Chapter 64: Don't Die Yet...
Beside the steel train, everyone stared in shock at the large blood-colored spatial rift. The Koutetsujou world was a low-martial world; under normal development, such a scene would never appear.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The earth trembled as four golden light walls sealed off the surrounding two-kilometer area. Dark clouds rolled in the sky, like the end of the world.
Crack!
Invisible chains shattered one by one, and the world's power restrictions were lifted.
The monster covered in black bugs froze in place. After contact with the blood energy from the spatial rift, its body trembled uncontrollably. It had an urge to turn and flee.
Suddenly, the blood energy dissipated, and the pressure on everyone eased. The spatial rift in the distance vanished.
"What... was that just now?"
The protagonist Ikoma swallowed his saliva. The others nearby remained silent.
"Is it over? Just like that?"
The bug-covered monster was also somewhat stunned, but soon, it focused its gaze on the dozen or so plot characters and contractors. It needed to quickly fission into lower individuals to occupy this world as soon as possible.
The bug-covered monster called itself Sammer Fimo, hailing from the Void.
At the spot where the spatial rift disappeared, Su Xiao was amidst a large group of Kabane. These Kabane, covered in dark red cracks and with extremely high internal temperatures, had all stopped. Their virus-eroded brains had lost their ability to perceive danger.
"Roar!"
Several Kabane lunged at Su Xiao with claws bared. Whoosh—blood energy radiated from Su Xiao as the center point. The surrounding Kabane fell like dominoes in waves. Those supposedly unstoppable unless their hearts were destroyed shattered apart. In an instant, silence fell over the area within a few hundred meters.
This sudden collapse of a large group of Kabane caught Sammer Fimo's attention. By now, several corpses lay nearby. The plot villain, Biba Amatori, clutched his throat with one hand. As his body convulsed, blood sprayed from his mouth, nose, and between his fingers.
Sammer Fimo's pitch-black clawed foot pressed down on the protagonist Ikoma's head. Half of Ikoma's head sank into the mud, his skull slightly cracked. Although he had overcome the Kabane virus within him, the power he gained couldn't even mount the most basic resistance.
Sammer Fimo gripped a young girl's neck with one hand. This girl, named Mumei, was quite formidable in the Koutetsujou world. But now, it meant nothing. In an instant, she was subdued, her body limp.
Crack, crack...
A crisp sound came as a figure walked over the large piles of Kabane corpses and remains.
Sammer Fimo held a brownish-yellow egg, about to shove it into Mumei's mouth. Hearing this sound, its claw stopped.
Sammer Fimo turned its head toward the source of the sound. A man in a long black leather coat, a long sword hanging at his waist, and blue light flickering in his pupils was approaching from afar.
"Who... are you?"
Sammer Fimo's eyes showed some confusion. Su Xiao didn't feel dangerous to it. This could mean two things: either Su Xiao's strength was weaker than Sammer Fimo's, or Su Xiao's strength completely overwhelmed Sammer Fimo's. If the gap was too large, perception could be misleading, resulting in a non-dangerous feeling.
Su Xiao ignored the bug-covered creature ahead. With each step he took, the sense of restraint on him weakened, as if unlocking one shackle after another.
Clatter—a sound of chains hitting the ground reached Su Xiao's ears. The restraint completely vanished.
Boom!
A sonic boom spread from beside Su Xiao. Banishment pierced through the air, suddenly appearing before Sammer Fimo's eyes.
At that moment, Sammer Fimo's muscles bulged. It finally sensed a terrifying crisis. The black bugs on its body stopped writhing, entering a defensive form.
Just as Sammer Fimo was about to leap back, it felt a cold sensation on its limbs, and then its vision rapidly lowered until it was level with the ground.
In an instant, Sammer Fimo's limbs vanished. Black blood and flesh splattered. Left with only a torso, it lay on the ground.
Mumei, whose neck had been gripped by Sammer Fimo, collapsed to the ground. Black blood splattered onto her fair cheeks.
"As expected..."
The black-stockinged mature woman slumped beside the steel train, despair in her eyes. She had guessed right—something even more terrifying had arrived. For them, the black monster was an insurmountable existence, but for that black monster, the fifth-rank purge personnel were equally insurmountable enemies.
Perhaps due to the black-stockinged woman's muttering, a pair of blue-glowing eyes turned toward her. Their gazes met.
The black-stockinged woman's entire body stiffened. An indescribable fear surged in her heart, causing her to freeze, unable to move even a finger.
The basic effect of [Black King's Fall Sacrifice], 'Trembling Gaze,' was certainly not something a first-rank contractor could resist.
When Su Xiao looked away, the black-stockinged woman was drenched as if washed by water. Sweat plastered her hair to her face. Before this, she had planned to scavenge some benefits on the battlefield after Su Xiao fought Sammer Fimo. Now, she had no such thoughts left, entering a state of Zen.
The torso-only Sammer Fimo lay on the ground, its body twitching unconsciously. It didn't even dare to heal itself. A faint blue energy clung to its wounds. Once this energy invaded its body, it would be dead for sure.
Su Xiao approached Sammer Fimo. Banishment transformed into a shard form, clinging to his sleeve.
Su Xiao crouched in front of Sammer Fimo. Amu, Bubu Wang, and Beini all arrived, surrounding Sammer Fimo.
Amu's magma-like hand pressed toward Sammer Fimo.
"Meow!"
Beini patted Amu with her small paw, meaning: "You're too heavy-handed. Don't kill it. This thing is very rare. I've never seen one before."
Bubu Wang also sized up Sammer Fimo, full of curiosity. Such a weak boss—it was the first time he'd seen one.
"Origin, name, purpose (Black Abyss language)."
Su Xiao felt this creature might be from the Black Abyss, given its all-black appearance.
Sammer Fimo, lips trembling, looked up at Su Xiao blankly.
"Not from the Black Abyss? Void? (One of the most common Void languages)."
Hearing this, Sammer Fimo was clearly stunned, trembling even more violently.
"Origin, name, purpose (Void language)."
Su Xiao didn't immediately eliminate this foreign creature, because he felt it might be the prototype of a violator or anomaly.
"I... I come from Andorhal. I am a noble of the Void. You can't kill me. I still have value. You can... (Void language)"
Before Sammer Fimo could finish, Su Xiao's gaze shifted to Bubu Wang. Bubu Wang tilted his head, indicating he had never heard of such a place in the Void.
"How far is the continent you're on from Arcane Eternal Star?"
"Arcane? Eternal Star?"
Sammer Fimo looked at Su Xiao blankly. As a slave, it wasn't even qualified to know of Arcane Eternal Star's existence.
"Then how far is it from the City of Burning Fall on the Shattered Continent?"
"?"
Sammer Fimo was even more confused. It had never heard of the Shattered Continent either. This was a typical Void hick, embarrassing the Void.
Su Xiao: "..."
Bubu Wang: "..."
"Are you really... from the Void?"
Su Xiao had originally hoped to gain some valuable information. Now it seemed this foreign creature had just stumbled into this world by chance, dazzled by the low-martial world's sights, unable to resist the temptation of human flesh, and believing itself invincible here, thus ignoring Reincarnation Paradise's warnings.
In reality, for such a coincidence of multiple factors, elimination wasn't the only option. If Sammer Fimo had heeded the warning and quietly waited until this world ended, completing a few special tasks, it would have gained a different opportunity—entering Reincarnation Paradise. Every creature has the same starting point; choices determine outcomes.
"Yes, I'm from the Void."
After experiencing a harsh dose of 'reality,' Sammer Fimo re-evaluated itself.
"Then what do you know?"
"I... I know how to operate a superconducting fission mining machine."
Sammer Fimo looked somewhat innocent, stating what it considered its most valuable knowledge.
"One last question..."
Just as Su Xiao was about to speak, he noticed the foreign creature lying on the ground shudder, then die. Beside him, Bubu Wang looked helpless. This was too weak. Banishment's earlier attack had avoided vital points, and only a small amount of Cyan Steel Shadow energy had invaded its body.