Death Worm

The gravity of the New World was similar to Earth's.

Though the plants and animals of the New World differed somewhat, they still appeared to be carbon-based lifeforms.

Du Ke picked up a dry, withered leaf, then materialized a lighter. With a click, a flame sprang up. It ignited the leaf, which quickly burned down to a bit of black ash. "It doesn't look much different from Earth. There's enough oxygen in the air to support combustion."

"Should I try taking a breath?" The thought suddenly occurred to him.

But he quickly dismissed it. Safety came first. Who knew what toxic gases the New World's air might contain? He was in no hurry for now. The Mind Armor could continuously supply him with oxygen, and its consumption was minimal. He could analyze the air's composition after setting up camp that night.

"The suns are hanging high in the sky, and the temperature reads 13°C. It was 12°C when I first crossed over, so it's risen by one degree. Going by that, it should be morning now."

He made a simple assessment.

The distance between the two stars had barely changed, which indicated that the planet beneath his feet orbited the binary stars in a fixed pattern. The two stars might revolve around a certain point rather than one orbiting the other. Of course, that was only his guess. He had never studied astronomy and did not really understand it.

"My time is still Earth time—nine in the morning. I wonder how many hours there are in a day here, and how many days in a year."

There were too many things to figure out. Fortunately, Du Ke's objective was clear: collect as many different samples as possible, take them back for analysis, and hopefully find one or two new materials that could make him rich. As for the New World's other mysteries, he could study those the next time he crossed over.

Suddenly.

Beneath a shattered snail shell, Du Ke found several strange little bugs. They looked somewhat like Earth's pill bugs and were about the size of a fingernail.

He took out a pair of tweezers and tried to pick one up, but the bug swiftly curled into a little ball. Somehow, it bounced off the ground, hopping away in the blink of an eye. The other bugs seemed frightened as well and all copied it, jumping away.

Du Ke was left dumbfounded. "Are all the bugs in this world this badass?"

First there were caterpillars that could fire bombs, and now pill bugs could turn into bouncing balls. Not to mention those unknown millstone-sized snails. His worldview was taking a serious beating.

He lifted another snail shell and found several more pill bugs underneath. This time, Du Ke had learned his lesson. He materialized a transparent glass bowl and covered them with it. The startled pill bugs immediately curled into balls and bounced around inside the bowl like lottery balls being drawn. Luckily, they were not powerful enough to shatter the glass.

After quite a while, the wildly bouncing pill bugs finally settled down, unfurling themselves and crawling around inside the glass bowl again.

"I'll call you Hopping Pill Bugs." Du Ke reached in with the tweezers, picked up one Hopping Pill Bug, and stuffed it into a glass test tube. He caught ten in a row.

After putting away the test tubes, he looked at the five he had collected and suddenly felt as though he had become a researcher. This journey through another world was like a scientist arriving somewhere to collect samples. There had been a few scares, but overall, the process had been comfortable and relaxing.

He was full of anticipation for the New World's species.

However, just as Du Ke hummed a little tune and headed toward the next patch of woods, the ground he had walked over began to bulge, as if something were crawling beneath it. It quickly caught up to the unsuspecting Du Ke. Just as he bent down into a crouch, it suddenly burst from the ground.

A tremendous force slammed into Du Ke's waist, flinging him up before he could react.

"Fuck!" Du Ke turned pale with fright. Unable to see what was behind him, he flailed his arms and legs in midair. Only after the unknown monster whipped him around three or four times did he calm down slightly.

A rope extended from each hand and rapidly tightened around tree branches, securing his body in place.

The monster behind him pulled even harder, nearly deforming the Nano Armor. Only then did Du Ke have the chance to turn his head and glance back from the corner of his eye. It was a huge black snake—or perhaps a giant bug. Half of its long, slender body was buried underground, while the other half had bitten onto him.

"Die!" Du Ke released one hand and materialized a Great Sword, bringing it down hard on the monster behind him.

He had carefully crafted this sword. It could slice through iron like mud and sever a hair with a puff of breath. Yet it felt like he had struck wood. It cut in less than an inch before stopping completely.

The monster's hide was too thick.

Still, the blow hurt it. It abruptly released its bite, and Du Ke swung away under the pull of the ropes.

After flipping over and landing on the ground, Du Ke finally got a clear look at the monster. It was a gigantic worm, somewhat like the legendary Mongolian Death Worm from Earth.

It had no eyes. Its head was simply a huge mouth packed with sharp teeth, while four tentacles waved about, presumably serving as sensory organs.

"Die!" Du Ke wasted no time. The Great Sword in his hand transformed into a submachine gun. He pulled the trigger, and muzzle flames burst forth with a rapid tat-tat-tat.

Bullets poured out, striking the Death Worm and leaving one crater after another, but none were fatal. The Death Worm let out a terrifying roar. Rather than retreating, it twisted its body and charged again. Its huge mouth opened, spraying a stream of dark green fluid at Du Ke.

The fluid shot out too quickly for Du Ke to block, splashing all over him.

The Titanium Alloy Nano Armor melted rapidly like ice and snow, frightening Du Ke into dismissing it at once and fleeing at top speed. Once he had escaped the fluid, he quickly materialized a brand-new set of Nano Armor. He inevitably inhaled several breaths of air during that time, but he could not worry about that now.

The Death Worm burrowed underground. The bulging earth showed that it was rapidly charging toward Du Ke, clearly unwilling to let prey that had reached its mouth escape so easily.

"Metal can't block its fluid. It must be some kind of acid. Switch to Ceramic Armor!" Du Ke's mind raced as he activated his backup plan.

Before crossing over, he had anticipated that metal armor might prove inadequate, so he had designed several alternative options. Ceramic Armor was one of them.

"Here it comes!"

As the bulging earth raced toward him, Du Ke watched carefully. When the Death Worm burst from the ground, he swiftly dodged behind a blue tree thick enough that one person could barely wrap their arms around it. A Flamethrower had already materialized in his hands. He twisted around and blasted the Death Worm with a stream of fire.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

The flames were fierce, burning the Death Worm until it roared repeatedly before plunging back underground.

The bulging earth moved closer and farther away. The Death Worm had not retreated after failing twice. It was still preparing another attack.

"Come on, then. Let's see whether you die or I do!" Du Ke held the Flamethrower tightly and stared at the ground. Suddenly, the bulging earth vanished.

Before he could guess whether the Death Worm had stopped moving, he felt the ground shake beneath his feet. Somehow, the Death Worm had silently tunneled beneath him and launched an attack. Its enormous mouth opened, spraying thick acid all over the Ceramic Armor.

But this time, the Ceramic Armor was not damaged.

However, Du Ke discovered that one of his legs had fallen into the Death Worm's mouth. Its sharp teeth dug into the Ceramic Armor, biting crack after crack into it.

"Fuck you, burn!" The Flamethrower roared, spewing flames directly into the Death Worm's mouthparts.

At the same time, Du Ke even split his attention in two, materializing a grenade. He pulled the pin one-handed and threw it into the Death Worm's mouth. The grenade rolled down the Death Worm's digestive tract, deep into its body. Thinking one was not enough, Du Ke threw three more in succession.

By then, under the Flamethrower's relentless roasting, the Death Worm could no longer endure. It spat out Du Ke and plunged headfirst into the soil.

Before its body could completely burrow underground, four explosions rang out in rapid succession. The ground burst apart, scattering several chunks of cooked flesh everywhere.