"It's not over yet..."
Bai Ye ignored Fubuki and looked off in a certain direction.
"You just..."
Fubuki was about to say something when an explosion cut her off.
Boom!!
A passage was blasted through the building behind them. As the dust cleared, an enormous, fully armed Armored Gorilla appeared before her.
The string of sudden developments left Fubuki so stunned that she forgot to get up.
She turned to look, only to discover that Bai Ye had vanished without her noticing.
In fact, Bai Ye had just been attacked by Earth Dragon, who had tried to grab his feet from underground and drag him down. He had simply gone along with it to deal with Earth Dragon below.
Despite the name Earth Dragon, he was actually a monster that looked like a mole.
[Ding! The host defeated the Tiger-Level Monster "Earth Dragon." Reward obtained: 20 points!] [Ding! The host defeated the Tiger-Level Monster "Toad Man." Reward obtained: 10 points!] [Ding! The host defeated the Tiger-Level Monster "Katsuyu Man." Reward obtained: 10 points!]
Besides Earth Dragon, Bai Ye had also taken care of Toad Man and Katsuyu Man nearby. All of them were monsters sent by the House of Evolution.
Meanwhile, Fubuki was panicking aboveground.
She thought Bai Ye had abandoned her, leaving her to face the menacing Armored Gorilla alone.
Fubuki could only get to her feet and figure out how to handle the monster before her.
Having just unleashed two lethal attacks on Bai Ye, she was in poor condition, but she had no choice but to grit her teeth and use her psychic powers again.
"You're not the target. Stay out of the way."
Yet Armored Gorilla gave Fubuki no chance to move aside and charged straight at her.
"!"
Fubuki hurriedly used her psychic powers to stop his charge.
But she was already in poor condition, and Armored Gorilla had Demon-level strength. The earthen wall she hastily erected with Psychokinesis could not withstand his brute-force charge.
"Agh-!"
Fubuki was sent flying.
Still, the earthen wall had absorbed most of the force, so she was merely knocked away without suffering any serious injuries.
Thud-thud-thud-
Just then, Fubuki heard heavy footsteps and felt the ground trembling.
She turned and saw an enormous humanoid lion. He looked even larger than Armored Gorilla, with bulging muscles all over his body and sharp claws for fingernails.
Despair began to settle over Fubuki. Had another monster appeared, even stronger than Armored Gorilla?
Was this the infamous No Man's Land? How could there be so many powerful monsters here...?
"What's a woman doing here? Where's our target?"
Beast King looked at Fubuki on the ground in confusion.
"Just now, Earth Dragon, should have, caught, the target, but I don't know, where he went."
Armored Gorilla explained.
"Don't tell me that guy ran back on his own to hog all the credit?"
Beast King immediately grew suspicious.
Armored Gorilla and Beast King exchanged words in front of Fubuki. Cold sweat covered her face. She had nowhere to run now...
"Say... am I the target you two are looking for?"
Just then, Bai Ye suddenly appeared out of thin air in front of Fubuki.
"Found him. The target showed up on his own."
Beast King immediately recognized the Blood Eyes boy as the target Dr. Genus wanted.
"It's pretty dangerous here. Go hide for now."
Bai Ye said this to Fubuki, then sucked her straight into the Kamui Dimension.
Although he could have fought while holding a girl in his arms, he was in no mood to carry Fubuki into battle against Beast King and Armored Gorilla...
This way, Fubuki would be completely safe. Not only could Bai Ye focus on dealing with Beast King and Armored Gorilla, but he could also leave her in the Kamui Dimension to reflect on her mistakes.
Although this would make using Intangibility inconvenient, two Demon-level monsters were nowhere near enough to force him to use it to save his life.
"Playing the hero and saving the damsel? How laughable. Being all alone will only make you despair even more."
Beast King laughed mockingly. His aura began to surge, and his mane bristled.
"Let me show you the power of Beast King!"
"Lion Slash!!"
Beast King extended the claws on his right hand and swiped at Bai Ye.
His five claws unleashed five waves of light, slicing the buildings ahead into pieces.
But Bai Ye easily dodged them with his keen perception and reaction speed.
"Roooooar!!"
Beast King roared and lashed out wildly.
Armored Gorilla wisely moved aside. With Beast King here, there was no need for him to act. If he stayed too close, he might even get caught in the attacks.
After a while, Beast King grew furious at his continued failure to hit Bai Ye.
"You can't escape! I'll kill you! This is survival of the fittest! Hahahaha!"
Beast King went berserk. His muscles instantly swelled, tearing apart his coat and the chains that restrained his strength.
"Lion Slash Meteor Shower!"
Beast King leaped into the air and unleashed an incredibly rapid barrage of claw strikes at Bai Ye, leaving no angle uncovered.
"Beast King, we're supposed to capture him alive..."
Armored Gorilla hurriedly reminded him.
But Beast King had already lost his mind, and Armored Gorilla did not dare raise his voice too much.
This time, however, Bai Ye had no intention of dodging...
Susanoo!
A cyan-blue rib cage instantly manifested around Bai Ye, enclosing his entire body.
But this was only Susanoo's initial stage. At Bai Ye's will, it continued to evolve.
The rib cage rapidly grew into a skeletal upper body... then developed flesh and a network of meridians, all wrapped in a layer of Susanoo armor...
Susanoo was originally a physical manifestation of chakra, the third power of the Mangekyō Sharingan, also known as the "power of a god."
Clearly, the system had modified Bai Ye's Susanoo into a physical manifestation of mental energy as well.
He now had over four hundred Physique points, along with some hashirama cells. Activating Susanoo was naturally no problem.
In the blink of an eye, Bai Ye's Susanoo settled into its second stage. The half-bodied Susanoo had grown flesh and a cloak of mental energy, reaching twenty to thirty meters in height. It held two gigantic Longswords, weapons that came with Susanoo itself.
The second stage was Susanoo's most balanced form. It could wield weapons, offered excellent offense and defense, and did not place too great a drain on its user.
"What?!"
Beast King had expected to tear Bai Ye into four pieces, only for his opponent to suddenly become a giant even taller than himself.
Without giving Beast King a chance to react, Bai Ye immediately commanded Susanoo to slash at him.
Both Longswords swept straight down, too fast for Beast King to react.
Even as the gigantic Longsword descended, he remained frozen in place.
The next instant, Beast King's enormous body was cut into three sections.
[Ding! The host defeated the Demon-level monster "Beast King." Reward obtained: 45 points!]
Among Demon-level monsters, Beast King could be considered at the very Peak Demon, placing him in the strongest tier of that level.
Yet even he could not withstand Susanoo's attack.
Bai Ye then turned to look at Armored Gorilla off to the side.
"..."
Armored Gorilla had gone stiff where he stood. The whole man... no, the whole gorilla was dumbstruck.
Beast King, ranked second in the House of Evolution and far stronger than him, had been effortlessly slain by that human!
The moment he saw Bai Ye turn and stare at him, Armored Gorilla immediately prostrated himself.
Kneeling on the ground and bowing his head, he begged, "I'm terribly sorry for being so arrogant just now. Please spare my life. I'll tell you everything."
Even his halting speech disappeared. In truth, he had only been speaking one word at a time to act cool.
Now he did not dare put on airs, afraid that even a single delayed word would get him cut down with a casual swing.
Seeing Armored Gorilla surrender outright, Bai Ye dismissed Susanoo.
"Who sent you?"
Bai Ye asked, feigning ignorance.
"It was..."
"Keep it short."
Bai Ye knew Armored Gorilla was just as much of a chatterbox as Genos and could start his story all the way back in Dr. Genus's childhood, so he made that clear in advance.
"Yes! Of course! In short, our boss, Dr. Genus, is very interested in your body and wants to use it for his research, so he sent us to capture you."
Armored Gorilla immediately condensed his thousand-word spiel into a few brief sentences.
"All right. That's all I need from you."
With that, Bai Ye vanished.
In reality, he had entered the Kamui Dimension to see how Fubuki's self-reflection was coming along...
Before you continue