“How long are you going to keep making a scene!?”
“Jiang Shuo, you weren’t like this before we got married! Do you know how much I’ve sacrificed for this family over all these years?”
Cuiyue watched the arguing man and woman before her, her face devoid of emotion.
‘Is this that guy’s attack?’
‘It’s simply… ridiculous!’
She had moved past her childhood trauma long ago. The personality she had forged served as her greatest shield against unpleasant memories.
The scene before her distorted and dissolved like an oil painting. Cuiyue let out a bored yawn.
Then, a completely different scene presented itself—a memory that Cuiyue had never experienced before.
In the image, there was a cramped iron cage. A boy was curled up inside, a collar around his neck.
‘This is…’
Cuiyue grew interested.
The boy lived out his days like a caged animal. Aside from his imprisonment, he was responsible for satisfying the perverted physical desires of a filthy old man.
Cuiyue felt disgusted, but she had no other reaction.
‘Why did that guy show me this?’
Finally, one day, the boy’s Heart Worm suddenly awakened. He transformed into an Electronic Ghost and used electrical appliances to kill the perverted old man.
“That actually worked…”
After that, there was a nonsensical pursuit. By the time the boy finally settled down, a man wearing glasses—who bore a striking resemblance to Gendo Ikari—patted the boy’s head and asked in a kind tone, “What is your name?”
“Shirakawa…” The boy picked at a scab on his hand, his voice timid. “Yu Shirakawa…”
‘That name?’
A flash of lightning seemed to strike Cuiyue’s mind. Something surfaced for a brief moment, only to vanish instantly.
The name Yu Shirakawa had existed in her mind ever since she awakened.
‘What on earth… does it mean?’
While she was still confused, the scene shifted again. This time, it was no longer a memory but… a fantasy?
Jiang Jian Yue looked at her coldly, then waved her hand. A faceless man in a suit bowed as he approached.
“Go. Set her account balance to zero.”
“Yes, Missy!”
“NO!!!!”
Cuiyue fell out of the medical capsule and onto the floor. Reina Hayami supported her with concern and asked, “What happened?”
“It’s nothing,” Cuiyue forced herself to calm down, her breath coming in ragged gasps.
She frantically pulled her mobile phone out of her storage space, wanting to check her bank account balance, but she found there was no signal.
“Dammit!”
……
Yuki Asahi had remained on high alert ever since entering the space.
That was, until Maeda Kaiichi appeared before him.
Yuki’s fists clenched tight, and cold sweat poured down his skin. Even though he knew Maeda was dead and this was merely a hallucination created by the enemy, that bone-deep fear continued to wash over him.
Unlike the bystander perspective others experienced in their illusions, the Maeda Kaiichi here seemed to be able to see Yuki.
“Yo, isn’t this Yuki? My ‘good friend’…” Maeda seemed to be chewing bubble gum, his hands shoved into his pockets.
The surrounding scene constructed itself rapidly. Classroom desks and chairs reappeared, and the air filled with a familiar yet distant… suffocating atmosphere.
Thud—
Yuki was kicked hard in the stomach. His body crumpled, and he slammed into the locker behind him. A rag fell onto his head, and the stench of dirty water filled his nostrils.
He discovered with horror that his superpower was gone.
Pft.
A piece of gum, wet with saliva, hit him in the face. Maeda cursed with a look of disgust, “Bastard! Who gave you permission to stand up straight while talking to me!?”
Yuki remained silent. His bangs obscured his eyes, and that familiar sense of dread paralyzed his limbs. He couldn’t even squeeze out a single word.
The scene suddenly shifted. A man—a faceless man—knelt before him.
“Yuki… I’m sorry! Dad is a coward…”
“Dad…” Yuki murmured, raising his hand, but the scene changed again.
It was a woman called “Mom,” looking at him with total indifference as she said, “Maeda is bullying you? You must have done something wrong first, otherwise he wouldn’t hit you for no reason.”
Yuki’s raised hand clenched into a trembling fist.
“Idiot, idiot—does someone like you really deserve to live in my house? Get out!”
Funae Amuro.
“Bullying is a very serious accusation. You must take responsibility for your words. Do you have evidence?” This was the glasses-wearing female teacher from elementary school.
“Yuki’s desk has a certain smell…”
“…”
“You brat…”
Finally, the person before him changed into Jiang Jian Yue.
Her ash-gray bangs covered half of her red eyes, but they couldn’t hide the disappointed expression on her face.
“You’ve disappointed me so much, Yuki Asahi!”
Clack—
A Sun Pendant Necklace hit Yuki’s chest.
“I thought you had grown after all this time, but in the end, you’re still the same cowardly trash! Are you even worthy of being my boyfriend?”
The fake Jiang Jian Yue’s disgust was palpable, as if she were looking at a pile of non-recyclable garbage. She suddenly lifted her foot, her high heel stomping down toward Yuki’s chest.
In the next moment, her ankle was seized in a death grip.
Snap—
The sound of bone cracking exploded.
The fake Jiang Jian Yue was pinned to the ground by a suddenly explosive Yuki, his hand squeezing her fair-skinned neck.
Yuki was expressionless, but his reddened eyes were filled with killing intent.
“Pe… De…”
Gurgling sounds came from the fake Jiang Jian Yue’s throat. Her face turned red, then shifted toward a sickly blue.
“You talk too much.” Yuki’s chest heaved as if he were accumulating endless rage.
He released one hand and clenched it into a creaking fist. His face remained expressionless, but his voice was squeezed through his gritted teeth. “Don’t insult her!”
……
Bang!
In the Vision World, Pluto’s head snapped back. She staggered a few steps before finally steadying herself.
“Hmph!” A trickle of blood leaked from the corner of Pluto’s mouth. When she looked down again, she realized everyone else had vanished.
Even the corpses were gone.
“What?”
Pluto suddenly sensed a surge of killing intent.
Outside the building, Jiang Jian Yue, who had moved Yuki Asahi’s body to a safe place, returned to the square in front of the skyscraper.
‘I guess I have to use that?’
Jiang Jian Yue’s red eyes flashed. Her shoulder suddenly felt a heavy weight.
A long, thick, massive cannon rested on her shoulder.
Twenty meters long with a 406mm caliber—this was a giant cannon disassembled and modified from a Soviet 2A3 Self-propelled Howitzer, originally designed to fire tactical nuclear shells. It was a weapon perfectly suited for a superhuman like Jiang Jian Yue.
A high-explosive shell with an overcharged propellant was loaded and ready in her storage space. The cannon’s lifespan was likely only one round, a trump card to be used at a critical moment like this.
Unfortunately, she hadn’t been able to get her hands on a tactical nuke.
[Armorization!]
Black armor covered her body, adding another layer over her combat suit. It wasn’t a crude wrapping but seemed to merge seamlessly with the suit itself.
Jiang Jian Yue pressed the modified firing button.
There was no deafening roar—the sound was compressed to its limit at the moment of birth, transformed into a release of energy so pure it made the soul tremble.
One blast!
There was only a low hum that vibrated deep in the bone marrow, as if the very core of the earth were being torn apart.
The white light that erupted from the muzzle instantly swallowed everything in the vicinity, easily outshining all the artificial neon lights of the cyberpunk setting.
A shockwave ring, visible to the naked eye as it distorted the air, expanded outward at supersonic speeds. Everywhere it passed, the rain wasn’t just blown away—it was instantly vaporized!
The 406mm high-explosive shell, carrying a power capable of devastating a planet’s surface, drilled precisely into the first floor of the skyscraper.
A fraction of a second later…
The world seemed to hit a mute button before being violently torn apart.
At the base of the building, the area hit by the shell collapsed inward, as if a giant invisible fist had punched through tofu.
Immediately after, unimaginable high-temperature, high-pressure gases and shockwaves roared out of every crevice.
Glass didn’t just shatter; it turned directly into dust.
In this fantasy world symbolizing extreme capitalism, the cry of a heavy punch from a fiery, bygone era felt incredibly fierce.
BOOM—
The earth-shaking roar arrived late, but it sounded like the death knell of the apocalypse.
The modern skyscraper, dozens of stories high, began a terrifying chain-reaction collapse starting from the floor that had been hit.
Like a sandcastle with its foundation removed, the massive structure toppled layer after layer amidst suffocating dust and a rain of gravel!
Concrete blocks and twisted rebar rained down like a storm onto the virtual streets in all directions, destroying the neon signs, overpasses, and buildings meticulously constructed in the map.
The core area of the Cyberpunk Rainy Night map was instantly enveloped in a storm of apocalyptic ruins and dust.
Jiang Jian Yue herself, despite the double protection of her combat suit and Armorization, was sent flying by the powerful recoil.
Her armor let out an overwhelmed cracking sound, and the combat suit’s cooling system immediately triggered an overload alarm.
She crashed into the wall of a relatively intact building in the distance, rubble flying everywhere. Blood sprayed from her mouth, her vision blurred, and a piercing, bone-deep pain radiated from her shoulder blade.
The giant cannon simply disintegrated, turning into countless twisted metal fragments scattered around her.
‘Did I succeed?’
She struggled to lift her head, staring intently through the thick dust at the massive, slowly settling ruins.
There was no way.
A figure slowly rose from the center of the dust in the ruins.
She no longer looked like she was wearing an ill-fitting hoodie or appearing casual.
Covering her entire body was a menacing, biological armor flowing with a dark purple, ghostly light.
Sharp, blade-like bone spurs extended from her joints, and her once-fit muscle lines were replaced by a non-human sense of power.
Her brownish-red long hair danced wildly. Her eyes were no longer human pupils but burned with two clumps of purple flames filled with the desire for destruction.
Pluto hovered above the ruins, broken building fragments rotating around her like an asteroid belt guarding a king.
She lowered her head, her gaze piercing through the dust to lock precisely onto Jiang Jian Yue, who was embedded in the distant wall.
She then swept her eyes across the map, which had been nearly destroyed by a single strike.
In that gaze, there was no longer any of the previous playfulness or indifference. Only high-and-mighty coldness and rage remained.
“PLAYTIME IS OVER, HUMAN!”
“Huh?”
Jiang Jian Yue stood up. Her combat suit frantically absorbed her vast energy, quickly covering her body.
[Armorization!]
The armor, composed of various complex elements, framed her combat suit into a priceless aesthetic work of art, but those sharp, piercing edges were by no means decorative.
Jiang Jian Yue became more serious than ever before. “As if I were being serious just now.”
“I’m going to kill you. For real.”