By Force / Your Name

"Then, as long as you make a pact with me, I will stop killing humans, how about it?"

The most unexpected words come from the most unexpected people.

This Herrscher, after killing so many people, actually wants to reconcile?

On her innocent face, she seemed to be trying her best to imitate an expression that would make Lin feel slightly favorably toward her, her crimson eyes fixed on the figure of the man who was taller than her.

What does she really want?

Could it be that this Herrscher killed out of desperation, like Theresa? Did Lin actually misunderstand her?

Therefore, Lin gave his most direct answer, "No."

"..."

Negotiations broke down. From the beginning, Lin had no intention of making peace with her. He had witnessed the Herrscher of Erosion causing the Blood Moon Night, and he had also seen her mercilessly swat Kallen to death like a mosquito. Finally, he stood in front of her and saw her casually slaughter the residents of Canghai City.

He knew better than anyone what kind of monster lay beneath her endearing and lovable exterior.

The Herrscher, who had shown little surprise throughout, remained unfazed after being rejected by Lin again; she simply tilted her head and stared at Lin.

A faint smell of blood permeated the air, and even the outline of the blazing sun hanging in the sky was stained with a bewitching bloodstain.

In the silent standoff, Lin didn't even see the girl blink. Her empty eyes, like those of a rag doll, stared unblinkingly at his face.

"Hmm... fine, then you should just die."

"Bang!"

Surprising... or not surprising at all?

The moment the girl attacked again, Lin blasted the Honkai Energy he had already gathered directly into her face. After the air froze for a moment, the heat and steam obscured the figures of the two, and even the water in the surrounding pool began to evaporate under the high temperature!

The two burst out of the steam. The Herrscher's crimson eyes were so deep that they seemed to reflect the Blood Moon, stealing the light from the sky. She only had to look into Lin's eyes, and his brain began to feel a tearing pain!

Hmm————

The Herrscher of Erosion, as the name suggests, has the power of corruption. Whether it is mechanical or biological, her power can corrode everything that can be corroded and use it for her own purposes.

Lin, whose consciousness was riddled with holes due to the mapping of consciousness, was almost instantly eroded by this power.

Just then, a faint iridescent light, like tiny sparks, emanated from the depths of Lin's eyes, suppressing the pain in his brain, and he strode towards the Herrscher of Erosion!

However, before he could take a step, an extremely terrifying aura erupted from the girl's body. The Honkai Energy so dense that it almost had its own form, abruptly stopping Lin's steps!

What's this?

Lin couldn't describe the feeling; his thoughts and consciousness were as if they had been struck by a giant hammer, and in an instant, they shattered into pieces.

"Bang!"

The air vibrated.

Lin's body crashed into the transparent behemoth, and he was sent flying backward with a violent explosion. He crashed into the ground without any resistance and spat out a mouthful of blood in a daze.

His joints cracked with a chilling sound; he couldn't muster any strength, his unmoving eyeballs covered in blood. In this crimson world, he watched the girl approach step by step, then raise her hand—

"Smack!"

The man exploded into a pool of blood and ashes.

Chapter Forty-Six: Forced

"Chirp... chirp..."

When death first arrives, life instinctively fears and flees from the terrible future that will plunge it into nothingness.

But when death comes countless times, that life will probably sit down and have a leisurely drink, wondering if it can die even faster this time.

Just like the saying goes—when you can't resist, you might as well just open your legs and enjoy it.

"Smack!"

Lin was slammed against the wall, and before he could react, he was smashed into a pool of blood by the rapidly approaching shadow.

"Bass!"

The shadow that fell from the sky instantly cleaved him in two.

"Bang!"

A slender arm pierced through his chest.

Those blood-red eyes became the only thing Lin could see as he constantly went between life and death.

He had lost count of how many times he had been killed. Initially, he was able to regain his senses before his attackers could find him and deal with the attacks. However, as the number of deaths increased, the fragments of his memories became more and more scattered. He needed more and more time and energy. The Herrscher of Erosion knew the location of his return each time and only needed to come to him and crush him.

Before Lin could regain his senses, he died again.

The Herrscher of Erosion, just as she had said, kept killing and killing until the moment Lin Zhen died. She felt neither tired nor anything amiss; she simply calmly accomplished her purpose.

The consequence of this was that Lin's consciousness gradually collapsed, the fragments of his memories that he had not been able to sort out were scattered, and some cognitive errors began to devour his consciousness. So, when he returned to his senses one day, clutching his throbbing brain, he discovered something.

His right eye is blind.

It wasn't a physical disability, but rather the memory of his previous right eye injury that eroded part of his consciousness. Just as it had been said before—the damage to his consciousness was reflected in his body, and his right eye was completely plunged into an irrecoverable darkness.

But it doesn't matter anymore.

He will remain locked in an eternal stalemate with the Herrscher of Erosion in the stagnant time, until she gets bored and gives up, or until his consciousness completely dissipates and he becomes a walking corpse.

"Smack!"

The Herrscher of Erosion had dismantled Lin's right hand and right leg as if taking apart a toy, stood there admiring her masterpiece, holding the severed limbs. She watched as the man, whose eyes were open but who was lifeless, lay on the ground, offering no resistance whatsoever.

How many times has he been killed?

Dozens of times? Hundreds of times? Thousands of times?

She couldn't remember, and she had no intention of counting.

This time, she didn't crush him to death directly, not because she was bored or didn't want to continue killing, but because she couldn't kill the unconscious Lin with her first strike as she had done before.

Countless times before, when he was in this state, he was a puppet to be manipulated, and she could easily take him apart. But this time, in this unconscious state, he made an evasive move.

Although it was only a subconscious action, and she barely managed to avoid a fatal blow, she still lost an arm and a leg, but that made the girl stop.

This situation means that he still did not give up resisting and struggling; even though he was unconscious, he was still fighting.

The girl didn't know why he was still resisting and unwilling to be trampled to death by her. After thinking it over, she decided it would be better to ask him directly.

So the silver-haired girl squatted down in front of him, nibbling on the flesh and blood of his severed limb, staring blankly as she waited for him to wake up.

About twelve hours later, Lin finally sorted out all the messy fragments of memory. When his consciousness regained control of his body, he experienced intense phantom limb pain. He looked coldly and expressionlessly at the Herrscher of Erosion was holding his severed hand and sucking the last bit of blood from the stump. After drinking the last drop of blood, the Herrscher of Corruption threw away the arm that had been completely turned into jerky and stared at him.

"You still refuse to form a contract with me?"

"I don't want to."

The conversation between the two continued from the one before she killed him for the second time, and the result was exactly the same.

"You've died countless times, probably more times than all the people I've killed before combined. Even so, you're still not willing?"

Lin sarcastically raised his severed limb, which was now just a tumor-like mass, and waved it around, the meaning of which couldn't be clearer.

She could continue killing him now, and Lin wouldn't object to it.

"Hmm..."

This was probably the first time a look of confusion had appeared on the girl's face. She simply couldn't understand the man's way of thinking, just as he couldn't understand her at all.

"But I've never killed anyone else except you. They've all been resurrected." The Herrscher of Erosion said blankly, pointing to the lively night lights in the distance.

Resurrection?

Lin was stunned for a moment.

Indeed, ever since she set her sights on him, the girl hasn't harmed anyone else. Every cycle is aimed at him. After killing him, she waits for the next cycle. The people she killed are now living their nightlife normally in Canghai City.

They have no memory of ever being vampires or blood slaves, of killing and being killed.

But can that erase everything? Can that mean she never killed them?

"Now, as long as you form a contract with me and become my familiar, I will not kill them. Isn't that what you planned from the beginning?" The girl smoothed her hair and said calmly.

"..."

Contract?

To make a contract with a Herrscher who doesn't even know the concept of killing, and then become a familiar that she can control at will?

Absolutely impossible.

As for her saying she wouldn't kill anyone else?

If Lin could laugh, he probably would have laughed out loud.

Searching through my memories, I always find that the Herrscher of Erosion is always treading on a bottomless pool of blood.

A person whose goal is to destroy human civilization says she won't kill anyone?

Seeing Lin's increasingly cold gaze, the Herrscher of Erosion tilted her head, stared at him for a long time, and suddenly said, "By the way, why do I have to ask for your opinion?"

Chills.

A sudden chill ran down Lin's spine, and a sense of malice enveloped him, holding his legs down and giving him no chance to dodge.

This malice came from a girl who was unaware of the malice she herself was emitting.

She reached out her hand to Lin, whose pupils shrank to a tiny dot. He raised his intact left arm to retaliate, but as he attempted to fight back with Honkai Energy, the girl's scarlet eyes flashed with a cold light, causing him excruciating pain in his brain!

In the instant Lin instinctively covered his head, the girl's sharp teeth had already pierced the blood vessels in his neck.

Chapter Forty-Seven: Your Name

When people talk about the past, they always like to use the word "what if".

When people talk about the future, they always like to use the word "hypothesis".

But the truth is, there aren't that many "what ifs" and "assumptions" in the world. When something has already happened or is happening, all a person can do is silently endure it.

Lin suddenly awoke from his sea of consciousness. The pain that had been rooted deep in his nerves receded like a tide, and a warm current flowed through his limbs and bones.

The afterglow of the setting sun wasn't particularly strong, yet it stung his eyes like needles.

After opening his eyes, he noticed something, raised his right hand in front of his eyes, and his perfectly intact right hand seemed somewhat unfamiliar.

My right hand has recovered.

He regained feeling in his severed leg and glanced down, seeing that his bare leg, missing half of his trousers, looked as smooth and shiny as if it had been reborn.

"Human, you're awake?"

A faint, creamy fragrance wafted into his nostrils. The setting sun was blocked, and a pretty face came up from above, less than two centimeters away from him. He could even see the fine pores on the other person's fair skin clearly.

Lin remained expressionless.

The Herrscher of Erosion blinked at extremely close range and said to Lin, who was reflected in her crimson eyes and remained silent, "You are now my familiar. Look, having shed your fragile body, you are more perfect than before. The severed parts have all grown back, except... your right eye, for some reason, has not recovered."

"..."

Lin Zuo's once pure black pupils were now stained with a dark red blood-like substance, like sediment in a blood bag, quietly flowing deep within his eyes.

However, his right eye had turned a dry, grayish-white color.

"What did you do?" Lin asked the girl who was standing close to him.

"It's about making you my familiar," the girl replied quite naturally. "Didn't you realize it?"

That's not quite it. Lin did feel it; the power within his body was more explosive than before, but his consciousness... felt like it was being locked up and restrained.

It's like adding a drop of blood to a normal glass of water; even if it remains a clear liquid after dissolving, it has been tainted with filth.

This is the last thing Lin wanted to happen, because it meant he couldn't stop the Herrscher of Erosion from doing what she was about to do, even if she might slaughter the residents of Canghai City right in front of him.

"..."

"Alright, let's go."

The girl stood up, and Lin then realized that his head was resting on her thighs. She stood up blankly, her black stockings covered in dust and dirt, but she didn't seem to care at all as she waited for Lin.

Lin took a deep breath. Right now, he could only take it one step at a time. The events that this World Bubble had encountered far exceeded his expectations.

Where to?

A glimmer of light suddenly appeared in the girl's emotionless crimson eyes. "At that place before, we should be able to eat that... rock candy apple? Is that what it's called?"

"..."