Cold.
A biting cold like being buried under a sheet of ice for countless centuries.
Ian Gray's eyes snapped open, his pupils contracting rapidly as a sharp headache caused him to groan out. He was lying on the cold, hard ground, surrounded by a burning smell, thick and pungent, as if he had just experienced a catastrophe.
With great difficulty, he propped up his body and looked around, his vision gradually clearing in the dim light.
The sight in front of him made his heart sink.
Ruins.
Huge reinforced concrete structures had long since broken and collapsed, sprawling across the earth like dead behemoths. The distant skyline was shrouded by thick black clouds, occasionally transmitting faint purple lightning, and the entire world was plunged into an eerie silence.
"What the hell is ... here," Ian muttered, his voice so hoarse it was almost unrecognizable.
But when he looked down at his hands, he was violently stunned.
These were not his hands.
The palms were broad and rough, full of old wounds and callous marks. He quickly touched the side of his face, where his beard was sticking out and his skin was rough and tough.
"What's going on here?" He clenched his teeth as memories flooded his mind like a tidal wave of madness.
His name was Ian Gray, and he was an ordinary college student who was supposed to be sitting in a brightly lit classroom listening to his professor talk about the boring laws of physics, until he inadvertently touched the strange black crystal, and then ...
"And then I came here?" Ian clenched his fists, trying to suppress the panic inside.
But then, another stream of memories poured into his consciousness like a raging torrent.
Waste Land, Mutation, Disaster ...
It turned out that this body originally belonged to a wasteland survivor named Kane Ward, who lived in the settlement called "City of Ashes", which was one of the largest shelters established by survivors in the ruins of the end times.
In this place called "Doomsday Continent", a hundred years ago, an unknown catastrophe destroyed modern civilization, along with radiation and mutation, human beings struggled to survive, civilization completely fell, technology degraded, and the law of the jungle became the eternal iron law.
Here there is no law, no mercy, there is only survival and destruction.
"City of Ashes ..." Ian closed his eyes and absorbed the messy and heavy memories.
Kane had been an excellent hunter, agile and strong, but not long ago on a hunting outing, his squad had been attacked by a terrible monster, nearly wiped out, and Kane himself had been left dying of serious injuries.
And now, his soul has replaced Kane as the newborn of the world.
Before Ian could clear his head from these messy memories, a cold mechanical voice suddenly sounded in his mind.
[Detected that the fusion of the new host's consciousness is complete, Gifted Predator System activation in progress ...]
"System?" Ian's heartbeat accelerated.
Immediately afterward, a semi-transparent blue light screen emerged in his field of vision, with dense data and text scrolling rapidly in front of his eyes.
[Host Name: Ian Gray] [Original Host: Kane Ward (memories fused)] [Current Status: Healthy (Physical Strengthening in progress)] [Current Talent: Junior Hunter (Agility +10%, Strength +5%)] [System Function Enabled: Talent Predator - Defeating an enemy will allow you to predate on their special talents or skills]
Ian stared at the prompt box in front of him, and his heart was shaken. This system called "Talent Predator" had such an amazing ability.
Just as he was pondering, a violent vibration suddenly came, the ground under his feet trembled slightly, and a low and strange hissing sound came from the ruins.
He instinctively hid behind a collapsed concrete pillar and quietly poked his head out, and as far as his eyes could see, a huge monster was slowly walking out from the depths of the ruins.
The monster's skin was gray and black and cracked, its body was huge and deformed, its limbs were thick and powerful, its back was covered with sharp bone spikes, its eyes emitted a blood-red glow, and its mouth was full of sticky saliva when it was open, and the scent of corruption came out.
Memory told him that this was one of the most dangerous creatures in the wasteland - "Predator".
"Shit!" Ian's heart beat like a drum as he gripped one of the steel bars strewn around him, sweat slowly sliding down his forehead.
The Predator slowly approached, his breathing growing more rapid as his blood flowed violently through his body.
[WARNING: High-risk enemy detected, host advised to act with caution] The system's prompt rang in his head.
But Ian had nowhere to run.
Taking a deep breath, he clenched his teeth and gazed firmly.
Since he had already come to this post-apocalyptic world, the only way was to survive.
Let's meet the new destiny.
He slowly stood up, his gaze condensed, his grip on the steel was firm and steady.
"Come on, let me see how strong this system really is!"
In the next second, he took a step and took the initiative to rush towards the chilling monster.