Ch.100100. Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

After an unidentified flying object—presumed to be some unknown monster—flew at high speed and crashed into the top floor of the Inertia Group headquarters.

“Tighten the perimeter!”

“Evacuate the civilians! Money doesn’t matter now! Just tell everyone to clear out!”

As the CEOs of other mega-corporations had jointly pledged to inflict massive damage on the Inertia Group, the Capital Defense Force was now densely deployed around the headquarters, targeting the building.

In the sky, dozens of state-of-the-art fighter jets and hundreds of attack helicopters had their missiles aimed at the target. On the ground, numerous tanks and giant armors—Titan Armors—over 10 meters tall had their gun barrels pointed at the headquarters.

To protect these armored vehicles and aircraft, mobile psychic barrier generators had been installed at regular intervals, and approximately 6,000 elite heavily armored infantry were also on high alert around the Inertia Group headquarters in full combat gear.

A short distance away, hundreds of self-propelled artillery and dozens of Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS) were aimed at the top of the headquarters, while almost every hunter in Shanghai had been mobilized to secure the surrounding area.

And just then.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!”

Upon seeing two security guards falling from the destroyed outer wall of the top floor with screams, the Capital Defense Force immediately attempted to fire at the building—but a moment faster, the building collapsed, and from within, like a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis, “it” revealed itself.

It was a gigantic being in the form of a 100-meter-tall giant.

Its entire body was made of a semi-transparent psychic construct with a black hue, and it wore Chinese-style armor.

In its hand was an enormous glaive proportionate to its 100-meter height. This appearance was one they all knew all too well.

It was identical in appearance to the Mecha-Guan Yu of the self-proclaimed Emperor of North China—the Chinese Empire—except for its color.

“H-hieek!”

“Stay calm and fire!”

Whether due to the high-density psychic energy emanating from its massive body or its sheer size, the Black Mecha-Guan Yu was intimidating every being in its vicinity—the soldiers, momentarily stunned, quickly regained their composure and concentrated their firepower on the Black Mecha-Guan Yu.

And as the Black Mecha-Guan Yu was directly engulfed by attacks from all directions—

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

Without flinching, it absorbed the attacks with its body while slowly advancing, then brought down the blunt end of its glaive onto the ground with a heavy thud!

CRACK!

CLANG!

Suddenly, black fissures began to appear in the surrounding space, as if the fabric of space itself was being torn apart.

“W-what, what is th-that…?”

“Fire! Don’t let it do whatever it’s trying to do!”

The bewildered Capital Defense Force soldiers either fired at the main body or concentrated their firepower on the fissures, but these actions were completely ineffective.

Rather, as the barrage directed at Black Mecha-Guan Yu decreased, the fissures grew even more numerous. The Capital Defense Force command hurriedly ordered to redirect the bombardment back to Black Mecha-Guan Yu, but…

It was already too late. From within the fissures, horrifying entities that seemed not to belong to this world were crawling out.

Their basic appearance was based on humans with grotesquely swollen bodies, adorned with all sorts of appendages—arms, legs, horns, tails, spines, and various other body parts—hanging off them, with each individual having a unique form.

For example, one had giant pincers instead of normal arms and three legs for its lower body, creating a bizarre appearance. Another had a body resembling the muscular zombies common in zombie games, but with dozens of screaming human faces attached to it.

Some entities appeared relatively normal, while others were so twisted that one might question whether they possessed any combat ability at all.

These beings with appearances that seemed like a reinterpretation of the grotesque brought into reality were psychic life forms created by “definitely not a demigod evolved from a hive mind” using human negative emotions as their core.

Of course, it’s impossible for psychic life forms to simply exist in reality; these monsters could only maintain their manifestation within the domain formed by the psychic energy dispersed by Black Mecha-Guan Yu.

However, this domain was quite extensive, covering several hundred meters around as long as it could receive energy, and the combat capabilities of these psychic life forms were by no means low.

Although there were significant variations, on average they possessed hand-to-hand combat abilities comparable to mid-level monsters. Due to their nature as psychic life forms with bodies composed of psychic energy, weapons without psychic properties had almost no effect on them.

Additionally, while their appearances were those of grotesque monsters, their bodies were actually closer to fluid entities, making it nearly impossible to kill them in a single strike. One had to wear them down until all the psychic energy forming their bodies was depleted, similar to reducing a game monster’s HP.

To summarize these characteristics simply: these bizarre psychic life forms were difficult to kill yet possessed hand-to-hand combat abilities on par with mid-level monsters—

“B-block them! Block them!”

“S-save me!!!”

“Gack—”

Thud!

The soldiers, rather than targeting Black Mecha-Guan Yu, naturally prioritized attacking the psychic life forms that were directly threatening them.

While the higher-ups certainly pressured them to attack the more dangerous Black Mecha-Guan Yu, it was impossible to maintain such rational and cold judgment when facing immediate bodily harm.

As they poured firepower into the surrounding psychic life forms, they might kill one or two, but more would rush in, overwhelming the soldiers and hunters with sheer numbers, causing them to fall into fear and despair—activating the special characteristic of these psychic life forms.

As mentioned earlier, these psychic life forms, created using human negative emotions as their core, grew stronger by absorbing the negative emotions directed at them by nearby intelligent beings—especially humans.

As this cycle of killing and being killed continued, the psychic life forms naturally absorbed more negative emotions and grew stronger, using that enhanced power to kill more people and further increase negative emotions.

Due to this vicious cycle, at some point, most of them had transformed into forms that made killing humans easier, attacking them more efficiently.

Some tore off armor plates from destroyed tanks to use as shields, others picked up personal weapons from dead humans and fired them with the numerous arms attached to their bodies, and some even possessed tanks or giant armors, becoming hybrids of organic and mechanical entities that turned the battlefield into chaos.

Around this time.

The Black Mecha-Guan Yu, which had been silently observing the chaotic battlefield, turned its head to the right and fired two beams of psychic energy from its eyes toward the distance—

KWAAAAAAANG!!!

Several kilometers away, at the end of the beam’s reach, there were a few helicopters carrying dozens of people.

It was an evacuation attempt by the owners of many megacorps headquartered in Shanghai, high-ranking military officials, and their families.

They were capitalist zealots obsessed with money, but before that, they were ordinary people who valued their own lives above all else—while simultaneously being businesspeople and power brokers with impeccable judgment.

Using that excellent judgment, those who believed the Shanghai Capital Defense Force alone could not defeat Black Mecha-Guan Yu had attempted to escape by helicopter, but they ultimately vaporized from existence without even having time to scream when struck by the psychic beams.

And with the command structure now vaporized—

Whoosh—KWAAAAAAAAAANG!!!!!

Black Mecha-Guan Yu, which had been stationary until now, began to rampage directly, and the tide of battle completely turned in its favor.

Each swing of its glaive created a massive crater while splitting the ground, making the surroundings shake as if in an earthquake, and the psychic beams emitted from its eyes disintegrated everything they touched at the particle level, erasing them from existence.

Furthermore, the psychic life forms that had absorbed massive amounts of negative emotions through continued combat had decreased in number, but as if in exchange, each individual’s combat power had increased dramatically. Using their unique growth abilities, they were confronting soldiers and hunters in extremely cunning ways.

Even the most experienced hunters found it difficult to deal with them, as they had only ever faced monsters whose tactics were limited to ambushes and surprise attacks at best. Yet these psychic life forms were too powerful for ordinary soldiers to handle.

Therefore, before long, there was no one left willing to face Black Mecha-Guan Yu and its minions.