Chapter 110: Do You Yearn for Power?

“Splash…”

Semi-transparent nutrient fluid spilled across the floor as the mutant girl, still unconscious and curled up with tubes and wires trailing from her body, was dragged free of the apparatus and rolled onto the ground.

Kyle flicked his hand. A white item card appeared, transforming into a large trench coat that draped over her naked body.

“Who are you? Release the test subject!”

“Damn it! If she stays out here, she’ll die!”

Two researchers crowded in the doorway, cursing furiously without understanding the situation. Kyle raised a Japanese firearm and aimed it at them with indifference. He pulled the trigger repeatedly. The bullets struck the medical personnel squarely between the brows, blowing their heads apart. The chaos within the isolation room once again fell silent.

“Thank you…”

A faint voice entered Kyle’s mind. He turned around. The mutant girl lay unconscious on the floor, while the ECG monitor connected to her showed increasingly feeble fluctuations, indicating that her vital signs were fading.

Kyle paused for a moment. Without giving it much thought, he drew a white ability card and used it, causing the card’s power to sink into the mutant girl’s body.

In less than half a second, the ECG display beside her, which had fallen nearly silent, suddenly sprang from a flat line into a violently undulating waveform.

Through his perception, Kyle sensed the girl’s life force surging back. Her pale face regained its color, and her breathing and heartbeat became clear and steady once more.

“It actually worked. Looks like your life wasn’t meant to end here,” Kyle said with a sigh.

What he had used was the rare white ability card, Extra Life, which granted a person three additional months of natural lifespan.

This was his first attempt to use it on someone who was on the verge of death. He had not expected the effect to be so immediate.

“Hm?”

The mutant girl’s eyelashes trembled. Then she opened her large eyes and, wrapped in the trench coat, slowly sat up with a bewildered expression. Her gaze settled on Kyle beside her.

“You saved me?”

Her lips did not move. Even after regaining consciousness, she was still “speaking” through thoughts carried by brain waves.

“Of course.”

Kyle crouched down without concern and met the eyes of the girl the gentleman would have called a little girl. In a cold voice, he said, “Young lady, do you desire a longer life and greater strength?”

“?”

Even with the mutant girl’s rapid cognitive abilities, she could not fully understand what he meant. Nevertheless, she nodded firmly and tugged at the hem of the pants belonging to the Venom suit.

“Good. From now on, you must obey my orders.”

This time she understood, and nodded again.

“Someone has broken into the laboratory!”

Behind Kyle, a multitude of footsteps sounded from the doorway. Several guards in protective suits rushed inside and immediately opened fire. The bullets struck the back of the Venom suit and bounced harmlessly away.

“Use your ability to kill them. Can you do it?”

Kyle did not turn to acknowledge the guards firing at him. He simply addressed the girl in front of him.

His principle was simple: he would save her, but never for free. She had to prove that she was worth saving.

The mutant girl widened her clear eyes without the slightest hesitation and turned her gaze toward the large piece of equipment beside the tank.

The machine seemed to be seized by an invisible force and floated weightlessly into the air. Yet after moving only half a meter toward the enemies at the door, it lost its momentum, hung motionless, and dropped back down.

“You’re still not accustomed to your ability. Try something smaller,” Kyle suggested, while bullets continued to patter against his back like a childish attempt at scratching an itch.

The mutant girl nodded, drew a deep breath, and looked once more at the broken glass scattered across the floor.

Several shards rose lightly into the air. With a sharp whoosh, they shot toward the doorway and pierced the guards’ hearts like blades.

“Well done.”

Kyle rose with mild satisfaction. At the same time, every guard behind him collapsed.

That was the result of rapid cognition. Perhaps this was the girl’s first time killing someone, but her exceptional mind had quickly reasoned through the problem: if she wanted to kill with only a few shards of glass, she had to strike a vital point—the brain or the heart.

“From now on, you’ll follow me and become the blade in my hand,” Kyle said bluntly. “Do you have a name?”

“K-208.”

The mutant girl answered through thought.

“That isn’t a name.”

Kyle shook his head. Looking into her bright, limpid eyes, he said, “From now on, your name is Rain-Eyed Karl. You may call me Boss, Chief, or Patriarch.”

“Chief.”

Rain-Eyed selected one title through mental transmission.

“Learn to speak aloud properly from now on. Don’t keep communicating through your thoughts.”

Kyle rubbed his temples in frustration. Her mental voice was very similar to the inner voice he heard while bonded with Venom. At times, the two voices overlapped in his mind, buzzing without end.

“Yes, Chief.”

Rain-Eyed spoke aloud, her voice soft and childlike.

“I’ll teach you the rest little by little. For now, I’ll teach you one thing—how to kill.”

Smiling, Kyle led Rain-Eyed toward the dozen or so guards outside who were gathering their courage to resist.

…

The Imperial Palace.

The Emperor sat kneeling in the great hall, his face haggard, while his attendants stood silently nearby.

He had just received the latest report: the demon Kyle was not dead. He had destroyed the biological research facility beside Mount Fuji and left behind another demonic card, just as he always did.

“Is that man truly a demon from Hell? Why can’t he be killed? The ninja organizations, the army, the armed forces… They are all a bunch of…”

The Emperor let out a heavy sigh. The dead were beyond saving.

For the past several nights, whenever he went to sleep, he dreamed of the half-moon-shaped cavern in Kanagawa, a place that looked as though it had been carved by divine punishment, and awoke in terror.

After a long silence, the Emperor finally made his decision.

“Make the arrangements. Order all soldiers and troops still outside Nisang to cease their campaigns and return to the homeland.”

“Your Majesty, this…”

His attendant hesitated, unsure whether he should offer words of persuasion.

The Emperor swept out his sleeve decisively.

“Go. The situation has left us no choice but to bow our heads. That man has been here less than a week, and Tokyo is already on the verge of falling. If we allow him to remain, Nisang will cease to exist as a nation. I believe the warlords and the cabinet will agree with my decision.”

“Yes.”

The attendant bowed and withdrew. He knew this was the first sign that the Emperor had chosen surrender.

To be driven into surrender by a single invader was humiliating, yet it was also reality. Only those who had faced that man could understand how terrifying he truly was.

Nisang began recalling the soldiers stationed along the Asian war front and sending them back to the homeland. Although it did not openly declare surrender, the clear gesture of voluntarily bowing its head and halting its operations stunned every nation involved in or observing the war.

The leaders of many countries were baffled. How had Nisang, so arrogant and overbearing only moments ago, suddenly chosen to withdraw its troops?

They dispatched agents and spies. It did not take long for them to uncover the reason and obtain a definite answer.

Kyle.

It was that war-crazed man again—the demonic butcher.

For days, Tokyo had been sealed off from the outside world, and most people believed that Kyle, who had gone to Tokyo alone, had died. Only some civilians in the Americas and Europe had been unwilling to believe it.

No one had expected him not only to survive, but to rampage through Tokyo with such ferocity.

The entire air force base had been annihilated. More than half the martial-arts schools that formed the foundation of the samurai code had been destroyed. Tens of thousands of army soldiers and members of the ninja organizations had died…

It was pure violence.

After this battle, Kyle gained yet another nickname:

“The Tyrant.”

And this was all before Nisang had formally announced its surrender.

Once Nisang finally surrendered and returned to the fold, Kyle would become a god in the hearts of all those who longed for peace.

An irreplaceable superhero.