"ROAR—!!!"

  A three-meter-tall Hell Knight bellowed, charging toward the Slayer like a runaway heavy truck. Its massive arms were strong enough to crush rocks, and every step left a deep, charred footprint on the scorched earth.

  The Slayer didn't decelerate.

  Just before impact, he activated his [Dash].

  Whoosh.

  A blur of motion.

  He didn't dodge sideways; he dashed diagonally forward, sliding right past the Knight's fist by a hair's breadth.

  In that split second of intersection, the Slayer jammed the twin barrels of his Super Shotgun right into the Hell Knight's gut.

  BANG!

  Zero-distance bombardment.

  The rune-enchanted buckshot blew a massive, bloody hole in the Knight's abdomen. But high-tier demons are tenacious; it didn't fall. Instead, it roared in fury, swinging its other arm for a sweeping strike.

  The Slayer gave it no chance.

  Riding the recoil of the shotgun, he executed a small backward hop while simultaneously Weapon Switching.

  Heavy Cannon — [Precision Bolt] Mod.

  He locked onto the target in mid-air.

  POW!

  A high-caliber armor-piercing round struck the Hell Knight's head with surgical precision.

  The grotesque head exploded like a watermelon. The headless corpse swayed for a moment before crashing to the ground.

  But this was just the opener.

  More than a dozen Hell Hounds had already lunged into close range.

  The Slayer landed, and the Equipment Launcher on his left shoulder instantly fired.

  [Flame Belch].

  WOOSH—!

  A fan of scorching flame engulfed the five Hell Hounds in the front.

  The demons ignited, screaming in agony as green Armor Shards began to pop off their burning bodies (Slayer's Suit Passive: Burning enemies drop armor).

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  The Slayer charged straight into the sea of fire.

  He didn't need vision.

  Inside the flames, he grabbed a Hell Hound by the neck. Snap. A twist.

  A backhand punch shattered another Hound's skull.

  A sweeping right kick sent a third Hound flying into a nearby lava pit.

  His movements were fluid, like water flowing over rocks. No wasted motion.

  Above, the Pain Elementals began their assault. They spat out burning Lost Souls that flew like missiles.

  The Slayer performed a tactical slide, taking cover behind a massive boulder.

  BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

  The skulls exploded against the rock, sending shrapnel flying.

  Behind cover, the Slayer didn't rest. He instantly switched to the [Ballista].

  The energy weapon hummed as it charged.

  The Slayer peeked out.

  PEW—!

  A beam of red energy tore through the sky, instantly piercing the single eye of a Pain Elemental.

  The Elemental exploded.

  But more demons were swarming in.

  This was the Scorched Earth, the 1st Layer of the Abyss. The environment here was a hundred times worse than the Netherworld.

  The air was thick with sulfur gas; a normal human would cough up their lungs in seconds.

  The ground temperature was 60°C; standing still would melt your boots.

  The gravity was 1.5 times that of Earth.

  But for the Slayer...

  He took a deep breath of that sulfur-rich air.

  Refreshing.

  This familiar smell, this nostalgic heat, this crushing gravity.

  It felt like... coming home.

  His movements didn't slow down; they became faster and more ferocious than they ever were in the Netherworld. Here, he didn't need to hold back his strength. He didn't need to worry about breaking the furniture. He didn't need to care about friendly fire.

  Here, there were only enemies.

  The Slayer entered a flow state.

  He vaulted onto the high ground, the barrels of his Chaingun spinning up to lethal speed.

  BRRRRRRRRRRRRRT!

  A metal storm swept through the demon horde below.

  Countless Imps were turned into swiss cheese. Several Mancubi that had just crawled out of the pits were instantly dismembered.

  ...

  Meanwhile.

  Netherworld, 1st Layer Control Center.

  Daoist Singularity stared intently at the monitor feed transmitting from the other side of the portal.

  On the screen, the Slayer's First-Person View looked like a violent movie playing at 4x speed. The kill feed scrolled so fast it was a blur.

  [Kill: Hell Knight x5]

  [Kill: Hell Hound x20]

  [Kill: Pain Elemental x3]

  ...

  Beside Singularity, King Yama held his teacup, his hand shaking like he had Parkinson's.

  "Is... is this the Abyss?" Yama stared at the endless sea of monsters on the screen. "There are so many... Can he kill them all?"

  Singularity adjusted his glasses, his eyes burning with fanaticism.

  "Your Majesty, you're missing the point."

  Singularity pointed to a data bar in the bottom right corner of the screen—the Slayer's [Resource Reserves].

  Ammo: FULL.

  Armor: FULL.

  Health: FULL.

  "The more monsters there are, the richer the Great Warrior's resources become. This isn't a battlefield..."

  Singularity watched as the Slayer performed a [Glory Kill], ripping a Mancubus apart and showering the ground in colorful loot drops.

  "...This is an All-You-Can-Eat Buffet!"

  Environment vs. Adaptation.

  For the demons, the Scorched Earth was their home, their home turf.

  But at this moment, they realized with horror that this intruder adapted to this place better than they did. He was more of a "native" than they were.

  The Slayer stood atop a mountain of corpses, slapping in a fresh magazine.

  He looked toward a demon fortress belching black smoke in the distance.

  Warm-up is over.

  Time for the main course.

  "Next Chapter: Demon Patrol Squad. The demons of the Abyss finally realize they aren't facing a lost lamb, but a starving wolf."