And so, a dog joined the exploration team.

The big black dog's aura seemed stronger than before. Alice bit her finger and said, "Are even dogs considered [Kings of Demons] these days?"

The monstrous scythe felt he was being mocked!

Even Gwen was somewhat surprised. The strength of a bizarre creature is not so easy to improve. Most bizarre creatures are created at a certain level and can only stay at that level until they die!

Even she herself was only at the [Elite] level at the beginning. She was only able to advance to [Near God] after signing a contract with Jiang Ran and obtaining [Nico's Assistance]. Otherwise, she would have had no way to improve her strength at all.

So what kind of extraordinary encounter did the big black dog have to break through from its original "Elite" rank to "King of Devils"?

The big black dog stared at the group of near-gods in front of him, marveling at his status as the "King of Demons." It felt like a top student had come up to him and said, "Wow, you actually passed!"

"After Jiang Ran called me to fight last time, I was surprised to find that killing other strange creatures could slightly increase my strength, but the rate of increase was very slow."

“I call this method ‘overlapping Q’. I don’t know why it’s called that, but I just feel that’s what it should be called.”

"In short, through my constant covert hunting of other strange creatures, my strength has reached the [King of Monsters] level. However, after breaking through to this level, I found that the rewards for killing strange creatures of a lower level than me are even lower..."

Previously, in the [Elite] class, the big black dog could be considered to be at the absolute peak of combat power, but in the [King of Ghosts] class, the big black dog is now only at the initial level, so naturally he doesn't dare to seek out other opponents of the same level to fight.

Moreover, at this level of strange creatures, it's sometimes difficult to find even one, unless you go to a high-level dungeon.

"So, in other words, as long as you finish off enough enemies, it's not impossible for you to advance to [Near God] in the future?"

"Theoretically speaking, that seems to be the case."

The big black dog nodded its head.

Jiang Ran thought for a moment. So far, he had only seen this attribute of being able to grow infinitely in the big black dog. The big black dog was said to be an ordinary strange creature, but in some ways it was not ordinary at all.

Initially, he was just a native monster in the S-rank dungeon Night Demon City. Logically, he should have been destroyed along with the dungeon, but he inexplicably became a monster entity.

The City of Night Demons is a world of ghost stories created by the Pope, and similarly, the Big Black Dog can be said to be a bizarre creature created by the Pope.

"Brother Dog, you can just come with us. If we encounter high-level strange creatures, we'll cripple them and finish them off for you. I'm a little curious, if we directly asked you to kill [Near God] beings, how many would you need to kill to advance to [Near God] level?"

"Kill a near-god?!"

The big black dog was startled by Jiang Ran's words, but then he thought that the few guys in front of him combined were enough to kill a [near-god].

So he ended up being the weakest? That's really frustrating, no, it's really annoying for a dog...

"Hmm, that's a good suggestion, but there's one more thing—"

"What?"

"Don't call me 'Dog Bro' outside, call me 'Desert Reaper'!"

The group first went to the nearest supermarket. After dealing with the few small karaomis at the entrance, Jiang Ran found that a large amount of supplies were still inside, but Gwen shook her head.

"They're all contaminated. If you want to suddenly grow a third hand or a second head, you can try eating some."

"Fortunately, the contamination isn't insurmountable." Jiang Ran handed Alansta a bottle of mineral water. "Have your brother disinfect it for me."

Jiang Ran already knew that Arceus's "miracle" could modify certain parameters. If the pollution in food and water could be reduced to a level that the human body could tolerate, or even completely eliminated, then these things could become useful resources.

Arceus was speechless. Was this person using his "Remnant Dream" as disinfectant?

However, food and water are essential resources, and he is the most suitable among them to do this.

There was nothing else Arceus could do but use [Remnant Dream] to change the reality that the water in his bottle was contaminated. The good news is that it didn't take much of a toll on him.

Does this mean I'll have to be a water purifier for the long term...?

"Let's gather some food and water here for the journey, and then continue on our way!"

After walking forward for about half an hour, Gwen sensed a huge energy aura covering a large area ahead!

"Be careful, there might be danger ahead!"

The big black dog glanced at her. If even their current setup was in danger, then it would be an almost catastrophic disaster, right?

Jiang Ran then recalled the Umbrella Ghost's words: "Let's go and see, at least we need to figure out what that is."

"If things don't work out, turn back immediately!"

A light rain drifted down from the sky, bringing with it a thin mist that reduced visibility to less than 20 meters. The group continued forward, but what awaited them ahead was not some gigantic, bizarre creature, but a small town!

This area was originally the most prosperous part of the capital of the Dragon Kingdom, and there would never have been a small town like this here! Is this town, which never existed before, an illusion or reality?

Jiang Ran looked at the three characters hanging on the town gate—Tian Guang Town.

"Let's go in and take a look!"

"Where are you all from? Why are you still standing in the rain? I have umbrellas for ten yuan each, no cheating!"

As soon as they entered the town, they heard people selling umbrellas at roadside stalls, speaking in Mandarin Chinese. Jiang Ran stepped forward and asked, "We're just passing through. May I ask what place this is?"

"Haha, young man, don't joke with me. Doesn't it say where this is? Look, it's Tianguang Town!"

"No, what I want to ask is, which area does Tianguang Town belong to?"

"That's a strange question. Tianguang Town is Tianguang Town. How can it be considered another place? Young man, are you trying to make fun of me?"

The fact that the locals couldn't answer such a simple question suggests that in their minds, Tianguang Town is an independent place. This implies that they can understand the presence of outsiders, but they don't know what lies beyond Tianguang Town.

Doesn't this look just like a ghost story instance?

"Excuse me, although we would also like to buy umbrellas, we are from out of town and do not know what currency you use for transactions. Could you show me?"

"Okay, okay, wait a minute."

The umbrella vendor pulled out a banknote, which was not the common currency of any country Jiang Ran knew of, and it had a strange black-haired man printed on it.