Chapter Forty-Five: Revenge, Retaliation (2/2)

The night’s starlight was always bright and crystalline. Liu Mengchao sat atop the roof, listening to the wind chimes hanging from the eaves, their gentle clinking stirred by the night breeze. A tranquil joy, resolute yet peaceful, filled his heart, and he cherished this feeling—provided no one else was nearby.

Yet, at this moment, Saeko Busujima joined him, settling quietly at his side. She sat cross-legged, the blade she retrieved from the shrine resting on her knees, her demeanor serene and composed, as if she had stepped out of an ancient painting.

“Senior Saeko, why aren’t you resting downstairs?” Liu Mengchao did not turn his head, instead gazing upward at the starry sky as he spoke in a low voice.

“I can’t sleep. Every time I close my eyes, I think of you not being by my side.” Saeko Busujima was unsure if she was imagining it, but at that moment, Liu Mengchao seemed to give her a strange sensation. Sitting beside him, she felt herself truly regain her femininity. The thought brought to mind what she had said earlier in the shrine:

“I am a woman, too.”

A faint smile climbed onto Saeko’s lips, unhurried and natural. In her violet eyes, the vast sky was gone; they were filled entirely by one person, leaving no room for anything else.

Liu Mengchao did not realize that his presence had completely filled Saeko’s gaze. He continued to look up at the sky above.

The stars scattered overhead, and Liu Mengchao suddenly recalled the observation mode of the Lord God’s agent. Every reincarnator was like a star—struggling with all their might, shining their own light. When they burned out, they became meteors, falling from the heights.

There were some, however, who could transcend the cycle. Liu Mengchao was certain that the rebellion among reincarnators, as Bai Ya had described, was a group who had broken free from the Lord God’s space, transforming from falling meteors into eternal stars.

“Truly admirable,” he murmured, summoning the system interface.

On the invisible panel, only the prize pool total was slowly growing.

Prize pool: three hundred and fifty thousand.

“It’s probably time,” Liu Mengchao said, taking out his phone and watching the numbers on the screen.

By the time shown, it was the second night after the outbreak of the zombies, but Liu Mengchao preferred another way to mark it.

It was the first night after Saya Takagi’s death.

If you had a childhood friend, and she was gunned down before your eyes, would you seek revenge? Liu Mengchao smiled, imagining Takashi Komuro’s expression appearing before him.

After that night, Takashi Komuro’s gaze toward the group had changed. Though he concealed it well, whenever Liu Mengchao watched his face in the rearview mirror, he could always spot those subtle, tense expressions.

His lips pressed tight, the skin around his eyes taut with suppressed emotion. Takashi Komuro was straining to hold back his fury.

Liu Mengchao enjoyed such scenes, for fortresses are often breached from within. Especially since the most formidable fighter in this castle was no longer among them.

He glanced again at the phone in his hand.

The blue phone gifted by Kotonoha Katsura—its time advanced another minute.

Night, eleven twenty.

“You should be moving now,” Liu Mengchao whispered with a smile, closing his eyes. Makoto Ito’s anxious face also appeared in his mind.

Fear seldom arises without cause; it needs a trigger, like the fuse for a bomb. The night just past had been that fuse.

A supporting character, grieving the death of a main character—there was a saying for such sorrow: “when the rabbit dies, the fox mourns.”

“Are you unwilling? Do you want revenge?” Liu Mengchao’s lips moved, as if Makoto Ito were right before him. “Your once beautiful life has been destroyed by the reincarnators. Don’t you hate them, Makoto Ito?”

Hate!

Makoto Ito was consumed by rage.

According to their agreement with Liu Mengchao, the group had moved into a spacious house with Qi Xiaoxiao. The house was quiet; quiet meant few zombies nearby, so the dull thudding of bodies against walls was rare.

Unless you were deliberately listening for it.

Makoto Ito now stood by the balcony, coldly watching Takashi Komuro across the way.

A pink phone appeared in Takashi’s hand.

In the pitch-black night, the red glow from the device was the sole illumination, filling Makoto’s heart with an indescribable mix of satisfaction and dread.

Because of his experiences in hell, Makoto Ito feared anything flashing red in the darkness, but the anticipation of what was about to unfold made him tremble with excitement.

“Hurry up, hurry up! Gather all the Takagi family members!” Makoto’s gaze swept the room, cold and sinister, watching the reincarnators inside.

“I’m not like you,” Makoto Ito whispered to himself. “You want to survive, but I don’t. I only want you to taste the pain I once endured!”

With a flourish, Makoto drew the curtains shut.

He then sat quietly on the floor, waiting for the distant roar of engines.

In the room, Makoto leaned against the window, silently awaiting the reincarnators’ doom. Outside, Takashi Komuro was making a call, arranging the deaths of these reincarnators.

“Hello, this is Takashi Komuro,” he said to the person on the other end. Saya Takagi’s phone was not an ordinary device; it supported satellite calls.

“Where’s Saya?”

The voice on the other end was stern, filled with murderous intent. Soichiro Takagi seemed to anticipate the worst, his tone laced with rage. “Put Saya on.”

“Saya…,” Takashi glanced at the house behind him, “is dead.”

“Was it the zombies?”

The father’s voice, though angry, tried to remain calm. He wanted to know every detail of his daughter’s last moments.

“No, Saya remained human to the very end.” Takashi’s voice choked as he recalled the corpse.

Saya Takagi’s body lay cold on the ground, Xu Zhengdong above her, firing bullet after bullet into her chest.

Each shot sent blood and flesh flying, every burst of crimson mist making her body tremble.

Saya’s death must not be in vain!

“Did Saya have any last words for me?” Soichiro’s voice quivered, barely perceptible. “Tell me.”

“Take revenge for her.”

Silence. On the other end, Soichiro Takagi fell silent.

“She was killed by the Chinese,” Takashi Komuro knew how to stir the man who had known him since childhood. “They shot her, again and again, as she lay on the ground.”

“Where are they now?”

The more suppressed the voice, the happier Takashi Komuro felt. He knew that Saya’s father was furious to the extreme.

“Right in front of the Takagi mansion, at the end of the street.”

Click.

The call ended with a soft sound. But Takashi Komuro already knew his goal had been achieved.

The Takagi mansion erupted in light. Soon, one car after another sped out from within.

From the shrine rooftop, Liu Mengchao noticed the distant lights.

A smile spread across his lips without him realizing.

Prize pool: three hundred and sixty thousand.

The reincarnators had begun to sense the impending danger.

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This was the second update today...

The explosive first update will be posted at midnight... Next comes 10am, 2pm, and 10pm o(≧v≦)o~~ wonderful

While twisting my waist in the living room today, my knee made a loud crack...

(╯﹏╰ Could it be my knee’s been struck by an arrow...

Thanks to Crimson Nocturne, Dragon’s Lament, Frozen Silence, Pencil in Hand, Rainbow’s Transition, Forbidden Road, Kings’ Calamity, Victorica8, BXeroXB, Ichimaru Gin, Ancient Dustless Universe, and Xuanyuan the Killer for the rewards~