Xia Leng stared at the pale ghostly face less than half a meter away from him, cold sweat trickling down his temple.
A Ghost-faced Spider?!
When did it sneak in?!!
The Ghost-faced Spider was also a mutated creature of the post-apocalyptic world.
Although not very large (compared to current creatures), only about a meter in size, it was infamous for its deadly venom and the human face pattern on its round abdomen.
Just one bite from this spider, and within three seconds, you would collapse to the ground, paralyzed.
Then, your muscle tissue, internal organs, and even bones would rapidly melt into a pool of blood within a minute, leaving your body like a water-filled human skin sack!
And the worst part is, you would remain conscious throughout the entire melting process, feeling the Ghost-faced Spider savoring the delicious juices from your body.
Finally, as a "compensation" for the organs you lost, it would lay thousands of eggs inside you, awaiting the experience of spider babies breaking out of your body again...
Xia Leng looked at the ghostly face on the spider's abdomen, his breathing becoming so shallow it almost stopped.
Below the pale ghost face were two fist-sized discs emitting an eerie red glow, and beneath those were six red dots.
These were the spider's pair of main eyes and three pairs of compound eyes.
At that moment, its head was facing the partially dismembered corpse of a giant beetle on the ground, which Xia Leng had dissected by a third. Clearly, it was deciding whether to use its precious venom on this seemingly lifeless beetle.
The Ghost-faced Spider had been attracted by the faint stench of the giant beetle's corpse!
Perhaps this three-story abandoned building was its territory all along.
If the Ghost-faced Spider's abdomen faced inward, its pure black shell could easily blend into the surrounding darkness, making it hard to detect. That's why Xia Leng didn't notice its presence when he first entered and checked the place.
Xia Leng held his breath and quietly reached for the bone dagger by his leg, controlling even his heartbeat to be as light as possible.
This vicious arthropod was the aggressive type, attacking any living creature or animal that entered its crimson line of sight with lightning-fast venomous fangs!
But for now, its attention was temporarily drawn to the beetle carcass in front of it.
Xia Leng knew that the beetle, which had less than two pounds of edible meat, would not satisfy the spider's hunger. Once it finished this appetizer, it would realize there was a much larger "meal" behind it, waiting to be devoured.
So, he had to strike first!
He was waiting for an opportunity—for the Ghost-faced Spider to use up its limited venom on the beetle, for it to start feasting on its prey, and for those people on the street to gradually move away. That would be his chance to attack!
However, what awaited Xia Leng next was a cruel twist of fate.
Perhaps his lone wolf behavior no longer received the favor of Lady Luck.
A palm-sized bloodsucking mosquito, completely unaware of the tension in the room, buzzed in from outside at the most inopportune moment.
It seemed to be attracted by the drop of sweat that had rolled down from Xia Leng's temple to his chin, and it immediately raised its nearly finger-long sharp proboscis, excitedly flying towards his face!
The high-frequency buzzing of the mosquito's wings finally caught the Ghost-faced Spider's attention!
Xia Leng saw the eyes of the ghostly face in front of him curve into a smile—it was about to attack!
The spider's abdomen contracted, signaling it was about to launch a fierce assault!
In the next second, it would grab the mosquito and simultaneously lunge at Xia Leng's soot-covered face!
Finally! Xia Leng could wait no longer—hesitation would mean defeat!
Hiss!!
The Ghost-faced Spider let out a sound like leaking gas and shot out a basin-sized green web from its tail end, instantly wrapping up the bloodsucking mosquito that had been about to land on Xia Leng's face.
At the same time, Xia Leng had already prepared to dodge a second earlier; otherwise, that corrosive web would have hit his face too!
He rolled skillfully, evading the dramatic hunting attack.
But in doing so, he landed on the scattered rubble around him, causing a series of sharp cracking sounds that were especially jarring in the silent night.
These pieces of debris had been deliberately placed around him to alert him if any stealthy mutated creatures or humans attempted to attack him while he was in a half-asleep state.
But he never imagined that due to this ridiculous situation, he would end up alerting himself...
...
"Boss, did you just hear a strange noise from that building over there?"
On the street bathed in crimson moonlight, the five men hadn't gone far. With their keen senses honed by long-term training, that sharp sound had naturally reached their ears.
"Yes, I heard it."
The leader motioned for his men to stop and quickly found a large concrete block to use as cover. He hid behind it, his sharp eyes locked on the direction the sound came from.
Crack~
More sharp noises came from that floor, loud and clear to the five men!
"Boss, could it be a Night Demon? Maybe we should get out of here."
A tall, thin man spoke with a slight tremor in his voice, as if the mutated creature called the Night Demon had left a deep psychological scar on him.
"Hmph, you coward. If it were a Night Demon, it would have pounced on us and devoured us by now. Do you think those things have the brains to set up an ambush? I think there's a fight going on up there, maybe between mutated creatures or maybe between scavengers."
The burly leader let out a sinister laugh, making it clear that he intended to take advantage of the situation.
Whatever was fighting up there, one side would end up dead, and the other wouldn't be in good shape either.
If it were a Night Demon hunting up there, it wouldn't cause such a frequent commotion. Once a Night Demon locks eyes on you, you'd see your own blood gushing from your neck the next second, without any time to resist.
In that sense, the Night Demon was almost a "kind" creature, ending your life swiftly with a single strike, sparing you from any prolonged pain.
"Let's go check it out."
...
Meanwhile.
Xia Leng knelt on one knee, panting slightly as he looked at the twitching, decaying black flesh in front of him. After a fierce battle, he had finally killed the Ghost-faced Spider.
But the price was steep—his face, arms, and even body were covered in deep, gruesome cuts from the spider's sharp limbs, some so deep that bone was visible.
However, compared to being bitten by the spider's fangs, these superficial wounds were a stroke of luck amidst misfortune.
Of course, Xia Leng didn't let his guard down for a moment because he knew those people outside had set their sights on him...