Chapter 20: Spatial Rifts, Otherworldly Creatures

When the last glimmer of light in the sky vanished, the earth plunged completely into darkness.

The city, already deathly silent, became even more terrifyingly quiet; any slight abnormal sound was amplified infinitely.

Fang Shi leaned against the door behind the rooftop stairwell, holding a forged steel sword in his hand, waiting silently for the arrival of otherworldly creatures.

The so-called otherworldly creatures, as the name suggests, are beings from another world.

After entering the apocalypse, countless spatial rifts opened on Blue Star.

These spatial rifts varied in size, but all connected to other worlds.

It was precisely because of the appearance of these spatial channels that creatures from other worlds could freely enter and exit Earth.

Unlike the weak creatures of Earth, the other worlds possessed abundant primal force; the creatures there had long broken the shackles of evolution and were terrifying beyond measure.

Every otherworldly creature entering Blue Star possessed at least Level 3 strength.

Just imagine: a sky-covering tide of Level 3 creatures flooding into Earth, each possessing strength equal to a Level 3 elite zombie, or even greater.

How could the surviving humans of Blue Star possibly match them?

This is also the reason why Fang Shi dared not go out hunting at night.

Even though he possessed rich combat experience and attributes far exceeding those of his peers,

he could duel a single Level 3 otherworldly creature, but he could not defeat a group.

Fortunately, due to restrictions of the laws, otherworldly creatures could not move freely during the day before the First Impact arrived, nor could they attack humans hiding inside buildings.

Moreover, the spatial rifts at night were basically very small, allowing only a few otherworldly creatures to enter.

This gave humanity some chance to catch their breath.

However, after an hour of frantic grinding in the last hour,

Fang Shi had already reached Level 3, and his combat power had climbed another tier.

He now had full confidence that he could escape safely when facing multiple otherworldly creatures.

Of course, there was another important reason.

Once a character's experience accumulated to the level-up requirement, regardless of whether the player leveled up, the efficiency of gaining experience would decrease.

For example, leveling from 2 to 3 required 3,000 experience points.

When Fang Shi accumulated 3,000 experience points, whether he leveled up to 3 or not, he would suffer an experience gain penalty.

Originally, when at Level 2, killing a Level 1 zombie still yielded 5 experience points and 1 Survival Point.

When experience reached 3,000, killing a zombie yielded 0 experience points and 0 Survival Points.

Put bluntly, the attribute panel absolutely did not allow players to perform level-capping or experience-stalling operations.

You should level up when you should; do not dream of suppressing your level to perform frantic experience-grinding operations.

The reason Fang Shi was frantically squeezing Xiao Xi and Zhai Yan was not only to cope with the crisis of the First Impact,

but also considered one point: if he could reach Level 3 before nightfall, he could take action at night to hunt those otherworldly creatures and accumulate experience.

This was far superior to facing a vast number of otherworldly creatures easily after tomorrow.

Otherwise, if his experience for leveling was insufficient, would Fang Shi not go smashing doors at night, searching room by room for zombies?

According to Fang Shi's current strength, after gripping the forged steel sword, he could smash one door with a single sword strike, with extremely high efficiency.

He would definitely accumulate enough experience to reach Level 3 before tomorrow.

But Fang Shi had ambition; after realizing that every "first time" would yield a reward,

he wanted to obtain as much as possible.

This would not only greatly improve his own strength but also better face future crises.

Do not think that martial artists who can suppress mountains and rivers with a fist, or sword immortals who can roam the clear blue sky, could live carefree in the apocalypse.

Otherwise, the event where the human gathering place where Fang Shi lived before his rebirth was breached by monsters would not have occurred.

Only by being one step ahead, and thus ahead in every step, can one preserve oneself in future, even greater crises.

Two hundred meters above the ground, where there should have been nothing, a faint silver light flickered.

As time passed, the silver light grew brighter and brighter,

and the range grew larger and larger.

It gradually formed a mercury-like disc.

Immediately, a ripple spread across the silver disc, and a bird's head flashing with red light abruptly appeared upon the silver disc.

"Aaaah!"

Accompanied by a cry, a large bird about 2 meters long drilled out from the silver disc.

Its wingspan was an astonishing 5 meters, and when standing upright, it reached the height of a human.

The large bird's entire body was golden; its feathers were beautiful and smooth, and its whole body emitted a fiery red glow.

Especially its tail feathers, which were particularly long; during its flight, they resembled a streak of blazing fire streaking across the sky.

This was a Fire-Winged Bird from another world, a creature of at least Level 3.

It is rumored that this creature possesses a trace of Phoenix bloodline, hence it is accompanied by flames and can utilize the power of blazing fire.

Even some Fire-Winged Birds possess the ability of rebirth from ashes.

Even excluding these supernatural abilities, their beaks and sharp claws were extremely sharp, hook-shaped, resembling a set of sharp hooks.

They could easily tear prey into fragments.

These Fire-Winged Birds from another world would, for a very long time in the future, regard Ancheng as their territory and kill all intruders.

After this Fire-Winged Bird crossed the spatial channel, it first felt great discomfort.

Its own flame power decreased greatly, the red light emanating from its body slowly vanished, and its tail no longer dragged a long trail of fire.

The entire bird body began to appear ordinary; at best, it was just a beautiful large bird.

There was no longer any supernatural wonder from such creatures.

The reason was simple: on Blue Star, primal force was scarce, and for a Fire-Winged Bird long adapted to a primal-force environment,

it was just like an ordinary person entering the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, completely unable to adapt to the low-oxygen conditions.

A thought began to surface in its mind: better to return; this ghostly place had nothing worth staying for.

Better to return to the warm great forest and enjoy the mutual preening of female Fire-Winged Birds.

Thus, this Fire-Winged Bird, very willing to follow its own heart, flew for a while over Ancheng, then turned, intending to retreat back into the spatial rift.

But suddenly, the Fire-Winged Bird sensed an aura—the very aura that had first drawn it into the spatial rift.

It did not know what object this aura came from, but information inherited through its bloodline told it that it must find the source emitting this aura.

And obtain it; this would be extremely beneficial for its future evolution, even enabling bloodline sublimation and the restoration of its ancestors' bloodline.

In this way, it could become the king among the Fire-Winged Bird clan, possessing more preening females.

"Whoosh!"

The Fire-Winged Bird reversed its posture, diving downward like a sharp arrow, flying toward the source of the aura.

Moreover, as it gradually approached the ground, the sources of this aura grew ever more numerous, densely scattered across the earth.

The Fire-Winged Bird's blood began to boil throughout its body, with residual flame power flowing through its veins.

The characteristics of a supernatural creature began to manifest upon it.

A thin layer of flowing flame formed on its exterior, reducing air resistance while

also generating a rearward heat current that helped the Fire-Winged Bird fly faster.

It was like a meteor streaking across the night sky.

The Fire-Winged Bird possessed dark vision, with a very wide field of sight in the darkness.

In its eyes, below were tall buildings one after another, and the aura that attracted it was hidden within these structures.

Very soon, it could burst into the buildings and locate the source of the aura.

……

"Aaaah!"

A mournful cry filled with pain and helplessness issued from the Fire-Winged Bird's syrinx.

At this moment, the Fire-Winged Bird had already dived to a window.

Under the red illumination, one could clearly see a figure trembling inside the window.

Relying on the Fire-Winged Bird's abilities, these simple anti-theft windows could not stop it at all.

Even with only 12 points of strength, with the support of flame power, these hollow stainless-steel bars would be torn open with ease.

In this way, it could capture the human hiding inside the house.

At such close range, the Fire-Winged Bird could already clearly perceive

that the aura attracting it resided in this hiding human, filling his flesh and blood.

Instinct told the Fire-Winged Bird that if it could eat this human, it would absorb the source of this aura, thereby achieving its own evolution.

But when the Fire-Winged Bird attempted to break the window, a crisis of death surfaced in its heart.

Accompanying it was also a piece of information.

This information told the Fire-Winged Bird that if it dared attack the human inside the building, it would die instantly.

The Fire-Winged Bird did not quite believe it at first, but when the thought of attacking arose, its entire body trembled uncontrollably.

It could not make even the slightest move; its body instinctively wanted to flee.

It tried once, but not only did it have no effect, the flame power within its body began to lose control and backfire upon itself.

This caused it to scream out in agony.

The information also told it that this was merely a warning; a second time would mean death.

This punishment, akin to the wrath of heaven, made the Fire-Winged Bird recall the gods described in its bloodline inheritance.

Legend held that gods wielded authority, being omnipresent and omnipotent within the scope of their authority.

Mortals who dared offend the gods would inevitably be frozen to death by ice.

Moreover, death was not the end.

Their souls would be buffeted by cold winds for all eternity, never finding rest.

Thinking of this, the Fire-Winged Bird could not help but feel fear.

As a fire-type magical beast, it feared cold the most.

Its clan never ventured north and had never seen snow.

Instead, they lived in the tropical jungles of the south, enjoying a climate of eternal summer.

For them, dying from cold was the cruelest punishment.

Could it be that these humans were protected by a god, while it had offended a mighty deity?

Just as the Fire-Winged Bird, trembling with fear, wished to return to the other world, another piece of information arrived.

The new information told the Fire-Winged Bird that, apart from the humans inside the buildings, it could freely hunt and kill humans outside the buildings without incurring any punishment.

Not only would there be no punishment; the power of the laws even permitted it to freely absorb them—this was its reward.

This piece of information greatly lifted the Fire-Winged Bird's spirits; the thing attracting it was the power of the laws.

And the god's protection over humans had its limits.

As long as it obeyed the god's rules, it would have a chance to capture humans.

And obtain the so-called power of the laws.

Finally, the Fire-Winged Bird hovered over this building, circling everywhere, unwilling to leave.

For the sublimation of its bloodline, for its own evolution, it decided to exercise its patience and wait for the humans inside the building to depart.

Just as in the past, when hunting prey in the jungle, he waited patiently for the prey to appear, then delivered the fatal blow.