No one expected that the arm Zhou Jun severed would become the seed of a new catastrophe.
Zhao Hu was carried back to the temporary military hospital on a stretcher, half-dead from blood loss.
In the middle of the night, the medic on duty discovered that the severed limb had turned pitch-black, as though soaked in ink. Black lines were crawling from the wound up Zhao Hu's neck like living tattoos.
At 03:17 a.m., the heart-rate monitor flatlined.
At 03:18 a.m., Zhao Hu opened his eyes again.
They were no longer human eyes; only two swirling voids remained.
[Hidden Condition Triggered: Extreme Hatred + Severed Limb + Contact with Abyss Pollution Source]
[Forced Second Awakening Successful]
[Talent: SS-Rank — Lord of Eternal Night]
[Core Abilities:
1. Shadow Devours All Light (absolute darkness domain)
2. The Abyss Never Forgets (every injury suffered is converted into permanent shadow power)
3. My Hate Is My Kingdom (the more hatred directed at the host, the stronger he becomes)]
The moment the system announcement appeared, the entire military camp lost power.
All light sources died.
Then came the screams.
In just seven minutes, half of the 17th Mechanized Brigade stationed outside the school was slaughtered.
Armored vehicles were crushed flat by invisible hands.
Exoskeleton soldiers were dragged into their own shadows and shredded from the inside.
The major who had once stood in front of Zhou Jun fired an entire magazine of electromagnetic rounds into the darkness, only to watch the bullets melt into black water mid-flight.
When the backup generator finally kicked in and the floodlights came back, the survivors saw Zhao Hu standing in the center of the camp, his severed arm already regrown, made of pure writhing darkness.
He looked toward the east, where Zhou Jun had vanished into the dungeon, and smiled with a mouth that had too many teeth.
"Zhou Jun… you took my arm.
Now I'll take everything you have left."
[Massacre complete. Killed 1,247 armed personnel.]
[Level +28 → Level 35]
[Skill Unlocked: Army of Eternal Night]
Countless shadows rose from the corpses, forming an army of black knights.
Zhao Hu stepped over the major's corpse and gave his first order to the darkness:
"Find Zhou Jun's sister. Bring her to me alive.
I want him to watch."
While the military camp burned, Zhou Jun was deep underground.
The first official instance dungeon, "Abandoned Subway Line 13", had already been designated a Level 20–25 death zone.
In his previous life, it took a joint raid of three major guilds and two military platoons, 312 people in total, to clear it on Normal difficulty. 187 died.
Zhou Jun walked straight into Nightmare mode alone.
He slaughtered his way from Carriage 1 to Carriage 13.
Mutated train conductors, ghost passengers, the final boss "Subway Devourer" (Level 28 Elite).
Everything that stood in his path was torn apart and devoured.
[Devoured: A-Rank Bloodline — Void Worm]
[Infinite Devour evolved → Tier 2]
[New Passive: Perfect Adaptation (immune to all environmental damage and debuffs)]
[Level +41 → Level 46]
When he walked out of the dungeon portal covered in violet blood, exactly four hours had passed.
The night sky above the city was no longer black; it was dyed an ominous purple-black.
A dying military lieutenant, leaning against a wrecked tank, saw Zhou Jun emerge and used his last breath to shout:
"Run… monster… Zhao Hu… he has become a monster… your sister… they took your sister!"
Zhou Jun's pupils shrank to pinpricks.
The air around him instantly dropped dozens of degrees.
The blood on his body boiled and evaporated.
"Who?" he asked, voice calm.
The lieutenant spat out blood: "Zhao Hu… SS-rank darkness… he slaughtered half the brigade… heading to Safe Zone No. 7… your sister is there…"
Zhou Jun vanished from the spot.
Boom!!
The ground exploded into a crater ten meters wide.
He had broken the sound barrier with pure physical force.
Safe Zone No. 7 — former university town.
Tens of thousands of survivors had gathered here under military protection.
Now the entire safe zone was shrouded in absolute darkness. No light, no sound, no hope.
In the center of the sports arena, Zhou Ling (Zhou Jun's 16-year-old sister) was bound by chains of living shadow.
Her awakening had just happened today: a gentle A-rank healing talent.
She had been healing wounded soldiers when the darkness came.
Zhao Hu stood in front of her, his new arm of darkness gently stroking her cheek.
"Your brother took my arm," he whispered, voice layered with a thousand overlapping echoes.
"So it's only fair I take something from him."
A blade of darkness slowly formed above Zhou Ling's heart.
That was the exact moment the night sky was torn open.
BOOM!!!!
A streak of crimson light fell from the heavens like a meteor, smashing straight through the darkness domain and cratering the arena floor.
Dust settled.
Zhou Jun stood there, covered in void-worm carapace, eyes glowing blood-red.
Every survivor still alive felt it at the same moment:
Two apocalyptic monsters were staring at each other across the ruined arena.
Zhao Hu smiled, revealing a mouth now split to the ears.
"You're late, Zhou Jun."
Zhou Jun did not speak.
He simply took one step forward.
Crack.
The darkness under his foot shattered like glass.
Another step.
Crack.
The entire absolute darkness domain began to collapse from the edges inward.
Zhao Hu's smile froze.
"Impossible… this is SS-rank absolute domain—"
Zhou Jun finally spoke, his voice low and hoarse, as though dragged across gravel.
"You touched my sister."
The third step.
The darkness within a hundred meters was completely annihilated.
Light returned to the safe zone for the first time in hours.
Zhou Jun looked straight at Zhao Hu.
"Today, either the night dies, or I do."
Zhao Hu's face twisted.
"Kill him!!"
Tens of thousands of shadow soldiers roared out of the darkness, forming a black tide.
Zhou Jun did not dodge.
He opened his arms wide and welcomed the tide.
[Infinite Devour — Full Release]
[Blood Rage + Perfect Adaptation + Tier 2 Evolution]
[Temporary State: Asura of Devouring]
The shadow army crashed into him.
And was devoured.
Every shadow soldier that touched Zhou Jun's body was torn apart, swallowed, converted into his own power on the spot.
Ten.
Hundreds.
Thousands.
In less than ten seconds, the entire shadow army was gone.
Zhao Hu watched his strongest skill disappear like smoke, his face finally showing fear.
Zhou Jun walked forward step by step, the ground behind him turning into a path of absolute light; everything made of darkness was erased.
Zhao Hu screamed and unleashed his strongest attack:
"Abyssal Descent!!"
The sky turned into a literal abyss. A black hole hundreds of meters wide pressed down, trying to swallow Zhou Jun whole.
Zhou Jun looked up, opened his mouth, and inhaled.
[Devour.]
The entire black hole, along with half the night sky, was sucked into his stomach.
Then he exhaled.
A beam of pure devouring light shot out, piercing straight through Zhao Hu's chest.
Zhao Hu lowered his head in disbelief, looking at the fist-sized hole in his body.
Zhou Jun was already in front of him.
He grabbed Zhao Hu by the throat and lifted him up.
"My sister cried," Zhou Jun whispered.
"So you don't get to die quickly."
Kacha.
Zhao Hu's new darkness arm was torn off a second time.
Kacha.
Both legs.
Kacha.
The other arm.
In the end, only a human stick wrapped in darkness remained.
Zhou Jun pressed his palm to Zhao Hu's forehead.
[Devour Target: SS-Rank Talent — Lord of Eternal Night]
[Quality: Perfect (overwhelming kill achieved)]
[Fuse / Decompose?]
"Fuse."
Black and crimson began to intertwine on Zhou Jun's body.
New system prompt, visible to the entire server:
[Player Zhou Jun has devoured SS-Rank talent.]
[Infinite Devour evolved → Tier 3]
[New Title Unlocked: He Who Devours Even the Night]
Zhao Hu's final scream was cut short as his entire existence was swallowed.
The darkness that had covered the city for hundreds of kilometers dissipated in an instant.
Dawn broke.
Zhou Jun turned and walked to his sister, gently cutting the shadow chains with one finger.
Zhou Ling threw herself into his arms, crying uncontrollably.
Zhou Jun stroked her hair, voice softer than ever before.
"It's okay. Brother is here."
Then he looked up at the rising sun, eyes cold.
One more name had been crossed off his list.
But the list was still very, very long.