The blade of the combat knife stopped half a foot above Xu Meng's head, blocked by an invisible shield.
The nearest "troublemaker," Xun Fei, also reacted the moment Zhu Mo drew her knife, stepping forward and grabbing her wrist.
"Are you fucking crazy???"
This guy's surprise was no less than that of the audience below.
"Do you really think this is a game???"
The valiant sniper and Huan Yue in the front row also stood up, almost rushing onto the stage.
Only to be stopped by an invisible wall of air below.
Several people in the crowd took the opportunity to pull out golden weapons, but soon found that the safety was locked, turning them into mere pokers.
The scene below the stage was a chaotic mess.
On stage, Zhu Mo looked at the unmoved Xu Meng, feeling a bit awkward.
"...Why didn't you dodge?"
Xu Meng looked at the knife, still a distance from her forehead, and instead of answering her question, she retorted speechlessly, "Are you cosplaying Jing Ke here?"
Before she could answer, she curiously asked, "I thought the scroll would end up being a hand grenade, how is it a knife?"
Yesterday, when she invited the Northwest Hammer King to join, she did plan to do something big.
Unfortunately, Li Liangcai, carrying a big hammer, looked reckless, but after hearing her idea, he shook his head repeatedly.
Forget joining, he almost deleted her as a friend.
Li Liangcai's reaction poured cold water on Zhu Mo, and she reluctantly abandoned the idea of doing something big.
But she still wanted to scare Xu Meng, hence the dagger reveal scene.
Unfortunately, Xu Meng didn't even flinch, let alone back down, she didn't even blink.
"If I said, I was just joking with you and wouldn't really stab you, would you believe me?"
Xu Meng smiled slightly, "I believe you."
"But I also have a surprise for you."
"?" Zhu Mo looked at Xu Meng's sinister smile, and her heart skipped a beat.
Before she could react, a heavy heartbeat sounded overhead.
The audience below the stage saw a transparent outline appearing in the air directly above the stage.
The outline quickly became clear—
A giant beast, as tall as three stories, with crocodile skin and a dinosaur body, emerged from its invisible state, opening its bloody mouth to bite down on the stage!
Zhu Mo looked at the terrifying mouth, her pupils instantly dilated, and her limbs went weak!
Without any resistance, she was bitten by the monster in one bite!
Even the screams were stifled in the giant crocodile's mouth.
Xun Fei had fought giant beasts of several hundred meters at close range, so he was much better when facing a monster of ten meters.
—Although he was also very surprised, he immediately judged the attack range and accurately dodged the attack.
Xu Meng took two steps back, just barely avoiding the monster's chin.
—His original plan was actually to be eaten himself.
Taking the opportunity to launch a round of monster siege.
Then release the first trailer of "Monster Hunter," giving global players a surprise.
The entire [Global Survival Competition] award ceremony was actually to do the first round of promotion for the new project.
Zhu Mo just happened to run into the line of fire.
"Hahaha!" Xu Meng watched the giant crocodile's mouth lift Zhu Mo's upper body up and back, her legs still kicking wildly outside, and couldn't help laughing out loud.
He waved at the still-alive Zhu Mo, and with a strong sense of revenge, shouted a farewell—
"Surprise!!!"
"Hahahaha!"
Xun Fei tilted his head and watched the monster flick its neck, throwing Zhu Mo in its mouth into the air, and swallowing her in one bite amid her screams of "Ah, ah, ah."
Looking at Xu Meng's smiling face and the dilapidated stage, he felt a chill in his heart.
"Well, Mr. Xu, you're busy, I'll go down first."
After saying goodbye, he wanted to stay away from Xu Meng, this high-risk person.
But just as he turned around, he heard a heavy drumbeat in his ears.
At first, he couldn't tell whether it was the sound of drums or the monster's heartbeat.
But soon, the drumbeats became heavy and dense.
More instruments joined in, enriching the drumbeat's layers.
With the magnificent sound of horns as the boundary, the drumbeats became even more passionate and surging!
He turned his head back.
He saw that after the monster ate Zhu Mo, its front limbs lowered, and its entire body slammed down on the stage.
A heavy shadow covered the entire stage.
With a loud "boom," the stage was crushed to pieces, and the central square shook.
Players hanging on trees and power lines swayed wildly, falling like dumplings into the crowd below.
"Roar—"
The giant crocodile roared wildly at the audience in front of the stage!
A gust of wind rushed towards them!
Players wearing haptic suits felt their bodies tighten, while PC players saw a screen full of swaying wind effects.
The earth shook in the rumbling sound!
Outside the central square, something even more exaggerated than the giant crocodile was breaking out of the ground!
A giant python with no end in sight swam across the central avenue, wrapped around a building full of neon lights, and swam towards the top floor circle by circle.
A sharp screech echoed in the sky, and a flying dragon with a wingspan of twenty meters broke through the clouds, casting a moving shadow on the crowd.
… …
The entire central square was in chaos.
The netizens who came to join in the fun were completely stunned.
They were watching the awards ceremony, and suddenly the person receiving the award wanted to assassinate Xu Meng.
And Xu Meng summoned a huge monster with a backhand, and ate the assassin in one bite.
Then the monster went berserk and destroyed the entire stage.
Before everyone could worry about whether Xu Meng was okay, more monsters of amazing size appeared one after another, dazzling the eyes!
The barrage in the live broadcast room exploded rapidly:
"As expected of Xu Meng, such a quick counter-kill!"
"Wait a minute! Wasn't this monster summoned by Xu Meng? Why is it attacking him too?"
"What's going on? What's going on? Is there a monster siege?"
"Is Xu Meng dead?"
"Isn't he going to slaughter the audience live?"
"Uh... probably not?"
… …
Logically speaking, it shouldn't be possible.
But Xu Meng often plays cards out of order, making everyone afraid to be too sure.
Fortunately, those large monsters were all on the outer circle of the central square and did not immediately rush towards the players.
Only the giant crocodile in the very center of the stage seemed to pose a direct threat to the audience.
Most of the players sitting in the front row were old players who used the Illusionscape gaming kit.
They felt the strongest visual impact.
But they were also the calmest group of people in the entire central square.
—The people here have more or less fought with giant beasts and have seen more exaggerated and terrifying scenes.
Even if they were empty-handed at the moment, they were not afraid at all.
The worst thing that could happen was death!
At the moment when the music entered its climax, the monster jumped up and pounced on the crowd.
From the players' perspective, it was like a small mountain smashing down from above!
They couldn't block it, and they couldn't run away.
"You motherfucker." Orange Juice complained weakly, already prepared to die violently.
But at the critical moment, a giant sword fell from the sky!
A super strong man nine feet tall, holding a giant sword two and a half meters long in both hands, instantly pierced the monster's mouth.
With a loud bang, the monster fell heavily under the huge impact.
Smoke and dust rose everywhere!
… …
When the smoke and dust settled and the vision became clear again.
Everyone saw: The ferocious beast that was still invincible the second before was now pierced through its upper and lower jaws by a sword, firmly nailed to the granite bricks of the square!
It struggled and wailed frantically, but couldn't break free no matter what.
The giant crocodile's encounter seemed to stimulate the other three giant beasts, and they roared to the sky at the same time.
The giant python tightened its body, and the glass on the outer surface of the building shattered one after another.
Even the reinforced concrete was twisted and deformed, and it was about to become a dilapidated building almost in the blink of an eye.
The ceratopsian fiercely trampled the ground, and the road shattered section by section.
Vehicles that didn't have time to avoid collided and exploded violently.
The screech of the flying dragon shattered the clouds, and from above the night sky, it swooped down towards the crowd!
Exclamations rang out in the crowd, and everyone wanted to avoid it.
At this moment, the piercing air defense alarm finally sounded in Sprawling City.
Behind the clouds shattered by the flying dragon, an airship appeared.
On the deck of the airship, dragon-hunting ballistae fired giant crossbow bolts larger than people, easily piercing the scales and entering the flying dragon's body.
More hunters like the greatsword strongman just now emerged from the deck, rushing straight to the flying dragon on the ropes connecting the giant crossbow bolts!
Several others jumped directly from a hundred meters high, heading straight for the ceratopsian on the ground.
"What are those? Won't they fall to their deaths?"
"This scene looks familiar to me!"
"Give me a knife! I can go too!"
"It's so strange, isn't Sprawling City a cyberpunk city? Why are primitive people defending the city?"
… …
The players in the front row discussed.
However, before the complaining voices could fall, another change occurred—
Flying dragons covering the sky appeared from the horizon, quickly rushing closer.
The earth rumbled again.
At the end of the line of sight, beast hordes were rapidly approaching!
The disappeared Xu Meng finally reappeared, appearing on the deck of the airship—
"Everyone!"
His voice easily reached everyone's ears.
"The [Global Survival Competition] award ceremony ends here!"
"Thank you everyone for coming to participate!"
"Now there is a sudden accident—"
"Monsters from another world have invaded Sprawling City!"
"The Sprawling City Urban Management Council has issued an emergency mission—"
"[City Defense War]!"
"Within 24 hours, hunting all invading monsters will earn you the [Sprawling City Online Commemorative Badge]!"
"Within 12 hours, hunting all invading monsters will unlock an advance preview of the new Dreamforge game!"
"Within 6 hours, hunting all invading monsters will additionally unlock information on Dreamforge's brand new hardware device!"
"Within 3 hours, the 1000 players with the highest scores for hunting all invading monsters will receive early access to the new game's closed beta!"
The side decks of the airship opened one by one, and dense weapons were thrown out, falling towards the crowd.
"Now, grab your weapons! Repel the monsters!"
"Become a hero of Sprawling City!"
"Finally, I have one more sentence to give to you—"
Grand fireworks bloomed in the sky, and the gorgeous colored smoke formed eight large characters.
Xu Meng stood on the deck of the airship with open arms, and said to everyone in the surging music:
"Welcome to, Sprawling City!!!"
