Chapter 28. Eye of Death
The soldiers moved last after the supply cards. The first to go in was the Storm. A group that specialized in speed… I suppose it’s based around the fact that mobility is extremely important when it comes to soldiers. Soldiers always needed to establish high ground over their enemies, and Storm was most likely in charge of that. The members of the group began to show themselves as they crossed the bridge. The name of their powers were…
Accelerator, Superspeed, Godspeed, High Speed, Extreme Speed, Ultra Speed, Sound Breaker, Quick, Rocket, Boost, Velocity, Full speed, Haste, Nimble Legs, Demonic Legs, Steel Legs, Unlimited Sprinter…
There were many beings that sought extreme speed. To catch prey. To escape predators. Speed was easy to think of, and the effects of it were amazingly effective. The reason why there isn’t anyone with the ability “Light Speed” is probably because no one has fulfilled the conditions for it yet. Perhaps someone here can achieve it. If they survive, that is. Of course, the group wasn’t just made of people who had powers associated with speed. This could be seen by the people who didn’t cross the bridge. These people used different methods to “teleport” across the bridge.
Geo-leaping, Teleportation, Ambush, Shadow Jumper, Beeline, Overtake, Demonic Walker.
There were many ability users like this in the world. The saint who had been watching this process quietly suddenly turned to look at me.
“Internet shopping.”
The grin on her face ended up making me retaliate. I said this whilst wondering if this would be the sort of thing a person with the personality I was faking would say.
“Don’t call it internet shopping. Call it HOG.”
“Hog? As in the swine?”
“Ah! What’s this button here? Cancel order? Women’s coats for the autumn? Trendy shoes? Cheesecake?”
The saint gripped onto my cloak with a trembling hand.
“Heart of Gold is the best.”
“Should’ve said that from the start.”
Once the first group passed, the second, Hundred Eight Eyes, began to make their move. One of these people nullified my floating eye.
But… Their appearance was a bit…
Most of these people were wearing bandages or glasses to cover up their eyes somehow. This, of course, led me to think of them as chuuninbyous.
“Ah!”
The saint made a face as if she had just thought of something.
“Surprise quiz!”
Again? The saint raised her index finger.
“The name Hundred Eight Eyes was formed because of the number of eyes that the number of people in the group had! There are six that have lost one of their eyes, and there are five who have two demon eyes. How many demon eyes are there in total?”
“62.”
Didn’t even need to think.
“Fast! How?!”
“It was written in the report.”
“Kuh! To think there was such a method!”
The saint slapped her forehead as she made a surprised expression.
There were 43 in Storm, and 57 in Hundred Eight Eyes.
I had read everything about them through the reports already.
“Can I ask you something?”
I approached her carefully. As a person who just came to this world, I had a lot that I was curious about, but if I kept asking her questions like before, I might get her to hate me. The saint seemed to realize that I was being careful with her and grinned as a result.
“I’ll answer from now on as long as you call me teacher.”
Necro clicked his tongue and pointed at the saint when he heard this.
“Hey! Just ask me instead. How is she supposed to be a saint anyhow? All she does is take advantage of people.”
“Stay out of this, outsider.”
“How am I an outsider?”
“Because you’re going to be one from now on?”
The saint balled up her fist and began to gather holy energy into it. Necro was probably at an elemental disadvantage when it came to the saint.
“…Uh, I’m an outsider, now that I think about it. You two have fun.”
He backed off easily.
“Now fire away, student. Just don’t ask me lewd questions about my body, ok?”
The saint winked as she said this. Seeing how she was leaning forward with her hands on her hips, it seemed like she was trying to emphasize her chest.
I wasn’t interested in such a pose at all.
“My question is simple. Is it possible for people to have two demon eyes? I thought a person could only have a single power?”
I added a word at the end with dullness.
“Teacher.”
Judging by her reaction, she was satisfied.
“Calling me a teacher like that, Mr. Murderer, you’re too much~”
You told me to call you that…
“Good question! Does having two demon eyes mean that a person has two powers? One might think that. But in the end, the person only has a single power.”
“How so?”
“For example, if a person had the ability ‘temperature control’, what could he do with it? He could boil water, but also be able to freeze it. Two demon eyes are there to achieve opposite effects.”
“So in the end, they work just like other powers?”
“Pretty much. You might have two demon eyes that can work together with each other instead of one that works against each other, but their powers would be significantly weaker compared to other demon eyes.”
I got it. It’s like how Nimble Legs couldn’t be as fast as Godspeed at the same level. There were choices between focusing on one aspect of the ability, or focusing on versatility. Whilst I kept asking the saint more questions, the people of the First Subjugation Battalion all passed the bridge. All except one person.
“So that’s the rumored…”
The soldiers were muttering amongst themselves.
“I had heard that was the strongest person in the battalion, but he’s just a kid?”
A child who had one of his eyes bandaged shut was casually crossing the bridge. Unlike the others, he was wearing very casual clothing. A loose white t-shirt, along with a black jacket. His white hair in the wind managed to highlight his confident face.
Death Eye.
A demon eye that was said to be able to kill any living animal just by looking at it. When I first heard of this ability, I managed to see just how unfair this world was.
Well, I have accepted the fact for what it is now…
People die instantly when they get shot in the head, after all. I guess it’s like a pretty good sniper rifle. The Haze Republic probably gave this strategy a go because of this trump card. The people on the other side of the bridge were all waiting for this child to cross the bridge. It clearly showed how much importance the Death Eye held in the group. I looked at his status screen for a second, then thought of a question.
“What happens if immortality clashes with the Death Eye?”
Would the world end from a creation of a paradox? No way.
“Well…”
The saint didn’t really seem to know the answer either.
“Wouldn’t the ‘weaker power’ give out..? If there was a contention between the two powers, the Warrior would come out as the winner.”
If the Death Eye and immortality just clashed against each other and didn’t do anything due to equal power, it would end up being a failure. After thinking a little bit, the saint opened her mouth.
“I think immortality would win.”
“The reason being?”
“The Death Eye is sort of a master key. Most doors can be opened with it, but it becomes useless in front of a door that requires fingerprints.”
“What if Death Eye was similar to bombs?”
“Not enough mana to get the desired effect.”
In order to raise the power of an explosion, one needed to contain the explosion within a smaller area, or just use more explosives. The saint was basically commenting on this.
“The Death Eye probably relies on a certain method to achieve its effect. It might stop the activity of the brain, or it might sever the connection between the body and the soul. It might even create poison in someone’s circulatory system.”
No matter what happens, it would look like the victim just died from a glance. I agreed with the saint’s theory.
“Right. I think the Death Eye wouldn’t be enough either. Necro wouldn’t have summoned me otherwise.”
There was no better expert on death compared to Necro. A magic that connected a soul to a corpse was something that could not be cast without a complete understanding of it. The Death Eye that crossed the bridge didn’t walk over to his friends, but rather, to us.
“So you’re the Special Task Force?”
“Yes. You want something?”
The Death Eye scanned my body once, then let out a laugh.
“Kahahaha! You’re actually level one! What the hell?”
Kahaha…? I’ve never seen anyone laugh like that. I mean, the saint herself has a pretty weird laugh, but still…
“The strongest? At that level?”
I personally thought that it was an error on Oracle’s part. But there wasn’t any real need to talk about that.
[Don’t bother with him.] [Yeah, just ignore him. He’s just a kid.]
The two spoke to me using telepathy. The Death Eye began to act out even more when he saw that I wasn’t responding to him.
“What are you planning on doing with that shopping ability? You planning on bribing the Warrior? How stupid~”
The Death Eye already knew of my ability. The rumor had probably spread throughout the whole military already. Two people from Storm came over, thinking that something entertaining was going on.
It was Godspeed and Accelerator. Accelerator was a man in his early forties, and was a colonel like Necro. Godspeed was a man in his late thirties and a lieutenant colonel.
“What are you doing? Everyone’s waiting for you.”
When Accelerator said this, the Death Eye waved over at them and motioned for them to come over with a smile.
“You came at the right time. Look, look. This idiot’s title’s hilarious!”
Accelerator checked my status screen using the Oracle.
“…History’s worst? Ah, so this is…”
HIs lips curled upwards a little, then immediately curled back down again. He must’ve thought that his actions might’ve been rude. On the other hand, Godspeed just smirked.
“Titles can be acquired by doing jack shit. He must’ve been pretty popular in his town or something.”
The saint gripped onto my cape.
[If you fight here, they’ll take this to court… You’ll have to endure this for now.]
That was what I was planning on doing. They weren’t really getting me mad anyway. But Necro didn’t seem to think so.
“Hah… Do you people actually see me as a piece of shit or something?”
His cold voice immediately muted the area.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“Hey, hey. Don’t try to butt in here. Our kid’s just getting a little interested in this guy here is all.”
Accelerator stepped in front of Necro.
“Interested?”
“This is supposed to be your ace, right? Why not let the aces of each group try to work things out with each other?”
Necro laughed dumbfoundedly.
“Move.”
“I’ll buy you alcohol later, alright? Don’t try to butt into kids’ business. They’re just getting overly excited is all.”
“Godspeed? Death Eye? Life really gotten better, hasn’t it? Trash that I wouldn’t even have bothered to check out during the great war’s just saying whatever they want to me now.”
Godspeed lowered his head in acknowledgement at that. Unlike him, Death Eye raised his voice in annoyance.
“What? Trash?”
“Hey! Be quiet!”
Accelerator tried to stop him, but Death Eye refused to stop.
“What did you call me?”
I’m quite curious actually. Would Death Eye be able to kill Necro?
“Eh? You didn’t hear?”
Accelerator gave up on stopping Death Eye.
“You must be fucking deaf. I’ll tell you as much as you want. You. Are. A. Piece. Of. Trash.”
“Die..!!”
Death Eye raised his hand, attempting to take off his bandage. Immediately after though.
“…Kuh!”
Death Eye’s hand stopped in its tracks. Godspeed was using one hand to grab onto Death Eye’s hand, and the other to put a knife on the boy’s neck.
“Don’t move.”
Fast. I didn’t manage to see anything until the knife was on Death Eye’s neck already.
“Slowly. Put your hand down.”
Death Eye seemed to have come to his senses a bit after hearing Godspeed’s cold voice, and put his hand down. Godspeed quickly put his knife away and made Death Eye bow.
“Apologies!”
He didn’t say more. Death Eye’s face was filled with humiliation. He seemed to think he wasn’t getting the respect he deserved.
“Ah, good. Good. You can raise your heads now.”
Accelerator tried to calm the mood.
“It’s because he’s just so young. You were like that, too, weren’t you? All fired up and stuff.”
“When was I ever like that? Discipline your subordinates, damn.”
“In any case, I have to go now. Those guys over there need to eat.”
The whole thing seemed to be almost over now.
“The alcohol?”
“After we kill the Warrior.”
“You’re not going back on your word?”
“Yeah, yeah.”
The Accelerator slapped the back of Death Eye’s head.
“What are you doing? Apologize.”
Death Eye rubbed the back of his head and glared my way.
“Don’t you dare get in my way. You won’t even get the spotlight with me taking action anyway.”
“……”
Crack!
Accelerator slapped the back of Death Eye’s head again.
“You call that an apology? I’m sorry, I’ll apologize in his stead. The boy’s a bit immature.”
Accelerator disappeared with Death Eye after saying this.
“You endured well!”
The saint grabbed my hand.
Fwoosh!
The hand caught on holy fire. It felt like my hand was being roasted. I immediately shook her off, and asked Necro a question.
“What the hell was that?”
“JOCA.”
“JOCA?”
“Kids who think they’re (J)ustice because (O)f their (C)heat (A)bilities.”
They have quite the strange slangs here, huh…
I felt like I was a bit behind on the current trend when I heard Necro’s words.