The Scope of "Devour"

Every "passenger" was being pursued by a monster. Zhao Xun could hardly approach anyone while evading his own monster, let alone get hold of something on their person.

Most importantly, he needed to choose a special ability that would be useful in his current situation, so he had no choice but to buy some time and observe what special abilities the people around him possessed.

The longer he stalled, the greater the danger became. That sense of urgency sent his adrenaline surging uncontrollably.

He instinctively touched his chest over his heart.

Was he nervous?

A little, perhaps.

But... mostly, he was excited.

Zhao Xun twisted sideways, narrowly dodging the long-necked monster's lunging face. Then he clamped a hand around its long neck and slammed it toward the floor.

The long-necked monster apparently hadn't expected Zhao Xun to dare fight back. Its whole body stumbled under the pull, and its face hit the floor.

By the time it raised its head again, Zhao Xun had already run several meters to the side.

During that brief opening, he confirmed two things.

First, the monsters chose nearby passengers to attack, and once they had selected a target, they wouldn't switch.

As he darted through the crowd, no other monster had attacked him. Even those that had already brought down other passengers were merely "enjoying their prey" rather than going after him.

At least as long as he didn't interfere with or attack the other monsters, they wouldn't take the initiative to attack him.

Second, these monsters looked terrifying, but their strength wasn't much different from a human's.

Just as the electronic voice had said, this was merely a "fun competition."

The goal probably wasn't to kill every passenger, but to eliminate the small portion of the thousand passengers whose reflexes and mental resilience were exceptionally poor.

That meant there was no insurmountable gulf between the monsters' strength and the passengers'.

When he had grabbed the monster's neck just now, for instance, the force of its struggles had felt about the same as an ordinary adult man's.

It wasn't easy to restrain, but it couldn't simply shake off his grip, either.

Taking those two points together, he had a chance of killing the long-necked monster even with human strength alone.

But without a weapon, that would be difficult...

An idea flashed through Zhao Xun's mind.

Wait, there might be another way!

Zhao Xun swept his gaze around the entire area.

A moment later, he pivoted and lunged at a nearby monster whose mouth was filled with sharp teeth.

The sharp-toothed monster was tearing into a passenger pinned beneath it, completely unprepared as Zhao Xun landed on its back.

Before the monster could react, Zhao Xun bit down on its shoulder without hesitation.

He controlled the pressure, simply holding the bite without actually breaking its skin.

Even so, a foul, rotten stench assaulted his taste buds and nostrils.

He endured it and silently counted three seconds. At last, the pop-up he had been waiting for appeared before his eyes.

[Congratulations on acquiring the special ability [Sharp Teeth].]

[Due to the effects of "Devour," [Sharp Teeth] is only half as effective as the original ability and cannot be upgraded.]

Just as he thought!

Without pausing for even a second, Zhao Xun swiftly retreated, leaving the sharp-toothed monster's attack range before it could throw him off.

As he had suspected, his special ability could "devour" not only the special abilities of other "people," but those of "monsters" as well.

And a monster's skin naturally counted as something belonging to it, and had definitely been on its body for more than twenty-four hours.

The sharp-toothed monster bared its teeth at Zhao Xun in fury. It took one step forward, then abruptly stopped.

Sensing something wrong, Zhao Xun spun around. Sure enough, the long-necked monster had caught up.

Half a second later, its mouth would have sunk into the back of his neck.

Apparently, these monsters also "guarded their food." Other monsters wouldn't readily touch another monster's "meal."

Missing its chance to bite Zhao Xun to death infuriated the long-necked monster. Its long neck curved around, chasing straight after his throat.

Zhao Xun nimbly turned sideways while reaching out to seize the monster's long neck again.

Without wasting a second, he immediately activated Sharp Teeth.

Teeth filled his entire mouth, packed so densely that they forced his jaws apart, leaving a few sharp tips exposed.

Before the long-necked monster's body could catch up, Zhao Xun bit down on its neck with all his strength.

The teeth were extremely sharp. Even with their power reduced by half, Zhao Xun severed the monster's neck on his third bite.

The instant the monster's head hit the floor, its body finally caught up. Its sharp black claws stopped a centimeter from Zhao Xun's eyes, then dropped limply.

Zhao Xun tossed aside the monster's corpse and deactivated Sharp Teeth as he dry-heaved.

He spat out the blood in his mouth, his stomach churning violently. Only after several more dry heaves did he barely manage to stop.

The smell of that monster's blood was truly unbearable!

It was even more nauseating than having filthy socks that hadn't been washed for three months stuffed into his mouth.

Fortunately, effort always brought a reward.

A new pop-up appeared in front of Zhao Xun.

[Congratulations to player Zhao Xun on successfully killing a monster and obtaining a ticket for the Endless Train.]

[Please take the seat indicated on your ticket. Do not leave your seat until this competition has fully concluded.]

Then a dark blue ticket materialized in front of Zhao Xun.

Unlike an ordinary ticket, it listed no departure or destination station, departure time, or fare. It showed only the ticket holder's name and seat number.

[Zhao Xun]

[Carriage 14, Seat 014]

Zhao Xun couldn't help chuckling.

What an unlucky number.

Besides, he hadn't been slow in killing his monster. He had thought his ticket would place him closer to the front, not in a carriage so far back.

While waiting outside to board, he had specifically checked: the train had eighteen carriages in total.

Apparently, seats weren't assigned according to the order in which the monsters were killed.

Forget it. This was better than not getting a ticket at all.

Zhao Xun wiped his mouth, took the ticket, and returned to where he had originally been standing to pick up and inspect his suitcase.

The suitcase was intact, untouched by the fighting between monsters and passengers. Its combination lock was also exactly as he had left it, without the slightest sign of tampering.

Only then did Zhao Xun pull his suitcase in the direction indicated on the floor, soon leaving Carriage 17.

Once outside, he found that the other carriages were perfectly normal, almost indistinguishable from those on an ordinary train.

There were two-seat rows on the left side of the aisle and three-seat rows on the right. Each pair of rows faced one another, sharing a square table between them.

However, the few carriages he passed through were sparsely occupied. Apart from new passengers who had killed their monsters and obtained tickets before him, he saw no one else.

There were no returning passengers and no attendants.

Could it be that by the end of every month, all the passengers who had boarded that month were dead?