A Guest Appearance from Next Door?

"Hahefk!" Li Nian was momentarily confused when he saw the pitch-black monster with several tentacles wreaking havoc in the street.

"Did I transmigrate into a fake Spider-Man world?" The guy before him clearly had nothing to do with Spider-Man, yet he was destroying everything in sight. Even the art style did not fit this world. Anyone who did not know better would think Cthulhu had invaded.

Li Nian could not worry about that now. Peter Parker was on a date with his girlfriend several streets away, and Doctor Otto rarely left his lab. That left only Li Nian to stop it.

"Ah!"

"Wendy!"

A little girl was shoved down by the crowd. As she watched the monster draw closer and closer, she screamed in terror.

The monster swung its savage tentacles, and an ominous, evil aura gradually spread. With a casual strike, it smashed apart a vehicle parked by the roadside. Then, it spotted the girl.

The helpless girl could only keep screaming. Her mother's corpse already lay nearby, her body severed at the waist as blood sprayed everywhere. Even in death, her eyes stared fixedly in the girl's direction, her mouth half-open as though she were still urging her daughter to run.

The monster brought a blow down on the girl, then continued onward without looking back.

"Hey! You think you can just leave after hitting someone? The police will take you away for that."

Li Nian stood behind the monster, with the little girl beneath him. She had already fainted from fright.

"I told you to stop. Didn't you hear me?" Seeing that the monster did not take him seriously at all, Li Nian could not help growing angry. After placing the girl in a relatively intact shop nearby, he charged at the monster.

Li Nian instantly fired a laser beam, hitting the monster squarely in the body. A burst of filthy black-red blood exploded out, dripping onto the ground with a sizzling, corrosive sound.

"Heh!" Li Nian flew high into the air. It seemed this thing was not all that impressive.

But in the next second, the sight before him left Li Nian too shocked to speak.

The monster's black-red flesh rolled like cream, squeezing out the meat destroyed by the laser before growing fresh flesh in its place. The whole process was like an old granny throwing all the leftover food into one pot to cook again. It gave off a sour, rotten stench, yet someone would still point at it and say it was edible. It was revolting beyond words.

"This thing... is it some distant relative of Deadpool's?" Li Nian muttered as he stared at its black-red back.

"I can't let it keep destroying the neighborhood!" Li Nian gritted his teeth and flew at the monster. Curling his body into a ball, he slammed into it hard and knocked it into a shop beside the street.

"I'm sorry! I'll compensate you at full price!"

Li Nian shouted at the panicked shop owner, then fired another laser at the creature. It still failed to cause any effective damage.

Li Nian drew a deep breath and landed directly in front of the monster, staring at it with bright, focused eyes. The mud-like creature seemed to sense something as well. Its body stopped moving, becoming unnervingly still.

Yet Li Nian had the feeling that this unknown creature was watching him as though he were prey. A chill rose from the depths of his soul.

"What is this feeling?!" Li Nian felt a tremor coming from his very soul. It was as if something had contaminated his mind, making it heavy and sluggish, like it was filled with filthy water. But it lasted only an instant.

The Mind Stone immediately erupted with golden light, enveloping Li Nian and dispelling his negative state. His mind became clear again, and his thoughts flowed smoothly.

"This is... magic?! How could this world possibly have magic?" Li Nian finally understood that ominous sensation. It was the aura of dark magic—the same feeling he had experienced when he encountered Dark Strange.

"This disgusting feeling... there's no mistake... it's dark magic!"

Although Li Nian was shocked, he did not lose his head. Instead, he kept circling the monster, looking for an opportunity.

The surrounding people had all fled. Those who had not were turned into pulp on the ground, becoming nourishment. With no more restraints, Li Nian began fighting at full strength.

The two monsters traded blows in the street. Li Nian always managed to evade its attacks nimbly and counterattack, but its regeneration was simply too fast. Even when Li Nian raised his power to the maximum and blasted away half its body, it could recover completely in just over ten seconds.

"This won't work!" Li Nian's expression turned grave. He rushed into the monster's body, lifted it with his own, and flew away from the city.

The surviving people stared blankly at the street reduced to ruins...

Boom!

A deep crater was smashed into a sparse patch of woods. A figure shot straight out of the crater, crashing through several tree trunks before finally landing on the ground.

Black tentacles emerged from the crater with crackling, sizzling sounds. Viscous fluid oozed from them and splattered onto the ground like saliva, staining the yellow earth beneath black-red.

A two-meter-tall, four-limbed monster suddenly sprang from the bottom of the crater. It resembled a dog, but had octopus-like tentacles and three irregular eyes scattered across what might have been its head...

Its back suddenly exploded. Segments of white bone burst from its flesh, then were covered in black, forming the shape of a pair of wings. Though for now, they could barely be called chicken wings.

Li Nian slowly got up from the ground, continuously analyzing the creature's structure. In his hand was a clump of black flesh he had torn off during their fight.

Strangely, the disgusting substance that had seemed capable of moving on its own now lay completely still, as if it were dead.

"It can evolve too! Did you run over from the DC set next door? You're so grimdark," Li Nian quipped.

The monster could not understand human speech, but it was now able to produce something resembling a roar. Clearly, it was about to evolve a complete vocal system.

"What a terrifying thing..." There was a trace of wariness in Li Nian's eyes. Honestly, he no longer wanted to fight this thing.

The monster roared. Its voice could now be heard clearly, and it even contained several vague syllables. It kicked off the ground with its hind legs and pounced at Li Nian like a vicious wolf.

Li Nian instantly phased his body. The wolf monster missed, snapping two large trees before curling up on the ground as though it were sleeping, completely silent.

Li Nian hovered in midair, staring at the wolf monster's body. "Its body is constantly releasing heat. It has already reached a horrifying 100 degrees. For a human body, that would be close to spontaneous combustion."

"But in the body of this monster..." Li Nian discovered in shock that its temperature was still rising, only stopping once it reached 150 degrees.

"What is it trying to do?" Li Nian kept a relatively safe distance and quietly observed it.