I Knew I Had a Cheat!

"Lu Yun" reappeared completely unharmed, defying everything Tanaka thought he knew.

As the user of the cursed technique, no one understood the power of his rock cannonballs better than Tanaka. An ordinary shot could easily punch through the wall of a rental apartment, let alone an enhanced version charged up for even greater power.

Once he confirmed that Lu Yun could not dodge the attack, Hajime Kashimo immediately took over his body.

Mobilizing cursed energy, predicting the point of impact, putting up a precise defense-he executed every step flawlessly in an instant. His rushed response had still failed to block the force of the impact, sending his body flying, but that was nowhere near enough to hinder this powerhouse from four hundred years ago.

Hajime Kashimo even had time to retrieve the cursed tool Lu Yun had dropped before returning to the shop.

With no intention of explaining anything to Tanaka, Hajime Kashimo impatiently twirled the iron staff cursed tool in his hands.

Lu Yun was incessantly arguing his case inside his body.

"Lord Kashimo! This one really wasn't my fault! I'm just an ordinary guy. I don't even know how to use cursed energy. How was I supposed to react?"

"Shut up and stop yapping! I'm only showing you this once."

Hajime Kashimo casually shattered an incoming rock projectile with his staff, then mobilized his cursed energy at full power.

Blue-violet arcs danced around him as Hajime Kashimo grinned.

"Watch closely, kid. This next swing is going to look damn cool."

The moment he finished speaking, a thunderous boom rang out. With Hajime Kashimo going all out, the ground beneath his feet exploded, sending rubble flying.

He seemed to turn into a bolt of lightning. In a flash, he moved from the shop entrance to right behind Shinichi Tanaka.

Shinichi Tanaka, who had been continuously forming rock cannonballs, had no time to register what had happened before the figure in his sight vanished.

Before Shinichi Tanaka could react, the iron staff wrapped in electric arcs slammed into his lower abdomen. The tremendous force sent him crashing into another clothing shop nearby.

It was a perfect replay of what had happened moments earlier.

"I'll leave the rest to you. Weaklings don't interest me."

With that, Hajime Kashimo's consciousness fell silent, and control of the body returned to Lu Yun.

That blow had looked intimidating, but Hajime Kashimo had not actually used his full strength. After giving Tanaka a small taste of his own medicine, he had chosen to spare him so Lu Yun could get some practice.

"Heh, heh. I've already grasped the core of cursed energy."

After personally experiencing Hajime Kashimo's hands-on lesson, Lu Yun felt he had completely mastered the techniques for controlling cursed energy.

Rubbing his hands together, Lu Yun eagerly advanced.

Meanwhile, Tanaka was still dazed after crashing into the clothing shop. Although Hajime Kashimo had held back, the powerful impact had still injured him considerably. He could not defend himself with cursed energy the way Hajime Kashimo did. Ultimately, he was just an ordinary man who had awakened a few days earlier, barely different from a complete novice in jujutsu.

Watching Lu Yun approach step by step, Tanaka ignored his dizziness and hurriedly hauled himself to his feet to fight back.

Rock cannonballs shot out one after another like bullets from a gun, but Lu Yun paid them no mind.

Recalling what Hajime Kashimo had done, Lu Yun began mobilizing the cursed energy hidden within his body. Under his control, blue energy enveloped him from head to toe.

Reinforced by cursed energy, Lu Yun's physical abilities improved across the board. As he focused, the world seemed to slow down before his eyes.

The rock cannonballs spinning through the air, the panic on Shinichi Tanaka's face in the distance-Lu Yun took it all in with ease.

Lu Yun turned slightly, dodging the first rock cannonball as casually as if he were out for a stroll. As though testing himself, he raised his iron staff and smashed the second. For the third, he neither dodged nor raised his staff. Instead, he met it head-on with a fist coated in cursed energy, shattering it easily without so much as a scratch.

"I'm terrifyingly strong now."

Seeing that his attacks had not affected Lu Yun in the slightest, Tanaka looked utterly hopeless. He dropped to his knees with a thud and begged for mercy.

"I-I'm sorry! I'll die if I don't kill people. I had no choice! Please spare me!"

Lu Yun scoffed.

"The thing I hate most is people apologizing after the fact. Kill! Kill! Kill!"

Seeing that Lu Yun had not paused for even a moment, Shinichi Tanaka scrambled backward on his hands and feet, desperately firing rock cannonballs in an attempt to drive him away.

"D-don't come over! Stay away from me!!"

The rock cannonballs had long since lost their initial accuracy. Even when they hit Lu Yun, they barely hurt him, merely coating his clothes in more dust.

He's making me look like the villain.

Tanaka's pathetic state made Lu Yun mutter inwardly. Seeing him like this, he almost could not bring himself to finish him off.

"How many points do you have?"

Lu Yun asked.

Tanaka froze, then quickly caught on. As though clutching at a lifeline, he hastily summoned his Kogane and showed Lu Yun his points.

"I have three points! Don't kill me. Spare my life! I'll give you all my points! I can even help you collect more!"

Although he had no idea how to transfer points, Tanaka could only desperately demonstrate his worth if he wanted to survive.

Tanaka failed to notice that the moment Lu Yun heard he had three points, his gaze turned cold.

Under the Culling Game's rules, every player started with zero points. Killing an ordinary person earned one point, while killing a jujutsu sorcerer or a cursed spirit earned five.

Shinichi Tanaka's three points meant that he had already murdered at least three ordinary people in the Culling Game. Combined with his sneak attack, it was obvious that Tanaka was no decent person.

Lu Yun strode forward and extended his empty left hand toward Tanaka.

Thinking Lu Yun meant to help him up, Tanaka eagerly reached out his right hand.

But Lu Yun's hand swept straight past his. His palm, brimming with cursed energy, struck with sudden force, driving a knife-hand strike straight through Tanaka's chest.

When Lu Yun withdrew his hand, all that remained was a gaping hole in Tanaka's chest.

"Cough, cough."

Blood poured uncontrollably from his mouth, and the warmth rapidly drained from his body. In the final moments of his life, for some reason, Shinichi Tanaka saw the image of his department head dying that day.

His numb hand touched his chest, only to find a gaping hole.

Ah, so I've ended up just like he did that day.

A smile appeared on Shinichi Tanaka's face as the light faded from his eyes.

"Ugh! That's disgusting."

Unable to shake all the blood off his hand, Lu Yun crouched down and wiped it on Tanaka's clothes. Seeing the smile still on Tanaka's face after death sent a chill through him.

"Smiling even after he's dead. This guy really was a sicko."

Despite this being his first time killing someone, Lu Yun felt nothing else.

"It must be Kashimo rubbing off on me."

Lu Yun spoke to himself.

"Congratulations, player. You have successfully earned five points. Your current total is five points."

Kogane appeared again to announce Lu Yun's point gain.

"Screw you, Kogane."

His large hand, coated in cursed energy, slapped down and dispersed it. Unfortunately, there was still no feeling of striking anything solid. Out of sight, out of mind-Lu Yun did not want to see this thing again.

Suddenly, a voice sounded in his mind.

[Successfully defeated an unnamed jujutsu sorcerer. Reward obtained: "Slight increase in total cursed energy."]

"Huh? Again?"

Lu Yun instinctively assumed Kogane was up to something again, but quickly realized otherwise.

A translucent notification visible only to Lu Yun flashed before his eyes. The total amount of cursed energy in his body seemed to have increased. The change was so slight that he could not tell exactly how much he had gained. Still, that familiar notification tone and the fleeting reward message alone were enough to fill him with delight.

"I knew it! I knew I had a cheat!"