Apocalypse: System of lotteries



Mountain valley.

A group of several people.

"You sure we're in the right place? We've been walking for an hour, you know." The man with spiky blond hair, wearing a black short suit and loose skirt pants, with 'Yama' written on his left chest, glared at the slightly shorter, short-haired, mask-wearing man walking in front of him.

The mask-wearing man, named Nitsuma, with 'Evil' written on his mask, pulled out a hand-drawn sketch map, tilted his head back with a frown, and said, "Hey, Yamada, be patient. You should know, my drawing skills were rated zero at Suzuran, you dummy."

"Dummy! Who are you calling dummy!" 

Yamada rolled up his sleeves and yelled, "You want a fight?"

"Come on! I'll make sure you have to pick up your teeth off the floor! You dummy!"

Nitsuma and Yamada knocked their foreheads together, their eyebrows raised as they glared at each other, all the while spewing trash talk.

"Will you two knock it off!"

At this moment, a bald man who was standing at the end of the group came forward, separating the two face-to-face men, and loudly said, "We have a mission today. If we can't complete it, we'll be punished by the president. You guys want to lose your pinkies?"

"Hey, Yamaki, it was him who started it!"

Yamada pointed at the man holding the shoddy map.

The bald man, Yamaki, shouted, "I said enough! If we can't find that guy today because of you two, you can prepare to commit seppuku when we get back. You two dummies."

"Hey, who are you calling dummy!"

"You want a fight, dummy!"

"Stop!"

Nitsuma raised his fist and quickly climbed over the hill. After looking over, he immediately waved at the others to come over.

When everyone got there, he excitedly said, "This is the place. Over the hill, it's all tree stumps from logging. Walk a little further, and there's a cave. That's where the guy is. I fooled him pretending to be from the cave. He's almost blind."

"Good, you still use the same method to lure him out of the cave."

Yamaki said this and looked at the people around him, "We'll spray some scent-masking spray. Once he comes out, we'll swarm him and take him down."

"Are we taking him alive?"

"Of course not, we don't have a puppet master here. First, drain his blood for preservation, then bring his corpse back. Okay, let's go!"

Moments later, a group of people sneakily lay in ambush around the area, holding their breaths.

"~"

Nitsuma saw that his comrades were in place and called out, "Russel, I've come to see you. I brought you some food. Come out~"

After shouting, he clapped his hands three times, paused briefly, clapped twice, paused again, and clapped twice more. Everyone laying in ambush stared intently at the interior of the cave, ready to launch a surprise attack.

"Is that you, Nitsuma?"

At this point, a piercing response came from the cave. It was so sharp that it would make anyone's ears ring at first hearing, as people normally couldn't make such a sharp sound.

Nitsuma responded with a laugh, "Yes, I'm surprised you still remember my voice."

"I can remember the voice of everyone who's been here."

At this moment, a 'giant bat' as tall as a man flew out of the cave and hung upside down at the entrance.

"Sorry to have kept you waiting," he said.

"We're brothers, no need for such formalities. Come down, I brought some food."

As Nitsuma spoke, he took out a table from the warehouse and pulled out some sushi and fish balls.

Whoosh~

The bat-man, Russel, let go of his grip on the cave ceiling and landed next to the table. He struggled to sit up and used his ears to discern the direction of the speaker. "My eyes are quite blurry. I can only use my ears to tell where you are. Mmm, the rice smells so good~"

"You eat first."

Nitsuma pushed the food forward while looking around at his companions.

"~"

Russel picked up a piece of sushi, sniffed it, and his ears twitched, "Wow, it smells so good. Oh, I also have a gift for you."

"Really? You also prepared a gift for me?"

Nitsuma laughed inwardly, thinking that Russel was his biggest gift today, and surprisingly easy to deceive.

"It's right here, can you see it?"

Russel lifted his right claw, pointing to his left claw that lay across his chest, "Isn't it beautiful? Can you see it? Come closer and take a look~"

"Hmm?"

Nitsuma felt a bit strange, but he leaned forward anyway.

Swish!

In a split second, Russel's pair of sharp claws reached out and pulled Nitsuma close to him. His right claw pressed down on Nitsuma's head, and his left claw held his throat. "Tell your men to behave, or I'll rip your throat out!"

"What are you doing?"

Nitsuma was both shocked and frightened. He thought he had been flawless in his act. How had he been discovered?

"What am I doing? I may be blind, but my ears are still sharp. When I was talking to you just now, I detected the people in ambush through their echoes. You should know, I've been trapped here for a long time. I can distinguish every echo of every blade of grass and tree around me, let alone a few extra humans. Seven people, right?"

Russel held onto Nitsuma, tilting his head to listen to the surroundings.

"I say, I didn't come here with ill intentions. I was afraid you'd be scared, so I wanted to introduce you to everyone one by one."

Nitsuma hastily explained, while looking at team leader Yamaki, hoping he would come up with a rescue plan.

"You liar! I don't believe a word you say!"

Russel snapped, then turned to the others. "If you don't want him to die, drop your weapons!"

"Baka! We've been discovered anyway, why hide anything? Charge!"

At this moment, Yamada, holding a pair of samurai swords, rushed forward.

"Seems like your men don't value your life."

Russel tightened his grip on his left claw and yanked back, tearing out Nitsuma's throat. Blood spurted out violently.

At the same time, using Nitsuma's dead body as a stepping stone, Russel flapped his wings and soared upwards.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!!

A volley of arrows flew toward him. Russel moved to dodge the sound, but his wing was cut by Yamada rushing from below. Russel's body instantly lost balance and he began to fall. Suddenly a massive force struck him from above, causing his consciousness to blank for an instant.

In a somewhat dizzy state, he felt himself being dragged out of the cave, continuing to be dragged on the ground and then hung upside down from a tree. His consciousness blurred, and he could only make out fragments of the conversations around him.

"Hang him up and bleed him out."

"Tear off his throat first!"

"Bats don't carry viruses, do they?"

"Hey, you! Wear gloves, you idiot!"

"Hey! Who are you?"

"Do you want to die? I'm talking to you, idiot!"

At this moment, Russel, in a state of blurred consciousness, noticed the group of Japanese men crowding around one person. He seemed to smell a familiar scent... Gutman?

Wasn't he dead?

"I said, I'm talking to you, idiot!"

Nitsuma, carrying two samurai swords on his shoulders, looked up at the man standing two heads taller than him.

Being handsome doesn't give you the right to be so arrogant, he thought. 

The man said, "Russel, do you want these guys to die, or live?"

"~~"

Russel, hanging from the tree, felt a rush of excitement. That voice was Gutmann!

He's not dead... he's not dead! How wonderful! Immediately, he answered excitedly, "Alive! I want to bleed them out!"

Ming nodded, "Should we get you down first? After all, you are hanging from a tree..."

"No problem, I hang here all the time, a little longer won't hurt."

"Alright, so you want these men alive but with broken arms and legs?"

"That's the best!"

"Okay, I'll grant your wish."

Ming looked at the strongest person, whose name was Yamaki, "Don't be afraid, I'm very gentle."

"..."

Yamaki stared at the man in front of him. This guy had one hand heavily bandaged, yet he had the audacity to boast!

What does he mean by being 'gentle'?

"But..."

Ming raised his hand to point at the sky, "It doesn't know what 'gentle' means."

Yamaki and the others looked up at the sky at the same time. A colossal figure crashed down from above. It was a monster with the head of a lion, the horns of a bull, the scales of a snake, the stripes of a tiger, and the wings of an eagle. Its eyes shimmering with an orange glow were fixed on them.

As Yamaki met its gaze, he felt he wasn't looking into eyes, but into the abyss of death.

Roar!!

A lion's roar echoed through the mountains, sweeping up the fallen leaves and broken branches. Yamaki and his men suddenly found that they had lost the will to fight. They had no desire to pick up their weapons and resist!

Thud!

Before Yamaki could react, he was hit with such force that his shirt shattered.

Crack!!

Crack!!

Two crisp sounds, two broken arms. He looked left and right at his broken arms, unable to groan from the pain!

"!!!"

Yamaki was horrified. He realized that he had lost consciousness to flee. Then, he saw the monster gripping one of his comrades with one hand as if holding two small chickens, smashing them together. Both fell unconscious, and their equipment shattered.

At the same time, the monster opened its mouth and spat a thick, toxic saliva at another comrade, whose legs were instantly corroded, causing him to kneel on the ground.

Finally, it was his turn...

Yamaki struggled desperately, trying to break free from the giant hand clutching his upper body. He raised his fists and pounded at the giant hand, but failed to inflict even the slightest damage!

At this moment, he felt the giant hand squeezing him tighter and tighter, so tight that he could not breathe! He stared into the orange glowing eyes. He was desperate, regretful, and helpless.

Boom!

Raoul suddenly lifted his right hand, slamming the man he was holding fiercely onto the ground!

Looking back at his master, he blinked in a relaxed manner, signifying that the task was done~

"Good~"

Ming clapped his hands, "But next time, please don't accidentally kill anyone again. Didn't I tell you, every person who comes to die is a wealth? If you don't cherish money, money won't cherish you, do you understand?"

"Roar~"

"You're still being stubborn. The excuse of not being able to control your strength, you've used it last time. Can't you come up with something new?"

"Roar~"

"..."

"Hey~ I say, Gutmann, you've forgotten that I'm still hanging here, haven't you?"

"Eh~ Russel, you've become a big bat, huh."

"Huh~ Can we not expose each other's shortcomings for now?"

"Fluffy~"

"Huh~"