"Eliminate? You're not going out to kill people again, are you? My old man just got your wanted status officially revoked," Sayaka Katahara said, her expression turning quite grim. Beside her, Agito Kanoh also furrowed his brow.
Although Agito's facial muscles frequently contorted into terrifying, villainous grins during combat, he was fundamentally a man with a remarkably strong moral compass. He absolutely despised those who abused their power to bully the weak or inflicted senseless violence upon the innocent.
When he woke up yesterday and was informed that Lu Li was a wanted fugitive sentenced to death for mass murder, he had been genuinely surprised. Based on his peerless martial intuition, he didn't sense the twisted aura of a psychotic serial killer from Lu Li at all.
Having crossed fists with him, Agito firmly believed Lu Li was an exceptional martial artist—a man driven by profound conviction who would never slaughter the innocent indiscriminately.
Yet now, Lu Li sounded as if he were casually heading out for another bloodbath.
"It's... complicated to explain. Do you know about 'The Worm'?"
Lu Li thought for a moment and decided his best option was to simply fabricate a plausible lie. After all, he still needed to rely on the intelligence networks of Chairman Metsudo and the Kure Clan while he was in this world; he had to provide them with a somewhat justifiable reason for his upcoming assassination.
Furthermore, it wasn't a complete lie. Setsuna Kiryu was indeed tangentially connected to the Worm. Although in the later stages of the canon storyline Setsuna eventually snapped out of his delusion and became a dedicated "Worm Hunter," right now, he was still just a manipulated pawn dancing in the palm of "White Niko" (Tiger Niko).
Lu Li didn't harbor any specific personal grudge against Setsuna, nor would he normally go out of his way to kill the man just because he found his obsessive stalking annoying. But this was directly tied to his absolute Pioneer Mission; he had no room to back down.
He had to secure the Origin Seed. Even if the legendary "Connector," Shen Wulong, was standing in his way, Lu Li would draw his blade and kill him.
"The Worm?!" Sayaka gasped in shock.
Agito's expression instantly darkened into a terrifying, murderous scowl.
As a child, Agito had been kidnapped and thrown into a horrific, absolute-survival Gu ritual orchestrated by White Niko. That entire hellish operation had been secretly funded and supported by the Worm. His life had been nearly destroyed by them. Naturally, his hatred for the Worm and White Niko was absolute.
"I strongly suspect the Worm is planning a massive, coordinated operation soon. Worm agents have already infiltrated the roster of the Kengan Annihilation Tournament," Lu Li stated, his expression dead serious. "Don't ask me why I'm hunting them. I have my own reasons."
With that, he turned and walked out of the dojo, leaving the two of them staring at his back.
Yeah, Lu Li thought to himself, my acting skills and ability to spin bullshit on the fly are pretty subpar. I'll just leave the rest to their imaginations.
Watching Lu Li disappear down the hall, Agito's mind raced. "So he was hunting the Worm all along... Does that mean the human trafficking syndicate he slaughtered when he first arrived in Japan were actually undercover Worm operatives?"
Sayaka blinked, a sudden realization hitting her. She hadn't considered that angle before, but she possessed an incredibly sharp eye for reading people. She was certain Lu Li wasn't some deranged "thrill killer."
So his previous 'crimes' were actually targeted strikes with a hidden motive? Thinking about it deeply, with his monstrous, god-like capabilities, how could the ordinary police have ever managed to arrest him? According to her investigation, when the police arrived at the massacre scene, Lu Li had peacefully surrendered without the slightest resistance.
This strongly suggested he genuinely didn't slaughter innocent people.
But then why did he kill the CEO of Tenma Communication in the prison? Could it be... CEO Takada had been corrupted and bought out by the Worm?! Has the Worm already successfully infiltrated the upper corporate echelon of the Kengan Association?!
As this terrifying implication set in, Sayaka's eyes grew incredibly serious. I need to speak with my father immediately.
The warm summer night breeze swept through the restless city, gently ruffling the man's hair and bringing a fleeting touch of coolness.
Standing atop a skyscraper overlooking the dazzling, neon-lit sprawl of Tokyo, Lu Li casually let out a yawn.
He had absolutely no idea that his offhanded, fabricated excuse was currently triggering a massive, paranoid earthquake within the Kengan Association's leadership. He had a far more pressing mission to attend to tonight.
Down below, trapped in a dark, narrow alleyway, an Explorer named "Kurei" was sprinting for his life. He was a Level 6 Explorer with highly impressive physical attributes, but tonight, he had crossed paths with a monster.
He hadn't intended to run into such an isolated, desolate area, but the monster had ambushed him on the main street, violently forcing him to retreat into the blind alleys.
"Damn it... I just managed to secure my proxy fighter qualifications! How the hell can I die here... in a place like this... by a psycho like you?!"
Finally, Kurei was backed into a dead end. He gasped for air, his eyes burning with the desperate, cornered resolve of a man prepared to take his killer down with him.
He knew he couldn't escape the entity that had been secretly hunting down Explorers over the past few days. But even if he died, he was going to make sure this bastard paid in blood.
He materialized a heavy tactical shield in his right hand. His left hand, hidden behind the shield, tightly gripped a custom-made, high-explosive grenade he had purchased from the Terminus Space.
"Ohma... You were the ones who killed Ohma... right?"
Setsuna Kiryu slowly stepped out from the shadows. His arms hung limply at his sides. Tears streamed down his flawlessly beautiful face, which was twisted into a grotesque mask of agonizing grief and psychotic fury.
In the next instant, his swaying, unstable silhouette suddenly accelerated. Despite his mental derangement, his execution of the Koei Style's footwork was absolutely flawless. Utilizing the optical illusion of [Blink], he instantly closed the massive gap between himself and the Explorer.
BOOM—!
Under Kurei's utterly terrified gaze, his heavy tactical shield violently groaned and contorted under a terrifying, spiraling kinetic force before completely shattering into thousands of jagged shrapnel pieces.
Before Kurei could even register the destruction of his shield, Setsuna's high kick lashed out. In that microsecond of hesitation, the high-explosive grenade was violently kicked out of Kurei's hand and launched high into the night sky before he could even pull the pin.
BANG—!
Another devastating [Rakshasa's Palm] buried itself into Kurei's chest. The Explorer was sent flying backward, coughing up blood from the catastrophic internal trauma.
However, the moment physical contact was made, a system notification violently flashed in Kurei's mind. His expression shifted from despair to absolute, disbelieving shock.
Spitting out a mouthful of blood, he stared at Setsuna and muttered, "It's you... it's really you... HAHAHAHA!"
He burst into hysterical, manic laughter. His sudden, bizarre reaction actually confused Setsuna, causing the deranged assassin to pause his attack. Setsuna tilted his head, observing the bleeding man like a curious child.
"Fuck your mother, Terminus Space... How the hell is anyone supposed to complete this mission?!" Kurei screamed into the alleyway.
The Kengan world was notoriously considered one of the absolute most brutal, highest-mortality Tier 1 Mission Worlds precisely because the systemic "Difficulty Rating" was fundamentally misleading.
The Space designated it as a "Level 7" world primarily based on the raw numerical attribute ceilings of the natives. However, the martial artists here possessed transcendent, logic-defying combat proficiencies that vastly eclipsed those of Tier 1 Explorers.
To put it bluntly, even if a maxed-out Level 10 Explorer was deployed here, they would likely be utterly slaughtered. If they encountered a technical anomaly like the "Connector" Shen Wulong, their superior stats wouldn't save them from being effortlessly dismantled.
And the man standing in front of him right now? "The Beautiful Beast," Setsuna Kiryu. He was already a peerless, ultra-lethal martial arts genius in the base lore. And now... he had acquired the Origin Seed, which was currently granting him an explosive, continuous boost to his raw numerical stats!
Who the hell could possibly rip the Seed from his hands?!
Expecting a bunch of sub-Level 7 Explorers to successfully hunt down and steal an apocalyptic artifact from a psychotic, Master-tier martial arts prodigy whose stats were currently skyrocketing? It was a sick, twisted joke!
"Mission? Is your mission to kill Ohma?!" Setsuna tilted his head, his voice dripping with venomous, surging killing intent.
Kurei's face twisted into a bitter, hopeless grimace. He absolutely couldn't defeat Setsuna Kiryu. His Unarmed Combat proficiency was merely a standard Level 10; he was separated from Setsuna by at least two entire major proficiency tiers. Even if Kurei's overall attributes were temporarily boosted by 5 points right now, his only viable option would be to run.
When technique reached a certain transcendent realm, the concept of "four ounces deflecting a thousand pounds" became a brutal reality. The ratio of "effective kinetic damage" applied in combat was entirely skewed.
He couldn't even touch Setsuna, who was utilizing [Pre-Initiative] to read his every move, while Setsuna could effortlessly use extreme martial techniques to inflict catastrophic, lethal damage despite Kurei's higher base durability.
In the depths of his absolute despair, a sudden memory flashed through Kurei's mind. The rumors of an Explorer-killer had been dominating the Public Chat for days. But just this afternoon, an Explorer with the ID 'Qiu Mo' (Demon Imprisoned) had posted a single message in the global channel: If you are attacked, broadcast your coordinates. I will handle it.
The exact microsecond he encountered Setsuna, Kurei had broadcasted his location. He just hadn't been sure if the guy would actually show up... or if any Explorer actually possessed the combat power to defeat a monster like Setsuna Kiryu.
Seeing Setsuna slowly stepping forward to finish the job, Kurei gritted his bloody teeth, gathered every last ounce of strength in his shattered lungs, and screamed at the top of his lungs.
"BOSS! ARE YOU THERE?! I'LL PAY YOU! PLEASE SAVE ME!"
His desperate roar echoed from the bloodstained asphalt straight up into the heavens, like a final, agonizing prayer to the gods.
And the heavens answered.
Like a predatory night owl descending from the high sky, a figure dropped into the alleyway. His long black trench coat flared out behind him like the wings of a dark angel. In his hand, he casually held a pitch-black blade that looked exactly like the Reaper's scythe.
Under the pale moonlight, the sheer, suffocating, invisible pressure radiating from the man caused Setsuna Kiryu to instinctively take a half-step backward.
The corners of Lu Li's mouth curled up into a faint, predatory smile. He glanced sideways at the bleeding Kurei.
"How much is your life worth?"
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