Giant Bird

"Dead?"

Du Ke waited cautiously for a moment before carefully approaching the edge of the large crater blasted out by the grenade. Chunks of flesh lay scattered on the ground, and he examined them first.

He had no idea which part of the creature the flesh came from. Even a small knife could not cut through the outer skin, which was a full finger thick. After considerable effort, he finally cut off a small piece and stuffed it into a test tube. Then he inspected the crater. Half of the Death Worm's body was exposed inside, so he released a rope, hooked it into the wound, and pulled.

Using the principle of a winch, he spent several minutes hauling the Death Worm completely out.

The Death Worm had not been blown apart. It merely had three large holes in its body. It was ten meters long in total, and its head alone had a diameter of fifty centimeters. Its skin was covered in dense protrusions, which were probably what it used to rapidly burrow through the soil.

"Beautiful. This is a real big haul, haha." Although the Death Worm was disgusting, Du Ke happily took a commemorative photo with its corpse.

This was the first terrifying creature he had killed in the New World.

"I wonder if the meat is edible... Right, I remember breathing in a few mouthfuls of New World air earlier. I didn't seem to feel any discomfort?" Only then did the lingering fear hit him. To escape the acid, he had dismissed the Nano Armor and exposed himself to the New World's atmosphere.

Fortunately, he felt no abnormalities, so he temporarily judged it safe.

"If only I could bring one of the Death Worm's teeth back. These teeth are really distinctive." Du Ke carefully studied the Death Worm's mouthparts.

By Earth standards, the Death Worm should have been a primitive animal. It had no visible eyes, nose, or similar organs—just a mouth leading to an intestine, then an anus, with no unnecessary organs at all. But its teeth were strange, arranged in a spiral around its mouth.

Each tooth resembled a file, its surface densely covered in tiny granules that probably increased its lethality. Its bite force was ordinary, though. Earlier, it had not even bitten through Du Ke's Titanium Alloy Nano Armor.

Compared to its acid, it was far inferior.

There were also four tentacles around its mouthparts, probably its sensory organs. They looked just as primitive. After recording their approximate structure, Du Ke left the Death Worm behind and continued onward. The tree species gradually became more varied. Blue trees still dominated, but trees of several other colors were mixed among them.

He also saw slender pale-green trees bearing glittering golden fruit. Small monkey-like beasts moved through the canopy, picking and eating the fruit.

The moment they saw Du Ke, they vanished without a trace, extinguishing his thoughts of capturing one.

After walking for a while longer, a stream came into view. Du Ke hurried over. "Water! It really is water! This planet has water!" Earthlings naturally felt close to water. When scientists judged whether a planet could support life, the presence of water resources was one of the criteria.

Finding a water source was well within expectations, but Du Ke was still thrilled because the water here looked exactly like Earth's water.

He cautiously scooped up a handful, conjured a kettle, and began heating it. When the temperature reached one hundred degrees Celsius, bubbles indeed began to rise.

"It really is water, not some other liquid. It looks very pure too. I wonder if it's drinkable." Du Ke did not try it. Instead, he collected a test tube of New World water, intending to bring it back for testing.

He had to figure out the water and food of this world. Otherwise, he would only ever be able to stay in the New World for half a day before having to return.

Before long, he had filled another three test tubes with fresh humus-rich soil, yellow algae from beside the stream, and a small aquatic creature. Calling it a little bug was not quite right—it looked much like a tadpole, except it had four legs. It could swim quickly through the water and slowly crawl onto land.

"There are no Bomb Caterpillars on the trees here anymore. I might as well climb to the top and see what this great forest I'm in actually looks like."

No sooner thought than done.

Using his conjured tools, Du Ke steadily climbed to the treetop. After confirming the tree was sturdy enough, he climbed higher, reaching the uppermost branches. Half-sitting on a branch, he looked around. Most of the trees in the Great Blue Forest were blue, with a smaller number in other colors.

The forest rose and fell, with low hills visible nearby and towering peaks in the distance.

Besides the two suns, the sky held white clouds and passing birds. All kinds of strange cries also drifted from the distant mountains.

Suddenly.

Out of the corner of his eye, Du Ke caught sight of a black shadow rushing toward him from one direction.

Before he could react, the shadow was already beside him. It was a gigantic bird. Its talons stretched out, seized Du Ke, and carried him into the sky.

"Fuck!" Du Ke had lost count of how many times he had cursed. This New World was simply too dangerous.

He wanted to conjure an assault rifle and riddle the Giant Bird that had captured him with bullets. But it was flying too high, and the height terrified him. With his body off balance, he could not hold a gun. The only thing he could think of was conjuring a rope around the Giant Bird's talons so it would not drop him to his death.

Eagles on Earth often dropped their prey from high in the air to kill it.

But just as he wrapped the rope around the Giant Bird's talons, it suddenly released a red halo from its body. Wherever the halo passed, the rope snapped apart inch by inch, and the Nano Armor on Du Ke's body began to crack. Then the Giant Bird actually released its talons, sending Du Ke into free fall.

"Fuck your mother!" Du Ke plummeted rapidly, watching the Giant Bird that had caught him grow farther and farther away. The weightlessness made his heart leap into his throat.

He had designed a flying wingsuit before, but it required him to get balanced before taking flight.

So there was nothing he could do now.

Just as he was about to hit the ground, he finally focused a sliver of his will, activated the positional coordinates of the Mind Armor, and chose to travel back to Earth. In an instant, time seemed to stop. His thoughts stretched countless billions of light-years away, bringing him and Earth to the same point in space-time. He was back in that villa room.

With one step, he crossed from the New World back to Earth.

Thud.

He landed on all fours and sprawled on the floor.

"Whew!"

"Whew!"

"Whew!" "Whew!"

Only after gasping hard on the floor did Du Ke dismiss the Nano Armor around him. With a clatter, the metal case containing the test tubes fell to the ground. There was cushioning material inside, so the test tubes would not break. When he checked the Mind Armor again, its energy was completely depleted. If he wanted to travel again, he would have to save up for another half year.

"You bastard!" Thinking about how a Giant Bird had ruined his journey through the New World, Du Ke was furious. But what was done was done. He could only silently pick up the metal case, compose himself, and pull himself together.

He took a shower and ate some bread and chocolate.

Then he returned to the study, conjured a computer, and replayed the videos he had filmed in the New World to ensure the footage had been preserved intact.

The facts proved that the Mind Armor was indeed powerful. It still functioned normally in the New World, allowing those precious records to be preserved. The metal case was opened, and the test tubes inside were safely stored as well, containing resource samples collected from the New World. There were eleven test tubes in total, and every single one was priceless.

If other people learned that these were resources from another planet, the entire world would probably go mad.

"So I need to keep a low profile—lower than low. Sneak quietly into the village, and don't fire any guns." Du Ke took a deep breath and began watching the video carefully.