The screen went completely black.
In that instant, the entire dorm room seemed to have been forcibly torn out of reality.
All that remained was the teeth-grating metallic hum of the computer's cooling fins after running under a heavy load.
Kannazuki stayed hunched forward, his fingertips still pressed against the cold edge of the desk.
Veins bulged on the backs of his hands.
Outside the window, dawn had quietly arrived in Linhai City.
This should have been Kira's most glorious moment.
Just moments earlier, he had cornered L, the world's greatest detective, in a battle at the pinnacle of intellect.
If he picked up his pen now, over the next twenty-two days, he could reap like wheat every piece of trash in this world that obstructed him, questioned him, or corrupted society.
Only a barrier as thin as a cicada's wing stood between him and that New World of "absolute justice."
"Ga ha ha ha ha!"
A shrill, decay-laden cackle erupted in the cramped room.
Ryuk's enormous, twisted body performed a bizarre somersault in midair.
His huge eyes, filled with a greedy yellow glow, stared fixedly at Kannazuki.
"Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!"
"Kannazuki, I take back what I said. Humans really are far more interesting!"
Ryuk pulled a bright red apple out of thin air and bit into it with a crunch. Scarlet juice trickled from the corners of his mouth, which split all the way to his ears, looking just like blood that had yet to dry.
"That fellow L actually traded his life for twenty-two days of 'divine prohibition.'"
"Tsk, tsk. All for one woman. He's betting that, for that pathetic scrap of humanity, you'll personally strangle the grand ambitions you've spent so long planning."
Ryuk floated beside Kannazuki's ear, his voice like a snake's hiss. "Kannazuki, you look