Demonic Laws

As if the time had come, the Demon Eggs began to hatch in clusters.

How should he put it? The scene before him was like the dinosaur hatching scenes in Jurassic Park Roy had watched before. As Little Demons broke out of their shells one after another, the entire beach suddenly became a breeding ground for monsters...

The Little Demons that hatched one after another came in all sorts of forms. There were humanoid Little Demons like Roy, beast-like Little Demons that walked on all fours, and Multi-legged Little Demons resembling insects. Some of these Insectoid Little Demons even had Elytra on their backs! They looked like the kind that could fly from birth.

Not only did they differ in form, but their Skin Color varied as well. Most had blackish-red skin, but there were also dark gray, cyan, and even skins covered in a keratinous layer.

It seemed that demons were merely a collective term. There should also be Racial Division within the Demon Race.

Unlike Roy, who had looked around to observe his surroundings after being born, these Little Demons seemed driven by instinct. The moment they crawled out, they eagerly began gnawing on the eggshells that had nurtured them. This filled the entire beach with rustling and cracking sounds. At least two-thirds of the tens of thousands of Demon Eggs on the beach had hatched by now, and the sounds of thousands of Little Demons chewing eggshells together were enough to make anyone with Trypophobia shudder!

Roy watched the scene before him warily. Looking at these Little Demons, he did not feel even the slightest sense of kinship. However, he noticed something: the Little Demons born now were somewhat different from when he had been born. Most of them were fairly dry when they crawled out, with barely any mucus visible in their shells. Unlike Roy, whose shell still had quite a bit of mucus left at the bottom, leaving him drenched when he emerged.

After comparing himself to several Little Demons that looked extremely similar to him in appearance and skin color, Roy realized that his body seemed smaller and less robust than theirs...

Was this the aftereffect of Premature Birth?

Before long, the Little Demons that had finished eating their eggshells did something that Roy found Horrifying.

About twenty meters to Roy's right stood a Little Demon with black skin and a Fierce Visage. He had four eyes on his forehead, with Vertical Pupils, and a short tail behind him. Under Roy's watchful gaze, after this Little Demon finished eating his eggshell, he patted his belly, bent down to pick up a cooled Lava Stone by his feet, and then hopped toward the shore behind him.

There were quite a few remaining Demon Eggs along the beach by the sea that had yet to hatch. Hugging the stone, the Little Demon found one unhatched egg, raised the stone with both hands, and viciously Smashed Into the eggshell.

At the impact, the eggshell immediately cracked. The Little Demon holding the stone did not let up, striking it several more times with loud cracks until he directly smashed the shell apart!

The moment the shell broke, the mucus inside came pouring out. A fully formed Little Demon within the shell seemed to sense an Existential Crisis and struggled to open his eyes and crawl out. But the Little Demon holding the stone was truly ruthless—he actually raised the stone and smashed it down at the Little Demon inside!

The intense pain made the Little Demon inside the shell let out a miserable shriek, but with his Restricted Movement, he had no strength at all to stop the Four-Eyed Little Devil's brutality. As the stone continued to fall, the Little Demon's cries gradually grew quieter.

He realized that he would die before he could even be born...

It was not just this Four-Eyed Little Devil. Most of the Little Demons that had already hatched on the beach made similar moves. As though they had arranged it beforehand, they picked up stones from the ground as weapons, smashed every Demon Egg that had failed to hatch, and then killed the Little Demons inside one by one.

It was an extremely cruel scene, and Cold Air ran straight down Roy's spine.

Was this the Law of Survival in the Demon World?!

Not to mention that Roy, a counterfeit demon, subconsciously did not regard these Bizarrely Shaped Little Demons as kin. Even these genuine demons did not regard one another as kin either. Roy turned his head and saw many Little Demons, after Completed their First Kill, clapping their hands proudly as they jumped about in place, letting out grating Screeching Laughter as though they had just played a fun game.

Even their Juvenile Forms were so Cruel and Bloodthirsty. The habits of demons were plain to see.

The Four-Eyed Little Devil not far from Roy had also Completed his First Kill. Then, from the body of the Little Demon he had killed, a tiny Light Orb suddenly emerged and wobbled as it tried to float away. Before it could rise, however, the killer beside it—the Four-Eyed Little Devil—opened his palm and snatched it in one grab!

After catching the Light Orb, the Four-Eyed Little Devil tossed it into his mouth and swallowed it with a gulp.

Immediately afterward, the Four-Eyed Little Devil's body began to tremble as he entered a strange state. Even Roy, merely watching from the sidelines, could tell that he... looked utterly blissed out!

Looking at that expression, a song suddenly surfaced in Roy's mind: I'm so high, it feels like my life has reached its climax...

"That Light Orb was... a soul!?" But Roy quickly came to his senses and hurriedly looked around. Only then did he discover that the Little Demons who had hatched first had all harvested souls from the Little Demons they had killed, and swallowed them immediately!

Then they all wore that same euphoric expression...

This was probably caused by the Soul Devouring Addiction ingrained in demonic nature. No wonder souls were linked to demons in so many legends...

Seeing this, Roy realized that his chance to obtain his first soul seemed to have appeared! That chance lay in the Little Demons that had failed to crawl out of their eggshells!

As a weak premature baby, Roy had a strong Sense of Crisis. Every sign he had observed since birth showed that only the strong could survive in this Demon World. He could not guarantee that the Little Demons around him would not set their sights on someone as weak-looking as him. To raise his chances of survival, he had to increase his own assets at any cost.

So Roy immediately picked up a rock and ran toward a Demon Egg.

Gritting His Teeth, Roy raised the stone and smashed it against the eggshell. The very first blow cracked the shell.

He kept smashing. With two more cracks, the eggshell finally broke apart, and the Egg Liquid inside flowed out. Within the shell, a pitch-black, worm-like demon with Sharp Mouthparts seemed to sense an Existential Crisis and began struggling to crawl out.

Yet its fierce appearance only made Roy feel even less psychological burden as he smashed a stone onto its head.

The Worm Devil's bizarre body made it impossible to tell where its head was, but striking near those Sharp Mouthparts could not possibly be wrong. After Roy gritted his teeth and pummeled it wildly with several thuds, the Worm Devil was covered in white slurry. Mixed with Purple Demon Blood, the slurry looked extremely Nauseating.

Forcing down his nausea, Roy Completed his First Kill. He then harvested a Soul Light Orb from the Worm Devil, but this Soul Light Orb was somewhat dim and rather small, as if its quality was not particularly good.

But no matter what, Roy now had his first soul. It had finally met the requirements for drawing and saving, and it seemed he could strengthen himself...