CHAPTER 50: CHAPTER 49: POP!

Damn, killing humans gives more exp? What’s wrong with this sick artifact? Does it want me to become a serial killer?

Zaen thought as the notification flashed above him.

He thought he’d feel weirded out after killing a living and breathing human. But he didn’t. He didn’t feel even an ounce of remorse for killing the woman. Probably because he didn’t have to gaze at her corpse or because he had merely struck a monster.

In fact, he felt the same as he did after killing the anomalies, and it scared him that he might be emotionally dead.

Yeah, no, that’s not the case.

He still cared about those close to him, but not about anyone else.

Besides, he was surprised by the strange outcome. Based on the description, Zaen had assumed the crowbar would only work on doors, yet it blew the strange human-anomaly into smithereens, just like it did with the door.

"I guess one could call the anus a door too..."

As for Nemesis, he was too stunned to react. While they weren’t the strongest inside the cult, they were no pushovers. They were Devotees, the veiled ones. Yet one hit was all it took to kill a Physical-type hunter?

Just then, a thought appeared in Nemesis’s head. He had heard the reports of the one who took down the restaurant. It had served as their forward base to steadily earn more followers and spread the anomalous diseases.

Yet one day, they lost it all. Someone burned the restaurant out of existence. The one responsible for it was marked to be a man with bandages on his forehead.

While the one before him didn’t have any on his forehead, he did have bandages on his eyes.

Nemesis gritted his teeth. This bastard was the one who killed his sister and their father. However, as much as he wanted to kill Zaen, he couldn’t. Their skills weren’t matched, and judging from how he took Croc down in one blow, Nemesis wasn’t so keen on going against him.

The cult doesn’t have any information about him. Croc’s death would push our plans back, but informing the cult about this bastard is more important.

Their initial objective was to retrieve the anomaly they had created from scratch. While the subject died, they retrieved the corpse, that should be enough to please the elders. Now, he just had to leave, but Nemesis didn’t think Zaen would let him leave so easily. And he was right.

Twirling the crowbar in his hand, a thought formed in Zaen’s mind.

I should test it again to ensure the one-hit kill wasn’t a fluke. Hm.. maybe I should try it with other orifices as well.

As he was thinking of a way to put his plan into action, the other man he had knocked before got up and shoved Zaen into the wall.

"Nemesis, leave! I’ll keep this guy busy!"

The chain-man didn’t hesitate and ran like hell, disappearing from the alley.

"How noble of you," Zaen mumbled. "I’d be crying if I had eyes."

"Shut up!" the man yelled, pressing his elbow harder against Zaen’s throat. "Tell me who are you and who do you work for before I crush your throat—Hmm! Umm!"

The rest of the man’s words disappeared in his mouth along with half the crowbar.

"You talk too much," Zaen whispered in his ear.

Before the man could reach, he tugged at the handle again. Unlike the last time, the man’s body swelled to an extreme degree, turning into a hot-air balloon. Before Zaen knew it, the man’s eyes popped out of their sockets, and his barely visible veins were now on full-blown display.

The throat that the man was boasting to crush was far away from his swollen elbow. He desperately clawed at Zaen, but its lightweight self flew higher and higher in the air before exploding into bits just like the lizard woman before.

[Corrupt human killed! Exp +500]

[Exp: 3,100/1,600]

As the man’s blood and organs rained down, the scene reverted back. The jagged walls disappeared, and once again the well-lit alleyway appeared in its place.

"I guess I’m out of that stupid domain now," Zaen sighed.

All the blood and things were left behind in the domain. Even the blood on his hands and clothes. It was quite convenient since he was worried how he’d get home in bloodied clothes.

"Hm... now what?"

He had planned to kill all of the anomalies during the night, but it didn’t seem he would be able to carry on with that plan anymore. It took too much time and energy to just kill one of the targets.

Not to mention these strange people. He knew they had to be a part of the games because they possessed strange abilities like his own. But they weren’t working with F.O.R.C.E..

The fantasy-logic-infested brain of Zaen framed them as an evil faction working on opposite wavelengths from the organization.

But there was something else he was wondering about.

"Whoever they were, they were treating the anomaly like it was their belonging," he mumbled. "But the system said the anomalies were related to the restaurant. What connection could they have with an anomalous space?"

He knew the answers he was looking for would be given to him by the organization, but he didn’t trust them. Ever since he set foot in there, they had done nothing to win his trust but everything to push it away.

Prior to the encounter, his plan was to slowly reap the benefits, get strong, and then go solo, like he had been doing. But meeting the strange people today changed that plan.

He got lucky with the unexpected effect of the crowbar skill, but without it, he might not have made it out alive.

The situation was like would he join the evil side doing good things, or a presumably evil side? There was also a third choice, which essentially meant he’d be fighting three forces alone: the anomalies, the new evil organization, and F.O.R.C.E..

"The third choice is by far the worst... I guess I’ll have to probe someone for the answers. Hmm... I wonder if Ann would be of any use for this."