Crushed!

This was a true monster.

It stood nearly three meters tall, its entire body covered in bone armor as translucent as white jade, yet immensely thick.

Its long arms reached past its knees, ending not in claws, but in two enormous bone blades like the Grim Reaper's scythes.

Most suffocating of all was the five-meter tail behind it, covered in barbs. Every sweep cracked the air with a sonic boom.

Its face had no features, only a gaping, blood-red maw split all the way to its ears, packed with several rows of sharp teeth. Highly corrosive green saliva dripped from them.

"T-Tier 3?!"

Vice President Wang Bin stared at the wreckage of the Hummer pinned to the ground, his pupils instantly shrinking to pinpoints.

President Tang Chuan had told him earlier, so he knew there was a Tier 3 White Thorn inside, giving birth.

But he had never expected this female White Thorn to be so enormous.

Just standing there, she gave him the feeling that she was impossible to defeat.

Wang Bin turned instinctively toward Tang Chuan, whose expression was equally grim. He realized he really had underestimated the strength of a Tier 3 White Thorn!

After all, he had never encountered one.

But the day before yesterday, that player named "Lin Hui" on the regional channel had managed to kill a Tier 3 White Thorn!

He had a specialization and a powerful guild backing him. There was no reason he couldn't do it too!

"ROAR!!!"

The White Thorn roared, her figure vanishing from where she stood.

Fast!

Too fast!

A monster of that size could actually move faster than a sports car!

"Fall back! Get out of the warehouse, now!!"

Tang Chuan screamed at the top of his lungs.

There were too many obstacles inside the warehouse to land effective hits on this even faster Tier 3 female White Thorn!

But it was already too late.

Bang!

The White Thorn slammed into the convoy like a cannonball.

With one hand, she flipped a pickup truck that was trying to turn around. It spun three times through the air before smashing into the wall and becoming a heap of scrap.

Then her terrifying long tail swept across.

Screeech-!

It was like a hot knife slicing through butter.

The roof of a nearby SUV was sheared clean off. The upper bodies of the two players who had yet to get out vanished instantly, leaving only their blood-spurting lower halves sitting in their seats.

Instant kills!

An outright massacre!

Before this Tier 3 White Thorn, the supposedly formidable New Light Mutual Aid Association convoy was as flimsy as paper.

"Damn it! Damn it!!"

Tang Chuan panicked.

He pressed his hand to the ground again, trying the same trick.

"Specialization-Spirit Art: Mire!"

The ground softened once more.

But this time, the White Thorn merely paused before letting out a contemptuous hiss.

She exerted her strength, the muscles in her legs bulging as she stomped straight through the mire's restraints and used the tremendous reaction force to leap high into the air again!

Against a higher-tier creature whose strength and speed vastly outmatched his, a purely crowd-control skill like this was far less effective!

"Bang!"

Liu Xi fired from a distance.

The heavy sniper round, powerful enough to blow apart a Tier 2 White Thorn's head, struck the Tier 3 White Thorn's armored waist with precision.

However.

Clang-!

There was only a crisp metallic impact.

The thick bone armor on the White Thorn's chest showed nothing but a white mark-not even a crack!

"It didn't penetrate?!"

A trace of gravity finally appeared on Liu Xi's otherwise calm face.

She quickly worked the bolt and loaded a precious armor-piercing round.

But this White Thorn was clearly highly intelligent. After taking that shot, her scarlet eyes instantly locked onto Liu Xi up above.

"ROAR!"

She abandoned the slaughter of the ants on the ground and dug in with all four limbs. Like an enormous gecko, she raced up the vertical wall, heading straight for Liu Xi's elevated position!

Hah...

Liu Xi exhaled and abandoned the shot.

She was confident she could hit her, but not that she could kill this Tier 3 White Thorn. If the monster survived, she would be the one to die!

Without hesitation, she climbed into her sports car, stepped on the accelerator, and sped toward the warehouse doors.

A vehicle upgraded from a sports car had far better acceleration over a hundred meters than the other vehicles. With a roar, the blue sports car reached the entrance first.

Just then, an enormous bone spike whistled through the air. With a wet punch, it pierced straight through the sports car's steel shell, the two-meter spike plunging deep into the interior.

Liu Xi had already spotted it in her rearview mirror. She threw herself down, avoiding the fatal impalement, but the spike still grazed her skin!

Liu Xi glanced at the wound and frowned slightly, but she had no time to worry about it. She stepped on the accelerator and raced out of the warehouse!

At the sight, Tang Chuan was nearly scared out of his wits.

Liu Xi's sports car was much like his own. If the bone spike could pierce hers, it could pierce his too.

He shouted into the radio.

"Quick! Open fire!!"

Yet he himself was backing away.

The situation had completely collapsed.

The Tier 3 White Thorn was slaughtering everyone in her path.

All because Tang Chuan had misjudged her combat strength.

In less than thirty seconds, almost the entire New Light Mutual Aid Association had been wiped out. Apart from Liu Xi, who had already escaped, only his vehicle and the vice president's remained!

Tang Chuan shifted into reverse and frantically backed up!

"Come on!"

If he didn't escape, he would die here today too!

"President... that monster has its eyes on us."

The young man manning the rooftop turret spoke in a trembling voice.

Horror surged through Tang Chuan. He abruptly turned toward the black RV nearby, which had remained motionless all this time.

It was still parked there.

Neither attacking nor fleeing.

Like a silent reef.

"You forced my hand..."

A crazed, venomous gleam flashed through Tang Chuan's eyes.

He pulled something wrapped in black velvet from inside his jacket.

It was a completely transparent crystal orb the size of an eyeball. Three insects seemed to be sealed inside, constantly twitching.

[Name: Eye of Scapegoating]

[Type: Extraordinary item (extraordinary tool)]

[Quality: Rare]

[Special effect: Transfers the hostility of creatures toward the user to any designated target within a 500-meter radius; limited to 1 use per day. Remaining uses: 3.]

[Side effect: One hour after using this extraordinary item, the user temporarily loses the ability to speak for 24 hours.]

This was his last-resort lifesaving item.

But now, to stay alive, he had no choice but to use it...

"Brother Lin, since your defenses are so high, please die in everyone else's place!"

A savage smile spread across Tang Chuan's face.

Without hesitation, he clenched the [Eye of Scapegoating]. An insect shrouded in red light flew out of the crystal eye!

"Go!"

At Tang Chuan's mental command, the insect shot forward and struck the front of the nearby black RV.

Pop!

The insect shattered instantly, dissolving into specks of red light.

"What... was that?"

Inside the RV, Lin Hui froze for a moment.

The next second.

The Tier 3 White Thorn, who had been racing along the wall to pounce on Tang Chuan, suddenly stopped.

She whipped her head around, her scarlet eyes fixing on the black RV below.

"ROOOAR!!!"

The White Thorn let out a deafening roar and abandoned Tang Chuan, even though he was right within reach.

She kicked hard off the wall and, accelerating under gravity, became a white meteor. With a terrifying sonic boom, she hurtled straight toward Lin Hui's RV!

"Hahahaha!"

At the sight, Tang Chuan burst into wild laughter.

As he ordered his surviving men to retreat, he shouted toward the RV:

"Brother Lin! It's your honor to die for me!"

"This is the apocalypse! Only those who survive deserve to be winners!"

Inside the vehicle.

Su Qingqian watched the enormous white beast plunge from above, growing larger by the second. Her whole body went rigid.

"Boss! She... she's coming for us!!"

"That Tang Chuan... he set us up!!"

The White Thorn was too big and too fast.

With the momentum of a dive from dozens of meters above, coupled with her terrifying bone blades, she would definitely smash a dent into even Lin Hui's Lv.3 RV!

"Don't panic."

Lin Hui sat in the driver's seat, still holding his can of cola.

His expression was frighteningly calm.

He neither fled in panic as Tang Chuan had expected nor blindly fired back.

Lin Hui rested his finger lightly on a green button on the center console.

His Physique of 25 gave him reaction speeds far beyond those of an ordinary person.

Three... two... one...

Watching the red dot rapidly expand on the holographic display, Lin Hui counted down silently.

At the very instant the Tier 3 White Thorn was about to strike the RV.

"Get... DOWN!"

Lin Hui slammed the [Full Auto] firing button!

Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!!!

The rooftop chain gun unleashed a thunderous roar!

At two hundred rounds per minute, it instantly wove an impenetrable curtain of fire.

Dozens of armor-piercing rounds struck the Tier 3 White Thorn's body with tremendous force, while three or four hit her weak point simultaneously!

"ROAR?!!"

Her seemingly unstoppable charge came to an abrupt halt.

The Tier 3 White Thorn's enormous body stiffened in midair for an instant. Then, like a kite with a severed string, she lost all control of her trajectory.

Boom!

A tremendous crash rang out.

Her enormous body did not land on the RV, but slammed into the concrete one meter in front of it.

Screeech-

Lin Hui slammed the vehicle into gear and floored the accelerator!

ROAR!!!

Driven by its four [Never Wears Out] tires, the twenty-ton steel monster surged forward with overwhelming force, straight toward the Tier 3 White Thorn who had just landed...

And ran her over!

It wasn't a collision.

It was a crushing!

"Crack! Crack! Crack!"

At that moment, everything fell deathly silent.

Only the spine-chilling sound of shattering bones echoed through the empty factory building.

Tang Chuan had already escaped through the entrance. The smile froze on his face, and like a duck with its neck gripped tight, he couldn't make a single sound.

As he watched the black RV relentlessly crush the monster, its rooftop chain gun rotated and took aim at his vehicle.

A bone-deep chill shot from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.