Chapter 207: Mere Black Watch

"That was easy."

After Yuuki Asuna finished off the entire Black Watch squad, Iwanaga Kotoko, Sakurakawa Rikka, and Kato Megumi stepped out from the shadows.

Looking at the dozen or so corpses on the ground, Iwanaga Kotoko smiled faintly.

"With Phantom’s skill and your speed, those guys didn’t even have time to aim properly. That was far too easy."

"After all, we’re among the strongest Players at this stage. If we couldn’t even handle a single Black Watch squad, that would be absurd."

Yuuki Asuna let out a breath and adjusted her slightly rapid breathing after the fight. She flicked the blood from Gleaming Light onto the floor, then said calmly,

"Let’s check their equipment. There might be something useful."

Although Sakurakawa Rikka and Kato Megumi had not directly attacked in the battle just now, Kato Megumi had used her special skill on the other three, reducing their presence and securing the initiative for the team. Sakurakawa Rikka had also attached her black mist to Yuuki Asuna, so even if Yuuki Asuna had been struck by a bullet, the damage would have been transferred to Sakurakawa Rikka.

As far as the system was concerned, this still counted as jointly eliminating the Black Watch squad. They would all receive bonus points toward the Dungeon clear rating. There would be no ridiculous situation like, "Oh, Utsunomiya Asagiri got MVP, while Yuuki Asuna, Kato Megumi, Iwanaga Kotoko, and the others only assisted from the side. They were carried."

"Alright."

Sakurakawa Rikka knelt down and picked up the automatic rifle dropped by one of the Black Watch members. After examining it for a moment, she tossed it back to the ground, then reached toward the tactical belt at the man’s waist and pulled out a magazine. Speaking softly, she said,

"The bullets are different from ordinary rounds. They carry a cursed aura. The casings also seem to be made from some kind of cursed material."

"Combining cursed materials with modern weaponry... so just as Leader said, this is how they deal with cursed... Wait, what’s this?"

Halfway through her sentence, Iwanaga Kotoko noticed something in the tactical belts of the Black Watch members. It looked similar to an adrenaline injector, but the liquids inside were all different colors. Some were muddy yellow, some pale green, and one was even crimson like blood.

She cautiously placed her hand over one of the injectors, but the eye icon app on her phone gave no prompt. Clearly, the system did not recognize them as items.

"This thing... could it be..."

Iwanaga Kotoko recalled what they had seen in the zombie Dungeon. Combined with what the Black Watch Commander on Floor B1 had said before, disbelief surfaced in her yellow purple eyes.

"Could these be body enhancement serums? If so... that might be troublesome."

Yuuki Asuna and Kato Megumi had clearly reached the same conclusion. Their expressions also turned solemn.

Mindless zombies were not frightening. The Witches and Hunters they had encountered before, while physically far stronger than normal humans, still had only average intelligence. Even the Hunter, which Black Watch had classified as possessing the highest intelligence, was only comparable to a wild beast.

But if the elites of Black Watch could possess that level of physical power while retaining their rationality, then things would be much more troublesome.

...

At the same time, in the entrance hall on the first floor of the main building of Kyozan Mental Hospital.

"A Team and B Team have both lost contact."

The C Team Commander listened to the tactical channel. After trying and failing to contact the commanders of those two squads, it was now certain that Black Watch’s experimental site, Kyozan Mental Hospital, had been infiltrated by enemies.

And not just any enemies. Their strength was so overwhelming that the commanders of both teams had not even been able to finish reporting the situation before being eliminated.

"Inject the serum."

At the Commander’s order, every member of C Team immediately pulled injectors from their tactical belts and plunged them into the veins in their necks.

The change came instantly.

Their eyes turned blood red. Veins writhed beneath the skin of their necks. Combined with their black tactical uniforms, they looked like a unit of crimson eyed demons moving through the dark hospital, exuding a suffocating pressure.

Just then, the two men at the front of the formation spotted a shadow flash ahead in the corridor and immediately raised their automatic rifles, pulling the triggers without hesitation.

"Enemy detected, one o’clock!"

In the next instant, a puppet girl’s head suddenly shot out from around the corner. Accompanied by the clicking sound of puppet joints moving, it lunged toward the two Black Watch members in front.

The moment Prototype Mita appeared, both men felt a sudden wave of dizziness. Twisted and surreal illusions, like abstract oil paintings, flashed across their vision.

That brief moment of hesitation was enough. Prototype Mita bit into the neck of one of them. Yet to its surprise, it could not bite clean through.

"Bang!"

The other Black Watch member broke free from the illusion’s influence and immediately aimed at Prototype Mita’s head and fired.

Prototype Mita jerked its head back slightly and moved to retract. But at that moment, one of the Black Watch members from the rear, moving at a speed beyond human limits, closed in on the connection point between its neck and body. He drew a short blade from his waist and slashed down in one fluid motion.

A second before the blade could cut through Prototype Mita’s neck, Prototype Mita vanished.

"Disappeared?"

Seeing this, the Black Watch soldier did not relax at all. He immediately scanned the surroundings. The blood red veins in his eyes writhed slowly, like a beast searching for prey.

"There!"

The moment he caught sight of the mysterious figure in a black long coat and dark gray mask, he barked the warning. Then he dropped to all fours and launched himself forward nearly ten meters, pouncing like a hunting animal.

"Bang!"

The impact shook the ground slightly.

But when the rest of the squad looked again, the mysterious figure was still standing there unharmed. The Black Watch member who had injected the Hunter enhancement serum, on the other hand, was buried half into the floor with a sharp Rope Dart lodged in the back of his head.

"Not bad. A very good ambush."

Asagiri pulled on the chain in his hand and extracted the Rope Dart. He glanced at the man embedded in the floor, then lifted his gaze toward the Black Watch squad in the distance.

"You almost made me laugh."

"This guy... could he be..."

Staring at Asagiri, every member of Black Watch thought of the same name.

"Shadow."

"So this is all Black Watch is capable of?"

Asagiri stood there quietly, yet the Black Watch soldiers, all of them battle hardened elites, felt a pressure they had never known before.

At the same time, Asagiri was calmly analyzing them.

From the fact that Prototype Mita’s bite had failed to tear through that man’s neck, it was obvious that after injecting those serums, their overall physical functions had been drastically enhanced. Judging by the serum types, they seemed to have obtained some of the traits corresponding to specific infected types.

However...

"You’re still too weak."

As the words fell, Asagiri charged.

"Fire!"

No detailed command was necessary. The entire squad raised their rifles, aimed at Asagiri, and opened fire without hesitation.

Within the storm of bullets, Asagiri did not slow in the slightest.

The moment he closed the distance, the Rope Dart in his right hand had already pierced one Black Watch member through the chest. At the same time, his left hand seized another by the throat and lifted him off the ground before slamming him down hard.

"Bang!"

Cracks spread across the tile floor. In less than two seconds, two Black Watch members were dead.

"Ordinary rounds are useless against him! This guy’s a Cursed Spirit!"

Two Black Watch members rushed Asagiri from opposite sides without hesitation. The rest of the squad quickly pulled back and began swapping magazines in their rifles.

"What a bunch of brainwashed lunatics."

Asagiri instantly understood their intent. They were not foolish enough to believe they could kill him bare handed. They were throwing their lives away to buy time for the others to reload with anti cursed rounds.

One reached toward his shoulder. The other extended sharp claws from within his black tactical glove and lunged for his neck.

"Naive."

Asagiri gave them no chance to touch him.

With his right hand, he hurled the Rope Dart and pierced the forehead of the one going for his shoulder. With his left, he condensed an ice spear emitting cold air and drove it through the chest of the one attacking with claws.

Again, in less than two seconds, the remaining Black Watch members had finished reloading, spread out, raised their rifles, and unleashed the contents of their anti cursed magazines.

The muzzle flashes roared for nearly five full seconds before dying out.

And what they saw next made their blood run cold.

Even after switching to anti cursed rounds, they had still failed to injure Asagiri in the slightest.

"Really..."

Asagiri raised a hand and casually flicked a metal shell casing off his shoulder. Then he looked at the Black Watch members, whose eyes now held shock and fear, and spoke in a calm voice.

"Is that all?" 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

He took one step forward.

"Then next..."

"It’s my turn."

.....

[If you don’t want to wait for the next update, read 10–50 Chapters ahead on P@treon.]

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