Claw Form!

"Bang!"

Su Zhe threw a punch, and an image cat at the Junior Soldier-Level Beast rank was blown apart into a cloud of blood. Su Zhe then devoured it, turning it into nourishment for his growth.

[Devoured an Apprentice Level First-Order monster; gained 0.1 Devour Points]

Another 0.1 Devour Points added to his tally!

Su Zhe grew excited. Coming to the Wilderness Zone had definitely been the right choice. It was much faster to devour monsters directly than to slowly build up his strength by eating monster meat!

"Awooo!"

One image cat was close to the Advanced Beast Soldier rank. It was clearly much bigger and more muscular than the others, and looked more like a little black tiger than a cat.

Of course, tigers and cats were both members of the cat family.

This image cat was probably the leader of the small pack.

It was looking for a chance to attack Su Zhe. He had sensed its intentions long ago, but paid it no mind.

Whoosh—!

Su Zhe's hands transformed into silvery wolf claws—the claws of the Silver Moon Dire Wolf, famed as the "Hunter."

The Blacklight Virus could devour a target and acquire all of its advantages.

Su Zhe's father was an Advanced General-Level martial artist with the Extreme Martial Arts Hall and the leader of a martial artist squad. At Su Zhe's request, he had used collecting as an excuse and spent a considerable amount, along with some favors, to finally acquire a pair of Silver Moon Dire Wolf claws.

If he found out that Su Zhe had devoured the claws the moment he got his hands on them, he'd probably be furious enough to drop dead.

As Su Zhe thought about this, he casually dodged the image cats' attacks. Each time he struck back, he took the life of another image cat.

[Devoured an Apprentice Level First-Order monster; gained 0.1 Devour Points]

[Devoured an Apprentice Level First-Order monster; gained 0.1 Devour Points]

The two image cats he'd killed in an instant were devoured just as quickly. The wounds they'd inflicted on Su Zhe healed in the blink of an eye.

Normally, martial artists—especially those acting alone—had to conserve their strength in the Wilderness Zone and maintain an efficient kill rate. They couldn't give every strike everything they had.

But did Su Zhe need to conserve his strength? Not at all.

He was a Blacklight Virus Prototype.

Every time Su Zhe devoured a target, he could draw enough energy from its body to replenish his strength. Even if he were gravely wounded and on the brink of death, he could recover in no time as long as he had enough flesh and blood. There was no such thing as running out of energy.

All living things were Su Zhe's blood bags!

Su Zhe couldn't even be bothered to dodge the image cats' attacks... Though, to be fair, his movement technique was only average. He'd barely reached the subtle level, and relied more on his extraordinary reflexes to avoid attacks. After all, he'd never trained seriously.

Su Zhe had learned a bit of blade technique from his father.

But compared to wielding a weapon, he preferred fighting with his own body.

As for whether learning blade technique would go to waste, that wasn't a concern.

In the game, Alex Mercer had a Blade Form that was similar to the sword used by Flame Dragon Hero. But reality wasn't a game, and there were no limits on forms. If Su Zhe kept devouring more monsters, he'd eventually gain a similar form.

Then his blade technique would come in handy.

"Squish!"

One claw pierced an image cat's body. Countless black-and-red tendrils sprouted from it and pierced into the creature, swiftly draining it until it was a shriveled corpse. They didn't spare even its bones, flesh, or skin.

"Ha!!!"

At last, the burly image cat couldn't hold back. As it watched its companions dwindle in number, it arched its body and activated its Spinosaurus Form, hissing a warning at Su Zhe. The next moment, it pounced!

"Roar—"

Su Zhe swung a claw without mercy. With overwhelming speed and strength, he smacked the image cat flying.

[Devoured an Apprentice Level Second-Order monster; gained 0.2 Devour Points]

With the burly image cat dead, the remaining few image cats had nowhere to run. Su Zhe devoured every last one of them, and they were converted into Devour Points on his status panel.

Beyond the Devour Points he gained, Su Zhe could clearly feel his strength increasing with every completed devouring.

[Level Up: Apprentice Level Third-Order]

His level had broken through!

As a Blacklight Virus Prototype, Su Zhe faced virtually no bottlenecks when it came to increasing his strength.

The only thing that might hold back his progress was his Law Comprehension.

But aside from geniuses, people generally didn't begin to come into contact with laws until they reached the World Lord Level. Domain Lords merely mastered domains.

"I wonder how talented I am when it comes to comprehending laws?"

Su Zhe murmured, but wasn't overly concerned.

In the Swallowed Star World, one's talent for comprehending laws was closely related to one's bloodline.

And the Blacklight Virus's greatest advantage was its ability to devour other lifeforms and steal their superior genes to improve itself.

There was even a Golden Horned Beast on Earth.

The Golden Horned Beast possessed one of the universe's peak bloodlines, surpassed only by Special Lifeforms. Its talent for comprehending laws and its Innate Secret Techniques were both incredibly powerful.

The only problem...

It was February 6, 2060.

Su Zhe frowned.

The Devourer Beast incident had ended just half a month ago. People were still chatting about Luo Feng's death over tea. Luo Feng, Hong, Thunder God, and the other heroes had made an indelible contribution to Earth Humans.

For Su Zhe, it was even worse news.

—The Golden Horned Beast had already been possessed by Luo Feng. How was he supposed to devour it and grow stronger?

Was he supposed to beg Luo Feng to let him devour him?

That would be way too awkward.

What else was left?

The Octopus Beast Emperor had already been killed by Luo Feng. The Thunder Dragon Emperor was still alive, but its talent for comprehending laws was probably only average. Earth's native monsters couldn't compare with those from beyond the planet.

Right.

There was also the Zerg Hive in Shennongjia.

But that Zerg Hive was at the World Lord Level. With Su Zhe's current strength, he might not even reach the Universe Level if he devoured every living thing on Earth, let alone devour the World Lord-Level Zerg Queen.

So... he'd have to enter the universe after all?

Su Zhe thought it over for a moment, then decided to stop worrying about it.

He had two goals now.

The first was to devour more monsters and unlock more forms to boost his combat strength. This was also an important way to raise his level. Devouring monsters with powerful bodies could directly increase his strength, too.

The second goal overlapped with the first: gather 10,000 Devour Points as soon as possible and see what new reward he'd receive.

The last time, he'd gotten the Blacklight Virus for 100 Devour Points.

Next time, he'd need only devour 100,000 Junior Soldier-Level Beasts to get 10,000 Devour Points.

Su Zhe thought that sounded fairly easy.