Cruelty

The feeling left him utterly insecure!

He had to take on another job!

The Dark Crow bar.

He pushed the door open. As before, the noisy bar fell silent for a few seconds when he entered.

After last night's incidents at the abandoned hospital and slaughterhouse, Yagami Jue's reputation as the "Zero-Cursed-Energy Killer God" had spread through Sendai City's underground circles.

No one dared mock him the way they had yesterday.

Every gaze directed at him was filled with awe and fear.

Yagami Jue walked straight to the counter.

The information broker, Spider, spotted him and immediately offered him a whiskey on the rocks with utmost respect.

"Mr. Yagami, you're here."

Even Spider's voice was trembling.

That Grade 1 Cursed Spirit at the slaughterhouse last night had been such a tough target that no one had dared accept the bounty for two whole weeks!

Yet this boy had obliterated it in less than ten minutes!

Not even ashes remained!

With strength that terrifying, even a Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer from Jujutsu High could hardly do better!

"Cut the crap. Got any high-paying jobs?"

Yagami Jue asked coldly, leaving the drink untouched.

Spider wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

"Yes... there's one."

"But it's extremely dangerous. The bounty is a whopping thirty million yen!"

Thirty million?!

Yagami Jue's eyes lit up!

If he got that money, his strength would definitely break past the two-thousand mark!

He might even unlock the first gate of the Eight Gates Formation!

"Give me the file."

Spider pulled a red, top-secret envelope from beneath the counter.

"Mr. Yagami, this job isn't about exorcising a cursed spirit."

"It's... killing someone."

Killing someone?

Yagami Jue raised an eyebrow and opened the envelope.

Inside were just a photograph and a few lines of text.

The photograph showed a burly, bald man with a brutish face and a horrific knife scar over his right eye.

"This man's called Kyo-yu. He's a wandering curse user on the run."

Spider swallowed and explained in a low voice.

"His cursed technique is bizarre. He can absorb his targets' blood to strengthen his own body."

"Two days ago, he infiltrated a private bank in Sendai City, killed the twelve security guards in its vault, and stole a Special Grade Cursed Object that had been sealed inside!"

A Special Grade Cursed Object?!

Yagami Jue's pupils contracted sharply.

A Special Grade Cursed Object appearing in Sendai City at this point in time.

What else could it be?!

Ryomen Sukuna's Finger!

"Who's the client?"

Yagami Jue's gaze turned icy.

"The conglomerate behind that private bank."

Spider lowered his voice. "They're offering an astronomical thirty million for Kyo-yu's head and... the return of that cursed object."

"I'll take it."

Without the slightest hesitation, Yagami Jue slapped the envelope onto the counter.

"Tell me where that oversized bear is."

"He... he's hiding in an abandoned, unfinished building in the south of the city."

With trembling hands, Spider took out a hand-drawn map.

"Mr. Yagami, please be careful!"

"According to a survivor who escaped, after absorbing those twelve men's blood, Kyo-yu's physical strength reached an absolutely terrifying level!"

"He can even tear an armored vehicle apart with his bare hands!"

Tear an armored vehicle apart with his bare hands?

Yagami Jue's lips curled into a savage grin.

"Is that so?"

"Then let's see which is stronger-his cursed technique..."

"Or my fists!"

Eight that evening.

An abandoned, unfinished building in the south of the city.

It had once been intended as a luxury commercial center, but construction had stopped when the funding ran dry. Now, only a gray concrete skeleton more than a dozen stories tall remained.

Yagami Jue moved through the darkness like a ghost.

With 152 points of speed, he didn't make a single footstep.

"Drip... drip..."

The higher he climbed, the thicker the nauseating stench of blood became.

When he reached the unfinished building's top floor.

Even Yagami Jue, who was accustomed to life and death, couldn't help frowning at the sight before him.

Across the top floor's broad concrete surface.

More than a dozen desiccated corpses lay scattered, drained of every drop of blood!

And in the midst of those corpses.

A bald giant nearly two and a half meters tall sat on a battered couch, his bulging muscles like slabs of rock.

His skin was an eerie dark red, and his veins writhed beneath it like little blue snakes.

Kyo-yu!

In his hand, Kyo-yu was toying with a shriveled finger wrapped in yellow talisman paper.

Sukuna's Finger!

"Hmm?"

Seemingly sensing something, Kyo-yu snapped his head up, a vicious red gleam bursting from his unblinded left eye!

"What suicidal little bug dares disturb me?"

Yagami Jue slowly emerged from the shadows.

As he looked at the finger in Kyo-yu's hand, which radiated a terrifying aura of curses, a flicker of hunger crossed his eyes.

If I feed that finger to the system...

How much money will it spit out?

Could it even... unlock some ridiculously powerful taijutsu skill outright?!

"Hand over what you're holding, along with your head."

With one hand in his pocket, Yagami Jue spoke as casually as if he were buying vegetables at a market.

"I can make your death quick."

Kyo-yu froze for a moment.

Then he burst into deafening laughter!

"Ha ha ha ha! You? A brat without even a trace of cursed energy?!"

Kyo-yu stood up, his enormous body looming like a small mountain and exuding a suffocating pressure!

"This body has absorbed the blood and vitality of twelve strong men!"

"Even if a Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer came at me now, I'd smash him into pulp with one punch!"

"Who the hell do you think you are?!"

With a furious roar, Kyo-yu drove both legs against the floor!

Boom!

The concrete slab beneath his feet instantly exploded into a crater several meters wide!

Like an out-of-control high-speed train, Kyo-yu hurtled straight toward Yagami Jue with a terrifying howl that tore through the air!

A charge powered by nothing but brute physical force!

"Die, you piece of shit!"

Kyo-yu's enormous fist, glowing with dark red cursed energy, smashed toward Yagami Jue's head!

The force of that punch definitely surpassed that of an ordinary Grade 1 Cursed Spirit!

"Too slow."

Faced with a punch bearing down on him like a mountain.

Yagami Jue didn't even blink.

He simply raised his right fist slowly.

He used no special technique to generate force.

It was nothing more than the most ordinary, simplest straight punch!

All 1,360 points of his overwhelming strength erupted without restraint!

BOOM!!!

Their fists collided in midair!

An earthshaking crash rang out like an explosion of thunder!

A visible ring of white air blasted outward from them, snapping every one of the top floor's dozen-plus load-bearing columns in half!

Fragments of concrete shot in every direction like bullets!

Crack... crack!

Then.

Before Kyo-yu's utterly horrified eyes.

That thick right arm he was so proud of, capable of tearing armored vehicles apart barehanded.

Began bursting apart inch by inch, starting with his finger bones!

Jagged bone pierced his skin!

Blood sprayed wildly!

"AAAAAAAH!!!"

Kyo-yu let out an agonized scream, his massive body flung backward as though a heavy truck had struck him head-on!

Rumble!

He smashed through three concrete walls in succession before crashing heavily into the rubble!

An instant defeat!

An utter crushing by physical strength alone!

Yagami Jue withdrew his right fist and shook off the blood, his eyes full of disdain.

"That's all the strength you've got?"

"And you dare fight me hand to hand?"

He walked toward Kyo-yu in the rubble, one step at a time.

Each step left a deep footprint in the hard concrete floor.

Kyo-yu lay amid the debris, covered in blood. His right arm was completely gone, leaving only a mangled shoulder.

As he watched Yagami Jue approach like the god of death, his eyes filled with boundless terror and despair.

"You... what kind of monster are you..."

"Without cursed energy... how can you possibly have this much strength?!"

Kyo-yu desperately tried to retreat, but it was futile.

"A monster?"

Yagami Jue stopped before him and looked down at him.

"I'm your creditor."

He abruptly raised his right foot, aimed at Kyo-yu's head, and stomped down hard!

Bang!

It was like crushing a rotten watermelon underfoot.