Wait, Seriously, Bro?!

The moment Kurourushi squeezed into the mall, Long Xi no longer even had time to curse the system.

This thing was in a completely different league from that Insect King.

There had barely been any light left in the mall to begin with. Once its thick carapace blocked the moonlight outside, the whole area sank into darkness.

The air reeked of rot and damp filth, as though someone had stuffed him into a rotting burlap sack.

Every step it crawled forward shattered a patch of floor tiles. Its jointed limbs scraped the shelves, making the sheet metal screech painfully.

Strictly speaking, it shouldn't have been large enough to do all that. It destroyed everything around it simply because it paid no attention to its surroundings.

Or perhaps even it was doing so unconsciously...

Long Xi still clutched the Emperor Bell, his palm slick with sweat.

He wasn't stupid.

If he tried taking a Special Grade like this head-on, he wouldn't just get hurt tonight. He'd be logged out for good.

[What happened? Why aren't you running?]

Long Xi backed away, muttering a curse at the scrolling comments.

"Why don't you run for me, then?"

[Charge! Take a chance and trade that bicycle for a motorcycle!]

[Don't chicken out, streamer. What if it's squishy?]

[Squishy, my ass. It could crunch him up like a potato chip in one bite.]

"Now that sounds sensible."

He pivoted on his heel and sprinted toward the escalator to the second floor.

Kurourushi gave him no breathing room. A slit opened in its back, spraying out a dense swarm of cockroaches that covered the walls, ceiling, and broken advertising signs.

Long Xi had only made it halfway up when a huge cockroach bit his left leg, ripping his trouser leg open on the spot.

Flames burst up.

He raised his hand and burned the thing into a charred husk. The smell of scorching filled his nose.

A second later, Kurourushi lunged up from below, right into his face.

Too fast.

Long Xi barely had time to twist half his body aside before a slash carrying the stench of decay grazed beneath his ribs. Blood sprayed out instantly, burning hot.

He grunted, kicked over the railing, and rolled from the edge of the second floor into a clothing store.

Broken glass littered the floor.

Kurourushi didn't rush in after him.

It stopped outside, its mouthparts opening and closing, as if savoring its prey's struggles.

Long Xi braced himself against the wall and stood. The wound beneath his ribs was deep and burned fiercely. Worse, something was still moving inside it.

He glanced down, and his scalp crawled.

Several larvae were burrowing into the torn flesh.

"...That's one seriously filthy move."

Gritting his teeth, he pressed his palm to the wound, compressed his flames into a thin line, and poured them straight into his flesh.

Sizzle.

The smell of burning meat nearly made him vomit. The larvae writhed inside him, then turned to black ash after only a few moments.

Cold sweat covered Long Xi's forehead, and his legs felt weak.

But he had to stay standing, because the nightmare outside had already entered the store.

Rows of battered mannequins hung inside. Kurourushi passed between them like a moving calamity.

Its jointed limbs smashed the display racks apart, and swarms of insects closed in from every direction, completely sealing off the exits.

The pressure was crushing.

For the first time, Long Xi understood with painful clarity how far he stood below a true top-tier monster.

It wasn't a gap of one punch, nor something he could make up with a few more days of training.

It was the difference between getting pinned to the ground and beaten so badly that even lifting his head was a struggle.

Yet times like these were precisely when he refused to give in.

"Since you're already here, I might as well give you something to remember me by."

Long Xi flicked his wrist, ringing the Emperor Bell again.

The chime swept outward. A mass of low-level cockroaches ahead burst into bloody mist, and even Kurourushi faltered for half a beat.

In that half beat, Long Xi surged forward, crushing glass beneath his feet. Flames raced along the shelves, turning the entire store into a sea of fire.

Kurourushi didn't even dodge.

It charged through the flames straight at Long Xi, sweeping its sharp forelimb across him. He barely raised his arm to block before the blow smashed him into the wall.

His back went numb from the impact, and the taste of blood filled his lungs.

He heard the comments flooding in like mad.

[Don't block it head-on! Don't block it!]

[He's done, he's done.]

[Holy shit, it's really tossing him around like a toy.]

[Our streamer's about to become a cup... It's fine, there's always the next round! He just landed in the wrong spot this time!]

"It's not like I wanted to block it..."

"Hopefully I can land somewhere else next time..."

Long Xi spat out a mouthful of blood and flung three fireballs with a backhanded swing, aiming straight for Kurourushi's head.

Kurourushi tilted its head and dodged all three, as though deliberately toying with him. Its malicious ease made his temper flare.

Another slash came.

It cut open Long Xi's left shoulder, making half his body sway.

Fortunately, his opponent had been careless and hadn't used a weapon. Otherwise, Long Xi probably would have lost the whole arm.

But even without a weapon, it was still far beyond anything he could handle...

Kurourushi rushed close and suddenly spread its mouthparts wide. Inside weren't teeth, but layers upon layers of insect eggs and rotten flesh.

It clearly intended to swallow Long Xi whole.

At that very instant, Long Xi suddenly smiled.

The smile vanished in a flash, giving way to raw ferocity.

Instead of retreating, he threw himself forward.

Even Kurourushi paused.

In all its time here, it had never encountered anyone so reckless with their life.

Long Xi hooked his left hand directly into a gap in its carapace, letting the sharp edges slice his palm open. Flames surged wildly around his right hand, burning his entire arm red.

He forced himself half an inch farther into Kurourushi's mouth, then poured all his cursed energy deep into its mouthparts.

"Eat up."

"If this doesn't choke you, I lose!"

Boom!

Flames exploded inside Kurourushi's mouth. The shock wave tore through the entire store, sending mannequins and shelves flying in every direction.

Kurourushi let out a piercing shriek and jerked its head back. Half its mouthparts had been burned to a mangled mess, and several cracks split its carapace.

Long Xi wasn't much better off.

Large patches of his right arm were charred black, and he could barely feel anything below his wrist. The blast left his chest tight and his ears ringing.

But his gamble had paid off, at least for one move.

Kurourushi truly hadn't expected anyone to dare fight like that.

Granted, it looked as though he'd taken a thousand points of damage to deal two hundred.

Still, all he needed was an opening...

While it was off balance, Long Xi turned and ran, without the slightest concern for looking heroic.

Time for a tactical retreat. Once I've powered up, I'll come back and elbow the hell out of it.

[Streamer, you're risking your life to exploit a bug.]

[Honestly, that last move was pretty badass, right?]

"Thanks for the compliment... Turning the comments off for now..."

"I've got to run for my life!!!"

He charged out of the clothing store and vaulted over the broken escalator. The cockroach swarm kept chasing, not slowing in the slightest.

Blood streamed from beneath Long Xi's ribs and from his shoulder. His right arm was half crippled, and his steps were beginning to falter.

The bell hadn't stopped shaking for even a moment. Fortunately, the flood of comments kept replenishing his cursed energy nonstop.

That allowed him to quickly replenish what he spent.

He couldn't stop, and he didn't dare.

Now that Kurourushi was hurt, it would only grow more frenzied.

The wind outside the mall suddenly sharpened.

An immensely dense wave of cursed energy bore down from the distance.

Long Xi's heart jolted, and he instinctively flung himself aside.

The next instant, an absurdly brutal Cursed Energy Blast pierced the night sky from the other end of the city, blasting straight through half the mall.

The outer walls, load-bearing pillars, and advertising signs all exploded with a deafening boom. The shock wave hurled Long Xi away, sending him rolling across the ground on his back several times before he stopped.

Only thunderous ringing remained in his ears.

By the time he lifted his head, half the mall had collapsed.

Kurourushi's enormous figure had also disappeared into the smoke and dust, blasted away along with a huge swath of insects.

Long Xi lay among the rubble, his chest heaving. It took him ages to squeeze out a sentence.

"...Ryu Ishigori, you really don't care who you hit, teammates or bystanders..."

No.

He'd mangled Ryu Ishigori's name.

But right now, how could he worry about pronunciation?

That long-range cannon had struck so viciously that nobody cared whether he got blown up along with everything else.

To someone on that level, he was little different from roadside cannon fodder. It was just another casual blast.

Yet that very blast had saved him.

Long Xi struggled to his feet and glanced back at the ruins.

Cockroaches churned in the smoke and dust. Kurourushi wasn't dead. He knew that perfectly well.

Something like that wouldn't leave the stage so easily. It was sinister as hell.

So the only thing to do now was run as far away as possible.

He sprinted along the shattered street, flinging fire as he ran to burn away the scattered insects pursuing him.

He also kept activating the Emperor Bell. Its chimes made his temples throb, but without them, he couldn't shake those things off.

Sendai at night resembled a giant beast with half its body caved in.

The convenience stores along the street had long since been smashed apart. Wrecked vehicles and broken bones covered the roads, and occasionally he spotted corpses that hadn't been fully gnawed clean.

Wind swept between the buildings, carrying plastic bags and scraps of paper that whirled beside the firelight.

Long Xi fought as he retreated.

He had lost count of how many cockroaches he'd burned to death. Their blood coated his soles, making every step horribly sticky.

Several times, he could barely lift his legs. Only the cursed energy supplied by the comments gave him enough strength to keep going.

[Don't fall asleep, streamer! You'll seriously be done for!!]

[Turn left up ahead! Underground parking garage!!]

[Whoa, I can see the entrance sign from your camera!]

Long Xi looked up. Sure enough, ahead was the half-collapsed entrance to a mall parking garage. Its sign leaned crookedly to one side, still bearing a "P."

"Cut back on the wisecracks a little... You're finally being useful..."

He practically dove inside.

The garage had two underground levels, and the air was stifling. The lights had long since broken, leaving only the emergency lamps flickering.

Long Xi rounded several corners. Only after confirming that the sounds of the swarm had faded behind him did he dare lean against an overturned van and slide down to sit.

Only then did his stomach remember to protest.

He knew how much energy he was burning through... and had no intention of showing the abandoned cars around him any courtesy.

He rummaged through several cars in the dark, then pried open a vending machine and forcibly dug out a few bottles of water and packets of biscuits.

His hands shook as he tore open the plastic wrappers. He couldn't care less about the crumbs falling all over him. Swallowing the biscuits felt little different from swallowing sand.

As water poured down his throat, the fire in his chest finally eased a little.

He leaned against the car door and looked up at the ceiling.

"Surviving tonight already counts as performing beyond my limits..."

"But that thing will catch up sooner or later..."

"I can only wait for the pure-love guy..."

[Stop raising death flags.]

[Streamer, you really don't look right.]

[Treat your wounds first.]

Most of the comments expressed concern. The system also filtered out some of the people who were still joking around or utterly indifferent to whether Long Xi lived or died.

His level-one permissions kept him from learning too much. Sometimes, he couldn't even be bothered to read the comments.

Still... under these circumstances, knowing someone cared about him offered at least a little comfort.

Long Xi's lips twitched, but he had no strength to answer.

He tried to raise his hand, but his right arm wouldn't obey him at all.

The wound beneath his ribs was still bleeding, and his left shoulder had gone terribly numb... The parking garage was unnaturally quiet. All he could hear was distant dripping and his own increasingly heavy breathing.

He held out for a while, but ultimately couldn't keep going.

His vision sank little by little.

Just before he lost consciousness completely, he saw several faint flashlight beams bobbing in through the entrance, as though someone was approaching.