The Dragon Slayer Becomes a Dragon, the Cockroach Slayer Becomes a Cockroach
Dhruv Lakdawalla held 91 points.
Twice incarnated, he had single-handedly subjugated the Japanese archipelago during the great civil war in Wa.
He could control two types of autonomous Shikigami and turn their paths of movement into his own domain.
Ryu Ishigori held 77 points.
A Cursed Energy cannon with the highest output of any player.
Takako Uro held 70 points.
The former captain of the Sun, Moon, and Stars Squad, an assassination unit under the direct command of the Fujiwara clan, she possessed a Cursed Technique that let her manipulate the sky.
Kurourushi held 54 points.
A cockroach Cursed Spirit that had escaped Kenjaku's Cursed Spirit Manipulation. Registered as Special Grade.
There were no alliances of any kind among them. Their strength was evenly matched, and the situation had eventually devolved into a four-way deadlock, each holding the others in check.
But... just now, one corner of that deadlock had fallen.
Squelch.
A javelin Cursed Tool pierced straight through Kurourushi's head.
The white light of the Reverse Cursed Technique traveled through the special Cursed Technique circuit engraved in the javelin Cursed Tool and into Kurourushi's body.
Its flesh swelled within seconds, hissing like drops of ice water evaporating on a hot iron plate.
Then it exploded with a boom.
"Five points added!" Kogane immediately announced.
Shiratori Gotsu retrieved the javelin Cursed Tool. Aside from his clothes being torn to shreds, he had no physical injuries.
He glanced up at the conspicuous "health bar" over his forehead, which had less than three percent left, and the corners of his mouth rose slightly.
Shiratori Gotsu held 18 points.
Aside from the five points added for killing Kurourushi this time,
the rest were "gifts" he had received over the past few days through "friendly exchanges" with awakened players who were even more trash than he was, yet attacked ordinary people with the will to dominate.
As for what those "friendly exchanges" involved...
Naturally, he had beaten them with his fists until they "voluntarily" transferred their points! Was he supposed to invite that bunch of scum to tea instead?
Three full days had passed since he entered the Sendai Colony.
With the Sendai Colony locked in a four-way deadlock, Shiratori Gotsu, an epic-tier piece of trash whose base stats made him a random nobody on the roadside, couldn't get involved at all.
Although he had S-rank Cursed Energy output, the standard of a Special Grade Jujutsu Sorcerer, and his Cursed Energy-reinforced left fist dealt high damage while his right fist dealt high damage,
he could easily knock out a Grade 2 Jujutsu Sorcerer in two punches.
But his total Cursed Energy was far too low. It was like fitting a mineral water bottle's opening onto a bottle the size of a medicine ampoule.
Against a slightly stronger opponent, he would be completely exhausted after a few punches and could only squirm away like trash.
He would rather be killed outright than fight someone head-on with passion.
Yet he couldn't bring himself to hide in the shadows and scrape by like a cockroach forever, either.
After all, he was already here, so he had to do something.
With that mindset, Shiratori Gotsu began looking for a roundabout way to break the deadlock.
Since he had drawn the advanced technique Reverse Cursed Technique on the roulette, Shiratori Gotsu recalled the scene in the original story where Yuta Okkotsu instantly killed Kurourushi by outputting Reverse Cursed Technique, and decided to start with Kurourushi.
So he found a temporary base and set about passionately developing the technique for outputting Reverse Cursed Technique.
Naturally, things went just as expected. After nearly ten hours of getting fired up on his own, he finally gave up with equal passion.
An A-rank aptitude was only on the level of an ordinary Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer. Under those circumstances, learning to output Reverse Cursed Technique in a short time was nothing but a pipe dream.
Shiratori Gotsu had to take another roundabout approach to fulfill the prerequisite for his roundabout plan.
So he found a javelin at a nearby specialist sports equipment store.
He used the advanced technique "Cursed Tool creation," which he had drawn from the roulette, and lowered the difficulty of making it with a whole slew of usage restrictions.
He also made a Binding Vow: in exchange for a higher chance of success, he could use it at most three times a day after it was completed.
Finally, after three hours of work, he finished making the javelin Cursed Tool.
The Cursed Tool's effect was simple and direct:
It could draw Cursed Energy from a sorcerer's body and inject it into a target it pierced.
It would be almost useless in the hands of an ordinary Jujutsu Sorcerer, since it offered no boost in power and had no special Cursed Technique effects engraved on it.
But in the hands of a Jujutsu Sorcerer who could use Reverse Cursed Technique, this Cursed Tool could instantly turn them into a monster matchup for Cursed Spirits!
Kurourushi had already been dormant because of Dhruv.
For an epic-tier piece of trash like Shiratori Gotsu, with his meager reserves of Cursed Energy, sneaking up unnoticed was all too easy.
Even if getting too close alerted Kurourushi and caused it to attack, it didn't matter.
As long as Shiratori Gotsu gave himself a "health bar" with Fate Track Binding Curse and healed himself with Reverse Cursed Technique, he could withstand a burst of damage head-on.
Then he could push through the swarm of cockroaches and get right up in Kurourushi's face.
Once he was close, he could use the javelin to pump the white light of Reverse Cursed Technique into it, and Kurourushi would be as good as dead!
Although all of that had been hypothetical until he actually succeeded, and putting it into practice was extremely risky, what Shiratori Gotsu loved most was a difficult challenge!
And things had unfolded exactly as he expected!
"I really am... a genius, aren't I?" Shiratori Gotsu took a deep breath of the sewer's foul air.
Having successfully stabbed Kurourushi to death as planned, he was on an incredible high.
He hummed the tune of "AIZO" as he walked out, using Reverse Cursed Technique to slowly restore the HP in the "health bar" above his head.
"Going by the time, Yuta Okkotsu should be arriving soon too..."
Meanwhile, on the other side of the colony, inside the stadium where Dhruv Lakdawalla was.
Blood sprayed...
Supplies inside the colony are limited. Sooner or later, we'll have to add a rule allowing free passage in and out of the colonies...
Yuta Okkotsu sheathed his sword, and Dhruv's body slowly fell behind him.
His mind raced as he planned his next moves. But players like Dhruv, who attack everyone indiscriminately... I absolutely can't let them out of the colonies.
Not just Sendai. We have to eliminate all the similar players in the other colonies too. Which means... the colonies need to be able to communicate with one another.
The two rules Fushiguro proposed, passage in and out of the colonies and communication between them... We need to add at least four rules.
Everyone was already nearly spent in Shibuya. None of them has anything to spare, physically or mentally... I'll get 400 points on my own!
A sharp light shone in Yuta Okkotsu's eyes as he strode out of the stadium, his steps heavy but resolute.
Shiratori Gotsu skewered and blew apart a Grade 2 Cursed Spirit blocking his path with his javelin.
"That's the second use today..." Shiratori Gotsu rubbed his chin.
"Going by where we are now, in four more days, on November 16, Yorozu, the ancient Jujutsu Sorcerer who took over Tsumiki Fushiguro's body, will add the rule that players can freely enter and leave the colonies."
"The fight between the other three big shots in Sendai and Yuta Okkotsu is definitely beyond what I can get involved in right now..."
He knew exactly what he was thinking.
It was the mindset of a loser not to fight strong opponents because he wasn't strong enough himself.
But fortunately, Shiratori Gotsu really did count as a loser right now, so it was perfectly reasonable for a loser to follow a loser's mindset.
Just as he emerged from the sewer outlet by the river, feeling refreshed and ready to return to his temporary lodgings, a blue blast of Cursed Energy exploded right in his face.
The "health bar" above his head instantly popped up: HP -10000.
The HP he had just restored to a little over one-fifth was immediately reduced to an almost invisible sliver again.
"Holy shit!" The blast nearly scared the soul out of Shiratori Gotsu. He scrambled and rolled back into the sewer.
After his shock subsided and he had forced his heart, which had nearly leaped out of his chest, back into place, a look of disbelief slowly appeared on his face.
"Seriously... Ryu Ishigori's Cursed Energy cannon hit me? Has Ryu Ishigori set his sights on me?"
"That shouldn't be possible. I haven't even shown myself in front of him... Wait, could it be..."
He mustered his courage and poked his head out of the sewer outlet again. Sure enough, more than a hundred meters away, he spotted Yuta Okkotsu darting about on a street that represented human civilization.
Ryu Ishigori's Cursed Energy cannon blasts were raining down from the sky, blanketing the area with fire as they pursued Okkotsu.
Shiratori Gotsu had simply been caught in the crossfire.
He laughed in anger, but the next moment his body wisely retreated into the sewer again.
I'm not going anywhere until Reverse Cursed Technique fills my health bar!
Immediately afterward, another thought surfaced uncontrollably.
This is ridiculous. Now I really am a cockroach hiding in a dark corner, scraping by... I really am trash!
Two minutes later, the "health bar" had recovered to what looked like one-fifth again.
Shiratori Gotsu's Reverse Cursed Technique wasn't particularly efficient. In terms of his "health bar," it restored only about 85 HP per second on average.
He should have stuck to his original plan, recovering health in the sewer and scraping by until the end.
Once the rule allowing players to freely enter and leave the colonies was added, he could run off to another colony and bully sorcerers who were even more trash than he was...
But that plan was plainly the mindset of the weakest, the lowest, the most useless kind of person!
Shiratori Gotsu... when did you sink this low? Where's your strong person's mindset? he demanded of himself.
Besides, as a bloodthirsty spectator and a thrill seeker with no limits, the thought that he might never again get to witness three powerful fighters clash with their domains as a random nobody on the roadside...
Ultimately, under normal circumstances, Ryu Ishigori's Cursed Energy cannon wouldn't have dealt an absurd 10,000 HP of damage.
It was only because he hadn't seen it coming and thus hadn't reinforced his defenses with Cursed Energy, combined with taking the full damage from a headshot, that he had hit Fate Track Binding Curse's single-hit damage limit.
So as long as he was a little careful...
"Heh... I guess I have no choice. Just this once."
He got up and strode out of the sewer, maintaining Reverse Cursed Technique to keep restoring his HP as he headed toward the location he remembered.
And while Shiratori Gotsu was passionately humming "AIZO" on his way, the three-way battle between Ryu Ishigori, Takako Uro, and Yuta Okkotsu was also reaching its climax.
Yuta Okkotsu slowly slipped the ring onto the ring finger of his left hand.
"Come on, Rika..."
"All of it!"
The Shikigami Rika was a container for external Cursed Techniques and Cursed Energy reserves left with Okkotsu after the Special Grade Vengeful Cursed Spirit Rika Orimoto passed on.
By establishing a connection with Rika through the ring, Okkotsu could use his Cursed Technique to fully manifest her and use the Cursed Energy she provided for a limited time.
The connection lasted five minutes.