Chapter 90: Qualification to Return (Tenth Update)
The four captured contractors exchanged glances and quickly nodded.
"Willing, willing, as long as you spare our lives."
"Sir, how about we sign a contract or something?"
A sharp-faced young man rubbed his hands together, a fawning smile on his face.
"Contract?"
Su Xiao's face showed a hint of a smile.
Seeing Su Xiao smile, that contractor felt a slight relief, but he didn't know that Su Xiao's smile didn't mean he was happy.
"I'm a fair person. She paid 5000 Paradise Coins to buy her life. You'll do the same."
The four contractors' expressions changed, their minds wrestling: should they pay up immediately to save their lives, or use these 20000 Paradise Coins to negotiate with him?
To be precise, none of the four had 5000 Paradise Coins; they planned to substitute with equipment.
"Your name is Xiluo Luo, right?"
Su Xiao looked at Xiluo Luo, who nodded repeatedly.
"Blindfold them and tie their hands behind their backs."
Hearing Su Xiao's request, Xiluo Luo hesitated.
"If they resist... big shot, I'm really weak."
"Just do as I say. If they resist, I'll handle it."
Soon, the four contractors were blindfolded, hands tied behind their backs, kneeling or sitting in a row.
Su Xiao found a chair and sat behind them. The others in the room watched him in confusion.
The Shattered Elf appeared in Su Xiao's hand, the surface of this large revolver reflecting a faint red light.
"I'll give each of you three seconds to consider."
The blindfolded contractors were puzzled—what did three seconds mean?
"One, two."
"Wait, even if you threaten us, we won't compromise unless we sign a contract. Otherwise, what if you take our Paradise Coins and kill us anyway?"
The contractor on the far right spoke rapidly.
"Three."
Su Xiao aimed the Shattered Elf at the back of that contractor's head and pulled the trigger.
"Bang."
A bullet formed from Kagune left the chamber, flew through the air for an extremely short time, and struck the back of the contractor's head.
Thud. The contractor was shot in the head, blood splattering across the face of the contractor beside him.
"Ah! Ah!"
The three contractors let out meaningless screams. One, with weaker mental fortitude, even got up to flee.
"Bang."
The fleeing contractor fell to the ground, a fist-sized hole in the center of his back.
This revolver was called the Shattered Elf because, after the Kagune bullet entered the enemy's body, it would explode.
Although it sacrificed some penetration, its lethality was stronger.
The remaining two contractors knew their other two companions were dead—the temporary adventure group had notified them.
Su Xiao was puzzled by their behavior. Since they had already lost, they had to bear the consequences of defeat. There were roughly two options.
First, fight to the death with the enemy, dying with dignity even if they perished.
Second, choose to surrender. If they surrendered, they had to accept the losses of defeat. If they kept babbling, they'd be reclassified into the first option.
"Don't shoot, don't shoot. Let's talk."
"Yeah, even if..."
Before the two contractors could finish, Su Xiao fired two more shots, taking them down.
It seemed these people had little to offer. After handing over 5000 Paradise Coins or equivalent items, they likely couldn't survive in Reincarnation Paradise.
After Su Xiao shot the first person, the remaining three were doomed. Whether they handed over Paradise Coins or not, Su Xiao wouldn't let them go.
Once the first shot was fired, it was a blood feud. Su Xiao wouldn't make the idiotic mistake of letting an enemy go free.
Witnessing the entire process, Xiluo Luo gradually backed into a corner, looking at Su Xiao as if she were staring at a great demon king.
At this moment, Xiluo Luo's mind was in turmoil. Just entering the derivative world, she had witnessed Su Xiao single-handedly fighting Rize Kamishiro + Yamori, resulting in one death and one escape.
After that, Xiluo Luo had been on edge because Su Xiao wasn't in her faction.
Enduring the torment, Xiluo Luo finally made it to the end of the derivative world, only to have something even more devastating happen: the leader of her faction had actually allied with an enemy contractor!
Huddled in the corner, Xiluo Luo looked especially pitiful, gazing at the stars at a 45-degree angle, as if about to turn into a salted fish.
"How could this happen? I've never heard of anyone allying with a faction boss. This is cheating."
Xiluo Luo's eyes teared up, her mood incredibly conflicted.
Su Xiao paid no attention to the emotionally tangled Xiluo Luo. His main mission (3) was already complete.
[Congratulations, Hunter. You have completed Main Mission (3), obtaining the qualification to return. Remaining time in this world: 5 minutes.]
[Beep. Detected that the Hunter has accepted 'Hidden Mission: Source.' Return time delayed. Delay period: 5 days. During this time, the Hunter may return to Reincarnation Paradise at any time. If the Hunter chooses to return without completing 'Hidden Mission: Source,' the mission will fail.]
With this, Su Xiao only needed to complete the hidden mission to return.
...
Two minutes earlier, outside the CCG Branch Building in District 20, a sneaky figure leaped out of the building under the cover of night.
This figure wore a black robe and a hood, chewing something in their mouth.
"Finally set it all up. These spiritual bombs are enough to level this branch. Hehe, this time I'll earn at least 10,000 Paradise Coins, no, over 20,000 Paradise Coins."
After moving far away from the CCG branch, the figure removed their hood, revealing a withered face. If this guy were to star in a zombie movie, he wouldn't need makeup.
"Brother, your little brother will make a name for himself one day. So bless me, protect me from within my body. Hehehe~."
The zombie-faced man let out a strange laugh. Because of the black substance he was chewing, a wisp of black saliva oozed from a wound on his face. The wound had dried up, no longer able to heal. The zombie face had become like this after a major upheaval.
The night wind blew the wide sleeves of the zombie-faced man, revealing two Reincarnation Marks on his withered forearm.
A contractor could only have one mark, but the zombie-faced man had two, and the numbers of the two marks were consecutive.
That was his brother's mark. They were twin brothers, and their talent skills were bizarre—identical, called 'Heart Mirror Heart.'
In the 'Fullmetal Alchemist' world, the zombie-faced man and his brother were captured by an alchemist.
That alchemist's research focused on human fusion. In his view, if two people were fused through alchemy, the resulting human would surely be stronger.
Moreover, the alchemist's research was recognized by the state. If successful, it would create powerful soldiers. If dozens of people were fused and succeeded, ordinary people would have hope of countering alchemists.
Thus, the zombie-faced man and his brother underwent the fusion, which ultimately failed. The zombie-faced man barely survived.
Though he became neither human nor ghost, he gained two Reincarnation Marks. After that, his personality gradually twisted: killing children, slaughtering entire families in derivative worlds, and leaving women to toy with—this was his usual behavior.
Having two Reincarnation Marks on one person meant the zombie-faced man could receive two identical missions simultaneously. The chance of enemies dropping treasure chests when killed doubled, and the rewards from opening chests doubled, because he represented two people.
Gaining something meant losing something. That fusion nearly destroyed the zombie-faced man's body. Repairing it would cost a fortune. His Strength, Agility, Stamina, and Charm attributes could not be enhanced; the only one he could enhance was Intelligence.
But after enhancing Intelligence, the zombie-faced man tragically discovered he had no talent for becoming a mage. He couldn't sense magical elements, couldn't even perform the most basic mana perception. So he took a different path, buying the skill to create spiritual bombs, which could leverage his Intelligence attribute.
The dual Reincarnation Marks caught Reincarnation Paradise's attention. The zombie-faced man's wanton destruction in both the real world and derivative worlds led Reincarnation Paradise to decide to eliminate this unstable factor, so he was added to the Hunt List.
The zombie-faced man hid in a dirty corner. With his underdeveloped sense of smell, he didn't care about the surrounding stench. He was waiting for the District 20 branch to be crowded before detonating the spiritual bombs.
Or rather, the zombie-faced man was also waiting for Su Xiao to arrive at the District 20 branch. As a key point in the original plot, District 20 was where many contractors liked to find missions or attach themselves to original characters at the Antique café.
Just then, the zombie-faced man's body suddenly stiffened, his eyes staring ahead in disbelief.
"The main mission failed? How is that possible? Those useless bastards are all dead? I worked so hard setting up the bombs just for a chance to blow up the CCG faction contractors. This can't be, can't be!"
The zombie-faced man's emotions instantly spiraled out of control, his arms flailing wildly in front of him.
Crack, crack. Dense cracks appeared on his hands. A cold voice sounded in his ears.
[Detected that Contractor '12470 (12471)' has failed the main mission. Forced execution initiated.]
[Drip. Detected that Contractor '12470 (12471)' has dual Reincarnation Marks. Forced execution speed doubled.]
Crack, crack, crack. Cracks spread across the zombie-faced man's entire body, revealing somewhat withered muscle tissue.
"Brother, I'm coming to join you. Damn Reincarnation Paradise, I knew you never liked me. And I thought this simple derivative world was a gift—turns out it was a fucking trap. Damn it."
In the seconds before death, the zombie-faced man calmed down. He should have died long ago, at the hands of that alchemist with the burned face.
With a shatter, the zombie-faced man's body broke apart, turning to dust that annihilated into the air—flesh, soul, everything obliterated.
In fact, completing a Hunt mission didn't necessarily mean fighting the target to the death. As long as Reincarnation Paradise was given a legitimate reason to execute the target, it would immediately deal with the violator.
ps. (The results are unexpectedly poor. Is it because of too many bonus chapters or... Dear readers, can you show me a glimmer of hope? The current situation is truly one where I might starve.)
Nothing can stop me
Lighting a cigarette, Feiwen sat in front of the computer.
For the book 'Paradise,' based on the number of collections, the results are somewhat disappointing. But Feiwen suddenly remembered that when 'Sword Master' was released, it didn't even have half of the current numbers.
With such poor results back then, I still managed to write a quality piece. Why can't I do the same for 'Paradise'? And there's also the 'force majeure' involved (crying in the toilet).
Looking at the monthly ticket situation, I probably haven't flopped. I just need time to settle and get through this period.
Under my ten-update assault, the Tokyo Ghoul world is about to end—everyone can see that.
I'm not writing this single chapter to lament or play the victim, but for something important.
I plan to set a fixed update time, around 6 PM. At that time, whether you're busy with work or studies, you should have time to read the novel.
After coming home and having dinner, seeing Feiwen's updates should be pretty nice, right?
I'll continue working hard on writing and updating, carefully planning the plot. Complaining about fate is useless. As long as I persist, I firmly believe the results will improve.
Yeah, that's it.