Chapter 23: Another Hero

The man lay flat against the dog's back in an attempt to lessen the jolting, but he was still shaken to the point of near collapse, his face drained of all color. This was, in part, the effect of that serpent fiend’s presence. When Qin Hao and Violet Anise had faced the creature, even they had felt its oppressive aura; for this man, the terror was all the greater.

The three Alaskan dogs whimpered as they ran, driven to desperation. But the man could no longer hold on—he slipped from the dog’s back and tumbled to the ground. The three dogs, still fleeing, immediately turned back. The black Alaskan seized the man’s shirt in its jaws, trying to drag him along. Yet the summer shirt was too thin, and the dog’s powerful jaws tore the fabric instead of hauling the man to safety.

The serpent fiend was almost upon them. The fur along the dogs’ necks bristled, making their bodies seem even more massive as they glared fiercely at the monster. “Go! Run!” the man shouted. But the three dogs stood their ground, eyes blazing with aggression.

The brown Alaskan was the first to lunge at the serpent fiend, trying to hold it off. The fiend’s fangs snapped down, but the brown dog dodged, and the other two leapt in, claws slashing, tearing into the fiend’s hide. With a mighty whip of its body, the serpent fiend flung one of the dogs four or five meters away. Then it opened its gaping maw, poised to devour the fallen hound.

“No!” the man screamed, his voice raw with desperation.

At that instant, a wrecked car beside the brown dog suddenly twisted, a sheet of steel wrenching free and interposing itself between the fiend and its prey. The serpent fiend crashed into the steel with a thunderous clang, leaving a deep dent. In that moment, the other two Alaskans charged, their jaws tearing at the fiend’s flesh. One gray dog managed to sink its teeth into the back of the serpent’s neck, ripping into its neural tissue.

The serpent fiend writhed violently, but the dog would not let go. The brown dog, having scrambled to its feet, joined in, biting and tearing. Only when the serpent fiend finally went still, utterly dead, did the man—who had watched the entire struggle—allow himself to breathe again.

“Let go, relax, it’s over now—everything’s alright!” he called, rushing forward to soothe the three dogs. Qin Hao noticed that the man’s mental tendrils split into three, gently comforting each dog. This was someone who had integrated starlight energy into his body, awakening the talent of Communion. He could use his mind to convey commands and emotions to animals.

He was still weak, but these three Alaskans, his own pets, were fiercely loyal. Qin Hao recognized him—this was a hero who, in the earliest days of the apocalypse, had shone especially bright.

Now, the man looked at Qin Hao. “So it’s you! Last night, I was watching Violet Anise’s stream—never thought I’d be in a situation like this today. Thank you for saving us. My name is An Ziheng, and I, too, am one of the chosen heroes.”

An Ziheng stepped forward to shake hands, but his hands were caked with mud and scraped raw, blood oozing from his knuckles. He wiped the blood off on his clothes, feeling a little embarrassed.

“My name’s Qin Hao,” Qin Hao replied, extending his hand.

Only then did An Ziheng take it, his expression a mix of excitement and awe. After all, Qin Hao and Violet Anise had hunted so many alien creatures together; in the eyes of the others, he was already a strong fighter, with invaluable combat experience. If only he could learn from someone like that.

“Do you have a moment? Could we find somewhere safe to talk? My home isn’t far, and I have so many questions I want to ask you,” An Ziheng said earnestly.

Qin Hao glanced at the sky, his stomach rumbling, and agreed.

“Can they carry it?” An Ziheng ordered the dogs.

The three Alaskans moved to drag the serpent fiend’s corpse, each seizing a limb, clever and obedient.

“I’ll hold onto it for you,” said Qin Hao, and with a gesture, stored the serpent fiend’s body in his overlapping space.

An Ziheng’s eyes lit up. “Is that a spatial ring? No, wait—how is yours so large? Aren’t they supposed to only hold one cubic meter? And they cost ten thousand hero points, too.”

After the hero system update, a tiered system had been introduced. To unlock the gene lock and the marketplace, one had to unlock both the physical and mental first-level gene locks; only then could stronger items be purchased. This was the Hero System Store that Qin Hao knew so well.

So, the spatial ring An Ziheng saw should only be one cubic meter in size.

“Mine’s a bit bigger,” Qin Hao replied.

An Ziheng nodded and didn’t press further. He wasn’t worried that Qin Hao would make off with anything; if the serpent fiend’s corpse were valuable, Qin Hao would have taken it yesterday, not left so many bodies in the grand theater.

An Ziheng quickened his pace. “Let’s head home first.”

“Alright,” Qin Hao agreed.

An Ziheng led the way toward a nearby upscale residential complex. Along the way, they encountered no more Fang Demons—their deployment was limited to one percent of the human population, and concentrated according to population density. They weren’t everywhere, but their lethality was frighteningly high.

As they walked, An Ziheng spoke. “I really didn’t think there’d be aliens in this world, let alone that they’d try to invade us. And that starlight energy—are all these things real? It just feels like a dream. I keep hoping that if I sleep tonight, I’ll wake up and it’ll all be over.”

“If this is a dream, it’s a nightmare from which we won’t wake. All we can do is conquer our fear. You’ve done well,” Qin Hao said.

In fact, Qin Hao thought to himself that, even in his previous life—before time had been reversed—he had never managed to achieve what An Ziheng had just done.

“It’s them that gave me courage,” An Ziheng said, stroking the black Alaskan beside him. “I was just out walking the dogs this morning when, out of nowhere, a system appeared in my mind and a serum was pressed into my hand. Not ten meters ahead, a black hole appeared—just like in yesterday’s stream. I panicked, but Mo Mo rushed straight at the monster. I was so afraid it would get hurt. I didn’t think, just drank the serum.”

After that, things had become simple. The power serum gave An Ziheng great strength, allowing him to kill the first Fang Demon.

“I never thought I could actually defeat that thing. Afterward, I bought some items and awakened my talent. According to the Hero System, my talent is called Communion. It lets me communicate with animals—I guess it’s because I’ve kept pets for years.”

“That’s a fine ability,” Qin Hao praised.

“I suppose I should thank the Hero System. Without it, I’d probably already be dead out there—and so would they,” An Ziheng said, glancing at the three big dogs. They were his family.