Zhang Ming turned and left the safe house, tossing Stone Mama inside before he went.
"Stone Emperor, keep him company. The monster only treats you as a rock anyway, and the bomb can't kill you."
Stone Mama fell silent for a moment, then agreed, squawking, "Don't worry, I, Stone... gaaah!!!"
The door had barely closed before Stone Mama let out a startled cry.
Zhang Ming's pupils dilated, his heartbeat accelerating!
His intuition told him that the monster... had appeared!
It had appeared in the mere instant it took to close a door!
Time seemed to slow at that moment.
Frantic, Zhang Ming blazed with red light and pushed open the heavy door as fast as he could.
He saw something black...
A mass of black mist!
It emerged from some strange angle, seemingly from the fourth dimension of space!
It seemed to notice Zhang Ming's murderous aura and let out wild, eerie, mocking laughter.
The instant he saw it, some sort of rule affected him, sending an unbearably searing pain through his eyes.
Crimson blood spurted from his eye sockets.
"Bzzz!"
The gear cutter on Huajin's back seemed to have cut into something, but it proved of little use under the black mist's corrosion and soon stopped working.
As for the unfortunate man himself, dense darkness engulfed him.
The black mist made chewing sounds as it ate half his body.
Seeing Zhang Ming, Huajin's face contorted, and he shouted with all his strength.
"Eyes... eyes!"
With those final words, he vanished entirely into the black mist.
A Macrosteel man who had just been talking about his aspirations in life and inviting Zhang Ming to travel with him,
was killed by the monster in the blink of an eye.
Veins bulged on Zhang Ming's forehead. Killing intent seethed within him,