Jiangnan Shanshui Residential District, Dongguan's temporary residence.
It was a luxurious villa, with carved balustrades and exquisite masonry, like a gallery of landscape paintings.
Dongguan rose, looked at himself in the mirror, and switched on his communicator. The date appeared on its screen.
December 21, 2056.
The mirror reflected a young man with a well-proportioned build, neat short hair, sharp brows, and bright eyes. He looked spirited and imposing.
A closer look revealed a tiny vertical line in the center of his forehead.
With a thought from Dongguan, the line opened, revealing an eye.
At the same time, an invisible force spread from his body, enveloping the entire room.
It could actually reach farther, but he held it in check.
"Psychic power." Dongguan was a psychic, but he had never openly revealed it.
As far as anyone knew, he was merely a warrior.
The main reason was that whenever he used his psychic power, the vertical eye on his forehead would involuntarily open. What normal Earthling had a third eye?
Although mythology featured plenty of three-eyed humans, such as Yang Jian, Wen Zhong, and Horse King Lord, someone like that in reality would inevitably be treated as a freak.
That was also why he had no warrior squad now and traveled alone.
His origins were somewhat strange as well.
He walked over to the punching strength tester and threw a punch.
509,123 kilograms.
He applied his power amplification technique.
Bang!
3,559,102 kilograms.
Over three thousand tonnes of force. Saying he could demolish buildings and devastate cities was no exaggeration.
The first stage of Planetary Grade meant a base strength of one thousand tonnes.
At the end of 2056, Dongguan was a High-Level War God with a power amplification factor of seven.
"Not bad." Dongguan nodded.
Then he opened the vertical eye on his forehead again, using his psychic power to drive a throwing knife into the target.
341,258 kilograms. High-Level War God.
Compared with his physical strength, it was somewhat weaker.
His circumstances differed from those of Earth's other psychics.
At first, the vertical mark on his forehead could not open, and he had no psychic power. Even he had believed it was a scar left by something that had happened during the Great Nirvana.
Only during the beast tide of 2025, when he was in extreme danger, had he awakened the vertical eye on his forehead and gained psychic power at the Advanced General level. His supposed period of rapid improvement had ended the moment it began.
With its help, he had managed to bring Yang Bei back to camp.
After awakening the vertical eye, he could absorb more cosmic energy when cultivating in the five centers facing heaven posture.
That was how he had become a War God, and eventually a High-Level War God, solely by absorbing cosmic energy, without using resources such as jade marrow, dragon blood, or the Spirit of Plants and Trees.
Only after he became a Low-Level War God did the cosmic energy he absorbed begin to enter his sea of consciousness and strengthen his psychic power, rather than merely strengthening his body.
As his psychic power grew, distracting information gradually began appearing in his mind, making it difficult to settle down and cultivate.
That was precisely why, after the Dragon Shadow Squad disbanded, he had left Northern Frontier Base City to travel the world and hunt monsters, never returning.
About a year earlier, after his psychic power reached the High-Level War God level, fragments of memories had flashed through his mind.
He had only retained a few vague terms, including Jiangnan Base City and Rat Tide.
And so he had come here.
In fact, others saw War God Dongguan as aloof and unapproachable, with mysterious origins.
But he knew it was because he did not want anyone to discover he was different, and because he himself could not clearly remember what had happened before he arrived in Northern Frontier Base City.
The appearance of those memory fragments had given him hope.
Every orphan yearned for parents, and everyone with amnesia wanted to understand their past.
Although he did not know exactly what those fragments meant, he had investigated them.
Rat monsters had indeed been gathering around Jiangnan Base City recently, but there had been no Rat Tide in the past few years.
As for rat monsters, there were far too many. Rats had already been rampant before the Great Nirvana, let alone now.
About six months earlier, when he saw a news report about a student who had fainted during the college entrance examination and missed it, more memory fragments had flashed through his mind.
"Fog Island." "Swallowed Star." "Golden-Horned Behemoth."
He had remembered those terms, but still did not understand what they meant.
After learning that the student's name was Luo Feng, his sense of familiarity had grown stronger.
Ultimately, only after participating in and changing the "plot" in County-Level City 0201 had he truly recovered his memories as a transmigrator, making his personality whole.
Still, he felt something was missing: his own origins remained unclear.
Perhaps that was the clue.
He had already recovered his memories, yet the noise had not disappeared. Instead, it continued to intensify.
Feeling the noise in his mind, Dongguan narrowed his eyes.
"Next, I'll follow the plan. Once I've dealt with the Rat Tide, I'll head to the Northern Border."
Dongguan put on his specially made forehead protector and Combat Suit, shouldered his backpack, and left with his saber.
In fact, now that he had fully recovered his memories, he knew this Rat Tide was not particularly large. Lu Gang's death had been an accident.
But since he knew about it, he had to deal with it.
He was a transmigrator, and this body's origins were unknown, but his thirty-odd years of fighting monsters were no fabrication.
He knew that, according to the plot, the monster calamity would end within a few years. Afterward came even more troublesome threats: the Golden-Horned Behemoth, space adventurers, and occupation by major powers of the human race.
But those hateful monsters were right before his eyes.
His personality had been incomplete before, but he had not been entirely heartless. He had simply seemed far too single-minded.
Monsters were the enemies he had chosen.
At the warrior supply base within the military garrison north of Jiangnan Base City.
"Madman, you must've killed over ten thousand monsters by now, right?" Wang Wei, a warrior at the supply base, chatted with Luo Feng.
"Did you find some treasure trove full of lone monsters just waiting for you to kill them?" another warrior asked skeptically.
"Just luck, just luck." Luo Feng, dusty and travel-worn from his return, answered modestly.
He knew, however, that luck had nothing to do with it.
During nearly a month of training, his abilities as a psychic had given him the confidence to charge recklessly into monster herds and fight.
Compared with when he had fought Zhang Zehu over a month ago, he had improved enormously. His saber technique had broken through to the second level of the Ninefold Thunder Blade, his movement technique had become highly refined at the Microscopic level, and his physical fitness was approaching that of a Primary General.
If he fought Zhang Zehu again now, he would not need his psychic abilities. As a warrior alone, he could comfortably crush him.
His training during this period had not only earned him the nickname "Madman," but had also drawn admiring praise from War God-level warriors who occasionally visited the supply base.
However, the other War Gods he had met felt nowhere near as imposing as War God Dongguan had, and none of them had discovered his psychic abilities.
Could this be what makes a High-Level War God different?
People differed from one another, and so did War Gods.
Luo Feng brimmed with fighting spirit. He had reached the Warrior General level as a warrior in just six months. Becoming a War God was not so far out of reach.
Just then, he spotted a familiar figure entering the supply base.
"War God Dongguan."
"Luo Feng."
Dongguan had noticed him as well.
"You've done quite well lately. You've hunted over ten thousand monsters and even earned yourself the nickname Madman."
Luo Feng rubbed his nose and gave a slightly bashful smile.
"Very good." Dongguan patted his shoulder. "Neither arrogant in victory nor discouraged in defeat. Never growing complacent because you're called a genius, never sinking into despair over setbacks, and always full of fighting spirit. That's what makes a warrior."
"Thank you for the praise, Senior Dongguan." Luo Feng felt somewhat embarrassed.
He even grew a little wary. They had only met a few times, yet this senior thought so highly of him?
Remembering that he had failed to hide his identity as a psychic from Dongguan, Luo Feng could accept it.
Still, since Dongguan had not brought it up, he naturally would not reveal his psychic identity himself.
"By the way, you've been hunting monsters around here for the past month. Have you noticed any unexplained increase in rat monsters?"
He asked loudly enough that not only Luo Feng, but also the nearby warriors and even the soldiers stationed a little farther away, heard him.
"Rat monsters?" Luo Feng frowned. "There haven't been more. There've actually been very few. I hardly see them anymore."
Luo Feng remembered that he had killed mostly pig monsters, followed by cat and dog monsters.
"That's true."
"It's been the same for me."
"There used to be plenty of rat monsters. Over the past few months, there've been far fewer."
The warriors began discussing it.
Listening to their discussion, Dongguan tapped his fingers against the tabletop and considered it alongside the intelligence he had gathered.
Rat and pig monsters had always been the most numerous, because their reproductive abilities were absurdly strong.
Yet powerful individuals were uncommon among either type. Their sheer numbers produced quite a few Lord Level monsters, but most were low-level lords. Mid-level and high-level lords were rare.
Rat Tides and Ant Tides were the two notorious kinds of land-based beast tides.
The sharp decline in rat monsters might mean that a rat lord had appeared and was deliberately gathering its forces to launch a beast tide.
Once the warriors pooled their information through discussion, that conclusion was easy to reach.
"A Rat Tide?" The soldiers soon reported the matter to the base commander.
The military's beast tide warning was immediately transmitted through the warriors' communication watches.
A soldier approached Dongguan.
"War God Dongguan, our base commander would like to meet you. Please follow me."
"All right." Dongguan waved goodbye to Luo Feng, then followed the soldier into a tent inside the military compound.
A sand-table map occupied the center of the tent, with enormous screens on three sides.
The screens were divided into numerous smaller feeds, monitoring every direction around the camp.
In the seat of honor sat a stern-looking middle-aged man in military uniform. A young soldier stood beside him, presumably his guard.
Two more men sat on the left, wearing specially made Combat Suits. Their insignia identified them as military War Gods.
"Hello, War God Dongguan. I'm Zheng Guo, the commander of this base. These two are Zhong Yang and Guo Ruinian." Zheng Guo rose to welcome him and introduced the two men beside him.
Dongguan nodded to them, then looked at Zheng Guo.
"One more person hasn't arrived yet. We'll discuss everything once he's here."
The guard showed Dongguan to his seat.
About half a minute later, the final attendee arrived.
"Welcome, War God Lu Gang."
"Brother Dongguan, you're here too."
Lu Gang's seat was beside Dongguan's, across from the two military War Gods.
"Now that everyone's here, I'll begin." Zheng Guo stood.
"You all heard the discussion in the hall just now. A rat monster lord has very likely appeared in County-Level City 0231, and it has gathered a large number of Beast Soldier Level and Beast General Level rat monsters in preparation for a beast tide."
At that point, Zheng Guo glanced at Dongguan.
Dongguan had raised the subject. If the warriors' discussion had not prompted their investigation, allowing them to discover something was wrong after collating the intelligence, they might have overlooked it.
Although the military base's laser cannon defense system would prevent it from being overrun, warriors entering the wilderness would inevitably suffer heavy casualties.
"We've already recalled the warriors, but the threat of a Rat Tide remains. We'd like to ask the four of you to form a squad, investigate, and eliminate that rat lord."
Although he said all four, Zheng Guo's gaze rested mainly on Dongguan and Lu Gang. The two military War Gods had evidently already agreed.
"It's my duty."
"It's my duty."
Dongguan had come precisely to resolve this matter, and Lu Gang had shown his sense of responsibility as well.
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