Chen Li woke up to find the sky had fallen.
No, the ceiling had collapsed.
"Hold on, what the hell happened?" Chen Li stared in disbelief at the gaping hole in his ceiling.
Directly above his bed was a massive hole, through which he could see the vast, starry sky.
He had been woken up by the sound of an explosion.
"Yo, you're awake?" Kaguya Houraisan peeked her head down through the hole and gave Chen Li a friendly greeting.
"What happened?" Chen Li asked, completely bewildered.
Then, he instantly became wide awake.
The [Then I Ask You] card had triggered.
Because the question held little value, the effect was weak, but it was still invigorating.
Much better than coffee.
"I don't know. A meteor just flew down from the sky and smashed right through your house. I live upstairs, and my entire lower half was just... gone. The body's back, but the clothes haven't fully restored themselves yet. I figure you probably don't want to see that, so I'm not showing you," Kaguya explained.
"Oh, so that's why you're only showing your upper body?"
"Mhm. So, are you okay?"
"I'm fine, thankfully the Friends Circle..."
Chen Li was finding the Friends Circle more and more useful. He couldn't guarantee he'd be awake to face every crisis and deploy the Miracle Shield in time, and he didn't have a regeneration ability like Kaguya...
Without it, he would have had to waste a blank Miracle Card to regenerate.
Thinking about it, maybe he needed a regeneration-type Curio for himself.
"Kid, don't underestimate the bond between us," Kaguya said, giving him a thumbs-up.
Despite having been nearly obliterated by a meteor just moments ago, she could still laugh. That was Kaguya Houraisan for you.
She treated death like a daily meal.
"Er..." Chen Li had to admit Kaguya had a point.
The Friends Circle's defense was built upon the bonds between him and his friends.
"There was just one small accident," Kaguya said, pinching her fingertips together.
"What small accident?"
"Yakumo Yukari died."
"Huh?"
"I'm saying her qualification was used up. She was kicked out of the Friends Circle. She's currently using Eirin's spare device to cause a ruckus in the group chat."
"What the hell? That meteor broke through the Friends Circle's defense? Let me see what's going on." Only now did Chen Li realize the gravity of the situation.
Getting hit by a meteor wasn't out of the realm of possibility for a trouble magnet like himself, though it was unlikely. He'd once been struck by lightning three times in a row while walking down the street, but his luck held, and he was fine.
However, he'd never experienced an attack from a meteor with lethal force.
After rolling out of bed, Chen Li spotted a rock, still radiating heat, embedded in his bedroom wall.
It must have triggered the Friends Circle defense when it was about to hit me and got knocked away, right?
If the Friends Circle hadn't absorbed the damage from this attack, Chen Li and every building within a few thousand meters would have likely been vaporized.
"Send this Friends Circle qualification over to Yukari." Chen Li tossed a phone up to Kaguya, who was perched on the edge of the hole.
"You got it." Kaguya caught the phone. No longer concerned with the slowly repairing hole, she immediately dived into the group chat.
Ever since Kaguya had moved in, she had marked the house with her power of eternity, like an animal marking its territory.
No matter how damaged the house became, it would return to its original state after a short while.
Kaguya Houraisan. Pretty amazing, right?
"What is this thing?" Chen Li got up and walked over to the head-sized meteorite.
The standard defense range of his Friends Circle was a three-meter diameter, which was why his bed was still perfectly intact.
Out of curiosity, he touched it.
The next moment, Chen Li was blinded by the brightness of the Entries on the meteorite.
[Embryo], [Hunt], [Devour], [Evolve], [Metamorphosis], [Destroy]
Countless Entries assaulted his vision, especially [Evolve] and [Metamorphosis], which were blindingly bright.
"So... this thing is an embryo?" Chen Li roughly understood just by looking at the Entries.
He instantly understood why his restraint bracelet hadn't diverted this disaster. It was because this wasn't a disaster at all.
Wasn't this a gift from the heavens?
Had this world's consciousness finally grown a conscience and decided to toss him a few strange things as a treat?
Hmph. Even if you try to compensate me now, I won't forgive you so easily.jpg
Still, out of caution, Chen Li shook his head and refrained from a more detailed inspection. Instead, he tossed two Star Jades to the ground, which transformed into two summoning circles.
It looked like he was shaking his head, but he was actually calling for backup.
"Dearest son, what happened?" The moment she appeared, Chen Li's beloved mother had a serious expression on her face.
"Oh, this thing just fell from the sky and hit me in the face. The Entries on it are really bright, so it must be something incredible. But I don't recognize it, so I wanted to ask you two to identify it," Chen Li said.
"This thing... you'll have to ask your mother," Chen Shi said slowly after examining the object for a long time.
"..." Chen Li, whose face was currently being pinched by his mother, felt his vision go dark.
If you didn't know what it was, why were you staring at it for so long?
"Let me see, let me see... Oh, so it's... holy crap, it's this thing?" Li Changxi stopped tormenting her son's cheeks and looked at the meteorite.
But before she could finish her sentence, her face filled with horror.
"What's wrong?" Chen Li knew that as a Folklorist, his mother recognized many things from other worlds. For her to have such a reaction, the problem had to be serious.
"This is a Devourer. They say it's a terrifying monster capable of destroying an entire world."
"Sounds pretty dangerous," Chen Li said, stroking his chin, but he wasn't the least bit panicked.
"It is. This thing starts as an embryo, just like this. Its shell is extremely hard; even divine weapons can barely scratch it. After it lands in a world, it slowly absorbs the ambient energy of that world. It uses this energy, while still in its embryonic state, to develop a life form that counters the world's primary energy source. Once it hatches, it devours its shell to instantly skip its infant stage and enter a growth period. Then it begins to hunt everything in that world until the world is completely devoured, at which point it becomes a complete being and returns to the stars," Li Changxi explained with a grave expression.
For example, in a world full of dragons, a Devourer could develop anti-dragon traits until it reached its final form.
Li Changxi knew this so clearly because she had killed a Devourer once.
But that wasn't because she was too strong or the Devourer was too weak. It was because that unlucky Devourer, after developing a system that perfectly countered its target world, was thrown into a Secret Realm by that world's strongest expert.
And then it met Li Changxi.
So you counter dragons? What's that got to do with me, a human?
"I see... interesting," Chen Li's voice drawled on.
"What do we do now?" Chen Shi and Li Changxi exchanged a look, then both turned to Chen Li.
"Of course we... use it to forge a Curio. I happen to need a Curio that can strengthen me," Chen Li said, kicking the meteorite and tossing it onto the Miracle Anvil, which was now wreathed in Miracle Fire.
Hard for even a divine weapon to scratch, was it?
The Miracle Fire instantly engulfed the entire meteorite, and faint source characters began to slowly be drawn from the embryo.
An embryo, you say?
That means it can't fight back, right?
As time passed, countless source characters floated and sank within the Miracle Fire.
The embryo known as the Devourer completely lost its life force.
Although Chen Li didn't have a high opinion of this world that had tempered his sinews, starved his body, and exhausted his spirit, he had zero interest in destroying it.
Besides, why settle for 30% of what the creature devoured by making a pact with it, when he could have 100% for himself?
You idiot. If I kill you, all the gold bars are mine.jpg
With the death of the Devourer, the destiny of a future tyrant came to an abrupt end.
"Speaking of which, could this Devourer be one of the 'overly exciting fates' the little sprite mentioned?" Chen Li mused, though his hands never stopped the process of forging the Curio.
Perhaps, through some bizarre method, he could have formed a symbiotic relationship with the Devourer, like using his earphone cord to strangle the parasite in his right hand until it became an extension of his will, allowing him to punch tigers in the southern mountains and kick dragons in the four seas...
But now, it was merely a gift from nature.
The [Metamorphosis] Entry could be used to forge a Curio for the old worm, Mobius, but wouldn't that be a waste?
If there was any metamorphosing to be done, he should be the one to do it first.
Once he had transformed, he could help the old worm transform later.
[Devour], [Evolve], [Metamorphosis]...
"By the way, Mom, Dad, do you have any items with a [Normal] Entry?" Chen Li suddenly turned his head and asked.
Chen Li had no intention of crossing his own bottom line and devouring humans or the like, so he planned to add a restriction.
Never trust your future self's willpower, especially on a winter morning when it says it'll get up in just 10 more minutes. You absolutely cannot trust it.
"Huh? I have... maybe? Does this count?" Chen Shi thought for a moment and pulled out a book.
"This thing is called... [Guide to Abnormal Monster Girls]."
"Where did you get that?" Li Changxi glared at Chen Li's father.
"It was a souvenir we just snatched... I mean, took from that unlucky cult leader's house. It's a Relic! I haven't read it!" Chen Shi defended himself loudly.
"Never mind that for now. What I need is normal... Actually, abnormal works too. Isn't 'not abnormal' just normal? Not a big deal." Chen Li took the book and tossed it into the forge.
Then, watching the floating [Abnormal] and [Appraise] Entries, Chen Li fell into a deep contemplation.
WTF! Why does it have an [Appraise] Entry?!
What in the world have you been 'appraising' with this thing?!