"Tch, people these days..."
Walking down the street, Nakamura Takashi, wearing a hoodie, scrolled through the forums on his phone. The popular boards were all discussing how he avoided prison due to his mental illness.
A mocking smile appeared on his face.
"You guys are still debating, while I'm already out. Hilarious."
Since Nakamura was released secretly, no one knew. Otherwise, the damn media would have swarmed like flies to a rotting carcass.
"Is it just me, or is it getting colder? And where did everyone go?"
Nakamura shivered. The surrounding light seemed to be getting dimmer.
It was the height of summer, yet there were no cicadas chirping at night. The temperature was unusually low, and he suddenly realized that all the pedestrians around him had vanished.
"Damn, bad luck."
In a terrible mood, Nakamura cursed and kicked an empty can on the roadside straight into an alley.
"I've only been inside for a few days; did this place go downhill that fast?"
He was here to find some "entertainment," not to contemplate life on an empty street.
What Nakamura didn't know was that shortly after he went to prison, anonymous tips led the Japanese police to raid and shut down all the shady establishments he frequented.
As for the abnormal temperature and the persistent chill around him, he ignored them.
"Haunted?"
If Nakamura believed in superstition, he wouldn't have killed people, let alone used such perverse torture methods.
"A little further, and I can close the net."
Ahead of Nakamura, Kenmei Isayama had already ordered his Ripper Swarms to chew through the surveillance lines, cutting them all off.
Better safe than sorry. Kenmei didn't want to end up in jail himself.
A live broadcast of Nakamura's movements played in Kenmei's mind, thanks to the nearby Ripper Swarms.
Ripper Swarms were the lowest tier of Tyranids. Kenmei's Norn Queen was still in her "larval stage" and could only produce this unit type.
Kenmei's Norn Queen possessed the same function as the [Hive Mind], acting as a new terminal.
The Ripper Swarms shared their vision with the Norn Queen, who then packaged the information via psychic energy and transmitted it to Kenmei. That was how the live broadcast formed in his mind.
The Ripper Swarms acted as scouts, vastly improving Kenmei's reconnaissance capabilities.
"Hmm?"
With his physical fitness enhanced by twelve points of Strength, Kenmei leaped freely between buildings, finally stopping on a roof less than fifty meters from Nakamura.
Kenmei sensed a Cursed Spirit forcibly tearing through the double barrier he had set up: "Idler Dispelling" (to keep ordinary people away) and "Demon Exorcism" (to kill low-level spirits that strayed in).
Everything was ready, except for this small accident—the Cursed Spirit that had forced its way in.
Kenmei had the nearest Ripper Swarm transmit the visual.
The latest image made Kenmei pause.
What was he seeing?
A humanoid Cursed Spirit dressed in an idol outfit, holding a three-meter-long steel rebar, moving rapidly under the moonlight.
The image was jarringly out of place.
The sudden appearance of the Cursed Spirit had a clear purpose, seemingly aligned with Kenmei's: it was heading straight for Nakamura below.
Clang.
Nakamura tossed a trash can aside and pulled a can of drink from a vending machine he had just smashed open. He popped the tab and drank.
"Free stuff always tastes better."
At that moment, the streetlights nearby, which had been working fine, started to flicker and fail.
"Fck! What kind of weather is this?"
"Why is it getting colder?"
Feeling the chill deepen, Nakamura wrapped his clothes tighter around himself.
But then, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted someone nearby.
"Walked so long without seeing a soul, I thought I was haunted."
Nakamura's tense nerves relaxed instantly.
When he saw the "person" clearly, his eyes lit up.
"Yo, it's a chick."
Her upper body was hidden in the darkness, but what Nakamura could see was undeniable.
Under a miniskirt trimmed with lace, two slender, pale thighs drew the eye.
Her right leg was clad in black fishnet stockings, the white skin contrasting sharply with the black mesh. Her left leg was bare, gleaming white.
Damn, that's top-tier.
Nakamura remembered his first kill. He had accidentally seen an idol group perform. The girl on stage seemed to sparkle, exuding the same charm.
That was when the evil desire to possess her struck.
But when he found her apartment, he discovered the "pure" idol already had two kids.
Seeing the children call her "Mom" and hide behind her in fear...
It disgusted Nakamura. He felt a rage born of betrayal!
As expected, the pure image on TV is fake. Who knows which rich tycoon or politician she's sleeping with privately?
Blind with rage, Nakamura saw red. By the time he snapped out of it, there were three corpses on the floor and a chaotic crime scene.
Lacking experience, he dumped the bodies at a construction site to fake a death by falling rebar. But he was caught on surveillance and arrested.
After that, Nakamura got addicted to the feeling and killed a second time.
Now, the urge to kill for a third time burned in his chest.
Nakamura loved judging girls like this. Dressed up like that on the street at night—it was obvious what she was.
"Hahahaha, my luck's turning."
Nakamura whistled loudly. The fire burning from his heart to his other head dispelled all his annoyance.
He giggled, walking quickly toward her while familiarly pulling a wad of cash from his pocket—a deposit and a show of strength.
But unexpectedly, his tried-and-true method failed.
"I've got plenty of cash, just ser..."
Nakamura choked on his words. A chill ran down his spine, accompanied by a sense of absurdity.
"Impossible. I definitely..."
He saw a pair of incredibly familiar eyes. He was certain—this was his first victim. The memory was vivid.
Only she had those star-like pupils. But now, those eyes were blood-red, filled with a brutal hatred that wanted to drink his blood and eat his flesh.