Chapter 127.

“W-what…?”

“Mommy!”

“... did you say?” The man left dumbstruck, his eyes laced with disbelief, disgust, and rage.

The woman beside the child trembled when she heard the terrorist’s words and called out, “Please spare my child! Take my life instead!”

“Tch. I’ve changed my mind, behead both these lower life forms now or die.”

I felt sick to my stomach. I wanted to vomit. I’d seen a lot of death and I’d grown more numb to it over the years, but this still felt utmost revulsion toward this group.

I seriously questioned whether I would be able to do something as low as that to save my own life.

The robust man with the machete in hand looked like the weight of the world had crushed him down into the dirt. This was undoubtedly the biggest dilemma he’d faced in his life. He looked back and forth between the two he’d been instructed to behead and the terrorist. He weighed his options carefully while held at gunpoint.

“Hurry up, we don’t have all day, moron!”

In the end, the man never arrived at an answer. Before he did, one of the armed men, dissatisfied by his indecision clicked his tongue then coldly said without a shred of humanity, “Failure.”

Two of the armed men beside him latched onto his arms. They confiscated the machete as they forced him to his knees and restrained him.

The man who’d stuck the nuzzle of his gun in my mouth earlier declared the man a failure and approached him emotionlessly. He first reached out towards his right eye and-

“AAAAGHHHHH!”

A loud spine chilling scream of agony reverberated throughout the cabin. Everyone was left with widely opened eyes in complete disbelief.

The heartless terrorist ripped out an eyeball clean from its socket and squashed it without the slightest sign of hesitation or remorse. It didn’t end there though. Just as he reached out to the man’s left eye, the man shrilly cried out at the top of his lungs, “I’ll do it! I’ll kill them! It hurts! AHHHHH! It hurts! I’ll fucking kill them! Please stop! I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die! Not like this!”

Tears of blood flowed out from where his right eye once was as clear liquid tears leaked from his still intact left eye. The endless stream of tears, both crimson and transparent, trickled down both sides of his cheeks until they met and mixed together at the bottom of his chin. Once the two streams met, drop after drop dripped down to the floor amidst the dismayed cries of horror from the other restrained passengers.

The terrorist showed not a single sign he was moved by the man’s words and he coolly said, “It’s too late. You hesitate once in life and it will lead to a mission’s failure. We have no room for those who hesitate. We need war machines who will fight for our cause without the need to think. Only those with superior abilities deserve to live. You’ll serve as an example to the rest so they understand what happens to those who hesitate to do as we say. From past experience in recruiting newbies, we always need examples before people really understand the severity of the situation they’re actually in. People are always foolishly stuck in their comfortable little bubbles of peace until we show them what their futile little resistance leads to.”

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Life drained from my eyes, I was once again powerless to resist the atrocity which played out directly before me. When outnumbered with guns pointed directly at you, no amount of plans or clever tactics would save you. Action movies were all full of shit, bullets wouldn’t just miraculously miss or skim by you as you conveniently take them out one by one like some sort of one-man army god of war. 

These men did not look the part of some amateur street-side thugs. By the murderous aura that surrounded them, it was obvious enough they were all highly trained professionals in the art of murder. At this range, you’d be deader than dead the instant you put up any form of resistance.

I knew I had to make a decision, and quick. To kill an innocent bystander and live another day, or die here? Which would I choose when it was my turn? The woman presently across from me was none other than the mysterious woman with wavy white hair. Strangely enough, it seemed everyone around could see her for a change. Why was that though?

“AHHHHHHH!”

I didn’t have long to think about it as another shrill shriek of horror echoed out loudly through the cabin. This time, the man’s left eye was pulled clean out of his socket and then shoved into his mouth while still connected to his optic nerve. The terrorist sent a knee upward and slammed it into the man’s jaw from below. His jaw was forced shut and the man bit down firmly into his own eyeball.

I threw up halfway in my mouth but forcefully swallowed it back down. The acid burned the back of my throat and left behind a bitter sour taste in my mouth. Now wasn’t the time to spill my guts. Any sign of weakness here would only result in my own situation turning out far worse than it already was.

I thought the man would finally be put out of his misery, but the terrorist picked up the machete and popped off a finger from the man’s right hand. Disparaging screams and curses leaked out from the man’s mouth. With every chop that tore into his flesh, he threatened to kill each and every one of these bastards.

The terrorist sported a malevolent smile as he reveled in the man’s continued suffering. It felt like the terrorist found the man’s threats to be among the finest compliments he could ever be offered. He was with no doubt a purebred psychopath. I’d run into my fair share to know that. Hell, even if I hadn’t met them before, it was plain as day; just from the look in his eyes, any normal person would have arrived at the same conclusion.

I stifled my breath, fearful that the slightest sound may draw their attention toward myself. I had no way to defend myself here. I was trapped like everyone else, unable to put up any resistance against the threat of the overwhelming military might in their possession. With no control over my life, I resigned myself to the awful fate before me.

If I wanted to live, killing the woman in front of me was my only option. If it was Val with me right now, I was uncertain what I would have done. However, this woman was a complete stranger, or at least, someone I’d never actually had a conversation with. She’d made a brief appearance a few times before this, but I still don’t know what to think of her. 

A ghost? It’s too absurd to believe that. The only thing I knew, she may very well be the cause of what was happening here. If she didn’t show up, then this surely wouldn’t have happened.

Wait. 

What am I thinking? 

This is because of the bounty on me, right? Was I just trying to relate two unrelated things to each other to make the decision for myself easier? Besides that, what if this person was actually completely unrelated and she was actually a real person who coincidentally looked a bit similar to the woman I’d seen in my hallucinations? Maybe I’d seen her somewhere before and she became the model for the alleged ghost I’d seen in my hallucinations and nightmares? She could just resemble the woman I presumed was Adele’s sister.

No. I need to stop doubting myself. No matter how I spin things to try and justify it in my head, I still need to resolve myself if I want to survive through this ordeal.

“Please! No more! Just kill me already!”

The man who’d been tortured the entire time suddenly changed his tone from violent curses into pleas to be released from his torment. The terrorist had already chopped off all of his fingers and toes one by one, but he showed no signs of stopping his sick and depraved mutilation.

Before the terrorist cut off each of the man’s minor appendages, he meticulously tied a string tightly around the stumps to minimize the blood loss and keep the poor guy alive longer. For the next step, the terrorist peeled away at the man’s skin on his arms and legs. When the muscle fibers below were revealed, the terrorist ripped them cleanly out and stuffed them down the man’s throat to stop him from screaming out.

“Why don’t you eat up mate? I’m sure you’ll get some good gains if you eat pure muscles. Hahahahahaha.”