Chapter 273: Free City Alliance (6)
A man ran, breathless.
“Damn it. Damn it. Damn it. It must have been them!”
Most of his comrades, who had followed the leader out, had scattered in panic.
It all started when the boss’s Object, perfectly fine for two years, suddenly malfunctioned.
Tripping over a stone and getting impaled through the eye by rebar sticking out from crumbling concrete?
Plausible.
The cracked concrete floor suddenly collapsing, swallowing a comrade whole?
Plausible.
A comrade with a habit of tapping his grenade pouch having the safety pin just fall out, causing an explosion?
Plausible.
Slipping on the oily rainwater and falling from a rooftop?
Plausible.
But all these things happening simultaneously? Absolutely not normal.
Something unknown was moving among them.
Then someone screamed in terror.
“It’s a curse! A ghost’s curse!”
Some, seized by fear, began to flee madly.
Curse? Ghost? Ridiculous.
The man struggled to keep his wits.
He believed the ones their leader had been trying to catch were behind it.
Fortunately, some comrades who hadn’t lost their cool remained by his side.
Faces taut with tension, they pursued the escaped prey.
“Wait!”
The comrade in the lead suddenly halted everyone.
“Something’s there. Something white, stained crimson!”
For a moment, something white and bloodstained, like a ghost, flickered past the alley entrance.
“Aaargh!”
One comrade shrieked in terror.
“It’s a ghost! A ghost appeared!”
Consumed by fear, he fired wildly into the alley.
As bullets vanished into the alley’s darkness, the sound of crumbling concrete mingled with an ominous vibration.
“Damn it.”
The man scanned his surroundings.
Old, precarious buildings loomed threateningly, looking ready to collapse at any moment.
“Stop it! Please, stop!”
The man rushed towards his madness-stricken comrade and snatched the gun away.
But it was already too late.
The vibrations started by the bullets intensified, until finally, part of the building completely collapsed.
CRASH!
Dust and debris filled the air.
Miraculously, the man survived, uncrushed. His comrades were not so lucky.
They met gruesome ends, buried under the collapsed building debris.
The man tumbled, bones broken, skin torn, as if hit by a car.
Rolling out of the alley’s darkness, he saw the prey they had been chasing.
“Hah… Hah… Did I survive?”
The man gasped for breath, celebrating his survival, but unfortunately, it wasn’t over yet.
From the darkness of the collapsed building, a white mass stained with blood slowly approached.
It was the figure of a death-bringing reaper.
“H… Help me…”
The man struggled to turn his head, reaching out towards the prey he had been chasing.
But at that moment, a giant steel structure fell from the sky.
“Ah.”
Seeing it, the man sensed death and closed his eyes.
***