"Sorry, coming through... excuse me... could you let me through up front?"
"Hm?" An overworked middle-aged office worker, whom the black-haired young man had squeezed past, asked in confusion, "Young man, that's the way to the exit. Are you going the wrong way?"
The man kept pressing forward without even looking back. "That's right. I'm going out."
!!!
At those words, the entire crowd fell silent.
"Don't do anything rash, young man! You can't go outside now!!"
At the older man's terrified shout, the young and middle-aged men nearby all lunged at him.
"Exactly! What are you thinking? Going out now is suicide!"
"Whoa, what's going on? Let go of me!" Suddenly locked down by a bunch of burly men, the young man jumped in alarm and hurried to explain, "The monster being outside is exactly why I can't stay in here! I have to go out!"
"...Everyone, come help hold this young man down! There's something wrong with his head!"
In an instant, the number of men hanging off him more than doubled, and the young man learned what it meant to be engulfed in the vast sea of the people's struggle.
Choking his neck, tugging his cheeks, pulling his arms, clinging to his legs...
Everyone used practically every ounce of strength they had to stop this lunatic, while others nearby earnestly tried to talk him around.
"A hero will be here soon to defeat that monster! Then we can all go out!"
The young man poked his head out from amid countless arms and tried to explain, "That's why I want to go-"
"Shut up! The monster hasn't left yet! It's too dangerous outside! You'll get everyone killed if you go out now!"
"We understand that you're anxious, but you absolutely cannot leave!"
"You little punk, stay put and stop causing trouble for everyone!"
"Where's the staff? Where are the Hero Association staff? Someone come deal with this kid!"
After a round of shoving and tugging, the enthusiastic trapped civilians successfully subdued the young man. By now, at least a dozen people were piled onto him.
They were all broad-shouldered, thickset adult men. After all, anyone weaker would never have managed to squeeze through the packed crowd to help.
Strangely, although the stranglehold made it hard for him to breathe and turned his face red, he never fell over.
In fact, he remained perfectly steady on his feet.
"All right, all right, I get it... I give up. I won't go out, okay?"
"Hey, hey, hey, who's pulling my hair? I've been noticing signs of hair loss lately. Could you please let go first, buddy?!"
Once he stopped resisting, the situation gradually came under control.
A group of staff members in Association uniforms arrived and explained the shelter's defenses and absolute safety to the crowd. Once the defense system was activated, the doors could not be opened from inside. There was no back door at all. Not even half a fly could get in.
The black-haired young man raised his hand. "Then where's the bathroom? I drank too much barley tea at lunch, and my stomach's feeling a little uncomfortable."
The young woman explaining things to the crowd paused. "To prevent the drainage pipes from becoming a point of entry, there are no bathrooms."
"...Huh?" The young man's mouth dropped open in shock. As everyone turned to look at him, he lowered his voice to a mutter. "...Isn't that a massive design flaw?"
In any case, after the staff reassured everyone, the anxious atmosphere inside the shelter eased a little. Not wanting to become the target of everyone's ire, the black-haired young man settled down too.
"I'll just hold it while my bladder can still take it," the black-haired young man said, crouching in a corner with his gaze wandering. "If I really can't hold it anymore, I'll figure out a way to rush outside..."
"Come to think of it, they won't make me pay if I punch a hole in the exit, will they?"
"Looks like we've got a big one this time!"
There were no flight restrictions over the city. In moments, Josen crossed more than half of Z City and arrived where the monster was wreaking havoc.
A gigantic 170,000-Year Cicada with a human face was roaming through the city. Its enormous size meant every step inflicted devastating damage on the surrounding buildings. A foreleg pierced an entire street as it landed, crushing the pipes underneath and triggering fiery explosions. Flames shot skyward, but the giant insect remained utterly unaffected. A sweep of its mouthparts sheared another apartment building in half, sending it crashing to the ground.
The nearby streets were already unrecognizable, and a recently built shelter lay in the giant insect monster's path.
Apparently, the evacuation had been timely. There were few civilian casualties in the area; everyone must have taken refuge in the shelter.
"Then I can't let you go any farther." Josen spread his hands, fixed his gaze on the area surrounding the insect monster's feet, and activated his psychic power.
Bang!
The rampaging insect monster slammed into an invisible Force Field Barrier. Materialized psychic particles rippled outward in shimmering waves, dissipating the kinetic impact of the monster's movement into nothing.
The collision made the insect monster stagger. It shook its buzzing head and looked ahead in confusion, yet there was no obstacle in sight.
That's not fair. Why can't I move forward?
Roooaaar-
Refusing to accept it, the insect monster heaved forward with all its might. The tremendous impact whipped up a storm of sand, yet the swirling cloud was eerily confined within a cubic space.
With sand in its compound eyes, the insect monster battered itself dizzy, but still failed to break through the obstruction ahead.
"That really is one hard head..."
Feeling the impacts transmitted through his Absolute Domain, Josen gained a deeper understanding of the destructive power of such gigantic creatures.
With its enormous bulk, its own weight alone was its finest weapon. The steel jungle built by humanity was utterly helpless before it. Even the nearby Hero Association shelter, which boasted "absolute defense," would probably only withstand a few more hits.
No wonder boys grew up wanting to pilot Gundams. Unit-01 and Rei Ayanami really were a man's dream.
Size is truth!
Reining in his wandering thoughts, Josen looked down at the monster trapped within the force field and abruptly clenched his hands.
At his command, vast psychic power surged down toward the ground like towering, crashing waves.
Beneath the crest of that wave, the insect monster instinctively sensed a flicker of fear. But with force fields enclosing it on every side, it could only scurry in frantic circles.
The next instant, an abundant surge of energy poured into the previously stable cubic force field. Its structure abruptly transformed into a black-hole-like Gravitational Force Field, slowly but inexorably collapsing inward, heedless of all resistance!
Overwhelming pressure bore down on the imprisoned insect monster. It only had time to let out one final mournful cry before its shell, which even explosions could not damage, was crushed like a cracker by the contracting space. Thick green fluid splattered out, but before it could spread, it mixed with the surrounding flesh into a paste too gruesome to look at, which continued to compress and compact as it shrank inward.
It was like a massive hydraulic press working at full force. The sight was so "beautiful" that he could hardly bear to look.
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