The loop restarted, returning to 9:30 AM at the Amber City Investigation Bureau.
Ling Xun's voice came from behind him. "Yue Shi, why are you just standing there?"
Yue Shi ignored him. Standing in the center of the lobby, he slowly scanned the face of every person present.
The one answering the phone, the one typing on the keyboard, the one looking at their phone, the one dozing off... everyone was doing exactly what they had done in the previous iterations.
"Stop pretending. Every single one of you has a problem," Yue Shi shouted coldly.
Startled, everyone stopped what they were doing in unison and turned to look at Yue Shi.
Ling Xun stepped forward, frowning. "What nonsense are you talking about?"
Yue Shi reached out and seized Ling Xun by the collar, pulling him close. "In every loop, someone attacks me at random," he said viciously. "Once, a bullet was fired from this lobby. Another time, you pointed a gun at me."
Ling Xun’s expression didn't change, but his eyes turned playful.
Yue Shi continued, "I don't know why you're all attacking me. But when even my former section chief and landlady want me dead, I have every reason to suspect that everyone is hostile toward me."
The corners of Ling Xun’s mouth slowly curled upward. "You're being so arbitrary. Aren't you afraid of being wrong and taking innocent lives?"
Yue Shi didn't care. "If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. It’s someone else dying, not me."
Ling Xun burst into loud laughter, his face splitting into a wide grin as his laughter grew increasingly eerie. "You really are the same as ever. You haven't changed a bit."
Yue Shi didn't let go. "Done pretending?"
Ling Xun’s laughter ceased. In an instant, his expression shifted from amusement to cold indifference.
In the next second, everyone in the lobby moved.
The clerk answering the phone pulled a short sword from under the service counter; the one typing pulled a handgun from a drawer; the one looking at their phone drew a dagger from their waist; the one dozing off pulled a steel pipe from beneath their chair...
Everyone produced a weapon and aimed it at Yue Shi.
"Kill him!" someone screamed.
They all lunged at once.
Yue Shi released Ling Xun’s collar and swept his right hand. A red line flew from his fingertips, slicing through the throats of the nearest attackers.
This red line, originally meant for tethering sinful connections, had now become a weapon of slaughter.
The red line darted through the crowd. In less than ten seconds, everyone in the lobby had collapsed. Blood pooled on the floor, staining it a dark red.
"You're still as ruthless as ever," Ling Xun remarked.
Yue Shi didn't bother wasting words on him and simply tore his head off.
Rapid footsteps echoed from deep within the corridor. The entire Investigation Bureau building was stirring. The chaotic, dense noise of many voices converged into a single chant:
"Kill him!"
"Kill him!"
"Kill him!"
Yue Shi turned just as a man in an Investigation Bureau uniform charged out from the end of the hallway. Holding a chair aloft with madness written all over his face, the man’s eyes were wide as he swung the chair at Yue Shi.
Yue Shi sidestepped and kicked the man's limbs, the sound of shattering bones clearly audible.
More people swarmed in. The corridor was packed, like a disturbed nest of hornets. They charged forward one after another, trampling over their comrades' corpses.
Their weapons were varied, but every face wore the same expression of insanity.
Seeing his former colleagues so desperate to kill him, Yue Shi naturally showed no mercy.
He struck with lethal efficiency.
Ten seconds later, the corridor fell silent.
Corpses lined the path from the lobby entrance to the very end of the hallway. Most of the Investigation Bureau's staff now lay dead on the floor.
Yue Shi walked out of the bureau’s main entrance.
The sunlight was pleasant, and pigeons were foraging. Everything appeared normal.
This facade of normalcy lasted for less than a second.
A random extra stood up from a bench, pulled out a cleaver, and rushed toward Yue Shi.
Yue Shi snatched the cleaver away and cut the man in half at the waist.
More pedestrians swarmed—men and women, young and old. They pulled weapons from under their clothes, from bags, from strollers, and from beneath dog leashes.
They rushed toward Yue Shi, shouting the same slogan: "Kill him!"
Ten seconds later, the street was carpeted with corpses.
The pigeons had flown away, leaving only a few grey feathers drifting in the air.
Yue Shi stood amidst the pile of bodies, frowning.
This endless cycle of attacks was truly annoying. No one would even explain why; it was completely nonsensical.
In the distance, several cars came screeching toward him.
They veered onto the sidewalk, knocking over trash cans and crushing flowerbeds as they sped toward Yue Shi, intent on running him over.
Behind the cars, the citizens of Amber City were all converging on his location. Workers, office employees, students—their weapons were even more eclectic: cleavers, fruit knives, mops, drying poles, and even someone brandishing a frying pan.
Their objective was unanimous.
"Kill him!"
The shouting was thunderous.
Yue Shi’s shadow spread across the ground, an ink-like darkness expanding in all directions.
Just then, a sharp crack rang out.
A bullet flew from afar, only to be deflected before it could get close.
Yue Shi turned to look at a distant high-rise. A top-floor window was open, and a figure stood behind it, turning to flee after firing the shot.
It was the sniper from the first loop. Yue Shi stared at the window’s location and gave a light flick of his finger. A spatial blade flew from his fingertip, crossing hundreds of meters to strike the window with precision.
The fleeing figure was sliced to pieces.
More and more people swarmed toward him. The crowds from both ends of the street had reached him, their eyes bulging like copper bells.
Yue Shi’s shadow erupted, and countless ravens flew out from the darkness, diving into the crowd.
Screams filled the air as weapons fell to the ground. Yet it didn't stop them from continuing their charge. Even with their eyes gouged out by the ravens, they still tried to kill Yue Shi.
He had no idea where such deep-seated hatred had come from.
Yue Shi simply began an indiscriminate slaughter.
His fingers traced through the air. With every movement, a silver light arc flew out, sweeping through the crowd and leaving behind halves of corpses.
The ravens circled, dived, and tore, killing every living person in his field of vision.
Blood ran like a river through the streets. Corpses piled into small mountains, draped over cars, hanging from streetlights, and stuffed into trash cans.
Blood converged into streams, flowing down the slope of the street and into the sewers with a splashing sound.
Yue Shi stood in the center of the mountain of corpses, untainted by a single speck of dust.
More people were still running toward him from the distance. They weren't intimidated by Yue Shi’s bloody carnage in the slightest; instead, they seemed to grow more courageous.
The entire city was mobilized, weapons raised, slogans shouted. There was no fear on their faces—only a frenzied, reckless excitement.
Yue Shi looked up at the dense, black mass of people.
How strange. What on earth had happened to the people of this city?
He couldn't figure it out, but that didn't stop him from killing.
Just as Yue Shi was preparing to unleash something massive and simply slaughter the entire city...
Everything suddenly went black.
The loop restarted.
Shit!
What exactly was the mechanism triggering the restart?!
Rate on N.U.
