Fate Play (VI)

After regaining consciousness, Lu Mingfei looked around. His left hand braced Wrath, which stood embedded in the ground, while his right pressed into a pool of blood. He panted heavily, and the thick, filthy Deadpool blood beneath him seemed to regard him with helpless resignation.

The inhumanly dangerous black blood had splattered across the subway floor around him, thick as asphalt. Even a hot shower now would have had a hard time washing it off.

To conserve some strength, the gray shirt on his upper body had inevitably been soaked and clung to him during the fight with the Deadpools. After taking it off, Lu Mingfei changed into Gen Chisei's Executive Trench Coat from his game inventory.

It was not just a trench coat; the white dress shirt underneath counted as a free bonus. The shirt bore a grand ukiyo-e print, its delicately drawn dark green gentian patterns looking capable yet slightly flamboyant. The buy-one-get-one deal was considerate enough to keep Lu Mingfei from going out bare-chested, though it had not thrown in a pair of executive trousers.

After thinking it over, he did not take off his somewhat sticky trousers, which had been soaked in black blood. After several hundred games, his inventory contained plenty of bizarre things, but the only thing he seemed able to wear on his lower body was Sakurai Maki's Sheer Black Stockings. Wearing those around a subway station would be worse than slitting his own throat on the spot.

After putting on the black trench coat, Lu Mingfei let out a breath and picked up a shattered piece of train window glass from the ground.

The tunnel lighting was too dim for him to clearly see his reflection in the glass, so he parted the now-longer hair hanging over his forehead and exposed his left eye.

The pupil of his left eye shifted between gold and black, as though a golden lamp flickered in the darkness. Whenever his golden pupil burned bright, he could see his reflection in the glass.

Dragon blood was already eroding his body. There was no doubt about it.

His hair had darkened back to black, but it had grown nearly to his waist. The black sheen flowing through it made it seem more alive than before.

The previously rampant medicinal effects, along with the fragmentary dragon genes buried deep at their source... once his consciousness cleared, they all collapsed as though faced with some terrifying flood beast and were forcibly suppressed.

But the Killing Heart that had been unleashed could no longer be pressed back down.

That cruel urge to kill kept eroding his hesitation and kindness, while also making him painfully aware of it, forcing him to witness his own hopeless fall.

He really was afraid... Lu Mingfei could not help but smile bitterly as he trembled and touched the black scales on his neck.

The eye that had been flickering was completely ignited, burning more fiercely like a wildfire, as though foretelling that the day it went out was still far away.

This was worse than last time. After using the Evolution Potion last time, his mind had not been so clear, so he had not had all these messy thoughts... After taking that much Evolution Potion, there would come a day when he turned into a monster sooner or later, right? And even if he did not become a monster because of the Evolution Potion, was not the power inside him, capable of easily suppressing the potion, even more unsettling?

Were there really free cakes in this world?

What kind of price was hidden behind this free power? Perhaps it was a trap, a lie, something he would have to repay a thousandfold someday.

He glanced at his personal status panel. Perhaps it was a lingering effect from the medicinal effects erupting and then being suppressed; the effects of fifteen doses were actually stronger than the nineteen doses last time.

[Lu Mingfei (Killing Heart/Pseudo-Dragon Bone State/Temporary Enhancement)]

[Rank: S-Rank Mixed-Blood (Bloodline Experience: (9526/10000)]

[Authority: None (???)]

[Word Spirit: Blood Sickle]

[Item Inventory: Level 7 (Capacity: 500 slots)]

[Luck: D- (Slightly below the average normal human)]

[Offense: SS- (Far beyond the actual limits of pure-blooded humans) (Temporary Enhancement)]

[Speed: SS (Far beyond the actual limits of pure-blooded humans) (Temporary Enhancement)]

[Constitution: SS (Far beyond the actual limits of pure-blooded humans) (Temporary Enhancement)]

[Combat Skill: A- (No systematic combat training; after hundreds of life-and-death battles, his knife use has barely touched the edge of world elite standards)]

[Firearms Skill: SS+ (You basically have nothing to do with humans anymore)]

[Subjective Evaluation: Judging by the panel alone, you are undoubtedly a super mixed-blood who has entered the world of monsters. Medicine created for the bloodline of the White Monarch has accumulated in large quantities within your body. It will be the fuse in your heart. You may spend your entire life suppressing the poison and the fruit of wisdom.]

[Objective Evaluation: The point-stealing king of the "beginner village," Deadpool slaughter machine, the only true Amaterasu in Genji Heavy Industries, the one person a level-six earthquake could not defeat, Tokyo indoor marathon champion]

[Inner Motto: I'm someone who goes crazy pretty often too.]

Unlike the drunken stupor from last time, his consciousness was clearer than ever, even clearer than before he had used the Evolution Potion. One of his eyes had already become an almost draconic eye that could no longer close. If not for the scattered scales covering it, the veins around his left eye would have been nearly exposed.

There was no white in the pupil, no emotion—only a vast ocean of molten gold and an upright dark-red needle.

This eye might have belonged to a beast wandering the wasteland, or a devil making wishes inside a bronze coffin. It could never have belonged to a human still longing for happiness.

The old subway train slowly came to a stop. Dust floated through the area ahead, illuminated by steam spotlights. Identically blazing steam spotlights shone in the tunnel ahead, the headlights of the two trains confronting each other at close range.

Just before they collided, the old subway train finally obeyed the rules of this station. Nibelungen had its own complete set of labyrinthine laws.

Seeing this, Shuuder Mai and Su Enxi high-fived in the surveillance room and sighed in relief.

Lu Mingfei lightly leaped from the carriage doorway onto the platform beside the subway.

A falling chunk of rubble was flicked away by his hand just before it struck his shoulder. More and more rubble fell from above, like a rain of stones.

The tunnel seemed unable to withstand the erosion of the rushing water and had begun to collapse. Sand and dust fell in streams, yet the Kamaitachi nesting in the cracks of the stone walls were strangely quiet. They did not dare come out to disturb a certain evil ghost's passage; only those farther away dared fly out to escape.

Lu Mingfei took out his Nokia and dialed Fingel.

The call connected unexpectedly quickly. He had not held out much hope; getting a strong signal to the outside world from within Nibelungen was rather bizarre.

Was Fingel in Nibelungen too?

"I'm almost at the final destination," he said.

"...Then should I congratulate you, or observe a moment of silence for you?" Fingel asked tentatively.

"A moment of silence would fit the occasion better. I think it will soon become unsafe outside too. If you get the chance, run. The farther, the better. It was nice knowing you, Senior Brother Fingel."

"Are those nagging last words? Junior Brother, you're too late. Your senior brother is addicted to Subway Surfers now and can't stop."

"That's it then, Junior Brother. I'm chasing a man, so unless you've got something urgent, I'm hanging up."

"Senior Brother, you... I truly pity the male students who had to share a dorm with you in college."

"Beep, beep, beep..."

Lu Mingfei silently hung up and put down the phone.

Rainwater surged in through cracks from every direction, nearly flooding over his soles. Water poured in from the tunnel ceiling, the ground, the passageways, the vents—every place he could think of or see.

A maddening downpour fell across the subway platform, and cold, damp air blew straight at him.

Black blood slowly flowed out of the subway carriage piled with Deadpool corpses.

He walked alone through the cold rain, carrying a longsword and a wakizashi.

The tip of the longsword scraped a line across the ground, scattering sparks.