"Hahahaha!"
Facing the dark, gaping muzzles of the guns, there was not the slightest trace of fear on Takeshi Hirokawa's face. Anyone who could mingle with parasitic creatures was, no matter how you looked at it, far from normal.
He looked like a most devout martyr from ancient times, dying for his own faith. The mocking smile on his face seemed to be telling everyone, "I have already seen your ending, foolish humans!"
Takeshi Hirokawa truly lived up to his reputation as someone who had risen to become mayor through street speeches and elections—his eloquence was top-tier.
Right there on the spot, many people were left with confused expressions. Give him a little more time, and he might really have brainwashed a group of mindless believers who would defend the parasites to the death.
"A traitor to humanity, and you make it sound so righteous," Roy said with unconcealed disdain.
After Hirokawa's speech, the hall had fallen into dead silence, making Roy's voice painfully conspicuous.
Hirokawa looked at Roy expressionlessly. "It seems you don't agree with my ideals."
Roy replied, "The destruction of Earth, the depletion of resources? Can't we look for other planets that can sustain life? Clinging stubbornly to Earth and perishing with it is ridiculous. A civilization without humanity has no meaning at all!"
If Hirokawa's words had cast a veil of confusion over the crowd, Roy's speech was like a heavy hammer smashing straight into their hearts, instantly clearing their minds.
Hirokawa glared at Roy with deadly intensity.
The two stood at opposite extremes.
Hirokawa was willing to let parasitic creatures become humanity's natural enemies in order to protect Earth, reducing the number of humans—the apex predators.
Roy believed that even if humanity exceeded Earth's carrying capacity, the solution was to seek more resources and sustain everyone, not to lock humanity onto Earth and wait for extinction.
As the eyes of the others in the hall grew brighter, Lieutenant Colonel Yamagishi and Hirama couldn't help but sigh inwardly. That young man spoke beautifully.
He completely crushed Hirokawa's momentum.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Of course, their debate had no impact on the operation. With a single order, the special forces opened fire, and dense gunshots filled the entire hall.
As mentioned before, this was a war between species.
The moment the building was surrounded, the higher-ups had already tacitly accepted that everyone inside was as good as dead. Better to kill a thousand by mistake than let a single parasite escape.
Parasites could only transform the parasitized part—namely the head—into long arms and blades. Their bodies received little enhancement, making them little more than stationary targets.
One parasite after another was killed.
Takeshi Hirokawa was struck directly by stray bullets and collapsed into a pool of blood. His eyes were locked firmly on Roy. Conflicts of belief were terrifying—like a crusade.
Roy, however, had no interest whatsoever in a dead man.
Faced with the overwhelming power of shotguns, the parasites had no room to fight back and were slaughtered continuously. Watching this, Roy felt a pang of heartache—those were all his attribute points!
Only parasites personally killed by him or by Ryuu, his teammate, would yield rewards.
Fortunately, parasites were resilient. They didn't die immediately after being shot, allowing Ryuu to rush in and finish them off.
Some particularly cunning parasites used the crowd as cover, forcing the special forces to hold back, afraid to fire recklessly—the psychological barrier was too great.
That was when Ryuu took the stage, killing them in the blink of an eye with lightning speed.
As he watched the notification panels keep popping up and the parasite kill count rise, Roy felt refreshed from head to toe.
Finally, most of the parasites were eliminated.
Only one remained—a middle-aged man with a stiff, expressionless face, and the strongest, most dangerous parasite of them all: Gotou.
"This guy—shotguns are useless against him!"
Gotou had been riddled with holes. His body and head were covered in dense punctures, a horrifying sight, yet not a single drop of blood flowed from him.
"Even now I still don't understand what you were thinking, but I'll avenge you. I'll wipe out humanity!" Gotou said, looking at the dead Hirokawa. In a sense, he was inheriting the man's will.
To become humanity's natural enemy!
Boom!
Without any regard for the safety of others, Lieutenant Colonel Yamagishi raised a compact grenade launcher, aimed at Gotou, and pulled the trigger.
With a thunderous explosion, black smoke billowed out, and the deafening blast at close range left everyone stunned.
Gotou appeared on the ceiling. "I'm not faster than bullets. I'm faster than you—by reading your eyes and fingers, I can judge the moment you fire."
"Bastard!" Yamagishi's face darkened as he raised his shotgun toward Gotou.
A flash of cold light streaked past—it was Gotou's extended arm. Yamagishi was sent flying, his massive body arcing through the air before crashing more than ten meters away, his fate unknown.
Whoosh!
Gotou's skin bulged all over as shotgun pellets wriggled beneath it, gathering in his hands. With a flick of both arms, countless steel pellets rained down like a storm.
"—Gale Wind!"
As the pellets were about to slaughter both special forces and civilians, Ryuu—already informed about Gotou—completed her chant at that very moment.
Dozens of emerald-green spheres of light appeared around her, their dazzling glow illuminating the entire hall.
In that instant, it was as if the world itself had frozen.
For the first time, a hint of shock appeared on Gotou's placid face, like ancient humans witnessing fire for the first time and mistaking it for a miracle sent by the gods.
His instincts screamed of lethal danger.
Without hesitation, Gotou hardened most of his body, but his lower back remained a soft weak point—and the emerald spheres' attack range covered his entire body.
Boom!
The spheres of Gale Wind surged upward, destroying all the steel pellets and blasting Gotou away as well.
Gotou was blown apart by the emerald light, blood spraying everywhere, half his body gone. Terror filled his eyes as he looked at the elven girl, and he fled outward in a sorry state—
Straight into Roy, who was holding a flamethrower.
A ferocious grin spread across Roy's face. He aimed the flamethrower at Gotou and pulled the trigger. Roaring flames burst forth, instantly engulfing him.
Thud!
Gotou's face was filled with utter horror. In his panic, all the parasites within his body went out of control, breaking free from his command as the central "commander." His vision went black.
His steel-like body slammed heavily into the ground.
What followed was simple.
Ryuu rushed forward and, in a few swift moves, dismembered Gotou's body, chopping it into countless pieces.
But he still wasn't dead!
The fragments of flesh slowly crawled toward one another. No one doubted that if they were allowed to gather, the monster that feared neither guns nor bullets would fully regenerate.
Its tenacious vitality made everyone's scalp tingle.
Just as Ryuu was about to cast another spell, Roy stopped her. He patted the flamethrower in his hands. "This thing's not much worse than magic."
Roy pulled the trigger again. Roaring flames poured out, burning the writhing flesh on the ground into ashes.
Only when the notification panel appeared did Roy finally confirm that this incredibly resilient parasite was truly, completely dead.
[Successfully hunted the strongest parasitic creature "Gotou." Congratulations, you have obtained 1200 attribute points!]
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