The security force at Pakari Forest Park was very strong, equipped with standard firearms and a team composed of retired soldiers.
However, such high-end armed security was like paper before that group of monsters, torn to shreds with a gentle rip.
Bullets could only produce pitifully small splashes of blood, and there were no more powerful restricted weapons.
Thus, the protective high wall crumbled in the blink of an eye.
The defenseless tourists were essentially offering their necks to the monsters.
It was like humans gently pinching their fingers, easily crushing an ant to death.
Each monster didn't even need to exert much force; just a gentle wave of its hand could smash a human's head.
Zizhu was a professional Gourmet Hunter and a relatively powerful Nen User.
These two identities had gradually brewed a confidence and pride surpassing ordinary people over time.
Upon noticing the disturbance in the park and seeing the monsters massacring tourists, he had acted without hesitation, killing a monster with a single punch.
That's all they've got.
That's what he thought at the time, giving rise to a diluted desire to save the world.
If monsters were only at this level, he could handle them easily.
He even thought that if he helped Pakari Forest Park resolve this disturbance, he could definitely receive a handsome reward. At the same time, the Association would record this incident in his merits log.
Maybe he could even get a promotion...
But when he swept his gaze over the monsters before him, that group of monsters also cast their gazes onto him.
In that instant, he nearly suffocated. The beautiful scene he had fantasized shattered like glass.
As a Gourmet Hunter, he was all too familiar with that kind of gaze.
Because when he collected ingredients, he looked at every living creature with the same gaze.
A feeling called panic assaulted his mind, also leaving him no time to consider a strange point.
That was, after this group of monsters entered the park, they had attacked and killed at least hundreds of tourists, yet not a single monster stopped to consume the tourists' corpses.
So, why did this group of monsters look at him as if he were a delicious meal?
Putting that aside, why did he feel such mountain-like pressure?
The intense sense of crisis made Zizhu instantly open all his Aura Nodes completely, releasing his Aura to the maximum extent.
Then, Zizhu's expression changed slightly. He noticed that among the monster group, a monster with black spikes on its back suddenly shook its back. The dozens of chopstick-like spikes shot towards him rapidly.
Seeing this, Zizhu leaped back in a big jump.
In the blink of an eye, the spikes covered the spot where he had been standing. They also turned the security captain into a sieve… he died on the spot without making a single sound.
Seeing this, Zizhu weighed the pros and cons. He no longer had the mood to save the world and decided to retreat first.
He was here by invitation, and his responsibility was to cook delicious dishes for the guests, not to stand up to protect them.
He ignored the surrounding scenes of massacre, like a hell on earth, and fled in the opposite direction. But after covering some distance, dozens of monsters had somehow appeared ahead.
"..."
Zizhu's expression turned grim.
At that moment, a slight tremor came from the ground.
He instinctively looked down and saw the soil explode. Two soft tentacles, like earthworm bodies, tightly wrapped around him.
"What?"
Zizhu felt a pang of panic. He exerted force immediately, breaking the tentacles.
Then, a whistling sound came from behind his head.
Zizhu twisted his waist, clenching his fist. Wrapped in aura, he punched towards the attacker.
Bang.
The attacker monster's head shattered like a watermelon. The residual force sent its lower body flying.
After he killed this attacker, monsters swarmed in. Perhaps due to instinct, each attacking monster targeted his back.
In such a situation, Zizhu could only keep circling, beating back or killing the monsters one by one.
After just over ten seconds of containment, the monsters had formed an encirclement.
In their eyes, Zizhu, glowing with Aura, stimulated their intense desire to feed.
Facing the monsters' tide-like attacks, Zizhu felt trapped in quicksand, liable to fall at any moment.
The siege lasted several minutes. Over a dozen more monster corpses littered the ground. Zizhu made one tiny mistake, receiving three deep claw wounds on his back.
Then, the snowball started rolling.
He was in a very dangerous situation.
At that moment, the sound of a violin arrived like heavenly music.
Swish swish swish!
Sound waves transformed into sharp Aura Blades, killing five or six monsters with one encounter.
Zizhu took advantage of the situation to break out of the encirclement, arriving beside the person using violin music as support to release Aura Blades to kill the enemy.
It was a man wearing a tuxedo, with a red bow tie at his neck, slicked-back hair, and a mustache. He held a violin on his shoulder, coldly staring at the monsters wantonly massacring the tourists.
"Pianno, there are too many monsters. Let's retreat first and report this to the Association," Zizhu said, looking at the menacing and increasingly numerous monsters, his expression grave.
At this moment, there was no trace of his fellow humans being massacred in his eyes.
"Don't you hear the heart-wrenching screams around us? For every second we stay, we might save dozens more people," Pianno said first with a look of distress, then with firm conviction.
Hearing this, sweat beads formed on Zizhu's forehead.
'Even if your sense of justice is bursting, shouldn't you look at the situation?'
This sentence, Zizhu barely swallowed back, since Pianno had just saved him.
"Help! Somebody hel-!"
"Mom, no!"
"Someone save me! I have money, a lot of money!"
Sounds from afar carried the weight of fresh blood.
In such a relatively dangerous situation, Zizhu believed he had no obligation or responsibility to protect the tourists being massacred. But since Pianno had just saved him, he couldn't run away alone.
This was a clear-cut sense of responsibility.
And he had always disliked people who shirked responsibility.
"You better not regret this," Zizhu said helplessly, then punched a charging monster, sending it flying.
Pianno didn't speak, merely playing his violin. The beautiful notes turned into life-stealing Aura Blades, killing several monsters in the blink of an eye.
In the one-sided massacre, Pianno and Zizhu's heroic display inevitably caught the eyes of those fleeing for their lives.
Like a straw to a drowning person, the fleeing people moved towards Zizhu and Pianno with surprising unity.
The consequence was bringing more monsters.
Then, the fleeing people snapped that straw.
Outnumbered and overwhelmed, Pianno's violin was destroyed, and he was heavily injured by a monster.
Zizhu, trying to save him, was ambushed by another monster while killing that one and also fell heavily injured.
The defense line built by the two crumbled in an instant.
The group of tourists who thought they had found a lifeline were immediately plunged into despair, shouting and fleeing in all directions.
Fortunately, Nen Users held stronger attraction in the monsters' eyes. They didn't immediately pounce on the tourists but closed in on Zizhu and Pianno. However, once Zizhu and Pianno died, they wouldn't escape either.
Zizhu mustered his last bit of strength to sit up halfway, looking at Pianno, who was momentarily unable to move on the ground. He smiled bitterly, "I told you, you better not regret it."
Pianno, however, only looked at his destroyed violin, saying miserably, "My beloved violin..."
"..."
Zizhu's mouth twitched. Resigned, he looked at the monsters closing in.
Gourmet Hunters were always searching for ingredients to eat. The most normal way to die was to be eaten by an ingredient.
Now, he was about to be eaten as an ingredient. That counted as a normal death.
Just as he prepared to embrace death, he saw that group of monsters suddenly shift their gazes, looking towards a certain place.
There, dozens of heads rose into the air, accompanied by spurting blood arrows.
A man in tattered robes strode forward. Wherever he went, without any visible movement, nearby monsters had their heads severed one by one.
Then, Zizhu and Pianno, and even the people fleeing moments ago, saw on the faces of that group of monsters, whose numbers were at least over five hundred… fear.
Yes, fear.
The monsters, who had been acting like cold, emotionless executioners from the moment they appeared, were actually afraid.
"So, so strong!"
Pianno stared blankly at the man striding forward. Unlike ordinary people, he could clearly see how the man used Aura to kill the monsters.
"It's him."
Zizhu exclaimed in surprise.
It was Law.
"You know him?" Pianno asked.
Zizhu didn't answer. He watched as Law seemed to carry a wind of death with him. Wherever he went, monsters were sure to fall.
Those monsters were utterly defenseless before Law. It seemed their previous positions had been completely reversed.