A clearing in the woods.
A lantern swayed, casting its light in all directions as the tree shadows stretched into long, straight black bars against the ground.
“Where is it?!”
The man in the black hooded robe widened his eyes to their limit, his sockets nearly tearing. His pupils darted frantically, searching for the terrifying enemy lurking within the gaps of the forest.
Behind him stood a thin young girl in a brand-new black robe. She held a lantern as well, struggling to suppress the trembling of her fingers. Her legs had turned to jelly, and she could only remain standing by pressing her knees together.
Hiss—
The air began to flow.
In the next moment, the man’s lantern-holding arm fell to the ground with a wet thud. The sensation of tendons snapping and recoiling into his flesh almost shattered his mental defenses.
The girl let out a piercing scream.
The surface of the wound was smooth for only a fraction of a second before a torrent of gore erupted. It was like a ripe berry being sliced open, its abundant red juices dripping down.
I’m a cripple now…
The man’s face turned deathly pale. A phantom sense of shock swirled in his mind, but the delayed surge of agony forced a grunt from his throat, dragging his consciousness back to reality.
He clenched his teeth, resisting the intense pain as his brow furrowed into a tight knot.
Just his luck…
To run into an “Invisible Fiend” in the Lead-Grey Zone…
Had it wandered over from a nearby Low-Sec region?
His other hand swept across his tactical belt, retrieving a rough, ellipsoidal dried fruit. He squeezed it hard, crushing it against the stump of his limb.
The dried fruit expanded upon contact with the blood. The withered yellow fibers inside seemed to come to life, turning thick and black as they rapidly crawled and grew. They wove a dense net, constricting the severed limb into a hard, lumpy knot of flesh.
The tearing pain continued to torture him.
The man panted heavily, his clothes soaked with sweat. A layer of perspiration broke out on his forehead, and moisture dripped from his sideburns. He looked as if he had just been fished out of a river.
Though he had stopped the bleeding in time, he knew that death would soon descend.
The only reason he hadn’t been killed instantly was that the enemy possessed high intelligence. It wouldn’t stop recklessly until it was certain its prey had lost all ability to resist; it stayed constantly on the move.
“Invisible Fiend” didn’t refer to a single type of creature, but rather all monsters with color-changing, invisibility, or visual-hallucination abilities.
Some were as small as insects, others as large as oxen. Some were predators, some scavengers, some parasites. They were diverse, but without exception, they were all extremely dangerous.
Despair had not yet swallowed his soul, but the man had already fallen into a profound sense of tragedy.
He ground his teeth so hard they nearly cracked. The veins in his neck bulged like writhing earthworms as he thought angrily:
I really am a useless bastard. I can’t even protect my own disciple…
She’s only fourteen. She’s just a child…
She had her whole youth ahead of her, but because she got stuck with a pathetic master like me, she’s going to lose her life in a High-Sec area. How ridiculous. A High-Sec area…
If I’d known, I would have kept her training around the town…
Why did I wander so far?
Why didn’t I invite a few friends to come along?
Why am I such a useless piece of trash?
The man’s breath hitched. His gaze scanned the forest, desperately searching for any sign of the Invisible Fiend.
“Where is it… Where the hell is it…”
Hiss—
The air began to flow.
Hearing the sound like a viper’s tongue flicking, his pupils suddenly contracted.
This time… I can’t dodge…
I’m going to die…
Suddenly, a massive commotion erupted in front of him!
THOOM!
It sounded like someone kicking down a door with immense force, but ten times louder.
A violent gale followed instantly, scattering fallen leaves and even sweeping away a layer of loose soil from the ground.
What happened?
The man’s head rang. He looked left and right, but saw nothing out of the ordinary.
After a short moment, a bracket-shaped light appeared in the empty air. A miraculous narrow door opened out of nowhere.
Warm yellow light spilled out.
A black-haired young girl held onto the doorframe and took a small hop down to the ground, her soft hair fluttering up before settling gently.
Her features were exquisite, clear, and ethereal, like an elf stepping out of a fairyland.
After stepping down, she pressed a small finger to her smooth forehead, a look of displeasure on her face as she muttered:
“Dammit all. I’ve only had the car for half a day and I’m already in an accident… These Invisible Fiends have no sense of public ethics, darting all over the place. You can’t even see them!”
Then, another young gold-haired girl jumped down from the void portal. She had long gold hair and a stunningly beautiful face, her eyes as red as blood and her lips as thin as a blade’s edge.
She walked forward a short distance, reached into the brambles, and pulled out a limp, somewhat humanoid transparent object. She tossed it into the clearing and gave it a kick, sneering:
“Dead? What a pity. I thought I could play with it for a while.”
“Strip the materials, don’t let them go to waste,” the young black-haired girl reminded her. With that, she walked over to a patch of empty air and began feeling around as if she were performing a “window cleaner” dance, grumbling, “It’s cracked, it’s cracked…”
On the other side, the blonde girl calmly put on rubber gloves. She tugged at the wrist—snap—sealing them against her skin.
With a flick of her wrist, a tactical folding knife appeared. Her index finger hit the flipper, deploying a sharp, polished feather-patterned Damascus steel blade. Then, she knelt down, plunging the Kwaiken with pinpoint accuracy into the Invisible Fiend’s body. She carved a circular arc and plucked out a strange sac covered in faint blue veins.
Once the sac was removed, the Invisible Fiend’s form slowly became visible.
It possessed membrane tissue like a mollusk, with its musculature layered and transparent. Faint blue blood vessels crisscrossed through it like a spiderweb. Its heart was located on its ventral side, the junction of the vessels, resembling a weirdly distorted piece of seed jade.
It had six limbs. The upper and lower pairs were similar to a human’s, complete with joints and fingers. A third pair extended from the sides of its abdomen, allowing it to raise its head even while moving at high speeds.
Above the complex area of its mouthparts, antennae, and Compound Eyes on its diamond-shaped head, a sinister, serrated blade-plate extended outward.
It was about two feet long, transparent as crystal, with a sharp, undulating edge and a faint red tint to the blade.
It was this natural weapon, resembling a shrimp’s rostrum, that had severed the man’s arm.
The folding knife spun in the blonde girl’s hand, transitioning to a reverse grip. She stabbed and pulled, slicing diagonally along both sides of the monster’s dorsal nerve cord with a sound like tearing silk.
Her slender fingers first brushed the flesh, then dug in. With a squelch, she stripped the ribbon-like muscle tissue along with the dorsal nerve cord in one go. She pulled out the notochord and tossed it aside, her movements showing high proficiency.
Next, she moved to the head, cutting the ligaments connecting the jaw. The tip of the blade wedged perfectly into the bone gap, prying it open as easily as if she were shucking an oyster.
Finally, she gripped the eye sockets and tore the entire skull cap—along with the rostrum—clean off!
“Good technique. If Professor Tone saw this, she’d definitely praise you,” Wang Yue said, handing over a sealed bag.
“No way. Tone would just think it’s expected. She’d probably be thinking that any waste of space who can’t even harvest materials properly should just drop out.”
“True enough.”
…
The man and the girl gradually recovered from their shock and daze.
Their current feeling was bizarre, as if they had been facing a rampaging bull when a UFO suddenly descended from the sky and sucked the bull away.
It felt as if they were separated from the two newcomers by an invisible wall. There was no contact; the newcomers just went about their business, creating a surreal atmosphere.
“Master, are you alright? Your hand…” The girl walked over, her voice thick with tears. Her eyes were puffy as she succumbed to her grief. “I’m sorry, it’s my fault for holding you back.”
“Don’t say that. My heart is breaking… I was too useless. If we hadn’t run into this accident, we both would have died here.”
The man felt more guilty by the second, his face flickering between flushed and pale. He leaned down to pick up his severed arm, but just as his fingers were about to touch it, a foot stepped onto it!
“Yo, useless Explorer. Trying to keep a ‘hand’ in reserve, are we?” Lilith’s mocking tone drifted over.
“Lilith!”
Wang Yue frowned. With a flick of her Wand, Lilith was forced backward as if being rewound.
“Watch your mouth. Did they do something to you? You’re not allowed to speak like that anymore! Do you hear me?” she scolded.
