Monster

"System, put all eighty thousand into strength!"

[Ding! Successfully deducted 80,000 yen!]

[Strength +8! Current strength: 60!]

Boom!

A surging wave of heat instantly swept through his entire body.

His muscle fibers sang with delight as they tore apart and rebuilt themselves once more. Yagami Jue felt as though his fists could punch straight through steel plates!

"Hey, big guy in there. I hope you can keep me entertained for a while!"

Yagami Jue stepped through the outpatient building's automatic doors.

The first-floor lobby was a complete wreck.

Broken glass and discarded medical equipment littered the floor.

The stench of decay in the air was overpowering.

Just then, the eerie sound of a wheelchair rolling came from the second-floor stairwell.

"Creak... creak..."

Then a woman's chilling voice echoed through the empty lobby.

"Doctor... my legs hurt so much..."

"Will you... trade legs with me...?"

Yagami Jue looked up.

At the turn of the second-floor staircase, a massive ball of purplish-black flesh was slowly squirming its way down!

It was a grotesque monster a full three meters tall!

Its lower body was a rusty wheelchair, while its upper body was a mass of flesh stitched together from countless human thighs!

A distorted woman's face sat atop the mass of flesh.

Her eyes were entirely white, fixed hungrily on Yagami Jue's legs as greedy drool spilled from her mouth.

A Grade 2 Cursed Spirit!

And a prime specimen at that-after devouring those five high school students, it was on the verge of evolving to Semi-Grade 1!

"You want my legs?"

Yagami Jue grinned, baring his stark white teeth.

"Sure."

"I'll shove one right down your throat!"

Boom!

Yagami Jue drove off with both legs, instantly blasting two craters into the lobby's tiled floor!

Amid flying rubble, he shot upward like a cruise missile launched from its tube!

Straight toward the Wheelchair Cursed Spirit at the second-floor stairwell!

"So fast!"

Any conscious human would have pissed themselves at the sight of Yagami Jue's sound-barrier-breaking speed.

But the cursed spirit felt no fear.

It sensed only an utterly savage physical force closing in.

"Die!"

The Wheelchair Cursed Spirit let out a piercing shriek.

The countless thighs making up its upper body instantly swelled and lengthened like tentacles, forming a sky full of whipping legs that lashed at the airborne Yagami Jue from every direction!

Every thigh was coated in dense cursed energy. A single strike could shatter even reinforced concrete!

"Cheap tricks!"

Still airborne, Yagami Jue snapped coldly.

He did not dodge, nor could he dodge in midair.

But he had overwhelming brute force!

"Shatter, damn you!"

A vicious gleam flashed in Yagami Jue's eyes. He clenched his right fist and unleashed all sixty points of his terrifying strength!

He punched through the air at the countless blurring legs!

Boom!!!

A visible white blast of air exploded from his knuckles!

He forcibly burst the air itself, creating a terrifying cone-shaped shock wave!

Bang, bang, bang, bang!

The thigh tentacles formed from cursed energy were like rotten meat fed into a grinder the instant they touched the shock wave!

They shattered inch by inch!

And became a rain of blood!

"Aaargh!"

The Wheelchair Cursed Spirit screamed in agony. It had never imagined that a human without cursed energy could destroy its prized attack with nothing but the wind from a punch!

"I'm not done yet, you piece of shit!"

Using the recoil, Yagami Jue flipped in midair and planted both feet firmly on the second-floor railing.

The railing instantly collapsed.

But he had already appeared above the Wheelchair Cursed Spirit's head like a phantom!

With gravity lending its weight.

Yagami Jue raised his right leg high, tracing a perfect crescent through the air.

Axe kick!

"Get on your knees!"

Bang!!!

Yagami Jue's right heel slammed into the Wheelchair Cursed Spirit's distorted female face like an immensely heavy hammer!

The force of that blow was far beyond a few tons!

Crack!

The cursed spirit's facial bones instantly shattered and caved in!

Its enormous body could not withstand the blow and crashed straight down from the second-floor stairs!

Rumble!

The entire outpatient building shook violently!

The Wheelchair Cursed Spirit smashed into the first-floor marble flooring, gouging out a deep crater five or six meters across!

Dust billowed everywhere!

"Phew..."

Yagami Jue jumped down from the second floor and landed lightly at the crater's edge.

He looked down at the ball of flesh at the bottom, which was convulsing wildly and continuously spewing black blood.

"Pretty tenacious."

Yagami Jue curled his lip.

An ordinary Grade 2 Cursed Spirit would have been killed instantly by that axe kick.

But this one had devoured too many humans. The cursed energy within it was so dense that it was actually trying to repair its shattered skull.

"But this is where it ends."

Yagami Jue pulled the [Low-Grade Cursed Tool: Azure Steel Knuckle Dusters] awarded by the system from his pocket.

They were specifically meant to deliver the finishing blow to cursed spirits, preventing them from regenerating endlessly.

He slipped the knuckle dusters onto his right hand, the cold feel of metal making his smile all the crueler.

"Die, you walking ATM."

Yagami Jue leaped into the crater.

With a piercing howl that tore through the air, his right fist, clad in the Azure Steel Knuckle Dusters, punched straight through the cursed spirit's skull as it tried to heal!

Squelch!

Black blood mixed with dense cursed energy exploded outward!

The Wheelchair Cursed Spirit let out a desperate wail. Its massive body abruptly stiffened, then rapidly turned to black ash and dissipated into the air.

Completely exorcised!

[Ding! Congratulations, host, on defeating a Grade 2 Cursed Spirit approaching Semi-Grade 1, above your own level!]

[Loot dropped: 2,000,000 yen!]

[Special item dropped: Advanced Taijutsu Fragment ×1 (Collect 10 to exchange for top-tier Taijutsu)]

As he listened to the system notifications in his mind.

Yagami Jue frowned slightly.

"Only two million? The black-market bounty was clearly three million."

But he quickly understood.

The money dropped by the system was loot from killing the monster itself.

The three million from the black market was his commission for completing the mission!

In other words, he had just raked in five million yen!

"Hahahaha! Hell yeah!"

Yagami Jue could not help bursting into wild laughter.

In the oppressive abandoned hospital, his laughter sounded especially unrestrained and domineering!

With these five million yen, he could finally exchange for the experience card he had dreamed of!

[Toji Fushiguro: Heavenly Restriction Experience Card (5,000,000 yen/minute)]!

It would last only one short minute.

But that was enough for him to experience the true pinnacle of physical prowess-the ultimate violence that could beat a special grade cursed spirit like a dog!

Just as Yagami Jue was about to leave the lobby.

"Tap... tap..."

A sudden flurry of hurried footsteps came from outside the outpatient building.

Then several people in black suits rushed inside.

Leading them was a bespectacled middle-aged man who looked meek and timid.

Assistant supervisor, Kiyotaka Ijichi!

"Hurry and lower the Curtain! According to the Window's report, an extremely dangerous Grade 2 is lurking in here..."

Ijichi's voice cut off before he could finish.

He adjusted his glasses and stared, dumbfounded, at the wrecked first-floor lobby.

Rubble covered the floor.