At the same time, in the Dead Wastes of Liver Zone H-114514.
Tom Pie crouched on a cliff, staring at the gray-black quest box that had suddenly flared scarlet in the corner of his vision. His mouth twitched for a full three seconds.
Another quest the Calamity of Extinction had stuffed into his panel.
[Stage Quest: Devour the flesh of a resurgent Titan.] [Three target locations marked.] [Quest Reward: A large amount of Nirvana Energy.]
"Fuck me. You really won't let me eat one decent meal..."
He spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva, flicked a strand of foul black blood from his claws onto the rock, and opened his usual system results panel.
Only after seeing the meager Bio-Energy he had earned from killing a few mutated wanderers did he let out a long breath.
Ever since he had nearly died smashing that lord's damaged core, he had put aside the idea of leveling up quickly through repeated Phagocytosis. Clearing ordinary Lesions along his route was as slow as a snail climbing a tree, but at least he no longer had to lie in a pool of blood after every fight, struggling against a mouth desperate to devour everything.
The broken bones in his left arm had long since healed, and his snapped claws had grown back sharp and cold.
Only the gray-black corrosion marks writhing behind his ear like living things had failed to fade. If anything, they seemed to have sunk deeper.
Tom Pie instinctively touched the cold skin of his neck. His gaze darkened. Then he closed the panel and opened the new holographic coordinate map.
Three scarlet skull markers flashed in the mist.
The nearest was only three kilometers from the safe patrol route he had marked before.
"That rotten mud pit?"
Tom