Gothic Punk Doesn't Suit You

"I like challenging missions."

Allen narrowed his eyes and waited for Alessa to assign him a mission.

"Gather the two Floros Shards into one, then destroy it with The Blade of Redemption," Alessa said bluntly.

Allen showed no reaction, his eyes fixed directly on Alessa.

The two of them stared at each other for a long while.

Alessa began to feel unnerved and asked tentatively, "Is it too difficult?"

"Tell me the mission details and the key points so I know how to find the quest items. I've been waiting for you to explain instead of making me guess."

"..."

Alessa froze. It seemed she had not explained herself clearly.

In a Silent Hill this vast, it truly was unrealistic for one person to search aimlessly.

"There are two shards. One is inside the former priest's body. I can provide the location where he is imprisoned. The other is in Krista's possession. She has been hiding in the church, protected by hundreds of followers. You'll have to figure that part out yourself," Alessa explained.

"This mission really is challenging. You'll need to pay more."

Allen stroked his chin and haggled.

"The shards are made of gold," Alessa added.

"What are we waiting for? Destroying evil cults is our sacred duty."

"..."

Under Alessa's guidance, they passed through several buildings and successfully found a hidden room.

An iron padlock hung on the iron door, and there was no other entrance.

Alessa stopped outside and reminded him, "This place is protected by another demon's power. I can't open the door. You can only rely on yourself."

"Easy."

Allen slashed through the iron lock with one stroke.

An ordinary sharp sword might not have been able to cut through a lock shackle as thick as a thumb, but with the Shadow Blade skill attached, the result was completely different.

At the same time, Alessa was shocked by the power of that strike. Even she felt a trace of danger from it.

Clearly, the blade was coated in a layer of supernatural power.

He pushed the door open and entered.

Inside the sealed room, a disheveled old man was bound by several iron chains.

When he noticed someone entering, the old man raised his head. His cloudy eyes, murky as peeled lychees, eerily glimmered with a faint light.

Allen cried out, "Holy shit, Imperial Bearing, Innate Double Pupils... Could you be Shi Yi?"

"Young man, come closer. I have cataracts and can't see clearly," the old man replied in a weak, pleading tone.

Allen patted his chest in relief and muttered, "I haven't even developed bone spurs and grown a Supreme Bone yet, and Alessa had me solo a Double-Pupiled One? That would've been feeding first blood. Turns out he's just a half-blind old man. I was overreacting."

"Alessa?"

The old man said excitedly, "The Child of the Demon, Alessa, sent you?"

"Yeah, she gave me the mission," Allen answered honestly.

"She is the Child of the Demon. Every word out of her mouth is a lie. You must be wary of her," the old man said solemnly. "Alessa must have sent you to take the shard from my body, gather the other one, and destroy them. Don't do that. Once her power is no longer suppressed and returns to its peak, no one will escape death."

If Allen had not watched the second Silent Hill movie, he might actually have believed the old bastard.

The old man was the monster in the second movie who gathered the two shards and degenerated into a mutated old freak.

He was imprisoned here solely because he had lost a power struggle and been punished for it.

"I've already collected one shard. What should I do now? How about you hold onto it for me?"

Allen wore a sly grin. He did not have a shard in his hand at all and was deliberately testing the old man with his words.

In the second movie, the other shard was given by the newly appointed priest to his biological son, helping him temporarily escape Silent Hill and bring it back to the heroine, Sharon.

For now, it was confirmed to be in Krista's hands.

"That cunning Krista may have made a fake to conceal the real one. Let me inspect it and determine whether it's genuine."

The old man eagerly held out his hand. At the thought of obtaining the complete Floros Emblem and gaining the power to escape his predicament, he could barely conceal his excitement.

Pfft...

One sword thrust pierced through the old man's throat.

Allen said with a shameless grin, "You actually believed me when I tricked you. At your age, you're still so naive."

Cough, cough...

The old man clutched his throat as bloody foam kept spilling from his mouth. He could not force out a single word, but his expression clearly shifted from confusion to rage.

Another diagonal slash split him open from his neck to his heart.

A gleaming golden disk was hidden inside his heart.

"That's a huge chunk of gold. I hit the jackpot."

Allen tore off a piece of rag from the corpse and wrapped up the shard.

Apparently, the shard's power had to be activated by cultists. Once the old man died, Alessa appeared inside the room.

"I heard your conversation outside. Do you believe him, or do you believe me?" Alessa asked.

"Sorry, I just made a mistake all men make."

With one hand against the wall and the other on his hip, Allen mimicked the tone of an overbearing CEO from a romance novel. "Beibei, you'll forgive me, right?"

Apparently, asking that had been a little unnecessary.

Alessa realized how foolish it was to ask a madman a question.

On the way to the church.

They passed a washroom.

Allen stopped and beckoned mysteriously. "Come over here."

"What is it?"

Alessa frowned, unable to guess what Allen wanted to do this time.

"You'll know once you come in."

Following Allen into the washroom, she saw him turn on the faucet and begin filling the basin.

"What exactly are you doing?"

Suddenly, a sense of foreboding rose in Alessa's heart.

Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle...

The next second, Allen pressed her head into the basin and kept scrubbing her filthy hair. With a bright smile, he said, "I've wanted to wash your hair for a long time. Gothic Punk doesn't suit you."

"Enough!"

Alessa suddenly struggled free, raised her head, and roared in anger.

Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle...

Unfortunately, how could her petite body resist Allen's terrifying strength?

Black, dirty water kept overflowing from the basin while fresh water continuously poured from the faucet. Only when no more black water came out did Allen finally stop his inhumane hair-washing torture.

At that moment, Alessa stared blankly ahead, allowing water to drip from her soaked hair.

That cold water seemed to have washed away the dignity of the Child of the Demon.

What a humiliation.

I'll endure it.

With revenge as her top priority, Alessa could only force down her rage.

Inside the church.

The Inner World had descended, and all the cultists had gathered together to avoid the darkness' onslaught.

A golden disk sat in the center of the church as everyone prayed toward it.

The Floros Shard, imbued with demonic power, filled the entire church with its radiant glow and sheltered the terrified cultists.

Krista, who led the prayers, looked at the golden disk and could not help but grow somber.

Five years had passed, and its power was weakening. Another sacrificial ritual was needed to preserve the shard's power.

When making a deal with a demon, one should never expect something for nothing.

After all, free was the most expensive price of all.

Fortunately, each sacrificial ritual only cost one life in exchange for five more years of barely surviving. Moreover, they had now captured two outsiders, enough to buy ten years of peace.

"Bruce, I think things are about to get bad. That old woman isn't looking at us right."

"Oliver, perhaps we've run into the situation we least wanted to encounter."