I'm in an American comic book, and all my teammates are main characters and bosses.

Chapter 328 - The Giant Beast, Behemoth

With King Kong by their side, Ron and the others immediately began their journey.

Eileen also asked to leave with him, but Ron refused. There was no other reason; it was simply that Eileen's presence offered no benefit to Ron and the others. In fact, as an ordinary person, she would only be a hindrance in the process.

In fact, it was the mute girl among the indigenous people who caught Ron's attention, rather than Eileen.

The Behemoth Universe is divided into the Inner Earth and the Surface World. The Inner Earth is the domain of the Behemoths, where even the birds are far larger than ordinary fighter jets. Behemoths similar in size to King Kong are commonplace. However, based on the current timeline, Monarch should not have discovered the Inner Earth yet.

Ron's attention was drawn to the mute native of Skull Island largely because of her close connection to the human settlements in the Netherworld, a connection that could be established through thought. While direct long-distance communication was impossible, they could exchange messages through dreams and similar means. Furthermore, the mute girl and King Kong had a good relationship; even in moments of extreme anger, agitation, and unease, King Kong could calmly communicate with her using sign language upon seeing her.

But Ron thought about it carefully... Putting aside other aspects, as a giant horse, its main advantage over other Titans is its intelligence and understanding of human nature. In this case, it seemed unnecessary for him to dwell on the inability to communicate.

Not to mention that Planet Azure itself is an ecological master, possessing an extremely keen perception of ecosystems and the ability to discern the thoughts and intentions of behemoths from their behavior. Even in the movies, King Kong's intelligence far surpasses that of ordinary behemoths.

They know how to make traps, use tools, and make weapons. In fact, even their conflicts with humans are based on the "arrogance" unique to human characters.

It's truly baffling. The founder of Monarch, the organization of the Behemoth Universe, as a survivor who witnessed the terrifying power of the Titans firsthand, should theoretically be well aware of their strength. Yet, upon arriving at Skull Island, he recklessly used the shockwaves from bunker-buster missiles to reconnoiter the terrain. This ultimately angered a young King Kong, who swiftly wiped out everyone except the main characters.

In this situation, whether the mute girl followed or not wouldn't affect Ron and the others' progress. So Ron simply took King Kong and began crossing the sea.

Since this wasn't Ron's own mission, but rather a newcomer's mission that Ron was supervising, he didn't offer much help, letting Azure Star figure out how to cross the sea on his own. However, considering Azure Star was unfamiliar with the area, Ron still provided coordinates and necessary guidance to prevent Azure Star from wasting too much time on unnecessary things.

Azure Star understood Ron's actions, and since he was used to fighting alone, he didn't feel resentful. Instead, through communication with King Kong and with the help of some items from the system shop, he managed to repair the transport ship at Monarch's Skull Island outpost.

To facilitate more efficient communication with Kong, Kong hesitated for a moment before agreeing to board the warship—although he was the king of Skull Island, he was actually already fed up with everything about it, especially with the death of the Skull Lizard.

Before the Skull Lizard died, hatred prevented King Kong from thinking about anything else, like freedom. When the Skull Lizard first died, King Kong had considered leaving Skull Island. Unfortunately, he lacked the ability to cross the sea, especially since Skull Island was previously surrounded by a perpetual sea storm.

Furthermore, to prevent Kong from causing trouble, Monarch began to provide him with large amounts of food, and gradually, the handsome Skull Island boy began to expand horizontally in the direction of a Skull Island couch potato. It wasn't until Godzilla defeated King Ghidorah and defended the throne of the King of the Monsters that Kong realized something and rallied.

As things stand, with yet another death of the Skull Lizard, the storm on the sea has subsided, and King Kong has noticed the changes happening in the world—just as an EMP shock destroys electronic devices but has almost no effect on the human body. This change in the world's magnetic field has caused the monsters to lose their ability to perceive each other, turning what was once a clear world into a hazy, indistinct blur. It's like entering a real-time strategy game, suddenly shrouded in the fog of war.

The unknown naturally brings fear, let alone the alarm generated by the world's consciousness after it has been contaminated by a global virus.

This direct warning, originating from global consciousness, plunged the giants of the surface world into severe panic. Just like the rumor of "salt hoarding," people frantically stockpiled sea salt, preferring to believe it rather than not. They disregarded the fact that inland mineral salt was more than they could consume, and were even too lazy to purify it, directly carving it into bricks for cattle, horses, sheep, and other livestock to lick and supplement their salt and mineral intake.

Yes, Ron still remembers it. Because he found out about it quite late, the salt was already sold out by the time he got to the supermarket, so he just bought some fermented soybean paste to store at home.

And as it turns out—thankfully, I didn't manage to snag one.

Humans scrambled for salt, while the giant beasts chose to scramble for energy. King Kong, being one of the giant beasts, had similar thoughts. However, Skull Island's energy resources were extremely scarce, especially after the Skull Island outpost was attacked by the resurrected Skull Lizards; they had no other means of replenishing their energy besides eating. Now, hearing that Ron and his companions were preparing to leave the island to see the world beyond the mountains, King Kong quickly offered his own answer.

As the repaired warship was pushed into the water by King Kong, King Kong let out an excited roar, pounding his chest repeatedly with his two thick arms. Then, he leaped up and landed on the warship with a loud thud. Azure Star's pupils contracted, fearing that the warship he had painstakingly repaired would be crushed by King Kong's foot.

Fortunately, Ron also applied some reinforcing runes to the warship—the skeletal giant lizard holds a crucial position in the mythology of this world. Based on this, using the remains of the skeletal giant lizard, which was resurrected and then killed, as material, the originally steel warship has now been transformed into a fantasy style reminiscent of World of Warcraft, with elements such as a large amount of animal bones and teeth used for decoration.

Surprisingly, the styles actually match quite well. Mainly, besides Ron, the other two passengers on this warship are Azure Star, wearing black dragon armor, and King Kong. Judging from the decorative style, this warship, adorned with numerous animal bones and teeth and featuring a giant beast skull on its bow, perfectly complements the attire of these two. At least, Ron doesn't see anything out of place.

Departing from Skull Island and moving with the ocean currents, the warship's propulsion system was still operating effectively, and the mystical enhancements provided by processing the bones of the Skull Giant Lizard allowed Azure Star to clearly feel the astonishing speed the warship displayed on the sea.

While on the ship, Azure Star didn't sit idle; instead, she tried to process some behemoth materials from the Skeleton Giant Lizard.

The Hunter's Guild prohibits illegal hunting; in fact, the vast majority of their tasks consist of simply exterminating animals. Unless the ecological damage to the area has reached an unmanageable level, the Hunter's Guild rarely names animals for capture. Even for research purposes, they only capture animals using tranquilizers and release them back into the wild after collection.

"But why did you come to have similar thoughts and decisions?" Lying on a rocking chair on the deck, sunbathing, Ron ignored King Kong, who was curiously playing in the water, and lazily asked:

"Why does the Hunter's Guild restrict these behaviors of hunters? While ecology is important to the Hunter's Guild, the higher-ups in your world's kingdoms would probably prefer to gain more rewards through hunting, rather than maintaining ecological balance."

"These rules weren't established overnight; they are the result of the Hunter's Guild accumulating experience through repeated mistakes."

Upon hearing Ron's words, Azure Star didn't pay much attention. She simply sat on a small stool and sharpened her knife with a hard bone shard.

These bone fragments originated from the skull of the Skull Monitor Lizard. Although the skull of the Skull Monitor Lizard was shattered, even when faced with King Kong's flying fart, the exoskeleton only cracked, rather than being completely crushed, which is enough to prove how strong and resilient it is.

In particular, after Azure Star tried processing it, she quickly discovered that parts of the Skeleton Giant Lizard's skull had become even harder due to the influence of the Black Death Sword. Using it for sharpening not only significantly improves sharpness but also applies special curse effects to increase additional damage.

At first, Azure Star was somewhat worried that this kind of enchantment through the enemy's power might contaminate her weapons or even herself. However, after Ron's assessment and confirmation of its safety, Azure Star realized that she didn't need to worry so much—because even if these world virus products were highly contaminated, the World Tree's system would directly grant exemptions.

It was after that that Azure Star began using the skulls of the giant lizard to sharpen knives—as for the sharpening fish scales that Azure Star had painstakingly collected before, they were simply thrown into the bottom of the warehouse and never seen the light of day.

Now, while sharpening his knife, Azure Star also began to explain the story of his own world.

Azure Star wasn't angry at Ron's question; in fact, she seemed somewhat interested—though only to a certain extent. Most of the time, Azure Star maintained her persona of remaining silent and pretending to be an expert.

"Before the Hunter's Guild was established, hunters who hunted spontaneously to protect villages, cities, and kingdoms were indeed not subject to any restrictions. In fact, killing powerful monsters would earn them praise and make them heroes and strongmen in people's hearts."

"But slowly, things started to go wrong. People discovered that these regions had become even more desolate after losing the dangerous and terrifying monsters they had imagined. Water sources dried up, and pests proliferated. As this happened more often, people gradually began to understand the food chain."

"Subsequently, insightful individuals began to actively gather together to investigate the ecosystems of various regions, which led to the prototype of the Hunter's Guild we know today. Through summarizing and analyzing the regional ecosystems, the Hunter's Code, which every hunter in the Hunter's Guild must remember, gradually took shape."

After listening to Azure Star's explanation, Ron nodded seriously.

As Azure Star stated, the monsters in Monster Hunter play an indispensable role in the ecological cycle. Take, for example, the Vaal Hazak, which inhabits the Coral Highlands in Monster Hunter World. As a brand-new Elder Dragon appearing in the world, the Vaal Hazak's design is unappealing, and its miasma setting will make players feel extremely nauseous during battle. Its appearance is also problematic; covered in the rotting flesh of its prey, it gives the impression of a zombie-like monster that has wandered over from Resident Evil.

However, its importance is undeniable—it lives in the Miasma Valley beneath the Coral Highlands. The Coral Highlands are renowned for their abundant resources, thus attracting a large number of creatures to settle there. Intense competition for survival has caused many losers to fall into the depths of the highlands, and some older creatures from afar also choose this natural cemetery as their resting place. Over time, the Miasma Valley has accumulated a vast number of skeletons.

Besides the classic scavengers, the scavengers in the Rotten Vale also include a microbial community that appears to resemble "miasma" but is actually composed of numerous decomposer microorganisms. These microorganisms decompose organic matter, converting it into pure energy and returning it to nature, thus promoting the energy cycle of the entire New World. The Vaal Hazak is an ancient dragon that coexists in symbiosis with these "miasma" microorganisms.

From another perspective, without the Vaal Hazak, the survival of the miasma microbiome would also be affected, leading to serious problems with the energy cycle of the entire Coral Highlands.

"No wonder the World Tree sent you to this world to carry out a mission right away." Reclining in his rocking chair, Ron said lazily, "The giant beasts in this world are very similar to the monsters in your world. They also play this role in the ecological cycle of this world, like that one."

Pointing to the giant mammoths wreaking havoc on the coast in the distance, Ron said, "The Titan Behemoth, monitored by Monarch's Rio de Janeiro Outpost 58. Its ability is to restore the felled forests."

As Ron was speaking, Behemoth, who was launching an attack on the nuclear power plant, seemed to sense something, turned to look at the sea, then stared at King Kong and let out a wary roar.

To this, Azure Star said with a strange expression, "...Behemoth?"

(End of this chapter)