Chapter 224: Instant Kill
As, one by one, the local administrators, the regional Burmese officials, and the leaders of the native tribal factions fell in a river of blood, the man named Linford tasted true power for the very first time.
He was acutely, painfully aware that this newfound authority was not his own. It was merely a gilded robe, a mantle of command the "Kaito-madman" had draped over his shoulders. But as he felt its weight, he found, to his own dark surprise, that he was terrified to ever let it go.
He relished the feeling. He watched as the local power brokers, the gang leaders, the formerly untouchable bureaucrats... all of them... bowed to him. They would see him, rush to bend at the waist, and respectfully accept the envelopes of cash he delivered. It was a high, a rush of absolute control more potent than any narcotic he had ever known.
The "Paradise" project was, as a result, moving at a terrifying, inhuman pace.
Entire armies of construction crews were being assembled, seemingly from nowhere. Guided by the iron-clad, unholy trinity of Money, Power, and Violence, there was not a single soul left who dared to speak out, not one person left to question the sheer, ludicrous absurdity of the plan.
No one even knew what this "Paradise" was for. No one knew who, or what, would be coming to enjoy it.
And it didn't matter.
Every single person, from the lowest laborer to the highest-ranking local survivor, simply... worked. They all pushed the project forward, precisely according to Kaito Shirogane's will.
This was the execution speed of a true dictatorship, a kingdom built on absolute, undeniable violence. Anyone who had dared to resist, anyone who had even hesitated, was already buried in the foundations.
Daw Enqin, the former administrator's wife, had willingly, almost eagerly, thrown herself into the role of a high-level "errand-runner." She used her former network to smooth things over, to act as a liaison, and in doing so, had become a familiar face among the new ruling class. She was officially, and very publicly, branded as a member of the "Paradise" faction.
And she was not alone. Many others, seeing the way the wind was blowing, were scrambling to join her.
The "Paradise" project, fueled by a truly incomprehensible, unending torrent of cash from the March Consortium, had taken on a life of its own. Its sheer momentum had become the entire local economy. It had become so vast, so all-consuming, that most of the locals had simply abandoned their old, meager lives of panning for jade and gems in the mines. They had, instead, picked up tools and thrown themselves into the "reconstruction of their homeland."
It was in the midst of this controlled, chaotic, construction-site-kingdom that Kaito-kun received an unexpected call from Korea.
His lips twisted into a cold, mocking smirk.
"Oh? The little slave is proactively contacting her master? This must be something important."
On the other end of the line, Lee Chae-rin's brow furrowed, a spike of pure, unadulterated hatred flashing in her heart... which was instantly, brutally snuffed out by the agonizing, neural-level punishment of his curse. She gasped, the pain leaving her breathless.
She was... she was getting used to it.
She was adapting to his constant, casual mockery. She wasn't even aware, on a conscious level, that his restrictions were taming her. Like breaking a wild animal, the constant, negative reinforcement of the curse was subconsciously training her, conditioning her to not even form a thought that was detrimental to him.
"I... I am calling to warn you," she said, her voice strained, forcing the words out through the phantom-echo of the pain. "The situation has changed. Many of the Reincarnators who are planning to join the [Empire of the End]... they are preparing to... pillage. They are planning mass-scale abductions of local wealth, technology, and... and skilled populations."
"This is going to cause catastrophic chaos. And..."
"...And," Kaito-kun interrupted, his voice laced with pure, unadulterated boredom, "it's going to trigger a massive, global crackdown from the mortal governments against all 'super-human' groups. Yes, I know. It's perfectly obvious."
His lack of surprise... it was infuriating. But, she had to admit, this man... Kaito Shirogane... as a Reincarnator, he was on a completely different level. He wasn't just reacting to world-changing events. He was already... prepared for them.
"What... what are you going to do?" Lee Chae-rin asked, the question slipping out before she could stop it.
Kaito-kun actually laughed. A short, cold, humorless sound.
"Why would I tell you?"
He was already moving, his mind processing the inevitable fallout.
This event would cause a stampede.
The first thing that would happen was a massive, uncontrolled "run" on mortal-world resources. A huge number of Reincarnators who had, until now, been living in secret, would use this as their "last chance" to loot, pillage, and burn, before fleeing to the sanctuary of the Empire.
This... was a good thing.
Those Reincarnators, the stupid ones, the ones who couldn't control their urges... they would paint a massive, bloody target on their backs. They would expose themselves, and the mortal governments would hunt them.
The smart Reincarnators, the ones who remained behind... they would actually be safer. They could use those idiot-runaways as a smokescreen, allowing them to hide even more effectively in the resulting chaos.
Of course... Kaito-kun had no intention of hiding.
He had chosen Myanmar precisely because it was a nation with a weak, fractured sovereign. It was the perfect, fertile breeding ground for chaos.
"Lee Chae-rin," he said, his voice suddenly casual. "In a few days, I need you to come here, to my location. I have... some 'experiments'... that I need to run. On you."
A cold dread trickled down her spine. Experiments? What... what did he mean by experiments? But she had no freedom to refuse. She had no voice to ask.
She just, numbly, ended the call.
Kaito-kun's ear twitched.
He was on the second floor of his wooden house, the de-facto "command center" of the entire Paradise project.
He turned, his head leaning out the open-air window.
His eyes, far sharper than any bird of prey, instantly spotted a flicker of firelight in the dense, dark jungle treeline, nearly a kilometer away.
The next second...
"R! P! G!"
A garbled, terrified scream in a broken, local approximation of English, echoed from the outer perimeter, shouted by one of the local guards Linford had hired.
A single rocket, trailing a long, smoky tail, arced out of the distant darkness.
Kaito-kun watched it, his expression one of mild curiosity, as it sailed across the clearing and slammed directly into the first floor of his wooden house.
A massive, rolling BOOM of fire and shrapnel tore the entire ground floor to shreds.
The jungle erupted in the sound of retaliatory gunfire as the perimeter guards, to their credit, began blindly firing back into the darkness.
The Ambush
"He's... he's still in there?"
'Boss Jin', the leader of the Reincarnator team, frowned, lowering his binoculars.
He had watched the RPG strike. He had watched the entire house erupt in flames.
And his target... was still inside?
Did he... not have time to react?
No. He refused to believe it. He refused to believe the man who had so thoroughly terrified his teleporter, Mack, was this weak.
"Muni!" he barked to the man next to him. "Find him! Get a lock on his position! Now!"
A dark-skinned Reincarnator, bare-footed and clad only in a simple, monk-like robe, nodded. He pressed his palms together, and an invisible, pulsing wave of pure, psychic energy began to radiate outward from his body.
Only Mack, who had stayed, deliberately, at the extreme far-edge of the group, his body already half-hidden in the shadows, felt his heart suddenly, inexplicably, seize.
He remembered. He remembered the last time. He remembered that impossible, unnatural... speed.
His head didn't just turn... it snapped... upward.
To the dark, empty sky, directly above them.
The next thing he knew, his heart stopped.
A fist, wreathed in shadow, was falling from the heavens.
W-W-W-WH—!
Mack's mind didn't even have time to form the word "teleport."
His ability, his instinct, simply... activated.
His body vanished in a pop of distorted air, a single, terrified WUMP...
...the exact micro-second before Kaito-kun's fist connected with the patch of ground he had just been standing on.
BOOM!
The earth itself exploded. A deep crater formed where Mack had been.
"Boss Jin," in a screech of pure, adrenal-fueled panic, spun around.
At the same time, Muni, the psychic, whose eyes had been closed, snapped them open and screamed—
"BE CAREFUL! HE'S ON TOP OF—"
Kaito-kun, standing in the crater his own punch had just created, clicked his tongue in annoyance.
That cowardly little teleporter... he had still gotten away.
His combination of a pure-defense, high-utility ability, matched with an absolute, zero-risk personality, made him... surprisingly... survivable.
But...
Kaito-kun turned his head, his gaze falling on the other three Reincarnators, who were now standing, frozen, in a small clearing in front of him.
The purple, seething aura of the Satsui no Hado... he wasn't even trying to hold it back anymore. It erupted from his body, a visible, shimmering wave of pure, unadulterated, killing intent.
"Boss Jin," as the team's designated "leader," felt it the most.
The man standing in the shadows... he wasn't just strong. He was a fountain of malice. The pressure, the sheer presence, was so overwhelming it was hard to breathe.
His heart tightened.
Dammit! He's a hard target!
"Hey!" Boss Jin shouted, his voice cracking, trying to de-escalate. "Wait! We're Reincarnators, just like you! We can—"
SWOOSH!
He didn't even get the sentence out.
A wall of wind, a pure, kinetic shockwave of movement, slammed into his face.
In that instant, "Boss Jin" knew.
Negotiation was over.
He roared, his survival instincts taking over.
A brilliant, golden light erupted from his hands. He didn't retreat; he charged, stomping forward, and clapped his hands together with a force that could shatter steel.
A localized, focused thunderclap... aimed at Kaito's charging form.
The very air between his palms detonated.
WHOOOSH!
Kaito-kun, feeling the ferocious, compressed-air explosion... his smile only grew more cruel.
He didn't dodge.
He didn't block.
He charged straight into it.
In that one, final second of his life, "Boss Jin" felt a surge of... pure, unadulterated contempt.
This monster... he wasn't fighting him. He was ignoring him.
In the backline, Muni, the psychic, was already moving. He was Boss Jin's partner; they had formed a permanent team in the Nexus. He knew this combo by heart.
His eyes narrowed.
[PSYCHIC SHOCK]!
It was the most basic, fundamental application of psychic power... but in the hands of a Reincarnator who had broken their Spirit-stat Limit Break... it was a killing blow.
Against any opponent with a weaker mind, the psychic assault would shatter their consciousness, leaving them a drooling, mindless wreck... long enough for Boss Jin to finish the job.
It was a combo that had killed dozens of Reincarnators.
"HAAAA!" Boss Jin roared, putting all of his power into his thunderclap.
BOOM!
The air between his hands exploded like a cannon. The ground disintegrated. The surrounding trees were flattened, as if hit by a hurricane. A shockwave of pure, white, super-heated gas ripped through the clearing.
But...
"Boss Jin's" pupils shrank to pinpricks.
He had seen it.
In the instant of the explosion... his target... his body had... flickered. It had dissolved. It had become one with the wind and simply... vanished.
His pupils vibrated in pure, abject terror. He stumbled backward.
At the same time, Muni, the psychic, suddenly pointed a finger at his own forehead.
"He's gone! Stay calm, Boss Jin! I'm searching... I'm... ugh... guuuhhh..."
A strangled, wet sound came from the psychic's mouth.
"Muni?!" Boss Jin screamed, spinning around.
He still couldn't see the target.
But Muni... his partner... his face was twisting, his skin turning a sickly, pale color. He was clawing, frantically, at his own nose and mouth, his eyes bulging.
He... he couldn't... breathe.
What... what kind of... ability... is this...?
Boss Jin's mind, which had been a trained, cold, fighting machine... dissolved into pure, animalistic panic.
He suddenly, horrifyingly, realized...
Since the second the fight had started...
Mack... had vanished.
And... Black River...
Their sniper. Their overwatch.
He had never fired a single shot.
PFFTCH!
A sound... like a wet sponge being punched.
A hand... his hand... no... another hand...
...was sticking out of his chest.
"Boss Jin" stared down at the arm, slick with his own blood, that had just impaled him from behind.
With a final, desperate roar of pure, agonizing rage, he clamped his own, massive hand down on the arm, trapping it inside his own body.
His hair stood on end.
Sparks... then arcs... of brilliant, blue-white electricity... began to erupt from his skin.
His hair grew, his muscles swelled, his very bones cracked and reformed.
His human, 1.9-meter-tall body exploded outward, transforming into a 2.5-meter-tall, fur-covered Beast-Form.
"Hhhrrr... GGRRRAAAAAHHHH!" "Boss Jin" roared, his body now a crackling, raging generator of pure, high-voltage electricity.
"NOT... EXPECTING THAT, WERE YOU?!" he bellowed, his voice a monstrous growl. "I'M NOT JUST A STRENGTH-BREAK! I'M A BLOODLINE USER! I'M... I'M..."
BZZZZT-CRACKLE.
A sound, like meat being thrown on a grill, filled the air. A cloud of black, acrid smoke... his own, burning fur... rose around them.
The electricity... it was arcing... and doing nothing.
"You're... 'what'?"
A calm, cold, bored voice spoke from directly behind his ear.
"Boss Jin" stared, his beast-eyes wide with a new, final terror, as he watched the arm... the arm still trapped inside his own chest... which had been burned black by his "Blanka the Beast" bloodline's high-voltage discharge... heal.
The charred flesh flaked away, revealing... not skin... but gleaming, golden-yellow, dragon-like scales.
The scales... were not even singed.
"You... you..."
"Boss Jin," who had survived so much, who had fought so hard... he had never felt electricity like Enel's.
To Kaito-kun, who had tanked millions of volts... this... this static discharge... was... cute.
The scaled hand tensed.
And ripped itself free.
"GAH... PUUHH!"
It tore a path straight back out, and in its grip... was a... thing.
A large, red, still-beating... thing.
His heart.
At the same time, a brilliant, golden-purple flame... the Hamon... erupted from Kaito-kun's other hand, engulfing Boss Jin's fur-covered body.
He screamed, a high-pitched, agonizing wail, as he was, simultaneously, impaled, disemboweled, and set on fire.
Kaito-kun grabbed his throat, ending the sound.
He held the burning, dying beast up for one, final, indifferent second.
CRACK.
He snapped the creature's neck.
The massive, charred body fell... but before it could even hit the ground...
A purple, swirling blast of pure Dodon Ray ki... lanced from Kaito's finger...
...and obliterated the beast's head.
SPLAT.
[You have killed Reincarnator BC57700341 in the Real World.]
[Power-level comparison: 1 : 0.73. No additional bonus to rewards.]
[The highest attribute of BC57700341 will grant you a fixed attribute point.]
[Your STRENGTH has increased by 1.]
[The Private Space of BC57700341 has been merged into your own.]
[Karma Points +1.]
The Coward's Plea
The sight of "Boss Jin's" head... just... popping... like a water balloon...
It was the final, tiny thing that shattered Muni's mind.
The psychic, who had just recovered from the last mental attack—that terrifying, invasive [Active Spirit] that had felt like a cold snake slithering inside his brain... he just... broke.
"No... no... nonono..." he stammered, stumbling backward, his hands held up, shaking.
"I... I... I SURRENDER! I'LL... I'LL SERVE YOU! I'LL..."
Muni knew, with the kind of certainty that only comes from pure, bottomless terror, that "Mack"... that fucking COWARD... had lied. He hadn't just under-sold this monster. He had...
This... this thing... was not something they could fight.
Kaito-kun just... looked at him.
And he started to walk.
Muni's hands were up... his fingers... they were twitching... he was forming the hand-seals for his last attack... but he couldn't. He didn't dare.
The last time... the one time... he had hit this man with a psychic shock...
The Nexus...
The Nexus had told him...
That this... thing... this physical-combat brute...
...had a higher Spirit stat... than him.
And his mind... his mind had bitten back.
Kaito-kun, in his cold, analytical way, decided to try it. He aped Muni's posture. He focused his mind...
...and he pushed.
He could feel it. He could feel his own, strange, terrifyingly [Active Spirit]... touch the other man.
"NO! GET AWAY!" Muni shrieked, a shield of pure, psychic energy, shimmering like glass, erupting in front of him.
Kaito-kun just... looked at it.
He was... bored.
He raised his left hand.
He... poked... the shield.
Tap.
It shattered, like a soap bubble.
And, with the same, casual, bored motion... he pushed his rigid, spear-like fingers... straight through Muni's sternum, and into his heart.
[You have killed Reincarnator XA65530014 in the Real World.]
[Power-level comparison: 1 : 0.46. Rewards will be reduced.]
[The Private Space of XA65530014 has been merged into your own.]
[Karma Points +1.]
Kaito-kun pulled his hand back, watching the last man fall. He picked up the two Crimson Drop Cards that had formed from the corpses.
He was...
Disappointed.
They were just... so... weak.
He felt a flicker, a distortion in the air.
He turned his head.
The teleporter, Mack, was back.
He was standing... far away... in the shadows, at the edge of the treeline.
His hands were raised, shaking, as high as they could go.
And in his own shaking hand... was a third... Crimson Drop Card.
"I... I killed him! I... I killed Black River! The sniper! He was... he was... my... my 'friend'!"
Mack was, literally, sobbing in terror.
"I... I want to... I want to join you!"
"I DON'T WANT TO GO TO THE EMPIRE OF THE END! IT'S A... IT'S A... A... A DEATH TRAP!"
He fell to his knees, his hands still raised.
"Please... Lord Mercenary Tao... can... can I... join... your... 'Paradise'?"
~~~
Guys We cross the 400 power stone goal and as promise here the bonus chapter
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