Offense and Defense Switch Roles (Three Updates Today!) (Continued)

His uncomprehending eyes stared blankly at the scenes of his life flashing before him. That was all.

Such a life... was far too tragic.

All Maruk could do was keep asking himself one question after another—

Who am I?

Maruk? Lodem? Who am I, really?

Fifth floor of the building, office.

Q Dalang stared at the darkened monitor and listened to the speaker, from which no further sound came. For a moment, he was speechless.

Only one thing concerned him—

Lodem was killed?!

"..."

After a moment's silence, Q Dalang suddenly spoke, asking Yagyou beside him, "Mr. Yagyou, have I... lost?"

But Yagyou shook his head. "The condition for deciding the winner is that either [Usogui] or [Man of the Divine Realm] successfully escapes the building, or that Lord Kokonoe prevents them from escaping."

"I believe there is still hope."

At that, Yagyou changed tack and smiled playfully. "Of course, if Lord Kokonoe gives up now, the winner will be one of the other two participants."

Swish!

As soon as he finished speaking, Q Dalang suddenly drew his Shakujo and aimed it at Yagyou's neck.

"Give up? Are you kidding me? You're right, of course I still have hope!"

His face twisted, Q Dalang rasped, "There are no rules in this gamble, which means the referee for this gamble—Mr. Yagyou..."

"As long as you disappear from this world, no one will know who won or lost!"

"All my property and my Kakerou membership will be preserved. That's right, isn't it?"

A gambler who had lost everything would often throw caution to the wind, even overturning the table and refusing to play. That was exactly what Q Dalang was doing now.

Hearing this, the old man in the suit, whose hair and beard were impeccably groomed, slowly opened his eyes.

"That may be true, but I advise you to abandon the idea—"

Swish!

Before he could finish, Q Dalang gripped the hilt and slashed at Yagyou with all his might.

But when the blade was less than two centimeters from the spot between Yagyou's brows, Yagyou suddenly reached out with his right hand and caught it with just three fingers.

No matter how hard Q Dalang pushed, he couldn't force the Shakujo's blade down!

Yagyou's expression was calm, his movements as elegant as ever, almost as perfect as a work of art.

"Referees are responsible for mediating between parties. We also accept commissions from members and handle various matters."

"The people our members deal with include high-ranking bureaucrats, warlords, mercenaries, the mafia, yakuza, and so on... people from all sorts of fields."

"We have all been carefully selected..."

Yagyou shifted slightly to one side and released the blade.

Swish!

Q Dalang's blade fell, but his swing met empty air. Yagyou had already stepped aside, letting the blade pass in front of him.

"How could a referee be brought down by a savage who has lost his reason?"

"If we could not overcome that, we would be unfit for this job!"

Bang!

Yagyou kicked straight upward from the front, sending Q Dalang's Shakujo flying. Then he turned and kicked its hilt before it could hit the ground.

Swish!

The Shakujo flew off, its blade plunging into a nearby concrete wall. More than half the blade was buried in it.

"?!"

Q Dalang stared at the sight, dumbfounded.

He had heard before that Kakerou referees were remarkably powerful fighters, but he had only ever heard about it.

Besides, Higashi Kōichi—this white-haired, white-bearded old gentleman—really did have fighting strength no weaker than a young man's. It was simply inconceivable!

As Q Dalang stood dazed, a voice suddenly came from the doorway.

"Heh heh, the referee really is impressive. Kakerou's game was quite interesting too. Tonight was good."

"..."

Yagyou looked toward the door and bowed slightly to the newcomer.

Q Dalang looked closely and saw that it was Akagi Shigeru. Instead of going straight downstairs, he had returned to the fifth-floor office.

"What are you doing here?" Q Dalang asked, puzzled.

With a cigarette between his lips, Akagi Shigeru smiled faintly. "To keep gambling, of course."

Q Dalang's anger had yet to subside, and those words instantly set him off. "Hmph, your timing couldn't be better!"

He rushed over in a few strides and reached for the Shakujo embedded in the wall. Akagi Shigeru didn't have Yagyou's fighting strength, so he would kill him first!

But as soon as Q Dalang's hand touched the hilt, a dark figure suddenly charged up behind him and planted a foot on its end.

Boom!

Fighting Spirit Burst!

Shiraki Uke kicked the hilt, driving the entire blade into the wall. No matter how hard Q Dalang pulled, he couldn't get it out.

"Phew..."

Akagi Shigeru breathed out a cloud of white smoke and looked at Q Dalang expectantly, his eyes unnaturally clear.

Seeing this, Q Dalang knitted his brows and stopped trying to retrieve the Shakujo.

"[Man of the Divine Realm] Akagi Shigeru—you really are as remarkable as the rumors say. You even managed to recruit someone with fighting strength to rival Lodem's..."

Q Dalang smiled and suddenly proposed, "Let's join forces!"

"Hm?" Akagi Shigeru and Shiraki Uke were momentarily taken aback.

Q Dalang said fiercely, "My Kakerou membership, all my property—I'll lose it all to you. Let's join forces and kill [Usogui]!"

"As long as we kill [Usogui], we can use that as a starting point and climb to the top of Kakerou, step by step."

"I still have contacts among overseas mercenaries, and I know the arms-smuggling business. I'm qualified for you to 'use'!"

"..."

Seeing that Akagi Shigeru and Shiraki Uke remained silent, Q Dalang hurriedly said, "Think about it carefully. This is a heaven-sent chance to deal with [Usogui]!"

"—As long as this young man is here."

Growing more excited as he spoke, Q Dalang looked at Shiraki Uke beside him.

"To be honest, I never imagined a 'human' could have the fighting strength to rival Lodem's!"

"Without this young man's fighting strength, there's no way you could have plotted against Lodem head-on with 'human ingenuity' alone, let alone killed him. I'm sure killing [Usogui] would be just as easy, heh heh..."

Seeing Q Dalang laugh at his own words, Shiraki Uke teased, "Lodem was your son, after all. You still want to work with us, the people who killed him?"

"My son? Haha, no, he wasn't."

Q Dalang waved his hands repeatedly and explained, "After I mastered the technology for modifying the human body, I went to great lengths to attack several villages in war zones to obtain suitable test subjects. I killed the adults in the villages and took the children away."

"Of all the test subjects who were modified, 'Maruk' was the only success."

"..."

Hearing this, Shiraki Uke pressed a hand to his ear and responded to Kure Fusui on the other end of his earpiece. "Yes, your assessment is absolutely right."

"What?" Q Dalang asked, puzzled.

Shiraki Uke seized Q Dalang by the collar and lifted him off the ground. "Fusui and I both think you're a piece of trash!"

"Hey..."

Q Dalang's scalp prickled, and he hurriedly appealed to Akagi Shigeru for help.

But Akagi Shigeru merely held his cigarette between his lips, apparently pondering something.

Q Dalang struggled and shouted, "Calm down! Killing me like this won't profit you at all, and it's completely meaningless!"

"Mm, that's just it..."

Akagi Shigeru flicked the ash from his cigarette. "In what's called 'gambling,' people die meaningless deaths."

Akagi Shigeru's words left Q Dalang bewildered. "What do you mean, meaningless deaths...?"

Hearing that, Akagi Shigeru's eyes filled with disappointment. Quite seriously, he asked Q Dalang in return, "Could it be that you were never gambling at all, and were just killing people for fun?"

"..."

In that instant, Q Dalang suddenly realized that Akagi Shigeru was the utterly twisted "pure gambler."

Persuade him to join forces? Impossible!

If anyone could stand alongside him, perhaps it could only be a "nonhuman" with fighting strength beyond common sense, or intellect on the same level.

"Give it up, little Q. You and old Akagi aren't the same kind of person at all."

"—Of course, neither are old Akagi and I."

Baku Madarame appeared at the office door, with Takaomi Kaji following behind him.

"..."

When Q Dalang failed to respond after a while, Baku Madarame was somewhat surprised. But on closer inspection, he immediately understood why.

"Ah, little Uke, put little Q down first. He looks like he can't breathe."