The boot-wearing man grunted, barely dodging but still having a large chunk of flesh torn from his arm!
His ‘Reinforced Skin’ was as brittle as paper against the meat puppet’s mouthful of deformed rotten teeth.
Damn, it’s poisonous!
The boot-wearing man suddenly felt a wave of numbness spreading inward from the wound. In a moment of carelessness, it had already crossed his shoulder and was creeping toward his chest!
By then, even severing his arm wouldn’t help. Accompanied by a wrenching pain in his heart, he clenched his teeth, filled with the regret of unavenged vengeance. His vision went black, and he crashed heavily to the ground, convulsing like an electrocuted frog before going still.
Ashley glanced over and saw the eerie little thing bounce up like a spring, tracing an arc back to Gysin’s severed wrist. It wriggled and deformed, actually restoring itself into the shape of a hand!
This ability is kinda cute. Too bad it’s in the hands of such a disgusting guy, she thought.
“Don’t kill me… please… spare me… I didn’t steal anything…”
The woman was still alive, wailing desperately. Her lower body seemed completely paralyzed, dragging powerlessly across the ground as she crawled—the crocodile head had bitten through her spine without a shred of mercy.
“What about the remaining two?” Gysin asked, hands behind his back, keeping his distance.
Though he appeared calm and composed, his nerves were stretched to the limit.
The killer was among these two!
His big brother had died in a ridiculous and casual way—not because the boss was a stupid waste, but because the enemy’s methods were too ruthless, toying with life and subverting all expectations.
Two?
Ashley immediately latched onto the key point, her gaze landing on a giant at least three meters tall.
The man had broad shoulders, a protruding belly, and a white apron stained yellow with oil. His body reeked of grease and blood.
Looking up, his face was tightly bound with an aluminum shingle-like mask, but it couldn’t hide the savage, brutal glint in his eyes.
This guy… isn’t the Boothslot Family’s chef, is he? Ashley wondered to herself.
Sure enough, the giant turned, slowly walking to Gysin’s side. With every step, his flabby flesh quivered.
Damn, that leaves just me and Delwei among the invitees!
The gluttonous loli still didn’t grasp the complex and dangerous situation, her little head swiveling around as she curiously eyed everything.
“Take off the mask first… Can you do it yourself? No need for me to do it?” Gysin forced a show of authority.
Ashley thumbed her revolver, the cylinder spinning with a click-click-click.
When she entered Bull Town, the cylinder held five rounds.
One for Teacher’s ability, one for the captain’s, three kinetic rounds from the Hades Train—their effect roughly equivalent to being crushed under the Hades Train. Not just people; even armored vehicles would be pulverized like trash. The sixth slot was empty, reserved for ‘Time Bird’ copies.
Teacher’s ability was used up, now replaced with “Meat Baby.”
As she began counting bullets, it meant the situation was extremely unfavorable. The crocodile head, the butcher, Gysin—none were easy to deal with. And the other two’s supernatural abilities were unknowns.
Ashley raised her slender finger and casually lifted the mask.
“She’s a Seventh Group agent! Her name’s Ashley!” The purple braided loli immediately shrieked, bouncing in place with excitement. “Master! I found her first! I did a good job!”
“You’re a good girl,” Gysin praised.
You little…
Ashley’s nose nearly twisted in anger. She forced a helpless smile and said,
“I want to join, just like her.”
There was no ‘Touch of Will’ left anyway—no risk of being whipped and brainwashed.
Gysin remained vigilant, his gaze locked on the two lolis. His beast-like instincts constantly warned him: unlike those two innocent idiots who’d stuck their necks out and gotten shot, these two were lethally dangerous.
“There are two ways to join us: one is the whip—choose to become a slave or retainer. The other is the feast…”
Gysin shifted his finger, pointing to the girl sitting in a silver platter on the flower-adorned banquet table. Even in doing so, he didn’t let the two out of his sight.
“Eating people as a pledge of loyalty, huh…”
Ashley was no stranger to this; participating in a joint crime was a common way for criminal groups to induct members.
She walked over, examining her Tribunal colleague. She reached out, lifting a strand of long hair and letting it trail across her palm.
She had to admit, the girl’s hair was well-maintained—soft, glossy, without split ends.
“Ashley… save me…”
Claire’s lips trembled as she begged in a tearful voice. Even posed in such a humiliating crouch, her slender, pale body remained alluringly beautiful.
Ashley recalled her first meeting with the black-haired girl, quietly tending to her bamboo and succulents with a spray bottle.
With a soft sigh, her palm slid along the arched spine, brushing over skin taut in the cold air and the protruding vertebrae, feeling the small, animal-like tremors from the delicate frame.
“I don’t want to die… I don’t want to die… Mommy… Mommy… waaah…” Claire bit her teeth, tears streaming down her face.
Ashley felt a pang of sympathy. She leaned to her ear and whispered, “If I save you, will you be my dog?”
Claire shuddered violently, a surge of desperate hope rising in her heart. Her hips clenched, lips quivering as she repeated, “I will, I will.”
Ashley looked up at Gysin and abruptly asked, “How exactly do we eat?”
Eh? Weren’t you going to save me? Claire’s pupils dilated as she plummeted back into despair.
“Hands or feet? Or carve out a chunk of flesh. Or organs,” Gysin said, eyes fixed warily on the inscrutable loli, unable to predict her next move.
“Hands, feet, offal—those are for the lowly. I want to eat her brain.” Ashley licked her lips, shocking everyone present!
“Aaah! You’re a demon! I hate you! I’ll haunt you as a ghost!” Claire broke down, screaming.
Montago, standing in the distance, smiled approvingly upon hearing this and nodded.
“You know your food. Fear, despair, anger, sorrow—these negative emotions make animals secrete pain pheromones, turning the meat bitter and tough. But the brain gets tender and delicious from the intense emotional surges. We’re kindred spirits. Welcome.”
Ashley smiled back at the old bastard, then turned to Delwei:
“I’ll eat the brain, you eat the heart. As our pledges!”
She hummed softly amid the girl’s mournful cries, spraying activating enzymes along the skull’s midline. Once the bones softened, she tore open the crown, exposing the grayish-white, delicate brain.
Then, the loli’s mouth split from corner to ear root, yawning into a grotesque, ominous maw fringed with blood-red tendrils! She swallowed the girl’s entire brain raw!
The other loli hiked up her skirt, parting the tentacle rift in her abdomen. Countless blood-red, tender tentacles swarmed the steaming, bloody heart, devouring it along with the clutching hands.
“Monsters…!”
Gysin stepped back, face paling as he realized things were spiraling into unpredictability—like a sudden downpour flooding everything in chaotic tumult!
He’d forced out two monsters, but the ‘Touch of Will’ was still missing, and he had no clue how the enemy killed his brother.
Gysin’s gaze cycled between Ashley, the butcher, and the crocodile head, growing uncertain. He even began suspecting his own people.
At that moment, the butler hurried over and reported to the old man:
“Sir, Mr. Goat caught that girl!”
Ashley overheard from afar, her eyes flashing with a terrifying gleam. That girl… Amber?!
“Finally caught her? Good, good, good. Now all seven from the Tribunal are under control.” Montago exhaled in relief, clenching and unclenching his fist.
“But…” The butler hurriedly added, “She has a layer of highly inorganic Bio Armor on her surface that can’t be breached. Mr. Goat trapped her in the ‘Horn Cage’ and went to Wordsworth for the ‘Hunger Key.’ As long as it’s biomass—even Metal Lifeforms—it can break through with that…”
The butler’s words hit Ashley like thunder!
Her heart raced with excitement. Amber was in trouble, but it was fine! Linden seemed as good as dead, but no matter!
The Hunger Key? Isn’t that the Broken Claw Tip, suspected to be from the King Insect?
Ashley realized immediately.
The banquet seemed poised to end on a sour note. She glanced at the table: the girl’s black hair soaked in blood, her corpse curled and twisted. Horrific holes gaped in her skull and chest, blood-filled lungs spilling out, steaming in the air with a moist sheen.
The girl’s brain now rested quietly in her belly.
Swallowed through the “Angel’s Kiss Mark” slit, it sank to the abdominal cavity, reconnecting via organic conduits to her body—for her to supply its nutrients.
Ashley discovered that, due to the nutrient supply, the girl couldn’t defend against her. Closing cellular channels would cause hypoxia or starvation. Thus, she held absolute authority over the brain. Neural filaments wove layered paths across the cortex; tendrils burrowed in, free to do as they pleased.
Ashley could freely access memories, read thoughts, twist will, even deliver punitive shocks—exerting all sorts of influences.
