Tokyo: I can enlighten all obsessions

"So that's how it is?"

Kamiki Tetsu stared at the line of darkly humorous explanation, his face contorted in extreme oxygen deprivation and rage.

A flash of red light suddenly burst forth in his pupils.

The originally thin blade, enveloped in red light, unexpectedly extended into an illusory blade aura about an inch long.

This feeling is wonderful.

Kamiki Tetsu could feel the knife sucking away the resentment he felt towards this messed-up world from his chest.

"Since we all only have one life..."

Kamiki Tetsu stared intently at the distorted face before him, and with a sudden burst of strength in his right hand, the knife tip, which had been unable to penetrate even an inch before, now pierced through the woman's pale arm as easily as cutting through a piece of rotten tofu, thanks to the enhancement of that red light!

puff!

Black, foul-smelling blood instantly splattered all over Toru Kamiki's face.

"Then please... die first!!!"

He let out a hysterical roar and, gripping the knife hilt, dragged it down hard along the other man's elbow joint!

Stab it!

The monstrous arm that was gripping his neck was neatly sliced ​​in two by the utility knife that shimmered with the red light of "equality"!

Kamiki Tetsu crashed heavily onto the cold floor, his brain buzzing, and the burning pain in his throat made it almost impossible for him to breathe.

"Cough cough... vomit..."

He coughed violently, and before he could even feel the excruciating pain as if his bones were falling apart, the nauseating stench pressed down on him again.

"Five...days...yen..."

The woman who had lost her right arm was lying face down on the floor in an extremely bizarre posture.

Her remaining left arm, like an iron hook, dragged her stiff body, twisting and crawling wildly across the slippery floor toward Kamiki Tetsu.

The sound was like someone scraping tiles with a rusty piece of iron, so jarring it made your heart clench.

The once neatly arranged shelves were knocked askew by her, and colorful snacks were scattered all over the floor, mixed with the black pus and blood.

Her head, twisted at a ninety-degree angle, stared intently at Kamiki Tetsu.

"Is it... not over yet?"

Kamiki Tetsu pushed himself back against the ground, his back slamming against the cash register counter behind him, leaving him nowhere to retreat.

His vision turned bloodshot, and he gritted his teeth, gripping the utility knife even tighter in his right hand.

The red light on the blade sensed its master's anger and despair, and pulsed more violently, as if yearning for more "wages to be recovered".

"For just five yen... are we going to wipe them all out?"

As Kamiki Tetsu looked at the monster that had crawled up to him and was opening its blood-red maw to bite his ankle, a chilling aura rose in his eyes.

"I've had enough of this unreasonable exploitation!"

"Die!!!"

Instead of retreating, Shenmu Che advanced.

He kicked the monster's twisted face hard, gripped the red-glowing utility knife in his right hand, and slashed wildly at the monster's neck!

puff!puff!puff!

Each cut was accompanied by a sense of resistance.

The "salary recovery" effect reached its peak at that moment. What spewed from the monster's wounds was no longer simple black liquid, but thick streams of death energy, as if life force was forcibly extracted from its body.

"The fifth...the fifth day..."

The monster's roars gradually turned into meaningless convulsions, but Kamiki Tetsu did not stop.

The anger that had been building up for three years was poured out onto this small blade at this moment.

He was like a madman, hacking and slashing wildly at the monster that was no longer human, on the floor soaked with rain and black blood.

"Five yen, huh?!" "Overtime, huh?!" "Tax increase, huh?!"

Each roar was accompanied by a heavy cut.

The once eerie and powerful monster appeared so vulnerable at this moment.

Before that "Working Class Resentment," which carried the ultimate resentment, its terrifying, fantastical form was brutally dismantled.

Finally, with the last blinding red light flashing, Kamiki Tetsu used all his strength to plunge the utility knife deep into the monster's throat, pinning it to the crack in the white tiles.

"Bang--!"

The monster's body trembled violently, then, like a punctured balloon, it quickly turned into a cloud of foul-smelling black smoke.

The black smoke distorted under the stark white fluorescent light, and was eventually absorbed by the dark red utility knife.

The noise subsided.

Only the faint sound of wind chimes came from the automatic door.

Kamiki Tetsu collapsed onto the muddy, packaging-strewn floor, panting heavily.

His shirt was soaked with sweat and some unknown liquid, and his right hand was trembling uncontrollably from the excessive force he was exerting.

Beside the blade of the utility knife, a five-yen coin covered in black mud lay quietly.

Kamiki Tetsu stared at the coin for a long time, then suddenly burst into laughter, a laugh filled with the madness of someone who had survived a catastrophe.

"Ha...haha...damn it, didn't you have five yen?!"

He reached out with trembling hands and picked up the five-yen coin.

Kamiki Toru clenched his fist tightly, the coin digging painfully into his palm.

He almost lost his life for that damned five yen, and this monster, for that damned five yen, turned himself into a pile of mud.

Just then, the pale blue light swept across his retina again, and lines of text quietly appeared.

【Title: The Vanished Five Yen】

[Quality: White]

[Type: Bonus Item]

[Note: The coin had always been inside her suit lining, but she had forgotten about it.]

That night, she searched her entire body in the pouring rain but couldn't scrape together enough money for the bus fare. She was eventually locked out of the last bus and died on that rainy night that shouldn't have been hers.

The coin's deepest resentment lies in the fact that it lost its life because it "couldn't find" the money, even though it was right there on its person.

【Special Effect - Change: When your attack or action is just one step away from achieving the goal, this coin will be consumed to make up the gap, forcibly bringing about the result.

(Note: When your blade is just an inch away from the enemy's throat, or when you are just a little short of finishing off the enemy, it will fill that "five-yen gap" for you.)

Upon seeing these lines of text, Toru Kamiki instinctively tightened his grip on the utility knife in his hand.

The blade, after being enlightened, exuded a chilling coldness, as if it were yearning for something.

In the palm of his other hand, the coin was emitting a faint glow.

The moment he gripped the two items, a new notification appeared in the illusory text before him.

[Highly compatible material detected. Should we proceed with "obsession synthesis"?]

[Key Equipment: The Resentment of the Working Class (Blue)]

[Add material: The Vanished Five Yen (White)]

[Success Rate: 100% (Bonus: Shared Destiny)]

[Note: Life is tough enough already; sometimes it's time to let those unreasonable guys give us "change."]

Kamiki Tetsu didn't bother to read the explanatory text carefully at all.

Having just escaped death, he didn't care how precious this "material" was.

He only saw the "100%" message.

In this indifferent city, this was the first time he had ever seen something "absolute".

"synthesis."

He let out a low growl in his heart.

In an instant, the five-yen coin transformed into a white liquid, seeping into the utility knife through his fingers.

"Click!"

With a crisp crack, the cheap red plastic casing of the utility knife began to twist and reform.

The originally dim red light was instantly swallowed up by that deep blue light.

Kamiki Tetsu felt a chilling force return along the hilt of the sword, causing his arm and the space between his thumb and forefinger to go numb.

With a crisp "ding-dong" sound, the new information was completely frozen in front of Kamiki Tetsu's eyes.

[Obsession Equipment: Executioner's Blade (Tax Included)]

[Quality: Blue (Rare, Growing)]

[Type: Weapon]

[Note: This is meant to tell those who think they're superior a truth. In the face of death, there are no VIP discounts, and no deferred payments.]

[Special Effects - No Wasted Effort: Since I've already paid the price for swinging my sword, you must accept the damage. There's no such thing as "unpaid overtime" here.]

(When the attack trajectory deviates, Coin Obsession will trigger a correction, forcibly resetting the landing point.)

[Special Effects - Salary Loss: The wound is a deficit, and conventional methods cannot fill the "bad debt".]

(Causes continuous bleeding that cannot be stopped by conventional means until the target is completely "bankrupt" and dies.)

[Note: "Listen, this time you don't have to pay. Leave me alive, and I'll even give you five dollars back."]

Kamiki Tetsu stared at the brand-new weapon in his hand.

The old, worn-out plastic handle is gone, replaced by a dark, stone-like grip that is cold and heavy.

The blade had been extended by about an inch, and the originally cheap industrial blade was now reflecting an eerie blue-purple luster.

As the fingers loosened, the light on the blade slowly faded, and the heart-pounding heat cooled down.

Kamiki Toru was panting heavily, but he did not feel any relief.

Instead, a chill crept up my spine.

He suddenly looked up at the surveillance camera in the corner of the ceiling, then at the black water all over the floor.

If one of these unscientific monsters can appear, it means that a second, a third, could also appear...

"Clean up the scene first, then call the police..."

Kamiki Tetsu gritted his teeth, forcing his aching body to prepare for action.

Just then.

Nourishes—

That's the faint electrical sound of the motor turning when the automatic door sensor is activated.

The step that Kamiki Tetsu had just taken instantly froze in place.

"Ding-dong—"

The cheerful yet mechanical greeting at the entrance sounded like a death knell in the dead of night.

The monsters are back?!

Kamiki Tetsu didn't even consider the naive idea that "he might be a guest."

Who in their right mind would come to such a remote convenience store at 2 a.m. on a stormy night like this?

It can only be that kind of thing that's coming!

Without any hesitation, the "executioner's blade," which he hadn't had time to hide properly, left a trail of afterimages in the air and once again appeared in front of him.

Under the dim and flickering fluorescent light, the red and blue intertwined light and shadow on the blade were reflected in his pupils, making it appear particularly ferocious.

He stared intently at the automatic sensor door that was slowly sliding open.

However, the expected stench and screams did not appear; instead, a woman's voice, trembling with sobs, was heard.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no! Why do all the alleys in Tokyo look the same in the rain?! I got lost on the GPS for twenty minutes, sob sob..."

Kamiki Tetsu was stunned.

What appeared at the entrance was a touch of crimson that seemed out of place in this gloomy convenience store.

It was a young girl.

She wore a white short-sleeved top and a scarlet hakama skirt, a garment typically worn by clergy.

Because of the jogging and the wind and rain, her black hair, tied with a white headband, looked a little messy, and a few strands of hair were wet and stuck to her rosy cheeks.

She was gripping a wooden coin with a cracked handle tightly in her right hand, and a cell phone with almost no battery in her left, sweating profusely with anxiety.

"Hopefully, it's not too late! Judging from the aura I sensed, that vengeful spirit from the rainy night is nearby... It would be terrible if someone were attacked!"

The girl shouted as she hurriedly stepped into the store.

However, her wooden clogs made a "slurp" sound when they stepped on the viscous liquid on the floor, a mixture of black blood and rainwater.

"Whoaaaaah—!"

Amid a series of terrified screams, the shrine maiden tripped and slid across the ground in front of Toru Kamiki, finally hitting her head on the corner of a shelf with a thud.