The crater where the Spirit Stone Vein used to be was quiet—too quiet. Only the Black Behemoth sat in the valley like a sleeping steel titan. Inside, everyone was working like a miniature civilization running out of excuses to procrastinate.
---
Alchemy Lab
Xiao Yi Xian hummed as she crushed luminous herbs, the air thick with peppermint heat.
Su Chen leaned against the frame, watching her hands move with the efficiency of a veteran chemist and the clumsiness of someone who still blushed too easily.
"How's our potion economy?" he asked.
"Stable," she said, cheeks warming. "With the Spirit Stones, Yang Recovery Pills hit 100% success rate. And these—" she held out a vial of gray liquid, "—Stone-Skin Potions. They stack with your Bone Armor."
He didn't drink it. Instead, he brushed a strand of white hair behind her ear like a man who didn't understand personal boundaries.
"You're working too hard. Rest. This truck practically drives itself."
Her voice shrank but didn't break.
"I like being useful. Back home… I was just a curse. Here—I have purpose."
"You're the heart of this team. Don't rewrite that story."
Xiao Yi Xian froze, red to the ears. Su Chen left before she combusted.
---
Dojo
Violent impacts rattled the reinforced chamber.
Saeko moved like a feral storm, Blood Asura claws shredding chitin dummies. Her breath hitched—too fast, too sharp.
"Your rhythm is trash today," Su Chen said.
She whipped around, red eyes wild.
"The energy wants to kill. Hard to stop."
Su Chen stepped forward, aura turning cold as a grave. [Lich Bloodline] pulsed, smothering her rage in deathly calm.
"Look at me."
She did. Slowly, sanity bled back into her gaze.
"I'm… centered."
"Good. Tonight, meditate on the Book of the Undead. Control the soul, not just bloodlust."
She bowed, trembling but stable. "Yes, Master."
---
Engineering Bay
Saya screamed—not in fear, but triumph.
"It works! The math looks like a war crime, but it WORKS!"
Cables from the Dungeon Core fed into a Magitek engine that absolutely wasn't designed to exist in this universe.
"Ready?" she asked.
Su Chen sat in his command throne, linking with the Behemoth.
"Let's see if this beast can touch the stratosphere."
[Black Behemoth — Flight Mode: Active]
A low hum rose. The wheels lifted. Runes lit like neon veins.
Altitude: climbing.
The forty-ton truck ascended like it was filing a resignation letter to gravity.
"We're airborne," Su Chen announced. "Roads are now optional."
He opened Dimensional Travel.
Target: Akame ga Kill – Empire Timeline
Objective: Acquire Teigu / Danger Beast Biomass
Earth Time: Paused
"We're going hunting," Su Chen said.
Ye Qingyu looked up. "Hunting what?"
"A world full of corrupt nobles, assassins, and living weapons. In short: clearance sale."
The sky tore.
The Behemoth vanished.
---
World: Akame ga Kill — Extreme North
Snow hammered the cameras. The world was white, quiet, deadly.
Su Chen stepped outside, Silver Body making the blizzard feel like air-conditioned ambiance.
He flew low over the tundra.
A Frost Bear exploded out of the snow.
It swung.
He caught its claws with one hand.
"You'd make a good winter coat."
[Copy — Thick Fat]
CRUNCH. Skull collapsed.
Stored.
Then—
Master! High-level energy. North. Colder than Ye Qingyu.
"Colder than the Ice Queen? Only one candidate."
He broke the sound barrier toward the signal.
---
The Ice Huntress
The village was frozen solid—corpses, walls, even smoke trapped mid-air.
On an ice throne sat a girl with pale-blue hair, sipping blood like wine.
Esdeath. Younger, raw, unpolished—but already lethal.
Su Chen landed above her.
"Freezing a village to kill one beast? Efficient."
She looked up.
No fear. Only predatory curiosity.
"Who are you? You're not from the North."
"A traveler."
"And you know of the Demon's Extract?" she asked, forming icicles with a twitch of her fingers.
"The beast voices want me to kill everything. It's delightful."
She attacked without warning.
"Weissschnabel!"
Dozens of icicles shot toward him.
Su Chen didn't dodge.
"Stop."
Ice froze mid-air.
Her eyes widened.
"You—control ice?"
"I control anything worth controlling."
He walked through her attack, stopping directly before her blade.
"Esdeath. The world you know is too small. I'm building an army to conquer worlds, not villages. Join me, and I'll give you a battlefield that never ends."
The idea electrified her.
She dissolved her sword.
She took his hand.
"If you grow weak, I'll freeze you myself."
[Esdeath — Recruited]
[Loyalty: 40 — Interested / Competitive]
Su Chen touched her forehead.
[Copy — Demon's Extract]
Cold surged. Murderous. Ancient.
His Lich Soul ate the hostility like a snack.
[Fusion: Frost Queen + Demon's Extract → Absolute Zero Domain]
[Time Freeze: Mahapadma — Locked]
He exhaled frost and ambition.
"Good. The Capital is next. Their Emperor is hoarding Teigu I need to borrow."
Esdeath grinned, sharp enough to cut air.
"A new hunt?"
"A whole ecosystem of them."
He took her hand.
They vanished into the blizzard.