Chapter Forty-Five: Offering Food Voluntarily

Fan Li’s hunger finally subsided after he had devoured three packs of instant noodles, two eggs, and a sausage.

Consuming sealed artifacts was not just a spiritual ordeal; even the act of using their power, like the frenzied growth of his hair, drained him physically as well.

Once Yang Shuo finished washing the dishes, Fan Li waved him away, and with obvious relief, Yang Shuo dashed out. Such ill-mannered fellow—couldn’t he at least say goodbye?

“It seems that using the sealed artifacts has left quite an impression on Yang Shuo and Hu Huayao. In their eyes, am I now in the same league as Ellie?”

While pondering this, Fan Li picked up the Monster Manual, running his fingers over the cover that felt eerily like human skin.

Perhaps it was because he had sealed two monsters in quick succession, but the book—which clearly possessed a trace of “life”—now pulsed more vigorously than before.

Placing his hand flat on the cover, he mused silently:

“As I feed more monsters to this book, will it undergo some kind of transformation? Could it one day sprout a pair of crimson eyes, or a mouth bristling with sharp, white teeth?”

“Even if it does, I doubt I’d feel fear anymore. After everything I’ve been through, my tolerance has grown considerably.”

“Looking back, it’s true I’ve survived a lot: zombies, Ellie, the Weeper, and that vengeful spirit clinging to my back. If this were a horror movie, my story would be halfway through, and my adaptation to the bizarre nearly complete.”

I remember that, just before I lost consciousness, I saw my Kill Value increase by fifteen, then ten. When I killed the zombie hound, I gained more points than with an ordinary zombie. What does that mean? Does a mutated beast, with its enhanced strength, provide more Kill Value?

“If a dog can mutate, other animals surely can as well. A mutated dog is already fast and terrifying—what about a lion, a tiger, or, worse still, an elephant? What manner of monster would they become?”

“There’s no point worrying now. I’m just in a county town, and the nearest zoo is in the next city. Even if the beasts broke free, it would be a long journey on foot to get here.”

“Still, I can’t let my guard down—this is the apocalypse, and anything is possible.”

“All in all, I need to grow stronger, and quickly. Not just myself, but the number of monsters in my arsenal must increase as well.”

[51/100]

The Kill Value was already halfway there—the next monster summon was within reach.

As these thoughts circled his mind, Fan Li flipped open the Monster Manual. The first page still showed Ellie, the little troublemaker, who seemed restless within the book. The moment he opened to her page, her face suddenly loomed large across it—no neck, no dress, no dancing shoes, just an enlarged visage.

After spending some time together, Fan Li had grown somewhat used to her antics. Out of curiosity, he reached out and tapped one of the teeth depicted on the page.

A sharp hiss escaped him. Even though he’d braced himself, a chill like ice shot through his finger, making him recoil. Of course, this wasn’t an ordinary picture book—Ellie was right there, and what he’d touched wasn’t paper at all, but the teeth of a monster, fangs that had bitten through countless lives.

Touching a girl’s teeth out of the blue was terribly rude, so before Ellie could get angry, Fan Li quickly turned to the second page.

The Weeper, crouching and wailing for help, had vanished, replaced by a zombie hound lurking in a shadowy corner. It strained to escape its prison, but its efforts were futile; it could only lift its head and howl in frustration.

[Monster] (Incomplete)
[Unnamed]
[True strength not fully realized; cannot be summoned or commanded!]
[Effects: 1. Can be used to feed existing monsters. 2. Can be expended to grant the host a monster’s ability for 30 seconds.]

The same script appeared before Fan Li. As expected, despite its fearsome appearance, the zombie hound hadn’t fully evolved into a true aberrant.

[Zombie Hound]

A simple, memorable name.

It hadn’t reached the rank of a full monster, and with so many hounds penned up nearby, who knows how many had already mutated? He couldn’t be bothered to name every subspecies—“zombie hound” would suffice as a blanket term.

“A monster’s body is a true feast for ordinary zombies. The Titan’s corpse, though desiccated, triggered a rapid mutation in the zombie that devoured it. Out of three zombies, two have already mutated—where is the last one hiding? Its power must have grown as well.”

“Devouring monster remains seems less about energy and more like a chance to unlock a new life.”

“I can’t leave corpses for the zombies. Any monster or evolved variant I slay must be sealed within the Monster Manual!”

But the world was vast; even a single county had hundreds of thousands of people. A small city could easily reach a million, and in the nation’s largest metropolises, the floating population alone numbered in the tens of millions. With so many people, zombies would multiply, and monsters would inevitably become more common.

The thought was enough to breed despair.

With a self-deprecating laugh, Fan Li turned to the third page, where a grotesquely obese zombie stood naked before him.

The ground beneath its feet was filthy, and even in its sealed state, it couldn’t help but retch a few times.

By far, it was the most revolting zombie Fan Li had ever seen—without exception.

Its bloated body was covered in yellow and purple pustules, which would burst and ooze foul liquid with the slightest movement.

Worse yet, a constant gurgling came from its throat, as if it were perpetually choking on phlegm. It made Fan Li want to kick it just to help it cough up the mess. But when it vomited, it was best to keep one’s distance—the bile was as corrosive as sulfuric acid.

[Vomiter]

A question crossed Fan Li’s mind: when he sacrificed the Weeper, he gained the ability to grow hair; if he sacrificed the Vomiter, would he inherit its pustules, or perhaps its corrosive vomit?

Standing before an enemy, would his body suddenly bloat, his chest swell, and then—like the Vomiter—spew out blackened innards and blood?

No matter how he imagined it, there was nothing beautiful about the scene. No, it was pure horror.

There were two options. Besides consuming the monsters himself, he could feed them to the ones he already possessed.

Ellie seemed to have a voracious appetite, and feeding her an ordinary zombie was enough to gain her favor. What would happen if he fed her a monster, even one not yet fully evolved?

Having decided not to consume the Vomiter himself, Fan Li tapped the “feed” option and murmured softly, “Feed Ellie…”