Volume Three: The Academy Runs Wild - The Imperfect One

"Where... is it...?"

In the dark alley, Haoyue leaned against the wall, panting heavily. A red, wet stain was clearly visible on her disheveled clothes—blood seeping from the torn wound on her chest. The same was true for her lower body; several obvious streaks of blood ran down her legs, most of it soaking into her shoes and socks, some dripping directly onto the ground.

Regardless of whether her body could withstand it, walking on the street like this would definitely attract attention and cause a lot of unexpected trouble. With no other choice, Xiao Wu had to take a desolate alleyway.

But no matter which way you go, it's all for nothing if you don't know where your destination is.

"Waaah..."

Haoyue pressed one hand against her dizzy head, while the other hand rested on the mottled wall. She shuffled forward, leaving a trail of sparse blood on the ground behind her, a truly gruesome sight.

If this continues, I'm afraid I won't be able to hold on until I find Xiao Ye.

But we can't stop.

Even if she couldn't find it, she could at least find some psychological comfort through her meager efforts—but that wasn't what Haoyue was thinking.

She was simply striving for that one in ten thousand chance.

It's not time to despair yet.

If Xiao Ye were to truly go berserk, the scene would be earth-shattering, but so far there have been no unusual occurrences in the area, which is enough to show that she is at least normal for now.

"Since things haven't reached the worst point yet, there is still hope."

Haoyue thought to herself.

However--

"... Eh!?"

As if mocking her, an invisible wave suddenly came from afar, sweeping across the sky and the earth. Haoyue felt a chill in her heart, as if something icy had licked her heart.

Looking up at the sky, the once clear blue sky suddenly darkened, and the clouds high in the sky gradually twisted and deformed, forming a vortex-like shape.

"No way... Xiao Ye... you still are!"

"Hey, look at the sky!!!"

"Wow! What's that? An eye? A vortex?"

"Is it some kind of superhuman going berserk?"

People passing by stopped and looked up at the distant sky, where the white clouds had inexplicably turned blood red and twisted into a vortex shape like the eye of a typhoon, like a distorted giant eye looking down on the earth. If you looked closely, you could see a faint red light surging in the center of the vortex, and strange, indescribable fluctuations emanating from it.

"Look at that position... it seems like they're directly facing Mikael Girls' Academy?"

"It's behind the Mikael Girls' Academy n't it?"

"What exactly happened?"

"Let's go take a look!"

Immediately sensing something was wrong, Enforcement Team and curious onlookers rushed towards the area directly opposite the whirlpool; if they weren't mistaken, it should be a park behind the Mikael Girls' Academy.

Hiss hiss hiss...

Then, a further change occurred.

A pale red gas drifted from there, not as hazy as fog, nor as pungent as smoke, but rather with an unpleasant stickiness in its hazy form.

Like the miasma in a tropical forest.

The miasma spread rapidly with the wind from the park behind the Mikael Girls' Academy, quickly engulfing the surrounding area. Enforcement Team who were rushing to the scene were the first to notice the anomaly.

"This stuff... could it be miasma? But the color is wrong, it's too strange." The Enforcement Team with the middle parting frowned.

"Idiot, cover your mouth and nose right now! What if this stuff is poisonous?" another long-haired Enforcement Team quickly reminded him.

"The gas mask that was supposed to be provided with me is long gone... What the hell are you talking about me about?"

"... What? You don't like it when I call you an idiot?"

"You bastard!"

A subtle discord had already arisen; they started arguing over something trivial, even resorting to profanity—something that would never normally happen in a disciplined law Enforcement Team —but neither of them noticed.

"I'm just trying to be nice and remind you, and you give me—"

"Shut your damn mouth and stop talking nonsense!"

Fuck your mother!!!

Click!!!!

With a flash of light, the man with the middle parting lost his arm and blood gushed from the severed area.

Just a second ago, the enraged long-haired man suddenly drew the Enforcement Team's sword and slashed at the middle-parted man.

The long-haired man showed no remorse for harming his companion; instead, his face was filled with the satisfaction of having vented his frustration.

"You—you bastard!!!"

The man with the middle parting showed no sign of flinching from the excruciating pain of his severed limb, as if his sense of pain had been numbed. He roared and punched the long-haired man squarely in the eye socket. A crisp crack followed, and the long-haired man's eye socket shattered completely, his bloodshot eyeball nearly popping out.

"You bastard----!!!!"

The man with the middle parting didn't stop. He stood up and lunged forward, biting the long-haired man's neck like a mad dog. His not-so-sharp teeth tore through the skin, embedded themselves in the trachea, and sucked out large amounts of blood. The man being bitten wasn't going to be outdone. He stabbed the long-haired man's eyes with his fingers, gouging out the eyeballs and stabbing deep into the skull!

Coincidentally, everyone around suddenly began a bloody fight, the causes of which were both absurd and laughable. Some were because someone stepped on their foot, some because they felt it was too hot, and many more were for no reason at all—completely inexplicable acts of violence. They punched, dug with their nails, bit, and threw anything within reach at those around them. The most bizarre thing was that there wasn't a single cry of pain; there were only frantic roars, as if everyone had become immune to pain.

As the miasma thickened, the rampant infection spread rapidly, and the dead soon appeared. There were people with branches piercing their brains, people whose skulls had been smashed open with iron bars, and people whose faces had been completely peeled off. Some, even those already lying on the ground in a wretched state, were still crawling and struggling, biting at the ankles of those around them—

Pale red miasma—the power leaking from the Rakshasa True Word continues to spread, scattering madness everywhere.

And in the park, directly below the Blood Vortex in the sky—

An extremely dense gas formed a sphere, inside which a scarlet figure was curled up, motionless like a statue, seemingly unresponsive to anything around him. Outside the sphere, the dense, almost tangible, Killing Intent condensed into strange, vein-like structures that wrapped around the sphere and appeared to pulsate rhythmically.

"Um..."

The "he" who had just disappeared into the void has reappeared.

No one knows where he came from or how he appeared; he simply appeared here suddenly.

"As expected, the full awakening of the Rakshasa True Word takes time. I hope nothing goes wrong... or rather, even if something does go wrong, it won't matter."

His outdated sneakers rubbed against the ground as he walked through the murky, frenzied red miasma, completely unaffected. The moment he approached the sphere, those vein-like streaks of Killing Intent energy shot towards him—

"Don't move around."

A simple sentence.

The blood vessels immediately constricted, as if they had encountered something extremely frightening.

"If stimulated by the fully rampaged Rakshasa True Word, the power of ▇▇▇▇ could awaken to -- um... to put it in perspective... about one in a few hundred million? Oh well, even a tiny bit of awakening would be good, after all, zero and one are worlds apart."

He chewed and muttered to himself as he ate.

Holding a small plastic bowl in one hand and cheap disposable chopsticks in the other, he was slurping down cold noodles.

His disappearance just now was simply to take care of lunch.

"As expected, Qishan's liangpi (cold skin noodles) is the best, and Hanzhong rice noodles are not bad either, unlike the random stuff that Sichuan puts into liangpi... Oh?"

Hissing sounds filled the air as the previously curled-up figure gradually stood up. However, instead of transforming into a massive three-meter-tall body as before, it became slightly smaller than usual.

After observing carefully, he sighed softly.

"Forget about unleashing the power of ▇▇▇▇, it hasn't even reached full berserk mode... Although I didn't have high hopes to begin with, it's still a bit of a shame."

As if he had lost interest in everything, "he" quickly ate a bowl of cold noodles, threw the plastic bowl into a roadside trash can, and disappeared again.

It hurts so much, it hurts so much, it hurts so much.

My whole body was engulfed in a scarlet world, where countless hideous demons roared at me, grinned at me, threatened me, mocked me, and tempted me.

Fall into depravity... fall into depravity... in this endless madness...

The hoarse voice pierced my heart like nails, and countless tiny runes coalesced into chains that bound my limbs, trapping me on the red sea. The crimson water emitted a foul stench, a mixture of blood and the stench of corpses, incredibly pungent and enough to drive anyone mad just by smelling it.

Gurgle.

Bubbles rose from the calm Blood Sea, as if some creature lurked beneath the blood. Just then, with a splash, a mangled corpse slowly rose from the surface, its empty eyes staring at me as it walked towards me.

As a signal, with a series of gurgling sounds, more and more Blood Corpse surfaced—no, it was only then that I realized it wasn't the corpses crawling out, but the receding tide. The water was just a thin layer; beneath it lay countless Blood Corpse, hundreds of thousands piled high, one on top of another, densely packed, their crimson flesh clung together. And as the tide receded, countless Blood Corpse broke free of their tangled flesh, staggering to their feet and walking towards me—

Click!

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!"

The first Blood Corpse bit my shoulder, and I immediately reacted honestly to the sharp pain—I screamed! But this was just the beginning. More and more Blood Corpse gathered around me, tearing, gnawing, and tirelessly peeling away my flesh. I screamed and struggled desperately, but the chains formed from bloody runes bound my limbs firmly, making it impossible for me to move!

"Ahhhhhhh--Ooh--Eee-ya..."

It hurts so much, it hurts so much, it hurts so much.

I have suffered far more severe injuries in the past. This is nothing more than simple tearing and biting. I could have endured it. But for some reason, this simple pain surpasses the sum of all the previous ones.

I want to die.

If there is any other wish—

"Someone... please save me..."

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After coming to Sichuan for university, I have to say I can't eat the cold noodles or liangpi (cold skin noodles) here at all! Why do they put so much chili in them?! And so much shredded radish, kelp, and bean sprouts! It's insane!