The True Exotic Beast!
Looking at the two storage slots unlocked under the inventory section of the system panel, Jiang He was overjoyed!
It was like being handed a pillow just as he was getting sleepy!
He casually stowed both backpacks in the storage space.
The two slots did not count items individually.
Simply put, as long as something appeared to be a single item,
and was not too large, it would occupy only one slot!
Supernatural items were an exception, of course...
He glanced down at the watch on his wrist.
11:40!
Only five minutes remained until the time he had returned to camp in his previous life.
He produced the repaired dagger with a flip of his hand, but did not examine it closely.
These weird items looked no different from ordinary objects. Only appraisal could reveal what they did.
Jiang He had spent all his system points, so it hardly mattered what the dagger looked like. Knowing it could kill the man was enough!
He hurried back to camp.
Even though he had rushed back in this life, it was already 11:45 by the time he approached the crowd.
It was the same time as in his previous life...
"Xiao Jiang, you're back?"
"Our vehicle still needs fuel. Go lend a hand!"
Old Wang, who was carrying a fuel can, paused when he saw Jiang He appear and spoke the same words he had in the previous life.
As Jiang He remembered it, a monster had suddenly appeared in the camp during the fifteen minutes he had spent fetching fuel from the gas station.
By the time he returned, rivers of blood had flowed here...
"Sorry, Brother Wang! My stomach suddenly started hurting. I need to rest on the bus for a bit!"
After making a casual excuse, Jiang He left the crowd and ran toward the bus parked in the distance.
Old Wang was not displeased. He simply called over Xiao Wu, a college student, and said something to him.
Jiang He could not hear what he said, because he was already back on the bus.
Noon was approaching.
The blood moon in the sky seemed to grow more active, giving off a light as dazzling as the sun!
It allowed Jiang He to see every corner of the bus...
He glanced toward the man, only to find him unusually calm.
His wooden expression had returned to that of a normal person, and even the coughing in the bus had stopped!
The elderly woman sitting beside him, however, did not look quite right.
Her face was deathly pale, without a trace of color.
Her head rested against the window to one side, her eyes tightly shut, as if she were dead...
What's going on? Has this monster already started killing?
Keeping his right hand behind his back, gripping the dagger's hilt tightly, Jiang He slowly approached the man while his left hand reached for the lightning-struck wood at his waist.
Although he knew the lightning-struck wood only countered Eldritch Horrors and did little damage to exotic beasts,
it was still a sequence wondrous item, and surely much stronger than his fists!
Closer!
Seven meters...
Six meters...
Four meters...
As the distance between Jiang He and the man gradually shrank, he instead grew calm.
Although he had been an ordinary person in his previous life, he had fought plenty of battles.
So the more tense the moment, the more it could draw out Jiang He's physical potential...
One meter!
Finally!
Jiang He reached the man.
It really was you!
Out of the corner of his eye, Jiang He glimpsed the man's fingernails, turned pitch-black by the moonlight. The last of his doubts vanished.
Only the nails of the two kinds of monsters, exotic beasts and Eldritch Horrors, turned black under the red moonlight!
Without any warning!
The dagger he had hidden behind his back slashed fiercely toward the middle-aged man's throat.
The man only noticed Jiang He's intention when the dagger was right before him.
He jerked his head sharply to the side, narrowly dodging the slash.
Apparently not expecting the human before him to attack, the man showed a trace of fear, but it was quickly replaced by anger.
Cough, cough, cough, cough!
The familiar coughing rang out again, and the man vomited a blackish-red liquid.
His eyes bulged, flames flared in his palm, and he lunged at Jiang He.
He was so fast that no normal human could have dodged!
Seeing that his attack was about to strike Jiang He in the chest, the man once again wore a strange smile.
From his wooden smile, Jiang He could see his contempt for weak prey.
Pfft!
The sound of something being pierced rang out.
The strange expression on the middle-aged man's face froze instantly, and he looked down at his chest.
A piece of wood had appeared there at some point, its tip embedded deep in the seat behind him...
A normal person indeed could not have reacted to the man's attack, and Jiang He was no exception.
But he did not need to react at all. He only had to execute the combination he had rehearsed countless times in his mind to wound his enemy!
Crackle!
Three arcs of blue light erupted from the lightning-struck wood and traveled along the wound, deep into the man's body in an instant!
"Ugh..."
Blood sprayed from the man's mouth.
"How is this possible? Cough, cough! How could you hurt me?"
Feeling the intense pain in his chest, the man was momentarily dazed and kept muttering.
Taking advantage of the moment, Jiang He pulled out the lightning-struck wood with a heave, reversed his grip on the dagger in his right hand, and stabbed fiercely at the man's chest again!
There was no spray of blood as he had imagined. The blade slipped into the flesh more like it was stabbing a lump of jelly, meeting no resistance at all...
Cough, cough, cough, cough!
The man kept coughing, blackish-red liquid streaming from the corners of his mouth. He sounded much weaker than before.
"Cough, cough, brat, you really deserve to die!"
He was now completely enraged. His skin rapidly shriveled and shrank until it vanished completely!
His flesh was blackened and turned outward, as though it had been burned in a great fire.
In the distant camp, Old Wang the driver seemed to notice something, and a shadow passed through his eyes...
The survivors were still chatting and laughing. No one paid any attention to bus number three, which was hidden behind the other buses.
[Ding] [Level 2 Weird detected: Burned Weird. Danger index: 70. Host advised to retreat]
Jiang He did not need the system's warning. He had already noticed something was wrong!
Judging from the lightning-struck wood's reaction, this was clearly a weird beast, not an exotic beast!
And the man's current appearance was not that of the monster he had seen in his previous life!
The string of unexpected developments before him began to unsettle him.
Where had that exotic beast gone?
What exactly had happened after he left in his previous life?
"Brat! Die!"
Before Jiang He could think any further, Burned Weird, having revealed his true form, shouted and rushed toward him.
At that critical moment, a huge claw covered in black fur seized Burned Weird in an instant.
The sudden sight left Jiang He frozen, his head ringing.
Even though he had considered countless possibilities, he never could have imagined that the monster that had slaughtered every member of the convoy was her...
A huge black exotic beast had appeared at some point in the elderly woman's seat!
From the waist up, the exotic beast stood upright like a werewolf, its knotted muscles covered in a dense layer of coarse black hair.
In contrast, its lower body was extremely withered, its legs only as thick as a normal person's arms.
It looked like a muscular man had grafted fingers onto his butt...
Its bizarre appearance was exactly the same as the one in Jiang He's memory!
The monster held Burned Weird aloft in one claw and snatched the urn from his hand with the other.
The Weird, who had been so menacing just moments ago, was being battered around in her grip like a chick!
The monster glanced at the box in her hand and tucked it under her arm.
Her expression was like that of a frugal old person who had finished a bottle of mineral water and wanted to throw it away, but could not quite bear to...
When the monster turned to look at him, Jiang He could not help backing up to his seat, where the window was still open...
"Roar!"
The exotic beast the old woman had transformed into roared, then abruptly opened her enormous bloody maw and swallowed Burned Weird in the blink of an eye...
At the sight, Jiang He was just about to jump out the window and flee.
But before he could move, he saw a box hurtling toward him.
Bang!
There was no time to dodge. The box slammed into Jiang He's chest.
The terrifying force sent him flying straight out through the open window.
Cough, cough!
Jiang He landed in a sorry state and could not help coughing up a mouthful of blood.
The monster was far too powerful. In his previous life, he had not seen her slaughter anyone.
Now that he had experienced her strength firsthand, he realized he simply could not afford to provoke her!
Not even with the dagger and the lightning-struck wood in his hands!
[Level 3 exotic beast detected nearby: Blood Wolf. Host advised to get away immediately!]