Boom!
The door finally gave way under the relentless pounding.
But before the excited chimera ant could lunge for Joey, Killer Queen, standing just behind him, coolly pressed its thumb.
In an instant of flashless fire, the monster's body disintegrated into flames—completely obliterated.
Joey tore his eyes away from the small map in his hand.
Because on that map… he'd seen a name. A country. One that shouldn't exist outside of fiction.
And with the monsters storming the village, it clicked all at once—
Hunter × Hunter.
Joey's favorite anime of all time. And he remembered its setting better than most people remembered their own phone numbers.
That name on the map—NGL Autonomous Region.
Neo-Green Life.
A self-sustaining, anti-tech eco-state that strictly rejected mechanical civilization, embracing a return to pre-industrial natural life. According to official records, 99% of its population lived by that green gospel—early to rise, early to bed, working the land and weaving by hand.
The remaining 1%? Volunteers from abroad, environmentalists who believed in the cause.
But Joey remembered the truth behind that paper-thin utopia.
Bullshit.
Beneath its eco-friendly mask, NGL was a breeding pit for world-scale menace. The black market oral drug D², globally outlawed, originated right here. 80% of its raw ingredients came from this shut-off region.
And the creatures invading the village?
He knew them.
Chimera Ants.
Level B on the Dark Continent's composite threat scale. A first-class containment species. Their feeding-based reproductive cycle allowed for absurdly rapid evolution, especially when exposed to diverse prey.
Which meant—if this many were attacking humans, the Queen was still alive.
Only she could drive mass abductions like this.
A whirlwind of thoughts spun through Joey's mind—
The world he'd crossed into.
The timeline he'd awakened in.
The arc he was now living through.
He had a rough picture now.
But now wasn't the time to think. He shoved aside the chaos in his head.
Quickly stuffing the glowing white wallet into his chest pocket, he grabbed the pistol, grenade, phone, and map. He crammed flatbreads and essentials into a cloth sack, slung it over his shoulder, clutched the pistol, and sprinted toward the back window.
He peeked out—no Chimera Ants in sight.
Still, he didn't leap through just yet.
He turned to Killer Queen.
The Stand raised its left hand—and something detached from the back of it.
A miniature skeleton-faced tank, no larger than a volleyball.
Sheer Heart Attack.
The Second Bomb.
With tracks scraping the floor, the tank tore off toward the broken front door, shouting in a nasal mechanical voice:
"Fried chicken's running out! Look over here!"
It was obnoxiously loud.
But none of the Chimera Ants outside reacted.
Joey observed from the shadows.
Nothing.
No one saw it.
"Still holds up," he muttered. "Only Stand Users can see Stands. Even here."
The little tank rolled toward one of the Chimera Ants prowling near the house.
Still yelling.
Still invisible.
Until—BOOM.
A detonation lit the front yard.
Black smoke. Fire.
The ant shrieked.
But as the dust cleared—the tank was intact.
And still yelling.
Sheer Heart Attack:
An autonomous, heat-seeking bomb vehicle.
Its power scaled with the target's body heat.
It was indestructible.
And it could detonate multiple times without self-damage.
The perfect tool for drawing attention… and annihilating Chimera Ants.
But Joey didn't wait to watch the carnage.
The moment of the first explosion, he slipped out the back window.
Above, winged Chimera Ants glided through the air.
But the sudden detonation had snapped their attention frontward.
Just as planned.
Joey moved—lightning-fast—into the building's shadow.
A second explosion boomed behind him.
And a piercing ant screech followed.
He looked up—two flying ants were scanning the blast zone, circling.
Then—they veered toward the smoke.
Boom!
Third explosion.
Fourth.
Fifth.
Joey grinned.
No hesitation.
He took off.
Sprinting full speed for the treeline, less than 100 meters away.
His fingers clenched around the pistol. If anything went wrong—he'd shoot. Or pull the grenade. Better to go loud than die silently.
Boom.
Sixth explosion.
Nothing intercepted him.
He hit the tree line.
Safe. For now.
But he didn't relax.
No telling what lurked deeper in the woods.
Behind him, the village erupted in chaos.
More explosions.
Back-to-back.
Seventh. Eighth. Ninth.
Joey's eyes narrowed.
The ants… they were engaging the tank?
But… they can't even see it.
Why would they keep charging it?
Were they just that reckless?
Something didn't add up.
But Sheer Heart Attack couldn't be recalled immediately.
And Joey's command had been simple:
"Destroy every Chimera Ant in the village."
Too vague, maybe.
Joey didn't even know the ants' body temperatures.
Hell, he'd accepted it might kill captured villagers.
He had no choice.
It was survival.
His survival.
Still, the fact that Sheer Heart Attack kept detonating meant at least one thing:
The Chimera Ants had high enough heat signatures.
He wiped sweat from his forehead, lips dry.
No time to reflect.
He pushed deeper into the forest, thoughts shifting to Killer Queen's limits and his potential escape routes.
The explosions behind him kept echoing, like a steady drumbeat of war.