Giant

The two followed the tracks, finding more traces of "delicacies" being eaten along the way.

But they saw neither spiders nor any other large creatures, only some spider shells picked clean.

As if someone had been eating crabs, the flesh and organs inside the spiders had all been scooped out, leaving only lightweight shells that still carried a rotten stench.

This suggested that the spiders had probably been dead for some time, and something had eaten their corpses.

Yang Yi picked up one of the larger pieces of shell and obtained its information.

[Name: Tinder Wool Spider Monster (adult)]

[Description: A large carnivorous spider with considerable social behavior. They hunt large creatures in groups. The hair covering their bodies provides excellent insulation.

Can be placed in the Monster Gacha Machine.]

PS: Monster corpses used by players as food or materials can no longer be used for gacha draws.

Tufts of hair still clung to a piece of abdominal shell.

[Name: Tinder Wool Spider Hair]

[Type: Material]

[Quality: Good]

[Description: A material with better insulation than wool or goose down. Collect it to make sweaters.]

Yang Yi gathered all the shells and hair and put them in the Stomach Pouch.

Whether he used them for gacha draws or made sweaters would depend on the gacha drop rate.

Su Na paid no attention to the shells. Instead, she stared at a footprint on the ground, stretching out her hand to measure it.

"What is it?" Yang Yi walked over and asked.

"Don't you think this footprint is a little bigger and deeper than the earlier ones? And he doesn't seem to be wearing shoes." Su Na placed her hand inside the footprint, feeling it carefully.

Yang Yi examined it, his brows knitting tightly.

"That does seem to be the case..."

He looked behind them.

They had followed these footprints all the way here. Their owner couldn't have changed-it was the captain of the Good Luck.

Only his body seemed to have undergone some change beyond all reason.

A normal human body couldn't possibly undergo such drastic changes in such a short time. That privilege belonged exclusively to insects that underwent metamorphosis.

Like a caterpillar emerging from its cocoon as a butterfly.

But even that generally wasn't this fast!

So... could the owner of these footprints still be called human?

Yang Yi stared at the footprint, lost in thought. Only after a long while did he say, "Come on. Let's follow them and take a look!"

He also wanted to find out exactly what this player had encountered.

Knowing in advance would help him prepare for the future.

He had no way back anyway.

They continued forward, Yang Yi in front and Su Na close behind.

Her eyes remained fixed on the chef's knife at Yang Yi's waist. There was no telling what she was thinking.

As they ventured deeper, they approached the center of the island.

The spiders were more densely concentrated here. Shells lay everywhere, all picked clean.

And this player's footprints had grown to an outrageous size, swollen and irregularly round, almost as thick as an elephant's leg.

His weight had probably reached an outrageous level too, considering how much he had eaten.

And there wasn't any excrement along the way!

"All that eating and no shitting. Isn't his digestion and absorption a little ridiculous?" Yang Yi exclaimed.

After advancing another few hundred meters, Yang Yi suddenly stopped and held out a hand to stop Su Na.

"Shh!"

He signaled for silence.

Soon, Su Na also heard heavy panting and swallowing.

Yang Yi made a gesture they had agreed upon, meaning he would go take a look first.

After advancing several meters, Yang Yi climbed over some bushes and finally saw the source of the sounds.

[You discovered a disgusting monster. Your Sanity decreased by 5.]

It was a bloated, obese giant over three meters tall. Its rapidly proliferating body had already burst through its skin. At first glance, it looked as though it had been flayed, dripping with blood.

Only a layer of translucent membranous tissue remained over its belly, filled with yellowish liquid that looked like fat, or perhaps some other fluid.

Even five meters away, Yang Yi could smell the stench coming from it, like rancid grease.

And the monster could speak.

"Meat... where did you hide all that delicious meat!"

As it spoke, the monster tore at and gnawed on the Tinder Wool spider's body beside it.

This spider was a special specimen. A section of a dried human body should have been grafted onto its head, but it was gone now, leaving only a hollow. The giant had probably eaten it.

After some effort, the giant found the intestines in the spider's abdomen, squeezed out the food remnants that had yet to be excreted, and poured them into its mouth.

These remnants were unexcreted "delicacies" containing Dead Spider Potion, which was highly poisonous to spiders.

The giant didn't care in the slightest what it was eating and stuffed all of it into its mouth.

Even after finishing them, he didn't seem satisfied. He ate the spider's corpse clean as well, with incredible speed.

"This person has mutated!" Su Na sent a private message.

When Yang Yi gave no response, she had carefully followed him up, crouching behind him, a little less than half a body length away.

"How did he turn into a monster like this?" Yang Yi replied in the log.

Both of them were using their logs to communicate secretly without making a sound.

"Not sure... I'd have to dissect him to know, but I'd guess it has something to do with eating that rotten meat you threw in."

"So it's my fault, then." Yang Yi curled his lip.

At the same time, he realized something.

In this world, player deaths could perhaps be divided into two kinds.

One was physical death, such as being killed outright.

The other was mental death.

For some reason, players could mutate into monsters. Once they reached that stage, the system would also consider them dead.

"This giant is huge. He probably won't be easy to kill!

"Let me hit him with a big one. That should blast him to pieces!" Yang Yi was already preparing to attack.

"Don't. Leave him as intact as possible for me! I want to figure out why he mutated!"

Yang Yi thought it over and agreed to Su Na's request.

He wanted to understand the cause of the mutation too.

Only by understanding could they avoid fearing the unknown!

After finishing the spider, the giant suddenly lifted his head and sniffed the air.

"Damn! He might have spotted us!" Su Na sent a private message.

Yang Yi didn't reply. He simply struck first.

From just over five meters away, Yang Yi would never miss a head as big as a pig's.

Bang!

A gunshot rang out, and a muzzle flash burst forth.

The shot struck the giant square in the cheek, blasting away half his face.

But the giant's head was as large as a pig's, and his skull was hard too. The shot hadn't damaged his brain, only disfigured him. Both eyeballs flew out, and his cheek tore open, exposing his gums.

One shot in Standard Mode couldn't kill this monster.

And Yang Yi and Su Na's position had been exposed!

"Fresh meat~~~!"

The giant let out a howl through his torn, gaping mouth, then ran toward them with heavy strides.

Losing his eyes didn't seem to affect him much.

The two immediately retreated, using the trees as barriers to keep their distance from the giant.

Two iron arrows coated in deadly poison struck the giant's belly, but had little effect.

The giant rampaged as though he had gone mad, smashing through the trees in his path.

The consequences of him crashing into a person would be unimaginable!

Bang!

Another gunshot rang out. Yang Yi hit his knee, and the giant dropped to his knees on the spot.

It seemed enraged and spat a large mouthful of pus at Yang Yi, who had been on guard and dodged it.

But the tree behind him suffered instead. White smoke rose from it as though it had been doused in strong acid, and its outer layer kept peeling away.

"Watch out for the yellow liquid inside him!" Su Na warned. "It might be his digestive fluid. He's digested the arrows too!"

Yang Yi raised an eyebrow and noticed that the arrows previously lodged in the monster's belly were gone. They had fallen to the ground.

The arrowheads had vanished completely, and white smoke rose from the broken ends.

"Fresh meat!" The giant charged again.

He seemed to have a healing ability. The wound on his face was slowly recovering.

Yang Yi didn't dare take any chances. He broke into a run while thinking of a countermeasure.

But as he ran, the sounds behind him suddenly stopped.

He looked back and saw the giant grabbing dirt from the ground and eating it.

It was the "Delicious Poison" Yang Yi had thrown onto the island earlier.

The giant seemed to have gone mad over delicious food! He ate absolutely anything, even dirt!

Yang Yi's eyes lit up. A plan immediately came to him, and he drew the Delicious Chef's Knife and slashed the tree beside him.

The tree immediately gave off a sweet fragrance.

When the giant smelled it, he charged toward the tree as though crazed, wrapped his arms around it, and gnawed furiously.