Behind him, the signal tower blazed, flames licking the night sky. In front of him, the ground was splattered with "watermelon juice" (gore). Standing amidst this macabre scene was a strikingly handsome man, holding a giant, blood-dripping axe, a slight smile playing on his lips.
The juxtaposition of elements painted a picture that was both grotesque and surreal.
"I-I'm Chris. Thank you for saving me..." Chris climbed down from the tree and stopped a safe distance from Mike, his expression wary.
"What is your intended course of action now?" Mike ignored the man's guarded demeanor.
He scanned the three survivors, then looked deep into the forest.
When he killed the cannibal on the ground earlier, Mike had observed the smaller, agile cannibal escaping by leaping through the canopy.
Without a ranged weapon, stopping it had been statistically improbable at that moment.
However, the monk may run, but the temple remains. Mike was determined to harvest that last "leek" (loot drop).
"We sent a distress signal earlier. perhaps we should wait for the rescue team..." Carly suggested tentatively.
Having just survived a brush with death, she had absolutely no desire to face those man-eating monsters again.
"I want to retrieve my friends' bodies. They shouldn't be desecrated by those monsters." Jessie looked at Mike with burning intensity.
The cruelest aspect of the cannibals wasn't the killing; it was the consumption.
The image of that bubbling cauldron had been seared into Jessie's memory.
The dead deserved dignity, not to be treated as livestock.
Especially when those dead were her friends.
Jessie couldn't bear the thought of leaving Scott and the others behind, knowing what the escaping cannibal might do to their remains.
Scott, Evan, Francine—members of her adventure group. Their bodies were still back at the cannibals' lair.
"I... I..."
Chris, the office worker, also dreaded facing the horrors again. But recalling the gruesome scenes he had witnessed inside the lair, his eyes flickered with indecision before resolving into determination. "If we are going to neutralize the remaining monster, I am willing to contribute."
Empathy for his fellow humans drove Chris to this decision.
With his vote, the consensus was clear: two to one.
Of course, Mike was definitely going to hunt the last monster. Even if just for the ability orb, he was making that trip.
So, the vote was effectively three to one.
"You can wait by the road. There is a pickup truck with supplies..." Mike directed Carly towards safety.
"Don't leave me! I'm coming with you!" Still traumatized, Carly was terrified of being alone in the forest.
Right now, the only place she felt remotely safe was next to Mike.
"It appears we have reached a consensus." Mike addressed the girl clinging to his side. "Let's move. Resolving the problem quickly means we can evacuate this area sooner."
Thus, the cannibal hunting squad was formed.
Guided by Jessie and Chris, Mike navigated through the forest and arrived at the cannibals' lair.
Under the moonlight, a sinister wooden cabin appeared before them.
The clearing around the cabin was a graveyard of vehicles—hundreds of cars, ranging from rusted hulks to newer models, were piled everywhere.
The sheer volume of wreckage testified to the number of victims these monsters had claimed over the years.
"Shh. Wait here..."
Before approaching the cabin, Mike signaled for silence and advanced alone, hefting the giant axe.
With his superhuman hearing, he detected subtle movements inside the cabin. The escaping cannibal was definitely hiding in there.
Creak...
As Mike pushed the door slightly, a spear thrust out from the darkness, aiming for his face.
Reacting instantly to the ambush, Mike sidestepped gracefully.
Giving the opponent no chance for a second strike, his large hand shot out, grabbed the spear shaft, and yanked it outward with tremendous force.
Thud!
The wooden door slammed shut again, and the cannibal inside, who hadn't let go in time, was smashed against the back of the door by the momentum.
Immediately following up, Mike delivered a powerful kick, blasting the flimsy wooden door—and the cannibal behind it—off its hinges and into the room.
Crash!
Splinters and dust exploded into the air.
The impact was visceral.
Before Jessie and the others could gasp, Mike had already stepped into the gloomy cabin, axe in hand.
Sickening sounds of bone shattering and monster screeches echoed from inside.
When Jessie and the others rushed in, the monster's limbs had already been severed.
Lying in a pool of blood, the small cannibal displayed tenacious vitality. It roared and stared at Mike with bloodshot eyes full of hatred as he stood over it with the bloody axe.
Panning the room, the flickering torchlight revealed a long wooden table covered in bloody clothes, boning knives, and chunks of flesh.
At the end of the table sat a cauldron over two meters in diameter, with bones and meat boiling inside.
Clearly, the escaping cannibal had been preparing a midnight snack.
"Ugh... Blergh..."
The intense visual shock and the thick stench of blood were too much for Carly. She covered her mouth and ran outside to vomit.
Jessie and Chris, equally unable to withstand the horror, turned pale and retreated from the cabin.
"Truly beasts..."
Mike surveyed the scene, fully aware of what the meat represented.
The axe fell one last time, sending the grotesque head flying.
The small cannibal's life of sin was finally terminated.
[Tenacious Vitality]: When severely injured, consume stamina to rapidly regenerate wounds.
[Detectable compatible traits. Fuse? Yes / No.]
"Fuse."
[Scavenger System]
Host: Mike Quinn (Zhao Kun)
Intelligence: 194+ (Super Genius ~160)
Constitution: 599+ (Average Adult Male: 100)
Skills: Football Lv4 (10k/100k), Acting Lv3 (5691/10k), Eloquence Lv3 (2963/10k), Golden Spear Lv3 (691/10k), Marksmanship Lv3 (241/10k)...
(Skills divided into five levels. Expand for more.)
Traits: Demon Body (1. Undying, Tenacious Vitality. 2. Eternal Youth. 3. Rapid Healing, Stone Skin. 4. Giant Strength.)
Moonlight: (1. Combat power increased by 50% at night. 2. Absorb lunar energy to enhance constitution.)
(Note: Similar traits can be stacked and fused.)
As expected of cannibals. The [Traits] Mike obtained from the three monsters were all successfully integrated into his [Demon Body].
With [Tenacious Vitality], unless he was decapitated, he could recover from almost anything.
Meanwhile, the constitution boost from [Moonlight] had reached its limit.
To further enhance his physical stats, Mike needed to stack more potent traits.
On the intelligence front, Mike was now a super-super-genius. He learned everything rapidly.
Any skill requiring cognitive function could be mastered to Level 3 (Professional) in record time.
"Mike, what do you plan to do with this place?" Jessie, having finished vomiting, returned to the cabin.
"Set it on fire. Burn it all down," Mike proposed.
Hundreds of souls had perished here...
Such a place of evil deserved to be purified by fire.
"Burning it is good..." Jessie said, looking at the tattered clothes on the long table.
She recognized them as belonging to her dead friends.
Chris, having composed himself, re-entered the cabin.
He then helped Jessie gather the clothes and identifiable remains from the table.
One small mercy: Mike had arrived just in time. The cannibal had only portioned the meat; it hadn't made it into the pot yet.
Half an hour later, Mike, carrying a bag of jewelry and valuables he'd scavenged, kicked over the bonfire and torches, setting the cabin ablaze.
Outside in the clearing, with Chris's help, Jessie had finished burying the remains of her three companions.
As for Carly, after several rounds of vomiting, she was sitting limply on the ground, exhausted.
"What is that in your hand?" Chris asked, approaching Mike as he exited the burning structure.
After the series of events, Chris's attitude had shifted completely; he now looked to Mike as the leader.
Even if only temporarily.
"This?" Mike handed him a photograph he had found.
It was a family portrait.
"How is this possible... This woman is the owner of the inn at the crossroads... and these three monsters behind her are the cannibals..."
Chris stared at the photo, eyes wide with shock.
He remembered vividly that he had chosen the forest shortcut specifically because he saw the map on the bulletin board at that very inn.
Combining that with the events here...
Everything pointed to a conspiracy.