# 606
Chapter 607: Do You Want to Live?
Elsewhere.
Three kids in raincoats dashed across two intersections, laughing and chattering. Behind them, two men vaulted over railings and sprinted after them.
“Hey, you little brats—stop right there!”
The scar-faced man in front roared so loudly the sound rolled down the street and reached the children’s ears.
Two of them—one boy, one girl—froze and glanced back, fear flickering in their eyes. Neither was the scar-faced man’s target.
The third child, still wrapped in a rain poncho, never slowed. She wove through the streets as wind tore the hood back, revealing a young, resolute face.
“Grab her!”
Scar-face brushed past the two who’d stopped and, with his partner, charged straight for Yuzuri Nana.
She was running with everything she had, but a twelve-year-old girl’s speed was nothing against two grown men. In seconds Scar-face caught up.
Nana gritted her teeth, skidded to a halt, and flung out the hands hidden beneath her poncho.
A cloud of weapon-grade chili powder burst into the wind and straight into Scar-face’s eyes. He howled, collapsing in a writhing ball, eyes blood-red, veins bulging on his clenched fists.
Before Nana could spin away, the second man seized her wrist, yanked her back, and a brutal slap exploded against her cheek. Pain flared; her right ear rang. Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.
A scarlet handprint bloomed on her face. Vision blurring, she still tried to wrench free, but the man’s grip was iron.
“Run?” he sneered. “Keep running, then.”
He raised his hand for another blow.
…
Lin Qiye carried a plastic grocery bag to the shipping container and tapped on the door.
No answer.
He raised an eyebrow, sent a pulse of mental energy through the metal, and found… nobody.
After borrowing money from Amemiya Haruki he’d bought food and daily necessities. Yuzuri Nana had dragged him from the sea, helped him dodge the police, even let a complete stranger spend the night—he owed her.
He’d been broke before; now he had cash, so he’d come back to repay the kindness. Yet neither sister was home.
From the look of things they hadn’t moved out—just stepped out. He settled cross-legged by the door, set the bag aside, and sank his consciousness into the Asylum of the Gods.
…
Asylum of the Gods.
A dim corridor. Lin Qiye in a white lab coat strolled forward while howls from three hundred “mysteries” slammed against his eardrums.
“Silence.”
The word fell and every cry cut out. The underground wing became a tomb.
In every cell, creatures turned to watch the calm figure approach, hands in pockets.
So many…
He sighed. How long would it take to process them all?
He stopped at the first cell. Inside stood the Klein-level black giant that had wielded twin electric heads as clubs. It grinned through the bars.
A phantom panel hovered behind it.
Sinner: Soul-Hoe Black Fiend
Verdict: As the one who slew this mythical being, you may choose its soul’s fate:
1. Annihilate it outright.
2. Raise its Fear of you to 60 and hire it as an orderly—tending patients and providing protection.
Current Fear: 5
The giant pounded the bars like a caged gorilla, roaring laughter.
“Do you want to live?” Lin Qiye asked quietly.
“ROAARRR!”
“Fine.”
He lifted a hand. The giant’s taunts became a shriek as its body ballooned—then burst, showering the cell with meat. The walls drank the gore like a thirsty beast; within seconds nothing remained, not even a stain. A few drops landed on Lin Qiye’s coat and were absorbed without trace.
Silence.
He moved to the second cell. Behind those bars waited the white bear that had once phased through space and knocked Jialan and An Qingyu aside. It had seen everything. Fear shot from 9 to 63.
Lin Qiye adjusted his plain glasses; the lenses caught the pale light.
“Do you want to live?”