What Is Going On?

Wei Ke felt like he had a very long nightmare.

He got lost in a thick, white fog.

He didn't know who he was or where he was.

He had only a vague idea in his mind.

He is searching.

What are they searching for?

He frowned and began to think.

Looking for... A De.

Then he remembered his identity and what he was doing.

He was searching for A De, searching for that closest person—

"A dog?"

A mocking laugh, seemingly coming from nowhere, rang out.

"No! A De isn't a dog!" he retorted instinctively. "He's a wolf!"

At the same time, look around.

But all that could be seen was a vast expanse of white; there was no one in sight, and no sound could be heard.

It was as if everything that had just happened was merely his illusion.

"A De is a wolf," he whispered. "And more than that, he's my...family."

As soon as he finished speaking, a soft "whimpering" sound came from the mist.

The sound was very soft, as soft as a breeze.

But Wei Ke still recognized whose voice it was.

It belongs to A De!

His A De!

As if he had found the only glimmer of light in the boundless darkness, he quickly took a step and walked towards the source of the sound.

"A De, are you there?!" he shouted, his voice echoing through the Pale World, "Is it you?!"

He heard that sobbing sound again.

The sound made him tremble all over.

A De, that's A De.

So he quickened his pace, from walking to running, and finally to sprinting.

But that's still not enough, still not enough!

Too slow, still too slow.

He needed to go faster, much faster, as if only then could he catch A De.

So he risked everything.

Without realizing it, his gaze drifted lower and lower, but his speed increased.

All he could hear was the whistling wind, but the image of "A De" was becoming increasingly clear before his eyes.

It's just ahead! It's just ahead!

Finally, he broke through the fog, and the ethereal black shadow gradually became clear in his eyes.

He finally saw it.

But the end of the fog was not A De.

Instead, it was a boy who was extremely familiar to everyone.

That's... Wei Ke.

"A De." "Wei Ke" on the other end smiled and opened his arms to him, saying softly, "I've been looking for you for so long."

Wei Ke instinctively lowered his head.

I realized that, without realizing it, I no longer used my legs to run.

Instead... black claws.

The two are about to embrace.

Then, a sudden mechanical sound interrupted everything, accompanied by an almost ruthless male voice.

"It's time to wake up."

In an instant, the "Wei Ke" before them and the surrounding white mist vanished.

He suddenly opened his eyes.

Bai Wei, covered in wounds, sat upright in front of him, holding the old Music Box in his hand.

The spring on the Music Box is slowly turning.

"Finally awake," Bai Wei shrugged. "It wasn't easy."

It took Wei Ke quite a while to recover from the lingering effects of his bizarre dream.

Although he really wanted to ask Bai Wei what was going on and why he heard the Music Box in his dream.

However, before that, there are clearly more important issues.

"Ulu... what happened to you?! Who hurt you?" Wei Ke looked at Bai Wei, who was covered in injuries, in shock, and then looked around. "Where... where are we?"

Wei Ke's last memory was of that dilapidated little house. He only remembered that he was sleepy and wanted to take a nap, so he locked the door and fell asleep.

Then I had that dream again.

When they woke up again, they were in a vast wilderness, and Bai Wei was just like when they had met him two days earlier in the Senluo Church, his whole body exuding a strong, pungent smell of blood.

He really didn't know who could have hurt Bai Wei like this.

"A lot happened last night," Bai Wei said calmly. "Simply put, your enemies and my enemies have both come knocking on our door."

His enemies... are they the Wildfire Cult's Pursuer?

Who are Bai Wei's enemies?

"Why didn't you wake me up?" Wei Ke said hurriedly. "I'm not exactly a fighter either; I could have helped you, no matter what!"

"We'll talk about whether or not to wake you up later," Bai Wei said slowly, leaning against the hillside. "There's something more important I need to tell you beforehand."

"... More important things?"

"Yes." Bai Wei nodded. "That's about my enemies. They sent something very troublesome to hunt me down."

"Something troublesome...?" Wei Ke noticed Bai Wei's adjective. "Not a 'person'?"

"That thing is hard to describe as 'human' anymore," Bai Wei said. "I'm not even sure if it can still be considered a normal living being."

The "devourer" that Bai Wei was referring to was naturally the one sent by Rhine.

That thing was definitely the greatest malice of the Rhine Church.

They are a group of things that cannot be killed. Even if their bodies are completely destroyed and crushed into dust, they can be resurrected. In fact, each time they are resurrected, there are more of them. For example, if one of them is cut in half, the two halves will fill the missing parts and become new individuals.

Moreover, they share memories, vision, and combat experience.

So each battle, each defeat, makes them stronger, until they completely devour their target.

Upon hearing Bai Wei's account, Wei Ke couldn't help but tremble.

"There really is such a thing in this world?"

"Yes," Bai Wei said, "That's why I said it is the greatest malice of the Rhine Church."

At this point, Bai Wei couldn't help but sigh softly to himself.

Because the Devourer is also related to Visas.

It's not that it was created by Visas's power, but rather that its power originated from Visas's mortal enemies, namely the Gods.

In the game, the Devourer is described as "the last trace of resentment and curse left behind by the Gods who were killed by Visas, unwilling to be completely annihilated."

In this world, only the Gods and Visas possess the characteristic of "immortality".

But their immortality is like a beggar's version compared to Visas's. Even after Visas's soul was annihilated for a thousand years, his physical body could not be destroyed. The severed pieces of his body still contained his former power, which had not changed for a thousand years.

After the Gods died, all that remained were so-called "resentment and curses".

But even "resentment and curses" are still very troublesome things in this world.

Rhine brought together all these troublesome things and created the extremely sinister "Devourer".

It's truly sinister; it's practically a special attack against the power of Visas, its very existence driven by the instinct to hunt Visas.

Of course, it doesn't actually have the ability to hunt Visas, since they were all killed by Visas in life, and after death they lost all their power and memories, leaving only a tiny bit of resentment and curse.

However, the fact that it cannot hunt Visas does not mean that it cannot hunt the holder of Visas's corpse.

In the game, as soon as it senses Visas' Corpse Pieces, it will immediately begin hunting down the owner of the body parts.

Even though the players were still on Rhine's side at the time, they still chased after them without any rationality.

Only the Bell Ringer can use the power of the Rhine to slightly restrain their actions. Once the Bell Ringer are gone, they will follow their instincts—hunting Visas, hunting Visas by any means necessary.

Of course, when Bai Wei was telling Wei Ke about it, he didn't mention Visas, only saying that these guys came to hunt him.

After hearing this, Wei Ke immediately asked, "So, if we control the Bell Ringer, we can control them?"

"That's how it is in theory."

"That would be wonderful..."

"But the Bell Ringer is already dead."

Wei Ke's expression froze.

And you were the one who killed him.

Bai Wei added a sentence in his mind.

Yes, when Wei Ke suddenly attacked last night, the first person he killed was the Bell Ringer.

A Bell Ringer controls a devourer.

So Wei Ke's claw attack last night caused the Devourer to lose control on the spot, but before the Devourer could start chasing Bai Wei, Wei Ke slapped it to pieces.

Unlike Xi Ze, the Devourer cannot instantly regenerate, which is why Bai Wei was able to escape with Wei Ke.

But what happens next is hard to say.

The Devourer's rebirth is not without cost; it needs to devour flesh to grow new flesh. And last night's battlefield had far too much flesh to offer them.

It will soon be reborn and then catch up again.

Next time, they won't be so easy to deal with, especially now that they know Wei Ke's fighting style.

As for Bai Wei...

Bai Wei rubbed his left eye, looking somewhat troubled.

In his existing rules, the best way to deal with these guys is [Gaze], but the problem is that he hasn't recovered from the cost of [Visas Phantom], and all the rules are sealed. The only thing he can use is [Disturbance], which he won from that silly big brother Luo Qi.

But he didn't think giving those guys a thumbs up would do any good.

Moreover, if we have to say, the "stare" ability isn't that useful, because unless you erase them immediately upon contact, once they split and evolve into a large enough number, it's quite difficult to stare them out one by one.

Fortunately, this land possesses a rule that is most effective at dealing with them.

It seems we need to speed things up.

Bai Wei looked at Wei Ke and said, "I'm thirsty."

Wei Ke's thoughts were still on the Devourer: "What?"

"I said I was thirsty." Bai Wei shook the empty bottle in his hand, then pointed to a pool of water not far away. "There's water over there."

Wei Ke hadn't reacted yet. "Then go get some water, why are you telling me?"

"I see," Bai Wei said calmly. "I didn't expect that after all the effort I put into rescuing you, I was covered in injuries and can't even walk now, and you wouldn't even bother to get me a bottle of water."

Having said that, Wei Ke finally understood what Bai Wei meant. He took the bottle with a strange expression, muttering, "Why didn't you just say it directly? Why beat around the bush?" as he walked towards the nearby pond.

Bai Wei didn't say anything, she just looked at him quietly.

The look in his eyes made Wei Ke uneasy, so he quickened his pace and walked to the edge of the pool.

Come to think of it, he was so busy asking about the Devourer that he didn't seem to have asked about the dream or why Bai Wei didn't wake him up last night.

Make sure to ask when you get back; don't forget.

With that thought in mind, Wei Ke bent down to collect water from the pool.

But then he froze.

Because he saw the reflection on the water's surface.

"A De ..."

Wei Ke saw A De.

He instinctively thought that A De was underwater, so he hurriedly buried himself even lower, trying to pull A De out of the water.

But the action stopped halfway through.

Because A De only has half a face, and the other half... is himself.

Time seemed to stand still at that moment.

Until two drops of saliva seeped from the wolf's fangs and dripped onto the water's surface.

Ripples spread across the water, blurring everything, as if all that could be seen and heard was but a mirage.

However, when the water returned to calm, the half-human, half-wolf face still lingered in Wei Ke's eyes with an indescribable fear.

"...Mr Ulu".

He slowly turned around, his half-face facing Bai Wei, his voice and facial muscles trembling simultaneously.

"Can you tell me? What... is going on?"

Bai Wei simply looked at Wei Ke silently, without saying a word.

Why did it turn out like this?

When the Wildfire Cultist's reinforcements arrived, the scene was already a mess.

What exactly happened here?

No one could answer that.

"Where is Chief Lauren? Have you seen Chief Lauren?!"

As soon as the leader of the cult began shouting, a response came from the other side.

"Chief Lauren... seems to be here."

His voice was full of shock and insecurity.

The believers then gathered around and realized why the believer had spoken in that tone.

They found Lauren.

But it was only half of Lauren.

And it's still... Lauren is only half a wolf even after Complete Wolf Transformation.

"This... how is this possible?" The leader of the cultists' voices began to tremble. "Who could kill the Complete Wolf Transformation Chief Lauren!?"

No one could answer him.

Chief Lauren was already among the strongest in the entire Wildfire Cult, and they couldn't imagine anyone on this land who could kill the opponent in his Complete Wolf Transformation.

"Go and report to Chief Wu De immediately!"

"Yes!"

One of the believers quickly left after receiving the order.

The leader of the cultists shook his head, then bent down to examine Lauren's body.

It's fine if he's dead.

Why does the corpse look like it's been eaten?

The thought sent a chill down his spine.

However, when he turned Lauren's body over completely, an even more chilling scene appeared.

Because Lauren has a huge wound on her back that allows you to see directly into her body.

Lauren's body... was empty.

The internal organs... are all gone.

The leader opened his mouth wide, but before he could speak, he heard a scream.

He instinctively turned his head and saw a very thin guy who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, with his mouth open as if it were bigger than his face.

He bit off the head of one of the cultists and slowly chewed it.

Everyone was stunned.

The person chewed while making indistinct syllables, which could be barely heard if you got close.

What it was shouting was...

"Ves... Sa... S..."