The Sad Water of a Fat Otaku

There were even snakes...

Beneath the mask, Huai Shi couldn't help but sigh in exasperation.

Under the Red Glove's control, the giant python slowly tightened its coils, as if intending to crush his bones bit by bit. It even specifically bound his left hand, giving him no chance to move.

The pistol fell to the ground.

"I admit, I almost... lost to you, almost..."

The Red Glove, dragging his injured leg, stumbled forward, his ferocious face filled with a chilling darkness and ruthlessness. "But your strange little tricks end here."

As he spoke, he slowly raised the fish tank in his hand, showing him the last remaining fry.

"Don't be afraid, I won't kill you. After all, I don't get many chances to turn an Ascendant into bait..."

As he spoke, origin essence continuously surged from the fish tank in his hand.

The Red Glove continuously split off a part of his soul, turning it into bait to nourish the fry. In an instant, the pink goldfish rapidly swelled, eventually turning a purplish-blue color. Its bulging eyes were bloodshot, staring directly at Huai Shi.

Catalyzing the fry to a degree sufficient to parasitize an Ascendant clearly exhausted a significant portion of the Red Glove's energy. His face was devoid of color, his steps unsteady. He could feel his consciousness dimming and his body nearing its limit.

The thought that a newly promoted Ascendant could push him to such a state made him feel a deep sadness from the bottom of his heart.

But now was not the time for weakness.

He raised his hand and punched Huai Shi fiercely in the face. Immediately after, he threw another punch, shattering the comical mask and revealing Huai Shi's youthful face.

"It's you?"

He froze, recognizing the youth before him. His eyes then grew even more sinister. "Not killing you back then was a huge mistake! Fortunately, it's not too late to fix it now..."

"Big brother, you talk too much. If you want to kill me, just do it already."

As if unable to bear the python's entanglement, Huai Shi's face was covered in snot and tears, as if he were crying from the pain of his wounds.

"Come on, at worst, in eighteen years, no, seventeen years, I'll be a hero again!"

The Red Glove sneered.

Seventeen years? He didn't have seventeen years. After his soul was devoured by the goldfish, Huai Shi would become an empty husk.

He raised his left hand and pressed it firmly onto Huai Shi's forehead. The goldfish in the fish tank vanished instantly.

Huai Shi let out a scream.

"Scream, scream... soon, your five senses will be devoured, and you won't be able to feel any pain."

The Red Glove laughed heartily, but looking at the messy surroundings in the downpour, he couldn't help but feel sorrow once more. A sense of homesickness welled up in his heart.

This was, after all, not his homeland. Ah, how he missed the damp forests and those little mice...

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but shed tears.

But immediately, he was startled, realizing where the sadness was coming from... that python, that python was convulsing, twitching as if weeping, unable to even hold onto its prey.

But he no longer had time to care about the snake, because at that moment, he suddenly remembered his wandering life after betraying Rome and the heavy price he paid to infiltrate the current reality.

A thick wave of sadness engulfed him, causing him to shed two streams of blood tears involuntarily.

"What's going on?"

He stared in shock at the blood tears falling onto his hands, struggling to suppress the increasingly intense sorrow and pain within him.

"Ah, it's just a... humidifier, don't mind it."

Entangled by the sorrowful python, Huai Shi, tears streaming down his face, grinned. His left hand, now free, pulled open his waterproof jacket, revealing the cola bottle.

It was taped to his bulletproof vest, with a humidifier constantly emitting gray mist.

At this moment, Huai Shi was more grateful than ever for Liu Dongli's flamboyant nature – he insisted on buying this portable humidifier because he disliked the dry weather.

Huai Shi's accumulated Calamity Ash from these past days, along with 400 milliliters of purified water, had all been poured into the bottle. The mixture had become a brand new "happy fat water."

It had been quietly running from the beginning, but the dense rain had delayed its effects. And after Huai Shi had stalled for so long, the accumulated effect finally erupted.

Now, a snake, and you, two different kinds of sadness.

It was double the happiness!

With the intense pain in his forehead flooding, Huai Shi, while shedding tears, clenched his fist, summoned his axe, adjusted its angle, and fiercely smashed the back of the axe against his own forehead.

Bang!

He felt dizzy and disoriented.

Stronger than this was an indescribable rage and madness, burning from the depths of his soul, as if his entire body had become a tormented bronze cauldron.

The sharp impact, without reservation, transmitted through the fish tank to the Red Glove's consciousness. Like a cracked bell struck by a hammer, amidst the buzzing vibrations, dark blood seeped from his nose and ears again.

Immediately after, the goldfish that had burrowed into his mind began to twitch wildly, constantly trying to ram against its shell, attempting to escape.

"You've come this far, why rush to leave?"

Huai Shi gritted his teeth and swung the axe at his forehead again. With a splat, he spat out a mouthful of blood. The goldfish convulsed violently and soon stopped moving.

Experiencing an indescribable nausea once more, Huai Shi opened his mouth, spat out the purplish-black goldfish, then raised the axe in his hand – chop!

The Red Glove's body convulsed as if electrocuted, and another crack appeared on the fish tank.

It's not over yet.

Huai Shi turned his head, looking at the writhing python on the ground, aimed at its head, and slowly raised his hand to strike!

Bang!

A sound like a balloon exploding came from the Red Glove's hand. There were no more goldfish in his fish tank; it was covered in cracks.

As the last effect of the incense dissipated, the pain of a soul on the verge of shattering erupted within his consciousness.

He roared in agony, bent down, picked up the pistol he had dropped, and repeatedly pulled the trigger at Huai Shi until the entire magazine was emptied.

But through the heavy curtain of rain, under the torment of pain, he couldn't aim properly. Instead, he hit the sports car behind Huai Shi that had crashed into a shipping container.

With a deafening roar that could have sent Liu Dongli back to intensive care for a second stroke, the luxurious dashboard was completely smashed into a pile of junk.

Rainwater poured into the car through the shattered windshield, and short-circuiting sparks continuously erupted. For some reason, something was triggered, and the radio emitted a jumble of noise, starting to play a CD on its own.

The car's audio system, which had cost a fortune, was completely out of tune. The highs and lows blended into a mess, and even the sound of the electric guitar became indistinct.

"We're on either side of the stairway to heaven, talking about the years gone by..."

Through the layers of rain, the singer's voice drifted like a ghost wandering between dust and tombstones: "I thought you were dead, dead alone, a long, long time ago..."

In a daze of intense dizziness, the Red Glove staggered back, leaning against the shipping container, gasping for breath.

He no longer had the strength to escape.

As expected, in the end, he had fallen into the Astronomical Society's hands.

"You win."

He dropped his pistol and looked at Huai Shi with cold eyes: "Whether it's the lunar prison or the abyssal cage, you can lock me up anywhere you want, but don't think you'll get anything out of me."

In the silence, only the sound of rain could be heard.

Huai Shi seemed not to have heard, his gaze lost as he looked back at the broken speaker in the sports car.

"David Bowie?"

He couldn't help but want to praise Old Liu's taste. Although he looked like a tacky gigolo who only listened to "oom-pah-pah" rural disco and had no taste, as long as you love David Bowie, we're friends!

It was just a pity that his friend was now lying in intensive care.

So...

"Can you stop talking nonsense?"

Amidst the spasms and tremors of his pain, he turned his head and sighed wearily, "I didn't come here to take you somewhere."

He said, "I just wanted to kill you, or be killed by you—"

Either you die.

Or I die.

It was that simple.

In their silent gaze, the Red Glove's contorted face gradually regained its calm. Only a cold solemnity and an indescribable ferocity remained on his broken features.

"Another lunatic? Good..."

He gritted his teeth, tore off his tattered outer garment, revealing his bandaged torso. Beneath the bandages, his riddled muscles slowly bulged.

He beckoned to Huai Shi:

"Come!"

At that moment, in the downpour, the axe blade cleaved down!

In a daze, Huai Shi felt as if the axe blade had struck something hard. Immediately, he couldn't help but instinctively... let go and take a step back.

In that instant, he saw an iron gleam slash through the air, following the angle of the original grip, cutting through his hair that was fluttering in the wind.

By a hair's breadth, his remaining left hand and eye would have been completely lost in this strike.

Only now did Huai Shi see the dagger in the Red Glove's hand.

The dagger, originally hidden along the inside of his arm, was flicked out with a simple movement, landing in his palm. It spun nimbly once before appearing in his other hand.

It was like magic.

Pressing the attack step by step.

The Red Glove's muscles were already oozing blood again; the effect of the silver blood serum was clearly destroyed, but there was still no sign of him stopping.

The priority of attack was not Huai Shi's exposed vital points outside his bulletproof vest, but his left hand!

At this moment, besides an indelible killing intent, the Red Glove was filled with intense apprehension.

No matter what, he absolutely could not be hit by Huai Shi's weapon... that axe-like thing not only possessed physical destructive power but also had an effect on origin essence, capable of producing a soul-shock-like effect.

It was a terrifying assault targeting both spirit and flesh.

If it didn't clearly resemble a rapier, he would almost suspect that Huai Shi was holding the renowned border relic, the Ember Nail.

His Holy Mark was no longer in a state where he could use its dissolution skills. If he were to land a few more surprise blows, his soul would definitely collapse completely.

However, the more he pressed the attack, the more he couldn't help but doubt the skills he had honed over so many years.

Despite Huai Shi's clumsy and desperate struggles, every one of his sure-kill attacks was dodged with awkwardness, and he was even nearly struck by that axe several times.

With skills like these, he should have been a total noob... Was his intuition as sharp as a wild beast's, or was it just pure luck?

Once again, the piercing attack aimed at Huai Shi's left eye failed.

Why did he dodge it again?

If Huai Shi knew what he was thinking, he would have answered: Probably because I've died too many times?