Chapter 62 Proclaiming High Morals with a Loud Voice

Little Edward could not even tell where this girl had come from. She was probably the accidental product of some brother's momentary amusement.

It was said that after consuming a female biological organism, the Little Venomous Insect found a fetus inside that female's abdomen.

Perhaps driven by the idea of "observing the formation of a neural network," the Little Venomous Insect followed the secret manual of the Demonic Cult to maintain an environment similar to a womb.

Most likely because New Humans possessed much stronger vitality than Old Humans—or rather, every single cell of a "Baseline Human" possessed a greater "damage resistance" than that of Homo sapiens. Thus, even under primitive conditions, the fetus somehow managed to survive.

Was this good fortune... or should it perhaps be called "misfortune"?

The infant's mission upon birth was to serve as a "new toy."

And Little Edward, who "might just be her father," proposed a creatively twisted game. Before the brain-computer interface barrier had even matured, flexible electrodes were implanted directly into the infant's brain, forcing her to symbiotically merge with prosthetic bodies.

The baby was a camera, a wiretap, a recorder, a locator... The meaning of her existence was to provoke sympathy from others, whose final struggles would then be recorded.

Little Edward was deeply obsessed with this. He loved this game to death.

Right now, the expression on Emiko's face was the ultimate "level-clear reward."

"What are you going to do now? Are you going to choke this little bastard to death?" Like a demon, Little Edward seduced the girl: "Right before you, a man tried to choke her to death. You can try it too! Considering how pretty you are, I might just not interfere! Hahahaha!"

Emiko's expression gradually distorted. She stared fixedly at the infant in her arms, her entire body trembling.

"Choke her... Choke her..." The group slowly walked out of the tunnel exit, surrounding them, whispering and egging her on.

However, Emiko ultimately clutched the toddler tightly and wailed aloud, "Poor child... Poor child... Ahhhhh! Why were you even born?!"

Emiko struggled to her feet, scooped up the toddler, and turned to run toward the distant wasteland.

"An interesting reaction." Little Edward chuckled softly. He raised his gun and took aim at the woman: "Thanks for your expression."

At that moment, a shrill cry echoed from within the tunnel: "Stop—right—there!"

—Huh? Who is this?

Little Edward fired nonchalantly, then turned around.

A boy whose limbs were merely low-grade mook prosthetics, yet whose modification rate was quite low, was charging toward Little Edward with tears streaming down his face.

Little Edward casually swung his arm, aiming his weapon backward.

Yuki's heart sounded alarm bells. He saw a red "line" sweeping over from the distance.

—I must not intersect with the auxiliary line...

He hurriedly swerved.

With a "bang," the bullet struck empty air.

"Oh?" Little Edward was slightly surprised. Because both Yuki and Emiko were of such pitifully low levels, he hadn't noticed the 0.3-second delay in his own perception.

Naturally, he too had been affected by the mental poison.

When Hsiang Shan unleashed the poison, he had not yet left the range of the server's signal coverage.

Little Edward simply assumed he had grown careless and fired another shot to compensate.

Yuki barely managed to dodge again. By this time, he had just rushed out of the tunnel exit.

Seeing the woman collapse limply while holding the child, Yuki roared, "You scum!"

Yet at that exact instant, the other greenwoodsmen who had surrounded Emiko in a semi-circle were also exposed to Yuki's field of vision. The muzzles of the firearms they carried were extending green lines.

They were merely holding their weapons casually without showing any aggressive intent, which was why the lines from their muzzles were green. But the web woven by those extended muzzle lines made Yuki shiver with dread.

—It's over...

准—I'm sorry, Master... I...

He roared and charged toward the woman.

Little Edward frowned, raised his arm horizontally, and swept out with a heavy blow. But Yuki suddenly ducked low, rolling across the ground to narrowly dodge the strike aimed at his head.

Little Edward hadn't been taking it seriously, and his perception was still disrupted by Hsiang Shan's poison. He too felt a hint of something amiss.

By this time, Yuki had already rushed to the side of the unknown woman.

The toddler was still alive. But Emiko was nearing death. Little Edward's bullet had grazed the back of her neck, tearing open the back of her skull, and blue blood mixed with silver-grey matter was leaking out. Emiko seemed to retain a final sliver of consciousness. She struggled and wriggled her body so that the toddler beneath her could move.

The toddler was crying helplessly. She did not yet understand what "death" meant. But she knew that this person who had been so, so good to her seemed about to vanish forever.

Every time she saw this particular color, that kind of thing would happen.

She frantically patted Emiko's face.

Yuki had almost lost his mind. He knelt on the ground, trembling all over.

—My mother... My mother was also...

Those legs... That smell...

And that endlessly crashing truck...

"Bastard..." He turned his head and stared straight at Little Edward.

Little Edward asked, "Who the hell are you? I don't remember anyone like you in the stronghold..."

"I am a righteous swordsman!" Yuki stood up and shouted loudly, "My master has already infiltrated your stronghold! He will... He will slaughter every last one of you scum! All of you!"

"Oh, a swordsman?" Little Edward burst out laughing.

A swordsman whose modification rate wasn't maxed out? This was truly the first time he had ever heard of such a thing.

"The fellows in the Jianghu path are getting pathetic these days, actually bringing such dead weight along to pick a fight. I honestly wonder how they've survived this long." Little Edward raised his gun, aiming at Yuki. At the same time, Yuki began running toward the left.

"Predictable evasion tactics, hm, got a tiny bit of foundation." Little Edward laughed maniacally, "Then die!"

A gunshot rang out, and Little Edward missed once again.

Little Edward also realized there was a discrepancy between his vision and his crosshairs. Since the second-in-command of the stronghold was an internal energy master, they were well aware of things like "mental poison." Little Edward shouted, "Your master actually uses poison?!"

"It's just right for dealing with scum like you!" Yuki roared.

"Hmph, now that I know about this poison, it's not scary at all!" Little Edward sneered as he input calibration parameters, saying, "I won't miss this time!"

With a "bang," a gunshot echoed. Little Edward raised his gun-holding hand. The finger that had been pulling the trigger was shattered by a bullet.

"Hmph, hmph-hm-hm, hmph-hm-hm-hm, hmph-hm-hm-hm-hm-hm..."

Peaceful singing drifted from within the tunnel. It sounded as though someone was humming a tune, strolling leisurely closer.

The melody was upbeat, but under the current circumstances, it felt unspeakably bizarre.

"What kind of ghost-playing-trick is this?!" A mook roared, raising his gun to aim at the tunnel entrance.

Before he could pull the trigger, a bullet flying straight toward him shaved off the top of his skull.

The bandit gang suddenly scattered in panic. Ignoring Yuki and the toddler, they dodged away from the direct line of fire of the cave opening, raised their guns to aim at the tunnel, and prepared to massacre whoever stepped onto the path the moment they appeared.

Little Edward shrieked, "You're that brat's master!"

"Hmph, hmph—Ah, in the past fifteen minutes, ninety-six fools from Organization Z were killed in despair, and you are number ninety-seven. The camera in your boss's training room is recording your second-in-command's expression right at death; I think it's quite fascinating and might frequently pull it out to scare people in the future. Would you like to see?"

Little Edward was about to mock the opponent for bluffing.

Yet in the span of a fraction of a second, an image flashed into his mind—it was an incoming external signal.

It was forcibly playing a video.

Within the video, a breaking Little Venomous Insect wailed: "Wuwu... Ahhhhhhhhhhh! Kill me! Just kill me right now! If you really are a swordsman, kill me right now!"

A crushing terror overwhelmed everyone who received the signal. So much so that the instant Hsiang Shan stepped out of the cave entrance, only one mook with a low modification rate managed to raise his gun.

However, Hsiang Shan's speed in raising his weapon was far faster than his. With a flick of his wrist, he shattered that fellow's head.

Hsiang Shan dragged a huge cloth bag with one hand, carrying it on his back, while holding an assault rifle in his other hand. Ignoring the rest of them, he walked straight toward Yuki.

Hsiang Shan had noticed Yuki's situation while torturing the Little Venomous Insect. The walkie-talkie he left in the monitoring room had first captured Little Edward's dialogue from a certain surveillance feed, and after taking a quick glance through the wireless signal cameras Galiad had set up in the monitoring room, he had hurried over.

Yuki was stunned, and then tears welled up uncontrollably: "Master..."

With a loud "slap," Hsiang Shan struck the back of Yuki's head, knocking him flat onto the ground.

Yuki was dazed by the blow: "Master?"

"Do you know why I hit you, kid?"

Yuki immediately reacted, saying timidly, "I didn't stay where I was..."

"No, it's not about that." Hsiang Shan sighed: "I am not your father, so I won't blame you for 'stepping forward' the way your mother might have—I want you to be clear on that. As a swordsman, 'stepping forward' is not a bad thing. However, there are two things you handled very poorly."

He pointed at the dead woman: "If you genuinely wanted to save that lady, there was an exceptional opportunity right in the middle of the tunnel. When you and the enemy were separated by a corner and their bullets couldn't directly hit you, if you had used the exact words I taught you at the very beginning to tell them they were already poisoned and that their best bet was to drag you to me for the antidote, both you and she would have had a very high chance of surviving."

Yuki's tears flooded out: "It's... it's my fault... I'm sorry, Master... I... This is... I couldn't save her..."

Hsiang Shan patted Yuki's shoulder: "What are you talking about? The murderer who killed that lady isn't you. Aren't they right here?"

Yuki's face twisted into an expression of bitter hatred: "Master... Kill those scum! Kill them! Those scumbags, that's how they are... That's how they murder people! My mom! And that lady! Kill them!"

"This is my second reason for hitting you. We are righteous swordsmen, not greenwood bandits." Hsiang Shan snorted: "Since we are upholding chivalry, we should proudly and squarely state our principles and declare righteousness to the adversary—that is not how you should have spoken at such a moment. Instead, you should speak like this."