6: Chapter 6: Burning Mortal Bones, Riding the Power of Chaos…

That's right!

It's out of control!

The clueless onlookers were still shocked by the brutality of the Taotie Cat.

When it got vicious, it could even eat itself, gouging outward with its ferocious maw and turning back to consume its own body, looking terrifying beyond measure and causing people's SAN values to plummet wildly. Su Xiu also got his wish and harvested a massive amount of emotional points.

However, his mood could hardly be described as happy.

Because the seemingly horrifying Taotie Cat was already on the verge of collapse.

This wasn't referring to its behavior of eating itself.

Rather, its internal devouring trait, having lost its target, was gradually heading toward autophagy.

Under normal circumstances, even if it got vicious enough to eat itself, it should undergo cell recombination within a short time after finishing, constructing a brand-new physical unit. However, having fallen into autophagy, it clearly had no way of accomplishing this.

"Is it still too much of a stretch?"

Su Xiu shook his head inwardly.

Although he had very good luck with this compilation and it formed in one go,

from the current development, it was ultimately a failure.

Clearly, a legendary creature like the Taotie, even after undergoing degradation, was not something he could successfully compile at his current stage using some ordinary materials, unless he spared no cost and dumped a massive amount of points into it, leaving just a tiny, teeny bit of possibility.

But the financially embarrassed Su Xiu clearly didn't have such capital.

"Tsk~"

"I can only recycle it, huh."

Su Xiu smacked his lips, and his face didn't show much disappointment.

After all, this was already within his expectations, just a casual attempt along the way.

He had long since prepared countermeasures for a rollover.

Designation 002 was already close to arriving at the battlefield.

——

"Danger!!"

The unhurried Su Xiu regarded this as an experiment; success would be joyous, and failure wouldn't be a pity, allowing him to face it with a calm mind.

But Zhao Jinlong, who was caught in the middle of it, truly couldn't hold it together anymore.

Watching wide-eyed as the Taotie Cat finished eating the Gu Martial Arts freak and began to turn its mouth toward him,

the harsh chewing sounds made his scalp tingle.

In the blink of an eye, it had already consumed the majority of its body, and began to flip its mouth back to devour the front half of its body.

The terrifying scene made his hair stand on end.

The scene of plunging SAN values made him want to just pass out right then and there.

But he couldn't!

As the captain of this team, he had to shoulder the responsibilities of a captain.

"Everyone, listen up!"

"Fall back!"

Zhao Jinlong's low, cold voice resounded in the internal comms.

However, he himself did not move, merely staring fixedly at the Taotie Cat, waiting for its subsequent transformation.

"Captain, you?"

The scout Xiao Fang was the first to react.

Familiar with each other's personalities, he instantly understood that Zhao Jinlong wanted to stay on the battlefield to wait for the upcoming changes, risking his life to hold onto the firsthand intelligence.

Understanding the danger involved, Xiao Fang immediately spoke up, wanting to swap positions with him.

"Captain, let me..."

However, before he could finish his words,

"Enough!"

"Obey the order!"

"Take advantage of that monster's internal conflict to get the hell out and pass the intelligence to the higher-ups."

Zhao Jinlong spoke first, cutting off the rest of what he had to say.

His resolute gaze brook no doubt.

This was a critical moment where every second counted; wasting a second could directly cost a life. As an elite trained through countless battles, of course he wouldn't drag his feet or put on some tear-jerking act of sentimentality.

Knowing that Zhao Jinlong had made up his mind,

they could only grit their teeth and retreat with lingering resentment.

The chance of survival was fleeting, and they still shouldered the heavy responsibility of transmitting the intelligence, leaving no room for them to be willful.

Watching the surviving members of his subordinates evacuate,

he finally breathed a secret sigh of relief.

"At least it's not total annihilation."

In the depths of Zhao Jinlong's resolute eyes, there was a trace of fortune.

As for himself?

The desire for life made him want to turn tail and run.

But the responsibility resting on his shoulders made it impossible for him to evacuate.

What a scout needed to do was provide as much intelligence as possible.

As someone caught in the thick of it, Zhao Jinlong had no idea that everything happening with the Taotie Cat was being recorded by Gear and broadcast live under the gaze of countless onlookers.

He still thought that his group was the only eyewitnesses.

He had to obtain as much intelligence as possible and report it upward, allowing the higher-ups to make more comprehensive preparations for response.

Gritting his teeth to suppress the panic in his heart, he hid behind cover and prepared the black box recording.

Just as he finished preparing these and was about to raise his head,

he happened to lock eyes with the Taotie Cat's scarlet vertical pupils.

The cat that would even eat itself when ruthless had completely auto-phagocytosed its own body.

Its tail, limbs, fur...

even its teeth and flesh had been completely devoured, leaving only a single scarlet vertical pupil lingering in mid-air.

Tiny blood vessels and the vagus nerve moved automatically in the air without any wind.

The horrifying scene made one's scalp tingle.

Even with only a single eyeball remaining, the terrifying oppressive feeling did not weaken in the slightest.

Zhao Jinlong had no doubt that if it really made a move, it could swallow him up in a matter of minutes.

Just as he was so nervous that his palms were sweating,

the eyeball floating in mid-air truly slowly turned toward him.

The blood-red vertical pupils carried a bloodthirsty greed. Feeling like needles were pricking his back, Zhao Jinlong instantly froze all over; let alone letting his body tissues muster any resisting force, he couldn't even twitch a muscle.

The only thing he was grateful for was that the black box recording had already been turned on.

And judging from the Taotie Cat's previous reactions, this monster seemed uninterested in inorganic matter.

There was a high probability that the black box could survive by chance. When the higher-ups received the distress signal and conducted a secondary exploration here, they would quickly be able to obtain the firsthand information inside the black box.

Not only would they know more data about the Taotie Cat, but they would also be clear on its final whereabouts.

This would give the higher-ups a chance to make more ample preparations.

Facing the approach of death,

Zhao Jinlong felt the blood inside his body transition from terrified stiffness into waves of surging torrents.

It was as if it were being scorched by an invisible flame until it boiled.

Unfortunately, it was too late.

If it had been a little earlier, he might have been able to react to this, shake off his rigid body, and quickly turn around to evacuate.

But now, the blood-colored vertical pupil was only a step away from him.

However, just as he intended to face death with equanimity,

Step! Step!

crisp footsteps suddenly sounded beside his ear, instantly snapping him back to reality.

"Someone?!"

Zhao Jinlong's pupils contracted, and he quickly turned his head to follow the figure.

The crisp sound was distinctly different from the dull thud of tactical boots; it was definitely not military reinforcement.

Sure enough, what came into view was not the fully armed military,

but a group of mysterious people wearing black robes.

Walking leisurely through the buildings, their steps looked unhurried, yet their speed was surprisingly astonishing.

In the blink of an eye,

they arrived right in front of the blood-colored vertical pupil.

Their purpose was very clear; they seemed to have come precisely for the Taotie Cat.

And at this very moment,

the long-dormant Gear began to rotate slowly once again.

[Chaos █ █]

[Category: Hexagonal █ █]

[Danger Level: █ █]

[An █ █ from a certain deep-sea trench, possessing a certain decomposition characteristic, capable of driving flesh and blood changes, possessing unknown toxicity, possessing amphibious capabilities, the █ █ entity has always wandered in the abyss, and its threat level is extremely high]

[Faction, █ █ █ █]

[Weaknesses: █ █, █ █, █ █]

[...]