In the center of the Human World, on the Gourmet Plaza, a massive screen was live-broadcasting the Gourmet Heavenly Kings' battle against the Four-Beast.
Three billion people were squeezed into this gigantic square, their eyes glued to the screen. In their minds, this was the moment that would decide the life and death of humanity.
Just then, the Four-Beast on the live feed suddenly burrowed into the ground.
Seeing this, the crowd immediately erupted in cheers.
"Did the Four-Beast run away?"
"Haha, we won!"
"Long live the Heavenly Kings!"
However, the anchor on screen quickly shattered their illusion, speaking rapidly, "The Four-Beast we just saw were actually four clones cultivated by the Four-Beast's main body. The Four-Beast has always been a single entity, and now its true body may be heading straight for the World Plaza! Please evacuate immediately!"
Hearing his words, the square fell silent for a moment before instantly dissolving into chaos. Cries and screams filled the air.
Setsuna stood atop a tall building at the edge of the square, shaking his head slightly at the pandemonium below. Even if it was for the sake of humanity's evolution, this level of organization was too crude. Allowing so many people to gather like this would cause many deaths from stampedes alone.
Setsuna leaped into the air and descended to the center of the plaza, striking the ground with his right hand like a heavy hammer.
"Vast Anesthesia (Daikō Masui)!"
In an instant, all three billion people in the plaza were stunned by Setsuna's Point Striking (Acupressure).
If Jirō had used this technique, every creature on the entire planet would be affected. Setsuna didn't have that kind of power; he could only hit creatures in a localized area, and only those significantly weaker than himself.
Even so, the sight of three billion people stunned in a single instant was incredibly shocking, but it was also easy to misunderstand.
The IGO staff members shouted furiously, "What are you doing?! Are you trying to kill them?!"
Setsuna spoke calmly, "Instead of talking, you should be moving people out of here quickly."
He knew the plot, after all. Even if the Four-Beast's true body devoured the people, they wouldn't die immediately. They just needed to be rescued in time by defeating the Four-Beast. But if they died in a stampede, they would be truly dead.
Setsuna smashed the ground again with a punch, grabbing the Four-Beast's true body—which was about to burst out—and flinging it far away from the plaza.
It was then that the Four-Beast's true form finally revealed itself to everyone: an extra-large, green giant that could change shape like putty.
The Four-Beast rose from the ruins it had crushed and sprayed a massive amount of green mist upwards.
The green mist spread rapidly, covering the entire central area of the Human World, and then began to rain down poison.
The anchor continued his real-time broadcast: "The Four-Beast's main body is spitting out the Ailment Rain! Without an antidote, humanity will perish in one hour! But don't panic! Gourmet God Yuda knows how to detoxify it! Our excellent chefs will definitely assist Yuda-sama in saving the world!"
"A chef who can't save the world isn't a qualified chef—only in the Gourmet World, I guess," Setsuna muttered, utterly exasperated. Looking at the poisonous liquid staining his clothes, he frowned deeply. "Seriously, doesn't it know I hate poison the most?"
Setsuna shot toward the Four-Beast like a cannonball, sending the enormous monster, thousands of times his size, crashing to the ground.
In an extremely short time, Setsuna unleashed hundreds of punches. The ground cracked like a spiderweb, and the earth instantly sank by dozens of meters.
However, after throwing over a thousand consecutive punches, Setsuna noticed the Four-Beast was smiling. It wasn't fighting back, seemingly mocking Setsuna's weak power.
Seeing Setsuna pause, the Four-Beast grinned wickedly and reached out with its giant hand. A shadow covering a hundred-meter radius loomed over him, crashing down like Mount Tai.
Setsuna instantly released his Ki, transforming into a golden streak that pierced through the monster's fingers in a flash. The spot where he had been instantly collapsed, and the shockwave kicked up a hundred-meter wall of rock.
Before the dust could settle, Setsuna flashed onto the Four-Beast's head, his right fist pulling a sonic boom behind it. With a heavy, thudding sound like a meteor strike, the Four-Beast was once again driven into the ground by Setsuna.
"Ki-Kō-Hō (Kikoho/Tri-Beam)!"
Setsuna crossed his hands to form a prism shape, and a concentrated beam of light continuously shot downward.
The sound of explosions was ceaseless, and the ground rumbled and shook as if an 8.0 magnitude earthquake had struck.
The Four Heavenly Kings, rushing back from four different directions, were stunned to see that someone was already battling the Four-Beast's true body before they arrived.
"It's Setsuna," Toriko immediately recognized Setsuna, who was pummeling the Four-Beast.
"You know him?" Sunny asked.
"Yeah, when I risked entering the Gourmet World last time, Setsuna rescued me and brought me back," Toriko replied.
"Just as I thought. He's gotten even stronger," Zebra's eyes glowed with fervor.
"You know him too?" Coco was surprised.
"Yep, I lost to him in the Hunter Exam," Zebra said, keeping his eyes glued to the battlefield. Seeing Setsuna, who had been constantly beating down the Four-Beast, suddenly get smacked away, he quickly joined the fray. "Let's go help him!"
"Meteor Noise!" Zebra concentrated sound wave energy above the Four-Beast's body, and a meteorite crashed down.
However, the Four-Beast's body swallowed the meteorite as if it were a surface of water.
In the next second, the meteorite shot back out of its body.
Zebra couldn't dodge in time and was violently hit by his own attack.
The other three Heavenly Kings were alarmed. This monster could absorb energy attacks and then reflect them?
"Fist Attack!" Sunny wrapped his 200,000 strands of hair into a giant's fist and slammed it down.
The Four-Beast didn't budge and sprayed out a stream of poison. The poison spread along the hair, and Sunny screamed as he fell.
"Sunny!" Toriko rushed forward to catch Sunny, his brow furrowed. Were even physical attacks ineffective?
Just then, Setsuna appeared before the four of them and said in a low voice, "The Four-Beast's body is made of a mud-like structure. Ordinary physical attacks that land on it have 95% of their force neutralized."
All four felt it was a tricky situation. Energy attacks were reflected, physical attacks were 95% negated, and judging by the poison cloud this monster released, ordinary poison-based attacks probably wouldn't work either.
Setsuna continued, "I'll take the main offense. You guys try to use the power of your Gourmet Appetite to influence it."
"You take the main offense?" The four were surprised. Setsuna was strong, but didn't he just say that pure physical attacks were hard to land on the Four-Beast?
"If regular attacks are neutralized, then I'll use power that permeates its insides—to destroy and anesthetize it." Setsuna flew in front of the Four-Beast and aimed a strike at its chest.
Like a steel needle piercing its body, the Four-Beast, which hadn't changed despite being beaten for so long, finally roared in fury and frantically chased Setsuna.
"It worked!" The Heavenly Kings' eyes lit up, and they quickly moved forward.
The four simultaneously summoned their Gourmet Demons. Their demon silhouettes appeared behind them, grinning as they restrained the Four-Beast. The demons humanly drooled, seemingly discussing how to eat their prey.
As the Four-Beast struggled violently, Setsuna seized the opportunity, continuously attacking the spot where he had driven the penetrating force.
"Million Anesthesia."
Setsuna punched so fast that his afterimages disappeared. Each punch drove the steel needle-like penetrating force deeper into the Four-Beast's body, pushing closer to its core.
The Four-Beast roared in despair, but it couldn't change the reality. It could only witness its own demise. Finally, its body exploded, turning into a massive mountain of meat.