Chapter 3
Chapter 3: The First Word, The First Blood!
10 minutes of silence stretched on like a century.
The only sounds in the cabin were labored breathing and the rhythmic clanging of Master Wang's wrench against the seats.
"No good… someone has to go down and check."
Master Wang suddenly snapped his head up, his eyes bloodshot, a man whose spirit had been driven to the very edge.
He didn't want to die. He wanted to go home.
But he didn't dare go down himself.
"Who's going? Who's willing to go?"
Master Wang's gaze swept across the cabin like a starving wolf.
Every student his eyes landed on immediately looked down, terrified of being singled out.
"Master Wang!"
Li Xin, who had been huddled in the corner, suddenly called out, pointing toward the back row.
"Send Jiang Nan!"
"He's a mute—in class he's practically invisible, never joins any group activities!"
"At a time like this, it's only right he contributes something for everyone!"
"Besides, he's disabled. Even if… even if something happens, it's the smallest loss!"
This was naked moral coercion!
It couldn't even be called morality—this was murder!
"Li Xin, the hell is wrong with you?!"
Yang Wei shot to his feet, eyes blazing.
"Bullying a mute? If you want to go so badly, why don't you go yourself?!"
"I… I'm the class president! I have to oversee the bigger picture!"
Li Xin argued shamelessly.
"Enough!"
Teacher Chen Tong stepped into the aisle and spread her arms wide.
"Master Wang, Li Xin, calm down! Jiang Nan is my student—I absolutely will not allow either of you to force him to his death!"
"Get out of the way!"
Master Wang, his mind already overwhelmed by terror, wasn't listening to reason.
He shoved Chen Tong aside and brandished the heavy wrench, snarling, "Anyone who stops me goes down too!"
Chen Tong slammed into a handrail, letting out a stifled groan of pain.
Master Wang stormed to the back row in long strides, grabbed Jiang Nan by the collar, and hoisted him halfway off his seat.
"Little mute! Don't blame me for being ruthless! In a moment I'm sending you out through the window!"
"Take a lap outside! Just confirm it's safe out there, and I'll let you back in!"
Spittle sprayed across Jiang Nan's face.
Jiang Nan stared at the frenzied middle-aged man before him, his expression blank—eyes like a man looking at a corpse.
‘I hadn't intended to be the first to kill. But since someone was so eager to die…’
Jiang Nan's right hand, hanging at his side, slowly lifted—then simply scratched at an itch.
It wasn't that he was reluctant to use his Word Spirit. It was just… there was already a more convenient method at hand.
Caaaw!!
A piercing shriek exploded without warning outside the window!
The sky went dark.
The murky yellow sunset vanished in an instant, replaced by an ink-black darkness.
And there, on the branch just outside the shattered bus window—
The crow that Jiang Nan had "aimed at" earlier had swelled to twice its original size!
Its feathers had turned blood red, and it fixed its gaze on Jiang Nan through the window.
It remembered this human!
That gesture—that was a challenge!
Roaarrr!
The mutated crow let out a roar more beast than bird, beat its wings, and slammed into the window!
From the very moment it had arrived, Jiang Nan had never stopped watching it.
After all, this was no longer Blue Star—any living thing could be a threat.
The instant the crow lunged, he moved.
But he didn't warn Master Wang. He didn't push him aside either.
Instead, he drove his knee hard into Master Wang's stomach and used the momentum to roll free of his grip!
"Ugh—! You've got some nerve, you little mute, you're actually stron—"
Master Wang doubled over in pain, about to unleash a torrent of curses.
Crash!
The glass exploded!
A dark shape wrapped in a fetid gust tore through the air, filling the exact spot Jiang Nan had just occupied.
That was Master Wang's spot.
Shlick!
No contest.
That razor-sharp beak punched clean through Master Wang's throat. The force of the impact snapped his cervical vertebrae.
Blood fountained up to the ceiling of the bus, raining down across Li Xin's face.
"Hgh… hgh…"
Master Wang clutched his spurting throat, eyes bulging, staring at Jiang Nan—who watched with cold indifference—in sheer disbelief.
Then he collapsed heavily to the floor, convulsed twice, and went still.
"Ahhhhhh! Someone's dead!! "
"Monster! That thing is a monster!"
The cabin erupted into chaos.
The mutated crow did not leave after killing. It planted its feet on Master Wang's corpse.
It shook the blood and flesh from its beak, then its crimson eyes locked onto Jiang Nan once more.
Its target had been this brazen human from the very beginning!
"Damn it, let's fight it!"
Yang Wei was terrified, but his fighting spirit hadn't broken.
He grabbed the fire extinguisher from the wall and charged forward alongside two other powerfully built athletes.
"Stay back!"
Chen Tong had just reached down for the wrench on the floor when she noticed Jiang Nan moving.
Facing this creature that had just killed without hesitation, Jiang Nan didn't run. Instead, he curled a finger toward it in a beckoning gesture.
Caaaw!!!
The mutated crow exploded with fury. It beat its wings, whipping up a gale inside the narrow cabin, and hurled itself straight at Jiang Nan's face!
"Run!! "
Yang Wei screamed in despair.
Anyone could see it—the crow was too fast. No human could react in time.
Just as that razored beak was about to punch through Jiang Nan's skull—
Jiang Nan ducked low and reached his hand under the seat beside him.
Something was cowering there, trembling violently.
"Don't… don't kill me…"
Li Xin was hugging his own head, praying furiously.
Then a tremendous force seized him!
‘Since you wanted to be a leader so badly, take the first hit for everyone.’
Jiang Nan yanked Li Xin out by the scruff of his neck like a chicken.
Then, without hesitation, shoved him in front of himself as a shield.
What people called "making use of trash"—nothing more than this.
"No… Noooooo!!!"
Li Xin's pupils shrank to pinpoints as the enormous, gaping maw bore down on him from inches away.
Thwack!
The beak drove straight through Li Xin's chest!
"Ahhhhhhh!"
Li Xin let out a shrill, agonized scream as blood surged freely.
The mutated crow seemed not to have anticipated this turn of events. Its beak caught between Li Xin's ribs and, for a moment, it couldn't pull free!
It thrashed its wings furiously, trying to shake off the dead weight.
‘Now.’
Jiang Nan released the already-limp Li Xin and stepped back once.
The world shifted in his eyes.
In that instant, the surrounding chaos—the screaming, the wailing, Li Xin's cries of agony—all seemed to recede into the distance.
A single thought moved.
Expression serene, Jiang Nan slowly raised his right hand.
The standard execution stance.
Chen Tong had just picked up the blood-slicked wrench. She looked up—and saw it.
That boy who had never spoken a word, standing now in a pool of blood.
Facing the horrifying creature still tearing savagely at Li Xin's flesh, he neither flinched nor retreated.
He simply raised his hand quietly and formed the shape of… a Finger-Gun Shape?
"Jiang Nan! Get back! You'll die!!"
Chen Tong shouted and rushed toward him.
But in the next instant—
The thin lips that had been sealed shut for 18 years finally, slowly, parted.
And softly, he released the very first word he had ever spoken in this world.
"Bang!"
BOOM!
No muzzle flash. No smoke.
But in Jiang Nan's vision, that deducted "1"—
Transformed into a blazing meteor in an instant, compressing terrifying waves of air pressure as it left his hand!
Ignoring space. Ignoring defense.
There in a single breath!
Crack!
The mutated crow, still thrashing wildly, didn't even have time to cry out.
Its head simply detonated into a mist of blood.
The headless carcass crumpled and collapsed on top of Li Xin, who had barely a breath left in him.
A mist of blood hung in the air.
The entire cabin fell silent once more.