Hunter and Prey

Li Qing did not hear the sound of the grenade hitting the ground when it missed, as he had expected.

Meanwhile, the mixed smell of metal and gunpowder was getting closer and closer to him, as if it would pounce on him at any moment.

"What's going on?"

Li Qing subconsciously felt that something was wrong.

So he laboriously turned the heavy, stiff pig's head and looked behind him with his now severely nearsighted eyes:

A small, blurry black shadow was seen making a near 90-degree right-angle turn in mid-air with an eerie posture, and then it attacked Li Qing's body straight from behind.

"This 'Sexy Grenade'?!"

Staring at the automatically tracking black shadow, Li Qing's pig-like face covered in white hair instantly froze.

He frantically pushed off with all four hooves, trying his best to speed up and escape.

That grenade was like a nightmare he could never escape; the faster Li Qing ran, the faster it flew away.

Finally, after a brief flight, the grenade swiftly flew towards Li Qing and gently struck his left foreleg.

Boom!

The delayed fuse detonated the explosive, and the grenade exploded in a burst of fire.

The spark exploded right next to Li Qing, releasing a high-pressure airwave that sent his 300-pound body flying.

Fortunately, after he turned into a pig, his other attributes were greatly weakened, but his "armor" was actually strengthened.

That body of fat became the perfect buffer against the impact of the explosion, and the thick pigskin and tough ribs became the best shield against metal fragments.

Even after being knocked to the ground by a grenade at close range, Li Qing only lost about 20% of his health.

"No one's alright."

"Sure enough, the supervisor's ability only changed his body; he can still use the 'Stand ability'."

Looking at Li Qing, whose body was "completely unharmed," and the health bar that kept floating above Li Qing's head, Thomas's expression became increasingly tense.

He was wearing orange transparent goggles, a sturdy bulletproof vest, a double-barreled shotgun, a row of 12-gauge shotgun shells, and three unused delayed-action grenades.

Li Qing was just a 300-pound pig.

No matter how you look at it, Thomas is now the hunter, while Li Qing is the pig to be slaughtered.

But Thomas was nervous.

Although he possesses a Stand ability perfectly suited for combat, he is indeed not good at fighting, nor does he want to fight.

If his supervisor hadn't forced him, he wouldn't have wanted to risk going into battle that wasn't his responsibility.

Because he was never a gangster, but an honest, clean, and highly educated white-collar worker.

He was completely foolishly misled by the high salary and benefits advertised in the job posting, which led him to be tricked into working at this pig farm by a group of ruthless mafia members disguised as legitimate HR personnel. He was tasked with maintaining the Passion Organization's internal network and managing its intelligence.

If Thomas hadn't later awakened his Stand ability by chance and gained official membership, his situation would certainly have been a hundred times worse than it is now.

Because in this pig farm, the technicians, who are ordinary people, are utter slaves:

The working environment is extremely harsh. There is no sunlight 24 hours a day, and there is no overtime indefinitely 365 days a year. There are no holidays or rest. In order to keep it secret, we are not allowed to contact the outside world, and we are not allowed to step out of the gate of this pig farm.

If anyone has any objections, the supervisor will personally send him to the pigsty.

"Damn it."

"If only I hadn't fallen for it back then."

Even while on the front lines of the war, Thomas found himself lost in thought, contemplating other places.

"What are you standing there for? You're in the middle of a fight!"

The supervisor's furious roar came through the wireless headset.

He only hesitated for a second before his superior's menacing warning reached his ears:

Thomas

"Get your act together, you pig!"

"The ragtag soldiers I sent out could only barely delay Bucciarati and the others. If Li Qing manages to reunite with his companions here, you know the consequences."

Although the supervisor himself was still hiding in that secret server room, just hearing that voice made Thomas break out in a cold sweat.

This pig farm is just a stand-in for the supervisor.

There are special surveillance cameras everywhere inside, and the surveillance footage is directly connected to the supervisor's thoughts, so nothing that happens in the pig farm can escape the supervisor's eyes.

Thomas's "slacking off" behavior was naturally seen by the supervisor from afar.

This is a very dangerous thing.

Being caught slacking off at this pig farm doesn't just mean losing your wages; it means losing your right to exist as a human being.

"I see."

Once again, he habitually endured the humiliation of being treated like a pig or a dog.

"I will definitely behave well."

Thomas spat out those words through gritted teeth.

As he spoke, he quickly raised the shotgun in his hand and pulled the trigger at Li Qing, who had just stood up from the aftershocks of the explosion.

Bang!

A thunderous boom came from the muzzle of the gun.

Li Qing's pig ears couldn't help but shudder violently.

He heard the gunshot and immediately dodged to the side in a panic.

But this did nothing.

The two 12-gauge shotgun shells fired from the two thick barrels scattered a total of 16 metal pellets, which, like the previous hand grenades, flew towards Li Qing at high speed like automatically tracking missiles.

Compared to hand grenades, they are hundreds of times faster.

There was no way to dodge them. The 16 small bullets flew through the air in simple arcs and struck Li Qing's left foreleg joint in the next instant.

Li Qing's health dropped sharply again.

Although he wouldn't be injured, the enormous kinetic energy carried by these metal projectiles bombarded his leg joints without reservation, causing him to stagger and fall to the ground like a limping chair in that instant.

Damn it!

Li Qing's heart was pounding.

After realizing that the enemy's bullets and grenades were all "targeted attacks," he suddenly felt incredibly overwhelmed—though he really was overwhelmed right now.

What to do?

He is now unable to use his skills, and his physical abilities have deteriorated to the level of a pig.

The enemy's double-barreled shotgun had a powerful knockback effect; without any mobility skills and relying solely on his four hooves, Li Qing had no chance of getting close enough to counterattack.

If he chooses to run away, he absolutely cannot outrun those automatically tracking grenades and bullets.

This is a complete dead end.

"No, there is no such thing as a 'dead end' in the world!"

In that split second, a will to survive suddenly surged in Li Qing's cloudy eyes.

He thought of the pig he had seen in his old home in the countryside when he was a child.

If a pig can unleash speed comparable to a motorcycle when facing a butcher's knife, then as a human at the top of the food chain, he can't possibly lose to a pig that has been domesticated his entire life in terms of survival instinct.

"Stay calm, think, and start analyzing from the root."

"How exactly does the enemy achieve its 'automatic tracking' capability?"

"How did he target me? Was it through thought, voice, breath, or some other factor?"

Li Qing was constantly thinking.

Countless questions arose in his mind, while he was also making quick decisions and judgments.

So, while the enemy was loading bullets into the double-barreled shotgun, he instinctively used all his strength to roll over the low concrete wall on the side of the passageway.

Similar to a typical large pig farm, this pig farm has two wide passageways running north to south, with rows of rectangular pig pens neatly arranged on both sides.

These low cement walls that make up the pigsty can serve as cover during gunfights.

Of course, cover can't stop bullets that can curve, but Li Qing wants to block now is not bullets, but the enemy's line of sight.

Really

After Li Qing hid behind the low concrete wall, no more gunshots rang out, and no more grenades were thrown at him.

The sound that could be heard was the footsteps of the enemy.

It's obvious that the enemy is repositioning themselves, moving to a place where they can see their prey.

"As expected."

Li Qing instantly obtained the information he wanted. "The enemy is using sight to lock onto targets. So..."

He carefully sniffed the complex and varied smells in the air, using this intricate olfactory information to reconstruct the spatial distribution of the entire pig farm:

"The problem will be solved as long as he can't see me."