Volume Six: What She Lost, What I Gained - The Deadliest Line Draws Near

The day before--

"Is everything as usual, Fisher?"

"Of course, you and I are the most compatible."

"But you know, right? Even I can't repeatedly order my people to commit suicide."

"You've said it countless times, even though the harm has been transferred—"

"--But if I frequently issue strange orders like suicide, my people will definitely find it odd, and over time it will sow seeds of suspicion against me as their 'god,' which will be detrimental to future development."

"So, as before, our 'combination technique' must be used only when we're absolutely certain of success and can deliver the final blow."

"If we don't use them, we don't use them at all; if we do, we'll kill them without hesitation... I'm starting to feel sorry for our opponents."

"You've got a major misconception! The number of people in my domain isn't just a mere two million, but—three billion above that!!!"

Fisher was pointing at Trister, who was standing to the side with a smile.

Tastan shouted, "Didn't expect that, did you! You idiot! You idiot!" and excitedly flapped his wings, flying around.

"Ah..."

Xiao Wu made a silly sound.

Unexpected.

It should have been an easy thing to think of, but she didn't notice it.

Why did Fisher and Trister team up? Because their abilities complement each other well.

However, Xiao Wu was only focused on the battle at hand, thinking only about how to defeat Fisher, and thus neglected this problem.

(Oops--!!!)

The body acted before the mind.

Dragging his body, ravaged by a deadly virus intended for two million people, he forcibly dissolved the demonic energy to 100%, and then—

"Fisher!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Hurry, hurry!

Grab Fisher, grab him before he can react.

Once caught, immediately run away—that is, out of the Business Capital, break through the huge transparent water barrier, and enter the sea directly, swimming as far as you can.

If he were to become a full-fledged demon, Xiao Wu could drag Fisher to the depths of the sea at top speed in the shortest time, until he could not reach the city of Business Capital even with his domain fully extended, and then he would drown.

As long as he stays away from people, he can --

"Pity."

Then, Xiao Wu's consciousness was interrupted.

Three billion people committed suicide using all sorts of methods, and all the harm was concentrated in one place.

Quantitative change leads to qualitative change.

A cut on the hand, a toe kicked in the corner, a stone hitting the eye—these are real, tangible pains.

However, if the amount of pain accumulates to an excessive level, becomes too large, too diverse, or even far exceeds the limits that the nervous system can process, then pain may no longer be pain.

Xiao Wu is a perfect example.

She did not feel any pain.

The physical sensations simply disappeared, a deep sleepiness washed over me, and my vision blurred for a moment.

After a long day, the office worker finally went to bed and drifted into a dreamless sleep—that's how she felt.

Although what followed was endless darkness.

"Dedicated to the spine!!"

The spine of the Sin Annihilation Blade burst forth from the skin of its back, but instead of transforming into its usual snake-belly sword, it straightened completely and became a bone spear resembling a scepter, covered with pulsating blood vessels.

"Emission!"

"How can you be so unoriginal! To be honest, as a mechanical person, I have the utmost contempt for people like you who only care about physicality!"

Dozens of chainsaws and countless twisted wires instantly coalesced, forming a gigantic mechanical hand covered in Laser Cutter that grabbed at the bone spear. The spear embedded itself squarely in the palm of her hand. Julia gave a mocking smile, however—

Sizzle sizzle sizzle sizzle!!

"--What!?"

The mechanical giant hand only managed to stop the bone spear for less than a second before being breached. The bone spear, like a nail driven into tofu, pierced through the giant hand in an instant! A pungent smell of blood emanated from the bone spear, and all metal objects that came near it lost control!

"Cut— Plasma Cannon!"

A massive cannon barrel appeared in Julia's hand, and a beam of light that shook the atmosphere streaked across the sky, finally reducing the bone spear to ashes.

"You blocked my way... What a pity, I was planning to surprise you." Sin Annihilation tilted his head.

"Tch! No wonder you wrapped so many blood vessels around your spine! Turns out they're filled with highly corrosive liquid!"

It can even corrode superalloys! That's terrifying!

"But you've already lost~"

"Well?"

Julia pointed at Sin Annihilation, who was Sin Annihilation and only then realized something was wrong behind him.

The directional explosive bomb, concealed by optical camouflage, was revealed. Almost simultaneously, Sin Annihilation transformed his arms into shields composed of countless scales. However, numerous small tentacles emerged from the bomb's base, piercing the gaps between the scales—

"Boom!" BOOM!!!!

The meticulously calculated explosion was not a one-off destruction; the impact spread throughout the shield's interior along the mechanical tentacles, causing a complete collapse from the inside out, even turning half of Sin Annihilation's body into fragments.

But,

"Hahaha~ Look at you, you look like you've been half-crushed in a meat grinder! It's just... wait, what?"

Before Julia could finish her taunts, the chunks of flesh from the Sin Annihilation automatically gathered together and returned to their original state in less than half a second.

"Hey, hey, hey... It's one thing for that pink-haired girl to keep resurrecting, but this is practically a system restore! And to restore so quickly, just how high-end is your computer?!"

"Drain the milk from one meter."

What do you mean?

"Ye taught me... I don't know the specifics."

"Hmph, I've lost interest in you anyway. Your character and abilities are exactly what I hate. I'm not going to fight you. I clearly want to kill Urushihara as soon as possible..."

"... What did you say?"

Sin Annihilation narrowed his eyes, a hint of coldness creeping into his words.

"I mean, my original target was Urushibara, but—ugh, I'm so annoyed! That old fox Fisher got Fisher first! I really wanted to kill Fisher and take Urushibara back, but Fisher's abilities are beyond my control!!!"

"What are you saying...?"

"Oh, right, I have some bad news for you! I was so disappointed when I heard this on the walkie-talkie, and since I didn't want to be the only one feeling down, I had to tell you!"

"... explain?"

"That one, that one, it's Urahara Sakura Dance, she's about to die."

"..."

"It happened less than a minute ago, and it was ended by the combined attack of Fisher and Trister. The combined damage caused by three billion people committing suicide in various ways was inflicted on her alone! Anyone would have died without a doubt. What a pity, what a pity, what a pity!"

"..."

"... Hey, I've said all that, so give me some kind of response! By the way, everything I said is true!"

However, Sin Annihilation simply watched Julia silently, without crying or showing anger.

It's like... they're not worried about Xiao Wu at all.

Julia suddenly felt something was wrong.

"Hello, hello? This gray-haired girl?"

"You communicate with each other using something called a 'walkie-talkie,' right?"

Suddenly, Sin Annihilation asked a strange question.

"That goes without saying..."

"So, since you're going to find ways to communicate, then so are we; we have ways to communicate too."

Sin Annihilation pointed to himself.

"As early as this morning when we set off, I distributed the extension of my body—small pieces of flesh—to each of them, including Xiao Wu."

"Wait, you mean—"

"That's right, I received a message from Xiao Wu just over a minute ago."

"Huh?"

"Let me transfer Ye, and then let Ye go find someone else."

"What? All this roundabout talk... In short, Urushihara secretly sought help from you while she was getting beaten up badly? It's useless~ No matter who she brings in, they can't do anything to Fisher's abilities!"

"Some."

Sin Annihilation chuckled softly.

That was a smile of absolute certainty.

"There is indeed someone who can turn the tide in one fell swoop."

"Waaaaah, waaaaah, even I can't handle so many demands at once!"

Beside the crater at the racetrack--

Little Nuonuo is in a state of extreme panic.

Countless numbers and equations floated around her, enough to overload the brains of most people. Although only she could see them, at this moment, some of these things were drifting from the city center, while others were drifting from the direction of a construction site.

Just now, Neumann used a forbidden skill—visual probability—to help Ye find the location of the compressed space, but before he could even catch his breath, he was back in action.

It seems that Ye's companion, Ms. Xiao Wu, is in deep danger. At the critical moment, she thinks of asking Neumann, who can manipulate numbers, for help.

First, she secretly contacted Sin Annihilation, who then transferred Sin Annihilation to Ye, who immediately told Neumann. The message was relayed to Neumann through two intermediaries. Clearly, Xiao Wu was also taking a gamble, because she was in danger and couldn't possibly know that Neumann was right next to Ye. Xiao Wu initially only hoped that Ye had a way to contact Neumann immediately.

Moreover, even if Ye had the means to immediately contact Neumann for help, she might not have had the time because she was busy dealing with the enemy. The same applies to Sin Annihilation, but fortunately, Xiao Wu made the right bet.

"Who on earth could do something so horrific, and rewrite data on such a massive scale... Luckily, it doesn't require precise operations. We just need to adjust the overall concentration proportionally... reduce the toxin concentration to 5% of the lethal dose. As for the suicides of 3 billion people... ignore individual differences and only convert them into overall harm, dilute it as much as possible... Hurry, hurry, hurry!"

As she manipulated the system, countless numbers in the space shrank at an astonishing rate, even more rapidly than a housing market crash.

Seeing the numbers steadily decreasing, Neumann breathed a slight sigh of relief, then nervously glanced at the person beside him.

Ye still held the marble containing the entire racetrack in his hand, his expression so gloomy it seemed like it was about to drip water.

She pondered, and even though it was a settled conclusion that "Valentina's compressed space could not be destroyed or invaded from the outside," she still did not give up.

Neumann felt a wave of weakness wash over him.

She really hated herself for being unable to help. Although she tried her best to help Ye at first and even considered using some new algorithms to transform the scale of space, they were all rejected because they lacked feasibility. When the communication from the other side of the Sin Annihilation came, Ye told Neumann to "deal with Xiao Wu's matter first" and she would think of a solution on her own for the time being.

This was the first time Neumann had seen Ye look so pale.

This was probably the first time she'd ever felt so helpless. The key to saving her important companions lay in the small marble in her hand; success was so close, yet she couldn't reach it no matter what she did. Such powerlessness, such despair...

Six minutes have passed since Haoyue was sealed into the alternate dimension.

Haoyue is already eighty years old.

The remaining time, I'm afraid --

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Preview: Next chapter: Nuclear Energy

Monthly Votes (╯‵□′)╯┻━┻