IWYTBW - Chapter 55
Chapter 55
Compared to Now, I Don't Know Which is More Fucked Up; Today, or Tomorrow?
A long silence stretched. Finally, Yi Zhen spoke, his voice low. “Tai’a. Explain.”
[……]
Yi Zhen drew a deep breath and released it slowly. “Don’t play dead. I require an explanation.”
[And if I am unable to provide one?] Tai’a replied. [My apologies, but that is the reality. This pertains to the world’s core plotline. I cannot elaborate, as revealing certain information prematurely would be tantamount to indirectly causing the erasure of my existence across all timelines. My core programming prohibits self-destructive actions, Player.]
Yi Zhen paced, his steps tight circles on the forest floor. “He was trying to say I’m the Seventh Arbiter,” he said, voice tight. “He recognized me from the Illusory Body of Mo Luo. What does that mean? Did the technique originally belong to the Seventh Arbiter?”
Tai’a responded with programmed calmness, [Does its original ownership truly matter? Ultimately, it belongs to you now.]
“And these poisons… the ones completely out of place in this interstellar era… they belonged to this supposed Seventh Arbiter too, didn’t they?” The more Yi Zhen pieced together, the colder his calm became. “Either it’s like that dead guy said, and I am the Seventh Arbiter; or these are things the Seventh Arbiter left behind, and he’s hiding somewhere in this world; or… something happened to him. An internal conflict among the Twelve Arbiters, maybe? He lost, possibly died, scattering his belongings, and I just lucked into finding them.”
He paused, voice dropping further. “Then there’s the last possibility I can conjure… I am the Seventh Arbiter. Something happened to me—an internal power struggle, perhaps—I lost, maybe even died back then. And so, things that were originally mine got scattered, and now… now I have to gather them all back.”
Could that truly be it? Doubt warred within him, tangling his thoughts. If it were true, the situation became infinitely more complex. This trashy novel would undoubtedly be crawling with the most powerful transmigrators, the Arbiters themselves, perhaps more than one. And their objective wouldn’t just be conquering this world… it would be him.
Tai’a intoned slowly, [Why delve into such complexities, Player? Existence is best lived in the present. Your past is immutable, your future unknowable. Only the now, the immediate, the tangible today, serves as your true foundation. You mortals often speak of learning from history, of preparing for unseen futures, yet in my observation, humans are creatures incapable of truly learning from past errors. Your very path of progress resembles a spiral staircase—always veering, endlessly repeating the mistakes of yesterday. Given this, why burden yourself with such thoughts?]
“Precisely because humans are incapable of learning,” Yi Zhen retorted coldly. “No matter what you say, you can’t stop my mind from racing through every damn possibility.”
[Ah. Very well.]
Yi Zhen let out a sharp, frustrated breath. Tai’a wasn’t wrong; focusing on the immediate threat was paramount. Excessive speculation was useless right now. Knowing the logic didn’t make it easier, though…
He forcibly shoved the thoughts down, compartmentalizing the existential dread. Survive this first. Deal with the identity crisis later.
His expression hardened. Footsteps.
With his internal energy unleashed, Yi Zhen’s senses reached far beyond his immediate vicinity. Twenty meters out, approaching his position… one, two, three… six individuals. Adult males, judging by the heavy, forceful treads. The long intervals between steps indicated wide strides, suggesting considerable height. And with every footfall came the faint clink of metal on metal, like iron wind chimes…
Six hulking, towering, heavily armed adult males—or perhaps, adult males of a non-human species. Without seeing them, Yi Zhen couldn’t be sure of their race.
Tightening the grip of his gauntlet, he dissolved into drifting mist, melting into the undergrowth, waiting patiently.
The rustle of pushed-aside branches, the crunch of dry leaves underfoot, muffled voices, fragments of laughter – the sounds washed over him. Then came the scent: a thick, coppery stench of blood… Yi Zhen’s insides clenched. They’d killed someone.
The first thing to emerge from the foliage, shoving branches aside, was the brutally utilitarian muzzle of a shoulder-mounted incinerator cannon. An ominous red light pulsed along the lead-grey, streamlined barrel. Yi Zhen’s eyelid twitched involuntarily.
Heavy ordnanceOrdnance: military weapons, ammunition, and equipment used in connection with them. like that was strictly forbidden in the preliminaries. Besides, with all energy weapons and mechs rendered inert scrap, why were these guys still lugging this around so casually? Were they the masterminds… or just hired muscle?
“There’sss nothing,” one of them grunted, the accent thick, distorting the words almost beyond recognition. “ Musssst’ve ran off.”
Didn’t run, Yi Zhen thought grimly. Just lying in wait…
More rustling followed as the group forced their way into the small clearing. Yi Zhen stared, momentarily stunned. “They’re… not human?”
These… things were hideously ugly. Each towered over two meters tall, making even “hulking” feel inadequate. Their skin resembled cracked, charred obsidian, like cooled lava. Bald heads sat atop thick necks. Four sausage-like fingers gripped their weapons, thick as copper rods. Their reddish-brown faces were flat, lacking discernible noses, dominated by small, dark-red eyes and wide mouths bristling with sharp teeth.
He still thought of them as “they” only because they displayed signs of intelligence, capable of speech.
[Database indicates these lifeforms are likely Bonecrushers, originating from the Scarlet Dusk star system,] Tai’a supplied. [They possess evolved intelligence, their own civilization, and belief systems, but are inherently brutal, adhering strictly to the law of the jungle…]
As Tai’a spoke, Yi Zhen’s gaze drifted downwards, settling on their waists.
His breath caught. His expression froze into a mask of horror.
Bonecrushers. Each and every Bonecrusher standing before him had freshly severed human heads dangling from their belts, still dripping blood!
They’d crudely knotted the hair together—long, short, black, blonde, brightly dyed— all twisted and tied like cheap twine or a makeshift sash. This gruesome trophy was then looped onto belts already laden with sophisticated weaponry, displayed like grotesque medals, a silent, horrifying boast.
One Bonecrusher turned. The head hanging from his waist swung around with the movement. A face both familiar and strange… the face of a boy… a student from the Imperial Industrial University Yi Zhen had encountered, even fought against!
“Because we’re people who keep our word! What kind of pilot breaks a promise at the last second?!”
The boy’s indignant cry echoed in Yi Zhen’s memory. He’d been clutching his stomach on the ground then, face flushed crimson with anger, eyes burning bright, furious because Yi Zhen had “kidnapped” their teammate and forbidden them from using mechs or energy weapons. Yi Zhen had laughed then, genuinely amused by their naive, hypocritical righteousness. Getting eliminated was probably for the best; go home, get some real-world experience. All that training was useless against someone as devious as him.
Now he was dead. Eyes wide open in death, frozen in perpetual shock, as if unable to comprehend his end. He has been eliminated, yes, but he should have been on a transport vessel heading home, back to the prestigious university he was so proud of. He should have been complaining to his family about the unfairness of his defeat, receiving encouragement from instructors to strive harder… But now, he was just dead.
A student of Imperial Industrial… one of the pampered elites… Even I didn’t kill him!
A violent tic started near Yi Zhen’s eye. His blood ran hotter, surging through his veins like molten rock, a volcanic pressure building, ready to erupt and consume everything. More dead faces turned towards him as the Bonecrushers shifted – girls, boys, young adults, older contestants… Yi Zhen’s own features twisted into a mask of incandescent fury, the visage of a wrathful god clutching lightning, poised to unleash divine retribution upon the guilty.
Tai’a calmly concluded its data report: [...In one notable hunting operation, Bonecrushers attempted to capture a Desnian minor. They encountered a Desna Star System Titan-class starship directly. Their home world was subsequently obliterated, erased from galactic charts. The Bonecrushers surviving today exist primarily as enforcers to nomadic pirate bands, engaging in opportunistic raids throughout the cosmos.]
Yi Zhen remained silent. From within his clothes, he retrieved a slender crystal vial containing a single strand of viscous, ink-green liquid. He crushed the vial between his fingers, letting the potent toxin coat the articulated plates of his gauntlets.
Bone-Eroding Scorpion Venom. He’d finally committed to unleashing this peerless killer. These debased mongrels, these butchers… dying once wouldn’t suffice. How could anything less than a thousand, ten thousand deaths demonstrate the depth of their transgression, the resolve behind his judgment?
The Bonecrushers began to spread out. Yi Zhen realized his earlier mistake – their speech wasn’t just accented; their tongues were forked, like snakes, causing a hissing, slurring distortion to their words. One jeered, his voice a grating rasp, “Sssstop your sssniffing! The trail’sss gone cold. Twitching that sssnout of yours won’t bring the prey back!”
The target of the mockery grumbled, his own words thick and guttural, clearly annoyed at having bagged the fewest trophies. “Only becaussse the little sssscuttlersss were too fassst!”
He stomped off towards the edge of the clearing and, purely out of spite, fired his incinerator cannon into the dense woods. The blast ripped through the trees, sending up a geyser of smoke, dirt, and splintered wood, carving a crater seven or eight meters wide into the earth. He remained oblivious to the gaze of death tracking his every move.
[Though brutally violent, Bonecrusher intelligence is relatively low,] Tai’a noted. [Their nocturnal vision and olfactory senses are acute, but their daytime vision is impaired, and their hearing is dull. Additionally, their hides are exceptionally tough, virtually impervious to blades and projectiles, and they possess moderate resistance to toxins.]
“Got it,” Yi Zhen sneered internally. Impervious hides? Toxin resistance? Such pathetic advantages are hardly worth bragging about.
The Bonecrusher stood at the crater’s edge, spat into the hole, his back to his comrades, momentarily obscured by the settling dust and smoke.
Now.
Yi Zhen erupted from cover in utter silence. One hand clamped over the Bonecrusher’s head, twisting violently, while the fingers of the other hand formed a rigid claw, instantly shattering the creature’s throat bones.
The Bonecrusher’s black eyes bulged. Thick, dark-brown blood coated Yi Zhen’s hand, instantly reacting with the venom, shifting to a sickly dark green. Yi Zhen swiftly dragged the massive corpse into the crater, arranging it into a sitting position against the earthen wall.
First.
He crouched beside the body as the smoke cleared. Above, one of the remaining Bonecrushers noticed the absence. “Blackblood!” he yelled impatiently, his voice a gravelly rasp. “You ssllug! Move it! No time to wasste! Captain’ll peel your hide ssstrip by ssstrip if you dawdle!”
Another Bonecrusher, cannon raised, strode towards the crater. “Sstill ssittin’ down there? Ya lazy—”
Like a viper striking from its den, Yi Zhen shot upwards from the pit. Two fingers, hard as steel, plunged directly into the Bonecrusher’s eyes. With the same motion, he leveraged the creature’s momentum, slamming it down into the crater beside its fallen comrade. As the heavy body impacted the ground, Yi Zhen brought his knee up sharply, driving it into the creature’s lower back. Internal energy surged. A faint crack sounded—the spine shattering—while the force of the blow simultaneously jammed the Bonecrusher’s agonized howl back down its throat.
It died without uttering a sound.
Second. Yi Zhen retracted his fingers, flicking away clinging gore, and shoved the second corpse against the first at the bottom of the pit.
Once, twice… trying the same ambush a third time would be pushing his luck. He scrambled out of the pit, staying low, and darted through the trees, circling around to the opposite side of the remaining group.
Four left. Luckily, while he dealt with the second target, the others hadn’t been watching. They seemed accustomed to sticking to their assigned sectors. While the second had approached the pit, the others maintained vigilance over different directions.
Yi Zhen ghost-walked towards the Bonecrusher on the furthest edge, conveniently positioned near a large tree. Speed was critical. Absolute speed. The bodies wouldn’t stay hidden long. Less than a minute, and they’d realize something was wrong at the crater. If that happened, he’d face four heavily armed, immensely strong Bonecrushers, simultaneously.
He clapped a hand over the creature’s mouth from behind. Standard neck-snaps were out; Bonecrusher skeletons were too dense. The sound of breaking bone would be deafeningly loud, alerting the others – a sloppy assassination for sure.
Instead, Yi Zhen’s middle finger lashed out, a blur of motion trailing phantom images, striking the Bonecrusher’s temple with brain-liquefying force, if there was one in there. Supporting the back of the head, he lowered the heavy corpse silently and swiftly into a thick patch of bushes.
Third.
Just as he finished, the two on the far right, suspicion finally dawning, began moving together towards the crater to investigate. Holding his breath, Yi Zhen launched himself at the last isolated target. His attack was a whirlwind of precise violence – seizing, twisting, tearing the throat structure apart. He disposed of the body using the same method, concealing it within the waist-high undergrowth.
Fourth.
“Blackblood? Sstarnage?” one of the remaining two shouted impatiently, calling his fallen comrades’ names. “What game are you playing…?”
His small eyes abruptly widened, fixing on the growing pool of blood spreading at the bottom of the crater, illuminating the two grotesquely positioned corpses within.
“Fuck…” He exchanged a wide-eyed glance with his partner. Cannons swiveled, charging up. He spun around. “Ambush—!”
Empty air greeted him. The forest was still, the shadows undisturbed. Not a trace of a living soul.
“Hello,” a voice whispered from directly behind them, raspy, spectral, utterly chilling. “And goodbye.”
Blood erupted like twin fountains! The two Bonecrushers’ eyes stretched wide, almost splitting their sockets, but strain as they might, they couldn’t catch a glimpse of their killer.
Agony, white-hot and searing like lava, overloaded every nerve ending. Their heavy incinerator cannons thudded to the ground. They clawed desperately at their throats, trying to staunch the torrential bleeding, but their fingers met only thick, dark-green corrosive slime. Then, with soft, horrific plinking sounds, their own digits began to dissolve from the joints and drop off.
Yi Zhen watched impassively as the last two bodies collapsed. He stood motionless for a long moment before stripping off the blood-and-gore-splattered gauntlets and drawing a small knife from his belt.
He knelt. Methodically, he began cutting through the tangled knots of hair, gathering all the brutally severed heads before arranging them gently in one place.
While doing so, he rolled over one of the Bonecrusher corpses. Pinned to its chest was a metal badge: a stag’s head insignia, its antlers painted crimson. Yi Zhen ripped it off. “What is this?” he asked Tai’a, his voice low.
After a brief pause, Tai’a replied: [The emblem of the Golden Hind. The badges are standard identification for members of the Golden Hind pirate syndicate.]
“The Golden Hind…” Yi Zhen echoed. “I know them. They were in the original novel!”
[Correct, Player,] Tai’a confirmed. [The Golden Hind syndicate appears in Volume Two of the source material, Chapters Eighty-Seven through Ninety.]
“Their leader… what was his name again? I just remember it was something incredibly edgy and moronic.” Yi Zhen frowned, digging through his memory.
[The Scourge of the Seven Seas.]
Yi Zhen nodded slowly, muttering the name. “Right, that’s him. The Scourge of the Seven Seas. Rong Hongxue’s mother was his mistress… she and Rong Hongxue’s father gave him quite the green hat together…”
As he spoke the words, a violent tremor overtook his body. His lips began to quiver uncontrollably. Tai’a asked softly, [Player, are you alright?]
“I’LL FUCKING WIPE OUT HIS ENTIRE BLOODLINE!” Yi Zhen screamed, stomping his boot onto the dead Bonecrusher’s face. He brought his fists down again and again, hammering the corpse with rabid fury, roaring incoherently, possessed by a manic desire to pulverize the hideous thing—ugly in life, uglier still in death—into unrecognizable pulp. “The whole plot’s gone to shit! The Scourge of the Seven Seas dares to show his face here, during the preliminaries?! You think you can just ignore me?! The protagonist?! I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU! I’LL KILL YOU ALL!”
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