"System, what is Slaughter Mode?"
Ethan searched for Animo's whereabouts, while asking the system in his mind at the same time.
The system patiently explained. [Slaughter Mode is a special mechanic of the Error Watch. While the user still has transformation time remaining, rotating the Error Watch symbol on the chest allows switching to a different alien!]
"Is that right?"
Ethan was greatly startled, and immediately looked down, rotating the symbol on his chest.
As he rotated the symbol one full turn, the figure of Heatblast leaped up on the symbol.
This meant.
He could switch aliens and fight at any time, just like the Error Watch itself could!
'If I want to track down Animo.'
Ethan kept turning the symbol until it stopped on a certain figure. "I choose you!"
Whoosh!!
His body shook again with a terrifying red light!
Beneath the red light.
Ethan's spine began to curve, his frame matched that of a fierce beast, the muscles all over his body began to surge, and orange fur rushed out wildly.
Up to this point, he still matched the Rath from the original story.
But on his face, an incredibly horrifying large mouth grew, shaped like a cross, taking up almost his entire face!
Error Rath: still needs a name.
"Roar!!"
Ethan let out a beast's roar. His mouth opened wide, and his entire face opened along with it, looking extremely terrifying!
"Every single one of Ethan's aliens is scarier and much stronger than the normal ones."
Grandpa Max stood not far away, holding bags of daily supplies, and said in shock.
Truly horrifying!!
"The mummy ran away?"
"Another one just showed up!!"
And under one roar from Error Rath, quite a few people who had fainted also woke up.
They had just celebrated the departure of Snare-oh, then turned around and saw Error Rath, and fainted again on the spot.
Ah, what a miserable life.
....
"What is going on?? And now there's a beast roar?"
In a back alley, Animo had been sprinting at full speed and was out of breath. "Did I provoke some kind of terrifying monster organization?? I have absolutely no memory of that!!"
Whoosh!!
Above the alley, a gust of wind suddenly swept past.
Animo's white messy hair flew with it. He pressed his hand over his nearly airborne helmet, and looked up in terror.
Above the alley.
There was no one.
"Scaring myself. Ahhh!!"
Animo patted his chest, and looked forward with relief, but saw a giant mouth full of fangs right in front of him!!
He instantly collapsed to the ground, and shuffled backward on his rear end in fear, nearly crying!
"Got you!"
Ethan showed a smile, raised his claws, and grabbed at Animo's clothes!
Whoosh!!
Animo raised his trembling hand, pressed the controller on his chest, and activated the Devolution Ray on his head.
The Devolution Ray fired a beam of laser, attacking Ethan's figure.
Ethan leaped into the air, and using his powerful muscles jumped several meters high, easily dodging the laser.
The laser landed on the ground and disappeared.
"Does Earth have a beast of this strength? At least not in the last thousand years."
Animo stared in awe at Ethan jumping so high, marveling at the latter's unbelievable agility.
Little did he know, the next second.
Ethan flipped his body around, and came dropping down toward where Animo was!
"What the heck! What on earth did I ever do to you!!"
Animo scrambled on all four limbs, quickly devolved into something like a crawling animal, and began frantically crawling away.
Although Ethan landed right at his heels, the remaining force still sent Animo flying, and knocked him out hard.
Right at that moment.
A large number of police cars came surrounding the area. They aimed their pistols at Animo, and also at Ethan's figure.
Though some of the more timid ones among them had hands that trembled faintly on their guns.
'The difficulty of gaining progress has increased. Defeating Animo ahead of schedule did not raise the progress at all.'
Ethan let out a quiet sigh, and twisted the symbol again.
The figure of Ghostfreak suddenly appeared, then vanished in an instant before the eyes of the many officers, while they all moved forward together to restrain Animo.
"Good thing that monster left. If it had fought us. Phew!"
Many of them even felt fortunate, and quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
If it had actually come to a fight.
No one would have been a match for that monster!!
After they took Animo away.
On a patch of ground that had been hit by the laser earlier.
Insects, nearly invisible but present everywhere, began swelling up one by one, growing larger.
....
When Ethan ended his transformation and returned to the supermarket, Grandpa Max, Ben, and the others had already been waiting for a long time.
"I knew it. You definitely handled it."
Grandpa Max shrugged, and said with a smile. "Let's keep shopping then."
"Of course, let's continue our vacation." Ethan shrugged, and said with a relaxed face.
The group started shopping again. This time it was far more enjoyable, because no one was competing with them for popular items anymore.
After they finished shopping, they played around Washington D.C. for the better part of the day, and only returned to the RV when the sky began to darken.
Inside the RV.
Grandpa Max was frying fresh and tasty bug burgers. Ben was showing off his Sumo Slammers cards. Gwen was watching the news on her laptop.
Ethan leaned back in his seat, and quietly asked in his mind. "System, I have a question for you. What exactly is the key checkpoint you mentioned before?"
[Ding! Once the host has unlocked enough aliens and improved enough, a key checkpoint will be reached. The system will then begin unlocking Error Watch permissions for the host!]
The system answered.
Ethan nodded in sudden understanding.
This template was actually quite logical.
First expand his range of abilities, strengthen his body, then gradually unlock Error Watch permissions!
Letting him build steadily, one solid step at a time!
Ethan took a deep breath, and looked forward to the future with mild anticipation. 'I wonder what the next permission will give. Dang it, Animo gave way too little template progress! I really missed my chance this time!'
He felt a bit of regret that he had not used Animo to grind through a wave of mutant monsters!
[Ding. Animo has successfully broken out of prison. And because of his fear of the host, he has revived an entire natural history museum of monsters, greatly changing the plot. Progress gained plus 1!]
[Template progress is now 6 out of 100. Error Kickin Hawk unlocked!]
Huh??
Ethan instantly sat up straight, with a look of disbelief. 'Animo broke out of prison? Just breaking out gave me 1 template progress directly??'
This meant.
Animo had indeed, after escaping, created many monsters!!
'Then where are Animo and his monsters right now? I need to find him and grab this gift.'
Ethan immediately got excited, stood up at once, and wanted to borrow Gwen's laptop.
This windfall of fortune, he absolutely had to catch it.
"This is bad."
Gwen suddenly turned the laptop around, and said urgently. "I just saw on the news that the Washington D.C. police station has been breached by mutant insects. Animo has escaped, and has taken over the natural history museum, reviving ancient creatures. Washington D.C. is about to be sent back to the prehistoric era!"
Unlike her panic.
Ethan's expression was pumped up, and he clenched his fist slightly. "Then let's go take out those dinosaurs!"
"To be honest, I really regret not going with Ethan earlier to fight side by side against the freaks!"
Ben pressed his hands together at the knuckles, and said with a raised eyebrow.
Both cousins were burning with fighting spirit!!