174. Houraiji Kyuushou: I Will Change This World
The air was thick and viscous, like congealed blood; the pungent smell of rust was almost tangible, heavy and oppressive on every inch of space.
On the blood-stained corridor walls, smeared with exploded crimson patterns, viscous liquid slowly flowed down the walls, pooling into nauseating dark red swamps on the floor.
Roars, curses, and the screams of the dying rose and fell.
Dozens of gang members, their bodies covered in hideous tattoos, surged towards the seemingly slender figure like a tidal wave of enraged hyenas…
Houraiji Kyuushou didn't even pause. She merely raised her eyes slightly; deep within her crimson pupils, burning with cold fury, there was no fluctuation of emotion in there…
An invisible gravity descended in an instant!
The leading figures were crushed as if by a giant hammer; their bones were twisted and deformed with a teeth-grinding cracking sound, followed by a series of horrifying explosions of flesh and blood!
A crimson mist mixed with bone fragments instantly spread, painting the ceiling, walls, and floor with an even more intense, fresh color.
A carnage unfolded before her, yet it couldn't stir a ripple on her delicate face.
Only her burning red eyes revealed the raging fury churning within them.
This was one of the back alleys of The City; it was a breeding ground for shadows untouched by sunlight. Gangs large and small entrenched themselves here like a malignant tumor, and at the top of their pyramid stood five colossal figures known as the Five Fingers.
One of the Five Fingers, the Middle Finger, was Kyuushou's target.
Xiling had once said that tragedies were constantly unfolding in The City.
She thought she was mentally prepared. However, when she witnessed firsthand the victims being wantonly manipulated, their internal organs removed, and their skin peeled off while they were still alive, uttering inhuman screams of extreme agony, the string of reason snapped completely.
What she saw was a projection of hell on earth.
"Someone must pay for this!" This thought was branded onto her soul like a mark.
The sins committed by the Meat Grinder Gang could not be atoned for by the lives of a dozen or so of their men. Therefore, she followed the source of evil, crushing all in her way to this place.
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"B-Big Brother! Something terrible has happened!"
A terrified henchman burst through the door, screaming at a burly man in the center of the room, his body covered in tattoos and his muscles bulging like a small mountain:
"Something tough! A monster from who-knows-where… it fought its way up to here… all my brothers and sisters are gone! She… she's about to…"
His words trailed off abruptly.
The henchman's body stiffened abruptly, his eyes bulging, as if gripped by an invisible giant hand. A piercing scream caught in his throat, and the next second—
*Thud!*
A living human body, like a fragile balloon filled with red ink, exploded before the eldest brother's eyes! Hot blood and fragments of internal organs splattered across the expensive leather sofa and luxurious carpet like a bomb.
The eldest brother's bloodshot eyes were fixed on the end of the corridor.
Heavy footsteps sounded, unhurried, like the agonizing beat of a death knell.
Kyuushou's figure emerged from the billowing smoke and blood stench, appearing in the doorway. Her clothes were spotless, a grotesque contrast to the hellish scene around her.
"How dare you—!!!" The man roared, his ferocious killing intent almost tangible. He swiftly grabbed the heavy desk and slammed it down on Kyuushou with a piercing shriek!
Boom!
The heavy desk abruptly stopped several meters away from Kyuushou, as if it had crashed into an invisible wall of sighs, instantly twisting and deforming before being slammed to the ground by terrifying gravity.
But in that instant of obstruction, the elder brother's figure vanished like a cannonball! His muscles bulged, his tattoos writhing like living creatures, and a punch, gathering all his strength, carried a force capable of shattering steel, aimed straight for Kyuushou's face! Its speed was almost beyond the limits of the naked eye!
However, Kyuushou merely raised her arm slightly.
Buzz!
Embracing her, an invisible force field that repelled everything suddenly erupted!
Rumble—!!
The entire sturdy building groaned under the immense pressure! Starting from where Kyuushou stood, walls, floors, and ceilings were forcibly pushed aside, shattered, and obliterated!
The massive man was slammed into him by the violent, repulsive force! He felt as if he had been hit head-on by a speeding train, his entire body becoming a blurry afterimage as he screamed and was blasted away!
Bang bang bang bang—!
He pierced through the walls of several towering buildings behind him, carving a horrifying tunnel through the concrete jungle like a human cannonball, finally crashing heavily into the depths of the fourth building, buried in the rubble.
Dust billowed.
"Cough cough... Pfft!"
The man struggled to push away the concrete blocks pressing down on him, raising his head with difficulty, his eyes filled with horror and disbelief.
"Damn it... What... what kind of monstrous power is this!!"
Just then, a cold gaze locked onto him.
He looked up sharply.
There was Kyuushou's figure, silently hovering at the edge of the void. Behind her was the city skyline, her crimson eyes staring down at him emotionlessly.
"Who are you?! Bastard!!" The leader roared.
"Dare to mess with us?! You're dead! From today onwards, no matter where you hide in this city, you won't have a moment's peace! You and everything you care about will..."
His harsh words stopped abruptly.
Kyuushou simply silently stretched out her hand, pointing it at him from afar.
Crunch...
"Ugh!"
The eldest brother's body was suddenly seized by an irresistible, terrifying gravity! Like falling into a deep-sea whirlpool, invisible forces pressed in from all directions, binding and dragging him tightly! He was lifted into the air without any resistance, brought before Kyuushou, suspended in mid-air, writhing in agony from the immense pressure and suffocation.
Kyuushou's cold gaze pierced through his contorted face, his voice flat and devoid of any emotion:
"Tell me..."
"What do you all consider life to be?"
A glint of madness and mockery flashed in the eldest brother's eyes. He forced out strange, gurgling sounds, trying with all his might to spit out a mouthful of bloody phlegm towards Kyuushou, but the filth was crushed by an invisible barrier of gravity the moment it left his lips.
"Hahahaha"
The man burst into maniacal laughter. He had never imagined he would be asked such a question.
What is life?
In The City, life is nothing.
He looked at Houraiji Kyuushou, who had asked such a foolish question, his eyes filled with mockery. Kyuushou disliked that look, so she intensified the gravity again.
"I'll ask you one more time, what exactly is life to you?"
"Heh…cough cough…idiot!" The man, enduring excruciating pain, forced a vicious sneer.
"Asking such a stupid question! This is The City! Life? In this godforsaken place, it's less than toilet paper! I'm like this, you're like this, everyone's like this!"
Kyuushou stared at him silently; something deep within his crimson pupils seemed to have been completely extinguished, yet a new flame seemed to have ignited within them.
"…Is that so?"
The moment the words left her lips.
The gravity acting on the man instantly surged! As if gripped and twisted by an invisible giant hand! There was no scream, only a chilling thud.
A thick, unyielding cloud of blood mist exploded before Kyuushou, then, restrained by the gravitational field, transformed into a crimson rain, sprinkling onto the ruins below.
Suspended in mid-air, her crimson eyes reflected the blood-soaked ruins below, the air thick with the stench of blood and dust. She murmured softly, her voice a low sigh, yet carrying a chilling resolve:
"So that's how it is..."
Her gaze swept over the phantoms of those tortured to death by the Meat Grinders Gang, over this steel jungle that had devoured countless hopes and lives.
Anger, like a seed breaking through the soil, grew wildly within her.
"So, what's truly terminally ill... is this city itself."
As if making a vow to all the trampled, forgotten, and tormented souls of this land, her voice rose, piercing through the pervasive smoke and blood, clear, firm, like a declaration:
"I will change all of this."
An unprecedented flame burned in her crimson eyes.
"I will change this world."