Chapter 86 - 85: You Are the Prey

Chapter 86: Chapter 85: You Are the Prey

In a dark and secluded grove.

The evening breeze carried the rustling of grass and trees, mingled with the faint chirping of insects and the sound of saliva dripping onto the ground. The atmosphere instantly turned utterly bizarre.

The delicate, cherry-red lips of the schoolgirl with pigtails, Huang Xiaoyue, suddenly tore open into a hideous, gaping maw.

Sharp fangs glinted with a cold light.

A strange, guttural rasp echoed from her abyssal maw.

The chilling aura that rushed forth seemed to make the surrounding air congeal.

"WHOOSH—!"

A sudden sound of something slicing through the air rang out.

With her maw ripped wide, Huang Xiaoyue lunged greedily to bite Gu Qing’s head.

She meant to snap his neck with a single bite.

Killing him instantly.

Then swallow his body whole.

And make a swift escape.

Huang Xiaoyue’s lunge was too fast for the naked eye to follow.

Fortunately, Gu Qing activated his Lightning Reflexes just in time.

His Reaction Speed was pushed to its absolute limit.

The moment Huang Xiaoyue moved, Gu Qing was already in motion. He pushed off hard with his feet, his body instantly launching to the side, easily dodging her terrifying, lightning-fast lunge.

Before Huang Xiaoyue could recover from the momentum of her lunge, Gu Qing’s eyes narrowed.

His body’s Qi Blood Power erupted, and he struck without hesitation. His fist, whistling through the air with ferocious force, smashed brutally into Huang Xiaoyue’s deformed face and its gaping maw.

"BAM!"

A dull thud rang out as the fist landed squarely on the side of Huang Xiaoyue’s face.

The terrifying impact instantly penetrated flesh and bone, distorting her face in mid-air.

Her cheekbone caved in. The force of the blow tore at the skin, pulling it back into wrinkled folds. Her features were mashed together, no longer resembling anything human.

Next came the sharp CRACK of breaking bone. The sharp fangs in her mouth couldn’t withstand the violent force and snapped, flying from her mouth in a spray of blood.

At the same time, her small frame lifted off the ground. Like a kite with its string cut, she was sent flying by the immense, follow-through force.

She didn’t stop until she slammed into a tree, snapping the barrel-thick trunk. Her body finally came to a rest in a bush over ten meters away, the branches rustling from the impact.

One punch sent her flying.

Gu Qing didn’t lower his guard. His eyes were locked on the bush ahead.

He could clearly sense a potent life force still within her. She wasn’t dead.

Soon, a rustling sound came from the bushes.

Huang Xiaoyue slowly rose from the dense foliage, her head lolling to one side.

Her slender neck looked as if it had been snapped by the immense force of the punch, her head connected only by a flap of skin.

The side of her face was a shocking, deep crater, steadily oozing crimson blood. The injury looked severe.

Under Gu Qing’s watchful gaze, Huang Xiaoyue slowly raised her hands to her completely broken neck.

With a gentle twist and a sickening CRACK, she set her neck back into place. It was as flexible as ever, showing no trace of the previous injury.

At the same time, the deep crater in her cheek and her broken fangs were healing at a rate visible to the naked eye. The bleeding stopped, and her features began to restore themselves.

"My, you’re strong, Senior. You just don’t know how to be gentle with a lady. One punch and you caved in my face and broke my neck."

Huang Xiaoyue stared at Gu Qing, her voice no longer sweet, but a low, hoarse rasp:

"Since you’re so cruel to me, Senior, I’ll have to return the favor. It’ll pain me to do it, but I’m going to swallow you whole... and then have the pleasure of shitting you out in one piece."

As she spoke, a thick, dark gray mist began to swirl around her, releasing a highly corrosive, Extraordinary rat poison.

At the same time, fine, gray-black fur began to sprout from her skin, densely covering its surface.

The muscles all over her body began to swell and bulge uncontrollably.

Her once-smooth muscles twisted into hideous, gnarled knots.

The stockings on her legs stretched and tore with a loud RRRIP, bursting into tattered strips.

In just a moment, the ferocious aura of a mutated monster surged from within her, rapidly spreading outwards.

Gu Qing’s eyes turned cold. He wasn’t about to stand there like an idiot and wait for her to finish transforming.

He stomped his foot, his body blurring into an afterimage as he charged.

In an instant, Gu Qing was upon her. He struck again, his fist howling like thunder as it smashed into the still-transforming Huang Xiaoyue.

This punch was fiercer and more explosive than the last.

"BAM!!!"

A ferocious impact exploded through the air.

The single punch brought her transformation to a screeching halt. The process was violently interrupted, and the berserk force sent her flying once more.

This time, as she crashed heavily to the ground, she could no longer maintain her composure.

Her chest churned.

A mouthful of crimson blood spewed from the corner of her mouth.

The color drained from her face.

She scrambled to her feet, her eyes locked on Gu Qing, filled with utter disbelief.

’Getting sent flying by his first punch could be explained by the fact that I hadn’t transformed yet.’

’But just now, my body was already halfway through its transformation! My Physical Strength had increased exponentially.’

’And yet, he still sent me flying with one easy punch.’

’It wasn’t as bad as the first time—my face didn’t cave in, my teeth didn’t shatter—but he still hit me hard enough to make me spit blood. It was pathetic.’

’Something’s wrong!’

’This guy’s strength isn’t normal!’

’An Extraordinary Contactor in his early twenties could never possess this kind of terrifying physical power!’

’Could it be...?’

’He’s not an Extraordinary Contactor?’

’But an extremely rare Extraordinary Awakened?!’

After a brief moment of astonishment, this realization struck Huang Xiaoyue.

First came the shock, but it was quickly followed by a surge of intense, overwhelming ecstasy.

Her eyes on Gu Qing burned with the heat of someone who had just discovered a priceless treasure.

"To think Hai City University was hiding an Extraordinary Awakened all this time."

"Judging by your aura, you must have just awakened recently. You haven’t fully matured yet."

Huang Xiaoyue stared greedily at Gu Qing, her voice filled with excitement. "To stumble upon a fledgling Extraordinary Awakened... this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity delivered right to my doorstep! A gift from nature itself!"

As she finished speaking, she held nothing back. No more slow transformation.

The mist around her exploded outwards, and her body blurred as she entered a near-instantaneous transformation.

Her bones cracked and popped.

Her frame shot up, growing taller and bulkier.

Fur sprouted all over her body.

Pointed ears, sharp claws, and a hideous, bestial face quickly took shape.

Her transformation rocketed to its peak.

In less than half a second, she had completely transformed into a hideous, terrifying Ratman.

In that instant, a ferocious, malevolent aura swept through the grove. The oppressive presence of a monster washed over him.

’So it’s true. The mysterious, depraved Cannibal Giant hiding at the school is a Ratman.’

’And it’s most likely the same Ratman that lured Lin Tianyang and the others into a deadly trap yesterday.’

Watching Huang Xiaoyue instantly transform into a Ratman, Gu Qing felt his previous suspicions being confirmed one by one.

"WHOOSH—!"

A swift whoosh cut through the air.

Now a fully transformed Ratman, Huang Xiaoyue stomped on the ground. Her body blurred into an afterimage, and in the blink of an eye, she was right in front of Gu Qing.

She raised her razor-sharp claws, which could rend steel as if it were mud, and swiped viciously at Gu Qing’s neck with a piercing shriek of displaced air.

The strike was lightning-fast.

Impossible to track with the naked eye.

But to Gu Qing, who had activated his Lightning Reflexes, every movement—the raising of her arm, the trajectory of her claws—was perfectly clear.

’However, seeing it was one thing. My own muscles couldn’t react as fast as my eyes could perceive.’

Just as Gu Qing tried to sidestep, Huang Xiaoyue’s claws struck his neck.

The next second, an immense force exploded against his neck, the shockwave blasting through his body and sending him flying. He slammed into a barrel-thick tree, snapping the trunk with a loud CRACK.

A moment later.

Gu Qing slowly got to his feet. As if nothing had happened, he dusted himself off, a smile playing on his lips as he looked at Huang Xiaoyue.

"You’re pretty strong, junior."

’That last strike was all I needed to gauge her strength.’

’She’s fast and strong.’

’But that’s about it.’

’Not enough to break through my defense.’

Seeing him completely unharmed, with nothing but a few faint red scratches on his neck, Huang Xiaoyue’s brow furrowed. She tensed, as if facing a formidable foe.

’His Physical Strength is immense. Clashing head-on won’t give me an advantage right now.’

’I need to find a way to stall, to buy time for the rat poison in his body to take full effect.’

’Then, I’ll strike while he’s weak and deliver the killing blow!’

As the thought crossed Huang Xiaoyue’s mind, the gray mist emanating from her body instantly grew thicker.

’Rat poison?’

Gu Qing vaguely felt his body weakening.

But not by much.

Just a little.

So little it was almost negligible.

Still, to be on the safe side, Gu Qing decided to use his trump card and end this quickly.

"You’re pretty good at transforming, huh?"

Gu Qing slowly raised his eyes to the mist-shrouded Huang Xiaoyue, a smile playing on his lips.

"What a coincidence. So can I."

The moment he finished speaking, a thought from Gu Qing activated the latent Muscle Knots Attribute within him.

The next moment, Qi Blood surged through his body like a tidal wave, and his aura skyrocketed.

His lean, slender frame, which had looked deceptively thin in his clothes, began to swell and bulge at a visible rate. His clothes stretched taut, then tore with a series of loud RIPS.

In just a few moments, Gu Qing’s entire presence had transformed. His body was now a canvas of explosive, domineering muscle.

The violent aura he now radiated was several times more powerful than that of the fully transformed Ratman before him.

From a distance, he looked like a human-shaped beast, exuding an overwhelming sense of pressure.

"My cute little junior, now, let your muscle-bound senior test your true strength."

Gu Qing, now a size larger, cracked his knuckles and twisted his neck. He looked at the horrified Huang Xiaoyue with a smirk, his tone calm—not that of the prey, but of the hunter.

...

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