The Black Behemoth rolled across what used to be the Grand Jinghai Bridge, its engines humming like a captive beast. Before the world fell apart, this bridge was a six-lane stretch of concrete—barely a kilometer long, an ordinary piece of urban infrastructure.
Now?
It felt like the world had taken the bridge, stretched it out like rubber, and dared humanity to cross it. Twenty kilometers of steel and suspension cables floated above a river that didn't look like a river anymore.
The water below wasn't murky brown.
It wasn't even water in the normal sense.
It was a living, heaving black void.
Waves rose and fell like something breathing in the deep—fifty-meter walls of water that slapped the underside of the clouds.
Inside the Behemoth, the air was thick with tension. The kind that makes your throat dry and your heartbeat too loud.
"Boss…" Jiang Rou's voice cracked through the intercom. "The sensors… this can't be real. I'm reading signatures under us. Massive ones. Bigger than the truck—way bigger."
Su Chen didn't look up.
He was on the sofa, head lowered, polishing the Indigo Sword with slow, deliberate strokes. Its blade reflected the lights inside the truck like a sheet of ice.
"Hold the wheel steady," he said, calm. "Do not stop. Not on this bridge."
Ye Qingyu stood at the window, her breath fogging the reinforced glass.
"There's so much moisture… the air here is practically saturated."
Her fingers brushed the fog.
Her eyes sharpened.
"Feels good."
Of course it did. Her Frost Queen talent thrived in humidity.
But whatever comfort she felt evaporated instantly when a sound drifted through the steel plating of the Behemoth—soft, thin, almost too faint to notice.
Laaa… laaa… luuu…
It slid into the cabin like a cold hand tracing over bare skin.
Not loud.
Not threatening.
Just beautiful.
A melody that seeped into bone.
A lullaby that promised warmth, rest, a gentle hand on the hair, a soft embrace in the dark.
The atmosphere inside the truck shifted in seconds.
Jiang Rou's posture softened.
Her eyes went glassy, the focus draining out of them like leaking water.
The Behemoth lurched—subtle, but enough to feel the tires slip a little closer to the edge.
Saeko loosened her grip on her sword.
Her breathing slowed.
Even Xiao Yi Xian—usually the composed one—blinked sluggishly, swaying as though drunk.
Only two people remained immune.
Ye Qingyu, whose icy nature repelled emotional manipulation.
And Su Chen.
He wasn't just immune—he was bored.
Lich Bloodline.
Total immunity to mental interference and fear.
To him, the melody was just… background noise. Worse than an ad jingle.
"Enough," he said.
Then he let his Spirit Energy uncoil.
[Wild Lion's Roar — Controlled Output]
The air inside the Behemoth cracked like a whip.
"WAKE UP."
The shout wasn't loud. It didn't need to be. The vibration tore through the trance like claws through wet paper.
Jiang Rou jolted awake, horror flickering across her face as she yanked the wheel.
The tires screeched.
The whole truck swayed.
They missed the guardrail by a meter.
"I—I just… did I fall asleep?! While driving?!"
"No," Su Chen said, standing. "You were being hunted. Seal the audio vents. Now."
He didn't get to take a second step before the world outside exploded.
CRASH.
A claw the size of an SUV smashed onto the bridge in front of the truck.
The asphalt caved.
The impact rocked the entire vehicle.
Then another claw.
And another.
Until the horizon was crawling with them.
Dozens of mutated river crabs hauled themselves up the pylons, their shells gleaming like forged iron. Their eyes glowed a violent, hungry red.
The bridge trembled under their weight.
[Detected: Iron-Shell River Crab — Level 9]
[Detected: Siren Queen — Level 15 — Hidden]
"They're trying to flip us," Su Chen murmured. "Break open the truck and pick us apart."
"On it," Ye Qingyu said before he even called her name.
She sprinted to the rear firing port, slammed her palms onto the freezing metal frame—
"Glacial Domain!"
Cold exploded outward.
Not a blast.
Not a wave.
A domain.
The moisture-rich air answered her like soldiers responding to a general. Water vapor crystallized in an instant. Frost spiderwebbed across the metal.
Crabs climbing the pylons froze mid-motion.
Their joints locked.
Their shells frosted over.
Crack.
Crack.
Snap.
One by one, the monsters shattered under their own weight, falling back into the churning abyss.
Su Chen watched, eyes narrowing with approval.
"Good. Saeko, keep anything that survives away from the truck."
"And you, Master?" Saeko asked.
Su Chen touched the roof hatch.
"I'm going fishing."
The hatch opened.
Hurricane-force wind howled inside the cabin.
Su Chen climbed out, his coat snapping behind him.
[Purple Cloud Wings — Deploy]
Wings of condensed qi burst from his back—violet arcs of energy that lit the storm-dark sky.
He launched upward.
The bridge shrank beneath him.
The river expanded—an endless black scar, alive with movement.
He activated Spirit Sight.
And there she was.
Floating atop piles of debris, singing her haunting melody like a queen over her court.
The Siren.
Upper half—beautiful enough to disarm entire battalions.
Skin pale as moonlight, hair dripping like silk, gills fluttering gently.
Lower half—serpentine, armored scales glistening with oil-slick colors.
She looked up at him, and her song twisted.
Not soft.
Not gentle.
Predatory.
SCREEEEEE—
A sonic lance ripped the air toward him.
Su Chen didn't flinch.
Indestructible Diamond Body.
Lich Spirit Defense.
It was like being hit with a hair dryer.
"Too noisy," he muttered.
He reached into his Infinite Storage.
Pulled out a Type-99 Main Battle Tank.
And dropped it.
The Siren's eyes widened.
The tank plummeted.
The river swallowed the sound—then erupted.
SPLASH—CRUNCH
A shockwave burst upward. Water sprayed a hundred meters.
The Siren thrashed, tail crushed beneath 50 tons of metal.
Su Chen descended, landing lightly on drifting debris beside her.
She hissed and slashed.
He caught her throat with one hand.
His grip tightened.
Her claws dug into his arm.
He didn't budge.
"I like your voice," he said calmly. "I think I'll take it."
He invoked his gift.
[Copy All]
A shiver ran through him.
His throat tingled.
His vocal cords restructured.
A cool sensation spread down his neck as new glands formed—gills he could conceal at will.
Hydrokinesis.
Siren Song.
Underwater breathing.
Useful.
Very useful.
He squeezed.
Snap.
Silence.
[Target Eliminated]
[XP +1500]
[Item: Siren's Pearl — Rare]
He pocketed the pearl.
But he wasn't done.
Because the crabs?
They weren't enemies anymore.
They were… product.
He flew to the nearest one clawing up the bridge.
It snapped at him.
He drove his fist through the iron shell.
[Corpse Acquired]
"Copy."
One became two.
Two became four.
Four became eight.
He spent one minute duplicating seafood like a factory line worker.
Crab bodies rained down into his storage.
"Chili crab… crab hotpot… crab dumplings…"
He stopped when he hit roughly 500 tons.
Not because he couldn't make more—
just because storage space management mattered.
And honestly?
They tasted amazing.
He returned to the Behemoth just as the truck reached the end of the bridge.
He dropped into the living room holding a steaming crab leg the size of a human thigh.
"Dinner," he said, tossing it on the table.
Saeko stared.
"You… went shopping?"
"The Siren's dead," he replied, tearing off a chunk of meat. "And we're stocked for life. Ye Qingyu—catch."
He threw her the pearl.
It pulsed with oceanic energy.
She held it tightly, her expression softening.
"…thank you."
Su Chen shrugged.
"She was weak to me. Wrong matchup."
He pointed ahead.
"Look."
The City Center.
And it wasn't human anymore.
Crystal spires had erupted from the ground, slicing through ruined skyscrapers.
Ancient wooden ships floated through the sky, glowing with runes.
[Jinghai City Center — Convergence Zone]
[Dominant Faction: Sky-Sea Alliance (Invaders)]
Saya's voice trembled.
"We can't drive straight in there. We'll get shot out of the sky."
"Then we don't go in as ourselves," Su Chen said. "We disguise the truck. Or we make it fly."
"F-fly? Boss, the truck weighs forty tons!"
"And my wings lift me. I just need the runic structure to replicate their anti-gravity engines. The rest is math."
He stretched.
"But before that… we find allies."
He pointed to the fortified stadium on the horizon.
Jinghai Olympic Stadium.
Smoke.
Barricades.
Military banners.
"The Earth Defense Force," he said. "Probably starving. Probably desperate."
He smiled faintly.
"And I have 500 tons of crab meat."
He tapped the dashboard.
"We're going to negotiate."