"Vrrr... crackle--"
Blue arcs of electricity danced.
A disconnected mechanical left arm lay across the ground, twitching every so often like a dying fish.
The severed end was smooth, its cross-section packed with broken wires and flickering sparks. Black motor oil mixed with blood and sprayed across the ground.
"Despicable!"
"Bai Zhou!!!"
Howling in pain, Deputy Han writhed on the ground with his arm severed, sweat covering his forehead as he hunched over like a roasted shrimp.
I let my guard down!
This isn't a child at all!
He had smashed the cup as a signal, but it had instead activated a trap.
He had shouted, "Watch closely for my next slash," only for an unknown source of dazzling light to erupt...
This man was black from the outside in!
Even more heretical than the Blood Worship Cult--
"Who are you?"
"Who exactly are you?"
His remaining right hand uselessly groped toward his left side before finally slapping at the empty ground.
"Screech..."
His fingernails scraped frantically against the cold, hard ground, producing an especially grating sound.
His scarlet mechanical left eye flickered madly, beeping nonstop.
Only now did Deputy Han's vision finally return to normal.
But the very first thing he saw once his blurred vision cleared was--
his own arm, lying on the ground not far away.
Then the tremendous pain came, belatedly sweeping through every nerve in his body.
"Ah--!!"
A suppressed cry of agony, accompanied by a shrill voice, echoed through the silent Resting Mausoleum.
The rows upon rows of densely packed tombstones gave no response.
They remained silent as ever.
Silently watching him roll around on the ground.
"Tap..."
Footsteps slowly approached.
A pitch-black Short Club cast its shadow across Deputy Han's face.
Deputy Han instinctively shuddered, and his mind cleared considerably.
"Didn't you have my file?"
Bai Zhou came to Deputy Han's side and glanced at the wound where his arm had been severed.
Wires of various colors were intertwined and fused with flesh and blood. Faint, unstable electric sparks flickered among them, occasionally making a sizzling sound.
Fragments of steel were densely embedded in the muscle. The marks left by scorching heat had turned the area pitch-black, forming a dark, fleshy tumor mixed with Silver White metal.
Thin wisps of smoke rose into the air. The smell of scorched metal mingled with that of burnt flesh, making the scene nauseating.
"Looks like you've lost the means you relied on."
The imposing Mechanical Half-Body had become this pathetic in the blink of an eye.
After losing the metal left arm that served as his primary means of attack, most of the rest of Deputy Han's Mechanical Half-Body was useless as well.
The battle was decided.
The victor was Bai Zhou, blessed by the "light."
"Whoo..."
Bai Zhou let out a long breath.
Refreshing.
It felt as if a heavy burden had been lifted, as though all seven apertures in his body had suddenly opened.
It was difficult to describe how it felt to have his position reversed at this moment.
All the caution and suffocating tension he had maintained at the base,
seemed to be vented along with that single Moon Ember Sacred Oath Slash.
The pent-up frustration poured out in one breath.
It was like eating a chilled strawberry covered in milk on a sweltering summer day.
It was like Bai Zhou had finally begun to realize...
No matter how many unknowns, mysteries, suffocating injustices, and chaotic forces existed in the world,
he could trust the blade in his hand.
No matter how overwhelming the disparity between enemy and ally...
In short, slash first and worry about the rest later!
On the other side, however, Deputy Han felt anything but comfortable.
"It shouldn't have been like this... It shouldn't have been like this!"
Gradually, Deputy Han stopped crying out.
Perhaps he felt that doing so was embarrassing.
He tried to make himself appear calmer and more dignified...
But it was all futile, because no matter what he did, he was still lying on the ground.
Bai Zhou stood beside him, expressionless as he watched every movement and change in his expression, as though observing...
a bug.
A clown.
This infuriated Deputy Han.
He raised his head and struggled to sit up, as if he were still that arrogant deputy.
But he soon realized that his life was in the hands of the youth he had never taken seriously, and he could not help lowering his head.
"If... I had another chance, it shouldn't have been like this."
"You ambushed me!"
He gritted his teeth, bloodstains clinging to the corners of his mouth as he spoke in a low voice,
"If you have the ability, face me openly and fight again!"
"--I would definitely kill you!"
He could not accept such a defeat.
He was truly unwilling to have lost an arm just like this.
He was clearly only one step away from becoming a Level 3 Extraordinary.
He had clearly prepared a Mechanical Briefcase that rivaled, or even surpassed, a Level 3 Extraordinary in strength.
How could this...
"But, my dear Deputy Han..."
Bai Zhou shook his head, finding it amusing.
Bai Zhou, who came from the simple and honest Evening City and had been Extraordinary for barely a week,
spoke with a solemn expression to Deputy Han, who had been Extraordinary for nearly ten years:
"You should have realized this long ago."
"--This is real combat."
Combat where one side lived and the other died!
In a true fight to the death, the survivor claimed everything. Who would care about the means used?
Besides...
"Did I ambush you from behind?"
Bai Zhou tilted his head and asked in confusion,
"Wasn't every attack I made open and aboveboard?"
That's how we Adventurers are.
Deputy Han fell silent. He seemed to want to speak, then stopped, then wanted to speak again, his expression horribly constipated.
Indeed.
It had been too "open and aboveboard." Eighty thousand lumens of light was bright enough to blind anyone.
Yet Bai Zhou had clearly announced every attack beforehand, including "smashing the cup as a signal."
He was like an ancient gentleman who placed great importance on martial virtue.
...As for whether the content of his shouts had anything to do with the content of his attacks, that was another matter.
However, Bai Zhou had to admit...
There had been a great deal of trickery involved.
In a direct confrontation, he truly was no match for Deputy Han.
That was where he had to thank the Battlefield Ruins in the Deep Ruins Realm--
While maneuvering through the battle, he had sensed that Deputy Han was somewhat hindered in controlling the Mechanical Half-Body.
It was as if the Mechanical Half-Body's level was actually beyond what Deputy Han could fully control at present, and he was merely forcing it to obey.
A battle in which one's stats were completely crushed, where one could not afford to be struck head-on but where openings could still be found...
Bai Zhou was no stranger to it.
Because his first Extraordinary battle in life had been exactly like this.
His combat mentor, the white Bloated Giant, had been just like that.
That was why Bai Zhou fought with such ease.
A few effortless rolls allowed him to evade Deputy Han's long-prepared killing moves, making him seem like a seasoned veteran with abundant combat experience, and as though he understood Deputy Han's weaknesses exceptionally well.
That was what made Deputy Han's back turn cold and led him to believe that Bai Zhou was an undercover agent of the Blood Worship Cult who had come for him.
And in the end--
The Short Club gave Bai Zhou the qualifications to clash head-on with the mechanical arm,
while his ability to call upon the "light" happened to cover the use of his Secret Technique...
It was the Chemical Reaction of that combination of skills that produced the final killing blow.
Otherwise, even if Bai Zhou had unleashed Moon Ember Sacred Oath Slash, it might not have been effective.
...No wonder Ya had not been optimistic about Bai Zhou attacking Deputy Han.
After all, she would never have expected someone to undergo such a complete transformation in a single night.
That mysterious imprint resembled the Secret Technique Imprint, yet it did not require one-sixth of his Destiny, nor did it interfere with his Extraordinary Path...
It gave Bai Zhou an ability out of thin air that other Destined Ones of the same level did not possess.
An ability that seemed innate, as if he had been born with it.
"May the light forever soothe your trembling soul."
Bai Zhou inexplicably thought of the words Laia had left him.
Was this what it felt like to be protected by the "light"?
Venturing alone into the Deep Ruins Realm on the night before the battle...
That decision, which Ya had been unable to understand and only Bai Zhou himself had comprehended, had changed the course of his fate that night in some way.
Actually, Bai Zhou had once wondered about something--
Before becoming Extraordinary, the rewards he received after completing Last Wills had all been "items."
...So why had the rewards he received after becoming Extraordinary turned into "abilities"?
Was the "light" a special case?
Or had this change occurred because he had awakened his Destiny?
Perhaps those previous rewards could have been "abilities" all along.
But at that time, Bai Zhou had not awakened his Destiny and could not bear the rewards, so they had taken the form of items...
That was Bai Zhou's speculation.
He would know the answer the next time he fulfilled a certain dying wish.
For example...
that slightly deranged Skeleton General.
Atop his head still hovered the missing final [Let Me Rest]...
"...So, are you really Bai Zhou?"
Deputy Han forced himself to sit on the ground and looked up at Bai Zhou.
"How could you be Bai Zhou? How did you deceive everyone?"
Deputy Han still could not understand.
When he had first arrived at the base, everyone had undergone a comprehensive physical examination.
How had Bai Zhou, an Extraordinary, made all those examinations fail?
As for the possibility that Bai Zhou had not been a Level 3 Extraordinary, but had only begun to come into contact with the Extraordinary after entering the base--
Deputy Han had never even considered it.
Bai Zhou, however, answered a different question:
"Deputy Han, I should be able to ask you questions now."
"What?"
"Why did you kill Brother Liu?"
Bai Zhou looked at Deputy Han in confusion,
"As far as I know, he should have trusted you a great deal."
"...Of course he trusted me."
At the mention of Section Chief Liu, Deputy Han frowned slightly,
"We were from the same hometown and joined the Special Management Department in the same intake."
"At first, he even took good care of me."
"Later, the Major took notice of me and promoted me. After that, I brought him to the Major's attention and got him promoted too."
"Old Liu had languished at the grassroots level for more than a decade. Without my help, he would have continued languishing there."
"—Tell me, why shouldn't he trust me?"
They were fellow townsmen and colleagues from the same intake, bound by the friendship of helping each other.
No wonder Section Chief Liu had spoken of his "backer" with such trust and confidence.
"But you killed him."
Bai Zhou lowered his eyes, his voice calm.
"You even turned him into... that."
"So what?" Deputy Han asked in bewilderment.
"...What?"
"Isn't that his honor?"
Deputy Han shook his head repeatedly.
He had thought Bai Zhou was a member of the Blood Worship Cult, but he had not expected Bai Zhou to have truly come for Liu Zhen.
He looked utterly baffled.
"Do you know what we're trying to do? Do you know how grand our blueprint for the future is?"
"You don't. All you know is killing people!"
"You only care about what's right in front of you... That's the despicable selfishness of people like you and Old Liu."
He spoke earnestly. "In this world, the birth of every new order requires countless lives to pave the way."
"—It's a necessary path."
"The Major and I are the executors of that path."
"And you can have the honor of becoming the bricks we use to pave it. Isn't that a good thing?"
"We'll become heroes of history. You'll be heroes too. We'll all fight and fall for the same cause."
Bai Zhou froze.
Then he fell silent.
He quietly watched Deputy Han continue speaking.
He was so calm that it was as though his anger had vanished.
So... that was how it was.
This Deputy Han—or rather, the people behind him—
were even more high and mighty, self-righteous, and incorrigible than Bai Zhou had imagined...
And even more deserving of death!
Deputy Han was still talking:
"Didn't we hold a funeral for Old Liu's sacrifice? Didn't we award him the title of a heroic martyr?"
"—What difference is there between dying at our hands and dying at the hands of a Blood Worship Cultist? In fact, this way, his value is greater, and he's even more of a 'hero'!"
"People won't forget his achievements and sacrifice. Isn't that a good thing? Do you know how much compensation he received for dying in action?"
"You don't, but you should have known long ago—"
As he spoke, Deputy Han's words inexplicably overlapped with what Bai Zhou had said moments ago:
"This is the real world."
Major Han believed he had won the exchange with his words.
He had always been rather proud of his own eloquence and reasoning.
However,
"Smack—!"
Deputy Han was then hit across the face with tremendous force by Bai Zhou.
A tooth flew out amid a spray of blood.
It was just like the slap the officers had given Black Robe on the public trial platform back then.
"You're getting a little loud."
Bai Zhou rubbed his wrist, wondering whether he should use the Short Club next time.
...But Deputy Han was not as tough as Black Robe.
Proud as he was, with the Major's protection, when had he ever suffered such humiliation?
He actually coughed up two mouthfuls of blood in rage, and then...
Then he burst into loud sobs.
Clutching his chest, he accused Bai Zhou:
"I'm Old Liu's benefactor, and I'm your benefactor too. So if I need your help for a higher ideal, shouldn't you help me?"
"The Major spends money to support you, fulfills all your demands without conditions, and lets you live a life you wouldn't even dare dream of..."
"When he needs you, shouldn't you give something back to him?"
"Even if that repayment requires you to pay with your life, you absolutely have to do it—isn't that what loyalty and righteousness have meant since ancient times?"
The more Deputy Han spoke, the more aggrieved he felt.
"How could you kill me over something like this?"
"It was I who gave you the qualifications to become heroes, witness history, and even become part of history!"
"All these years, they've eaten so much, while I was the one raising them."
"To achieve the perfect evolution, I had always kept Old Liu because I would accept nothing less than the best, until I saw you."
"I had originally planned to wait until you matured, then have you and Old Liu shine together for me..."
"I'm such a patient and gentle person. How could I suffer from being repaid with betrayal?"
He was aggrieved—terribly aggrieved.
"Just to wait for someone with a constitution like yours, I hadn't even been willing to take a single bite!"
By the end, he was practically roaring hoarsely at Bai Zhou—
"What right did you have to kill me?"
"If Liu Zhen had a problem with it, he could come to me himself!"
"He only died; it's not as though he was wasted. He became part of an outstanding person!"
"—Don't you want to see Old Liu journey toward someone better?"
"How could you kill me over that?"
Bai Zhou: "..."
Then Deputy Han was hit across the face again.
"There's no saving you."
Bai Zhou took a deep breath, a chill running down his spine.
What did he mean by "He only died; he wasn't wasted"?
What did he mean by "journey toward someone better"?
How had he ever thought he could communicate with Deputy Han and probe him for information?
It was like talking to a chicken about a duck.
So he had long since been brainwashed into...
a cannibalistic madman.
Thinking this, Bai Zhou retreated several steps and walked over to the Briefcase at the side.
With a click,
he opened the Briefcase he had brought with him and rummaged through it.
"And there's one more thing you got wrong!"
At this point, Deputy Han was still explaining.
His emotions surged like a breached Flood, pouring forth without end, as though he were making some kind of accusation.
"It's true that I made the Human Material."
"Following the Major's instructions, we had to make use of waste and bring out the greatest value of every person, both before and after death."
"—But I wasn't the one who killed Old Liu!"
"—The Major killed him!"
Deputy Han's voice made Bai Zhou stop rummaging through the Briefcase and bend over it.
The Major...
Fine.
He knew now.
"Simply because the Major happened to need an extraordinary trait."
"Anyone would have worked, but he happened to choose Old Liu, who had just gone to his office to see him!"
"—Tell me, why did Old Liu go to see him for no reason? Did he really think the Major was some kindhearted saint who was easy to talk to?"
"I raised Old Liu for my own use. The Major took him away. Do you think I wasn't heartbroken?"
Deputy Han continued speaking, clutching his chest in grief:
"Old Liu died. I was sadder than anyone. That's exactly why I wanted to nurture you even more!"
"Do you know how much effort I had to expend to secure a promotion slot for you? Do you know how much I valued you?"
"You don't know, and you still want to kill me!"
"Vile wretch! You repay kindness with betrayal!"
Look at how aggrieved the child was.
Deputy Han had tears streaming down his nose, grieving as though his parents had died.
He seemed to genuinely believe that was how things were.
He genuinely believed Bai Zhou had no reason to kill him.
But precisely because of that...
he deserved death even more.
"Yes, yes, yes..."
Bai Zhou rummaged through the Briefcase for a long while.
At last, he pulled out a small Black Box.
"Actually, I hadn't planned to kill you myself."
Holding the Black Box in both hands, he spoke calmly.
At that moment, his expression and tone bore a faint resemblance to Ya's usual manner.
"—Really?"
Deputy Han immediately looked up in delight.
Then he met Bai Zhou's icy gaze.
There was not the slightest trace of emotion in those eyes, as if showing him any emotion at all would be a tremendous waste.
"So I prepared this for you."
Under Deputy Han's uneasy gaze,
Bai Zhou walked over and slowly opened the Black Box near him.
A thick, hardened tube drooped inside. Its walls were covered in wrinkles, and it writhed from time to time in a rhythm resembling breathing.
"[Legacy of Blood Thirst]?!"
Deputy Han screamed in shock.
"How dare you—?"
"Why wouldn't I dare?"
Bai Zhou countered.
"The Black Box is dangerous, of course, but I never intended to take it away."
"—Don't worry. I prepared it for you—for all of you."
Just like the test Bai Zhou had faced when he first arrived at the base.
F-1120, the Black Box, [Legacy of Blood Thirst]...
gradually writhed its way awake.
"You must be starving, huh?"
"This time, eat your fill."
Bai Zhou spoke to the Legacy of Blood Thirst.
For some reason, when Bai Zhou's "left hand" drew near the Legacy of Blood Thirst,
the Legacy of Blood Thirst clearly tried to shrink away in fear.
Then Bai Zhou threw it, Black Box and all, at Deputy Han, who was screaming and waving his hands.
"Ah—get it off me! It's pressed against my face!"
"Ugh, that's disgusting!"
Bai Zhou slowly exhaled the pent-up breath in his chest.
"Let it start rampaging here."
Unrestrained, the Legacy of Blood Thirst would soon suck Deputy Han into a dried corpse.
Not even human material.
Then it would instinctively seek out its next target.
Bai Zhou lowered his head and looked at Deputy Han, who was writhing madly like a maggot, trying to shake off the Legacy of Blood Thirst:
"Don't be in such a hurry."
"You're only the beginning... just a little interest."
As Deputy Han panicked, Bai Zhou picked up the Short Club and took advantage of the chaos to poke around at him every now and then.
Soon, with a sharp smack—
Bai Zhou knocked a black notebook out of his arms.
"No!"
At the sight of it, Deputy Han's already deathly pale face turned even whiter, almost bluish.
Even the force with which he resisted the Legacy of Blood Thirst seemed to weaken considerably...
Bai Zhou picked up the notebook from the ground and flipped through a few pages.
Hmm. He couldn't understand it.
But it was the real thing.
An Account Book recording the transactions.
The final date recorded was today, and it even contained the data Deputy Han had just written down.
After putting the notebook away with satisfaction, Bai Zhou looked at Deputy Han.
"Go in peace. Let's see what Brother Liu has to say to you."
"As for that Major..."
Under Deputy Han's gaze, as if he were looking at a madman, Bai Zhou rubbed the Golden Ring that had somehow appeared on his hand, then turned his head toward the base.
Sporadic gunshots rang out intermittently.
The war was nearing its end.
Then it was time for Bai Zhou's arrangements to make their appearance—
A play, with two performances in its first act, was drawing its curtains on two separate stages.
But at this moment, the performances of the second act were about to converge on the same stage.
Bai Zhou's eyes flickered.
He had prepared for so long, and prepared so much...
One Deputy Han... how could that be enough?
If he couldn't get back the principal, then he would at least collect more interest.
"The show is about to begin. I wonder if you'll get the chance to see it."
"If you can, then watch closely. Perhaps it'll help you feel a little more balanced."
Bai Zhou turned to Deputy Han, his eyes brimming with a killing intent that chilled Deputy Han to the bone.
Then he made a solemn promise to Deputy Han:
"That Major will go and keep you company, too."
"I promise you—"
"Very soon."
Before you continue