Curse Reply: After choosing Nawa, the cursed spirit cursed me for being cruel.

Killer Machine...

The image of the two corpses lying limply in the living room flashed through his mind.

And in this alley, there's that unseen ghost that's playing tricks on him.

These things, these things that kill inexplicably and treat life as a game...

My heart pounded in my chest, I couldn't tell if it was fear or something else.

An extreme sense of disgust and anger surged up, mixed with the instinct for survival.

He's the one.

Those who kill indiscriminately do not deserve any other ending.

We'll have to use a "killer machine" to solve this!

Moreover, their names are very similar; perhaps this is fate.

The stench was already rushing towards my head, and the sharp hissing sound was almost piercing my eardrums.

He suddenly stretched out his finger and jabbed at the third option with all his might.

[Selection Confirmed: Duanmu Yan Template]

[Host has awakened magical power, summoning device is transmitting...]

The air in front of me twisted strangely, as if something on the other side of the screen had broken through an invisible barrier.

A rather heavy object fell from the sky and landed right in his muddy hand.

He lowered his head.

A belt buckle-like device with a sharp structure, featuring a rotating wheel on each side, a key slot in the middle, and a red energy key that seems to have molten lava flowing within it, pressed tightly against the side.

Nava Summoner.

"Roar--!!!"

The entity that had been toying with him from behind seemed to sense some kind of threat and let out a sharp hiss mixed with anger and a kind of greed, instantly drowning out the sound of the rain.

He gripped the summoner in his hand, which was both icy cold and seemed to be faintly burning hot.

That thing lunged at them.

"Flame Nava, absorb the power of the raging flames, combine!"

Chapter 2 Nava

The young man forcefully inserted the key into the summoner at his waist.

"Flame Nava, absorb the power of the raging flames, combine!"

The moment the last syllable fell, he felt something hot explode from his waist, instantly flowing through his limbs and bones.

My blood felt like it was boiling, and my bones were crackling. My vision was engulfed by a blinding red light.

The raindrops evaporated the moment they approached the red light, making a hissing sound.

A deep, powerful roar shook the narrow alleyway!

Amidst the crimson light, a phantom of a Qilin, entirely composed of flames, appeared, its head held high, and a scorching wave of air exploded outwards in a ring!

"Roar--!"

The cursed spirit that rushed forward didn't even have time to scream before it was struck hard by an invisible giant hammer. Its sticky, slippery body flew backward and crashed into the brick wall at the end of the alley with a bang, sending pebbles falling down.

The red light subsided.

Duanmu Yan stood still and looked down at his hands.

The body was tightly encased in armor interwoven with crimson and silver-gray, its lines sharp and its joints inlaid with an orange-red light that seemed to never go out.

Rainwater fell on the armor and crystals, instantly vaporizing into white mist with a hissing sound, enveloping him in a hazy steam.

He clenched his fist; the armor fit perfectly, exuding a powerful and substantial presence, yet without the slightest hesitation.

He looked up at the thing that had just slid off the wall and was barely managing to reassemble itself.

Now I can see it clearly.

It has a humanoid outline, but its limbs are disproportionately long and thin, like stretched clay, and its face is three empty holes.

It lay prone on the ground, its long, black fingernails scraping against the stone slab.

"...Really ugly."

Duanmu Yan's voice came through the armor, somewhat muffled, but his disgust was undisguised.

"Uh... ah..."

The cursed spirit uttered indistinct syllables, and the three black hole "faces" all turned towards the armored figure.

Confusion, intense confusion, replaced the previous playful attitude.

This person... was just a normal human exuding a sweet scent of fear, how did he suddenly... transform into a giant aggregate of cursed power?

That power was not the cold, sinister curse it was familiar with, but rather... scorching, violent, and filled with the "righteous" aura that it instinctively feared, as if it wanted to completely dry and purify its filth.

A sense of crisis pierced its chaotic consciousness like needles.

What followed was a torrent of humiliation.

It is a cursed spirit! Born from the most vile and negative emotions of humankind! Humans should fear it, tremble, weep, and exude the fragrance of despair before it!

This human, who was just running for his life like a lame dog while being chased by it, now dares to... dares to look at it like that? And dares to call it ugly?!

Those fragmented pieces of human consciousness, received intermittently, tumbled through its chaotic mind.

It recalled its last feast in a bright box filled with human cubs.

They were playing a game called "hide-and-seek," hiding in closets, huddled under tables, and blindfolded to think they were safe.

It likes that game.

It slowly searched, finding them one by one, watching the innocent smiles on those little faces turn into confusion, then into incomprehensible fear, and finally freeze in utter despair.

Its deliciousness surpassed the fear it had instilled in any adult.

From then on, it fell in love with this game: chasing, giving false hope, and then extinguishing it with its own hands.

It loves that kind of look.

But now, this thing covered in armor has no fear in its eyes, only... an aura that makes it extremely uncomfortable.

"Kill...kill you."

It roared with a sound like scraping glass, and more slime gushed out of the black hole, causing its body to swell slightly.

"Kill me?"

Duanmu Yan moved, turning his neck, the joints of his armor making a slight metallic scraping sound. Then, he stretched his arms to the sides and swung them casually a couple of times.

"You low-level cursed spirit who can't even finish a sentence?"

Before he finished speaking, he kicked off with his foot!

A ring of cement slurry exploded on the ground, and a deep red figure tore through the rain, moving so fast that it left only a blur in the simple perception of the cursed spirit.

The fighting skills he had practiced before transmigrating were instinctively awakened and utilized by the powerful physical attributes granted by the armor.

Without any fancy moves, a straight punch, like a cannonball, slammed into the writhing face of the cursed spirit.

The cursed spirit screamed, raising its slender arms to try and block.

boom!

The fist slammed into the ground, twisting the cursed spirit's arm into a bizarre angle, and causing its entire body to stagger backward.

The scorching heat emanating from the fist caused the point of contact to sizzle and emit a plume of acrid black smoke.

"Ugh!" The pain briefly overwhelmed its ferocity, and it swung its other claw towards Duanmu Yan's chest and abdomen.

Duanmu Yan neither dodged nor evaded. He slapped his left arm downwards, steadily parrying the claw. He then smoothly retracted his right fist, using the force of the retraction to deliver a sharp upward elbow strike, slamming it hard into the chin of the cursed spirit... if that wriggling slime counts.

The cursed spirit was struck so hard that its head snapped back.

It wanted to back away, to create distance again.

But Duanmu Yan didn't give it a chance. He took a step forward, twisted his body, and whipped his leg!

The heavy leg armor tore through the air with a dull whistle, sweeping across the cursed spirit's fragile body at the waist.

Click!

With a clear cracking sound, the cursed spirit flew horizontally like a tattered sack being flung away, crashing into the alley wall again, creating a spiderweb-like crack that slowly slid down.

"Is that all you've got?" Duanmu Yan approached step by step, his voice devoid of emotion, but it was precisely this calmness that sent a chill through the curse spirit, a chill that ran deeper than any roar.

"You dare to pretend to play hide-and-seek?"

The cursed spirit struggled to escape.

It was scared, really scared.

That burning armor was more terrifying than any human or even its own kind it had ever encountered.

It made a whimpering sound, its slender limbs scratching at the ground as it shrank deeper into the darkness of the alley.

"Trying to escape? Molten Flame Fist!"

Duanmu Yan saw through its intention. The moment the cursed spirit tried to climb over the wall and slip away, he pulled his right fist back, and the red crystal floating on his arm armor suddenly shone brightly, and a scorching energy instantly gathered at the tip of his fist.

A solid, high-temperature flame flew out of his hand and struck the center of the cursed spirit's body just as it left the ground.

"boom!"

Flames exploded, and the cursed spirit let out an unprecedentedly shrill scream as it fell from mid-air, its body now bearing a charred hole that was still burning and melting, and was translucent from front to back.

Duanmu Yan walked up to it and looked down at the twisted, burning, and malevolent cursed spirit.

He lifted his foot, his armor-clad leg feeling as heavy as a mountain.

“It’s a pity I don’t have the habit of torture…” His voice came through the rain and the crackling of the flames, cold and hard as iron, “Otherwise I wouldn’t have let you die so easily.”

Feet, fall.