When the sun didn't rise up in the sky as Jeemin had hoped, he heaved a sigh of relief.

I need to get stronger as fast as I can, in order to do that, I need to finish this damn adaptation zone soon.

'Forming a core and aperture huh.' He recalled what the status window showed him earlier.

Thinking of being able to cultivate and achieve a power to turn heaven and earth upside down in the novels he read, he couldn't help but excitedly lead the way.

I don't care if I don't have any bonuses or anything, I'm fortunate enough to be transferred here.

As he continued walking forward, a girl's voice suddenly startled him.

"I suggest you take a rest first before crossing the desert," a purple haired girl said, as she impatiently shooed him with her hand.

The girl suddenly appeared in front of him out of nowhere. Her eyebrows were sharp and high-arched.

She had a knee-length purple hair, blood-red irises and white pupils, looking at Jeemin with a hint of anger.

Jeemin, who was naturally a man, couldn't help but catch a glimpse of her well-sized rack accentuated by her - a rather fitting robe. But he didn't look at it too long, he was worried about being labeled by himself as pervert.

His eyes gloomily looked at her as he asked with indifference, "Why should I listen to you?"

She furrowed her brows, which made her even more ravishingly domineering.

"Because I'm the guide." She replied with chill.

Guide?

Now that he took a look closer, she really was the guide earlier. The memory of the guide's appearance in the hall gradually overlapped with the girl in front of him.

He raised his hand briefly to silence the commotion behind him as he coldly spoke, "You let the people in the hall die miserably. How could I trust your words?"

Inwardly Jeemin was nervous how would the girl in front of him would react, but he maintained the eye-to-eye contact and his indifferent tone.

"Because I'm the guide," she replied with a slight anger in her voice.

"Don't mind her, let's go." Jeemin spoke coldly as she brushed past her. 

One, two, three, four-...

Jeemin counted in his head as he felt a domineering aura suddenly engulfed his body. I expected her to stop me, but I never thought she would stop me with this!

He stood rooted on the ground as his hair stood on end.

A dark violet aura gushed out from the girl's body as she menacingly glared at him.

He turned around as he look at her in the eye.

"You'll follow because I'm the guide—" Li Na abruptly stopped from speaking when she saw his eyes glimmer with intense greed and excitement.

Without caring for the dangerous aura she was letting out, instead of staggering back, Jeemin walked closer instead.

His breathing was getting rougher as his eyes glimmer with amazement, excitement, and .... intoxication.

"What are you planning to do?" She asked as she was stunned by Jeemin's sudden change in behaviour.

"More, more, more," he muttered as he savoured the murderous aura she was emitting.

Being an avid reader of fantasy novels, Jeemin was naturally deeply enthralled at the idea or the existence of aura.

The aura that she was using to scare him was actually the confirmation that Jeemin was wishing for - the existence of cultivation!

"Ahhh, this feels good~ Increase it more, ah~" he uncharacteristically let out a muffled moan as he continued walking forward.

Li Na doubted her eyes as she saw two hearts forming on Jeemin's eyes as he looked at her with intense desire.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party was shivering in fear as they felt the foreign thick murderous aura shrouding them. Even Seiji almost peed his pants as he reeled back from the pressure. 

When Jeemin was almost a breath away from her, the system forcibly sealed her aura as it was already considered harmful towards the participants. 

When she saw the dismayed look on Jeemin's face when the system sealed her power, she was dumbfounded.

His gloomy eyes gazed at her white pupils as he indifferently spoke, "Now that I know this kind of power exists here, it makes me want to finish the adaptation zone more in a hurry."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"I don't know why are you intent on stopping us, but based from what you did at the hall, you think I'd trust you? Don't you think it's dumb to trust me, if I was you?" He held the eye-to-eye contact even though his heart was already on his throat.

He turned away coolly and started forward.

"You....!" She was fuming in anger as she can't explain what would happen if they continue tonight, not only that, she was challenged by someone who doesn't posses any mana yet.

The gall! She gritted her teeth as she angrily thought, The higher ups are already barraging me with complaints about the mess in the hall, I can't let the number of people go down anymore.

She is restricted from harming the participants on the adaptation zone, that's why she couldn't exert a power to completely stop Jeemin from being able to move.

"You...! Come back here!" She said while clenching her teeth.

But Jeemin ignored her... or rather, he was slowly running away from her. For all he knew, she was a dangerous person to deal with. A cold blooded person who would let many people die at the hall isn't something he's equipped to deal with now. Although he was unsure if the guide is allowed to kill him, it wasn't a bad idea to get away as far as possible from her. 

He signaled to the party as he continued walking forward, leaving Li Na behind him fuming in anger.

As they walked past her, Claire and Hyoon glanced at her with fear and admiration for her beauty apparent in their eyes.

"You people will regret this!"

Seiji ran beside Jeemin, as Dmitri and Li Jing brushed past Li Na.

*

As they went further away and Li Na's figure receded from behind, the chill and cold pervading the desert seeped on Jeemin's bone as his teeth clattered.

"Was that the guide?" Claire asked as she caught up to Jeemin.

"Yes," Jeemin replied succinctly as he felt the freezing coldness from the air, his sweat from climbing up the mountain further made him shiver.

"What did she said?"

"She said we shouldn't cross the desert," Jeemin explained as he added, "Remember what the guy said, we interrogated earlier, about the hall?"

Claire thought for a moment and replied, "Hell descended at the hall and people were torn apart by humanoid wolves and hounds?"

"Yeah. Don't you think it's strange that the guide didn't tell us about what would happen if we stayed longer at the hall?"

"It is indeed strange," Hyoon nodded as he listened beside Claire as the moonlight made her brown eyes visible from the dark.

"But man, she's hot, really hot," Seiji spoke while casting an occasional glance behind him.

"That's why we shouldn't trust anything coming from her mouth. What if we stayed there and get ambushed by strange creatures?" Jeemin explained further, "See how suspiciously intent she was on forcing us to stay?"

But Jeemin added just in case, "But I hope I made the right decision."

As they continued crossing the desert, some occasional gust of wind swept up the sand.

The silent night made the atmosphere heavy as they can't even hear their footsteps.

Seiji broke the silence as he scratched his ears, "Man it's boring... hey, anyone interested in telling their story?"

When no one spoke, he decided to be the first.

"Fine, I'll start first," he heaved a sigh and continued, "You see, before I was transferred here, I was living a wretched life in our country. My boss, hehehe, my boss occasionally abused me by giving me so much work."

"I can't even have time to enjoy life," then he stopped, "Okay this getting depressing, anyways, so my occupation is designing games, and my hobby is inventing stuffs."

"You wouldn't believe how I died. I was hit by a truck! It's every man's dream!"

As soon as he said that with an excited voice, even Jeemin couldn't help but look at him with sympathy.

But the rest of the party only gave Seiji odd looks.

"Why is getting hit by a truck is 'every man's dream'?" Hyoon asked with a strange expression.

"That must have been painful," Li Jing muttered from beside Dmitri.

"Well at least you had a job," Jeemin said in front.

"No, you people don't understand, it was a popular concept that when you get hit by truck-kun, you'll be transferred to another world," Seiji explained exasperatedly as he replied to Jeemin, "It's more like a torture than a job."

"Well I died of hunger," Jin Hyoon said with a hint of sadness, "Nothing special. I went climbing a mountain and got trapped between a narrow cave with no way out. Well... that sums up my entire life."

Seeing Jin Hyoon have told her story, Seiji spoke, "Who else?"

Swish, swish, swish.

The wind blew for a moment as the flying sand made the rest cover their eyes.

"It's probably traumatic for them," as Jeemin added helplessly, "Don't force them." He was curious about their life as well, but it couldn't be help if they don't want to talk about it.

Seiji dejectedly let out a sigh as he replied, "But it's boring... what about you?"

Jeemin only replied with a cough as he thought, I don't want to look pathetic saying I killed myself, definitely not a good idea. He shook his head as he added, not befitting of the image I'm maintaining.

"We're not here for vacation. I suggest you take this seriously," Claire spoke as she rubbed her eyes.

"Ack!"

Seiji suddenly let out a yelp.

"What's this?!" Seiji shouted as he stomped his feet on the ground in panic.

[Night of Devouring has been activated]

[Time left for Devouring: 3 hours]

"Hmm?" Jeemin looked up at the huge system notice at the sky.

"I'm gonna die! I got stung by a scorpion!" Seiji shouted.

When Jeemin saw the crushed scorpion below Seiji's feet, he immediately went alarmed as he took a look at the sand below him.

Fist sized white scorpions started burrowing out of the sand as he narrowed his eyes.

He immediately stomped on the scorpion that was about to sting him with its tail.

"W-what's that?!" Jin Hyoon shouted with a trembling voice.

When Jeemin looked at the direction she was pointing, he saw several disgusting creatures, slightly bigger than a human was running towards them.

They had differing appearances, some had their mouths on their forehead, some had eyes on their bellies, some had a terrifying scythe on where there arm was suppose to be.

Their mangled flesh strewn by strange thick black threads wobbled as they darted towards them. Some of them even had skins of human faces strewn on their arms, bellies, feet, and chest. 

It was more appropriate to describe them as combination of pieces of human flesh, meshed with each other to form a horrifying bipedal creatures. 

The grotesque sight made Jeemin felt a sour juice on his throat as he swallowed it back.

"Stick with the formation—"

"Captain! Seiji has fallen unconscious!" Claire suddenly shouted making Jeemin to swallow what he was about to say.

Seiji was convulsing on the sand as he started foaming from his mouth. His body was twitching violently as his skin become paler and paler.

Li Jing immediately bent down and examined Seiji's condition.

"He was poisoned!"

"Quick, Dmitri and Hyoon, carry Seiji away," he spoke as he stomped on another scorpion burrowing out near Li Jing, "Claire protect them, I'll slow those creatures down. Find a way and a place to treat Seiji."

He then stretched his hand towards Claire and said, "The sword."

As Claire threw the pouch containing the blunt sword, she asked, "Can you handle them?"

Of course not... He thought.

"I can... I have this after all,"  he waved the heavy blunt sword while his arm burned in pain after giving back the pouch to Claire.

My arm hasn't fully rested yet from overexertion when we were pursued earlier. But strangely, the Origin in my palm feels vibrant. Oh, the teeth are gone as well. He glanced at his palm for a moment as he lowered down the heavy blunt sword.

"Go."

Dmitri and Hyoon hurriedly carried Seiji's body away as Claire from the rear acted as their guard, and Li Jing stayed at their center.

Jeemin looked at them, waiting for anyone to look back worriedly.

But the party receded from his view without anyone of them even sparing a glance at him.

He was hoping that someone would convince him to do otherwise or someone would suggest to be left behind with him to deal with the swarming creatures. Then he'll decline the offer and say, "It's fine, I can do this, your lives are more important than mine."

But contrary to his expectations, they immediately receded from his view.

He let out a depressing sigh as he dragged his heavy blunt sword on the sand behind him.

'It was to be expected, it's my fault after all.'

He darted towards one of the pudgy creatures running towards the direction of the party, and hacked it from its head with the help of the amplification of his power by the Origin in his palm.

The heavy blunt sword stopped halfway to the creature's belly as he pulled the heavy blunt sword back and darted towards another creature pursuing them.

"Hey! Don't ignore me you, you.... what hell are these things even called?! "

Even though they're disgustingly huge, they're surprisingly good at running.

As the stench drifted to his nose, coming from their rotting mangled flesh and the disgusting viscous fluid dripping on the blunt sword, Jeemin felt increasingly nauseous.

Suddenly, he felt a burning pain behind him as he stomped on a scorpion that was about to sting him with its tail.