Chapter 217: Gourmet Cells Acquired, Wind God Legs
"That guy, Mercenary Tao... what kind of world did he even go to? How in the hell does he have so many Crimson Drop Cards?"
"I heard it was a One Piece derivative world. A total bloodbath. Flame Fiend, The Glazier, and even that psycho woman from Critical Point's team, Rouge... all of them are dead!"
A significant crowd of Reincarnators had gathered around the outer edge of the shantytown market. This time, the commotion wasn't because some rare item had appeared on a stall. It was because the infamous "Mercenary Tao" was "live-opening" his loot right at his own booth.
He was casually crushing one Crimson Drop Card after another, a spectacle that brutally shredded the nerves of every Reincarnator watching.
They all understood the grim math. Every single Reincarnator knew, with chilling certainty, that each of those crimson cards represented the corpse of one of their peers.
"And it's not just that," another man whispered, his voice tight. "Flame Fiend was leading a team specifically to hunt down Moon Fiend when he entered that world. Now... Moon Fiend hasn't shown her face either. It's very, very likely she's also..."
A collective, sharp intake of breath hissed through the crowd. Hiss...
In the eyes of the Eastern District Reincarnators, Mercenary Tao's reputation had just undergone a terrifying transformation. He had leaped from being a 'well-known' vicious newcomer to a true, bona fide grim reaper among the lower-rank Reincarnators.
It almost didn't matter if Mercenary Tao had personally dealt the killing blow to Flame Fiend and the others. Simply surviving a mission of that caliber—a mission that had claimed so many powerful players—was an incredible feat in itself. But to survive and successfully hunt down so many other Reincarnators... that was something else entirely.
Kaito Shirogane observed the "advertising effect" he was creating and felt deeply satisfied. With a small, cold smile, he crushed the final card in his hand—the one he considered the most valuable of the entire haul.
A faint, almost imperceptible warmth, like the breath of a dragon, emanated from the crimson card as it disintegrated.
[You have activated a Crimson Drop Card.]
[Drop generation in progress...]
[Calculating target's Slaughter Points. Target's Slaughter Points: 39. Reward bonus applied.]
[Calculating your Slaughter Points...]
[Karma Points detected for Reincarnator Ex051. You will receive +1 additional reward selection.]
[Calculation complete. You may select TWO of the following rewards.]
[A: 75% of target's Dimensional Points. 45% chance to receive target's Singularities.]
[B: Randomly draw 5 items from the target's inventory. You may choose 3 to keep.]
[C: Gain 10% of the target's primary attribute, added to your own.]
[D: Randomly draw 1 of the target's Feats (max Lv6 preserved).]
[E: Randomly draw 1 of the target's Skills (max Lv4 preserved).]
[F: 7.5% chance to extract the target's Bloodline item (Bloodline optimization not preserved).]
Kaito's eyes narrowed slightly. The options were significantly better than usual. Perhaps it was because Flame Fiend himself had a high kill count, or perhaps it was because Kaito's own Karma Points had exceeded ten, putting him in a state where his Sequence could be 'sublimated'. Whatever the reason, all the reward options had been boosted.
It has to be the Bloodline. That's his single most valuable asset.
"I choose F," Kaito stated mentally.
[You have selected F. Beginning extraction...]
Without a doubt, the most valuable thing Flame Fiend possessed was his Bloodline. The Dragon Slayer Bloodline was a powerful dual-purpose package, granting immense defensive and destructive capabilities. In its later stages, it allowed for full "Dragonization." Within the Infinite Dimensional Space, "Dragon-type" bloodlines had access to a vast number of exclusive skills and enhancements. It was an excellent "starter" bloodline that also possessed an incredibly high ceiling for late-game growth.
[Extraction failed.]
Kaito let out a quiet "tsk." Of course. It was predictable. The Nexus wasn't about to let him get his hands on something that precious so easily.
"Fine. I choose B."
Kaito had already gained a few scattered attribute points from the other, lesser drop cards. He was skipping the attribute and skill options on this one for a very specific reason. He knew, with absolute certainty, that Flame Fiend had been carrying something very good in his personal inventory before entering the One Piece world.
[You have selected B. Beginning item draw...]
This was a far better bet. The system would draw five items, and Kaito could pick three. The odds were stacked firmly in his favor.
[You have drawn item: Blood of the Flame Dragon (Rare)]
[You have drawn item: Slave Shackles (Rare)]
[You have drawn item: Unidentified Gourmet Cells (Exquisite)]
[You have drawn item: Sacred Spring of Healing (Rare)]
[You have drawn item: Sacred Protection Barrier Scroll (Rare)]
Kaito's eyebrows shot up, and the corner of his mouth hooked into a predatory grin.
His gamble had paid off perfectly. Just as I thought. Flame Fiend was nothing but an arrogant, overconfident fool.
To randomly draw five items and have the lowest quality be "Rare" meant the man's inventory was stuffed with high-value goods. He hadn't bothered with any junk items at all.
This painted a clear picture of his personality. This was a man who never once considered the possibility of his own death. He never thought to store items he wasn't immediately using in a team-storage space or entrust them to a subordinate. He was a creature of pure arrogance, completely self-centered.
Kaito had only made this bet because he remembered Flame Fiend publicly bidding for Gourmet Cells in an auction before. Kaito had been targeting this all along.
This item... its value was immeasurable. It couldn't be compared to mere Dimensional Points, Singularities, or attribute boosts.
In many ways, this was one of the secret treasures of the Nexus, even rarer than some Devil Fruits.
Kaito quickly reviewed the items.
[Blood of the Flame Dragon]
[Quality: Rare]
[Description: The blood of a lesser dragon, flowing with the power of fire. Can be used to enhance Dragon-type bloodlines.]
[Requirements: Must possess a Dragon-type, Lesser Dragon, Wyvern, or similar Dragon/Dragonkin Bloodline.]
[Effect: Upon use, based on bloodline purity and constitution, there is a small chance of backlash. There is a high chance of increasing bloodline purity. (Increased purity may unlock new bloodline traits.)]
This must have been for Flame Fiend's personal use, Kaito mused. Judging by the extent of his Dragonization, he was clearly trying to walk the path of a true Dragon, eventually purifying his bloodline until he became a pure Dragon-species.
Kaito already knew the effect of the [Slave Shackles]. As for the one-time-use [Sacred Protection Barrier Scroll], it required a user to inject magical energy to erect a large-scale barrier capable of withstanding powerful attacks. It was, fundamentally, a team-oriented item.
Kaito spent only a moment in thought before discarding both of them from his selection.
He had zero interest in the [Slave Shackles]. And even if he did, he mused with a dark, private amusement, he already had a very real, high-quality slave in his possession.
As for the protection barrier, it was useless to him on multiple fronts. First, it required "magical energy," a resource he didn't use. Second, he had absolutely no intention of forming a team. And third, given his current level of defense, regeneration, and virtual immortality, a one-time protection barrier was pathetically redundant.
Both the barrier scroll and the healing spring were items Kaito would only ever use for trade or perhaps in the real world. Between the two, the Sacred Spring of Healing had a much higher and more versatile market value.
[You have obtained: Blood of the Flame Dragon, Unidentified Gourmet Cells, Sacred Spring of Healing.]
The crimson light in Kaito's hand finally dissipated. A moment later, two new items appeared on his digital stall display.
The crowd, which had been watching with bated breath, exploded.
"That's—that's the Blood of the Flame Dragon!"
"He really did it! Mercenary Tao really killed Flame Fiend!"
There were, as always, plenty of info brokers lurking in the crowd. The instant they saw the [Blood of the Flame Dragon]—an item Flame Fiend was known to be aggressively buying up—they instantly understood the truth.
Kaito was completely indifferent to their shock. He had no concept of "lying low" or "avoiding the spotlight." In his mind, Reincarnators were just a pack of death-row inmates, animals living on borrowed time, any one of whom could die in the very next mission.
The cause of a Reincarnator's death was never "being too flashy." When a Reincarnator was killed, there was no complex reason.
They were killed because they were weak.
Weakness was the one and only true cause of death.
It didn't matter how low-profile you were, how "neutral" you tried to be. In a mission world, the moment you ran into another Reincarnator, the weaker one was instantly put on the chopping block.
It was the simple, primal law of the jungle. Eat or be eaten. Reincarnators were nothing more than these primal creatures.
Lee Chae-rin, now known only as 'Eclipse', stood silently behind Kaito, taking in the entire scene. She could feel the icy, cruel philosophy radiating from the young man in front of her.
It was an absolute conviction, totally free of hesitation or doubt.
She found herself wondering, with a detached sense of curiosity, what kind of environment could possibly forge a beast like this.
Even she—the heiress to the global March Consortium, with all its wealth and resources—had been plunged into a period of confusion after her first mission. Despite becoming a Reincarnator and returning with new power, she had been careless. Someone in the Nexus had tracked her information, and assassins had come for her.
She had leveraged the full power of her consortium's resources to hunt down and "counter-kill" her pursuers, but even after her victory, she had been lost for a time.
And even now, after a series of hunts and counter-hunts, after she had rapidly risen to prominence and earned the title of [Moon Fiend], that same feeling of bewilderment often returned.
It was an endless, accelerating treadmill. As she grew stronger, the missions became harder. The Reincarnators she encountered became stronger. The rewards for killing the weak dwindled to almost nothing.
Her cold, aloof 'Moon Fiend' persona was, in essence, a defensive mechanism. A way to protect herself.
But looking at Mercenary Tao, she saw absolutely no trace of such a defense.
He was like a true carnivore dropped into a flock of sheep. He was utterly different from her—she was, at best, a "grazer" who would occasionally hunt other sheep. But this man, Mercenary Tao... he constantly radiated the suffocating threat of an apex predator.
Just standing near him, she could feel it. His mind was always working, constantly calculating how to attack, how to invade, how to hunt. He never, ever seemed to waste a single thought on defense or concealment.
Kaito noted the crowd of onlookers, but since no one was stepping up to make an offer, he prepared to leave. He wanted to browse the shantytown himself, to see if anyone was selling an item or skill he could actually use.
At this point, Kaito was a hexagon-warrior, a Reincarnator with high, balanced stats all around. His weakness was his lack of versatility. His combat methods relied almost exclusively on hand-to-hand martial arts.
He was still missing a suitable mode of transportation. He'd been hoping to get that "Green Goblin's Glider" from Black Death's drop card, but it hadn't appeared.
Right now, Kaito was flush with cash. He had a massive surplus of Singularities, Dimensional Points, and high-value items. And, since all of Moon Fiend's resources were now effectively his to control, his purchasing power was immense.
"Eclipse," Kaito said, his voice laced with playful mockery. "Watch the stall. I'm going for a walk."
He was deliberately, methodically grinding away at the pride of the March Consortium's great heiress. He was breaking her.
Just as he was about to step away, a new notification flashed in his vision.
[MA10030033 (Luo Xi) has sent you a message: You really killed Flame Fiend?! Get to the Assembly Hall, now. I've got something good to trade you.]
Kaito had almost forgotten. He was technically a member of the [Crimson Lotus] assembly, the faction founded by the [Crimson Sorcerer - Luo Xi]. As a general rule, assembly members would offer up their best items for internal trade first.
It was a simple, practical rule: it prevented useful items from falling into the hands of rival factions, who might then use them to kill you.
Judging by the tone of the message, Luo Xi wasn't angry. On the contrary, she seemed pleased that Flame Fiend had been eliminated.
Kaito's mind willed it, and in a flash, his body dissolved into white light.
He reappeared on a wide, cobblestone plaza, bathed in a yellow, artificial sunlight. The area was designed like a small, medieval European town, with timber-framed houses sectioned off into special buildings marked 'Market,' 'Guild,' and 'Tavern.'
The moment Kaito materialized in the Crimson Lotus Assembly Hall, a sphere of intense fire abruptly burst into existence above his head. A woman, clad in vibrant, flame-red sorcerer's robes, emerged from within the heart of the fire.
She landed lightly on the cobblestones, her crimson eyes carefully appraising this new recruit that Rose Tiger had personally recommended. This one seemed to have exceeded all expectations. He had actually managed to kill Flame Fiend.
Flame Fiend was, by all accounts, an elite. He was widely considered a prime candidate to be the next Reincarnator to ascend to the Third-Rank, to achieve the status of a Titled-rank. Luo Xi had personally detested the man's methods, but she couldn't deny that his growth rate, and his luck, had been exceptional.
To think he would meet his end so quickly at the hands of this newcomer, Mercenary Tao.
"That [Blood of the Flame Dragon]," she said, her voice smooth and direct. "Did it really drop from Flame Fiend?"
Kaito just shrugged.
"Guaranteed authentic."
Luo Xi smiled, then extended a hand.
"That item is very useful to me. How about we make an internal trade? Don't worry," she added, her smile widening, "I won't cheat a fellow member."
As she spoke, a simple, old-fashioned scroll materialized in front of her. It was bound in the ancient East-Asian style, and painted on the cover were three powerful characters.
[Wind God Legs]