Rain poured down beneath a pitch-black night sky.
It pattered densely against the black umbrella.
L's pale face, with its deeply sunken eyes, was right before him.
He had openly put his life on the line, convinced Kannazuki wouldn't dare touch him when cornered.
"Ga ha ha..."
A cold wind swept in behind Kannazuki, and the temperature plummeted.
Ryuk's enormous body hung upside down in midair.
His ghastly, distorted face peered over Kannazuki's shoulder.
"This deal couldn't be more of a bargain."
The Shinigami's gaunt, black-nailed fingers tapped Kannazuki's soaked shoulder with the clatter of bones.
"Run into trouble?
Can't figure a way out, can you?
Just nod, and those eyes of yours will instantly see everyone's real name."
Ryuk brought his mouth, split all the way to his ears, close to Kannazuki's ear.
"As for the price, it's fair for everyone~ fifty percent of your remaining natural lifespan."
Fifty percent.
For anyone.
That number was enough to shatter their mental defenses and drive them mad.
Kannazuki stood in the rain beneath his umbrella.
Not even his eyelids twitched.
In an instant, his brain ran through countless calculations to maximize his gains.
The Kira Rules had already been announced worldwide, and their deterrent effect was beginning to take shape.
According to the current sociological projections.
As long as he maintained this absolute, high-pressure reign of terror for ten years.
An irreversible ideological imprint would be branded into humanity's social structures, political systems, and even its subconscious.
"Neither waging war nor committing crimes" would evolve from fear-driven compulsion into an instinct ingrained in humanity.
Ten years.
Even if Kannazuki's original natural lifespan only allowed him to live to sixty.
Halving what remained would still give him enough time for the new world's order to become firmly entrenched.
As long as that