Kurourushi

Kurourushi stood in the shadows of an abandoned building, his mouthparts opening and closing as though sniffing out living creatures in the air.

The next second.

That hideous, scalp-prickling head turned straight toward Long Xi.

Only one thought remained in Long Xi's mind.

Tonight's run was a little too hardcore.

The moment Kurourushi looked his way, every muscle in Long Xi's body tensed, and he froze.

This thing was strong. Really strong. He was on an entirely different level from the trash cursed spirits Long Xi had cut down at school.

That had been the tutorial. This was being thrown straight into a high-difficulty dungeon, with all his revive tokens confiscated for good measure.

Just like the first batch of players who fought the Titan without revive tokens. Every attempt at the Titan had been a fight to the death, too.

Long Xi grimaced. His feet never stopped; he only ran faster.

Luckily, that guy didn't seem very interested in him...

As for taking Kurourushi head-on?

No way I could win. Sure, I seriously injured Sukuna at the start, but that was thanks to a sneak attack and all sorts of other factors.

Even with his recent little power boost, if he tried to face a special grade with his current stats...

Cold, lifeless Long Xi would become someone else's nice, warm points.

[The camera's shaking so much. Can we switch to third-person view?]

[It's in the settings, dumbass.]

[Long Xi, don't be scared! French-kiss him!!! Just stuff him with enough cursed energy to make him explode!]

[Damn, we've got interspecies fans here, too!]

"Can't you people wish me well for once?!"

There wasn't a shred of sympathy or concern in those comments. Long Xi could only conclude that people's joys and sorrows truly weren't shared.

Right now, he just found them noisy...

If these guys couldn't replenish his depleted cursed energy, he would never turn this livestream on again!

The constant recovery let him keep running at full tilt. His lack of practice made him a little clumsy, but once he got used to it, he managed to pick up some speed.

A broken concrete walkway along the bank ahead gave him just the help he needed.

Long Xi stomped hard enough to shatter the water's surface and launched himself up. His feet had barely touched solid ground when a black wave erupted behind him.

Cockroaches surged ashore like a tide, packed so densely that glossy insect bodies filled even the gaps between the paving tiles.

Long Xi flipped his hand and pulled out the Emperor Bell. The cool bronze bell settled into his palm with a slight weight.

This was his first time actually using the item in combat. Tonight's surroundings, teeming with low-level cursed spirits, were perfect for unleashing its full power.

Long Xi poured in cursed energy and gave his wrist a gentle flick.

Ding-

The clear chime rang out, and even the air around him trembled.

The leading wave of cockroaches abruptly stopped, their frenzied charge forcibly stalled for a beat.

Then the smaller cockroaches burst into clouds of blood, one after another!

The slightly larger ones collapsed in agony as well. He had cleared out those creatures that didn't even qualify as grade 4.

Still, it worked even better than he had expected!

And in the instant the chime rippled outward, he could clearly see the flow of cursed energy around him. Where cursed residue was thickest, which routes were passable, where something was hiding-everything became clear at once.

Following the opening revealed by the bell's feedback, he charged straight into a half-collapsed shopping street on his left.

The larger insects regrouped into a swarm behind him and kept pursuing. Long Xi hurled fire as he ran, sending one fireball after another flying.

Glass along the passage shattered in succession. Flames streaked across the ground in bright red burning strips, and any insects that struck them immediately charred into clumps.

But Kurourushi's swarm was simply too large. Once the first batch burned away, more kept pouring in from behind.

Long Xi rushed into the mall's ground floor, pivoted, and vaulted straight over a collapsed service counter.

It was pitch-black inside. Shelves lay toppled in every direction, thick dust covered the floor, and several long-desiccated corpses lay scattered in the corners.

The distinctive smell of the Sendai Colony hit him full in the face: death, cursed residue, oppression. Even the air felt thick and hard to breathe.

Just then, a small golden ball of light flew out from beside him and took the shape of an insect.

"Player Long Xi, please confirm your current points-"

Without looking back, Long Xi reached out and brushed the Kogane aside.

"Shut up for now. I'm running for my life."

The Kogane wobbled through two circles, remained quiet for two seconds, then dutifully floated back.

"The current high-scoring players in the Sendai Colony-"

A vein throbbed at Long Xi's temple. Without another word, he slapped the Kogane away, smashing him hard into the nearby wall.

At the same time, a nauseating presence drew steadily closer...

He wasn't quite special grade, but his combat strength was definitely on par with Long Xi's good friend, the suicide bomber infantryman.

With a boom, a huge hole burst open in the mall's outer wall.

An enormous cockroach forced his way inside. He was nearly the size of a motorcycle, his glossy black carapace gleaming coldly, with thick green fluid dangling from his mouthparts.

Long Xi narrowed his eyes. This wasn't Kurourushi, but he was easily a dozen times larger than the other disgusting cockroaches.

Can elite monsters spawn among the mobs, too?

Before he could think any further, the insect that had smashed through the wall let out an utterly revolting shriek after a brief, vacant pause.

The smaller cockroaches behind him grew agitated as well. Clearly, he was their leader.

Long Xi stopped short. If he kept running, Kurourushi would eventually surround him little by little. Better to kill this one and punch an opening through...

At least if he died today, he could scrape together 1/3 completion. It wouldn't be a total loss!

This was challenge progress delivered right to his door!

And it was also a perfect chance... to test his current strength!

The Insect King gave him no time to react. His mouthparts opened, and he spat a huge glob of black filth straight at him.

Long Xi sidestepped it. The filth struck a shelf, and the steel frame instantly began hissing with white smoke as it corroded.

Countless ungraded and grade 4 cockroaches surged toward him, trying to engulf his entire body.

The next second, the Emperor Bell in his hand rang again.

He poured almost a third of his cursed energy into it.

Ding!

As the chime spread, clouds of blood appeared once more, and that same nauseating stench of blood rushed past Long Xi's nose.

Still, the move really worked. Even the Insect King briefly froze.

That instant was enough!

Long Xi drove off the ground and shot forward like a cannonball. Flames surged around his right hand as he slammed it into his opponent's face, but before the Insect King could fly backward, Long Xi seized him again with his left hand.

He shoved his entire right hand into the Insect King's enormous mouth. Before those jaws could sever his arm, flames roared out!

Boom!

The Insect King's whole head swelled several times over. His eyes could no longer withstand the heat and melted into bloody liquid, while even his carapace cracked with an ear-piercing noise.

He struggled wildly, his mouthparts trying to snap at anything they could. Long Xi gave him no chance and blasted another surge of flames inside!

He blew the Insect King's entire head to pieces!

Crack!

No matter how hard the carapace or how powerful the vitality, there was no surviving without a head.

That held true for cursed spirits, too.

Fire burst straight out of the cracks.

The next second, the burning Insect King twitched twice, then collapsed completely.

[100,000-follower milestone challenge progress updated]

[Grade 2 targets killed: 1/3]

When Long Xi saw the panel, he immediately felt a little more secure.

He had bagged the first one. It wasn't the main body, but at least he was off to a good start.

The livestream chat had already exploded, but Long Xi only skimmed the comments before refocusing.

After all, whether they were telling him to force a kiss on the creature or split him open, crawl inside, and disguise himself as a cockroach, every suggestion was far too disgusting.

He still couldn't manage to be a sorcerer with no limits.

Now wasn't the time to relax. That much greater mass of cursed energy outside the mall was still approaching.

Not a little bug. Kurourushi's main body?!

Just then, the Kogane, much like the system, finished what he hadn't managed to say earlier, even supplying further details.

"The current high-risk players in the Sendai Colony have been confirmed."

"Kurourushi."

"Ryu Ishigori."

"Takako Uro."

"Dhruv Lakdawalla."

"...Yuta Okkotsu."

Long Xi's mouth twitched. The full roster of high-scoring monsters was here.

He was a rookie who had only just entered, and he had spawned right beside Kurourushi's spawn point. With luck like this, he could lose ten gacha pulls in a row.

As he thought that, a sudden flash lit up the outside.

At night, it might have been roaring lightning or something else. But in broad daylight? Only cursed energy could light things up like that!

Boom-

The glass along the entire shopping street shattered at once, shards clattering down.

Long Xi whipped his head around. In the distant night sky, an absurdly thick Cursed Energy Blast streaked upward with a glowing trail, punching through half the cloud cover.

There was no need to guess who wielded that kind of power. In the Sendai Colony, only Ryu Ishigori could fire a blast like that.

Long Xi swallowed. This place really wasn't fit for human habitation.

And worse still.

He had only just finished watching the distant commotion when a larger shadow slowly squeezed into the darkness at the mall's main entrance.

The piercing scrape of carapace against the ground.

The rustle of jointed legs dragging over concrete.

And that nauseating stench instantly filled the entire mall.

Kurourushi had arrived.