The computer aboard the Advance immediately issued the command. The nuclear fusion reaction, which had been reduced to an extremely low level for the emergency landing, now began climbing steadily. Atoms collided violently within the Fusion Furnace, and the pressure inside kept rising. Once it exceeded a certain threshold, it might not have the power of a hydrogen bomb explosion, but it would still cause quite a commotion.
The rolling dust surged forward, though its absolute speed was not particularly fast. The Advance itself was still moving ahead, so it should not be swallowed up by the dust before it exploded.
But suddenly, a crack opened in the dust cloud, revealing a... mouth.
An incomparably enormous Abyssal Maw.
The sight of that giant mouth reminded Shi Tie Zhu of the shoddy ads for old browser games from decades ago—raising kun, devouring and evolving, and the like. Those ads always showed some enormous thing being swallowed by an even more enormous thing. The scene before him was exactly the same.
A shadow enveloped the Advance from the stern, creeping forward step by step. Wherever the maw covered, visible Electric Arcs flickered across the Advance's metal armor.
The command center's signal was abruptly disrupted, then with a whoosh, it completely lost contact with the Advance.
The next instant, the giant mouth snapped shut.
The Advance was swallowed whole.
The maw withdrew into the dust cloud. The anticipated nuclear explosion never came; only immense panic spread across all of Mars along with that mouth.
Clatter, clatter—the soldiers' guns fell to the ground.
Their faces were filled with despair.
If a single mouth was already this huge, then just how large was the monster's actual body?
Even a starship as enormous as the Advance had been swallowed in one bite. How could such a