"After we land, keep moving in this order. Don't look back or get bogged down fighting. Once we're through that residential area, head straight into the subway station. We can catch our breath then."
"From the subway station, go straight to the Ancient Castle. Follow my plan, and in two hours, we'll be back safe!"
Yuki spoke quickly. As he assigned their tasks, he fired the Rope Gun toward the opposite embankment. Only after confirming it was firmly anchored did he turn to look at the others.
As they say, the first time is hard, the second is easy. They'd made several desperate escapes by now, and this time he felt little fear. He was nervous, sure, but still made his preparations in an orderly fashion.
They ate, drank water, and checked their ammunition. The only sound was the clack of rifle bolts being drawn back.
They'd all improved. That made sense; anyone who couldn't handle their own life had already been eliminated.
Yuki thought of the Black man, the college student, and the office lady. All three had actually been promising candidates. The real idiots had been eliminated during the beginner trial. He figured twenty people had been meant to take part in this game. Two days in, there were only six players left, including Li Dan.
If I hadn't been here, Mai Sakurajima would probably be dead too. Of all the newcomers, only Hayasaka Ai had the toughness to make it.
He switched the safety on his rifle, strapped a long sword to his waist, slung the Chainsaw Sword over his back, and reached up to grab the cable above his head. Like stepping onto an escalator, he glided toward the other side at a steady speed.
The reddish water rippled below. Yuki saw pale arms reaching out of it. They belonged to Living Corpses that had fallen into the water. There were hundreds of them, but they couldn't escape the current's pull. All they could do was watch their prey glide overhead.
The air was filled with mournful wails. The densely packed buildings on the far bank had no lights, everything hidden beneath the crimson glow. Along the embankment, shadowy corpses swayed, including many powerful Living Corpses that looked nothing like humans.
It was a hellish scene that made their scalps crawl, and the players were willingly heading into hell's embrace. For a moment, Yuki even felt a philosophical mood coming over him. But before he could voice his thoughts, a tremendous BOOM rang out.
Li Dan had made his move. Yuki couldn't tell what weapon he'd used, but from far away, he'd blown up a car parked at the bridgehead. Flames surged upward, adding a spot of light to the red night. And then—
Hell became purgatory!
ROAR—
The wails turned into roars. For a moment, Yuki couldn't even count how many Living Corpses were pouring toward the opposite side of the canal. They looked like a rolling black carpet, surging out from buildings, streets, and the embankment.
The iron bridge hundreds of meters away was instantly packed. The Living Corpses toppled into the river like dumplings, churning up countless splashes.
They were swept downstream and soon spotted their prey directly overhead. They wailed and struggled, stretching their arms to the limit. They were only a few meters from their quarry's ankles. The Living Corpses grew even more excited, giving the impression that they might leap out of the water at any moment.
Gulp.
Hayasaka Ai swallowed and instinctively held her breath. They were parallel to the bridge, only a few hundred meters away in a straight line.
If they were spotted, enough Living Corpses would surge over to clog the canal, then pile on top of one another to form a human ladder. They'd pull the players down like picking grapes and gnaw them to the bone.
She unconsciously tightened her grip on her gun, as if she were walking along the edge of a hundred-story building. It was the only thing that gave her a sense of security.
"Stay quiet and keep your eyes on the path ahead. They won't notice us."
Yuki's voice drifted over on the wind. It was low, but it reached Hayasaka Ai's ears clearly. Even more miraculously, her racing heart began to calm.
That's right. This man was leading the way. She should trust his judgment.
Hayasaka Ai used Self-Hypnosis, forgetting that there were very few people in her life she could trust. She simply looked up ahead. His back filled her vision like a mountain peak. She couldn't see the Living Corpses, and she no longer felt as if she were in purgatory.
At last, she understood why she hadn't chosen Li Dan, but this more mysterious and dangerous man.
Yuki had no time to dwell on such things. His mind was fixed on the path ahead, and his lips moved as he muttered in a voice only he could hear.
They can't see me. They can't see me. They can't see me...
He wasn't a robot, either. There were thousands upon thousands of Living Corpses crossing the river a few hundred meters away, and the water below them was teeming with hands. Of course he was scared.
He had no idea how much help Li Dan could provide, or whether Robert would be as "fearless" as he'd imagined.
Tap.
His feet touched the ground. There were far fewer Living Corpses on the embankment now, but more were climbing out of the river.
He glanced over, then took the Chainsaw Sword off his back and charged toward the path along the embankment amid its whirring shriek.
Yuki could be afraid, and his plans weren't infallible. He just had one good habit:
Before acting, he played it as safe as possible. But once he decided to face life and death—
He charged ahead without hesitation!
Sharp observation and calm thinking could solve most problems, but humans weren't gods. They could never account for every variable.
So the rest came down to courage: carving out a path forward.
Tap.
Yuki stepped onto the embankment. Despite the din around them, the remaining Living Corpses still turned their heads toward him. Neither side needed an introduction. They charged at each other along the road.
More and more Living Corpses would climb ashore. Their only option was to fight their way through.
Yuki's thoughts became as simple as those of a single-celled organism. Gripping the Chainsaw Sword, he met the tongue that shot straight at his face. Blood sprayed as he sliced through the tongue and the head behind it.
A Smoker?
He kept charging. The chainsaw swept to either side, cleaving the Living Corpses there. Then he looked up and saw a deformed, emaciated figure opening its stinking mouth.
Pfft.
Before Yuki could act, a flying axe spun through the air and buried itself in the creature's forehead. Its momentum sent the Boomer toppling backward. As her golden hair fell loose, Hayasaka Ai darted out from beside Yuki and reached for his waist with her left hand.
Shing—
Her long sword flashed from its sheath, bisecting the Living Corpses rushing toward them. Before they could crawl back up, the Chainsaw Sword skimmed low across the ground and cut them into pieces.
A Chainsaw Sword over a meter and a half long couldn't possibly be nimble. And copying Thomas's Death Windmill would take too much stamina. Fortunately, Hayasaka Ai had his back.
Their coordination was uncanny.
Yuki found it strange, too. It was as if he and Hayasaka Ai had practiced together for ages. Just a few words between them conveyed a tremendous amount of information.
"Duck."
The girl instantly crouched. A Living Corpse with a pair of arms like a gorilla's dropped from above. It should have landed on Hayasaka Ai's back, but instead it met the whirring Chainsaw Sword!
Blood and flesh flew everywhere as its body split apart in midair. Hayasaka Ai dashed through the blood spray and lunged forward to pull the sharp axe from the Boomer's forehead.
She slashed at legs with the long sword in her right hand and smashed heads with the axe in her left. Without breaking stride, she hacked down one Living Corpse after another as they closed in. Behind her, Yuki strode forward, swinging the Chainsaw Sword from side to side and tearing apart any enemy that tried to surround her.
As the killing continued, Yuki moved faster and faster, and his mind grew hazier. It was as if a red veil had descended over his eyes; everything he saw was drenched in blood. His heart clenched again and again.
Kill, kill, kill! Kill every living thing!
"Open fire! Mai, come help!"
Just as he was about to lose control and cut Hayasaka Ai to pieces as well, he let out a low growl, clinging to the last of his reason. The moment the words left his mouth, gunshots rang out.
Robert opened fire. A rapid series of short bursts cleared the horde that was about to engulf them, leaving Yuki with no targets for the moment. At that instant, Mai Sakurajima hurried forward with a syringe in hand and jabbed it into the back of Yuki's neck, injecting the green liquid inside.
Quiet Dew.
In his normal state, one injection would have plunged Yuki into deep thought. But at that moment, the timing was perfect. The Chaos Item, which aided its user, swept away his frenzied bloodlust.
His reason returned. No—he was even calmer than usual. Yuki felt as if he'd lost all emotional fluctuations, thinking with the cold rationality of a machine.
Situation analysis: They had crossed the road along the embankment. The gunfire had drawn more Living Corpses, and they were starting to pour back toward the iron bridge.
The target was two hundred meters away. Few Living Corpses remained inside. The Chainsaw Sword had finished warming up. His physical enhancement remained active alongside his rationality, and would last two minutes. While he was in a killing state, its duration would keep extending.
But he had to watch his limits. Quiet Dew couldn't eliminate the fatigue that came afterward.
With a single glance, Yuki absorbed a massive flow of information. His earlier guess had been confirmed: Quiet Dew and the Chainsaw Sword really were a perfect match. Chaos Items could enhance one another.
His heartbeat steady and his mind utterly calm, he fixed on his target. Then there was the weapon's feedback—
"Back up."
Hayasaka Ai, who'd advanced another dozen meters, stopped at once. She looked up and saw Yuki leap over her. He spun in midair, then slammed the greatsword into the road.
Overload Mode. Storm Cut!
With a piercing shriek, a fan of high-speed air currents swept forward. They were devastating against the unprotected Living Corpses. Limbs flew through the air within a radius of dozens of meters, revealing a huge figure over two meters tall behind the horde.
Its arms were so muscular they looked deformed, while its head seemed tiny by comparison. It crossed its arms in front of itself, its forearms covered in scars.
A Tank? Were you waiting back there to land a nasty hit on me?
Yuki recognized the monster. It was far stronger than the Alienated Grade Living Corpses he'd faced earlier. If it managed to hold him up, he wouldn't be able to get away anytime soon.
But what he needed most right now was time!
Without a moment's hesitation, Yuki charged straight at it. His body gave off the same blood-red glow as the Chainsaw Sword, and lines of reflective Magic Circuits ran across it.
Bang—
He accelerated instantly, cracking the concrete beneath his feet. In the space of a single breath, the Chainsaw Sword slammed into the creature's massive shoulder.
Crack, crack, crack...
Blood burst out, but the teeth failed to cut through the body. Instead, they jammed against the bone with a dull grinding sound, like a saw cutting through steel.
It was hard.
Yuki gritted his teeth, feeling the sharp pain of his palm splitting open. His physical abilities were only those of a fit ordinary man. This strength came from an external force forcing his body to its limits; in a head-on clash, he was clearly at a disadvantage.
He loosened his grip slightly and saw a massive fist hurtling toward his face. Without a second thought, he leaned backward.
Whoosh.
The fist, as big as a clay pot, passed inches from his nose. The Tank didn't care that its right arm was nearly severed. It bent down and locked its joints, ready to pull its prey into its arms. But just then, a pitch-black gun barrel pressed against its forehead.
The golden-haired girl held her gun in one hand and pulled the trigger without expression.
BANG!!
A point-blank blast from a 12-gauge buckshot shell tore its face apart. Even its iron-hard skull was blown through. The massive body toppled backward, and at the same time, Yuki pulled his sword free and drove it cleanly into the monster's chest.
"Move!"
The chainsaw whirred, tearing through its chest. Yuki charged forward with the corpse braced against him, shoving aside the few Living Corpses in his path.
The four of them quickly formed a single-file line. Yuki led the way, Hayasaka Ai finished off the stragglers, and Mai Sakurajima and Robert only needed to keep up.
Ahead lay a residential area. An iron gate stood between the buildings, and the commotion from their battle had drawn out all the Living Corpses inside.
Yuki smashed through the gate, stopped, and turned around, tossing the mangled corpse in his hands to Hayasaka Ai. Without a word, she buried her axe in its shoulder. As she pulled it free, she kicked the corpse toward the pursuing horde.
Frontal Lobe Fragment!
Sharp Petals grew rapidly across the corpse, soon forming a dense thicket of blades that blocked the three-meter-wide gate completely. The muffled sound of flesh being sliced apart barely paused.
The entrance was too narrow, and the Living Corpses too frail. They were like people throwing themselves into a blender, so of course they had no chance.
For a moment, this Chaos Item—which couldn't compare with the Chainsaw Sword—proved more than ten times as lethal.
"Go, go, go!"
Yuki had no intention of looking back. He tucked Hayasaka Ai, whose head was throbbing, beneath his arm and charged into the residential area.
A dizzying sense of exhaustion began to rise. He saw the blood-red glow fading from the Chainsaw Sword and knew the enhancement was nearing its limit.
He didn't dare stop. He ran up the stairs, crossed the garden in the middle of the residential area, hacked a hole through the wall on the far side, and charged into another residential area. Then he kept moving in a straight line, using brute force to smash through everything in his way.
Through a wall, then sprint. Through another wall, then keep sprinting. Just as the chainsaw was about to stop, the view ahead finally opened up.
They'd reached the main crossroads. The horde that should have blocked the road had been drawn to the river. Bodies had filled the sea of blades, and the corpses had packed several residential complexes spanning more than ten acres each.
Thousands upon thousands of Living Corpses were charging about, including plenty of highly mobile Alienated Grades. But trapped in the sea of corpses, they couldn't use their abilities. Even those tripped by a step were trampled to pulp by their own kind.
The wails behind them surged like crashing waves. No new Living Corpses had appeared ahead yet, and Yuki seized that brief gap, running straight for the subway entrance at the roadside.
Back when they'd wandered around the city, Yuki had confirmed that Crimson Moon City's subway had only one entrance.
Without hesitation, he ducked inside and slid down the slope. He drew his pistol and shot the heads off two wandering Living Corpses. Only then did he have a moment to turn around.
Mai Sakurajima and Robert had followed him in. Dozens of Living Corpses were close behind them. Neither dared look back. They leaped down the steps in a few strides, practically sliding past Yuki.
Smack!
Yuki forced himself upright and punched the alarm on the wall, smashing it. As the red light flashed, the heavy fire door slowly descended.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
A series of heavy, muffled impacts followed. The Living Corpses had to be throwing themselves against the door. A moment later, the thuds gave way to a rapid pounding.
The red light flashed. They'd run two kilometers in a row, and should have been gasping for breath. But the subway station was as silent as a grave. Every one of them held their breath as much as possible.
Yuki leaned against the wall, holding Hayasaka Ai without moving, as if he were playing dead. Mai Sakurajima and Robert stood with their rifles in hand, stiff as statues.
Smack, smack, smack...
Dozens of hands pounded at full strength, making the fire door begin to buckle. Their breathing grew even more stifled, almost to the point where they could barely breathe.
Everyone knew there were thousands upon thousands of Living Corpses outside—an even more outrageous crowd than at any superstar's concert. They'd packed the wide intersection until there was barely room to step. If they poured in, then no matter how strong Yuki was, he'd be reduced to nothing.
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