The Creatures That We Are-Chapter 1171: Pac-Man

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“Left...no, right!” Lovely Lamb called out directions from her perch on Dead Pig's shoulder, but her accuracy was waning.

Time dragged by in this cat-and-mouse game they were put in. Gregor had lost his sense of its passage. The last time he felt like a second was a lifetime was when he ran in a 3000-meter race on his school’s sports day.

“I, I can’t do this. I’m gonna die from exhaustion at this rate.” Gregor panted, drenched in sweat. While his Talent did strengthen his physique significantly, he didn’t have any physical Talents; his endurance paled in comparison to that of Mischievous Monkey and Dead Pig.

“Lovely Lamb...her memory of the map is failing...” Dead Pig's breathing had grown heavier as well. His bulk weighed him down, and sustained running was taking its toll.

With Maze, Lovely Lamb had been memorizing their path to create a mental map. But if this continued, she would inevitably make a fatal mistake.

“Lovely Lamb,” Mischievous Monkey said steadily. While he was the oldest, he was the least exhausted. “How much space do we have?”

“Sir Monkey meant how much of the market...haven’t we run through...” Gregor added between labored breaths.

“I-I don’t know.” Lovely Lamb clenched her fists with a stiff expression.

“It’s okay. Just give us a rough estimate.”

Lovely Lamb closed her eyes and examined the map in her head. She said softly, “Maybe...half...”

“This can’t go on. We’ll get eaten soon!” Gregor glanced over his shoulder. Only a few dozen meters behind them, the giant black ball continued its relentless pursuit.

“Is there no weakness in this domain?” Dead Pig asked. “A time limit, perhaps, or something else.”

“There should be in theory.” Mischievous Monkey maintained his calm. “All domains cost energy. A flawless domain with no limit doesn’t exist.”

“Shit!” Gregor’s pessimism compounded. “Gluttony seems to have ample energy to me. I don’t think we can hold on until then.”

“Wait,” Dead Pig realized something. “Why didn’t it make its domain smaller? Then we would’ve long run out of places to run into...”

“Two possibilities,” Mischievous Monkey said. “It’s to prevent us from noticing the domain forming. With it being this big, we were unlikely to detect it in time to escape.”

“Makes sense...what...about the second possibility?” Gregor asked between heavy breaths.

Mischievous Monkey said steadily, “Some domain has a fixed size. Wang Shu’s domain, for example, is as big as the area the fake moon can reach.”

Realization dawned on Gregor when he thought back to the fake moon. “Wait, I talked to Liao Liao about it... She believed that to break down the domain, one must get to the heart of it—meaning the true body of the death monster. She was thinking about putting me on her team. She wanted me to...use my poison against the fake moon, forcing Wang Shu to dissolve the domain...”

“That’s one solution.” Mischievous Monkey glanced back at the death monster hot on their tail. “But you tried your poison on Gluttony. It didn’t seem to work.”

“It-it doesn’t make sense...” Gregor struggled for air. “It worked the last time... Something must be different this time... We must figure it out...”

“Do we even have the time?” Dead Pig didn’t like their odds.

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“One must enter a tiger’s den to catch its cub...” Gregor resolved himself. “Keeping on like this will only lead us to a slower death. Let’s make this leap!”

“What are you going to do?” Dead Pig asked.

Instead of answering, Gregor slowed slightly and raised his right hand, exclaiming, “Mitosis!”

Blue light flickered along his arm, which quickly melted into a pool of blue fluid and landed on the ground. It rose into a human shape, becoming an arm-sized Gregor. The miniature version stood in place, facing the black Pac-Man and staring death in the eye.

Ten seconds later, Gluttony devoured the small Gregor.

“Agh!”

What struck his smaller self immediately reflected on Gregor. Now missing an arm, he collapsed with a cry.

“Hold on!” Dead Pig turned and grabbed Gregor, resuming his run.

The stump on Gregor's shoulder erupted with blood. His consciousness blurred, nearly slipping into oblivion.

“Stay with us, Gregor!”

“Uncle G...”

“Hurry, Medicine C!”

...

“Agh!”

Gregor regained consciousness thirty seconds later. He felt himself bouncing up and down, then realized he was tucked under Dead Pig's arm.

“Gregor!” Dead Pig exclaimed. “You alright?”

“I’ll...live...” Gregor said with a pale face, his body covered in cold sweat. “It’s...terrifying...”

“What happened to the smaller you?”

“Quickly digested.” Gregor was still reeling from the experience. “Luckily, Gluttony has eaten too much and suffered from indigestion. Even though it can digest living things first, the smaller me managed to last thirty seconds.”

He continued weakly, “The smaller me used First-person during that period and shared Gluttony’s sensations and thoughts. That gave us quite a lot of information.”

“I’ll make it brief: Sir Monkey guessed right. Gluttony’s domain is fixed in size, and it happens to be as big as the Anliang Market. Hence the choice of its battlefield. It’s practically made for it.”

Unsurprised, Dead Pig said, “We’d made our preparations. The death monsters wouldn’t have walked into the battle completely unprepared.”

“Gluttony’s energy has a limit,” Gregor said. “But it’s just enough for it to devour its domain. We’ll surely die then!”

“Is there no hope for us?!” Dead Pig's heart sank. The weight of the child on his shoulder suddenly felt as heavy as a mountain.

“That’s not the case.” Gregor’s smile was bitter yet defiant.