Chapter 84: Imprisoned Once More
In the dilapidated boiler room, a dozen or so fireballs roasted the cold boiler until it glowed red and was scorching to the touch.
Before Ren Arakawa, Freddy flickered in and out of existence, a miserable sight to behold. The air was thick with the pungent smell of burnt flesh.
"Still not working?"
Ren Arakawa panted heavily, recovering his stamina. The black lines of a curse mark coiled around his body, and the bracelet on his wrist was also emitting a faint glow.
Freddy's ability was far trickier than Ren Arakawa had imagined.
Although Freddy currently had no way to deal with Ren Arakawa, this extremely risky method of operation would sooner or later cause problems due to some oversight.
Ren Arakawa's eyes darted around. In his Gene Lock activated state, his mind was exceptionally active, devising multiple solutions.
"I can only face him head-on."
Having reached a conclusion, Ren Arakawa took a deep breath. Just as Freddy reappeared, he punched him square in the face.
Enraged to the extreme by Ren Arakawa's continuous attacks and taunts, Freddy's metallic claws swiped even more frantically. Each swing carried the sound of tearing air, actually ripping apart the surrounding atmosphere.
Aided by his three-tomoe Sharingan, Ren Arakawa's figure moved like a phantom through the shadows of Freddy's claws, narrowly avoiding its fatal strikes again and again.
While dodging, Ren Arakawa began to run toward the factory exit.
Seizing the opportunity as Ren Arakawa turned his head, Freddy swiped its claw forward!
The sensation he expected to feel never came.
It was another textbook application of the clone jutsu.
"Ahhhhhh!"
Freddy shrieked as if driven mad, its arms and legs suddenly stretching to great lengths.
In the blink of an eye, it had transformed into a three-meter-tall giant.
It took a ferocious step forward!
That single step covered a distance that would take an ordinary person five strides!
Closer!
It was getting closer!
Freddy's claws glinted with a cold light. In its eyes, it was about to impale this damnable human before him.
In that instant, Ren Arakawa suddenly turned back, the three tomoe in his eyes spinning rapidly.
The tails of the three tomoe, sharp as blades, stabbed directly at Freddy's soul!
Freddy's expression suddenly froze. Its movements came to a halt in an instant, as if it were frozen on the spot.
Taking advantage of this precious opening, Ren Arakawa didn't hesitate for a second. He immediately turned tail and ran. A distance of several hundred meters passed beneath his feet in the blink of an eye.
He glanced at his watch. The flow of time seemed exceptionally clear at this moment. There was only a little over a minute left until the heavenly punishment chase ended.
However, Freddy wasn't controlled by the genjutsu for long. It quickly broke free from its restraints.
Freddy's claws grew even longer, and its body became taller and larger, actually reaching a height of five meters!
Every step it took made the ground tremble.
Freddy brought a claw down. Ren Arakawa felt an unprecedented sense of crisis. Believing his death was certain and with nowhere left to dodge, he rapidly formed hand seals and simultaneously used Water Release: Water Formation Wall and Iron Block.
"Slap!"
The pain he imagined did not occur.
Ren Arakawa opened his eyes to see Nuowa's hand mid-slap, as well as the anxious faces of Zhan Lan and Zheng Zha!
Looking around, he found himself lying on a main road.
Ren Arakawa's heart skipped a beat. "I fell asleep!?"
Zheng Zha looked horrified. "We called you for half a day and you didn't wake up! It's finally dawn!"
"Whew..." Ren Arakawa let out a sigh of relief. He looked at their expressions. "Why the long faces? Didn't we survive another day?" After a pause, he continued, "Did Zhang Jie and Zhao Yingkong go back to the police station?"
Zhan Lan, her forehead beaded with sweat, nodded like a chicken pecking at rice.
"Oh... oh..." Ren Arakawa said with a yawn, "That felt like a great sleep. I'm not tired anymore!"
The others were completely speechless.
Normally, for a strategist who had schemed all night only to find it had little effect and that he had nearly died, his mental state would have long since collapsed.
But he was acting as if nothing had happened.
Half an hour later, at Team China's assembly point.
Today, four people were missing from the entrance.
Zheng Zha was worried sick. "Could it be that Old Liu and Old Zhang got held up by something?"
"What could be more important than living? They're dead~" Ren Arakawa said with a nonchalant expression as he looked toward Zhan Lan. "Go buy coffee for the captain."
Zhan Lan was fraught with worry, her mind elsewhere. She didn't hear what Ren Arakawa said at all.
"Zhan Lan, go buy coffee," Ren Arakawa raised his voice.
Zhan Lan turned her head. "How can you be so unconcerned? We could enter the dreamscape at any moment. At least during the day we have teammates to help, but what about at night? Last night was too close..."
She spoke with lingering fear, "Even in such a dangerous situation, Freddy had the time to kill four people. If we're the least bit careless, we definitely won't escape."
"Tch, what's there to be afraid of? The worst that can happen is death!"
Seeing Ren Arakawa's relaxed shrug, Zhan Lan and Zheng Zha were left speechless.
"You guys," he said, "you just take this whole 'living' thing too seriously. If you can live, live. If you can't, then die. Does worrying yourself to death stop time from passing? Will staring wide-eyed in terror stop you from falling asleep?"
"It's all the same."
Zhan Lan was stunned. "You... how do you have such a strong resistance to pressure?"
Ren Arakawa was too lazy to reply.
If "they" didn't have a good resistance to pressure, the name Ren Arakawa would have ceased to exist long ago.
———————
Deep within an old prison, a narrow corridor was illuminated as bright as day by scorching white lights. The air was thick with the smell of sweat and despair.
The floor here was made of old metal plates. Although this was Level 3 of Impel Down, known as Starvation Hell, its position directly above the Blazing Hell meant all the heat was trapped by Starvation Hell's floor. The heat conducted through the metal plates to the corridor, turning the entire space into a giant oven.
Pirate Ren Arakawa was curled up in a corner of the corridor, doing his best to avoid the metal plates that were like teppanyaki grills. His prison uniform was soaked through, and sweat dripped down his forehead, gathering in the cracks of the floor before instantly evaporating into thin wisps of steam.
The air was humid and sweltering. Every breath was like inhaling a ball of hot, damp air, making one suffocate.
His skin was flushed red from the high temperature, and blisters were even starting to form in some places.
But even so, he couldn't use Water Release to cool himself down or quench his thirst.
Because if he did, it wouldn't be long before this place turned into a high-temperature steam room, which would be far more unbearable than the current situation.
"Grumble..."
Ren Arakawa's stomach growled from not having eaten for a long time. Hunger and dehydration caused his stomach to cramp in pain.
But he couldn't eat, because there was no food here, only endless heat and despair.
"Go search over there!"
Nearby, the footsteps of the jailers echoed. Ren Arakawa had little strength left to struggle.
He had been searching for an exit in this Starvation Hell like a headless fly, but he had exhausted his stamina without finding any leads. Now, he didn't even want to move. He just wanted to rest.
"Found him!"
"He's over here!"
(end of chapter)