I'm Strong, So Lie Down

It's over, it's over!

It's completely over!

Vivian dragged her utterly exhausted body forward, gritting her teeth as she forced out the last scraps of strength she had and ran toward the forest outside.

The girl's heart was filled with regret.

She had left the village alone and ventured into Claw Forest to gather medicine for her seriously ill younger brother. With the sun about to set, she had originally planned to find a secluded cave to spend the night.

But who could have imagined that there would be a glowing scroll inside the cave? And somehow, as if possessed, she had inexplicably approached it and touched it with her hand.

As for everything that happened next, it was completely beyond the understanding of a tiny villager like her.

First, the scroll transformed into a streak of white light and rushed into her body. Before she could react, the stone pedestal at the center of the cave began flashing nonstop. Once the light faded, a monster had appeared out of thin air!

Although that monster did look rather cute?

Vivian felt that she must have gone mad.

Because at the time, she had somehow felt deep down that the monster belonged to her. For a moment, she had even wanted to approach it and touch its head.

And the result was naturally disastrous!

The moment she had crept toward the monster, it seemed to sense her. It opened its eyes from its sleep and roared at her. Then, as if enraged, it stared at her like prey and advanced step by step, clearly treating her as dinner.

Huff.

Huff, huff.

Running in a direction she had long since lost track of through the increasingly dark forest, the girl struggled to gasp for breath.

Her meager chest burned fiercely, and her limbs felt as heavy as if they had been filled with lead.

Already malnourished, the girl had also spent the entire day taking enormous risks to search for medicine in the monster-filled Claw Forest. Her frail body had long since grown incredibly weak.

Run. I can't run anymore.

Her legs had completely lost all feeling.

Thud!

She had failed to notice the vines beneath her feet. They became the final straw that broke the camel's back. Vivian suddenly felt her body lose its balance, followed by darkness before her eyes as she fell toward the ground.

However, misfortune never came alone.

Before Vivian could struggle to prop herself up and try to stand, the bushes directly ahead began to shake.

Then, a scene that utterly plunged the girl into despair appeared.

Hiss, hiss.

A shrill sound like the Grim Reaper knocking on the door rang out. Two or three enormous pythons, each as thick as a barrel and seven or eight meters long, stuck out from the bushes, their cold tongues flicking.

Their eyes faintly glimmered in the darkness, and their pointed heads all turned toward Vivian, who had fallen to the ground. In an instant, a gloomy and terrifying sensation of being locked onto covered the girl's entire body.

There was no doubt about it. She had been treated as prey again.

There were wolves ahead and tigers behind.

Vivian tried several times to get up, but failed each time. She truly had no strength left at all. Now, the only thing she could do was perhaps wait for death.

At the thought, tears continuously spilled from the corners of the young girl's eyes.

It wasn't that she was afraid of dying—though she was a little—but what Vivian thought about more at that moment was her younger brother, who lay sick in bed.

If she died here without gathering the herbs and bringing them back, what would happen to her brother's illness? He was still so young. Unlike her, who was also a girl, he was a man, the hope of the entire family and its future backbone.

Vivian had never had a mother since childhood. Her mother had died in difficult childbirth when giving birth to her younger brother, and her father's personality had changed drastically because of it. He spent every day drinking and gambling, leaving only her and her young brother to depend on each other.

Without her, could her perpetually drunk father take good care of her brother? Besides, if she died, the deal her father had made with someone to sell her into a big city would probably fall through. Without the money from selling her, how would they repay the debts her father had incurred gambling? And where would the money for her brother's future treatment come from?

"Waaah, waaah..." The more she thought about it, the thicker the tears in the girl's eyes became.

Vivian didn't want to die yet. At the very least, she wanted to wait until her father sold her and exchanged her for money before dying. That way, her father and brother's lives would at least be a little better afterward.

Unfortunately, no one could hear the girl's thoughts.

Fortunately, no one could hear them. If Liao Zixuan knew that the girl's dying wish was actually this—being sold by someone and still helping them count the money—he would probably be furious enough to drop dead!

Oh, no.

The current Liao Zixuan was already nearly furious enough to die!

"This silly girl!!"

From the moment the girl had turned and run after seeing him approach in the cave, Liao Zixuan had begun cursing nonstop in his heart. It was the first time he had ever seen a Summoner get scared away by the monster she had summoned herself.

Of course, Liao Zixuan understood that he couldn't really blame this girl named Vivian. After all, she was a young girl from a remote rural village and might not even know what a Summoner was.

As for what truly made Liao Zixuan so furious now, it was—

She ran so damn fast!

With his current short legs as a juvenile Dark Flame Wolf, the already complicated forest terrain made his pursuit incredibly difficult. A mere pile of vines and bushes was enough to give him a headache. Chasing her was simply exhausting as hell!

In theory, with his attributes crushing the girl's, he should have reached her in the blink of an eye. But even the world's finest sports car was useless if no one knew how to drive it. Having only just transmigrated, he hadn't even grown accustomed to the Wolf Cub's body yet and could only move his limbs in the clumsiest way possible.

But the key point was that Liao Zixuan couldn't not pursue her. As his Summoner, if anything happened to the girl, he might end up going through another round of transmigration.

The sky was growing darker, and they were in a forest where monsters appeared frequently. A silly girl with a combat power of less than five had recklessly run around. Wasn't she simply—

Feeding herself to the other beasts?

Making them thank nature for its bounty?

After frantically pumping his little wolf legs, Liao Zixuan finally caught up and saw the girl's back as she lay fallen on the ground.

Naturally, he also saw the Green Skin Snakes nearby that regarded the girl as dinner.

But—

Huff.

After letting out a long breath, his suspended heart finally settled down.

Although the scene looked extremely dangerous, Liao Zixuan deliberately slowed his pace. He even raised his little wolf head for the sake of his image, placing his wolf paws on the ground in steady, rhythmic steps. At the same time, he shook his body, cleaning off all the mud and fallen leaves he had picked up during his mad dash.

Why?

The reason was simple—absolute overwhelming power.

Through the game panel from earlier, Liao Zixuan had roughly figured out their location. In this remote area at the edge of the map, within what players usually called the novice village zone, ordinary monsters would never be above level ten.

The several Green Skin Snakes before him were typical cannon fodder monsters of the newbie phase.

And he was a Dark Flame Wolf, a world-class Boss. Even as a newborn cub, he was still strong enough to instantly kill every low-level monster here. That was right—instantly kill them.

It was like how an ordinary person could struggle for their entire life and still never compare to someone born with several houses. The human world was like that, and the world of monsters was even more so.

In other words, at least on the outskirts of this forest in the novice zone, as long as something was within Liao Zixuan's line of sight, there wasn't a single monster that could harm the girl.

Because he was the strongest monster!

Having read all kinds of novels from Qidian and being thoroughly versed in the art of showing off, how could Liao Zixuan miss this opportunity to establish an image in front of the girl?

The more foolish, ignorant, and inexperienced the girl was, the more important it was to leave a profound first impression on her!

Thus, at this moment, Liao Zixuan seemed to have possessed the powerful leveling character from his previous life.

The fur covering his body gradually began to change color. It transformed from its earlier inconspicuous gray-brown into a deep, eerie red, especially dazzling and eye-catching in the forest at dusk.

At the same time, the temperature around Liao Zixuan rose sharply. The scorching heat distorted even the air within his line of sight, as if it were about to ignite.

A terrifying aura that made one tremble spread out from him as its center. Countless birds and beasts within several miles of the forest took flight in fright as if fleeing for their lives, turning the silent forest noisy.

But the commotion didn't last long.

Because only a few breaths later, it was as if fire rain had begun falling from the sky.

The birds and beasts that had desperately tried to fly away a moment ago all strangely burst into flames. Unknown black flames rose from their bodies as they fell from the sky.

The other monsters on the ground, whether lying in ambush or trying to flee, were no exception. Without a single one spared, terrifying black flames ignited on their bodies and devoured them.

This naturally included the several Green Skin Snakes from earlier.

One of the Dark Flame Wolf's most terrifying innate skills—Void Ignition.

In just a few seconds, within several miles, the only living creature still able to breathe, the only one not devoured by the black flames, was the girl lying limp on the ground.

Was this the pleasure of using a cannon to swat a mosquito? This feels great!

One step, then another.

As his wolf paws stepped onto the ground, wisps of white smoke instantly rose from the forest soil, leaving deep marks behind as if lava had flowed over it.

Time seemed to freeze at this moment, until Liao Zixuan walked to the girl's side.

At that moment, Vivian's mind had long since gone blank. As a girl from a remote village on the edge of nowhere, where could she ever have witnessed such a scene?

Vivian stared blankly at Liao Zixuan.

This young monster had appeared out of thin air in the cave and then been awakened by her. The little girl's eyes were filled with confusion, as if she had been completely stunned.

Excellent!

This was exactly the effect he wanted!

Seeing the girl's expression, Liao Zixuan nodded in satisfaction inwardly. Then he gave her a look, although he had no idea whether she could understand the gaze of a wolf.

Still, the general meaning should have been—

See that? I'm strong. You. Lie down!

And then—

Vivian suddenly kicked out with both legs. With a smack, she fell onto her side and fainted from fright.

Liao Zixuan: "..."