The residential complex had sunk deep into the night. Dark clouds blocked out the moonlight, plunging the surroundings into even deeper darkness. The streetlights flickered nervously as if they were about to break down, then suddenly went out with a pop. A breeze swept through the greenery, and the trees and bushes rustled softly.
Under this scene, which seemed almost like an omen, a darkness far denser than the night itself crawled out from the bushes.
It was an extremely bizarre shadow. At first glance, I thought it was a pool of filthy water and tried to walk around it. But the shadow moved as if it were alive, blocking my way. Only then did I realize something was wrong, and I stopped immediately.
What is this?
Having already experienced something even more unbelievable, my mind had yet to leave the state of confronting the bizarre. If this had happened to my former self, I would certainly have been shocked. But now, even after seeing such a strange scene, I was merely somewhat surprised. At present, I could accept any change, no matter how absurd.
This unidentified shadow had certainly come looking for me, and the changes clearly weren't going to stop here. From the shadow that resembled a pool of water, an incredibly thick arm suddenly stretched out. It was like someone struggling to climb ashore from a lake. The arm immediately dropped and braced itself against the ground nearby. That single motion shattered the concrete pavement, and its entire hand sank into it.
The owner of the arm then pulled the rest of its body out of the ground: its head, its other arm, torso, right leg, left leg... The newcomer quickly revealed its entire terrifying form.
It was a demon with a black goat's head, as if it had stepped out of an oil painting. Its nearly three-meter-tall naked body blocked my path, practically forming an indestructible wall of flesh. Its scarlet skin and muscles bulged with veins, as though they contained an overwhelming fury.
The demon's goatlike face looked hideously ferocious. When people thought of sheep, they might associate them with docile white ones, but among animals of the sheep family, there were also ugly and terrifying adult Damascus goats. The demon before me was just like that. Moreover, it had no lips; its teeth and gums were fully exposed, making it look even more bloodthirsty and cruel.
"Zhuang Cheng." It spoke in a hoarse, shrill voice like fingernails scraping across a blackboard.
I couldn't help focusing all my attention on this terrifying monster.
"You know my name?"
Judging from its entrance alone, it was obvious that this wasn't some prankster in a rubber suit trying to scare passersby.
The demon didn't answer my question. It merely moved its protruding, goatlike mouth and spoke to me in a cold tone that didn't match its ferocious appearance. "I'm here to take your life."
"Take my life..." I carefully examined its entire body. "Putting that aside, what kind of creature are you? Since you can speak human language, you should possess intelligence no lower than a human's..."
"I never expected there to be a species like you in this world. Are there others elsewhere? What is your species called, and where does it mainly live?"
I knew very well that asking such questions at a time like this was inappropriate, but I was genuinely interested in an intelligent life-form that wasn't human. After the cave in the Fifteenth Floor room, another monster had appeared. An unknown and fantastical adventure seemed to be approaching me step by step.
At the same time, I wasn't completely off guard. This monster kept saying it had come to kill me, yet after making a grand appearance, it had started by striking up a conversation. Was it planning to let me die knowing why, or was it deliberately standing in the open to draw my attention? I slipped my left hand behind my back and silently lit a "Firefly."
With the help of "Firefly," I could sense everything around me through 360 degrees, without blind spots. At that moment, I sensed the reason it had appeared openly in front of me. More than ten meters behind me, a shadow was slowly approaching, like a venomous snake trying to ambush its prey.
Looking closely, one could see a thin black shadow connecting that shadow to the demon's soles. Under cover of the night, it was impossible for human eyes to detect.
Rather than forcing that enormous body to launch a sneak attack, it was better to make a feint and strike elsewhere... Was this its strategy?
Why did it need to use such a cautious strategy against an "ordinary person" like me? Did it know I was a superpowered individual?
Would that shadow suddenly turn into a spike and pierce me through? Or would it become a swamp and drag me into another space? Or perhaps it would undergo an even more bizarre transformation?
I looked forward to what might happen next and devised ways to counterattack when the time came. Don't let my appearance fool you—I still had a considerable sense of danger. Regardless of how strong or weak I was, the dangers brought by the bizarre might ignore differences in strength. The cave in the Fifteenth Floor room had taught me that much.
But more intense than my sense of danger was the incredible excitement surging through my heart. Perhaps I was about to engage in a life-or-death battle with an unknown enemy. Nothing like this had ever happened in my past life, and it was precisely the kind of scene I had always yearned for.
In response to my questions, the demon seemed somewhat stunned before asking, "You... aren't you afraid of dying?"
"How are you planning to kill me?" I pretended not to know about the shadow and asked curiously, "Putting that aside, why are you trying to kill me? Have we met somewhere before?"
At that, the demon let out a voice filled with immense hatred. "You may have thrown it completely to the back of your mind, but I haven't forgotten for even a moment what you did to me two years ago..."
"Sorry, I really can't remember. Could you explain in more detail?" I was utterly bewildered. "Exactly when and where did I do what to you?"
I couldn't remember ever doing anything to a nonhuman creature in the past that would have earned me such hatred. Besides, this was the first time I had ever seen an intelligent life-form other than a human with my own eyes.
I was more willing to believe that it had come because of the matter involving the Fifteenth Floor room, and probability also supported that idea.
I had never encountered anything bizarre before, yet today I had seen two such things at once. One was the "cave" from earlier, and the other was the "demon" before me. If they were unrelated coincidences, that would be far too contrived. It made more sense to first assume that they were connected.
The cave, the ritual formation, the Fallen Demon Hunter... The clues I had obtained during the day surfaced in my mind as if pulled from a drawer. I couldn't help forming a suspicion—was this "demon" that could speak human language truly a nonhuman species?
Could it actually be a human? More specifically, could it be the so-called Fallen Demon Hunter in transformed form? Or perhaps a monster servant summoned by the Fallen Demon Hunter?
As for "two years ago," the most memorable thing I had done back then was assist the authorities in eliminating a local feudal-superstitious group, based on clues from the disappearance of children in another province and related folk legends. Could this demon be saying that it was that cult leader, or someone connected to him?
But I remembered that the cult leader had apparently been burned to death by his followers after his credibility collapsed. Surely he hadn't gone to hell, reincarnated as a demon, and started a second life. Besides, I had never exposed my superpower to anyone's face during that incident.
The "two years ago" mentioned by this demon was probably a smokescreen intended to mislead my train of thought.
"You're about to die, yet you still have so many questions! It seems that, when all is said and done, you're no different from those ordinary people. You're a fool numbed by a peaceful life, unaware that you're courting death." The demon gave an unpleasant laugh. "This is the end. You won't even know why you lost..."
As it spoke, it lowered its center of gravity, and its voice suddenly grew thunderous. "—You'll die by my hand!"
The moment its voice fell, it charged toward me with terrifying momentum. But knowing its plan, the charge—with its overly long preparatory motion—was rather obvious. It clearly wanted my attention focused on itself, which was why it was making such a show of things. The real killing move was the shadow's sneak attack from behind.
The instant it launched its assault, the flat shadow actually transformed into a three-dimensional blade and shot toward me from behind.
I brought my concealed left hand forward, and the "Firefly" resting on my fingertip suddenly expanded.
"Firefly" was essentially a small flame I had summoned. At that moment, I added extra mental energy as fuel. Like pouring a large amount of gasoline into a brazier, "Firefly" instantly transformed into a fireball.
The fireball immediately exploded, and scorching, dazzling streams of flame swept in every direction, striking both the demon ahead and the shadow behind. The excessively brilliant light was enough to leave an ordinary observer temporarily blind.
Fortunately, there were no witnesses here besides the demon and me, and I myself wasn't harmed by the flames or the intense light. Whether it was the flames themselves or the light and heat they emitted, they were fundamentally manifestations of my mental energy. Therefore, unless I intended to harm myself, this power could not affect me.
The demon seemed to have anticipated my counterattack. The moment the situation changed, it immediately retreated with an alert backward leap, never entering the flames' range in the first place.
The shadow attacking from behind instantly flattened itself against the ground. Then it sprang up to the left of my feet and once again transformed into a blade, thrusting rapidly at me from a blind spot the flames hadn't covered. Although it was a shadow, intense light apparently couldn't disperse it. What a miraculous skill. Even as I marveled at that, I immediately twisted aside to dodge.
In truth, I couldn't have avoided that thrust based on its speed alone. But I had discovered it in advance, while the other side clearly hadn't expected me to know about the attack. By sheer luck, I managed to evade it.
Though even taking the attack head-on wouldn't have mattered much.
"—So it's a flame ability!"
The demon hadn't been blinded by the intense light. It landed beside the streetlight and then laughed with the confidence of someone certain of victory. "You're finished, Zhuang Cheng... The next attack will take your life!"
As it spoke, it reached out and grabbed the streetlight, actually pulling it straight out of the ground before hurling it violently at me.
This wasn't a javelin it had thrown, but an entire heavy streetlight. Yet the speed at which it flew was no different from a javelin thrown by an athlete. This was no longer a weapon for fighting people, but a siege weapon. The sight was so terrifying that even I reflexively dodged again.
My raised foot hadn't even had time to land, and the streetlight had only just grazed past my cheek, yet the demon had already charged in front of me at a horrifying speed.
At the same time, both its arms changed shape, transforming from flesh-and-blood limbs into mantis-like bone blades. Its movement speed was countless times faster than during its previous attack.
Judging from this stark contrast, it had probably been wary of my unknown power before and therefore focused on its feint-and-strike strategy. Now, however, it was completely certain of its victory and was unleashing its full strength without reservation.
Its cruel face grew larger in my field of vision, while I simply watched it.
Then my gaze set its body ablaze.
Before you continue