Chapter 676 436: Return (Part 1)

Exploiting the fear of this world's inhabitants was one reason.

The other was to wait for the remaining Intern Readers to deliver themselves to him.

But unfortunately, judging by the current situation...

The remaining Intern Readers had completely given up on trying to kill him.

That made sense.

If they had previously clung to some faint hope of killing Hu Qi by leveraging their numerical advantage...

...then after he demonstrated the ability to withstand a nuclear weapon...

...those few remaining Intern Readers were now even less likely to ever appear before him.

After all, staying away from him meant they might live. Attacking him, however, meant certain death.

Anyone would know what choice to make.

Furthermore,

Hu Qi had no idea what the specific details of the Intern Readers' mission were, or if it even had a time limit.

He had no way of knowing.

If there was no time limit, they certainly wouldn't be in a rush.

They had all the time in the world to wait him out.

Therefore, there was no longer any point in staying here.

With this in mind,

Hu Qi took a few steps, and his figure vanished on the spot.

...

As time went on, the video of Hu Qi withstanding a nuclear weapon spread like wildfire across the internet.

The shocking footage haunted everyone's minds like a nightmare, and a plague of fear spread across the globe.

Although this mysterious being had yet to pose a tangible threat to human existence...

...thanks to the groundwork laid by the Yin Beasts' covert manipulation of public opinion, this unique being, Hu Qi, had become a Sword of Damocles hanging over all of humanity. No one knew when it might fall.

As this panic fermented, the populace split into three camps.

The extremists argued that a being who defied all logic should not exist in the world. They insisted a way must be found to eliminate him as soon as possible, or he would bring about the downfall of human civilization.

The rationalists, on the other hand, advocated for calm judgment. They pointed out that,

according to all available information,

everyone Hu Qi had killed had brought it upon themselves, as they had always been the ones to attack first.

From their perspective, fighting back in self-defense when one's life was threatened was perfectly normal.

Clearly, they should try to find him, open a dialogue, and pursue peaceful coexistence rather than continuing to escalate the conflict.

Besides, what ability did humanity even possess to eliminate a being who could survive a nuclear explosion?

As for the third group...

...its members were fanatical worshippers.

They revered Hu Qi as the incarnation of a god, believing his mastery of Extraordinary power was proof of his Divinity.

This division...

...was of little concern to Hu Qi.

Because whether it was fear or worship, these intense emotional fluctuations continuously supplied him with the Power of Emotion.

...

As time passed...

...since the day the nuclear bomb was detonated...

...more than ten days had passed.

Shenmu City had been reduced to ruins. Bathed in radiation, it had become a dead zone that no human dared to approach.

While a nuclear explosion was terrifying...

...its effective range was only a few kilometers.

However, beyond the immediate lethal and destructive force of a nuclear bomb...

...the most terrifying aspect was the radioactive fallout that followed.

Even humans and other life forms who were lucky enough to survive...

...suffered unimaginable after-effects due to the radiation, such as weakened bodily functions, blindness, and more.

And they were the lucky ones.

In more severe cases, for those closer to the blast with excessive radiation levels in their bodies, their skin tissue ulcerated, their internal organs dissolved, and they vomited blood.

It was as if they were melting like candles.

They suffered unimaginable pain before they died.

The only silver lining, if it could be called that, was because of the Slaughter Day.

The population of Shenmu City had already been greatly reduced. After all the killing, most of those affected by the radiation were the Slaughterers who had blood on their hands. There were very few truly innocent people left.

Nevertheless...

...seeing their fellow countrymen in such a state...

...the relatives and friends of the victims turned their anger toward the world's leaders.

They angrily demanded to know how this could have happened if those leaders hadn't dropped a nuclear bomb on Shenmu City.

They demanded compensation.

However, the higher-ups paid them no mind.

They had already terminated the Slaughter Day and ordered all relevant personnel to evacuate Shenmu City.

'Those people had insisted on staying; how could the blame fall on us?'

More importantly, they ultimately had no choice in the matter. Everything they did was under duress from the Yin Beasts.

But it wasn't all bad news.

To everyone's surprise, the anticipated scenes of Hu Qi appearing to destroy buildings and wantonly slaughter humans never materialized.

This realization allowed the terrified populace to breathe a small sigh of relief.

It was as if he had vanished without a trace.

If people hadn't clearly seen his figure on the live broadcast...

...they would have assumed he had died in the nuclear blast.

However, as time went on...

...something else began to appear online.

Information and videos about the Yin Beasts.

The posts contained detailed introductions to the creatures known as Yin Beasts.

Just like the initial live broadcast, this content could not be deleted.

It was as if the publisher was an incredibly powerful hacker.

At first, some people suspected it was all just special effects or a mass hallucination.

But such doubts quickly disappeared.

More and more people came forward, claiming to have witnessed the existence of Yin Beasts with their own eyes.

They had just always remained silent, either because they thought their eyes were playing tricks on them or because they were afraid of being called crazy.