Chainsaw Man, starting contract to cut down the Demon Line

In contrast, Mengye, in his wheelchair, let out a comfortable groan.

Under everyone's horrified gaze, from his empty right sleeve, bones, blood vessels, and muscles intertwined and grew like some kind of eerie vine. In just a few seconds, a perfectly intact right arm appeared on Mengye's shoulder!

"Perfect." Mengye moved her newly grown fingers with ecstasy, her eyes growing even more fervent. "I'm alive again!"

"I can start serializing my new novel again!"

As he grew excited, a sudden change occurred.

The homeless man, who had been rolling on the ground and wailing just a moment ago, suddenly stopped screaming. His head, as if severed by something invisible, rolled to the ground!

Blood gushed from his neck like a fountain, a horrifying sight that shocked everyone present.

"He's dead—!! He's dead—!!!"

"You're lying! You said you'd only take my body!!"

"I'm not gambling anymore! I want to get out! Let me out!"

Several men rushed toward the iron gate like madmen, and the thugs raised their guns and fired shots into their legs one by one. They then laboriously dragged them back to their original positions, and a few who disobeyed were hit hard on the head with the butts of their guns.

"Please do not... leave the casino midway, otherwise the game will be void," the gambling devil slowly warned.

"As it says, you've all run away, so who am I going to gamble with? Gambling with the devil only lets me win one part at a time."

"That's what Mengye said," he continued. He stared at the decapitated corpse, seemingly lost in thought. But he quickly snapped out of it and urged, "..."

"You're next, Dongshan Xiaohong."

Something's not right.

Ignoring Mengye's urging, Yanliang stared at the headless corpse. At the same time, the original setting of Chainsaw Man came to mind.

Demons are born from human fear. The more a concept is feared by the masses, the more powerful the demon that is born from it. And the power of a demon is inevitably inseparable from its origin.

For example, the War Demon was born out of humanity's fear of war, and it can use all kinds of unreasonable weapons. It is a top-tier demon in the original work.

Conversely, characters like the Tomato Demon in the original work are probably only feared by children who hate eating tomatoes; their strength is so weak that they are no different from a mascot.

And this gambling demon before us...

Perhaps some people are indeed afraid of gambling, but in Yan Liang's opinion, gambling is not something that the general public fears. Moreover, this devil didn't react at all to those who ran away from gambling, only saying some nonsense. It's ridiculous that the fairness of the game has to be supervised by thugs.

And this bizarre, irrational slaughter doesn't seem like something a low-level demon could do.

Could it be that this killing wasn't the gambling demon's ability, as those present...

There's a second demon?!

Just then, a sharp voice rang out, interrupting Yan Liang's thoughts:

"That person hasn't tossed yet! Why should I skip him and go first?! That's not fair!"

The entire room fell silent for a moment, and all eyes turned to Yan Liang.

Yan Liang: "..."

He silently watched the source of the sound—

Dongshan Xiaohong?!

The moment their eyes met, Dongshan Xiaohong recoiled as if electrocuted, her hands twisting the hem of her shirt into a pretzel.

Dongshan Xiaohong was two people away from him: one was the buzz-cut guy who was killed at the start of the game, and the other was a homeless man. If the game started with the homeless man and proceeded clockwise, Dongshan Xiaohong would be next. But if it went counter-clockwise, he would be next!

Dongshan Xiaohong, you beast!

Yan Liangcai suddenly remembered that this guy was the kind of person who would betray his teammates without hesitation for his own life. There was such a scene in the original work. At the time, he had smiled at the other person's cute reaction, but now that he was in the same situation and had become the one being betrayed, he couldn't smile at all.

Mengye Rao looked at Yan Liang with interest, then at Xiao Hong who was curled up in a ball, and couldn't help but smile.

"Dongshan is very proactive, taking the initiative to help the teacher maintain classroom discipline."

Tears streaming down her face from fear, Xiaohong nodded repeatedly, "Yes, yes, yes! I'm a good student! I'll cooperate! So—"

"So, Mr. Add-on—"

Mengye pushed the dice cup in front of Yanliang.

"Want to experience it for yourself?"

Yan Liang looked down at the dice cup in front of him, and the entire hall fell silent for two seconds. Then he heard a faint apology.

"Yes, I'm sorry..."

"I just want to live... Waaaaah..."

It's still Dongshan Xiaohong.

She buried her face in her knees, her voice muffled, not daring to look up at him. Yan Liang took a deep breath, not hesitating, but simply stood up, took the dice, and said coldly:

"I can understand your desire to live as an ordinary person."

"Huh?" Dongshan Xiaohong cautiously raised her head and peeked at him through her knees, but she was met with Yan Liang's emotionless gaze.

"But, while I understand, what gives you the right to make fun of me? Just because I look easy to bully?"

“Remember this, Dongshan Xiaohong. I promise you, if you and I can leave this building alive, you will owe me your life.”

"I will absolutely not let this go..."

Ignoring Dongshan Xiaohong's reaction, Yan Liang picked up the dice cup, and he could clearly feel his hands trembling.

Faced with a life-threatening situation, those things that once felt like the sky was falling and the earth was collapsing now flash by like a revolving lantern.

Academic setbacks, job rejections, resumes disappearing into the void—looking back now, those were nothing but bullshit.

The urge to go back kept flooding my mind. Back to that wretched world of traffic jams, overtime, and landlords chasing me for rent. Even if I accomplished nothing, it would be a million times better than risking my life rolling dice here.

The dice rolled in the dice cup, and Yan Liang could clearly feel the vibrations coming from his fingertips.

But if you want to go back, you have to get out alive first.

Forced to travel through time, Yan Liang is immediately plunged into a gamble beyond reason with this madman. He inexplicably feels as if he's riding a motorcycle without brakes, speeding down a deserted hillside. Leaving the road means death, jumping off midway also means death.

Well, since death is inevitable whether you go left or right, why not floor the accelerator and charge forward relentlessly?

Perhaps, destiny is on my side!

In his desperate situation, a surge of adrenaline fueled Yan Liang's anger. He grabbed the dice cup, raised it high, and then slammed it down on the gambling table with a loud bang! The moment he lifted the dice cup, he didn't even glance at the numbers inside; he just stared intently at Meng Ye.

However, the expected look of astonishment did not appear. Yumeno's expression remained unchanged; instead, the corners of her mouth unconsciously turned up.

Silence fell over the hall.

Yan Liang's heart skipped a beat, and he abruptly leaned forward onto the gambling table, where the numbers announced his fate:

One!

Oh no... has fate decreed this for me?!

Chapter Three: Slay the Line Demon!

"Well--!"

With no chance to speak, Yan Liang collapsed to the ground, a muffled groan stuck in his throat. His left eye's vision first turned into a pure white dazzling light, then a burning pain spread from the inside of his eyeball to his entire head, causing him to shed tears of blood.

Then came complete darkness, and the left eye had vanished. Correspondingly, a new eye grew in Yumeno's eye socket, which should have been empty.

"Sparashi!" Mengye laughed heartily, looking at Yan Liang with his newborn eyes and exclaiming in admiration:

"Aren't you the so-called 'people of the world'?"

"I used to scoff at that statement."

"But now it seems that there's nothing more wonderful than the perpetrators seeing the world through the eyes of their victims!"

"Dazai Osamu, you were right after all!"

Dongshan Xiaohong covered her face, her shoulders trembling violently, only daring to peek at the scene through her fingers. She wanted to continue speaking, but immense fear gripped her throat like a giant hand, preventing her from uttering a sound.

And she knows that if she had to do it all over again, she would make the same choice.

She's been a coward since she was little. She's afraid of the dark, ghosts, injections, exams, talking to strangers, being called on by the teacher... she's afraid of everything in the world that can be frightened, and also afraid of everything that isn't worth being afraid of.

I know this is despicable, I really am a scumbag...

But... but I really, really want to live! Even if it's just for a second!

Xiao Hong blamed herself in her heart.

If she could, she wouldn't want to hurt anyone! This thought gnawed at her last remaining compassion like a venomous snake, making her feel nauseous at her cheap kindness.

A deathly silence fell over the hall. Everyone was watching Yan Liang, waiting for the invisible force to sever his head.

But one second. Two seconds. Five seconds passed.

Apart from Yan Liang's heavy breathing, nothing else happened.

His head is still perfectly intact on his neck!

"This?" Yan Liang scratched his head, muttering to himself involuntarily:

"I'm still alive?!"

Mengye's laughter suddenly stopped, and he leaned over to look at Yanliang.

He wasn't beheaded? In this seemingly hopeless situation, someone actually survived?!

After a brief moment of shock, Mengye was trembling with excitement. He pounded on the armrest of his wheelchair, his burned face radiating the fervor of a desert refugee finally finding an oasis. He shouted at the thugs:

"Quick! Tie him up again! Don't hurt him!"

In those few short seconds when everyone was stunned, Yan Liang, with his head down, was thinking rapidly.

The fact that he survived only proved one thing—just as he had deduced, the one who took the loser's life wasn't some low-level, incompetent gambling devil at all. There must be a second devil in this building!

But where is this mysterious demon? Why doesn't it show its true face? And why does it just stand by like a ghost, coldly observing this gamble?

Could it be... that it has fallen into a deep sleep?

This is the only chance to fight back if you want to survive!

Yan Liang gritted his teeth, recalling the original setting of "Chainsaw": human blood is the source of demonic power. Since blood can restore a demon's body, it can surely awaken a sleeping demon!

Yan Liang's right eye was fixed on the deep, bottomless cracks in the ground. He had noticed these strange fissures from the very beginning of the betting game. With the thugs approaching him, the urgent situation left him no room for hesitation.

Is this the only gamble we can take...?

Before the thugs could get close, Yan Liang suddenly flipped over and slammed his hand down on a sharp, broken piece of concrete on the ground! The rough cement cut his wrist, and blood dripped down his arm and into the cracks in the ground.

In an instant, the dim construction site lights in the lobby flickered on and off.

Immediately afterwards, a pressure a hundred times heavier than before, as if it would crush a person's internal organs, emanated into the Su-ju Hall.

A hoarse, emotionless voice appeared directly in everyone's minds:

"interesting……"

"Who is calling me?"

The sudden turn of events caused the thugs to exchange bewildered glances and halt in their tracks. Mengye, in his wheelchair, after a brief moment of stunned silence, erupted in uncontrollable joy. Ignoring Yanliang on the floor, he shouted at the empty ceiling:

"It's me! It's me!!"

"This betting game was something I specifically arranged to wake you up!"

"I've been waiting for you for a long time. Sign the contract with me!"

The voice paused slightly, then rang in everyone's minds again, carrying a condescending indifference:

"Then may I ask you, who am I?"

"Your name?" Mengye's eye twitched. After a moment's thought, he confidently replied, "What moves you isn't death, but the rules! Just as I organized this betting game, those who break the rules will die. Therefore, you are the Demon of Rules!"

"..."

A suffocating silence fell over the hall.

There was no response.

The mysterious being didn't even spare him a trace of mockery.

Taking advantage of the brief respite, Yan Liang's brain continued to work at full speed. Because he knew that this was his only chance to break the deadlock.

In his view, Mengye's answer wasn't wrong, but he hadn't grasped the key point, the only abnormality in this gamble—the homeless man had died, while he himself had survived. He was different from them, but what was the root cause of this anomaly?