Devourer

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh~~~"

Amid the sound of tearing wind, figures rushed out of the bushes and into our sight.

They were Devourers, another legendary type of first-tier mutant!

They differed from Lickers. Their bodies were covered in dark red slime, and they crawled along the ground, neither fully human nor beast. Their ears bristled with spikes, while their abdomens were grotesquely bloated, as though they were pregnant.

"Roar~~~"

One of the Devourers suddenly let out an enraged roar. Its slightly protruding mouth actually split apart, forming three outward-folding, ferocious mandibles. Sharp teeth densely lined the inside, and three snake-tongue-like tongues writhed within.

"Holy crap!"

Xiao Bai instantly went pale, even blurting out a curse.

I cursed inwardly as well. The Devourers' design was far too realistic—or perhaps these mutants had always been real creatures to begin with.

As my gaze lingered briefly, the attributes of the leading Devourer finally appeared.

[Devourer] (Elite)

Level: 20

Attack: 85–120

Defense: 25

Health: 2500

Skills: [Bite lv4] [Devour lv4]

Details: Devourers were mutants created by nuclear radiation. Extremely vicious, they fed on the flesh and blood of humans and beasts. They excelled at devouring; once a target was swallowed, it would be difficult to escape the Devourer's mucous-filled stomach and intestines.

Five Devourers had appeared before us at once, beyond anything I had expected. If there had only been three, the three of us could each draw one away and keep them occupied, perhaps killing them without taking damage. But five had appeared all at once. Following conventional tactics, injuries were inevitable.

I would be fine. With my thick hide and sturdy body, I could absolutely handle this situation. Ruolin and Xiao Bai, however, were probably in danger.

"You two..."

With a fierce gleam in my eyes, I stared down the Devourers, keeping them from acting rashly as I asked in the Team Channel, "What are your defense and health like? Tell me honestly."

"I'm practically unarmored. My defense is 25, and my health isn't great either—not even 3,000." Ruolin answered truthfully.

"My defense is about the same, but Psionicists have low health growth, so I have less than 2,000 health."

Xiao Bai sounded anxious. "Ding Han, what do we do? It's already too late to retreat, isn't it?"

"Of course."

I stared resolutely at the Devourers. "So far, Star Abyss doesn't have items like return scrolls, and there's no such thing as an invincible Hearthstone. Mutants move much faster than players. Since we've encountered them, it's either us or them. We fight with everything we have and don't consider escape."

Ahead of us, three Devourers had already lowered their front claws slightly, assuming positions to pounce.

"I'll make the first move and draw their fire."

In the Team Channel, I said gravely, "Don't hold back on ammunition. Focus on killing the Devourer on the left first, then the second from the left, and so on. I'll buy you as much time as I can."

"Be careful!"

Zhang Ruolin gritted her teeth. "If it really comes down to it, run first. Xiao Bai and I will accept our miserable fate!"

"Cut the crap. Let's do this!"

Before I had even finished speaking, I had already charged out. The Roarer in my arms swept across them with a burst of gunfire, and all five Devourers immediately roared, their three-part mandibles writhing as they lunged at me with savage ferocity!

"Whoosh!"

The first Devourer abruptly opened its mouth in the wind and activated Devour!

Step Slash!

I instantly shifted sideways, switching to Vanguard Bee Sting. With a wet splat, I slashed down onto its mandibles, then activated Ground Spike Slash. Surging elemental force struck the ground and transformed into streams of sharp sword energy that burst from the earth, striking several Devourers with a series of puff, puff, puffs.

At the same time, two Devourers' claws struck my body. Yet the moment they scraped across the protective aura generated by Step Slash, sparks flew. They only wore down the aura armor's durability and failed to touch my health bar at all.

I stepped back with crossed feet, my body swaying like a pendulum to confuse their vision.

At one moment, the five Devourers visually lined up in a single row. Now!

Explosive Charge!

Boom!

My body turned into an afterimage once more as I shot forward, controlling the charge distance at 21 yards. I stopped only after piercing through all five Devourers, then sharply turned around and unleashed a combo of basic attack + Dragon Blade + basic attack upon the leftmost Devourer.

"Roar~~"

Combined with Ruolin and Xiao Bai's damage, the Devourer immediately let out a wail and collapsed to the ground, dead.

But I did not dare relax for even a moment. I quickly switched back to the Roarer, and just as a Devourer lunged in to swallow me, I activated Step Slash toward the right-front, instantly shifting five yards sideways!

Splat!

The Devourer bit down on empty air again, and all of them immediately became extremely agitated, blood-red light appearing across their bodies.

"Roar~~~"

One Devourer cried out, and the other three understood. They actually split into four directions in an instant, closing in to kill me from all sides.

A hint of despair rose in my heart. As expected of a 100% realistic game—the intelligence of these mutants was absolutely not low.

"Forget about me! Focus your fire!"

My gaze turned icy as I continuously fired at the pursuing Devourers, coordinating with Xiao Bai and Ruolin's concentrated attacks.

In just a few seconds, three more Devourers fell. But the last one was too fast. It practically rushed before me in an instant, its three-part mandibles splitting open and descending like they were blotting out the sky!

"Holy crap!"

My heart tightened. Both Step Slash and Explosive Charge, my two movement skills, were on cooldown. At this point, avoiding it with my own speed was nearly impossible.

"Ding Han!"

Amid Ruolin and Xiao Bai's screams, I lost my vision.

Splat!

The Devourer swallowed me in one bite. The word "Devour" flashed before my eyes, while excruciating pain shot through my entire body!

"1024!"

Four-digit damage—it was truly eye-opening!

Then my body was enveloped by indescribable stomach acid, and my health bar rapidly dropped. In the blink of an eye, I had continuously lost more than 2,500 health, with my total health loss already exceeding 3,600. If it had been either Ruolin or Xiao Bai, the Devourer would have killed them by now!

"You love eating that much?"

Inside the Devourer's stomach, I did not give up struggling. Instead, I kept wildly stabbing my sword around inside its stomach sac.

If you can't digest me quickly, then you die!

Splat!

At last, Vanguard Bee Sting pierced through its stomach wall, then through its abdomen. Light appeared ahead!

Without another word, I swung my sword and carved a huge "Z" inside its body. Then I kicked open the Devourer's inflamed duodenum and rolled out of its belly!

"Roar~~~"

The Devourer let out a mournful cry and fell straight to the ground, dead from being disemboweled.

"Ding Han, are you okay?"

Ruolin and Xiao Bai rushed over, but neither dared come too close. My body was covered in Devourer slime, and the smell was truly awful.

Then I looked at my health bar, which was below 50% but had not reached the 30% injury threshold, and felt greatly relieved.

"I'm fine."

I frowned. "But... do either of you have healing items? In my current state, I really don't dare keep fighting."

"I have some."

Xiao Bai generously took out some healing supplies from her Dimensional Storage Space and traded them to me: four Hemostatic Medicines, each capable of restoring 10% health, along with six bandages that restored 5% health. However, all these recovery items had cooldowns and could not be used continuously.

"Let's rest for a bit."

I grabbed a handful of weeds and roughly wiped the slime off my body. There was no time to worry about much else. I immediately used a healing item, restoring my health bar to around 60%.

"Mm."

The two girls squatted nearby, watching me together.

"What are you looking at? Do I have flowers on my face?"

"No."

Zhang Ruolin said, "Ding Han, you were so brave just now... like Master Ye. It felt like you had the momentum to take on ten Devourers."

"If ten Devourers really appeared together, we'd get wiped."

I was in no mood for jokes. "Just now, I nearly thought I was done for. You can't understand what that felt like."

"I can understand."

Xiao Bai said, "A few days ago, I got knocked down to 23% health in a fight and triggered the Lightly Injured warning. At the time, I almost thought I was really about to say goodbye to this world. That feeling was terrible."

"Mm."

I nodded. "I hope our luck improves from here on out. Hopefully, Devourers and Lickers show up less often."

"Indeed."

Xiao Bai suggested, "Let's head to the open plains. Use your Wind Whisperer for long-range sniping to lure monsters over. That way, we can control how many we pull ourselves."

"Good idea. Let's do that!"

So I led the two girls wandering through the wilderness. Using Wind Whisperer to lure monsters was indeed much more convenient. Wind Whisperer had an effective range of 2,500 meters, while my lv10 Basic Shooting could guarantee a 100% hit rate within roughly 1,000 meters. Fortunately, I still had about a 30% hit rate at 2,500 meters. A few extra shots were enough to lure monsters.

We kept the number of monsters pulled each time below three, which was the safest option. The only cost was ammunition.

Furthermore, after players lost health, they slowly regenerated it over time. So I only used two of the Hemostatic Medicines Xiao Bai had given me. Once my health had recovered above 80%, I was already quite safe, and there was no need to waste more.

We kept grinding from morning until evening. With the massive haul of Experience Points, Ruolin and Xiao Bai each leveled up twice, while I only leveled once, reaching level 19. As usual, I allocated all three free attribute points to Strength.

By the time night fell, we had long since completed the required monster kill count. Yet the supplies stolen by the mutants remained nowhere to be found, which was rather frustrating.

Ding!

At that moment, I received a WeChat message from Milo, who was far away in Creek City. "Ding Han, why aren't you off work yet? Hurry back. I bought beer and cooked a few dishes. Let's have a drink, then help me work out some lyrics. I want to recreate the lyrics to Jay Chou's Sunny Day and use it as the title track for my debut."

"Work out my ass. I'm killing monsters!"

"Oh, got it. You do your thing! Sorry for bothering you, goodbye!"

Ahem, several author friends came to me and told me that my update speed was too fast. The new-book ranking system on Qidian removes books once they reach 200,000 words. At my current update speed, I'll fall off the rankings very soon. But the recommendation opportunities on the new-book rankings can't be missed, so...

I plan to make a deal with everyone. Starting at midnight tomorrow, I'll switch to two updates a day—the 8 p.m. chapter will be canceled. That means I'll leave the rankings in 18 days. I'll owe everyone 18 chapters, and at midnight on the first day after leaving the rankings, I'll make up all 18 chapters as bonus updates!

Thank you, everyone. Please understand!