Chapter 12: Shadow Beast

Lin Lei found that the nights on Blue Rain Star were terribly long. From the moment he arrived until now, nearly fourteen hours had passed, yet that large planet in the sky had only moved about 120 degrees.

The only change was that the other three small planets in the sky had disappeared behind the large planet, while a new planet, roughly the size of the Moon on Earth, rose on the horizon.

This was too bizarre. Even stranger was that during the entire process, the temperature remained constant at around 16 degrees Celsius, with fluctuations so slight they were barely noticeable, and there was almost no wind.

Just like now, although the infrared light paths in the air were weak, there was no wind to blow them away, providing Lin Lei with a reliable basis for accurate tracking.

Lin Lei continued to move stealthily, maintaining an extremely cautious mindset. He did not want to become prey to a more powerful beast while hunting others; that would truly be the classic interpretation of the mantis stalking the cicada while the oriole waits behind.

Suddenly, Lin Lei stopped. The intensity of the infrared radiation surged to a peak ahead, and the radiation intensity behind it remained almost unchanged. The trend of gradual weakening had abruptly ended.

There was only one explanation: The prey had noticed someone tracking it and had turned back the way it came.

Now, Lin Lei did not know how it had perfectly concealed itself, as even the leakage of body temperature had disappeared, and various traces on the ground were almost gone.

This was a master of jungle camouflage! The cruel survival law of “survival of the fittest” had forged this perfect skill in it!

Lin Lei’s eyes narrowed, and he tightened his grip on the serrated dagger in his hand. He had already determined that he had been discovered, and the enemy was hiding around him, ready to deliver a fatal blow at any moment.

He did not immediately turn to the System, because he also needed training. Lin Lei had realized that he had become too dependent on the System.

The air seemed to become stagnant. The roles of hunter and prey were quietly reversing. Lin Lei opened his physical senses to the maximum, carefully searching for information in the surrounding environment.

Everything around seemed perfectly harmonious, without a hint of abnormality. The sounds of insects chirping, small animals crawling, and various spore plants shaking off spores all entered Lin Lei’s ears one by one.

Yet, there was no sign of any large beast. Was it not here? Lin Lei asked himself.

The long period of intense concentration was rapidly consuming Lin Lei’s energy. He had to lean against a large plant and rest for a moment.

Naturally, throughout the process, he appeared relaxed on the outside, but remained highly alert inside, preparing to use his feigned relaxation to lure out the hidden enemy.

Indeed, less than twenty meters away from Lin Lei, a black figure, about one person tall, burst violently out of the pile of dead branches and leaves with a “bang.”

This opponent had incredibly fierce explosive power. As soon as it burst out, a large number of dead branches and leaves rained down on Lin Lei with a crash, followed closely by the black shadow!

Life and death in an instant! At this time, the System unusually remained silent. Perhaps it understood Lin Lei’s thoughts, or perhaps it knew that Lin Lei was already prepared.

Lin Lei took the best course of action. He tucked in his head and body, pivoted his feet, and bent his body, dodging behind the plant at his back.

The enemy had launched its full force and was at the peak of its momentum, so it could not be defeated by brute strength.

The black shadow clearly did not expect to suddenly lose its target. In its hunting life, prey frightened into chaos by this move was countless, usually handled in one go.

The current situation could only occur with an opponent of the same level. The black shadow forcibly stopped its momentum, its strong legs dragging two deep trails on the ground due to inertia.

It stared fixedly at the tree where Lin Lei hid. A deep rolling thunder sound came from its throat, which, passing through its specially structured nostrils, took on a hissing quality, like a snake on Earth.

Lin Lei revealed half of his body and confronted it silently. He finally saw clearly what the black shadow was.

Its entire body was covered in grayish-brown stripes, the same color as the ground. Its whole body flashed with nearly scorching infrared radiation due to the violent explosion. Its two hind legs were thick and powerful, with sharp claws gently pressing down.

Its head was very large, but two-thirds of it was occupied by that long mouth full of saw-toothed edges. Its eyes were not blue, but pure black vertical pupils. The strangest part was the nose, which was not covered in fur, but had a structure similar to fish gills, clearly used for filtering dust.

Overall, it was quite similar to the Velociraptor that once appeared on Earth, especially those thin and flexible front claws. Looking at those sharp claws glowing with a faint light, their attack power was undoubtedly not trivial.

The two faced each other, eye to eye, both measuring each other’s combat power and thinking about their attack methods.

“System, scan this species.” Although this was a battle, the collection of such information still had to be done by the specialized System.

This time, the System was very decisive, saving even the scanning time and directly reporting the data.

“Shadow Beast (Migration Beast from Moss Star)”

“Weight: 153 kilograms!”

“Spinal body length: 2.8 meters!”

“Physical Energy Level: 1.9 Standard Energy Levels!”

“Instantaneous Explosive Energy Level: 1.0 Standard Energy Levels!”

Lin Lei felt like crying. In terms of pure attack power, this Shadow Beast was far superior to the Komodo Beast.

Lin Lei remembered clearly that a 0.5 Energy Level Protective Force Field was required, and the Komodo Beast had attacked many times before barely breaking through, leaving Lin Lei with a few minor blood marks.

It was indeed an alien migratory beast. If there were no Protective Force Field, whose flesh and blood could withstand an attack with 0.5 Energy Level? Why make the attack 1.0 Energy Level? It was purely a waste.

En, this guy is simply an incomplete evolution! Lin Lei concluded.

In the Shadow Beast’s eyes, this strange creature with blue skin also had a deterrent effect. He seemed incredibly fragile, yet there seemed to be a dangerous and fatal aura emanating from him. He had easily dodged his killer move earlier, making him somewhat uncertain if his next attack would be effective.

The Shadow Beast growled at Lin Lei a few times. Its two thick hind legs began to retreat step by step. It chose a rational approach. Without an essential conflict, it chose to yield, even though it knew of this strange creature’s hostility.

However, as it retreated, Lin Lei had no intention of backing down. He had already seen the Shadow Beast’s weakness. Its attacks were strong, but were undoubtedly driven by its strong hind legs. Just like before, the speed was fast, but it was difficult to make small directional changes midway through the explosion.

Thinking of this, Lin Lei held the serrated dagger in his left hand in reverse grip and thrust with his right hand, rushing toward the Shadow Beast.

This exceeded the Shadow Beast’s empirical judgment. It could only engage in a hurried battle, still pushing out with its hind legs, and its large mouth and sharp claws came straight at Lin Lei.

The two collided half a second later. This was the true dividing line between life and death!

Lin Lei, in a critical moment, stood on his toes and dodged to the right. The toothed blade on his right hand blocked the Shadow Beast’s attack. But Lin Lei did not compete in strength. Instead, he slid away with the momentum.

While neutralizing the Shadow Beast’s terrifying attack, the reverse blade on his left hand cut deeply from the Shadow Beast’s left thigh crotch, bringing up a large spray of flesh and blood.

The wind blown by the Shadow Beast’s explosive speed messed up Lin Lei’s hair, making him look like a cruel beauty as he was bathed in blood and flesh.

“Bang!” The Shadow Beast, having lost its balance, was thrown out sideways, directly cracking the tree that Lin Lei had originally hidden behind.

The Shadow Beast itself was also dazed and dizzy. It fell to the ground, letting out bursts of painful shrieks.

Do not let the opportunity slip! Now was the time to completely finish it off. Lin Lei bit the serrated dagger in his right hand between his teeth, rushed to the back of the Shadow Beast, pinned the Shadow Beast with his thigh, wrapped his left hand around the enemy’s neck in reverse, and inserted the serrated dagger into the Shadow Beast’s head and neck with his other hand.

This was not Lin Lei being impulsive. In this alien jungle full of dangers, ending the battle as quickly as possible was the right course of action.

The Shadow Beast struggled madly. Its body energy level was 1.9, while Lin Lei’s was 2.0. In this silent physical confrontation where there was not enough space to exert strength, this beast was at a disadvantage.

Lin Lei was very vicious in his moves. First, he punctured and blinded the Shadow Beast’s eyes, destroying its vision and some of its brain nerves, instantly reducing its resistance and struggling strength by more than half.

Then, Lin Lei cut off the Shadow Beast’s trachea. A large amount of blood gushed out, blocking the respiratory tract. The Shadow Beast gradually went silent due to suffocation. The entire process lasted a full ten minutes.

Damn, its vitality was strong enough. Even after being poked in the brain twice, it could last this long!

Lin Lei stood up and stretched his sore hands and feet, while feeling the burning pain on his body and back, which were wounds scraped from the ground just now.

Lin Lei did not care about hygiene at all. He directly lay on the Shadow Beast’s carotid artery and drank its blood. At this time, any waste was shameful.

This alien migratory beast had also been assimilated. Its blood was also ink-blue, with a mushroom smell.

“Combat Boiling Blood. High content of energy molecules, rich in nutrients.”

“Level 2 Reinforcement reserve increases by 0.5% per liter!”

En, to get this evaluation from the System, it meant that this Shadow Beast could unleash powerful attacks and had its own secret methods.

“Automatically switch to Body Repair Mode. Treating the Host’s body.”

“Epidermal cells begin reconstruction. Estimated five minutes.”

“Perform muscle lactic acid decomposition. Estimated three minutes.”

“This battle was completed independently by the Host. Evaluation: D-Rank.”

“Host authority upgraded. The total progress of Level 2 authority is 5 out of 100.”

En? System, what is the use of authority?

“Level 2 authority is not full, so Level 2 Reinforcement cannot be performed. This will continue in the future!”

“…” Well, who knew there would be such a good thing as free reinforcement? It turned out this was forcing him to risk his life!

“System, what if I lose the fight? Will points be deducted?”

“If there is no active interference from the Host’s consciousness, the System will not allow failure to occur.”

Right, I was wrong before. This System is not only narcissistic, but also arrogant. The System is a narcissist!

Lin Lei was now about ten miles away from the Tree House. Carrying such a huge creature back would be very difficult, but he couldn’t bear to throw away the meat he had risked his life to get. He was truly in a dilemma.

One must lose something to gain something! After drinking a lot of blood, Lin Lei made a painful choice.

He cut off large chunks of muscle and two thick hind legs from the Shadow Beast, strung them together with a Komodo Beast’s tail, and then, like a moving block of meat, hurried back and forth. Finally, forty minutes later, he returned to the bottom of the Tree House.

By chance, there were no accidents on the way. Lin Lei tightened his heart, which finally relaxed, and let out a long sigh.

Next, how to transport the meat block up to the Tree House became a big problem. Carrying such a large piece, Lin Lei dared not climb the Mushroom Tree with his bare hands. That would be asking for a fall.

Right, let’s do it bit by bit. First, transport the two hind legs. This was the biggest harvest and could not be lost. If he had to climb the tree again, and a small creature like the Bulin Beast came out to steal things, he could only sigh in frustration.

No more thinking, let’s get to work. Lin Lei busied himself for half an hour, finally completing this arduous task.

Good, the food for the next two days was secured. Lin Lei looked at the meat piled in the storage room and thought contentedly.