Ruins

Given Kurumi's usual personality, she would never have taken such a risk, but the situation was urgent and time was running out. That Mutated Devil Ray could slip away at any moment.

If the protagonist's group handled it instead, they might have gone through a great deal of trouble only to gain nothing in the end. That was not how her script was written.

Clearly, the Mutated Devil Ray was already at the end of its strength. There was not enough prey in the river for it to recover its injuries quickly.

Clinging to a sliver of hope, it wanted to ambush prey that could give it a full meal. The group of creatures that had nearly beaten it to death earlier was its best choice!

Though Kurumi did not know whether it was thinking, Success, or die trying, she had no intention of letting the Mutated Devil Ray return to the water alive. Meat delivered right to her doorstep—why would she not eat it?

Its massive six-meter-wide body slammed toward the shore, intending to crush her to death with its sheer size! Kurumi appeared careless, but the moment it pounced, she knew the fish had taken the bait!

A sharp glint flashed through her eyes. Her right leg, which seemed to press down casually, suddenly erupted with tremendous force!

"Bang! Boom!~"

The immense force instantly carried Kurumi out from beneath the Mutated Devil Ray's shadow. A chunk of wet soil on the riverbank exploded away, and on land, Kurumi reached a truly terrifying speed.

Before it could crash down, Kurumi had already twisted into position. Her left hand clenched into a fist, ready to deliver the Mutated Devil Ray its final blow!

In the water, she could only let it swim around her. Without firearms to suppress it, the consequences would have been unimaginable. Now the tables had turned. On land, that huge body was precisely what made it clumsy!

Its body smashed directly onto the shore. Unfortunately, it did not crush any living creature; only the little grass growing in the mud suffered. Its four-thousand-kilogram weight blasted a crater into the ground!

The Mutated Devil Ray had already sensed that something was wrong. Its brain, inside that mangled skull, began sending signals to every part of its body, urging it to return to the river as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, Kurumi gave it no such chance.

"Bang!—"

The instant the Mutated Devil Ray was about to hit the ground, Kurumi charged at it. Ignoring the mud blasted toward her, she forcibly made her relatively fragile body use the technique of Explosive Force.

Just before her left fist struck its head, the force from every part of her body surged wildly into her left arm. Faint blue veins appeared beneath what had originally been a fair, jade-like arm.

Though no muscular lines showed, no one could deny the immense force behind that strike. Her fist smashed viciously into the Mutated Devil Ray's battered head!

At the moment of impact, no blood or brain matter burst out. Instead, the powerful airflow generated by the punch blew aside Kurumi's bangs, revealing the soul-stealing golden eyes beneath.

"Ding~ The reward for killing the boss has been calculated. Please check it yourself after completing all main quests."

Only after the Main God's emotionless voice rang in her mind did Kurumi finally let out a breath of relief. Though she had been confident in that one-hit kill, there had still been risks.

Now, it was finally proven that the Mutated Devil Ray that had caused her so much trouble was completely dead.

"Squelch!~"

With a slight exertion of her left arm, she pulled it free from the caved-in fish head. An unnatural crimson covered it, forming a stark contrast with her fair right arm.

The bloodstains left on the Black Gold Gloves carried a faint fishy stench, making Kurumi shake her hand in disgust.

The Mutated Devil Ray's enormous body lay motionless by the shore, with only its long tail whip trailing into the water. The people beside the modified Hummer were utterly shocked.

Hirono Toda, who had been watching through binoculars, had his mouth hanging wide open. He lowered them, rubbed his eyes hard, then looked again. Kurumi was still standing before that enormous corpse.

Its entire head had caved in deeply, blood continuously dripping onto the ground. Hirono Toda wondered whether its brain matter and everything else had been punched straight into its stomach...

He awkwardly touched his round head and shuddered. That monster had remained lively after taking so many bullets, yet Kurumi had killed it with one punch...

All he saw was a dark shadow pouncing onto the shore, then Kurumi flashing back and forth like gray lightning before driving a brutal punch into its head.

The instant she threw that punch, her entire body seemed to lift off the ground. The airflow forcibly swept the twin tails that had hung before her chest behind her. That was what shocked him most...

Since when could humans launch attacks like that with nothing but their bodies?...

Komuro Takashi and the others gathered around the Mutated Devil Ray's corpse, clicking their tongues in amazement. Only Takagi Saya seriously examined its entire body...

But the result was obvious. Though she possessed a genius intellect, without the assistance of precise instruments, she could not make heads or tails of it.

Of course, some people also noticed the Black Gold Gloves on Kurumi's hands, but they assumed they were completely ordinary gloves, something to keep blood and grime off her hands.

At most, they had some pretty golden patterns embroidered on them. Kurumi had displayed remarkable strength from the very beginning. Though punching a head apart with one blow was shocking, it was not entirely impossible to accept.

Meanwhile, under everyone's puzzled gazes, Kurumi borrowed Busujima Saeko's Steel Katana and ran over to the tail whip to start cutting.

Busujima Saeko's eyes lit up when she saw this. Of course, she knew how absurdly hard that thing was.

If it could be made into a weapon, it would probably be even better than a Steel Katana.

Unfortunately, Kurumi was interested only in the barbs on the tail whip. When the Black Gold Gloves blocked that strike, the Sub-grade Black Cotton made by the Main God had been scratched, and even the Golden Silkworm Silk on them had shifted slightly.

Yet the barbs on that tail whip had not suffered the slightest damage... This was good stuff. Even if she could not use it now, in some fantasy world, selling it to alchemists in exchange for potions would still be no small asset for Kurumi.

The group began dividing up the firearms found at Nanri's residence. As for whether they could operate them skillfully... holding them seemed to make them feel much safer, at least...

Miyamoto Rei looked at the bayonet on the muzzle. The light reflecting off its edge made a fine sheen of sweat appear on her forehead. It was her first time using something like this...

Komuro Takashi and Hirono Toda took their guns and ran up onto the street. After carefully observing it, they found no Dead Bodies or anything of the sort... There was not even a single car. The city had only stopped functioning for one day, yet garbage was already being blown around the streets by the wind...

They signaled the people below to come up. Shizuka Marikawa sat in the driver's seat, feeling uneasy at the sight of such a steep slope, but when she stepped on the accelerator, the modified Hummer's power did not disappoint her.

Kurumi also followed Takagi Saya and the others up onto the street...

"Ding~ Main Quest ④ has been successfully completed. The reward has been issued. Please check it yourself."

"Ding~ Main Quest ⑤ has been activated. Please check it yourself."

With a thought, a virtual panel appeared before her eyes.

Main Quest ⑤: Go to the ruins of Takagi's residence and investigate the cause.

Success: 300 Reincarnation Points; Failure: All points deducted

Kurumi narrowed her eyes and glanced at Takagi Saya, who was looking into the distance through binoculars not far away. She murmured softly, "Ruins..."