Chapter 4: Who’s a Good Little Snake?

The black mamba tightened its coils around the enormous bat’s body until Summer kept hearing the sound of bones creaking.

The bat let out a painful screech as black blood poured from its mouth. It struggled wildly, beating its huge wings against the ground as it tried to escape.

However, the black mamba refused to let go. The more the bat struggled, the tighter the snake wrapped itself around its body.

Crack! Crack!

Summer watched as the bat’s movements slowly became weaker. Its wings stopped beating as hard, and its painful screeches gradually turned into weak cries.

In less than three minutes, the black mamba had crushed nearly every bone in the bat’s body.

Then, without giving the creature any chance to recover again, the snake opened its mouth and sank its fangs into the bat’s neck and witg one pull, it ripped the bat’s head from its body.

This time, the creature finally stopped moving.

[C-Rank Mutated Bat Eliminated.]

[Threat Eliminated.]

[Polluted Creature Vital Signs: 0%.]

Summer shrugged. "Nice."

At least there would not be a third head suddenly growing out of its ass.

However, before Summer could relax, another warning appeared on her terminal.

[Warning!]

[Sentinel Archer Reed’s Pollution Level is Increasing.]

[Pollution Level: 92%.]

Summer’s expression immediately darkened. The black mamba had already killed the bat, but instead of calming down, Archer’s pollution level was rising even faster.

His huge body remained wrapped around the dead creature. His scales trembled slightly, and his tail slammed against the ground hard enough to crack the road beneath him.

The comments on BeastNet immediately became chaotic again.

[91%?! IT’S STILL GOING UP!]

[Archer, buddy, the bat is already dead!]

[Someone get him a Guide!]

[Which Guide is crazy enough to approach him right now?!]

[SUMMER, THIS IS NOT YOUR PROBLEM. RUN.]

Summer stared at Archer for a moment, and then her terminal suddenly vibrated against her wrist.

[Calculating Compatibility with Sentinel Archer Reed...]

Summer laughed to herself because she did not understand why the system needed to check her compatibility with Archer in the first place.

The original Summer was only an F-Rank Guide, while Archer Reed was an SSS-Rank Sentinel. The difference between their ranks was so huge that their names should not even appear in the same sentence.

A second later, the result appeared.

[Compatibility: 96%.]

Summer opened her mouth, but then closed it again. She stood there in silence, checking the number over and over again because it made no more sense than her transmigration situation.

However, before she could think about it any further, the black mamba suddenly slithered toward her.

His golden eyes glowed brightly like light bulbs, and judging by the way he looked at her, the black mamba seemed like he wanted to devour Summer.

The roles of Sentinels and Guides were still new to her, but since she had the original body’s memories, she seemed to know what she was supposed to do.

The question was whether she could actually guide a Sentinel who was already this close to going berserk.

The black mamba suddenly opened its mouth wide and tried to bite Summer, but she quickly jumped out of the way.

"Hey! Do you want my help or what?!" Summer shouted angrily, but Archer obviously did not care.

His enormous body twisted around before he chased after her again.

For the next few minutes, Summer ran through the ruins with a giant snake right behind her. The whole thing looked less like a Guide trying to save a Sentinel and more like a snake chasing a mouse.

Eventually, Summer spotted one of the nearby abandoned buildings and immediately ran toward it.

She climbed onto the broken structure as quickly as she could. When the black mamba followed her, Summer waited until his head passed underneath her before jumping.

She landed directly on top of him and Summer quickly pressed both palms against his black scales, which felt almost as hard as steel beneath her hands.

The moment she touched him, a strange warmth spread from the center of her chest before rushing down both of her arms.

Summer instinctively closed her eyes as she gathered informations from the original body’s memories.

Moments later, she finally got three important pieces of information;

- Do not fight their mental power.

- Do not force your way inside.

- Find the connection and follow it.

Summer slowly released her mental power, and the world around her disappeared.

When she opened her eyes again, the ruined city was gone, and Summer found herself standing somewhere completely different.

"So this is a Spiritual Domain?" She murmured to herself.

Right in front of her, a huge forest stretched endlessly in every direction.

The trees were tall and black, their branches twisted together so tightly that almost no light could pass through them. Thick gray fog covered the ground, while black mist moved between the trees like smoke.

Summer looked down and saw that the grass beneath her feet was dry and almost completely dead.

Some parts of the ground were covered in deep cracks, and a strange black liquid slowly leaked out from them, even the air felt heavy.

Summer realized that Archer’s Spiritual Domain was filled with pollution.

Summer sighed. "How is this guy still functioning?"

She began walking deeper into the forest, but strangely, she was not afraid.

The deeper she went, the quieter everything became. Eventually, Summer noticed something moving underneath one of the trees and saw a black mamba curled up between the roots.

Unlike the enormous beast outside, this one was much smaller. It was only about as thick as Summer’s arm, and its body was curled tightly around itself.

Summer tilted her head to the side. "Archer Reed?"

The black mamba slowly raised its head. Its golden eyes looked exactly like those of the enormous snake outside, but there was none of the wild anger she had seen before.

Instead, it looked tired.

The little snake opened its mouth and gave her a weak hiss.

Summer slowly crouched down. "You’re much less scary in here."

She slowly reached out her hand, and when the snake did not look like it wanted to bite her, she gave its head several gentle pats.

"There, there. What a poor little snake." Summer spoke to the black mamba in a soft tone. "You must be so lonely here."