The moment Aoki and Kurohime entered the forest, a ball of red energy burst forth from the mist and landed where they had just stood.
Boom!
The red energy expanded rapidly, transforming into a violent flame. A giant mushroom cloud of fire rose, engulfing rocks, soil, and trees.
A powerful shockwave swept through, scraping away layers of earth like tofu, uprooting trees as thick as a man's waist.
The surging heatwave transformed into a howling wind.
A moment later, the commotion subsided, leaving a crater tens of meters deep, surrounded by charred marks.
"Ptooey!"
Aoki lowered his arm, wiped the dust from his face, spat out a mouthful of blood-stained smear, and turned to ask, "How are you?"
"I'm fine." Kurohime sat up. "You blocked most of the damage."
"That's good."
Aoki looked outside; through the gaps between the trees, he could vaguely see the large crater in the ground.
"Is this a Super Dangerous Species?"
Kurohime said. "Even among Super Dangerous Species, this is considered extremely powerful."
She possessed a Super Dangerous Species doll and was very familiar with their strength.
"I see." Aoki said thoughtfully.
With that kind of power, he could withstand one hit without a problem, and two or three hits shouldn't kill him.
However, if he didn't resist and let the enemy bombard him, it would definitely kill him.
The two waited for a while, but there was no second attack, nor did they see the true form of the Super Dangerous Species that attacked them.
Aoki asked in surprise, "What does this mean? Are we forbidden from entering its territory?"
Suddenly
, a sound came from behind, and a group of Dangerous Species emerged from the forest, their emerald green eyes staring at them with cruel, bloodthirsty gazes.
"Don't make a move, hand it over..."
Aoki stopped mid-sentence.
Another group of dangerous creatures emerged from another direction.
Kurohime said, "They must have heard the commotion. More dangerous creatures will definitely come soon. We'd better leave."
Aoki accepted Kurohime's advice, and the two found an opportunity to escape.
One direction proved unworkable, so the two continued exploring the other three.
Unbeknownst to them, night fell.
In a corner at the foot of the cliff, a flame flickered.
Aoki took out paper and pen, scribbling and drawing, while Kurohime diligently roasted meat.
The firewood crackled and popped, occasionally punctuated by a distant, mournful roar.
Suddenly, Aoki felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to look.
"Here you go!"
Kurohime held a piece of roasted meat in each hand.
Aoki looked at the dark-colored thing: "What's this?"
"Roasted meat!"
Kurohime shoved one piece into his hand, then brought the other to her mouth, took a bite, and her face immediately scrunched up.
Aoki could see clearly that there was still blood in it.
What impressed him was that Kurohime didn't spit out the burnt and raw meat, but forced it down. She even prepared to take a second bite.
Aoki quickly stopped her: "Let me do it!"
This was meat from a dangerous species; eating it like this would definitely cause food poisoning.
But he hadn't expected Kurohime's cooking skills to be so bad; Akaza was the chef of Night Raid.
Aoki waved his hand, and a bottle appeared on the ground, containing white powder.
But seeing this, he was stunned.
Only the salt remained?
He had just taken more than ten kinds of seasonings, only succeeding with one bottle; the rest had all disappeared.
A one-in-ten success rate—even a dog would shake its head at that.
Of course.
The remaining nine-tenths didn't all fall into the spatial turbulence; most likely, their landing points changed. In reality, only about one-tenth actually fell into the spatial turbulence.
However, this was a matter of life and death, and a one-in-ten chance was already terrifying.
After several more attempts, Aoki barely managed to obtain enough seasonings.
Although he didn't need to eat, he still prepared all sorts of supplies in the alternate dimension,
especially after the area had expanded.
This included not only seasonings but also rice, corn, soybeans, and other grains, as well as clean water, daily necessities, and so on.
There was no other way; the space was large, so he could do whatever he wanted.
After a flurry of activity,
Aoki pointed to a sizzling, oily steak: "Try it!"
Kurohime took it, took a bite, and her eyes lit up immediately.
"Delicious!"
Aoki smiled: "I'm a professional chef." "
Professional chef" was a bit of an exaggeration, but he had indeed received systematic training.
He certainly couldn't cook as well as a real professional chef, as he lacked a sense of taste and could only rely on experience.
However, compared to Kurohime's dark-colored, bloody, and unseasoned grilled meat, his was undoubtedly the most delicious of all.
"Mmm, mmm, mmm." Kurohime hugged the steak, eating with a blissful expression.
Aoki picked up his pen and continued drawing.
Kurohime quickly finished the steak, glanced at the remaining grilled meat, and then at Aoki.
"Aren't you going to eat?"
Aoki waved his hand. "You eat!"
Kurohime hesitated for a second, then deftly picked up another piece of grilled meat and happily began to eat.
As she ate, she craned her neck to look at the notebook in Aoki's hand.
"What are you drawing?"
"A map." Aoki didn't look up.
"A map?"
Kurohime looked curious.
Aoki pointed: "This is where we first arrived, this is where we were attacked by the super-dangerous species, this area is what we visited this morning..."
Besides the markers and special terrain, it also recorded the dangerous species living in each area.
Dangerous species weren't just powerful beasts; they also possessed various special abilities. For example, today they encountered a group of snakes disguised as tree branches. They
couldn't detect anything by sight alone.
If he hadn't kept the transparent world activated, he might have really run into trouble.
Those snakes were venomous, and their venom was terrifying.
Kurohime took out a piece of candy and popped it into her mouth. "This should be a secret realm."
Aoki nodded.
The so-called secret realm is actually just a place with a high level of dangerous species, unsuitable for human habitation, and has nothing else special about it.
"So, shall we go tomorrow?"
"Let's continue exploring!"
Kurohime nodded silently.
That super dangerous species hidden in the mist was extremely strong; even with Destagur, she wouldn't dare challenge it.
As the user of Hachifusa, she knew very well that although the puppet still retained its former power, its true strength had actually declined significantly.
And that super dangerous species was clearly much stronger than Destagur in his lifetime.
However,
if she couldn't leave by tomorrow, her medicine would run out.
And with no news for two consecutive days, she wondered if there were any problems with the assassination squad.
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