Book 3: Chapter 20: Kirutosumu
Excluding the baby girl in Liza’s arms, Qin Lun’s group totaled six adults. As the one who first proposed the suggestion, Qin Lun gave up his voting right and left the decision to the remaining five people.
Among the five, Jonathan and Hill were the first to oppose the suggestion. Lü Kuang wavered and cast an abstention vote. Xiao Dao hesitated for a while but finally chose to oppose as well. This outco was actually expected—asking ordinary people to abandon their ethics and morals so quickly wasn’t easy. Moreover, Jonathan and the others hadn’t yet been pushed to the brink.
The only surprising thing for Qin Lun was that Liza actually voted in favor. However, her choice was understood by everyone. Among all of them, Liza was the least willing to take risks. As a mother, doing anything for her newborn daughter wasn’t surprising.
“Dr. Qin, you don’t bla
for opposing the plan, do you?” Xiao Dao asked softly, sounding uneasy.
Qin Lun glanced faintly at Xiao Dao. The street thug’s fierce face showed a trace of sha. Ever since Xiao Dao took the wheel, he seed to carry a strange sense of guilt toward Qin Lun, which piqued Qin Lun’s curiosity.
“Don’t overthink it. I wasn’t willing to involve innocent people in our mission either. I just wanted to give everyone more options. Didn’t you see I gave up my vote too?” Qin Lun smiled and said casually. “Let’s go. We need to find that police car as soon as possible.”
Hearing this, Xiao Dao relaxed and strode forward. The two were no longer in the police station building but had circled around from the back of the lobby to the police station’s underground Parking Lot. Earlier, Xiao Dao had found a set of car keys on the corpse of a police officer. Now he and Qin Lun were heading to the Parking Lot to find the car, while the others returned to the lobby to check the movents of the Phantom Demons at the police station entrance.
Not many cars were left in the police station Parking Lot. They quickly found the police car belonging to the deceased officer. They were lucky—the police car was an off-road vehicle with a relatively spacious back seat. After removing the rear seat panels, they could just barely fit six people and a baby.
Xiao Dao drove the police car out of the Parking Lot and t up with the other four who were waiting at the police station entrance.
Paris was a huge city, divided in two by the Seine River. The Arc de Triomphe was located in the west of the city, at the western end of the Champs-??lysées. Notre-Da de Paris stood in the city center, on the ??le de la Cité.
According to the map, their current location was between the Arc de Triomphe and Notre-Da de Paris. They were very close to the Arc de Triomphe—less than 1.2 kiloters away. They were about 6 kiloters from Notre-Da de Paris, forming an irregular triangle with the two landmarks.
“Father Hill, should we go to the Arc de Triomphe or Notre-Da de Paris?”
Perhaps because he had led the opposition to Qin Lun’s suggestion, Jonathan felt sowhat embarrassed facing Qin Lun for the mont, so he directed his question to the other recognized Veteran.
“Lü Kuang, what do you think?” Hill smiled slightly but didn’t offer his own opinion.
For his own reasons, Hill agreed with the others. However, that didn’t an the Shepherd wanted to turn over a new leaf, beco a good guy, or save the world. The overall strategy he and Qin Lun had set wouldn’t change; these newcors were still just their pawns.
“We’re closer to the Arc de Triomphe, and that’s where Akechi Samanosuke encountered the first major scenario. Logically, going there is the most suitable choice! But… that’s only from a ga perspective. The specifics need everyone’s input!” Lü Kuang offered an ugly smile.
If the ferocity of the Blade Ashigaru made him feel the difference between the ga and reality, then the shocking phenonon of Phantom Demons being infectious truly crushed Lü Kuang’s confidence.
The imnse pressure to survive forced him to wake from his beautiful fantasies. Lü Kuang finally realized he was facing a life-or-death crisis. The thought of being crushed like a bug by Phantom Demons made the young man tremble uncontrollably.
Thoughts of earning mission rewards and exchanging for Superpower were all thrown out the window now. The fact that this usually sowhat cowardly but still kind-hearted young man cast an abstention vote on Qin Lun’s inhuman suggestion showed just how much pressure he was under.
“Then we’ll go to the Arc de Triomphe!” Hill declared decisively. “It’s been less than two hours since the disaster began. The Phantom Demons probably haven’t taken control of the city yet. Most of them are fighting Paris’s ard forces. We must find Akechi Samanosuke within this ti. Otherwise, we won’t survive these seven days.”
Everyone fell silent, tacitly accepting Hill’s arrangent. Although they were just ordinary people, they weren’t lacking in judgnt. From the mont the Blade Ashigaru appeared, they had already realized they made the wrong choice from the very beginning.
They should have compromised with Matthew and the other two—trading half the mission rewards for their lives! After refusing, they could pretty much be considered dead already; whether they survived depended entirely on luck.
These Blade Ashigaru not only feared no death but moved as swift as the wind. They could leap onto speeding cars and wielded enough strength to pierce through sturdy rcedes hoods with their katanas. Even without understanding their intelligence, the combat prowess the Blade Ashigaru displayed was already beyond what they could handle.
And the Blade Ashigaru were only the lowest rank of Phantom Demons—what if there were more powerful ones? Initially, they could have chosen an advantageous location, luring scattered Phantom Demons in over the seven days and defeating them one by one with their combined strength.
However, the Phantom Demons’ high infectivity made that plan unworkable. Even if only half of Paris’s over ten million residents turned into Phantom Demons, they would have no place to stand. Forget hiding for seven days—they couldn’t last even seven hours.
If they couldn’t fight and couldn’t hide, they had to rely on external forces. At this stage, following the Paris police offered a high chance of killing so Phantom Demons and completing Main Mission One. However, wherever the Paris police were stationed would definitely be a key target for the Phantom Demons. Not only would there be large numbers of Phantom Demons of various ranks, but the Phantom Demon warships floating in the sky might even join the battle. That would be the most foolish choice.
Since the Paris police couldn’t help and ti wasn’t on their side, they could only rely on the main characters from the Oni Clan faction.
“Did any of you feel sothing?” Xiao Dao, who was driving, suddenly frowned.
The already skittish group snapped to attention, setting aside their thoughts and focusing. Imdiately, they heard a dull rumbling coming from ahead, mixed with what sounded like French screams and cries.
“Screech…” The police car had just rounded a corner when Xiao Dao alertly turned the steering wheel. The car perford a neat drift, sliding sideways. After everyone inside steadied themselves, they looked down the wide street.
Ahead on the street, a crowd of Paris residents in all kinds of clothing scread in terror as they ran toward them. Chasing close behind was a massive creature.
This Phantom Demon stood over ten ters tall. Its upper body was humanoid, clad in armor and wearing an iron helt. Its lower body, however, had four legs with hooves like a horse. Crouching in the middle of the street, it almost completely blocked the six- to seven-ter-wide road. In its hand, it held a giant long-handled hamr. The hamrhead was as big as a small car, its triangular spikes dripping with human flesh and severed limbs.
“Is that… Kirutosumu?!” As the only one familiar with Phantom Demon types, Lü Kuang’s eyes nearly popped out. Sweating profusely, he yelled hysterically, “How is this possible? How can a Kirutosumu be this size…”
While everyone was in shock, the Kirutosumu about a hundred ters ahead made its next move. It swung its giant hamr, sweeping toward the Parisians in front of it. Perhaps it didn’t notice the obstacles on either side of the street—the hamr didn’t hit anyone directly but struck a red Ferrari parked by the roadside.
“Boom!” An deafening roar echoed as the red Ferrari flew through the air like a golf ball, tracing a red arc across the sky. The crowd in front was instantly cleared, limbs and body parts sent flying everywhere.
One unlucky person, grazed by the Ferrari’s undercarriage, flailed about in the middle of the street before collapsing. His upper body, from the chest up, was gone. His severed chest cavity spurted blood like a fountain.
But he wasn’t the unluckiest one. The unluckiest was a French woman. Stuck close to the Ferrari’s undercarriage, she was smashed along with the sports car into a roadside billboard. Her entire body turned into a pulpy ss—half stuck to the car’s underside, the other half sared across the torn billboard like an abstract painting.
“Urgh…” Liza and Lü Kuang simultaneously leaned against the car window, retching.
“Turn around quickly! We’re no match for it!” Jonathan cried, his face pale as he slapped Xiao Dao’s seatback.
“How can there be sothing like this?!” Xiao Dao stared in horror at the Ferrari, now a pile of scrap tal. His hands on the steering wheel trembled uncontrollably.
A few seconds later, the police car roared to life, swerving around like a frightened rabbit and speeding away in the opposite direction, completely ignoring the screaming Parisians running toward them from behind.
After turning two more corners, the newcors inside the car gradually recovered from their fear.
“Lü Kuang, what rank was that Kirutosumu among the Phantom Demons?” Jonathan asked, chest heaving as he gasped for breath. “Is it a boss-level Phantom Demon?”
“No, in the ga, Kirutosumu is only one rank above Blade Ashigaru—not even a minor boss!” Lü Kuang gave a smile uglier than crying and muttered, “But it shouldn’t be this big. Except for having four legs, in the ga it’s about the sa size as a human.”
“We’re going to die. We’re all going to die!” Liza’s ntal defenses finally shattered. Clutching her daughter, she bowed her head and wept. “My poor Emi, Mommy is so sorry!”
“Shut up, Liza!” Jonathan’s face flushed red as he shook the young woman’s shoulders. “We’ll be fine, I promise!”
“We’re here, look… up ahead!” Xiao Dao suddenly yelled in shock, pointing forward. “The Arc de Triomphe—is that thing really… the Arc de Triomphe?”
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