But now, Captain Rachel knew for certain—this mutated two-headed centipede was far more terrifying than any other creature she had fought in the seven days since the Gray Mist appeared.
Her ice ability had been pushed to its absolute limit over the past few days of constant combat. Overuse had drained her supernatural energy reserves completely.
That ice spear she'd just cast moments ago?
It was her last usable attack.
She had nothing left. Not strength, not stamina, not a single drop of ability energy remaining in her core.
Which meant there was only one tactical option left for her and her two remaining officers—
"Run!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
Her two subordinates immediately turned and sprinted toward the glass entrance of Sam's Supermarket, their boots pounding against blood-stained pavement. They had just reached the sliding doors when—
BANG—!
The doors didn't open.
Because Tiger and a group of panicked survivors were actively holding the door shut from the inside, barricading it with their combined body weight and furniture.
"Get out of the way!"
"Open the door!"
Rachel and her officers pounded desperately on the reinforced glass with their fists.
But the crowd refused, their faces twisted with selfish terror visible through the transparent barrier.
And that single critical moment of delay—
—was enough.
CRUNCH!!
A bloodcurdling scream tore through the contaminated air. One of Rachel's male officers—Officer Wang—was abruptly decapitated by the centipede's snapping mandibles, his head separating from his shoulders in a spray of arterial blood.
"WANG—!" Rachel's voice cracked with genuine anguish as she witnessed what remained of her loyal subordinate collapse.
She shot a look of pure, burning hatred toward the survivors cowering behind the glass.
They had killed him as surely as the monster had. Their cowardice had murdered a good man.
But the centipede wasn't finished with its rampage.
Both heads locked their multifaceted green eyes onto Rachel and the last surviving officer—Officer Liu.
"Run!" Rachel shouted desperately.
They sprinted through the parking lot with everything they had left, but their bodies were already near complete collapse from exhaustion and injuries. The centipede's thunderous steps rattled the pavement behind them, each impact sending vibrations through the ground.
They simply weren't fast enough.
CHOMP!!
The centipede lunged forward with terrifying speed.
But in that critical split second—Officer Liu made a choice.
He shoved Rachel aside with all his remaining strength, deliberately putting himself between her and the creature's open jaws.
"Captain Rachel—run!"
Those were his last words before the creature's mandibles closed around his torso and tore him apart with brutal efficiency.
"LIU—!" Rachel screamed, her eyes blazing with tears of rage and grief.
Then—
CRACK!!
The centipede spat Officer Liu's mangled corpse aside like garbage, then immediately clamped its remaining head's jaws around Rachel's left leg below the knee.
"Ahhh!!"
It flung her through the air like a ragdoll. Her body slammed through the shattered third-floor window of a nearby office building with devastating force, glass and concrete fragments raining down around her.
A severed leg—still wearing its uniform boot—hit the pavement below with a sickening wet thud.
The centipede approached the dismembered limb and sniffed it carefully with both heads—
—then recoiled in apparent disgust, shoving it aside with one blade-like leg.
This particular monster species didn't eat human flesh.
It only killed humans. Hunted them. Destroyed them for sport or territorial defense.
And now its attention turned entirely toward the densely packed survivors inside Sam's Supermarket.
Fresh prey. Living prey. Abundant prey trapped in an enclosed space.
BOOM!!
The giant creature smashed the weakened tempered glass doors completely inward with both heads simultaneously, sending a cascading wave of screaming survivors fleeing deeper into the store in pure panic.
Financial analysts, corporate executives, college students, retail workers—people who had once bragged about being "successful elites" and "top-tier professionals"—were torn apart in seconds by the creature's methodical rampage.
Those positioned at the back of the crowd ran even harder, actively shoving others toward the monster to slow it down and buy themselves precious seconds of survival time.
One of the most aggressive was Tiger.
His earlier bravado had completely evaporated, replaced by raw survival instinct stripped of all pretense or shame.
He seized the injured young woman—Lily Monroe—and roughly dragged her in front of him as a human shield, his muscular arms wrapped around her throat.
"Ahh! Please—please don't do this!" Lily cried desperately, her entire body trembling violently with terror. "Please let me go!"
But Tiger only held her tighter, his fingers digging painfully into her shoulders.
His weak stamina and poor physical condition meant he couldn't outrun anything—not the monster, not even other panicked humans in better shape. So he did the only thing his cowardly mind could conceive:
Use Lily to survive.
The centipede lunged forward through the carnage, both heads tracking movement with predatory intelligence.
Lily felt its putrid breath—hot and chemical—hit her face directly. The massive jaws opened impossibly wide, mandibles dripping corrosive venom—
Her mind went blank with absolute despair—
—when suddenly:
BOOM!!!
A molten-red fist punched straight through the centipede's heavily armored thorax from the side, creating a perfectly cauterized tunnel through its entire body.
Superheated lava hissed and steamed. The creature shrieked in mortal agony, both heads thrashing wildly.
Standing in the center of the smoking crater—his right arm still wreathed in cooling magma—was a tall, devastatingly handsome man with a physique that looked carved from marble and eyes as sharp as surgical blades.
Elric.
He had arrived at Sam's Supermarket just in time to witness the tail end of the massacre.
Normally, Elric wouldn't have cared about these people at all. Whether they lived or died was completely irrelevant to his survival and power progression. He might save them if convenient, or ignore them entirely depending on his mood and tactical situation.
But one specific detail had caught his system's attention and pulled him here:
Among the terrified survivors was a young woman who met the adoption standards.
The same girl who had nearly been devoured moments ago:
Lily Monroe.
Elric's enhanced vision automatically scanned her, golden text appearing in his field of view:
[DING! Eligible adopter detected.]
Name: Lily Monroe
Age: 20
Appearance: 85
Figure: 85
Purity: 100 (Virgin, Innocent, Naive)
System Overall Score: 85
Exchange Rewards: 8 times (monthly reset)
[System Evaluation: Meets adoption criteria. Taking her in will accelerate Devil Fruit Tree growth.]
A perfect candidate—exactly the kind of high-value target his system prioritized.
Not as exceptional as Olivia's 98 rating, but still well above the minimum threshold and capable of generating substantial monthly rewards.
Elric's lips curved into a satisfied smirk as he withdrew his cooled fist from the centipede's corpse.
"Well... looks like I came at exactly the right time."
He stepped through the smoking remains with casual confidence, his transformed appearance immediately drawing shocked stares from every survivor in the ruined supermarket.
The centipede's bisected body collapsed on either side of him with wet thuds, twitching in its final death spasms.
Elric's gaze swept across the survivors analytically—most cowering against walls, some injured and bleeding, a few already dead from the initial breach.
Then his eyes locked directly onto Tiger—the coward still desperately clutching Lily as a shield.
"You," Elric said calmly, his voice carrying absolute authority despite its quiet tone. "Let go of the girl. Now."
He didn't raise his voice. Didn't make threats. Didn't even gesture with his weapon.
The command itself was enough.
Tiger's face went deathly pale as he stared at the man who had just killed a regenerating monster with a single magma-enhanced punch. His earlier aggression evaporated like morning mist under sunlight.
"I—I didn't mean—she's not—I was just—"
"Now," Elric repeated, his tone dropping to something cold and absolutely final.
No negotiation. No second chances.
Tiger's hands released Lily instantly as if she'd suddenly become burning hot. He stumbled backward with both palms raised in terrified surrender, nearly tripping over debris.
Lily collapsed to her knees, gasping with overwhelming relief and shock, her legs unable to support her weight anymore.
Elric walked past Tiger without another glance—the pathetic coward was beneath his notice, not even worth the effort of killing. He posed no threat, held no value, merited no attention whatsoever.
He stopped directly in front of Lily and extended one hand downward.
"Can you stand?"
Lily looked up at him through tear-blurred eyes—taking in his perfect sculpted features, his commanding physical presence, his eyes that held both danger and strange unexpected warmth.
Something fundamental shifted in her understanding of the apocalyptic world at that moment.
This was what real strength looked like. This was what power actually meant.
Not Tiger's cowardly bullying. Not the crowd's selfish panic.
But the absolute confidence of someone who could walk through monsters like they were paper.
She reached up with a trembling hand and took his.
His grip was warm, steady, unbreakable.
"Thank you," she whispered, her voice barely audible. "Thank you for saving me."
Elric pulled her smoothly to her feet, noting with satisfaction how her eyes lingered on him with undisguised admiration and gratitude.
Perfect, he thought. The foundation is already laid.
Gratitude mixed with trauma was one of the most effective psychological tools for building absolute loyalty. She would follow him willingly now, seeing him as her savior and protector.
He turned to address the remaining survivors, his voice carrying clearly through the destroyed supermarket:
"Anyone injured who can't walk, speak up now. Everyone else—start gathering useful supplies. We're moving to a more secure location."
There is 50 chapter Advance, in my patreon. If you are interested can check it out.
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