gunpowder barrels detonated in a chain reaction, merging into a single thunderous roar.

The ground beneath the master of Kebo Mountain erupted, soil spraying outward in a radial burst; among the flying dirt, iron nails could be faintly seen—placed by Su Xiao on the barrels to increase lethality.

The massive creature, weighing several tons, was blasted three meters into the air by the explosion’s force; hundreds of iron nails, propelled by the blast, drove deep into its body.

“Roar~.”

A piercing tiger howl rang out, but the nightmare wasn’t over.

Flames surged skyward, engulfing the master of Kebo Mountain midair; the stench of burning fur filled the air.

“Thud.” The master of Kebo Mountain landed; thick smoke from the burning gunpowder swallowed the tiger, accompanied by a sizzling sound.

Su Xiao stood atop a distant tree, watching coldly, though his expression was far from pleased.

It wasn’t sympathy—he’d long since fed such things to dogs.

His grim expression came from the fact that the tiger hadn’t died—no notification had appeared from the Lunhuileyuan .

The plan had gone smoothly, yet the terrifying strength of Pirate World creatures chilled the bones.

He leapt down from the tree, bare-chested, drew his [Zhan Long Shan] from his waist, and walked single-handedly toward the smoke.

If explosives couldn’t kill it, then he’d cut it down—so long as there was a sliver of hope for victory, he had the courage to fight; he never feared battle.

In a certain sense, Su Xiao was someone who craved combat.

The razor-thin line between life and death during battle made him forget his hatred, forget past misfortunes, and throw himself entirely into the fight until his enemy was slain.