"Woof woof woof woof~"
That evil bark was distorted by excitement and pleasure.
Garen expressionlessly pulled his body free from the tree trunk covered in spikes, his eyes blazing with a terrifying, devouring fire.
His Data Mode body had left his outer shell completely unharmed.
When Garen pulled himself out of the cluster of spikes, neither his pierced skin nor his thoroughly impaled brain had suffered the slightest damage. Even his armor and robes remained completely intact.
But Garen had no mood to marvel at such an unbelievable sight.
"Damn it."
"I almost suffered a crushing defeat through carelessness."
Garen ground out those blood-soaked words through clenched teeth, a gleaming greatsword already gripped tightly in his hands.
Killing intent surged in every direction.
An ordinary urban youth thrown into another world, one who would have had a ninety-percent chance of starving to death without a cheat, had awakened within a single day the killing intent only hardened bandits and battle-tested generals possessed.
"Woof woof woof woof!"
Evil Dog Teddy, drunk on excitement, failed to recognize the danger and continued wagging its pom-pom-like stubby tail with great enthusiasm.
It might have thought Garen had turned around merely to change positions.
"A Broken-Spined Dog dares bark madly before me?!"
Garen furiously raised his greatsword over his head and roared like thunder:
"Fatal Strike!"
The greatsword in Garen's hand immediately bloomed with golden light. It was as though a warm, radiant Holy Light had merged into the cold steel, elevating the already magnificent blade to a sacred realm.
It was an indescribable sight.
If he had to describe that feeling, it was the Sword of Justice!
Garen, the Might of Demacia, was also a knight of justice and the Radiant God of War.
Although this Garen was a fake, when a game hero's skills were projected into reality, they still retained some of the original hero's aura.
Anyone who saw such sword light would instinctively feel that its wielder was a righteous person worthy of respect.
But their Garen was ultimately a fake.
So he raised the Sword of Justice and shouted:
"Today, I'm going to smash your dog head to pieces!"
Garen leaped forward with a swing of his sword.
The effect of Fatal Strike granted Garen a thirty-percent movement speed boost. Reflected in reality, it made his entire body lighter and swifter.
His body was already powerful. With such a buff and his fury driving him, the speed Garen unleashed in that instant was astonishing.
That lightning-fast figure and the tearing whistle through the air were nothing like what an Iron Can in heavy armor wielding a greatsword should have been capable of.
Such speed was undoubtedly the best guarantee for an attack.
But—
Big Teddy had already reacted.
It was not because Big Teddy's physical abilities were too formidable, nor because Garen's attack lacked sharpness.
It was because Garen had shouted the name of his skill in an incredibly chuunibyou manner before attacking.
When someone yelled that loudly, even a dog would know it was about to get hit.
So when Garen swung his sword toward the dog head he wanted to smash, Big Teddy had already planted all four paws and leaped aside, shifting a considerable distance away.
It dodged?
Before the sword swing had even finished, its wielder had already realized his mistake.
But once the greatsword had been chopped out, it was difficult to freely control its force and direction.
At least for this fake Garen, whose swordsmanship was at level zero, there was absolutely no way he could pull off some fancy Mid-air Ninety-Degree Rotation and Direction Change Movement with his blade.
But!
Just as the blade missed Teddy's head and was about to strike empty air, the two-handed greatsword in Garen's hands bizarrely performed a highly unscientific mid-air ninety-degree turn.
It was as though Garen had not swung the sword at all. After he swung it out, the blade simply attacked on its own.
Then, the greatsword chased after Big Teddy's dodging body like a nimble, precise homing missile.
In the end, it smashed heavily into Teddy's side.
Garen's sword was a two-handed greatsword, broad-bodied and pointed at the tip, immensely thick and heavy.
When thrust straight ahead, it struck like an armor-piercing spike. When swung in a slashing arc, it became a massive siege hammer.
And this Big Teddy suffered the greatsword's Blunt Strike.
Its several-ton body was deformed by the impact in an instant, then staggered backward several steps beyond its control.
The enormous pressure from the greatsword's blunt strike also spread through Big Teddy's organs via its flesh and bones in dissipating vibrations.
"Woooof~"
Having finally steadied itself, Big Teddy's bark had become far more pained and aggrieved.
The peculiar excitement in its eyes instantly transformed into humanlike fear and terror.
It immediately lost its nerve.
Although its physique meant such injuries had not completely robbed it of its ability to fight.
It still lost its nerve.
Big Teddy closed its mouth and only dared let out low whimpers. Its eyes watched Garen timidly, afraid that the big Iron Can before it would swing another sword at it.
But Garen was immersed in this bizarre phenomenon:
His sword had clearly missed. How had it suddenly changed direction and struck Big Teddy in the end?
Could it be—
Garen thought of his Data Mode, then looked at the greatsword in his hand:
This was—
A targeted attack?
Without another word, Garen set Big Teddy before him as his target in his mind and swung his sword again.
He swung it behind himself.
The enemy was in front of him, yet he swung his sword behind him. It was utterly absurd, like heading south to reach the north.
But the instant the blade swung out—
The greatsword in Garen's hand once again performed a one-hundred-eighty-degree mid-air turn, then flew straight toward Big Teddy's body on its own.
Big Teddy instinctively tried to dodge, but it was useless.
Boom!
Big Teddy was struck by the greatsword again. This time, it could barely remain standing.
It wanted to run.
But Big Teddy, whose intelligence far surpassed that of Earth's animals, clearly understood:
Judging by the speed Garen had displayed earlier, it could not possibly escape.
So Big Teddy could only force itself to maintain its stance, using weak whimpers to beg for the other party's mercy.
Garen, however, had no time to care about Big Teddy's little actions. He shouted in disbelief within his heart:
It really was a targeted attack!
A targeted attack was the kind of attack in games that would always hit once launched, one that only special skills could evade.
A hero's Normal Attack belonged to this category.
And for a hero like Garen, swinging a greatsword was a "Normal Attack."
It sounded impressive, but it was merely a basic game mechanic.
After all, they could not have heroes in a MOBA game trigger a MISS from a minion just while last-hitting, could they?
But once that mechanic was restored to reality—
It became a greatsword attack that never missed!
As long as an enemy was within Garen's attack range, they could only block, defend, or take the attack head-on.
This was practically a causality weapon.
"Hahaha!"
Swordsmanship novice Garen could not restrain his wild laughter after discovering that he had become a "guaranteed hit" swordmaster.
His laughter echoed through the forest, fermenting into something increasingly dangerous amid the rustling wind.
At the very least, Big Teddy sensed the danger and trembled in fear.
"Tai Ri Tian!"
Garen held his sword horizontally before his chest, a malicious smile on his face.
"Get on your knees and beg me now, and I might spare your dog life."
Naturally, that was an exceptionally malicious joke.
Garen did not believe that this Big Teddy, which would screw anything, could understand his final "mercy."
Then—
Thud—
Big Teddy bent its front legs and dropped to its knees without the slightest dignity.
"What?"
Garen was so stunned he could barely hold his greatsword.
"You can understand me?"
Garen asked in disbelief.
"Woof woof."
Big Teddy barked pitifully twice, then shrank back and nodded.
"..."
Garen gained a new respect for the intelligence of the big dog before him.
As expected, an elephant-sized Teddy from another world was different. With intelligence this humanlike, it was practically about to take human form.
Wait, that was not right.
He was speaking Chinese, wasn't he? Could dogs in another world understand Chinese?
Garen found it even harder to understand.
Then the cold, mechanical voice of the system suddenly spoke:
"The system provides the Passive Skill: Language Comprehension."
"The host's language will automatically be converted into the universal language of this world. The host will also be able to understand this world's writing."
So that was it.
Garen understood the principle:
The words he spoke now were automatically converted into the language of this other world.
And the Big Teddy before him really was intelligent enough to understand human speech.
Garen immediately felt even more anticipation for this other world, of which he had only just uncovered the tip of the iceberg.
Meanwhile, Big Teddy fully displayed the instincts of a fluffy animal, doing its utmost to show Garen how pitiful it was.
Its eyes became gentle and adorable, its tail wagged upright, and soft whimpers came from its mouth.
With its elephant-sized body, it successfully conveyed the friendliness and gentleness of a pet dog.
"This..."
Garen felt his heart soften slightly.
The greatsword in his hand remained suspended in midair, refusing to come down for a long while.
Big Teddy quietly retreated two steps.
Garen did not move.
Big Teddy inconspicuously backed away another two steps.
Garen still did not move, seemingly about to let it leave.
Gurgle—gurgle—
His stomach growled again.
The abundant stamina brought by Data Mode did not alleviate hunger.
Under the contrast between his impossibly healthy body and his uncontrollable hunger, Garen instead felt even hungrier.
And Big Teddy wanted to retreat another two steps.
"Stop!"
Garen gripped his greatsword tightly, his gaze blazing as righteous energy overflowed from him.
"You lecherous evil dog, who knows how many innocent creatures you have ravaged in the past!"
"I, Lone Ranger Garen, shall uphold justice on Heaven's behalf today!"
Before you continue