Chương 173: The King of Gluttony Darkens

"Mwahahaha!! I'm gonna eat, eat, eat, eat, EAT!!!" Brandishing his serrated cleaver, the King of Gluttony sprinted forward at blinding speed. His massive, log-like legs hammered against the earth like giant warhammers, causing the ground to rumble loudly with every step, while the heavy folds of fat on his chest sloshed wildly back and forth. Gob-Bow wished with all his heart he could crawl right back into his mother's womb as he led his squad in a desperate, frantic retreat.

Yet no matter how fast they ran, the thunderous, rhythmic thudding behind them drew relentlessly closer.

"Split up! Everyone split up!!" Gob-Bow knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he had encountered an extraordinary entity. The Boss had warned them before: in this world, certain exceptional individuals possessed power that far exceeded the bounds of their species. Blessed with strange, supernatural abilities and a razor-sharp sixth sense, they were virtually impossible to kill through normal means—just like the legendary Heroes. When small units encountered such foes, resistance was completely out of the question.

The only option was to scatter in all directions and pray that as many survived as possible. Such transcendent beings could sense a soldier's position from a single glance; ordinary troops had no hope of facing them head-on. Having undergone training specifically designed for encountering extraordinary threats, the thirty snipers immediately dispersed into thirty separate directions, scattering like a bouquet of flowers bursting in the wind.

The King of Gluttony's frantic pace slowed for a fraction of a second, momentarily stumped by the sudden choice of targets. Following his raw instincts, however, he locked onto the strongest presence in the area: Gob-Bow. Hearing the thunderous booms of the approaching mountain of meat right behind him, Gob-Bow almost wet his pants, realizing with dread that the monster had singled him out. Panic seized his chest. It won't be long before he catches me! What do I do?!

"Damn your mother! Have a taste of this!!" Reaching behind his back, Gob-Bow yanked a pouch filled with hand grenades off his rig. He twisted open the ceramic cap on the wooden handles, pulled the cords, and hurled the entire satchel backward over his shoulder. Gob-Bow was equipped with pull-ignited grenades—an experimental batch produced by Li Qinwu in small quantities. The pull-ignition mechanism was built upon the basic match-lit design, adding a mechanical friction igniter.

Inside the handle, a pull-cord was attached to a tiny friction bead. A hard tug dragged the bead against a flint compound, producing a flash of spark to ignite the internal match fuse, which then burned down to the black powder charge to trigger the explosion. While it sounded clever in theory, its reliability was abysmal. This crudely engineered pull-string mechanism carried roughly a 50% ignition rate—meaning only five out of ten grenades thrown would actually go off.

Because of this extreme unreliability, Li Qinwu had issued them only in limited numbers to elite troops. Out of the five pull-string grenades Gob-Bow threw in the satchel, only three detonated. Black powder produced a loud bang and a dense curtain of smoke. The three exploding charges detonated right in front of the King of Gluttony, shrouding his field of vision in thick black fumes. Taking advantage of the distraction, Gob-Bow dove forward, rolling beneath a dense patch of thorny bushes.

Hugging his knees and covering his head, he tucked himself into a tight, motionless ball. Bursting through the smoke, the King of Gluttony prepared to resume his chase, only to find nothing before him except endless rows of green foliage. His solid black eyes blinked slowly as the pitch-black markings on his skin squirmed wildly.

"ARRRGH!! Where are you?! WHERE ARE YOU?!" Driven into a frenzy, the King of Gluttony swung his serrated blade blindly, hacking frantically through the brush in an attempt to flush out the hidden goblin. Gob-Bow was huddled a mere five meters away. His ghillie suit provided near-perfect concealment; as long as he remained completely motionless, he was virtually impossible to spot. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Moreover, Gob-Bow remembered the Boss's vital instruction: transcendent creatures possessed heightened sensory awareness. Do not look at him, do not harbour killing intent, and do not think about him. Gob-Bow executed the advice flawlessly. Ignoring the towering mountain of lard thrashing nearby, he pressed his face firmly into the rotten leaves, keeping completely still. His breathing remained slow and steady while he emptied his mind of all thought.

He felt no fear, held no image of the horrifying monster in his head, and behaved like a lifeless rock—seeing nothing, hearing nothing, thinking nothing. Perhaps his concealment truly worked. The King of Gluttony's wild swinging caused the jagged blade to graze the very bushes hiding Gob-Bow several times, yet the iron edge somehow missed him every single time.

Tearing through the forest like a runaway bulldozer, the King sent branches and shattered leaves flying through the air, felling even thick tree trunks with brute force and leaving the surrounding woods pitted and ruined. After a long bout of mindless destruction, the King's fury reached a boiling point. His remaining sanity vanished completely as the black tattoos across his skin squirmed frantically—looking as if thousands of giant centipedes were slithering right under his fat.

A dense, suffocating aura of malevolence radiated from his body, as though an incomprehensibly evil entity had taken hold of his soul.

"My King? My King?" Gulush arrived at the scene with his war-marked trolls. Just as he stepped forward to approach, the horrifying state of his sovereign brought him to a dead halt. The King of Gluttony turned his neck stiffly, his pitch-black eyes locking onto Gulush. In that split second, Gulush felt as if his very soul were being ripped apart by that gaze.

He felt that those eyes no longer belonged to his friend, his King—instead, an ancient, devouring abomination was using those black orbs to stare straight through him.

"Gulush... are you afraid of me? My old friend... why do you fear me?" The King of Gluttony spoke, but the voice coming from his throat was no longer his own. It sounded like an evil spirit possessing a corpse, projecting an abyssal rasp from the underworld.

"My King... what... what should we do... next...?" Gulush lowered his head, not daring to make eye contact with those pitch-black pupils as he forced a change of subject.

"Hmm~ next? Let me think..." The King of Gluttony scratched his bloated chin, adopting a thoughtful expression before slapping his massive head with a fleshy palm.

"Oh my... over there! There is a very special presence over there... Hehehehe... Such a unique goblin... He must taste... absolutely delicious!!!" At the airship camp, Li Qinwu snapped his head around toward the northern forest, a single drop of cold sweat rolling down his forehead. He felt a horrifying, malignant force staring at him from deep within the woods—a concentrated malice so thick it felt as though it had locked onto his very soul.

Dropping his heavy axe, he unsheathed his broadsword and shouted at the top of his lungs to the surrounding troops: "Everyone! To your battle stations!! Grab your weapons! Get to your battle stations NOW!!" The working goblins froze momentarily before dropping their tools, grabbing their rifles, and sprinting to take cover behind the timber barricades. Li Qinwu rushed beneath the airship and yelled toward the gondola: "Sharpe! Take off immediately! Do not land until I give the order!"

Sharpe stuck his head out the window, asking in confusion, "Your Majesty, are you sure?"

"Yes! Take off now! RIGHT NOW!!"

"Understood!" Confirming the direct command, Sharpe began operating the controls. The airship ascended slowly into the sky, rising to an altitude of 600 meters to catch the ambient mana currents before coming to a steady hover. Li Qinwu then sprinted toward Gob-Die, shouting, "Move all your zombies outside the northern perimeter barricades! Something is coming from that direction!"

"On it, Boss!" Lying inside a dugout trench, Gob-Die began chanting his spells. By now, he had raised and controlled five hundred zombie trolls, all of whom had been busy felling timber. Under Gob-Die's dark command, the undead giants turned, swaying unsteadily as they shuffled slowly toward the clearing outside the northern barrier.

"Gob-Boom!!" Li Qinwu roared. Gob-Boom dashed to his side, snapping a sharp salute.

"Sir!" Li Qinwu pointed toward the northern defense line.

"Move all six cannons to the north! Enemy approaching from the northern woods!"

"YES SIR!!" Gob-Boom bellowed orders to the artillery crews, directing them to maneuver all six field guns to the northern line, training their muzzles squarely on the forest ahead. Li Qinwu raised a musket and pointed it toward the distant treeline, his heart pounding with an unexplainable dread. Something profoundly evil had locked its gaze onto him from miles away. The goblin soldiers lacked Li Qinwu's terrifying perception, but the grim gravity radiating from their commander filled them with intense tension.

Each goblin gripped their rifle tightly, their eyes locked onto the distant green canopy. After two full days of clearing the land—with heavy focus directed toward the north—a clear field of fire extending over a hundred meters had been cleared outside the barricades. Across such wide, open ground, the troops were confident they could mow down any invading force. Under the watchful eyes of the army, countless birds suddenly burst into the sky from the northern forest.

Moments later, dozens of towering figures stepped slowly out from the tree line. At the very front stood a massive, mountain-like troll composed of endless folds of bloated fat. His entire body had turned jet-black, without a single patch of normal skin remaining, resembling a light-absorbing black hole. His movements were unnaturally stiff, his joints clicking together like rusty gears—far stiffer than those of any corpse.

The moment he spotted Li Qinwu standing amidst the goblin ranks, his pitch-black, bloated mouth peeled back into a sickening smile.

"Oh my... I found you... What a special goblin... You must be... incredibly delicious!!!" With a sudden, violent burst of motion, the King of Gluttony let out a bloodcurdling howl and charged straight toward Li Qinwu like a mad rhino. Li Qinwu's pupils shrank to pinpricks as he roared: "FIRE!!"