Instantaneous Movement

Unfortunately, Mind Armor could not replicate living creatures, so naturally it could not replicate magic either.

After losing track of the Behemoth and the Stegosaurus Lizard, he set off for South Lake. He remained cautious throughout the journey, afraid of running into powerful magical beasts. Fortunately, the trip went smoothly. He did encounter several small forest animals, but they hid as soon as they saw him—Du Ke, clad in a thickened Titanium Alloy Nano Armor, looked equally hard to mess with.

The high-definition camera continuously recorded the scenery along the way.

Whenever a curious little animal lingered for a moment, he switched on burst mode and snapped dozens of high-definition photos first. Once he returned, he could sort out files and names for these little creatures.

He did not collect any more specimens along the way. One Bomb Caterpillar was enough for him to study.

Once he passed through the last patch of towering forest, his view suddenly opened up. Ahead lay low shrubland, still filled with all manner of blue small trees and grasses. More small animals lived among the shrubs. None of them resembled animals from Earth, but they were clearly docile herbivores. Their physical features were quite interesting: some had three tails, some six legs, some enormous heads, and some thick forelegs with thin hind legs.

Du Ke turned into a photographer and spent a full ten minutes taking pictures in the shrubland, until a bizarre green monster burst into the bushes and frightened all the herbivores into scattering in panic.

"Hmm, a fierce one has arrived!" Du Ke did not run, because the monster in the distance was not especially large, about the size of a leopard. "I wonder if my improved Vulcan Cannon can blow it to death."

With a thought—

The back of his Nano Armor immediately unfolded like Transformers, extending two Vulcan Cannons above his left and right shoulders, level with his head. These two Vulcan Cannons were heavy weapons he had finalized after repeatedly improving the design based on a Gatling gun. To create them, he had exhausted every possible method, consulted countless materials, and gone through innumerable modifications.

Only because the Vulcan Cannon was a complicated mechanical device that did not involve things like chips had he been able to improve it.

The monster stopped and looked up at Du Ke. Its eyes seemed puzzled; it had never seen such a strange lump of metal before. But that did not stop it from slowly approaching him, its steps as relaxed as a catwalk.

It had gorgeous dark green fur that gleamed with light. Its body was slender, even thinner and longer than a leopard's. Its four long legs resembled stalks of straw, yet solid, rope-like muscles could be seen beneath them. The strangest part was its shoulders, where a pair of long tentacles grew. At their tips were raised triangular flesh pads, densely covered in sharp spikes. Mucus seeped from the spikes and dripped onto the ground.

There was absolutely no animal like this on Earth.

It was truly ugly.

The monster strolled toward Du Ke, the uncertainty in its emerald eyes gradually turning into bloodlust. Finally, when the distance between them had closed to nearly thirty meters, it suddenly attacked. Its limbs raced forward with the posture of a cheetah, and in the blink of an eye, it charged before Du Ke. Already prepared, Du Ke gripped the Vulcan Cannon mounts in both hands and opened fire. Rat-a-tat-tat!

The Vulcan Cannon was a machine gun, but its bullets sprayed out so quickly that its power rivaled artillery.

Rumble!

Several-meter-long tongues of flame erupted as bullets flew forth, instantly pulverizing the distant low shrubs. Yet the monster had vanished, as if it had disappeared in an instant, leaving no chance for the bullets to pour into it.

"Not good!"

Du Ke's heart jolted. The next moment, he caught a green flash from the corner of his eye on his left. The monster's figure appeared, followed by a savage pounce. Its two tentacles shot toward him like lightning and viciously seized his Nano Armor. The sharp spikes pierced through the thickened Nano Armor as easily as tofu, while its gaping maw opened in an attempt to tear open Du Ke's throat.

"Fuck, you can blink!" His body trembled, but it did not affect his counterattack. "Spiked Armor, get it!"

The Nano Armor transformed frantically. Countless sharp spikes and blades thrust outward, stabbing toward the monster. This was the close-combat method Du Ke had devised. His Mind Armor possessed limitless possibilities and should never have been limited to defense alone.

Squelch!

Squelch!

Before the monster could begin biting, its two tentacles suffered a violent attack. One blade nearly severed a tentacle.

Frightened, the monster quickly flung its tentacles away and suddenly vanished again. When it reappeared, it was more than twenty meters away, glaring at Du Ke with predatory intent. Purple blood still dripped from the wounds on its tentacles, though they were healing at a visible rate.

"What are you looking at? I'll kill you!" Du Ke did not hesitate. The Vulcan Cannons unleashed their might again, spitting flames and spraying countless bullets like rain, sending leaves and branches flying everywhere.

Whoosh!

The monster vanished, then reappeared more than ten meters away from where it had stood.

The Vulcan Cannons swung around, and Du Ke relentlessly continued his assault. The monster blinked away again and again, and he could not even touch its fur. At that point, Du Ke calmed down and decisively abandoned the Vulcan Cannons. After a burst of mechanical unfolding, a sniper rifle appeared. He aimed and fired. With a thunderous bang, the monster seemed not to have reacted in time—or perhaps it had not seen the muzzle flash—and stood frozen in place.

Squelch!

An enlarged-caliber Dumdum bullet viciously sank into the monster's abdomen. The expanding bullet instantly mushroomed. With that single shot, the monster staggered and could no longer blink. After only two steps, it toppled to the ground.

"Whew! Not bad." Du Ke narrowed his eyes as he observed the monster, feeling quite pleased with himself.

Dumdum bullets had been banned on Earth. These bullets, whose tips could deform and expand, possessed enormous lethality, with wound areas more than ten times larger than ordinary gunshot wounds, sometimes creating even larger temporary cavities. It could be said that once struck by a Dumdum bullet, death was certain unless the hit landed somewhere unimportant, such as a limb; there was no possibility of saving the victim. Fantasy World had no Hague Convention. Surrounded by magical beasts, Dumdum bullets were Du Ke's best means of attack.

After waiting two minutes and seeing that the monster had stopped breathing, Du Ke fired two more shots before walking over to inspect the corpse.

"This wound... it's insane." When he saw the monster's abdomen, it looked as though immense force had torn it apart, leaving a huge bloody hole. Purple blood mixed with bits of internal organs had flowed out. "No wonder the Hague Convention banned Dumdum bullets."

He felt a little uneasy, but if there were a next time, Du Ke would still choose Dumdum bullets. In a Fantasy World crawling with magical beasts, he could not survive without being ruthless.

"I wonder whether this monster's meat is edible. Forget it, it looks disgusting enough. Green skin, purple blood—it might even be poisonous. If I want meat, I'd better eat herbivores." He scraped a little mucus from the flesh pad on the monster's tentacle and sealed it in a test tube for storage. "This monster is definitely a magical beast, but it has no magic... No, its Instantaneous Movement is magic!"

Instantaneous Movement was highly unscientific, but if he understood it as magic, it made much more sense.

"I remember that in Dungeons & Dragons, there's a monster called a Displacer Beast. These two look rather similar, so I'll call it a Displacer Beast too." He quickly gave the monster a name.