Playing with Fire

Buying a universe—a little plan to shop around in person—had been disrupted by 137.

After Morty returned home with Rick.

Rick ran off to find Rick.

And Morty encountered a problem that belonged to him alone.

But that problem was immediately destroyed!

"Morty! Were you doing this to..."

When Beth found Morty with the bionic organ in hand, a portal opened behind her, and a Rick stepped out of it.

Knowing that Rick had already gone to find Rick, Morty's heart skipped a beat.

Something was wrong!

Run!

Without a second thought, Morty sold Beth out.

After all, the closeness between him and Beth amounted to nothing more than a mother-son relationship in name. They had yet to build the kind of deep bond where one would say, "There's danger—I'll take it for you."

Beth was also somewhat bewildered as she looked at this Rick.

She seemed unsure whether he really was Rick, since she had seen several Ricks before.

The next second.

The Rick pulled out an energy gun. Beth immediately realized he meant trouble and fled toward the living room.

This Rick ignored Beth and chased after Morty.

[Fuck, fuck, fuck! He even pulled out a gun! A Rick this hostile toward us has to be 137! How did he find this place?!]

[We clearly hadn't had any contact with him before!]

[How did one accidental encounter turn into him wanting to kill us...]

[No, this probably isn't my problem. It has to be Rick's problem...]

[Fuck! Why did he provoke 137? That guy is the most terrifying existence of all!]

As Morty sprinted toward the house next door, he cursed inwardly at how he had barely enjoyed a few peaceful days.

When he reached the front of Old K's house.

Through the glass, Morty saw Rick and the others entering a portal, while his own Rick stood there holding a Sawtooth Gun and signaling to him.

The coordination forged over half a year of fighting made him understand at once. He immediately lowered his body.

Bzzz!

After a screeching sound that stabbed into their eardrums.

Within a one-kilometer radius centered on Old K's house, every building was sliced in half at a height of 1.1 meters by a powerful blade of wind.

Countless people at home, cars parked by the roadside, even trees, were all plunged into the ultimate agony just before death.

Morty's face had gone pale from the hellish scene before him.

Yet he still heard Rick shouting at him.

"Don't lie on the ground! Go get your weapon! We need to buy Rick time! So we have to stall 137!"

137 blocked the wind blade with an energy shield and stared coldly at Rick.

But he was in no hurry to attack. Instead, he said in an icy tone, "Since you recognized me the moment you saw me, it seems you know something I don't?"

"Then you deliberately appeared within my surveillance range because you wanted to fight me?"

"Then come on. You'd better kill me, or you'll become the second person I hunt down for the rest of my life."

Those pointed words made Morty, who had been running away from the battlefield, slow down.

He felt that this whole matter really was as 137 said—strange from beginning to end.

Or rather, what exactly was Rick plotting in secret?

Why had 137 prepared to attack the moment he spotted Rick?

And why had Rick deliberately exposed himself to him?

Morty had no way to stay and listen to those questions, because this wasn't some anime or TV drama. There was no way the villains and heroes would start fighting only after...

Making sure to argue everything out!

What normal person fought while reminiscing about the past and explaining why they had done all this?

Rick raised the Sawtooth Gun in his hand and fired straight at 137.

Energy bullets as thick as gasoline barrels poured toward 137 at a rate of one hundred rounds per second, while Rick also used his left hand to pull other weapons from inside his clothes.

Because a fight between Ricks was never so easily decided.

So, facing Rick's attack, 137 drank a vial of medicine, then threw a different vial of medicine onto the ground.

An utterly disgusting flesh amalgam screamed as the compounds in the liquid created it.

Then, while taking the energy bullets head-on, 137 advanced toward Rick step by step.

He did not defend at all because every energy bullet that struck his body was transferred by the medicine he had consumed into the amalgam.

It was as if 137 were a receiver, while the amalgam was his battery.

Finally, when he reached Rick, the amalgam serving as the battery transferred all the energy it had absorbed back to Rick.

The energy, far beyond what an ordinary person could control, scattered the clouds in the sky with the winds created by its overflow.

"Let's have some fun!"

But Rick had predicted his move.

From the microscopic launchers implanted beneath the skin of his neck, magnetic needles crackling with electricity shot in every direction.

As these disorderly magnetic needles collided, their extremely special material caused energy to attract energy, ultimately producing an annihilation effect.

But 137 had likewise predicted Rick's prediction. He merely reached for Rick with his right hand while an energy blade formed in his left in 0.2 seconds.

He thrust it directly into Rick's stomach.

The moment it truly went in, 137 narrowed his eyes, because that sensation... was wrong!

Sure enough, the Rick before him gradually turned into a puddle of black sludge under the destructive force of the energy...

And the sludge was extremely adhesive, firmly trapping both 137's right and left hands.

At that moment, Morty had already run from the garage back to his room. He had just stuffed Mission Accomplished 2.0 into his bag when Rick poked his head out of a portal.

"Morty, hurry, hurry, hurry. That guy's trapped for now. Let's go quickly."

After taking the Silent Sword and the Book of Eibon, Morty immediately jumped into the portal.

The next second, 137 broke free from the sludge, smashed through two walls, and entered Morty's room. Looking at the empty room.

He threw back his head and let out a roar.

He had thought he would never find the murderer who killed his wife.

But who would have thought that an accidental encounter today would let him discover traces hidden among all things!

That mysterious Rick had a black human figure embroidered on the left sleeve of the white knee-length coat he wore!!

That made him begin to completely believe those so-called Rick myth stories!

It was said that long before he set foot in the infinite universes, the first Ricks in the truest sense had already run rampant through universe after universe.

Creating one myth after another.

Among them, some Ricks selectively joined forces according to their own preferences...

[But... so what?!]

[If I want to know the truth, then I will know the truth!]

In the shadows...

"If we keep playing with him like this, we'll all die if he finds out the truth."

"137 isn't invincible. Only when he dies can we be free. If you're scared, go apologize to him now and see whether he kills you."

"You!"

"Shut up! The plan has already begun! Whoever backs out now won't need 137 to act—I'll kill them myself!"