"Go to hell, burn for me!" The flamethrower roared, spewing fire directly at the death worm's mouthparts, grilling it fiercely.
At the same time, Brian Carter was multitasking—he conjured a grenade, pulled the pin with one hand, and tossed it into the death worm's mouth. The grenade rolled down the worm's gut, all the way deep inside its body. Thinking one wasn't enough, Brian Carter threw in three more in quick succession.
Under the relentless grilling of the flamethrower, the death worm couldn't hold on any longer. It spat out Brian Carter and burrowed headfirst into the soil.
Before its body could fully disappear underground—BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!—four explosions rocked the earth, blasting open the ground and scattering chunks of roasted meat everywhere.
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Chapter 10: The Big Bird
"Is it dead?"
Brian Carter waited cautiously for a moment before carefully approaching the edge of the crater blasted out by the grenades. There were chunks of meat blown out onto the ground, which he examined first.
He couldn't tell which part of the worm the meat came from. The outer skin couldn't even be cut with a small knife, and it was a full finger thick. After much effort, he managed to slice off a small piece and stuffed it into a test tube. Then he checked the crater, where the death worm's body was half-exposed. He released a rope, hooked it onto the wound, and began to pull it out.
Using a winch mechanism, after a few minutes, the entire death worm was hauled up.
The death worm hadn't been blown apart, but there were three large holes in its body. Its total length reached ten meters, with the head alone measuring fifty centimeters in diameter. The skin was covered in dense protrusions, likely used to dig rapidly through the soil.
"Nice, this is a big one, haha." Although the death worm was disgusting, Brian Carter was still happy to take a photo with its corpse as a memento.
This was the first terrifying creature he had taken down in the new world.
"I wonder if the meat is edible... Oh right, I remember I breathed in the new world's air a few times earlier, and I didn't seem to feel any discomfort?" Only now did he feel a bit of fear. Just now, to get rid of the acid, he had already dispersed his nano battle armor, exposing himself to the new world's air.
Fortunately, he felt nothing unusual, so he tentatively deemed it safe for now.
"If only I could bring back one of the death worm's teeth—that would be really unique." Brian Carter carefully examined the death worm's mouthparts.
All in all, from an Earth perspective, the death worm should be a lower animal. There were no eyes, nose, or other organs—just a mouth leading to the gut, then to the anus, with not a single extra organ. But its teeth were strange, arranged in a spiral around the mouth.
A single tooth was somewhat like a rasp, with a surface covered in dense granules, which probably increased its lethality. However, its bite force was average; it hadn't managed to bite through Brian Carter's titanium alloy nano battle armor earlier.
Compared to its acid, the teeth were much less dangerous.
Around the mouthparts were four tentacles, which were probably its sensory organs, also appearing quite primitive. After recording the general structure, Brian Carter left the death worm behind. Continuing forward, the variety of trees gradually decreased. Although blue giant trees still dominated, there were some trees of other colors mixed in.
He also saw a slender, pale green tree bearing golden fruits. Some small animals, resembling monkeys, were moving about in the canopy, eating the fruit.
As soon as they saw Brian Carter, they vanished without a trace, making him give up on the idea of catching one.
After walking a bit further, a small stream came into view. Brian Carter hurried over. "It's water, that's right, it's water—this planet has water!" People from Earth should all feel an affinity for water. Scientists judge whether a planet can nurture life partly by whether it has water resources.
Finding a water source was expected, but Brian Carter was still excited, because the water here looked just like Earth's.
He carefully scooped up a handful, conjured a kettle, and began heating it. When the temperature reached one hundred degrees Celsius, sure enough, bubbles started to rise.
"It really is water, not some other liquid. It looks very pure too. I wonder if it's drinkable." Brian Carter didn't try it, but instead collected a test tube of new world water to take back for analysis.
He had to figure out the water and food situation in this world, or else he'd only ever be able to stay here for half a day before having to cross back.
Soon, he filled three more test tubes: one with fresh humus, one with yellow algae from the stream bank, and one with a small aquatic creature. Strictly speaking, it wasn't really a bug—more like a tadpole, but with four legs. It could swim quickly in the water and also crawl slowly on land.
"There are no bomb caterpillars in the trees here. I might as well climb to the top and see what this big forest really looks like."
No sooner thought than done.
With the help of his materialized tools, Brian Carter climbed up to the treetop at a steady pace. Once he confirmed the tree was sturdy enough, he climbed even higher, reaching the highest branches. Straddling a branch, he looked around. Most of the trees in the blue forest were blue, with a few of other colors.
The forest undulated, with low hills visible, and tall mountains in the distance.
In the sky, besides two suns, there were white clouds and birds flying by. From the distant mountains came all sorts of strange cries.
Suddenly.