The darkness of the shopping mall was torn apart by a chemical glow. The neon blue lightstick had barely hit the tiled floor, its light yet to fully spread, when an invisible, crushing pressure slammed down on the space around the display tent. Kairi's ears rang, the oxygen in his lungs seemingly drained away.
The masked assassin was a true apex predator. Even with Kyouya's footsteps echoing frantically down the opposite corridor, he immediately reacted to the sudden burst of blue light. Without a single second of hesitation or loss of focus, he signaled with his hand, instantly splitting his formation and ordering his subordinates to tightly encircle the camping display area.
There was not a single warning or a chance to explain. The first barrage from the military-grade rifles tore through the flimsy tent fabric, shredding backpacks, water bottles, and camping gear to pieces. Debris flew everywhere, accompanied by the acrid stench of gunsmoke.
Amidst the torrential rain of bullets threatening to mince the group, Ginji let out a roar and lunged forward. He didn't conjure up any energy shield; instead, he frantically activated his ability, The Luck. He forced the system to execute the most insane gamble: "The entire volley of bullets aimed at Kairi, Yume, and myself must miss."
But the price was too steep. The system flashed a continuous red alert across Ginji's retina. He groaned in agony as fresh blood began to trickle from the corner of his mouth. Pushed to its absolute limit, his luck points plummeted uncontrollably, plunging past zero and hitting straight at -9.
Under Ginji's desperate cover, a chain of bizarrely lucky cause-and-effect events occurred, allowing all three of them to evade the point-blank barrage. They recklessly dashed out of the shredded tent, diving into the labyrinth of camping shelves to temporarily shake off the ring of fire. But Kairi knew all too well: with that assassin's freakish spatial and cognitive distortion ability, blindly running through this building was just waiting to die.
He leaned his back against a counter, panting heavily, forcing his brain into overdrive following the shock of Kyouya's betrayal. Kairi activated The Catalyst, issuing a single demand: "Get everyone out of here alive."
The system instantly responded, granting him a jerrycan of gasoline along with a blurry keyword: [WATER].
Kairi furrowed his brows. Gas was for burning, that much was obvious. But water? Where in this mall would he find enough water to extinguish Nostra's firepower? A memory flashed through his mind—Yume's hint that the assassin's ability relied on his line of sight and the surrounding environment. He then looked up at the ceiling. The automatic fire sprinkler system. A ruthless chemical and physical equation took shape in his mind.
Kairi quickly discussed the plan with the other two. Despite being covered in wounds and standing at death's door with -9 points, Ginji still managed a grim smirk. He picked up an iron pipe and slammed it hard against the shelf, creating a resounding clatter, and shouted in a hoarse voice:
"You Nostra trash! Where are you looking? We're right here!"
The assassin froze. His cold, sharp eyes locked onto the source of the sound from beneath the mask. He and his men immediately turned their muzzles, unleashing a storm of bullets as they gave chase. Kairi and Ginji didn't run straight for the exit; they began a deadly race, zigzagging through the narrow aisles. Bullets shredded styrofoam coolers and snapped tent ropes, creating a scene of horrific devastation.
Meanwhile, Yume moved silently on the perimeter. Hugging the open jerrycan, she weaved her way through, drenching the tightly packed nylon sleeping bags and tents with the highly flammable liquid. The overpowering stench of gasoline rose, thick and heavy, mingling with the smell of gunpowder.
As Kairi and Ginji reached the center edge of the display area—right beneath the densest cluster of sprinklers—the time was ripe. The assassin was less than ten meters away. He raised his gun, ready to execute his prey.
Kairi suddenly hit the brakes and spun around. He hurled the backpack over his shoulder straight ahead with all his might. Driven by a shooter's reflex, the assassin pulled the trigger. The bullet struck dead center of the mid-air backpack.
BOOM!
The backpack, packed with dozens of mini gas canisters scavenged from the portable stove counter, detonated in mid-air. The fireball rapidly engulfed the rows of nylon tents that Yume had pre-soaked in gasoline, spreading at a dizzying speed. The ferocious orange flames roared to life, licking up to the ceiling. Less than two seconds later, the intense heat shattered the mercury bulbs of the fire alarm system.
Water cascaded down from the ceiling. But when the high-pressure water hit the melting, burning nylon, an explosive physical phenomenon occurred. A deafening hiss erupted, followed by a massive volume of a mixed aerosol—dense water vapor entwined with thick, toxic gray-black smoke. An obscuring wall of fog, so thick it swallowed the entire camping section, completely stripped away all visibility and neutralized the assassin's spatial pressure.
"Go!" Kairi roared. The group immediately used the dense smoke to sprint madly toward the emergency stairwell. The escape route was right before their eyes.
But right then, a cold, mocking voice cut through the smoke: "Did you really think you could escape me twice using the same garbage trick?"
Bang! A crisp gunshot rang out. Ginji skipped a beat and stumbled forward. The bullet had caught him right in the chest.
Kairi and Yume whirled around in shock. Emerging through the fog, the assassin walked at a leisurely pace. On his face was no longer a standard cloth mask, but a state-of-the-art Thermal HUD Mask—capable of filtering toxic gas and equipped with thermal imaging. He had learned from his past mistake and came prepared for this exact scenario.
Kairi's heart clenched. His calculations, the ability's hint... was it all meaningless in the face of this absolute piece of gear? He wondered if he had followed the ability's instructions correctly, why was the outcome still this disastrous? Just as the assassin was about to order his men to round them up, a sudden crackling sound filled the air.
CRACK!
Another piercing explosion suddenly erupted from a nearby wall, accompanied by a shower of blue electrical sparks. The area's entire electrical system violently short-circuited. As it turned out, a jagged piece of aluminum shrapnel from Kairi's gas canister explosion earlier had flown far and lodged deep into an open main electrical box left exposed by the unfinished construction. And as the fire sprinklers poured down, the water inadvertently created a perfect conductive bridge.
High-voltage electricity surged across the flooded floor. The assassin and his Nostra subordinates jerked violently, their screams caught in their throats as the current ripped through their bodies, completely paralyzing their nervous systems in fits of convulsions. The Catalyst's keyword [WATER] wasn't just meant to create smoke—it was meant to forge this web of death.
Not wasting even half a second, Kairi grabbed Yume's hand, hoisted the gasping Ginji over his shoulder, and charged straight down the stairs. Just as they did, the mall's main breaker tripped. Everything plunged into pitch darkness.
The three of them dragged themselves down to the parking garage, where the van was already idling, waiting. Ginji lay flat on the backseat, his face as pale as a sheet, his condition so dire his breathing was nothing more than faint wheezes. Yume frantically opened the first aid kit, her hands trembling as she applied pressure to the wound with gauze. She understood the cruel rules of this game better than anyone: If Ginji died here from the assassin's bullet, the system's Appropriation mechanism would undoubtedly trigger. His life was the absolute priority.
The engine roared. The van tore into Tokyo's rainy night. Kairi gripped the steering wheel, his eyes bloodshot, flooring the gas pedal straight toward an underground private clinic—where a doctor friend of Yume's was waiting.
Four hours passed in the surgical corridor, stretching on like four centuries. The cold smell of antiseptics did nothing to soothe the suffocating tension.
Finally, the hospital room door opened. Kairi and Yume stepped inside, bracing themselves for the worst. Yet, what met their eyes was the sight of Ginji leaning against the pillows, his chest wrapped in white bandages, loudly crunching on an apple.
"What's with the crying?" Ginji smirked slightly, tossing the apple core into the trash. "Let me tell you, if my negative points had dropped to a full -10 back there, that bullet would've definitely blown a hole right through my heart. This one's just the system showing a little mercy, dodging the vitals!"
Kairi let out a heavy breath, a rare wave of relief washing over him, and gave a soft chuckle at his teammate's sheer stubbornness. They had survived. They had beaten both Nostra and death itself.
But that moment of peace was as fleeting as a blink of an eye. In the quiet of the hospital room, a cold, inorganic system notification echoed simultaneously in all three of their minds:
[Notification: The player "The Probabilist" has died.]
[A replacement has been chosen.]