A section of the mountain road.
The Stone-Armored Beast lay on the ground in fear, its eyes fixed on two humans not far ahead, who crossed their arms and occasionally glanced at it.
Maybe it was luck, but it actually survived lying there until now, without being hit by artillery fire.
After the artillery fire stopped, it poked its head out to check the situation, and after discovering that humans were coming to do the final cleanup, it immediately retreated back inside.
Perhaps because there were no living Calamity Beast moving around nearby, the humans didn't come over to check too carefully. After dealing with a few Calamity Beast running around in the distance, they left with some Calamity Beast corpses.
After waiting for a long time, it poked its head out again under the cover of night, intending to run away under the cover of darkness.
But after looking at the mountain path blocked by a landslide and then at its own short limbs, it finally decided to abandon its plan to act last night and wait until the humans had completely left before coming back.
Unexpectedly, those humans came again early this morning, and there were even more of them. It was during this visit that it was discovered.
Thinking of this, the Stone-Armored Beast suddenly saw two new figures appear in front of it.
Immediately afterwards, the two humans who had been crossing their arms immediately lowered their hands, stood up straight, and made some kind of gesture.
The two newcomers did the same thing.
Then, the two sides seemed to say something, Stone-Armored Beast only saw the two humans who had been looking at it turn and leave, while the two newcomers walked over.
Is this guy here to kill me?
The Stone-Armored Beast lowered its head.
It didn't close its eyes, intending to see what the world was like one last time before it died, even though it wasn't a beautiful place.
Shen Heng stopped in front of the Stone-Armored Beast. Even though the Stone-Armored Beast was lying down, it was still much taller than him.
He didn't pay any attention and just kept looking at the Stone-Armored Beast.
Xu Ruiyu explained to him from the side.
"... Upon discovering it was still alive, the two soldiers immediately retreated. They initially intended to call for reinforcements to help kill it, but finding it showed no signs of attacking and unsure how it had survived, they hesitated for a moment before reporting the news."
"After that, the inspectors took over, and then we came over. Throughout this time, the Calamity Beast hasn't shown any sign of attacking; it's just been lying there like this until now..."
As Shen Heng listened to Xu Ruiyu's explanation, his gaze swept over the Stone-Armored Beast.
There were quite a few marks and dirt, but no actual wounds.
So, they really survived the continuous bombardment and their rough sweep last night?
Well... it's not impossible. Under the bombardment, some Calamity Beast will always survive, which was the purpose of their rough sweep last night.
But for a Calamity Beast to simply lie quietly on the ground without offering any resistance was rather strange.
Even if a normal Calamity Beast knows it's impossible to defeat, it should still put up some resistance.
Especially since it was discovered by only two warriors below Tier 3.
Shen Heng looked at the Stone-Armored Beast, and after Xu Ruiyu finished speaking, he opened his mouth.
"Zha Ga Zha Ba Jia ah..."
How did you survive?
The sudden words, spoken in a familiar language, startled the Stone-Armored Beast.
It instinctively shifted its gaze toward the direction from which the sound came.
A... human?
"How did you survive?" the human on the other end asked again.
Only at this moment did the Stone-Armored Beast realize that these words were indeed spoken by the other party.
Although somewhat puzzled as to why the human before him could speak the Common Language, the Stone-Armored Beast hesitated for a moment before speaking:
"Make your mouth this, Ah Na..."
"I don't know, I just lay here like this and that's how I survived!" the Stone-Armored Beast replied honestly.
"Lying prone the whole time, from beginning to end?"
No, but pretty much!
The questioning paused for a moment.
Shen Heng looked at the Stone-Armored Beast, remained silent for a moment, and then asked again:
"You're being attacked and could die at any moment. Aren't you going to fight back?"
This question seemed to touch on something. The Stone-Armored Beast glanced at Shen Heng, then lowered its head without replying, even closing its eyes.
It only replied briefly because it saw the other person spoke Common Tongue, and now it doesn't want to reply anymore.
Shen Heng looked at the Stone-Armored Beast with its eyes closed.
Although he didn't know why the Stone-Armored Beast was acting this way, he could still sense the emotions emanating from it.
exhausted!
A weariness that seeps from the very bones, a weariness with the very act of "living".
He had seen this emotion before.
In some veterans; in those soldiers who lost comrades one by one; in those who had only recently arrived but had already experienced several waves of beasts, thinking they had been captured and used as expendable resources...
This is the first time I've seen it on Calamity Beast.
"You must be very tired."
The slightly different words startled the Stone-Armored Beast, which opened its eyes in confusion.
The human was staring at him, his face expressionless, but...
Looking into those slightly gleaming black pupils, the Stone-Armored Beast trembled slightly, then hesitated before slowly nodding.
"I'm exhausted too. Sometimes I even think, 'If only you hadn't invaded,'" Shen Heng sighed softly, turning his gaze to the cliff to the side. "In that case, even if I still had to come to this world, life would probably be much easier. Without the Ruins Realm, without you, everything would go exactly as it was meant to be!"
As if he had thought of something, a smile appeared on his lips.
"By then, I'll probably just be an ordinary person, going to get off work and coming home every day, lying in bed scrolling through my phone, complaining about the weather, complaining about work, complaining about how slow the food delivery is."
The smile gradually faded.
"Of course, I also know that such a world has many problems, that some people live even more tiring lives than I do now, that there are all sorts of injustices, and that there are things that make it hard to breathe."
"But at least..."
He remained silent for a few seconds.
"Those were normal days; there were no heroes, no missions, no battles for survival."
It may not have been a great era, but it certainly wasn't the worst!
The Stone-Armored Beast lay silently on the ground. It couldn't understand what the other person was talking about—cell phone, work, takeout—but it seemed to sense that the other person was also exhausted.
"So, why did you come here?" Shen Heng turned his gaze to the Stone-Armored Beast.
The Stone-Armored Beast looked at the human in front of it, seemingly moved by the other's words. After hesitating for a moment, it began to speak.
From the Ruins Realm, to the Eye of Earth Marrow, and then to the Molten-Fire Lizard's past conquests...
Shen Heng listened silently.
After a long while, the sound faded.
The Stone-Armored Beast looked at the human who was silently watching it, and when the other party had nothing to say, it closed its eyes again.
Shen Heng looked at the Stone-Armored Beast waiting to die, pondered for a long time, and said:
Do you want to live?