Behind him, the signal tower blazed with fire, and in front, watermelon juice splattered the ground.
The handsome man, holding a blood-dripping great axe, had a slight smile on his lips.
All these scenes painted a bloody and bizarre picture.
"I... I'm Chris, thank you for saving me..." Chris, who had climbed down from the big tree, stopped not far from Mike, a hint of wariness on his face.
"What are you planning to do next?" Mike didn't mind the man's attitude.
His gaze swept over the three of them, then looked towards the depths of the forest.
Just now, while killing the cannibal on the ground, Mike noticed that the small, agile cannibal on the tree had escaped the scene by bouncing off branches.
In that situation, without long-range weapons, it was impossible to stop it.
But the cannibal could run, but its lair couldn't. Mike was determined to get this sheep.
"We called for rescue earlier, why don't we wait for the rescue team to arrive..." Carly said tentatively.
Having just experienced a life-and-death struggle, she no longer wanted to face that man-eating monster.
"I want to retrieve my dead friends' bodies; their bodies shouldn't be defiled by monsters." Jessie looked at Mike with burning eyes.
The cannibal's most cruel method was not killing people, but treating them as food.
That steaming cauldron had left a deep impression on Jessie.
The dead should not be subjected to such desecration...
Moreover, some of her friends were among them.
Jessie didn't dare to imagine what the escaped cannibal would do to Scott and their bodies if they just left.
Scott, Evan, and Francine were members of the previous adventure team. Now their bodies were all left in the cannibal's lair.
"I... I..."
Chris, the office worker, also didn't want to face the terrifying cannibal again. But thinking of the scene he had witnessed in the monster's lair earlier, his eyes flickered a few times before he said firmly, "If we're going to deal with the remaining monster, I'm willing to help."
Empathy for one's kind probably described Chris's current situation.
After he spoke, the situation on the scene became clear: two to one.
Of course, Mike was definitely going to find the remaining monster. Even for the characteristic light cluster, he had to go through with it.
So, it was three to one.
"You can wait for us by the road, there's a pickup truck there with food..." Mike arranged Carly's destination.
"Don't leave me, I'll go with you." Carly, who had just been frightened, didn't dare to stay in the forest alone.
Now, she could only feel a little safe by staying with Mike.
"It seems we've reached an agreement," Mike said to the girl who had come closer, "Then let's go together. The sooner we solve the trouble, the sooner we can leave this place."
At this point, a hunting team targeting the cannibal was thus formed.
Led by Jessie and the other two, Mike traversed the jungle and arrived at the cannibal's lair.
Under the moonlight, a sinister-looking wooden cabin appeared before everyone.
The large open space around the cabin was piled high with dense, old and new scrap vehicles, roughly estimated to be over a hundred.
This showed how many passersby the cannibals had harmed over the years.
"Shh, you wait for me here..."
In front of the wooden cabin, Mike made a silencing gesture, then went forward alone with his great axe.
With his extraordinary hearing, he heard slight movements inside the wooden cabin. Clearly, the escaped cannibal was hiding inside.
"Creak—"
Accompanied by a slight pushing sound of the door, before Mike could look inside, a spear came directly at him.
Facing the sudden ambush, Mike deftly moved to the side.
Without giving the opponent a second chance to ambush, a large hand quickly grabbed the spearhead and pulled it outwards with force.
Amidst the collision, the wooden door was closed again, and the cannibal inside, who hadn't let go in time, also crashed into the back of the door due to inertia.
Immediately after, Mike kicked with all his might, sending the dilapidated wooden door and the cannibal behind it flying out together.
A shattering sound erupted, with dust and wood chips flying everywhere!
The impact was incredibly satisfying—
Before Jessie and the other two behind him could exclaim, Mike had already entered the dimly lit wooden cabin, holding his great axe.
Then, piercing sounds of bones breaking and roars from the monster emanated from the small wooden cabin.
When Jessie and the other two arrived, the monster's limbs had all been cut off.
In a large pool of blood, the small cannibal showed tenacious vitality.
It was roaring while staring with bloodshot eyes, full of hatred, at the man in front of it who was holding a blood-stained great axe.
The scene shifted to the side, illuminated by the torch on the wall. On the long wooden table, bloody clothes, boning knives, and shattered bones were scattered everywhere.
At the end of the table, a large cauldron with a diameter of over two meters contained bubbling bones and chunks of meat.
Clearly, the escaped cannibal was preparing its supper earlier.
"Ugh... Ugh... Ugh..."
The strong visual stimulation and the heavy smell of blood made Carly, who had just entered the wooden cabin, cover her mouth and run out.
Then, Jessie and Chris, who also couldn't bear the visual impact, also retreated from the wooden cabin, their faces pale.
"Truly a beast."
Mike naturally also saw the scene inside the house and knew what it represented.
The great axe fell again, and an ugly head flew off in response.
The small cannibal finally ended its sinful life.
[Tenacious Life]: When severely injured, stamina can be used to recover from injuries.
[Detectable mergeable characteristic, merge? Yes, No.]
"Merge."
=====
Loot System
Host: Mike
Intelligence: 194+ (Super Genius 160—)
Constitution: 599+ (Average Adult Male is 100)
Skills: Football Lv4 (1w/10w), Acting Lv3 (5691/10000), Eloquence Lv3 (2963/10000), Golden Gun Lv3 (691/10000), Shooting Lv3 (241/10000)…
(Skills are divided into five levels / more skills can be expanded to view.)
Characteristics: Demon Body (1. Undying, Tenacious Life. 2. Eternal Youth. 3. Rapid Healing, Stone Skin. 4. Great Strength.)
Moonlight: (1. Can increase combat power by fifty percent at night. 2. Can absorb energy from the moon to enhance one's constitution.)
(Note: Similar characteristics can be stacked and merged.)
=====
As expected of an cannibal, all the [Characteristics] Mike obtained from the three monsters were integrated into the [Demon Body].
With the Tenacious Life characteristic, as long as his head wasn't removed, he could slowly recover from any severe injury.
On the other hand, the physical enhancement of the [Moonlight] characteristic had also reached its limit.
If he wanted to continue improving his physique, Mike needed to stack stronger characteristics.
On the other hand, in terms of intelligence, Mike, who had become a super-super genius, learned everything quickly now.
Any skill that required brainpower, he could quickly learn and reach Level 3, professional level.
"Mike, what do you plan to do with this place?" Jessie, who had finished throwing up, returned to the wooden cabin.
"How about we set it on fire?" Mike offered his opinion.
At least a hundred innocent souls were buried here...
Such a place of sin should be burned to the ground.
"Burning it is good too," Jessie said, looking at the rags on the long table.
The girl recognized those rags; they were the clothes of her dead friends.
At this moment, Chris, who had recovered, also re-entered the wooden cabin.
Then, he helped Jessie collect the clothes and chopped meat from the table.
Good news: Mike and the others arrived in time; the cannibal had only portioned the meat and hadn't had time to put it in the pot.
Half an hour later, Mike, carrying a bag of jewelry, overturned the campfire next to the long table and the torches on the wall, igniting the entire wooden cabin.
In the open area outside the cabin, Jessie, with Chris's help, had just finished burying her three dead companions.
As for Carly, after several more rounds of vomiting, she was now weakly slumped on the ground, resting.
"What's that in your hand?" Chris, who had finished his digging work, saw Mike come out and immediately went to greet him.
After the series of events, Chris's attitude had adjusted, and he now regarded Mike as his backbone.
Though only temporarily...
"You mean this?" Mike handed over a photo he was holding.
The photo was a family portrait collection.
"How is this possible... This woman is the owner of the hotel at the intersection... And these three monsters behind are cannibals..."
Chris, who received the photo, widened his eyes in shock.
He had stubbornly chosen to take the forest shortcut earlier precisely because he had seen a map on the bulletin board at that small hotel at the intersection.
Combining that with what had happened here.
Everything seemed to hint at a conspiracy.