Brian Carter caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye—a dark shadow was rushing toward him from a certain direction.

Before he could react, the shadow was already at his side. It turned out to be a gigantic bird, which stretched out its talons and grabbed Brian Carter, lifting him up into the sky.

“Shit!” Brian Carter cursed yet again—he’d lost count of how many times already—feeling that this new world was just too dangerous.

He wanted to conjure up a submachine gun and riddle the giant bird that had captured him, but the bird was flying too high. The altitude filled him with fear, and with his body out of balance, he couldn’t hold a weapon. The only thing he could think of was to conjure a rope and wrap it around the bird’s talons, hoping to keep the bird from dropping him to his death.

On Earth, eagles would often drop their prey from high up to kill them.

But just as he wrapped the rope around the bird’s talons, the bird suddenly released a red halo from its body. Wherever the halo touched, the rope snapped inch by inch, and the nano battle armor on Brian Carter also began to crack. At that moment, the bird actually let go of him, sending Brian Carter into free fall.

“Goddamn you!” Brian Carter plummeted rapidly, watching the giant bird that had grabbed him grow smaller and smaller. The sensation of weightlessness made his heart nearly leap out of his chest.

He had designed a flying wingsuit before, but that required proper balance before he could fly.

So now, he was completely out of options.

As the ground rushed up to meet him, he finally managed to focus his will, activating the coordinates of his psychic battle armor and choosing to teleport back to Earth. In an instant, time seemed to stop, his consciousness stretching out billions of light-years, aligning him with Earth in the same space-time node. He was back in that villa room.

With a single step, he crossed from the new world back to Earth.

Thud.

He landed on all fours, sprawled on the ground.

“Huff!”

“Huff!”

“Huff!”

Panting heavily on the floor, Brian Carter finally dismissed his nano battle armor. With a clatter, the metal box containing the test tubes fell to the ground. There was cushioning inside, so the test tubes wouldn’t break. Checking his psychic battle armor again, he found its energy was completely depleted; it would take another six months to recharge for another crossing.

“Damn it!” The thought of his journey being ruined by a giant bird filled Brian Carter with frustration. But what was done was done. He could only silently pick up the metal box and pull himself together.

He took a shower, ate some bread and chocolate.

Returning to his study, he conjured up a computer and replayed the videos he’d recorded in the new world, making sure the footage was intact.

It proved that the psychic battle armor was indeed powerful, still functioning perfectly in the new world and preserving these precious records. He opened the metal box; the test tubes inside were also safely holding the resource samples he’d collected. There were eleven test tubes in total, each one a priceless treasure.

If anyone else found out these were resources from an alien planet, the whole world would go crazy.

“So I have to keep a low profile, really low. Sneak into the village quietly, and don’t fire your gun.” Brian Carter took a deep breath and began to watch the video carefully.

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Chapter 11: High-Energy Calories

The perspective from the video was a bit different from Brian Carter’s own experience exploring the new world; now, he was paying more attention to the surrounding environment. Back then, his focus had been entirely on the bomb caterpillar, so he hadn’t noticed a strange climbing plant that actually moved, deliberately avoiding him.

This was also a blue plant, climbing up the blue trees, and if you didn’t look closely, you couldn’t tell it apart at all.

Whenever Brian Carter approached, this climbing plant would quietly move its vines, hiding on the far side of the tree. That’s why Brian Carter had never noticed it.

“Plants that move—could it be that it’s conscious?” Brian Carter raised his eyebrows, discovering another interesting detail. “Mimosa leaves close up, but that’s just a stimulus-response behavior. Venus flytraps are the same. But this one is different—it has subjective awareness!”

He hadn’t seen this climbing plant bloom, so for now, Brian Carter named it “shy vine,” and he also named the blue tree “blue maple.”

Because its leaves were split, somewhat resembling the leaves of a maple tree.

There were actually quite a few other plants, but none stood out. Brian Carter wasn’t a professional scholar, so he couldn’t be bothered to name them all. He mainly watched the video to see if he’d missed anything, and kept watching until the end—when the ferocious giant bird appeared.

He’d been shaking at the time, so the camera angle wasn’t great, but he could still see that the bird that had grabbed him was extremely bizarre.

It had some features of an eagle, but its body was bulkier, more like a land predator, especially since its belly was featherless, exposing strong muscles. The strangest thing was its head: eagle-like, but with two rows of fine teeth along the edges of its beak.

And on top of its head, there was a pair of goat-like horns, giving it a fierce yet strangely sinister aura.

“So weird. I’ll just call you ‘Ram-horn Roc.’”

At the end of the video, during his fall, the Ram-horn Roc’s body was surrounded by a red halo. Wherever it spread, the rope snapped, and the nano battle armor broke apart.