139: Attack on Titan?

Gravel shot out in all directions.

Dust rolled back like a tidal wave, swallowing the entire second-floor terrace.

"Run! Don't look back!!"

Chen Du's roar pierced through the smoke and dust.

Without a moment's hesitation.

He swung his hand back!

The shadow beneath his feet, like boiling asphalt, rapidly extended and elongated.

It formed a pitch-black, steeply angled slide at the broken edge of the second floor.

"Jump, quickly!"

Li Yaozhi's face was pale, but her movements were incredibly swift.

She grabbed An Nuonuo, who was still dazed, and the two of them slid straight down the shadow slide.

Following them were Ye Qiu, Xia Xin... the women descended one after another.

"Oh my god! What on earth is that monster!"

Crab Claw Man looked at the giant hand squeezing through the main gate, still groping around, and was so terrified his sphincter loosened.

He practically crawled and scrambled toward the slide.

"Go!"

Chen Du grabbed Lin Keke, who was still peering around, and leaped down.

Whoosh—

The wind whistled in their ears.

The shadow slide disintegrated the moment the two of them left it.

Then it transformed into a large blanket, blocking the gravel that tried to pour out from the gap.

Just as they landed.

Chen Du performed a roll on the ground to dissipate the impact.

"Run at full speed! Toward the woods on the side! Fast!"

Although no one knew exactly what was behind them, seeing Chen Du's unprecedentedly solemn expression, no one dared to delay.

One by one, like rabbits with their tails on fire, they sprinted for their lives toward the windbreak forest several hundred meters away.

The earth was trembling.

With every step they took, the ground beneath their feet jumped.

That dull rhythm fell exactly in the gaps between heartbeats, making one's chest feel tight and nauseous.

They dashed four or five hundred meters in one breath until they ducked into the dense woods.

Using a higher earthen slope for cover, the group finally dared to stop.

They looked back.

"That... that is..."

Lin Keke's mouth hung open, her pupils shrinking to the size of pinpricks, completely forgetting her next lines.

The Meat Processing Plant was gone.

The factory building, which spanned thousands of square meters, now looked like a crushed soda can.

Amidst the dust and ruins.

A massive shadow, so large it was suffocating, was slowly straightening its back.

Thirty meters... fifty meters... sixty meters!

A full twenty stories high!

The moonlight broke through the clouds, spilling onto the colossal figure.

It was a humanoid monster, but it had no skin.

Its entire body was covered in pitch-black bristles like steel needles, and every bundle of muscle fiber was like a winding giant python.

Knotted and bulging, it was filled with an explosive sense of power.

On its broad back, two rows of massive pores grew.

"Is this... the truth of the apocalypse?" Xia Lai murmured to herself, her mechanical arm hanging limply.

In front of this Titan behemoth, the few of them were like Lego bricks.

Insignificant.

Desperate.

This kind of visual impact was far more direct and violent than facing a beast tide of thousands.

"Roar—!!!"

The behemoth stretched and let out a roar toward the sky.

The sound waves were like a physical shockwave, sweeping in all directions!

Every glass object within a one-kilometer radius shattered completely!

Immediately following that.

The pores on its back snapped open!

Scalding white steam shot into the sky!

A steam column a hundred meters high instantly dispersed the layer of mist that lingered year-round!

The surrounding temperature rose sharply, and the air became distorted.

This monster was like a super-sized steam engine fueled by flesh and blood!

"What... what is it doing?" An Nuonuo hid in Li Yaozhi's arms, too scared to show her face.

The next second.

The behemoth bent down.

Its giant hand casually scooped near the ruins of the Meat Processing Plant.

Dozens of Pig-headed Men and Stitched Monsters in the vicinity were like a handful of screaming popcorn in its hand.

They shrieked miserably, trying to attack the palm with their tusks.

But it was useless.

The behemoth raised its hand.

It stuffed that full handful of still-struggling monsters into its giant mouth.

Crunch! Crunch!

The sound of chewing carried clearly from hundreds of meters away.

It was the end of dozens of lives and the beginning of a gluttonous feast.

Blood overflowed from the corners of its mouth, dripping onto the ruins and kicking up puffs of blue smoke.

"Blech..."

Crab Claw Man let out a retch and knelt by a tree root to vomit.

It was too terrifying.

Was this the apex of the food chain?

It turned out the monsters they fought so desperately against were, in this thing's eyes, nothing more than a snack grabbed at random.

"Don't move, any of you."

Chen Du's voice was kept very low.

He crouched behind the bushes.

His gaze pierced through the gaps in the leaves, staring fixedly at the feeding Steam Titan.

Calm! He needed to stay calm!

The deathly silent black notebook in his mind suddenly came to life.

This time, the pages fluttered and trembled frantically.

Immediately after, several lines of distorted, scrawled blood-red words appeared on the blank page:

[Target Analysis... Overlord Rank (Juvenile)]

[Put away that look of yours like you've never seen the world. Strictly speaking, it's still an unweaned giant infant!]

Juvenile? Giant infant?

Chen Du's mouth twitched violently, almost laughing in anger at this bullshit explanation.

This thing that looks like a monster Ultraman would fight is still a baby? Then what would an adult be like?

Crushing a city with one foot?

"Captain... are we... doomed?" Ye Qiu's hand holding the axe was covered in cold sweat, her knuckles turning white.

"No."

Chen Du withdrew his gaze and looked at the behemoth that was still gushing steam.

"It has no interest in us right now."

"When you're eating a feast, would you go out of your way to step on a few passing ants?"

Although those words hurt their pride, it had to be said that they made a lot of sense.

"It's feeding." Chen Du pointed at the white steam. "A creature of this size has an extremely fast metabolism."

"While it's busy, let's get out of here quickly."

"Leave?" Xia Xin was stunned. "To where? This entire area is within its range of intimidation!"

Indeed.

At this moment, the forest was deathly silent.

The mutant beasts were all prone on the ground, trembling, and some even buried their heads in the dirt to play dead.

This was the pressure of an Overlord.

"We'll go around."

Chen Du pointed toward the denser forest further in. "At a time like this, the more dangerous a place seems, the safer it actually is."

"Those small monsters don't dare to move, which is the perfect opportunity for us to slip through."

"Keep your mouths shut and your breathing light. If anyone dares to scream..."

Chen Du's finger made a light slicing motion across his throat.

Everyone nodded hastily, suppressing their breathing even further.

The group began to weave through the forest, using the cover of the night and the shadows of the trees.

The feeling was strange.

Less than five hundred meters away, that sixty-meter-tall giant was feeding.

The sound of chewing and the gushing of steam felt as if they were right next to their ears.

Xia Lai carefully supported her mechanical arm, afraid it would make even the slightest sound.

Lin Keke didn't dare to act out her chuunibyou tendencies anymore and tightly gripped the corner of Chen Du's clothes.

Ten minutes.

For the group, these ten minutes felt as long as a century.

Finally.

They bypassed the front of the behemoth and arrived at a leeward mountain hollow.

As long as they crossed this slope, they would be able to see the coastline.

And No. 0819 was parked right there.

"Phew..."

Crab Claw Man let out a long breath, the feeling of surviving a disaster making his whole body shake.

He was just about to sit on the ground to rest for a moment.

Vroom—!!!

An incredibly abrupt roar of an engine suddenly exploded from the forest ahead!

It was a modified high-horsepower diesel engine, sounding like a tractor.

"Who's there?!"

Chen Du's expression changed drastically, and he suddenly pushed Xia Lai and Lin Keke down into the tall grass.