Although this was the bottom rung of society, to him, this place was paradise on earth!!!
The man was immersed in the joy of victory, eagerly anticipating how he would torment the beauty before him.
Then an incongruous sound rang out.
It was—
An explosion!!!
At the same time, downstairs.
The lackeys downstairs covered their eyes as the transport vehicle, engulfed in roaring flames, inexplicably exploded!
Having never experienced war and only knowing how to fight tough on the streets, the punks had no idea this was an attack. They simply assumed the repair shop had taken their money and failed to do its job.
Yet no one expected a pair of golden eyes to appear within the flames and suddenly blaze to life!!!
PS: I'm mentally exhausted and don't even want to complain anymore. Ciwai Mao's server is practically the King of Torment.
And rightfully so!!!
Section 47: Chapter Forty-Seven—Death, Summoned at Will
A few minutes earlier, high above the clouds over Lungmen.
A purple "meteor" streaked across the sky. Its supersonic speed left behind nothing but a purple contrail.
It was the trace left behind when Honkai Energy had been forcibly used as propellant, with only its remaining residue lingering in midair before turning to ash.
If ordinary Herrschers would consider using their authorities to fly, Chlorine Sodium's method was much simpler and more brutal: she sprayed Honkai Energy backward as propellant, pushing herself forward.
Although the consumption was far from negligible, what she gained was astonishing speed.
By now, she had surpassed the speed of sound, while the sound itself had long since been left behind.
Fortunately, it was cloudy today, and nighttime besides, so there were no eyewitness reports.
Her destination was a residential building several kilometers below.
How irritating!
For some reason, Chlorine Sodium did not want to investigate the cause, but someone had to pay the price for this irritation.
Here.
As luck would have it, there were no clouds blocking the view.
With vision many times sharper than a human's, she had spotted the target building below long ago.
The excess Honkai Energy began gradually converging. The primarily black-and-white outfit started to disintegrate, and even the four skirt panels belonging to the Herrscher dispersed into the air.
Without the powerful thrust, Chlorine Sodium began to fall under the force of gravity.
The clothes worn underneath gradually became visible. After all, hiding her identity this way was the fastest way to reach her destination.
And with the return of sound, the girl's ears were once again filled with the howl of wind tearing past!
Her figure plunged downward at tremendous speed. With no protective mechanism and no parachute, she was swept along by gravity as though throwing herself into the embrace of a storm.
The G-force was far beyond what any living creature could withstand. Without any protection, an ordinary person would certainly have died on the way down.
But Chlorine Sodium's superhuman structural strength made it completely harmless to her.
Her crimson-gold eyes continually focused as she adjusted her descent during the final stage.
Her eyes had already locked onto the place where she was about to land.
Traveling at tremendous speed and making no attempt to slow down in order to save time, she intended to crash straight into the ground!
The ground drew closer and closer. Honkai Energy surged through the girl's blood vessels and into every part of her body. Her vision became clearer, her consciousness made everything in the world seem much slower as time passed, and her physical strength became twice as great as it had been before!
A breath passed in an instant. Ten seconds reached its limit.
The next moment, both feet slammed into the ground!!
"Boom!!!"
To an outsider, the howling wind in midair had only just ceased when something crashed directly onto the transport vehicle in the courtyard!
Through the girl's slowed vision, she could see the impact of her high-speed descent cave in the entire roof of the van. The twisting and snapping metal produced a teeth-grinding sound.
But this was only the beginning. The entire vehicle bent into a V shape like a wire being forced apart by two hands.
And the explosion was about to come.
Yet this fleeting process appeared like a slow-motion film to the girl, taking only three or four seconds.
Then—
Purple patterns suddenly lit up across her legs. Empowered by Honkai Energy, the girl shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow, leaving a purple afterimage in midair.
When the explosion's firelight blossomed first, its radiance breaking the speed of sound, the fist carrying the force of a landslide had already smashed the metal door into the factory!
"What the—"
The thug at the entrance had not even finished saying the word "hell" when the explosion of the vehicle and the shattering of the metal door erupted together, smashing the person behind the door into pulp!
"What happened?"
Before the thug guarding the second-floor stairwell could even turn around to investigate, an iron fist had already smashed into his lower back!
"Aaaaaah!!"
The sound of agony, shattering teeth, and spraying blood mingled with the cracking of muscle and bone fragments from his spine splintering into his flesh. The man lost almost all ability to stand again on the spot.
The man who had been chatting with him finally realized that someone had invaded.
Just as he was about to pull out his club, the girl's palm heel had already struck upward into his chin.
With a wet, brittle crack, the upward force launched the man into the air. The girl beneath him had already taken three steps and launched an attack at the next guard!
Everything happened far too quickly! It was so fast that even leaving behind the slightest afterimage on ordinary human retinas was too much to ask!
It was a completely insurmountable difference in strength, far beyond anything human.
In the eyes of the terrified guards shouting in panic, the girl seemed more like a mass of air. Because it moved too quickly, anyone touched by that mass of air was blasted backward as though struck head-on by a speeding train, their bodies torn apart and drenched in blood!
That mass of air had already charged into the crowd. In an instant, blood and flesh flew everywhere. It was only three seconds after the slaughter began that someone in the crowd remembered to fight back.
The hand swinging an iron bar was lightly brushed by the air. In the next moment, the man wielding the bar was suddenly shoved backward by something, smashing straight through the wall behind him. The sound of breaking bones mingled with his agonized wails.
Yet the pain lasted only a few seconds, because a corpse flew in and crashed onto the screaming man, causing the grievously injured victim to breathe his last.
"Don't get in my way."
The girl growled as she smashed the foolish thug who tried to stop her with one punch, then passed directly through the corpse, which had shattered into pieces but had not yet hit the ground.
Blood and unrecognizable fragments of human tissue covered the floor.
Red and white fluids streamed everywhere, and the entire passageway reeked of blood.
At last, the remaining people broke down.
They did not even know what their attacker truly was.
Fear came from the unknown.
It took only three things to create a terrifying monster.
Impossible to communicate with, impossible to understand, and impossible to defeat.
Chlorine Sodium belonged to all three categories.
Yet every person attempting to flee who happened to be in the girl's path was instantly slaughtered, smashed into fragments by an unseen mass of air.
"A monster... It's a monster, aaaaaah!!!"
"Run! Run for your lives!!!"
The thugs scattered in panic. In their desperation to escape, they became so tightly packed that chaotic trampling and even killing one another began.
But none of this fell within Chlorine Sodium's concerns anymore.
··········
The lights in the workshop suddenly went out.
??
"Huh? What happened?"
The man turned around and shouted toward the door.
The lights were off, but it was probably that clumsy idiot again, accidentally knocking the circuit breaker shut.
Something had apparently happened outside. The moment the lights went out, those people had probably started making a fuss. They really were unreliable.
Yet after a while, no one outside answered.
"Hey! I'm talking to you! Are you deaf?!"
But outside was as silent as the grave.
What was going on?
Something seemed... not quite right.
Suddenly, the sound of the door opening broke the silence. Yet the dim room was pitch-black, making it impossible to see who had entered from outside.
"Hey! Turn on the lights! Are you idiots?"
What was that?
The man suddenly felt his foot kick something over.
Without bothering with the girl tied to the operating table, he groped around and picked up the object from the floor.
What was this?
But when he brought it closer, his eyes, gradually accustomed to the darkness, finally made out what he was holding.
It was... that Sarkaz's head.
"!!!!!!!!"
Before he could cry out, he suddenly felt his own field of vision fly into the air.
What...
His view spun around before finally becoming clear.
His body... Why was it still standing over there?
PS: I stayed up late writing this. I'm going to die, whimper.
Section 48: Chapter Forty-Eight—Emotional Portrait
What a hassle.
Methodology was only methodology.
It was like a fully armed new recruit going into battle for the first time. Even if they were covered in armor from head to toe, they would still feel somewhat worried.
And they would lack experience, fumbling in panic.
In this situation, she was indeed somewhat...
Lacking experience?
If she had to choose between fighting Himeko from the previous world once more and facing Yelena right now,
she would rather go fight Himeko again immediately.
"Sis... Sob... Waaaaah!!!"
Looking at Yelena, who had burst into tears the moment Chlorine Sodium untied her ropes, both eyes swollen like fried eggs, Chlorine Sodium felt a little... troubled?
Before you continue