[Irin]
[Corruption Rank: ★★★★ (Danger Rank)]
[Current Corruption Trend: Vanguard]
[Level: 31]
[Base Attributes: Strength C-, Agility C, Constitution C+, Stamina B-, Special Ability D-]
[Advanced Attributes: Luck E, Corrupt Calamity Affinity C+]
[Skills:
(Common Rank) Berserk Lv. 1—Slightly increases the user's Strength, Stamina, and recovery speed, and marginally increases Agility. It also reduces damage taken by 10%. However, activating this skill carries a 50% chance of inflicting the "Confusion" status.
(Danger Rank Exclusive) Great Annihilation Lv. 1—Greatly increases all of the user's attributes and grants an additional 30% Attack Power for 15 seconds. This bonus decays over time. While the skill is active, 15% of damage dealt is converted into healing for the user. In addition, each enemy unit eliminated while in the "Great Annihilation" state refreshes its duration and effects. This passive has no activation limit.]
(Note: The "Exclusive" tag means this skill belongs to one, and only one, Corrupted. Once [Affection/Obedience] reaches 80% or higher, the skill can be "copied.")
(Note: "Copy" means copying the selected skill, including its proficiency, into your own skill slots. Current empty skill slots: 0.)
[Corrupt Calamity Authority: None (awakens and unlocks upon reaching "Calamity Rank")]
[Infrastructure Specialty: Trash Master IV—Has a "moderate chance" of turning the garbage in a settlement into something valuable.]
Liao Ji checked Irin's brand-new status panel immediately. Her attributes made it clear that the girl was heavily specialized, trending toward becoming a
A Reaper was a specialized branch of the Vanguard class, usually referring to high-Agility, high-Attack, damage-dealing Corrupted.
By comparison, Liao Ji couldn't help thinking back to another one of his wives from his first playthrough. She was also a Vanguard, but a Dragon Girl of another race: Tang Jiuyou.
Her Vanguard branch was—
"Tyrant."
Five hundred years ago, when Corrupted monsters roamed everywhere, Reapers weren't especially popular among Vanguards. Liao Ji had much preferred the Tyrant branch, which could both tank and deal damage.
But now, five hundred years later, the times had changed. The average enemy was clearly much weaker, and that was when the Reaper's strengths came into play.
In short—
They were better at beating up weaklings.
"Give it back! That Relic belongs to the Knights Order! What did you do to it?" Falmu cried, frantic with rage.
Only after watching Liao Ji send the Scarlet Star into Irin's body did Falmu snap out of his fixation on the Corrupted Crystal.
He realized that their Great Emperor's Relic was gone. Gone!!
"Loka! You bastard! Didn't you say nobody could activate the Relic? That nobody could use it? Then what is she? Why did the Relic go into her body?!"
Falmu grabbed the grey-robed man and shook him wildly, but the man could only giggle foolishly now, muttering things like "the gods."
Furious, the leader of the Knights Order tossed Dr. Loka, who had gone limp as a rag, aside. Then he turned to the gang members standing dumbfounded around him and roared:
"Open fire! All of you, open fire! Kill her! Make her spit out the Relic!"
They hadn't gotten the crimson crystal, and now someone had snatched away the Relic that was their "family fortune" too. The crushing disappointment had driven Falmu more or less out of his mind. He had only one simple thought, the kind any gangster would have: kill!
The irony was, the Scarlet Star had sent half the factory's gang members running in terror earlier, desperate to get away.
Yet now that the Scarlet Star was inside Irin, and they were facing a girl who was also human, they weren't as afraid. They even had the courage to follow orders and shoot her.
Rat-tat-tat!
Rat-tat-tat!
Rat-tat-tat!
More than half of the Knights Order's gang members had fled the factory, but at least a hundred still remained. When they all aimed their guns at Irin and pulled the triggers, their combined barrage was terrifying.
The boiler where Irin and Liao Ji stood was instantly swallowed by smoke beneath the furious gunfire. Muzzle flashes lit up the gang members' crazed faces. They seemed to be using the violence to confront their fear, to fight it back.
But would it work?
When the first volley ended, Falmu stared at the smoke-shrouded boiler. She's dead, right? She had to be! Even a Corrupted couldn't withstand such a dense rain of bullets.
S-She must've been shot full of holes...
At last—
Before the smoke had even fully cleared, a mocking voice echoed through the factory, reaching every gangster's ears.
"Is that supposed to tickle?"
Then—
A current of dark brown energy swept away the smoke. Irin stood with her back to the boiler, shielding Liao Ji behind her. Before the girl, a weapon had appeared from nowhere: a—
Scarlet, wicked-looking greatsword.
Almost as tall as the girl, the Scarlet Greatsword had blocked every shot the gang members had fired at her.
The countless bullet casings scattered around Irin's feet were proof enough. The sight left the gang members dumbstruck.
"Old Fossil, are you sure you'll be okay on your own?" Irin turned her head slightly toward the young man behind her.
Liao Ji wasn't about to let her down at a crucial moment like this.
The safest thing to do would be to use Calamity Magnetic Pulse and disarm all the gang members in the factory, leaving no doubt about the outcome.
But... how to put it?
It was like pulling a powerful new character, dumping all your resources into them, then eagerly taking them into a dungeon to farm bosses and explore the world.
That was the joy of a game about raising characters, and Liao Ji wanted to enjoy it now.
So he did nothing. He simply nodded at the girl as a spectator, giving her a look that said she could go all out and didn't need to worry about him.
"Of course."
"You should be careful, though. Their firepower seems pretty intense. All that rat-a-tat-tat sounds pretty scary. Don't get carried away."
At Liao Ji's feigned concern, Irin slung the greatsword over her shoulder.
Compared with the Scarlet Greatsword, which was over a meter long, the girl looked suddenly tiny. The contrast was striking.
She left Liao Ji with only her back and two short sentences.
"It doesn't matter. I'll make them shut up."
"Permanently."
It had taken seven seconds to block the gang's barrage and five seconds to talk to the old fossil. Irin checked her body and felt the explosive strength fading. Even the Scarlet Greatsword in her hands had dimmed, becoming a blurry shadow.
She had about three seconds before this state ended completely.
The gang members from the Knights Order nearby took this as proof that Irin was nearly finished. Falmu shouted orders frantically, trying to rally them for one more volley and wipe her out in one go.
But three seconds was—
Plenty for the girl.
Irin fixed her gaze on the group of gang members nearest to her. She bent her knees, then sprang into the air. The girl raised her greatsword overhead, and as she plunged down, brought it crashing down in a vicious slash.
Boom!
The blade struck the ground. The seven or eight unlucky gang members at the center were crushed into mincemeat by the powerful shock wave. A deep fissure split the floor. Clearly, the girl wielding the greatsword wasn't focused on single targets. Every move she made was an area-of-effect attack, empowered by the Scarlet Greatsword.
And—
In the previous moment, the girl's aura had been fading. Now, after those seven or eight gang members became souls beneath Irin's blade, her presence surged. The Scarlet Greatsword in her hands, formed from Corrupt Calamity, stopped looking blurry and became solid again, as tangible as it had been at the start.
The Scarlet Greatsword trembled in Irin's hands. Each time it claimed a member of the Knights Order, crushing the bodies of those lowly ants who had dared to imprison it and steal its power, it let out an excited cry that sounded like "Ugh-ah!"
To Irin, the sword's cry was beautiful and sweet. To the gang members on the other side—no, to almost any normal person—it sounded like the tolling of a death knell.
The cries rolled over them like waves, seeming to carry fear with them on a psychological level. Their already fragile defenses crumbled completely.
"M-Monster!"
"Stay back! Don't come any closer!"
"The Relic! That's the Relic's power! There's no way we can beat her! Run, hurry!"
"It's over! We're done for!"
The additional 30% Attack Power granted to Irin by Great Annihilation was the Scarlet Greatsword in her hands.
Once the Knights Order's gang members realized that Irin could keep this terrifying state going by killing them, keeping the Scarlet Greatsword drenched in its crimson glow, the last of their fighting spirit vanished.
This wasn't a fight at all. It was a one-sided slaughter.
The gang members threw down their weapons and fled in droves, ignoring even Falmu's orders. Terror had taken control of them. In their minds, only one word remained: run!
Unfortunately for them, they would've been better off not running. Their continuous gunfire hadn't done much to hurt Irin, but at least it had kept her occupied. Now that they'd all given up resisting, she was free to unleash herself. The Knights Order members were cut down even faster.
The excited "Ugh-ah!" cries of the sword ran together, almost becoming the factory's background noise.
"Bastards! Idiots! Imbeciles! Useless trash!" Falmu watched, furious and helpless, cursing them at the top of his lungs.
But at least he was their leader. He knew that ordinary gang members were useless in a situation like this.
The trusted men who had followed him earlier stepped forward. Each of them pulled a Corrupted Reagent from his clothes, then unhesitatingly drove the needle into his arm.
"Ughhh, aaagh!"
With bestial roars, their bodies suddenly swelled, bursting through their uniforms. Their muscles bulged all over, turning them into hulking, two-meter-tall brutes, just like Grey Wolf at the Haisha Bar.
This was the Knights Order's strongest trump card, and the reason Falmu could rule the Black Cave. They charged toward Irin in long strides, their footsteps making the factory floor tremble faintly.
The girl's response was simple. She stayed right where she was and watched the four or five brutes charging at her. Then she held the greatsword diagonally at her left side and took a deep breath.
Swish!
The girl centered the sweep on herself, swinging the greatsword through a 180-degree arc. In the next instant, the brutes—who hadn't even reached the edge of Irin's clothes—were still charging when their bodies were split in two at the waist. They fell to the ground with several heavy thuds.
Was that the end of it?
No!
The trusted men had bought Falmu time and drawn everyone's attention. But his real killing move was still waiting in the wings.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three gunshots rang out from Falmu's position. It might have seemed like he had fired only three shots, and with a pistol at that, but the damage they inflicted on Irin was several times greater than the entire barrage before them.
The reason was simple.
The bullets were different.
The spent casings at Falmu's feet were engraved with silver patterns. They were Sacred Pattern Silver Bullets, special ammunition produced only by the Church and used by the Knights Order to deal with Corrupt Calamity crises. They were highly lethal not only to Corrupted monsters, but also to Corrupted.
The three shots pierced through Irin's Scarlet Greatsword. Caught off guard, the girl took bullets to the waist, abdomen, and leg, leaving bloody holes.
Falmu's heart leapt with joy at the sight. His sneak attack had worked. Irin was definitely weakened by those wounds. If he could regroup his men and keep up the barrage...
Before Falmu could finish putting together a counterattack plan in his head, the next sight drove him to despair.
Red mist began to rise from the bodies surrounding the girl. Drawn to her, it streamed toward the three wounds on Irin's body.
In just a few breaths, Falmu's eyes widened. The wounds he'd seen as his last hope—the holes his ambush had torn in Irin—had already been completely repaired, healed shut.
So this was the Relic... the power of the Relic?!
Jealousy practically poured from Falmu's eyes. That power should have belonged to him. They had found the Relic first, and they had been the ones to study it.
It was all that useless doctor's fault!
He'd spent decades studying the Relic, yet still wasn't worth a fraction of that young man!
Raging inwardly, Falmu knew he had lost. He had lost completely. This was what a Corrupted was—a powerful Corrupted, able to sweep aside the Knights Order he had spent so many years building without a chance for them to fight back.
As long as there were green hills, there would be firewood to burn.
Falmu gave up completely. At last, just like the other gang members, he was overcome by fear of Irin and turned to run.
But what he never expected was—
Something that took Irin, and even Liao Ji watching from the sidelines, completely by surprise as well—
Chhk!
An experimental scalpel pierced Falmu's heart from behind the moment he turned around.
The piercing pain stripped the Knights Order leader of all his strength in an instant. The other person's precise technique had struck a vital spot, leaving him no strength to fight back.
All Falmu could do in the last few seconds of his life was glare, his expression filled with anger and confusion, even bewilderment, as he stared at—
Dr. Loka.
Hahaha, yesterday's author's note still didn't make it to today before getting sent to the penalty box. I'll summarize it and post it in the comments later.
Before you continue