Tokyo: I'm really not a killer

Tomohiro Kameda yelled and smashed the bottle down. Hiroki Aiba, bleeding from a head wound, was still not unconscious and started cursing and threatening to kill them.

These words provoked Tomohiro Kameda, causing his adrenaline to surge. He picked up several bottles and smashed them one by one on Koji Aiba's head, breaking twenty bottles in a row. Only then did Koji Aiba's eyes roll back and he passed out.

As soon as he relaxed, Yuan Zhensheng immediately rolled over, pulled out a dagger, and stabbed him twice more in the neck and heart, splattering blood all over his face.

"Officer..."

Tomohiro Kameda dropped the bottle cap, trembled, and took a step back, accidentally knocking over his duffel bag—which was torn by broken glass, fell to the ground, and spilled out a pile of 10,000 yen bills.

"..."

"..."

The two stood two steps apart, looking at each other.

The next second, Tomohiro Kameda turned and ran, sprinting like a madman toward a phone booth in the next block.

Yuan Zhensheng exhausted his strength in the entanglement. Although it only lasted for a minute, it actually consumed a lot of energy.

A boxing match lasts only three minutes per round, and that's with breaks in the attack and defense; if it's a life-or-death struggle where everyone goes all out, they'll be exhausted in less than thirty seconds.

He was too exhausted to chase after them, but it wasn't a big problem. He pulled out another black duffel bag from under the counter; it contained his own Type 98 rifle.

"Why are you running away...?"

Yuan Zhensheng, panting, slowly screwed on the silencer. He even had time to take out a pack of cigarettes from the counter, light it, and stagger out of the store. Standing on the street, he raised his gun and aimed.

Tomohiro Kameda, not hearing any chasing footsteps, assumed he had shaken them off and secretly rejoiced, but couldn't help turning back to check—

Snapped.

A shot rang out.

The bullet struck him squarely in the forehead, and his body fell to the ground due to inertia.

Yuan Zhensheng took a deep drag of his cigarette, slowly exhaled, walked to Kameda Tomohiro's side, and fired two more shots into his back, one on each side, before leaving, making sure he was dead.

Hideaki Shiraishi's experience taught him a lesson. Even those who were thought to be dead could still survive; there were precedents of bullets lodged in the skull.

The smell of gunpowder mixed with the stench of blood permeated the night air.

Yuan Zhensheng threw away the cigarette butt, crushed it with the toe of his shoe, turned around and walked quickly back to the messy convenience store.

The store was a scene of utter devastation. Shelves were overturned and scattered, and Koji Aiba lay sprawled in a pool of blood, his head smashed by a bottle and completely mutilated. He was already lifeless.

With time running out, Yuan Zhensheng, despite feeling exhausted, began to handle the scene methodically.

He first laboriously dragged Tomohiro Kameda's body back into the store and dumped it next to Koji Aiba. System notifications then popped up in front of him:

"Found an equipable item (common)"

Item Name: Cashier's Knuckles

"Original owner: Tomohiro Kameda"

Special attribute: When counting banknotes, your finger dexterity increases by 30% (passive).

Basic Attribute: Presence -5%

"Special effect: When equipped, you can sort and bundle banknotes with one hand."

"Note: Tomohiro Kameda worked at the convenience store for twelve years, handling three million yen in cash every day without ever making a mistake. His fingerprints have worn permanent dents into the cash register buttons."

……

"Found an equipable item (rare)"

Item Name: Yaksha's Achilles Tendon

"Original owner: Koji Aiba"

Special Attribute: When leg explosive power is increased, Achilles tendon toughness +40% (Passive)

Basic Attribute: Movement Speed ​​+15%

"Special Effect: When equipped, your ground-pushing recoil force is temporarily increased by 200%"

"Note: These legs once broke a wolf's spine. Strong legs make a real man."

……

Yuan Zhensheng glanced at the floating system screen in front of him, his gaze lingering for a moment on the 200% increase in explosive power of "Yaksha's Achilles Tendon".

This is great stuff!

No wonder it's so powerful, it turns out it's an elite monster that dropped great equipment to enhance its combat strength.

Both "The Deceiver's Remains" and "The Stand's Throat" are more functional and do not significantly enhance his abilities.

But the 'Yasha's Achilles tendon' is different.

With 200% explosive power, he can break an ordinary person's ribs with a single kick; with 40% increased tendon toughness, he can avoid spraining his ankle when falling from a height; and with 15% increased movement speed, he can run faster and has a higher chance of successfully escaping.

It can be used for both offense and defense, and also has attribute bonuses.

As for Tomohiro Kameda's unremarkable "cashier's knuckles"... they're just a bonus, maybe they'll be useful when he goes back to count money.

Yuan Zhensheng stretched out his finger and pointed it down in mid-air without hesitation:

"Yes"

There was no dazzling white light, no earth-shattering noise.

An invisible force instantly acted on the ankles of Aiba Koji's corpse. The tendon tissue beneath the skin was precisely removed as if by an invisible carving knife, visibly shriveling and collapsing.

The same applies to Tomohiro Kameda's body.

The equipment icon has been quietly updated, and two more pieces of equipment have appeared in my inventory.

After retrieving the equipment, it's time to get down to business.

Hara Shinsei picked up the blood-stained dagger from the ground, carefully wiped away his fingerprints, pried open Kameda's hand, and forcefully shoved the dagger into his hand, mimicking the posture of Kameda tightly gripping a murder weapon before his death.

As for the Type 98 rifle, it really couldn't be kept. All that could be done was to wipe away the fingerprints, stuff it into Koji Aiba's right hand, and let his fingers loosely grip the handle.

Next comes the traces of creating conflict.

Yuan Zhensheng walked to the cashier, roughly pulled open all the drawers, and scattered the loose change and several 10,000-yuan bills haphazardly on the floor and in the pool of blood.

They then walked to the overturned tobacco and liquor shelf and deliberately threw several boxes of high-end cigarettes and several bottles of sake near Kameda's body, creating the scene of robbers stealing valuables.

He even deliberately kicked over several empty bottles, leaving glass shards all around the two bodies. After he finished, he washed his face, took off his convenience store employee uniform, and cleaned himself up.

Finally, it's about dealing with the traces you leave behind.

This step is the simplest.

He walked to the beverage section, picked up several bottles of high-proof vodka and whiskey, unscrewed the caps, poured the liquor on the two corpses, and casually splashed it on the scattered cardboard boxes and overturned shelves around him.

The pungent smell of alcohol instantly masked the stench of blood.

He found a lighter at the counter, lit it with a "snap," and casually tossed it into the pile of alcohol-soaked cardboard boxes.

Flames leaped up, greedily licking the flammable material, and spread rapidly.

Yuan Zhensheng didn't linger. He grabbed a shopping bag from the convenience store, put the cash in the bag, and hurried towards the safe house in the port area.

The firelight from the convenience store illuminated half the street, and the faint sound of police sirens could be heard in the distance.

To avoid the checkpoint, Yuan Zhensheng boarded the last tram. The carriage was empty, except for a drunkard sleeping soundly in a corner.

Yuan Zhensheng shrank into the shadows at the very back, his shopping bag tucked tightly between his knees, swaying silently.

The tram stops at Akasaka Station in the Minato Ward.

He blended into the after-get off work crowd, passed through the turnstiles, and walked three blocks before turning into the old apartment building.

The lights were on in the administrator's room, and the television hummed through the door. Yuan Zhensheng held his breath as he stepped onto the iron stairs of the outer corridor, the old steel plates groaning with each step.

At the end of the second-floor corridor, he took out a brass key and inserted it into the lock of room 201. Just as the key turned half a turn, the door next door suddenly opened a crack.

Komi Yui leaned against the doorframe, tilting her head to listen; her grayish pupils were unfocused.

"Mr. Suzuki, you're back... Oh? Are you injured again?"

Yuan Zhensheng sighed. He had tried his best to walk quietly, but he didn't expect her to hear him.

Could this guy have been waiting at the door for him to come back?

It feels a bit perverted...