Outside the forest, another group of approximately fifty survivors were arguing with each other. Hours had passed since their summoning, and yet they were still unable to come to a decision that everyone agreed on.
They stood upon a rarely trodden road that led into a forest, and their most popular options were primarily separated into two choices. One was to follow the path that led into the forest near them, and the other was to follow the path leading to the direct opposite of it. Both options had merits in their own right.
The two that seemed to be the leaders to both sides of the argument were a man and woman. Although both looked ordinary at a glance, the aura they emitted was a different matter entirely.
The Chinese woman, Tang Suzhen, had a special ability. It wasn’t an ability gained after being summoned to Pandemonium, but it was a learned one that was trained throughout her twisted life back on Earth.
She was a woman that wasn’t supposed to be born, a human that was never supposed to live the way she had. This was due to China’s one-child policy. Her family already birthed a son, an older brother, and she was a child that wasn’t supposed to happen. In China during that time, males were desired over females, and all subsequent children after the first child had only cruel fates that awaited them. Most normal second children were executed, some were abandoned, others sold to the underground human trafficking black market to become slaves for the rest of their lives. Their families would be punished if more than one child were to be discovered. The fate that she went through could be considered to be one of the worst. She was hidden by her family, stuffed inside a room for years and never allowed to come out.
She had asked herself many times. Why? Why her? Why did she need to live her life that way? The conclusion she came to was because of money. Her family was relatively ordinary and poor, but what about other families? Others with money or connections would be able to pay off government officials to forge documents, or have them look the other way. Corruption always existed within a society, this was especially true in countries that had a compulsory military service. Those with money would be able to pay the government to keep quiet and waive any issues.
Using that thought process, she escaped her family and developed a technique that was unique to her. By observing how a person conducted themselves, their habits, subconscious actions, and many other miniscule details she was able to determine their value and the gist of their potential. People were judged and converted into currency in her eyes.
An average, healthy adult would be worth at least 130,000 Yuan, or 20,000 USD. This was usually the minimum value if their organs and blood could be taken apart and sold.
When she was first summoned to Pandemonium and observed the people around her, the majority were worth the expected several hundred thousand yuan. A rare few were worth a million or two, but there was one value that shocked her.
In her entire life, she had only known one person whose value she couldn’t determine. A person who she deemed as priceless. That person was herself, but now, one more stood before her.
The man that led the other side of the argument, an unreliable-looking man wearing a lab coat and glasses.
Suzhen spoke, “We follow the road out of the forest. It’s our best chance of finding civilization.”
That was indeed the safest option. But…
The man wearing the lab coat, the Japanese chemistry teacher Nakamura Kazuya responded, “We can’t see the end of the road so we’ll probably need food from the forest for the trip. Besides, even if we do find something on the other side, who’s to say they won’t react hostile to us?”
With Suzhen and Kazuya arguing on end and unable to reach a compromise hours continued to pass. It was when they finally decided to just split the group apart and simply go their own separate ways that a scream rang out from within the forest next to them.
They were able to tell instantly. It was the screams of a man, a human. No, it was such a soul-inducing wail of despair that it was more akin to someone’s death throes.
Their group froze in shock, and a sense of trepidation and foreboding filled them.
Suzhen and Kazuya stopped arguing, exchanged glances with each other, and looked into the direction of the forest.
Suzhen had a cold look on her face, wearing a frown.
Kazuya wore a troubled, yet slight smile.
All eyes were on the forest for a moment when finally figures could be seen coming out of it.
It was approximately a group of twenty or so people, Chrono’s group.
Compared to their own, most members of his group were covered in blood and grime. There was a tense atmosphere surrounding his group, unlike their group’s relatively relaxed atmosphere. They were unnaturally serious and disciplined. Even when they discovered other survivors, none of the members made a sound, while the people on Suzhen and Kazuya’s sides were calling out to them in shock, relief, and wariness.
Chrono was placed inconspicuously at the center of the group. Usually leaders would be at the forefront, but despite that, both Suzhen and Kazuya were able to spot him out instantly.
It wasn’t because Chrono appeared to be the leader of the group. Compared to some of the other members, like the police officer, he actually didn’t stand out at all. All three people: Kazuya, Suzhen, and Chrono exchanged glances for a brief moment while narrowing their eyes.
It was because all three of them radiated a similar atmosphere, an invisible pressure that only they could feel from each other.
It was because they came to a tacit understanding with one another that they were from the same breed. Irregulars among humanity.
Back on Earth, once a reporter in America pretended to be insane to be allowed into and investigate a mental institution that allegedly abused its patients. The staff of the mental institution was unable to distinguish the reporter’s acting from the other patients. The patients themselves on the other hand immediately saw through the reporter’s act. They said to the reporter, “What are you doing here? There’s nothing wrong with you. You don’t belong here.”
When Suzhen looked at Chrono, she wasn’t able to estimate his worth either.
People like them were able to easily recognize one another. The three’s interchanging looks only lasted for a moment.
‘Interesting…’ Chrono thought to himself after looking at the two.
“Thank goodness there were others. A bear attacked and killed one of our members just a few moments ago. The forest’s dangerous,” Chrono quickly said in a breath of relief. His group visibly tensed up at his words.
A lie. There was no bear. The screams everyone heard from before was from the man Chrono’s group themselves had just tortured to death.
It was unknown whether the other two saw through his lie, but their expressions never changed for a second.
“It’s good to meet other survivors, I’m Nakamura Kazuya. You can just call me Kazuya,” the Japanese man smiled to Chrono in a gesture of goodwill.
“Tang Suzhen. I told you the forest was dangerous.” the Chinese woman said, before condemning Kazuya.
“I’m Chrono. Let’s stick together, I’d feel uneasy if I were alone,” Chrono suggested.
Although Kazuya and Suzhen were planning on splitting apart, with the suggestion of the new arrival they decided to stay together for now.
The sky was beginning to darken, and whatever option they decided to take would be safer with more people.
In the end, the total of about seventy people set up camp on the outskirts of the forest.
The stress of the whole ordeal was too much for an ordinary person to bear, and they needed some sleep and rest. Chrono and his group was especially exhausted.
A visible gap could be seen from both groups figuratively and literally. When members of Suzhen and Kazuya’s summoned group tried to interact with Chrono’s group, there was an awkward atmosphere, and they received brief replies. It was like the two summoned groups were separated by an unseen, insurmountable distance.
How could they possibly so easily get along with each other? A group that had experienced hardship by struggling together for survival inside the forest, and a group that hadn’t. It was obvious that there would be a degree of discomfort and unfamiliarity between them, but the true factor that separated the group from each other was Chrono’s group participating in the torture and group killing of one of their own members. The experience and psychological impact of having participated in killing a human.
Both groups came up with a rotation for lookout and had their own patrols of two members each set up. Most people found a spot to lay on the grass, and others picked a nearby tree to fall asleep leaning against. Some had trouble falling asleep while hugging their introductory weapon, but the weariness and darkness got the better of them.
Chrono himself fell into a trance, a state of half-sleep. No matter what, he didn’t trust the others. He’d be able to wake up and move in an instant like this if he needed to.
Time passed in the middle of the night. Nearly everyone was asleep aside from the lookouts at this point. Even the lookouts were showing signs of drowsiness and sluggishness.
It was then that a shadow in Suzhen and Kazuya’s summoned group quietly and swiftly weaved its way to their two inattentive lookouts.
A lookout suddenly felt a hand covering her mouth, and looked down to see a knife sliding across her neck. It was the last sight she saw before her consciousness sunk into darkness forever. The same happened to the lookout beside her. The shadow was delighted to discover the streams of power that entered into its body after killing the two lookouts before it continued to move.
The shadow indiscriminately killed the sleeping people closest to them in Suzhen and Kazuya’s group. Due to the distance and darkness, Chrono and his lookouts never noticed the massacre that was happening.
Ten people died just like that in their sleep. Then twenty. Thirty. When the thirtieth person was killed, the smell of blood began to permeate the air.
A boy who smelled the blood felt uncomfortable, stirred in his sleep, and finally opened his eyes. He saw a silhouette standing over him. He opened his mouth to speak, but the silhouette had already stabbed the dagger it held into his windpipe before any words could come out. The boy gurgled on his own blood before his vision began to whiten, and he died.
Suzhen, like Chrono, was in a state of half-sleep. She heard a slight noise that promptly caused her to open her eyes when the death count was approaching forty. She heard sounds and saw the shadow moving from person to person, killing them. The unnatural smell of blood filling the air confirmed her suspicions.
“EVERYONE WAKE UP! WE’RE UNDER ATTACK!” Suzhen shouted as loudly as she could, jolting everyone awake and out of their sleep.
Her yell had even woken up all of Chrono’s group who were positioned slightly further apart from them.
The shadow, having been discovered, made a break towards the forest.
Now, Suzhen and Kazuya’s group only numbered in the tens. The rest had already been killed, and all of their deaths were attributed to a single person.
Everyone, realizing the danger they were in, chased after the fleeing shadow. Chrono and his group were no exception. Due to being positioned closer to the forest, Chrono was actually leading the chase and was the closest one to the fleeing shadow. The light from the moon was barely enough to make the back of the fleeing shadow visible. It was a person wearing a white lab coat.
Everyone that saw it aside from Chrono and Suzhen were surprised. His lab coat was splattered in blood. Kazuya had even killed the people who were siding with him in the argument. Members of his own group. He abruptly stopped running and turned around to face the people running after him, causing a chain reaction from his pursuers in response.
There he stood, laughing at the thirty plus people who chased after him. Kazuya and the others were separated by a distance of several meters with Chrono at the forefront of the group.
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Kazuya’s expression was distorted into a twisted grin, similar to the one Chrono had made after he had taken the four introductory weapons. He held up the introductory dagger that was covered in the blood of more than thirty people, and licked it. Kazuya continued to laugh while saying, “AHAHahahahAHAH! How about it?! It was beautiful, wasn’t it?!”
The thirty plus pursuers froze in their place at the out-of-place sight. That act and expression of madness. They were afraid. They had chased him with the intention of stopping him, but they didn’t know what to do when they had finally caught up.
Chrono slowly stood out from the group, and directly looked at Kazuya. Chrono judged it beneficial for him if he stood out here.
Noticing this, Kazuya called out to him, “The others can all go die, but why don’t you join me, Chrono?! You have the same smell as me. You enjoy it when people die. When they suffer!”
The outburst made the others flinch. They could only continue watching from the sidelines. It was like the confrontation of two behemoths that they couldn’t take part in. Monsters in human skin.
Chrono slowly pulled out his shortsword while saying, “Go to hell.”
Chrono didn’t particularly enjoy the killing. Killing to him was just a small part of it. A means to an end. What he truly sought was entertainment, and that entertainment came from the unexpected. It was no fun if everything went as he had expected. The struggle, the boundary between life and death. The things that he normally didn’t see coming from humanity. An existence like Kazuya was one of them. At this moment, facing off against Kazuya, Chrono sported the same crazed grin as he did.
Their distance didn’t shrink, both Kazuya and Chrono were waiting for the other to make the first move.
From the side, Suzhen took out an introductory crossbow and loaded a bolt into it. She was now the one standing at the forefront from the group of thirty plus other survivors. Hesitation could be seen in her expression as she alternated her aim between Kazuya and Chrono. They were both hindrances to her, and the ideal scenario for her would be if they both died. She judged it was best to use both behemoths to take each other down, and killing the weakened survivor.
Kazuya and Chrono heard Suzhen load the bolt, but neither paid her any attention. It was the same as interference from something neither of them cared about.
Being up against more than thirty people didn’t faze Kazuya in the slightest, and instead he continued to laugh.
“It’s a pity,” Kazuya muttered while reaching into a pocket of his lab coat with his free hand. He pulled out a capsule between his fingers that was similar to an egg in shape and size, and held it up against the moonlight, before asking Chrono, “Do you know what this is?”
Silence.
Everyone’s attention was focused on Kazuya and the egg-shaped capsule he took out.
Hearing no one reply, Kazuya continued, “I’ll give you a hint. It’s composed of saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal.”
Only three people out of the group of thirty visibly reacted. Chrono, Suzhen, and the police officer.
Chrono’s grin slowly changed into a frown.
The things Kazuya listed were the ingredients for…
‘Gunpowder,’ Chrono thought to himself.
The capsule Kazuya retrieved was a handmade explosive. A bomb.
Having come to a decision, Suzhen aimed the crossbow at Kazuya’s head. He was too dangerous. If Kazuya survived, she and him would inevitably enter a life-or-death struggle against each other, but it wasn’t certain Chrono would enter a life-or-death struggle against her if he survived. Chrono at least acted rationally, he was a better alternative to keep alive if she had to pick between the two.
Having sensed the crossbow lock onto him, the smile on Kazuya’s face only grew wider.
In a quick motion, Kazuya twisted the egg-shaped capsule in his hand and tossed it into the air between the group of thirty and him while tilting his head to the side.
At the same time, Suzhen pulled the trigger on her crossbow.
The crossbow bolt whizzed past where Kazuya’s head was just moments before.
‘Missed,’ Suzhen thought while clicking her tongue, simultaneously crying out to the people who hadn’t yet realized it, “It’s a bomb! Run!”
Chrono, Suzhen, and the other survivors quickly hopped away from the capsule while covering their heads. A few survivors were confused and too slow to react, standing frozen in place.
The moment the capsule made impact with the ground, an ear-piercing explosion occurred and blasted away those nearest to it.
Amidst the few burning bodies and smoke, Kazuya’s fleeting voice rung out, “We’ll meet again, Chrono.”
They could only blankly watch Kazuya’s back as he ran into the forest. This time, no one dared to chase after him.
‘It isn’t worth it,’ Chrono thought. It was too dangerous to pursue someone into that forest at night. Even if they did somehow manage to catch up to Kazuya, the losses they’d experience was too much. Chrono wasn’t willing to take the risk.
‘Nakamura Kazuya...’ Chrono repeated the name within his mind for a while. His blood boiled with excitement.
…
Was the number he just killed about forty? It was barely passable, Kazuya thought to himself as he ran deeper into the forest.
Why did he become a chemist? It was because he loved it. When things broke apart into pieces. Decomposed. Slowly burnt into ashes.
He wanted to raze the world and everyone in it into the ground. It was his secret desire.
That was the reason he had explosives on him at all times, even when he was summoned onto Pandemonium.
‘If I knew this was going to happen, I should have brought more with me,’ he thought.
He had been holding back his urge to kill on Earth. How would society react to someone like him? It wasn’t possible back on Earth, but here on Pandemonium… He knew. He could do it.
If Kazuya were to have rampaged back on Earth, he estimated that the amount he’d be able to kill was only about one-hundred people before he would be gunned down by the Japanese self-defense forces. However, on Pandemonium, he thought that he would be able to kill one-hundred thousand people in the least before anything managed to stop him. He had even managed to absorb the power from about forty people in a single night, but that wasn’t enough for him.
He wanted to thank Ain for summoning them here, but if there was one thing he had a problem with…
‘You dared to make light of me, Ain?’ Kazuya thought, ‘Acting like a game master in a game, treating me and the rest of us like we’re mere players.’ The thought irked him. They were summoned to Pandemonium on Ain’s whim. They were treated only as disposable pawns. Kazuya wanted to prove to Ain that he had made a mistake. Kazuya wasn’t an ordinary person, nor was he an ordinary player inside Ain’s game.
‘I will be the game master,’ Kazuya decided. ‘My victory conditions are to kill everyone, and everyone else’s victory conditions, including Ain’s, is to survive.’
While Kazuya made plans for the future, a group of about fifty miniature humanoids appeared before him. He had never seen them before, but it was the same tribe of goblins that nearly wiped out Chrono’s group from earlier. They were in the middle of making their way out of the forest to ambush the remaining group of survivors tonight, but a lone human, Kazuya, had encountered them before they were able to pull it off.
Kazuya paused, a twisted smile returning to his face.
The tribe of goblins examined Kazuya with disdain like they were looking at an insect. At the vanguard of the group of goblin’s was the largest one, the tribe’s chieftain, with two other similarly large goblins by its side.
Kazuya didn’t run away like the goblins thought he would. Instead, he unexpectedly broke out into a dash and headed straight towards the chieftain.
The unexpected action produced a delayed response from the goblins. They hastily readied their weapons at the approaching human.
Kazuya threw what appeared to be a palm-sized rock in the eyes’ of the goblins at the goblin archers who were preparing their bows in the rear.
The goblins broke out into an uproarious laughter at the amusing, suicidal monkey performing before them. What was going through their minds was, ‘Did that human really think a mere rock would be able to do any damage to us?’ They could tell that the rock was hastily and inaccurately thrown as well, and wouldn’t manage to hit any of them.
What stopped the goblins’ and the chieftain’s laughter in its tracks was the abrupt sound and vibration that materialized behind them. It was something that the goblins had never heard, felt, nor experienced before in their lives. An explosion.
Determining the rough location of the vibration, the goblin chief quickly turned around.
What entered its eyes was a gruesome sight. The aftermath of the explosion. The goblin archers placed in the rear were blown to a burning, gory mess. Pieces of limbs and chunks of meat was all that was left of what used to be the tribe’s archers.
Before the goblin chief was even able to register the sight, it felt a sharp stab of pain digging into the back of its head. The goblin chief had died in an instant.
Using the explosion as a distraction, Kazuya had swiftly dispatched the goblin chieftain and the other two large goblins by its side with his dagger.
A scene of carnage and hell. This was something that goblins, being the lowest on the food chain, were used to, but such a total and swift defeat had never happened to them before.
It was only now that the goblins realized something. That they had make a mistake. They weren’t hunters, they were the ones being hunted. By a single, lone human. A predator.
Kazuya paused to kneel down after killing the three, digging his hands into the dead goblin chieftain’s head. After pulling his hand back out, he smeared the blood on his fingers across his face and stood back up. His actions left a few streaks of the goblin chieftain’s blood to be painted onto him like it were tribal paint.
Kazuya placed his foot onto the deceased goblin chieftain’s head, stomping on it while laughing maniacally, “ahahHAHAhah! Why don’t you join me?!”
The goblin chief’s head caved in beneath Kazuya’s feet. Complete dominance.
The survivors of the tribe didn’t try to avenge their chieftain. They were able to tell. Trying to do it was the same as suicide.
The rough meaning of Kazuya’s words were transmitted to the goblins due to the God and Devil system.
A shocking scene happened. The surviving goblins dropped down on their knees and bowed to Kazuya. In this forest it was survival of the fittest. This tribe of goblins had a tradition. Their leader and chieftain would be the one the tribe deemed to be the strongest. This meant: they had thought Kazuya to be the strongest. The strongest they had ever encountered. Strong enough to make him their new chieftain, even if he was a human.
It was at this moment that the sound of a bell rang out in the minds of all the humans on Pandemonium, and a message appeared before their eyes.
[The First Apostle: Kazuya of Insanity has arrived on Pandemonium.]
…
In another dimension, Yalda and Ain were staring wide-eyed.
“What’s the meaning of this, Yalda?! There are still five more years!” Ain quickly said in disbelief.
“Don’t look at me! He was your creation!” Yalda retorted.
Silence enveloped the two deities.
“This can only mean one thing…” Yalda muttered to himself.
Ain solemnly nodded in silence.
The two didn’t need any more words to voice their thoughts.
Kazuya’s desire and potential to eliminate humanity was so high that Pandemonium’s God and Devil system had mistaken him for a deity’s apostle.
In spite of this, Yalda laughed, “In addition to my seven apostles, it looks like your creations will have to deal with their own.”
For a while, there was only Ain’s grim expression and the sound of Yalda’s laughter in their white dimension.