A Narrow Encounter

Tonio flew rapidly through the air, like a discus thrown by an Olympic champion.

Meat Mountain noticed him immediately.

Its massive, mountain-like body suddenly moved, causing the earth to tremble slightly.

Facing that Meat Mountain is like facing the crest of a tsunami, both carrying a sense of overwhelming pressure, only more sinister and terrifying.

Tonio soon fell onto a grassy field.

The impact only worsened his injuries.

However, he didn't even have time to curse the pain before the thick carpet of flesh, which almost covered the entire earth, had unknowingly spread to his feet.

"Help! Help me!"

Tonio turned pale and fled backward.

Fortunately, Diavolo, who was lurking in his mind, issued a command in time, forcing him to stop this suicidal act.

However, this only slightly alleviated the crisis.

The Meat Mountain has caught up with Tonio, who is also next to Diavolo.

The fleshy carpet that kept spreading outwards was almost touching his body. At this moment, Diavolo could even clearly hear the sound of the fleshy tentacles absorbing, devouring, and crushing the rubble along the way.

Before long, it will be his own bones that make that sound.

"Damn it."

There was a wall of flesh nearly forty meters high blocking his way, and Diavolo couldn't even see where Li Qing was.

He was gripped by an unprecedented panic:

"I'm doomed. If this keeps up, I'm definitely going to die!"

"Could it be that the bald guy has already discovered my true identity, which is why he threw me out to feed this Meat Mountain?"

"Will he come to save me? Will he come and lure this monster away for me?!"

He didn't know whether he should risk exposing his identity and use his last bit of strength to summon a substitute Time Erasure save himself, or entrust his life to the kindness he scorned and sit here waiting for Li Qing's rescue.

Diavolo was torn:

If Li Qing really intended to feed him Meat Chunk, then if he didn't save himself, he would only face death.

But if Li Qing is truly sincere in wanting to save him, summoning the King Crimson would inadvertently expose his own identity.

What the hell should I choose?

As the Meat Mountain drew ever closer, he gripped the weeds on the ground with a tense and conflicted expression.

"Wait... grass?"

Diavolo paused for a moment, then his expression relaxed considerably:

"So that's how it is! This bald guy will definitely come to save me!"

The port is full of hard concrete pavements, with only a narrow strip of grass serving as a green belt on either side of the road.

Despite this, Li Qing still managed to throw him accurately onto the relatively soft grass.

Clearly, he didn't want this "innocent citizen" to fall too badly.

After figuring all this out, Diavolo calmed down considerably.

And as Diavolo predicted:

Li Qing did not discover his true identity, nor did she intend to harm him.

Tonio's disguise as a second personality is flawless, and the Golden Bell Shield can only determine whether the target is a teammate, but cannot rule out the possibility that the target is a stranger.

Therefore, Li Qing sincerely wanted to save people.

Just as the writhing, enormous Meat Mountain was about to swallow Diavolo whole, Li Qing's voice rang out from afar:

"Don't move!"

"Leave the rest to me!"

Li Qing suddenly took a step forward and started running within the range of the Meat Mountain's perception.

The Meat Mountain trembled suddenly, then turned around and chased after the faster target.

The earth cracked instantly under the crushing force of this colossal object.

Wherever Li Qing left his footprints, the Meat Mountain crushed them into a pile of mud.

The enormous tentacles covered in black and red lava swung wildly in mid-air, seemingly about to smash the tiny human in front of them into pieces at any moment.

"So close. So close!"

Despite sensing the overwhelming horde of monsters crashing down behind him, Li Qing remained calm.

He was saving people, not throwing them to their deaths.

Before deciding to help, he had already used his keen ears to detect something that could get him and Tonio out of trouble.

With Tonio having helped draw aggro, Li Qing successfully created a large safe distance.

With a sufficient safe distance, he can escape a greater distance even when being chased by the Meat Mountain.

This distance might not be too far, but it would bring Li Qing closer to the military base near the port, closer to what would allow everyone to escape safely:

"Sonically Enhanced Wave!"

Li Qing focused his mind to pinpoint the exact location, and then, while running, shot a burst of white light into the sky ahead.

The ball of light shot out and flew towards the military base nearly 300 meters away.

Ultimately, it accurately hit a helicopter that had just taken off from the military base.

Like an extreme athlete braving the waves of a tsunami, Li Qing miraculously seized a sliver of hope before the towering, fleshy wave engulfed him:

"Echoes Act!"

General Colt is not in a good position right now.

Because of that damned helicopter, that nameless pilot who deserves to be shot a thousand times, he and the entire military base he managed have fallen into a huge crisis.

The evacuation plan did not go as smoothly as he had imagined.

He also couldn't easily board the helicopter used for the "strategic retreat".

When a monster nearly forty meters tall was discovered in the port less than a kilometer from the base, officers and soldiers throughout the base were thrown into a state of panic.

An orderly retreat?

Just kidding!

Why should you board the ship first while we have to risk waiting?

That's a monster! The disaster plan didn't say they were going to face a monster!

If they wait here any longer, they might die without a trace.

With this mindset, the soldiers forgot about the collective and discipline, and were awakened to the selfishness and madness of human instinct.

In order to leave the base as soon as possible before the Meat Mountain devoured them, they began to desperately seize any means of transportation, including cars, boats, and airplanes, and even fought over a small raft or a swimming ring.

Although the Meat Mountain hadn't actually moved toward the naval base in the past few minutes, the terrified soldiers couldn't stop their frenzy.

Like the salt-buying aunties who were terrified by the nuclear leak in their neighboring country.

Faced with that monster covered in lava, that behemoth that seemed to have crawled out of hell, all the so-called rules and discipline became a joke.

No one will politely wait for the leader to leave first anymore.

Status and position don't matter anymore; everyone has to rely on their own abilities, and whoever can grab it gets it.

Fortunately, General Colt was not the kind of fat and incompetent person.

Although the aura of a vice admiral has temporarily lost its effect, he is still, after all, a veteran with extensive combat experience.

With his still-vigorous skills and incredibly strong will to survive, after wasting a few precious minutes, General Colt finally managed to snatch a helicopter for himself in the riot-ridden base, a route to safety.

"Finally safe, huh?"

"W-How did we get so close already?!"

The helicopter, piloted by a trusted officer, quickly took off.

General Colt, sitting next to him, was horrified to discover that the Meat Mountain had unknowingly approached the outer perimeter of the naval base, and was only a few hundred meters away from the plane that had just taken off.

At such close range, General Colt could even see the monster's transparent body hidden behind its lava armor through the gaps in the black and red lava.

"What on earth is this thing?"

His forehead was covered in cold sweat, and his eyes were filled with lingering fear.

"Luckily, I got out in time."

"If it had been any later, we probably would have been caught by that monster."

General Colt was somewhat relieved by his decisiveness in seizing the plane.

However, at this moment

Suddenly, a white light entered the cabin.

The trusted officer in the driver's seat was struck by the mysterious ball of light, and a strange fluorescent pattern appeared on his shoulder.

General Colt was horrified, the next second...

A bald man suddenly flew in from the sky.