The moment he said that, Yuji Itadori's gaze sharpened slightly.
Even Panda, who had been playing games with the children nearby, paused.
96 points!
A sorcerer was worth 5 points, and an ordinary person was worth 1.
In other words, this smiling man before them had killed at least nineteen sorcerers and one ordinary person.
Perhaps even more!
Yuji Itadori and Panda quickly exchanged a glance, their cursed energy beginning to circulate instinctively.
After all, no matter how harmless Jie Jian looked right now, it was certain that he had killed at least twenty people!
The atmosphere began to grow tense. At that moment, a perceptive girl beside Jie Jian vaguely noticed something.
She wrapped her arms around Jie Jian's arm and shouted:
"Wait! Have you misunderstood something? Lord Jie Jian isn't some killer! The people he killed were all bad people!"
Yuji Itadori froze slightly at her words.
What did she mean, everyone he killed was a bad person?
The change in Yuji Itadori's expression caught the attention of the surrounding crowd.
An older man seemed to guess something. He instinctively assumed Yuji Itadori intended to hold Jie Jian accountable for killing people inside the Barrier.
Thinking of that, he hurriedly shouted.
"You're not here to accuse Lord Jie Jian of his crimes, are you? He's a good person! The people he killed were sorcerers who came looking for trouble, along with criminals who committed all kinds of evil!"
With one person taking the lead, the rest quickly caught on and began speaking up in agreement.
Seeing that his actions seemed to have provoked public outrage, Yuji Itadori hurriedly gave a French military salute.
"You've misunderstood! We're not here to arrest anyone. We have another purpose!"
Jie Jian looked at the crowd defending him, feeling rather satisfied inside.
It seemed his many days of protecting them had not been for nothing.
He raised a hand and pressed it downward, signaling everyone to calm down.
"Yuji Itadori, did you hear something somewhere that made you misunderstand us?"
Yuji Itadori scratched his head awkwardly, unsure whether he should say it.
He looked around at everyone present.
There were nearly a hundred people gathered here. If they were all bad people, wasn't that a little too many?
After hesitating for a moment, Yuji Itadori recounted what had happened when he first arrived, including the man who had called this place a dragon's den and tiger's lair.
Jie Jian pondered for a moment after hearing that.
"Oh! I think I remember the person you met."
He pointed at a girl some distance away. "The day before yesterday, he tried to grope her during the bonfire party. I found out and drove him away. He was probably holding a grudge against us."
The girl who had been pointed at shrank back shyly and pulled her clothes tighter around herself.
Yuji Itadori froze, then shouted indignantly:
"That really is despicable. People like that have to be driven out."
Panda, however, focused on something rather different. He looked at Jie Jian in utter surprise.
"Ah! You can still throw parties in the Culling Game?"
Jie Jian nodded without a care.
"Why not?"
He pointed toward the edge of the Barrier stretching into the sky in the distance.
"This place is full of danger. Who knows when something might happen? In a situation like this, isn't it better to throw a party and have some fun?"
"Uh..."
Panda blanked for a moment, then nodded.
That was true.
Things were already like this, so why not be happier?
As he spoke, the impulse in Jie Jian's heart surged up again.
He turned and shouted:
"Charlie, some friends have arrived! Let's throw another party! Let the music play, let's dance!"
Seeing the people around them begin cheering along, Yuji Itadori hurriedly raised a hand to stop them.
"Wait, wait, wait! This isn't the time for a party!"
Jie Jian looked at Yuji Itadori in disappointment and scratched his head.
"Fine, then. What do you need right now?"
Seeing that Jie Jian was willing to communicate, Yuji Itadori breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly explained their original plan.
If you can't find a book by its title, try searching for the author. It may have simply been renamed!
"Uh, simply put, we want to end the Culling Game."
The survivors beside him instantly became excited when they heard that!
They had long wanted to leave this godforsaken place. Someone could not help shouting.
"Can the Culling Game really be ended?!"
Yuji Itadori hurriedly raised a hand, signaling them to calm down.
"Wait! Don't get too excited. Rather than ending it, it would be more like first removing the compulsory nature of killing one another."
"We want to add a rule allowing points to be transferred between different players, so nobody will have to kill each other anymore."
At that point, Yuji Itadori paused and looked seriously at Jie Jian.
"So, in order to achieve that goal, we need the points in your possession. Please lend us your points!"
But to Yuji Itadori's surprise, after hearing him, the excitement on the survivors' faces faded considerably.
They even seemed somewhat disappointed?
Confused, Yuji Itadori looked at Jie Jian. After all, the points were in his hands, and everyone else's opinions did not matter.
Jie Jian picked at his ear and spoke without the slightest hesitation.
"Sure. You can have all my points."
Yuji Itadori's face immediately lit up with delight.
"Tha—"
But just as he was about to say thank you, Jie Jian raised a hand and interrupted him.
Jie Jian looked at Yuji Itadori with a smile.
"But there's a small problem I need to tell you about first."
Yuji Itadori swallowed. "...What problem?"
"The thing is, I only have 96 points right now. That isn't enough for the 100 points needed to add a rule."
"Then we'll get another 4 points?" Yuji Itadori said tentatively.
Seeing that Yuji Itadori did not quite understand what he meant, Jie Jian decided not to beat around the bush and said directly.
"If you want me to add the rule, then I'll need to kill one more sorcerer or four more ordinary people."
Jie Jian paused for a moment, then said something that made Yuji Itadori's heart tremble.
"So, have you prepared the people you want me to kill?"
Tokyo No. 1 Colony.
Kinji Hakari swaggered into the theater.
Before he even entered, he saw traces of battle scattered all over the ground. It was obvious that several fights had taken place here.
When he pushed open the theater doors, Kinji Hakari thought his eyes were playing tricks on him.
Because he saw a grown man in his thirties, wearing a full suit, soaking in a bathtub filled with water.
Hearing someone enter, Hiromi Higuruma, who was lying in the bathtub with his eyes closed, did not even raise his head.
"Who is it?"
"Kinji Hakari."
Kinji Hakari stated his name as he walked inside.
"You're damn restless, soaking in a bathtub in a suit."
"Have you never taken a bath in a bathtub while wearing clothes?"
"No normal person has, right?"
"True."
Hiromi Higuruma nodded. He scooped up a handful of water and wiped it over his head.
"You can try it sometime. It's even more comfortable than I imagined."
Then Hiromi Higuruma continued speaking to himself.
"Come to think of it, when I was little, I quite liked swimming classes where you wore clothes. Recently, I've often felt that nothing really matters anymore, and I've started challenging things I once believed I could never do."
"Who would have thought I'd only start going bad in my thirties? Do you find that funny?"
Kinji Hakari had arrived before Hiromi Higuruma by then. He nodded casually.
"It is a little funny." He looked down at Hiromi Higuruma. "Before we begin, there's something I want to ask. How many points do you have?"
"102."
Hiromi Higuruma's indifferent voice came over.
Kinji Hakari's eyes lit up.
"Oh! That's great!"
He unceremoniously held out his hand toward Hiromi Higuruma and, under the other man's puzzled gaze, spoke directly.
"I'm a student. Can you give me your points?"
Before you continue