Chapter 128: Fierce Battle in the Restaurant

Inside the restaurant, every diner and waiter fixed their cold, chilling gazes upon the table where Qi Chen and his group sat. Those eyes looked at them as if they were nothing more than pigs waiting to be slaughtered. The suckling pig that had been crying out for help could no longer form coherent human speech, emitting only rapid, desperate snorting sounds.

Bang!

The kitchen door was suddenly smashed open with brute force. A corpulent man dressed as a chef, wielding a sharp butcher’s knife and radiating an intense aura of bloodlust, pushed aside the customers and waiters as he strode toward Qi Chen and his companions. As he drew closer, his body became increasingly bloated; in the blink of an eye, his human face transformed into a massive, porcine snout, revealing jagged, uneven fangs.

"Awoo!" With a guttural roar, the pig-headed creature raised its blade high and brought it down toward the suckling pig on the floor!

But a hulking, gray-white phantom, just as robust as the attacker, suddenly manifested before it. A powerful hand seized the chef’s wrist, arresting the downward strike in mid-air.

"Get out of the restaurant, now!" Qi Chen bellowed. He vaulted over the table, his mind merging with Overlord, and launched another wave of attacks at the pig-headed chef!

However, the mutated creature seemed capable of seeing the anomalies. A cruel light flickered in its narrow eyes as it jerked its hand back, then thrust forward once more, driving the gleaming blade straight toward Overlord’s chest!

Neither Qi Chen nor Overlord had expected the entity to be capable of inflicting damage. A sharp, piercing pain suddenly stabbed into Qi Chen’s mind.

"ROAR!"

Wincing in pain, Overlord let out a wild, furious roar and delivered a devastating kick. The pig-headed creature’s heavy body went flying, crashing into the counter and leaving a deep indentation in the wood. A gaping, bloody hole appeared in its abdomen where Overlord’s foot had connected.

But as one pig-headed creature fell, more surged from the shadows. To be precise, every customer and waiter in the restaurant had now shed their human guises. There was not a single true human left in the building; they were all pig-headed monsters! Looking around, one could see that the items on the grills were not suckling pigs at all, but beings identical to Qi Chen and his team.

Qi Chen and Warm Man fought back-to-back, shielding the special operations officers—who were left only with short blades—as they scrambled toward the exit.

***

Several massive pig-headed creatures had firmly blocked the restaurant’s entrance. To pass through, they would have to strike these monsters down. Despite their high-intensity combat training, the special operations officers, even armed, were clearly losing ground against creatures whose strength and ferocity far exceeded their own. Even huddled together, they could barely maintain a defensive formation, and it was impossible to keep everyone safe.

Several pig-headed creatures swarmed them. Even when stabbed repeatedly with short blades, they frantically dragged one officer away; in an instant, a pack of them piled on, opening their maws to tear into him with desperate ferocity!

"Warm Man! Hold them off! I’ll clear a path!" Qi Chen roared, brandishing a chair as a weapon. Beside him, Overlord unleashed a flurry of punches; his powerful blows struck the heads of the monsters like watermelons bursting open. Possessing the greater strength, he had no choice but to shoulder the burden of carving out a way to survive.

Behind him, Warm Man and Enthusiastic Heart continuously unleashed their abilities, turning the ground around them into a soft, swamp-like mire to slow the monsters' advance. Simultaneously, they fired classic air bullets—compressed blasts of hardened air that pummeled the enemies.

Fortunately, the restaurant’s aisles were narrow, and the massive creatures struggled to form an effective encirclement while hindered by the effects of Warm Man and Enthusiastic Heart. They fell behind, allowing Warm Man to pick them off one by one. However, given the sheer density and number of the monsters, Warm Man was struggling to keep pace. The orange-red Enthusiastic Heart darted everywhere, and since these pig-headed creatures seemed capable of attacking the anomalies, it was like dancing on the edge of a blade.

"Mask! Hurry up! We can’t hold them much longer!"

"Almost there! Almost there!"

A wildfire of rage surged in Qi Chen’s heart. He nearly resorted to full anomaly integration, but his remaining shred of reason held him back. He was constantly wary of the conceptual entity wandering somewhere within the Minsheng Mall; heaven knows if their current commotion had already drawn its attention.

"ROAR!"

Overlord’s roars never ceased, its muscular arms punching out like cannonballs once more! The two pig-headed monsters blocking the door saw their ugly faces twisted in agony, their mouths revealing yellowed fangs still caked with bits of flesh. Looking down, they saw two gaping holes punched through their chests.

"Follow me!" Qi Chen commanded, using Overlord’s body to shove the two carcasses aside, leading the five surviving officers as they charged out of the roast suckling pig shop.

***

No sooner had they stepped out than Warm Man followed them, bolting through the exit. Qi Chen and Warm Man stood shoulder to shoulder, remaining in a defensive posture, but the anticipated pursuit never came. The remaining creatures inside showed no interest in chasing them; instead, they turned their attention to the corpses of their own kind on the floor.

The sound of crunching and chewing was incessant, a horrific scene that made one’s skin crawl. Even the steel-nerved special operations officers felt their stomachs churning at the sight.

Suddenly, one pig-headed creature, scrambling for a piece of meat, was shoved out of the restaurant by a companion. The expression on its wrinkled face froze, and its small, beady eyes flashed with profound confusion.

Snap!

A surge of overwhelming, anomalous energy erupted, and in an instant, half of the creature that had been pushed out simply vanished! A blink later, the remaining half also disappeared into the ether.

"Did you... feel that?" Warm Man swallowed hard.

Qi Chen nodded grimly. In that split second, both he and Warm Man had sensed a presence of immense mental intensity, yet as anomaly walkers, they had seen absolutely nothing. Fortunately, they hadn't summoned their own anomalies at that moment; otherwise, it might not have been just that one unlucky pig-head that vanished.

Abruptly, the noise inside the restaurant ceased, and not a single pig-headed creature remained in sight. Everything was as if nothing had ever happened.

The customers laughed as they sat around the tables, enjoying the fragrant roast suckling pig, while the waiters used mops to diligently scrub the floor. They were cleaning up the pools of fresh, crimson liquid that had yet to dry.