hotmtlnovel Chapter 2: A Lone Adventure in Australia
Chapter 2: A Lone Adventure in Australia
"Sir, are you sure it's a one-way ticket? Also, what about the equipment you're carrying...?"
The airport security personnel looked at the young man in front of them with a hesitant tone.
The young man in front of me was named Hong. He was carrying a huge bag that was almost taller than him, with metallic outlines visible inside, and it looked quite heavy.
Hong nodded, took back his documents, checked in his luggage, and headed straight for the boarding gate.
As he boarded the flight to Australia, he leaned against the window, watching the bustling city below gradually shrink in size.
In his mind, there was a hastily drawn map based on his vague memory of the plot. Several red crosses were crookedly marked on it, representing the lairs of those future king-level monsters, death zones he could not set foot in.
The place he was going to was an area with ambiguous coordinates, located between these restricted zones.
There, hidden, lies the ruins of a Class B civilization. It was the only opportunity he could fight for himself before his Great Nirvana.
As the plane landed, a primal atmosphere washed over us.
Unlike the air in the city, which is mixed with exhaust fumes, the air here is filled with the smell of grass and soil, with a faint hint of blood.
Hong took a deep breath, walked down the gangway, retrieved his luggage, and quickly disappeared into the dense jungle surrounding the airport.
In the first week of his journey, he encountered his first bloody battle since coming into this world.
A pack of mutated wolves, numbering more than twenty.
These wolves were larger than ordinary wolves, with gray fur and red eyes. They silently surrounded Hong, their movements perfectly coordinated, showing signs of rudimentary intelligence.
Hong remained calm, slowly setting down his pack. He lowered the alloy spear in his hand, its tip pointing diagonally at the ground, and his muscles tensed instantly. More than two years of training had long since ingrained his body with a fighting instinct.
"Awoo."
A wolf launched the first attack, transforming into a black shadow and pouncing forward.
Hong's eyes instantly turned cold.
Without any unnecessary movements, he slightly shifted his body to the side to avoid the wolf's attack, and then thrust his spear upwards with a fierce thrust.
puff.
The spear tip pierced the wolf's soft jaw with precision, penetrating its entire skull.
Warm wolf blood splattered all over his face.
He didn't wipe it away, nor did he even look at the fallen wolf. With a flick of his wrist, he drew his spear, drawing out a string of blood droplets.
The remaining wolves, driven even more mad by the smell of blood, howled and swarmed forward.
Hong stood still, the spear in his hand seemingly an extension of his body, each thrust accompanied by the mournful howl of a wild wolf.
The wolves fought fiercely, and the battle lasted for nearly ten minutes.
As the last mutated wolf fell, Hong stood there, panting heavily. His combat uniform was torn in several places, and blood seeped from the wounds on his arms and calves, but he didn't care.
He crouched down and used the blood of the mutated wolf to draw a mark on his face.
He began to live like a true hunter on this primitive continent.
He learned to identify plants and locate water sources, and also knew how to observe the tracks of wild animals. He traveled by day and rested in caves or tall trees at night. His marksmanship, honed by countless battles with mutated creatures, became increasingly pure and deadly.
Two months later, Hong had changed completely.
He ventured deep into the Australian outback, his combat uniform becoming tattered, and he had lost weight, his cheeks slightly sunken. But his eyes were sharper than before.
He leaned against a dead tree, unscrewed his water bottle, and drank the last drop of water. The last compressed biscuit in his backpack had also been eaten the day before.
"Almost there...it should be around here..."
He looked at the hand-drawn map, then looked up at the surrounding terrain, and muttered to himself in a hoarse voice.
Just when he was about to give up, a huge canyon crevice in front of him made him stop.
He perked up and struggled to climb to the edge of the canyon to look down.
Deep within the crack, hidden by countless vines and boulders, a corner of a building gleaming with metallic reflections came into his view.
The ruins. He found them.
Joy welled up in his heart, but the next second, a sense of crisis made the hairs on his body stand on end.
He suddenly looked up.
Right in the shadows at the entrance to the ruins, a pair of cold, vertical pupils were staring intently at him.
hiss--
A giant python slowly emerged from the shadows.
Its scales were no longer fleshy, but had taken on a dark metallic luster. Its body was as thick as a bucket, and it lay there, its forked tongue carrying a foul stench.
Elementary Beast General level.
Hong's heart sank.
The aura of this giant python far surpassed that of any creature he had encountered before.
There's no escaping it now.
The only way out lies behind the giant python at the gate of the ruins.
Then let's fight.
Hong's eyes narrowed, he gripped the spear tightly with both hands, lowered his body slightly, and assumed an attack stance.
Sensing his fighting spirit, the giant python suddenly opened its mouth wide, letting out a piercing hiss, and charged towards Hong Kuang.
Hong nimbly dodged every pounce and tail lash of the giant python. His spear repeatedly struck the python's body, producing a series of metallic clangs, leaving only faint white marks.
The python's defenses are too strong.
Without hesitation, Hong exerted force with his feet and charged forward, his alloy spear aimed straight at the giant python's eyes.
The python's reaction speed exceeded his expectations.
Its massive head tilted to the side, dodging the fatal blow, while its thick, long tail swept across with a whistling sound.
Hong's pupils contracted, and he immediately changed his move, withdrawing his spear and holding the shaft horizontally in front of him.
Bang.
A tremendous force struck him, and Hong was sent flying backward uncontrollably, crashing heavily into the rock wall.
He felt a sweet taste in his throat and spat out a mouthful of blood.
Before he could catch his breath, the giant python had already coiled around him, its massive body tightly binding him.
The strangulation force came from all directions, and Hong heard the groans coming from his own bones.
"open."
His eyes were bloodshot, his muscles burst with power, and his genetic energy was activated, managing to force a sliver of space open within the giant python's coils.
The alloy gun barrel was squeezed and bent severely, emitting a piercing metallic groan.
His left arm fractured with a cracking sound.
A sharp pain shot through him, but Hong's eyes grew even more frenzied. Using the space that had been created in that instant, he abandoned his spear and, with all his might, aimed the broken spear shaft at a spot on the giant python's body that was constantly writhing.
That's its Achilles' heel, the location of its heart.
"die."
He roared as he pierced the sharp, broken barrel of the gun through it.
The giant python's massive body stiffened abruptly, its constricting force instantly loosening. It let out a painful hiss, frantically twisting its body and pulverizing the surrounding rocks.
Hong was thrown out and crashed heavily to the ground.
He watched the giant python struggling in the pool of blood, panting heavily, until the behemoth died.
"Huff... huff..."
Dragging his heavily injured body, Hong slowly made his way to the cold metal door, then slid down against it. The excruciating pain in his left arm nearly made him faint, and his blood stained the ground beneath him.
He placed his intact right hand on an inconspicuous groove in the door and silently recited a mantra.
"I hope... it was all worth it."
As soon as he finished speaking, a soft red light suddenly shone from the metal panel beneath his palm.
A red light slowly swept across his entire body from top to bottom.
A faint mechanical whirring sound came from deep within the gate.
A emotionless electronic voice echoed through the silent canyon.
"Identity verification... Insufficient permissions... Guest mode activated."
As the voice faded, the gate to the ruins, sealed for countless years, slowly opened before him, just wide enough for one person to pass through.
Inside the door was a deep darkness.