"What… what on earth is happening out there?"
"Was that an earthquake?!"
"No, not an earthquake! It's explosives — someone planted bombs at the gate!"
"With that much firepower… we're going to be blown to bits!"
"Who did the village chief piss off this time?!"
Inside the Kuroiwa estate, the dozen or so gang members were pale and trembling. They clutched their guns with sweaty hands, the deafening explosions outside robbing them of any will to fight.
Then Kuroiwa Tatsushi, their boss, stepped forward and shouted over the chaos, "Get it together, damn it!"
"I've already called for backup! Just hold out for another hour — help will be here soon!"
"Block every entrance! No one gets in, you hear me—"
Before he could even finish, a thunderous BOOM rocked the hall.
The front doors blew clean off their hinges, spinning through the air before crashing down onto an unlucky underling. The man didn't even have time to scream.
Everyone spun toward the entryway, their faces ghostly pale. Dozens of trembling hands lifted their guns, barrels all trained on the door.
They'd made up their minds — whoever stepped inside would be riddled with bullets.
But Ren Kuroda didn't come through the front door.
He appeared on the side wall.
Perched on the edge, twin UZIs in hand, he pulled both triggers.
Tatatatatatatatata!
In barely two seconds, sixty bullets sprayed down like a metallic storm.
Most of the henchmen never even realized what was happening before collapsing into heaps on the floor.
The few who survived panicked and fired blindly toward the entrance — wasting their ammo on empty space.
"Idiots! He's on the wall! The wall!" Kuroiwa Tatsushi screamed.
But before his men could even turn their guns, Ren had already mowed them down.
"You can't even tell where gunfire's coming from, and you think you're tough guys?" Ren sneered, vaulting down from the wall with smooth precision.
He tossed the smoking UZIs aside and materialized a Desert Eagle from his System inventory, leveling the massive handgun directly at Tatsushi.
"Don't kill me!" the man cried out instantly, hands shooting up in surrender. "I give up!"
"You're not even going to try to fight back?" Ren asked, grinning faintly.
"My men are all dead…" Tatsushi stammered, his voice cracking. "Please, just let me go! I'll give you money — all the money you want!"
Ren tilted his head. "I—"
Then a prickle of murderous intent ran up his spine.
He turned sharply, pulled the trigger.
Bang!
The bullet shattered the window — and blew straight through the forehead of a man who'd been raising his pistol to fire.
The man's body went limp instantly, falling backward through the glass and crashing to the ground below.
Ren's eyes gleamed. "So this is Killing Intent Perception, huh? Not bad…"
No wonder Gin had dodged his ambush before — the guy must've had this skill too.But Ren's felt stronger.Gin could only react after the attack — Ren could sense the danger before it even began.
He grinned. Yeah. Definitely better than his.
Behind him, Kuroiwa Tatsushi was frozen in horror. The shot, the dead body — it was too much. He dropped to his knees with a loud thud.
"T-That wasn't me! It wasn't my order! He did it on his own!"
"I know," Ren said calmly. "Relax."
He turned toward the ruined doorway and called out, "It's safe. You can come in now."
Tatsushi's eyes darted to the door. Moments later, Narumi Asai stepped inside, her expression calm but cold.
"Forgive us, Asai-sama! We're sorry!"
"We didn't know what came over us — we lost our minds back then!"
"We've regretted it every day since! Please, please forgive us!"
The surviving three men — Kuroiwa Tatsushi, Kawashima Hideo, and Nishimoto Ken — knelt in the study, pressing their foreheads to the floor so hard it made dull thudding sounds.
When they finally dared to look up, Narumi Asai's eyes met theirs — filled with pure, burning hatred. There wasn't a trace of forgiveness in her gaze.
Their stomachs dropped.
Realizing she wouldn't spare them, the three turned desperately to Ren instead.
"I-I can pay you! We'll pay whatever you want!" Kawashima stammered. "You saw the gold vault in the villa, right? There's tons of it in there!"
"Billions of yen at least! If you let us go, we'll give you the keys — all of it's yours!"
Ren raised an eyebrow. "Oh? All your money's in that vault? That's funny… I heard you had another private vault somewhere else. You've been transferring cash there regularly, haven't you?"
Kuroiwa's face twisted in confusion. "Who told you that crap?! Every single yen's in the villa vault! We keep it there because it's safer — more guards, stronger walls, and the door's made of reinforced alloy. Only the three of us have the keys."
"I have to spread money around for bribes — do you think a small-town mayor like me could protect a business this big otherwise?"
The other two nodded frantically in agreement.
Ren listened, realization dawning. So that slick guy in the suit had lied to save his own skin.
Good thing he hadn't trusted him.
Ren snorted. "You think I'm the kind of man who'd take blood money?"
His voice was sharp, his tone righteous. "I wouldn't touch that filthy cash even if you begged me!"
The three men stared at him, dumbfounded. His aura — calm, confident, and utterly moral — left them speechless.
Ren turned to Asai. "They're all yours."
Without another glance, he walked out of the study, leaving her to her vengeance.
About ten minutes later, several gunshots echoed from inside the mansion.
When Narumi Asai stepped out, her face was pale — not satisfied, not even relieved. Just hollow.
Ren looked at her quietly.
She bowed deeply. "Thank you… Ren-san."
"I didn't do it for you," he said, waving her off. "So, what will you do now?"
She paused, her lips trembling slightly — then smiled faintly. "Ren-san… I think I want to play the piano."
Ren stood silent for a few seconds, then nodded.
"Play 'Moonlight Sonata' for me."