Ling Cage, pick up Lu Mingfei at the start.

cold.

The biting cold felt like someone had stuffed an entire Arctic iceberg into his bone marrow and held a rock concert inside it, with ice shards dancing wildly to the rhythm, making every nerve in his body scream.

Lu Mingfei suddenly opened his eyes.

There was no familiar ceiling in sight, no old laptop covered in StarCraft stickers, and no annoying snoring from his cousin Lu Mingze. Only an endless, morbid crimson expanse.

The sky was a dark red, like congealed, putrid blood. Layers of clouds writhed slowly, gleaming with a nauseating, greasy sheen. An indescribable stench permeated the air, a mixture of rust, rotting organic matter, and some… the stench of living things, rising straight to the top of one's head.

He lay on a cold, metallic ruin, beneath him twisted and deformed steel bars and some unfamiliar special alloy plate with sharp edges that hurt him painfully.

All around were dilapidated skyscrapers, reduced to mere skeletons, standing silently in the red mist like the corpses of giants.

In the distance, strangely shaped plants, emitting a faint phosphorescent glow, grew twisted and contorted, adding an eerie touch to the deathly stillness.

"Where the hell am I?" Lu Mingfei propped himself up to sit up, his voice dry and hoarse, filled with a terror that even he could hear. "Wasn't I spending the whole night at an internet cafe? Could it be... that I've transmigrated?"

The moment the idea popped into his head, he found it absurd. Time travel? Wasn't that something only found in novels?

Lu Mingfei, a good-for-nothing who is good at nothing but playing games, has a life goal of living a life of leisure and waiting to die, and by chance, a pretty girl will fall for him. How could such a good thing possibly happen to him?

He pinched his thigh hard.

"Hiss—!" The intense pain made him gasp, shattering his last shred of hope.

Not a dream.

He was in a completely unfamiliar, and extremely unfriendly place.

Just then, a low, viscous sound, like countless wet, slippery internal organs rubbing and wriggling, came from the depths of the ruins' shadows.

Lu Mingfei's hair stood on end instantly.

He stiffly and slowly turned his head toward the source of the sound.

Just a few dozen meters away, behind a half-collapsed GG sign, something... crawled out.

The thing was about two meters tall, and its shape vaguely resembled a human, but its skin was a grayish, wrinkled, and slimy texture, like soaked leather.

Its head was bald, without a nose or ears, only a gaping mouth filled with fine fangs that stretched to the roots of its ears, and on its face... three pupil-less eyes that emitted a ghostly blue light!

It was on all fours, its joints twisted at bizarre angles, its long tail swaying slowly behind it like a venomous python. A faint, undulating crimson light enveloped its body, mirroring the color of the sky.

"Mom... Mom..." Lu Mingfei's teeth began to chatter uncontrollably, making a "clucking" sound. He wanted to run, but his legs were as weak as two cooked noodles, completely unresponsive.

The three eerie blue eyes of the Devouring Beast locked onto him. It seemed quite interested in Lu Mingfei, this unexpected "snack," and in its eyes, the life essence of the human before it was practically glowing hot.

It made a louder gurgling sound from its throat, like swallowing saliva, and began to slowly approach him using all four limbs.

The heavy claws landed on the gravel with a dull "thud".

"No...don't come any closer..." Lu Mingfei crawled backward on all fours. Cold metal shards cut his palms and knees, causing a burning pain, but he didn't care at all.

"I don't like it! Really! I... I'm just a useless person! A shut-in! Fatty liver! High blood pressure, high cholesterol, and high blood sugar! The meat is sour! Eating it will give me diarrhea!"

He pleaded incoherently, shouting out every derogatory word he could think of, hoping to provoke the monster's disgust.

Unfortunately, the Devouring Beast clearly lacked the refinement of a food critic. Seemingly provoked by Lu Mingfei's actions and voice, it suddenly increased its speed, rushing towards him with a stench!

"Help—!"

The instinct for survival finally overwhelmed the numbness brought on by fear. Lu Mingfei let out a strange cry, leaped up from the ground, and turned around to run for his life.

He didn't know where to run, or where it was safe; only one thought occupied his mind—run! Get as far away from that thing as possible!

The wind whistled past his ears, mingled with the growing growls and heavy footsteps of the approaching Devouring Beast. Lu Mingfei had never run so fast in his life; his lungs pounded violently like broken bellows, each breath carrying the stench of blood.

He could even smell the hot, rotten, and fishy fumes coming from the monster's mouth behind him.

I'm going to die! I'm going to die! I'm really going to die this time! If I had known I would be transported to this godforsaken place, I shouldn't have saved those five dollars yesterday. I should have bought a hamburger instead! It would have been better to die with a full stomach than like this!

Just as he felt he was about to be pounced on, and could even imagine the excruciating pain of those fangs piercing his neck—

"call out!"

A sharp whooshing sound suddenly rang out!

Then came a soft "plop" sound, like a sharp blade slicing open a ripe fruit.

The attack of the Devouring Beast behind him suddenly stopped, letting out a shrill, inhuman screech.

Lu Mingfei scrambled and crawled for another dozen meters before daring to look back.

A strangely shaped, short-handled curved blade with a cold, metallic sheen had precisely pierced through the shoulder blade of the Devouring Beast! The blade was mostly embedded, leaving only a simple hilt sticking out.

The monster writhed wildly, trying to pull out the scimitar, but little blood flowed from the wound; only some fluorescent, viscous, scarlet substance was flowing out.

Before Lu Mingfei could react, a figure leaped down from the second-floor window of a dilapidated building above and to the side like a ghost!

That's a woman.

A sharp, worn-out gray-white protective suit accentuated his agile and powerful physique.

Her short, silver-white hair stood out starkly against the crimson sky, like flowing moonlight. A finely crafted breathing mask covered most of her face, revealing only her eyes.

What kind of eyes were those?

Calm, sharp, like a blade tempered with ice, yet carrying a bottomless indifference that has settled after countless life-and-death experiences and tribulations.

She landed silently, her movements so fluid and effortless that gravity seemed to have no effect on her whatsoever.

She didn't even glance at Lu Mingfei; her gaze was fixed solely on the injured Devouring Beast.

"Xu Tong, Shattered Star, mark it, don't let it rest." The woman's voice came through the mask, cold, calm, and without the slightest emotional fluctuation.

"Understood, boss!" A slightly eccentric male voice came from the communicator.

Almost as soon as the woman finished speaking, two figures appeared from different directions.

A man wearing heavy protective clothing, but not particularly muscular, carried a device that looked like a cannon. He aimed it at the Devouring Beast and, with a "whoosh," fired a viscous, green-glowing, net-like substance that precisely covered the monster's body.

Another tall and agile woman, carrying a longbow, swiftly fired arrows in succession. The arrows glowed with a special light and landed on the open ground around the Devouring Beast, as if she were setting something up.

The white-haired woman, referred to as "the boss," rushed forward like a whirlwind. Her speed exceeded Lu Mingfei's dynamic visual perception capabilities; he could only see a blurry white afterimage rapidly flashing around the Devouring Beast.

The curved sword that had been stuck in the Devouring Beast's shoulder had somehow returned to her hand. The blade's light was like a deathly lotus blooming under the moon. With each flash, it left a deep wound on the Devouring Beast's tough body, from which glowing crimson substances continuously splattered.

The Devouring Beast roared furiously, its claws and tail flailing wildly, but it couldn't even touch the hem of her clothes.

Finally, a glowing sphere was revealed, which Bai Yuekui shattered with a single sword strike.

Lu Mingfei was stunned, his mouth agape, standing there dumbfounded, forgetting even to run away.

This...this isn't right! One second he's an extra about to die in a horror movie, and the next he's on the set of an action blockbuster? With top-notch special effects, no less!

This woman... isn't she a bit too strong?!

The battle ended extremely quickly. In less than half a minute, the Devouring Beast that had previously chased Lu Mingfei so fiercely was now just a skeleton.

The white-haired woman, Bai Yuekui, sheathed her sword and retreated, slightly panting.

At that moment, a sudden change occurred!

"Roar—!" "Awooo—!"

Suddenly, pairs of eerie blue eyes lit up from the shadows of the surrounding ruins! At least a dozen Devouring Beasts of various shapes and sizes had silently surrounded them!

They growled and slowly emerged from their hiding places, their bodies glowing with a scarlet light, radiating greed and ferocity.

Most of their gazes were focused on Bai Yuekui's squad, who had just finished their battle and were still recovering from their shock. But Lu Mingfei was horrified to discover that a few of them seemed to be... eyeing him as well?

We're doomed! We've just escaped one wolf's den, only to fall into another! And it's a pack of tigers!

Lu Mingfei's legs went weak, and he almost collapsed to the ground. He closed his eyes in despair, preparing to face his fate.

However, the anticipated extermination did not occur.

Time seemed to freeze for a moment.

The approaching Devouring Beasts, about three steps away from Lu Mingfei, suddenly stopped as if they had crashed into an invisible wall!

The first few even scratched the ground uneasily with their claws, making confused and anxious "woofing" sounds in their throats. Their dark blue eyes were fixed on Lu Mingfei, and the ferocity and greed in their eyes were still there, but mixed with an incomprehensible... hesitation, or even... a trace of barely perceptible fear?

They dared not go any further.

It's as if the area within three steps of Lu Mingfei is an absolute no-go zone.

Bai Yuekui paused in his action of ordering everyone to immediately return to their original state, his brows furrowing slightly beneath his mask.

For the first time, her sharp gaze truly fell upon the boy who was slumped on the ground, trembling, and looked utterly ordinary.

Xu Tong put down his launcher, his astonished voice barely concealed by his heavy mask: "Holy crap? What's going on? These guys... are afraid of him?"

Sui Xing gripped her longbow tightly, her eyes filled with wariness and confusion. She lowered her voice and said, "Boss, there's something strange about him...."

An eerie silence fell over the scene. Only the suppressed growls of the Devouring Beasts and Lu Mingfei's own heavy, terrified breathing mingled together.

Lu Mingfei himself was also dumbfounded.

He waited for a long time, but instead of feeling torn apart, he felt that the surroundings seemed... much quieter? He trembled and cautiously opened one eye.

What came into view was a group of Devouring Beasts surrounding them three steps away, baring their teeth but hesitant to move forward.

"???"

Lu Mingfei's mind was filled with questions. He looked to his left, then to his right, and even looked down at himself—aside from almost wetting his pants in fright, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

He tentatively shifted his position to the side.

A miraculous thing happened!

As he moved, the "three-step forbidden zone" moved with him! The Devouring Beast that was originally in front of him subconsciously took half a step back because of his approach, while the Devouring Beast that was originally to his side tried to move forward because he left, but stopped abruptly when it reached the three-step boundary.

Lu Mingfei: "..."

Bai Yuekui's team members: "..."

This counterintuitive scene left even the most knowledgeable survivors deeply perplexed.

Finally, Bai Yuekui broke the silence. Ignoring the restless Devouring Beasts who dared not cross the line, she walked straight up to Lu Mingfei and looked down at him.

Her figure blocked the dark red sunlight, casting a shadow on Lu Mingfei. Those cold, scrutinizing eyes made Lu Mingfei feel like a paramecium under a microscope.

"You," Bai Yuekui's voice remained flat, but the probing tone in it was unmistakable, "who are you?"

Lu Mingfei looked up at his savior, who was also suspected to be a super-powerful figure, his mind blank. His lips trembled for a long time before he finally managed to squeeze out a heartfelt reply, his voice trembling with tears:

"I...I really don't know, ma'am! I was just passing by! Could...could you please not eat me? Or...or could you take me away from this godforsaken place first before we talk?"