Chapter 36
Chapter 36: Real First Broadcast, Blade Centipede Fry 2
All monsters have intelligence.
Of course, there aren’t many life forms with the level of high intellect akin to humans.
Elves or dwarves, who have formed civilizations in dungeons, or beast races, are generally regarded as highly intelligent human-like species.
Not only do they not antagonize humans unconditionally, but they also engage in exchanges in various fields, and some even come out of the dungeon to work as hunters, feeding their tribes and sustaining their civilizations trapped inside.
In any case, the Blade Centipede also has intelligence.
Although its intelligence is lower than that of a baby who hasn’t even experienced their first birthday, it has the ability to think to the extent of analyzing its primal emotions.
And, around the vicinity of Rotten Mountain, one Blade Centipede was living among its kin today as well.
It was a centipede about 10 meters long with 120 pairs of legs.
Before the morning dew clinging to the leaves had dried, it had already caught a huge sewer rat and was in a good mood.
Chrrrr…
The Blade Centipede could sustain its energy with just one meal a week, functioning with an incredibly efficient metabolism.
Now that it had eaten, it wanted to crawl under its favorite damp mossy rock and sleep until hunger returned.
Unfortunately, when it tried to slip into the gap between the rocks, it found that many of its kind were already wriggling and occupying the space.
Well, that’s Rotten Mountain Dungeon for you.
Just digging a little into the ground would reveal swarms of its kind.
Wherever there was a damp place, its kind could be found.
Beneath trees with deep shadows where the sun didn’t reach, in moisture-filled caves, between the damp moss, under rotting tree stumps, even in the sewers where rats nested—this entire area of Rotten Mountain teemed with others that looked just like itself.
It pushed its way through the wriggling legs of its kin and lay down in a spot that seemed somewhat suitable.
Being larger than most of its kind gave it an advantage in strength, at least.
As long as nothing major happened, it could probably sleep comfortably for a week until hunger returned.
There were no beings in Rotten Mountain Dungeon that could threaten the Blade Centipede, the apex predator here.
The only possible threat would be the occasional insane member of its species that would attack its own kind in a fit of madness.
‘Those creatures should just sleep peacefully after eating their food. I don’t get why they go on such crazed rampages.’
The Blade Centipede muttered under its breath and relaxed its body to drift into sleep.
Then, in the next moment, it sensed something strange.
Rumble…
What was that? What’s happening?
The rock was moving.
And in that instant, the centipede instinctively knew that something extraordinary was happening.
Its kind still seemed oblivious, unaware of the situation.
But it realized that the rock it had been clinging to for its nap had been completely lifted.
In slow motion, the rock was being hoisted up by an overwhelming force, and as cold air rushed in, the other centipedes only then began to stir, wriggling their legs as they woke or slowly became aware of the disturbance.
“Hehe, found it!”
[What do you mean you found it, you crazy woman?!]
[Aaaah, please stop, it’s unbearable!!]
[I want to get out of here, but I can’t!]
What is this…?
The Rotten Mountain Dungeon had a lot of Blade Centipedes, and among them were many who had never seen a human.
The Hunter Association would occasionally organize extermination squads to prevent the Blade Centipedes from overflowing into the world outside the dungeon, but despite that, there were still countless Blade Centipedes inside the dungeon.
Among them, it was natural that some had never encountered a human before.
That’s how it saw it.
For the first time in its life, it encountered a natural enemy.
***
The Blade Centipede was ferocious, and when its habitat was invaded by humans, it would become enraged, attacking in swarms and devouring them.
When Shia lifted the rock, the sheer number of Blade Centipedes wriggling underneath it easily numbered in the thousands.
As the ultra-high-definition drone camera zoomed in on the centipedes, making the viewers squirm in disgust, Shia smiled innocently.
The centipedes, angry at having their slumber disturbed, immediately launched an attack on the intruder who had dared to violate their nest.
[Aaaah!]
[What the hell is that?!]
[What’s happening?!]
[Oh my god, it’s disgusting!!]
[Gross!!]
[Aaaack!!]
Thousands of centipedes swarmed toward Shia all at once.
From the viewers’ perspective, it seemed as though the swarm of centipedes was flooding directly toward their screens, and some of the more sensitive viewers even fell out of their chairs in shock.
Even those who managed to stay seated were left speechless by the horrifying scene.
Click, click…
Crunch…
Squeak…
Chrr…
In the blink of an eye, Shia was buried under the mass of thousands of centipedes, disappearing from view.
Only a writhing mass of centipedes could be seen, indicating where she had been standing just moments before.
With the smallest of them being over a meter long, the massive swarm of centipedes surrounding her created a gruesome, revolting spectacle beyond words.
[Wait, what happened to the streamer?]
[Is she dead?]
[She died, right???]
[WTF?!]
[Is she okay??]
[She’s dead for sure, right?]
[Lol, serves her right, that cocky girl got what she deserved.]
[You think this is the time for stupid comments, you keyboard warrior?!]
Because the drone camera was still working, the viewers could clearly see the state Shia was in.
Thanks to the crystal-clear image, viewers could watch the exact moment the centipedes swarmed her, and some people even screamed while watching the broadcast.
They had seen her confidently lift the rock just moments earlier, yet now she was completely buried under the centipedes, unable to move.
Viewers couldn’t help but wonder if they were about to witness a horrifying live broadcast where the hunter streamer would die in the dungeon.
In fact, if anyone could die from being swarmed by that many Blade Centipedes, it wouldn’t just be an A-rank hunter—it might even kill an S-rank.
Each leg of a Blade Centipede was as hard as steel, and even just crawling over a human would tear the skin to shreds.
On top of that, the venom from the centipedes would seep into the wounds.
This wasn’t just one centipede; there were hundreds, thousands…
No matter how strong the hunter, being buried under that many Blade Centipedes meant they couldn’t guarantee survival.
It’s not unheard of for streamers who were hunters to die in dungeons during broadcasts.
Hunter streamers usually have confidence in their abilities, hire higher-ranked hunters for protection, or fake certain things to ensure their safety before starting a broadcast.
However, dungeons are places beyond human understanding, where anything could happen, so accidents or even death could occur in freak incidents.
Even viewers with the worst intentions couldn’t help but be shocked to see a busty, pretty female hunter who had been hyped up for a week now completely engulfed by Blade Centipedes, as if she was about to die.
***
At that moment, one viewer noticed something strange.
Among the writhing mass of Blade Centipedes, something white was sticking out.
It was an arm.
Shia’s arm, clad in a white sleeve, and her even whiter, pale skin had emerged from the swarm of centipedes.
It was like an ancient ruin being uncovered from the desert sands as Shia’s arm slowly rose from between the centipedes’ writhing legs.
[WTF?!]
[What is that??]
[Oh my god, is her arm cut off??]
[No, it’s moving???]
[Is it just moving because it got jostled by the centipedes?]
[No, look carefully, idiots. The streamer’s skin and hand are completely unharmed.]
[For real?]
The hand that emerged from the mass of centipedes was not only pristine and unscathed, but it was also moving.
The hand seemed to be playfully wiggling its fingers, almost as if to say, “Hey, I’m fine, no worries.”
Then, slowly, the fingers stretched out toward the drone camera.
And one by one, Shia began folding them.
5
4
3
2
1
As soon as her hand fully clenched into a fist, the wriggling sound of the centipedes ceased.
No, it wasn’t just the sound of the centipedes stopping.
All sound captured by the drone camera disappeared as well, and all the viewers could hear was a sudden, high-pitched ringing.
[Miracle – Holy Body Annihilation]
A divine, echoing voice resounded, as if from the heavens.
Boom!
The moment of the explosion was brief.
No, it wasn’t so much an explosion as it was a colossal shockwave.
At the center of the swarm of Blade Centipedes, a whitish, holy light instantly obliterated the creatures.
The thousands of centipedes surrounding Shia were reduced to nothing in less than a second, leaving no trace of them behind.
[What???]
[Where did the Blade Centipedes go?]
[What just happened?]
[WTF…]
[Did I just witness
that?]
[What… did I just see?]
[What the hell just happened?!]
When the holy light dissipated as quickly as it had appeared, only Shia’s figure remained on the drone camera.
“Did you worry about me?”
Her slight smile was as beautiful and divine as it was eerie.
Shia’s body was perfectly intact.
Neither her white clothes nor her pale skin bore any trace of dirt, dust, or even the slightest bit of the centipedes’ exploded remains or fluids.
Standing leisurely in the epicenter of the shockwave, Shia casually looked up at the camera with her hands behind her back.
“Unfortunately, there’s no A-rank Blade Centipede here, huh?”
Then, from her waist, tentacles emerged, clicking their teeth as they started devouring the shattered remnants of the centipedes.
Crunch
Chomp
Nom
Crunch
“Sorry, I was going to fry the Blade Centipede, but my little ones were too hungry and started clamoring for food, so I had to feed them something. I haven’t eaten anything yet, so it’s still within acceptable limits, right?”
[….?]
[What the hell is happening??]
[Lol…]
[Unbelievable…]
[Crazy…]
After a moment of stunned silence, the viewers slowly began to type in the chat again.
At first, they reacted in disbelief.
Then, it was the disbelief that they had seen something so unreal.
Finally, they began to sigh, almost in resignation.
[Hell yeah!!!!!!!!!]
[Noonaaaaaaaaaaa!!!]
[Subscribing to Noona right now!!]
[That explosion, lmao!!!]
[Freaking awesome!!]
[This is it, dammit.]
[No kidding, that was epic.]
[Is she S-rank for real???]
[Holy crap…]
The chat erupted with excitement.
Shia had been surrounded by thousands of Blade Centipedes, caused a massive explosion, and emerged completely unscathed.
It was more spectacular than any dramatic movie scene.
As the chat exploded with varied reactions, Shia smiled.
She was reminded of a past moment when she had slaughtered a Demon King’s army that had attacked a village.
At first, the villagers had been shocked by Shia’s sudden appearance.
Her ghastly manipulation of twisted, monstrous tentacles to brutally slaughter the Demon King’s army had made the villagers view her not as their ally, but as another terrifying monster.
However, the moment Shia crushed the skull of the Demon King’s lieutenant, all their doubt and suspicion transformed into fervent cheers.
Shia was now feeling a similar emotion.
“Do you like this?”
[Yesyesyesyesyesyesyes!!!]
[Hell yes!]
[That was freaking amazing, lmao.]
[No one would hate it when you blow everything up in one shot, lol.]
[That was epic.]
[Noonaaaaaaaa…]
[Sigh…]
Gathering her power and releasing it all at once.
And emerging completely clean and unscathed.
It was unbelievable that she had survived being swarmed by thousands of Blade Centipedes without a single scratch, and even more amazing that not a single thread of her clothes was torn.
Then, Shia noticed something moving at the edge of the ground she had just lifted.
It was a large Blade Centipede, still writhing.
Its size was considerable.
While most of the other centipedes were between 2 to 4 meters, this one seemed to be over 10 meters long.
Its segments looked quite thick and plump, indicating it had a good amount of flesh.
“…Slurp.”
[?]
[Did she just lick her lips?]
[Hey, check that out. One of them survived.]
[Wow, it’s huge.]
[Is that one A-rank?]
[Probably B-rank.]
The viewers watched as the surviving centipede crawled out from between the rocks, staring at Shia.
Its dark, single-lensed eyes fixated on her, antennae and venomous legs twitching.
“Looks delicious…”
Grrrkk!
At the moment Shia muttered that, the Blade Centipede visibly flinched, as if it understood her words, and then immediately turned to flee at full speed.
“Huh?!”
Blade Centipedes weren’t unintelligent, but they were still insect-type monsters.
When facing a threatening being, they didn’t even have the ability to measure their opponent’s strength—they would simply charge mindlessly, biting and slashing with their venomous claws.
But now, this Blade Centipede was running away?
“Where are you going?! Don’t run! Fight me!”
[Lmao, she’s talking to the centipede, hahahaha.]
[She’s insane, lol.]
[Asking a centipede to fight, hahahahaha.]
The centipede’s desperate attempt to flee made Shia feel sad.
How strange…
Why was it running away?
[Blade Centipede’s running away, lol.]
[Centipede escape, lmao.]
[Centipede escape mode, hahaha.]
Moreover, its speed was remarkable.
Shia wasn’t slow, but her speed came from her immense strength and muscle power. However, the Blade Centipede, naturally designed for speed, was surprisingly difficult to catch.
The 10-meter-long Blade Centipede, fleeing for its life, was now running beyond its limits, using every bit of energy it had from the sewer rat it had just eaten, and even burning through its life force reserves.
While Blade Centipedes couldn’t speak or think like higher beings, if that one could, it would probably be screaming right now.
‘Aaaah!! What is that monster?!’
It had just witnessed thousands of its kin obliterated in an instant, leaving no trace behind.
And yet, the creature responsible for that was perfectly unscathed.
If that wasn’t a monster, then what was?
Moreover, that terrifying being clearly had a “hunger” directed at it.
Just look at the drool trickling from her mouth, the bloodshot eyes filled with hunger and craving staring straight at it.
For the first time in its life, the Blade Centipede experienced the fear of death.
Click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click…
“Stop! I just want to fry you a little!”
[Lol, “just fry a little,” hahahahaha.]
[Hahaha, this is killing me.]
[The streamer is fast, but that centipede is even faster??]
[I’d run too if the streamer was chasing me with those crazed eyes, lol.]
[Lmao, the centipede has higher intelligence than I thought.]
[Lol…]
“Wait! Let me eat just a little! I even prepared a fryer just for you!”
Click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click…
[LMAO!!]
[This is insane.]
[If she eats a little, it’ll die for sure, hahahaha.]
[The fryer, hahahaha.]
And so, the life-or-death chase between the 10-meter Blade Centipede and Shia became a huge hit in the Hunter Gallery.
