Chapter 228 Broken (3)

"Now, with that... I’ve finally severed every tie I had to my old world."

He spoke with a smile that reflected his relief.

At that moment, he felt as though every regret he’d carried from his previous life had disappeared.

As though he’d become an entirely new person.

He belonged to Ordeal now, completely and utterly.

He was no longer that young man who streamed games from his bedroom and suffered through sleepless nights.

Although, ironically enough, the person sitting beside him was a tangible connection to the world he’d left behind.

Speaking of Verso...

The young man suddenly leaped to his feet atop the tower’s edge, thrusting his fist high into the air.

"LET THE WORLD TREMBLE! WE’RE THE TWO PLAYERS WHO WILL END THIS NIGHTMARE AND RESTORE THE LIGHT!"

"WE’LL ACCOMPLISH WHAT NO ONE ELSE HAS EVER MANAGED, BECAUSE WE HAVE A PLAYER WHO ACTUALLY BEAT THE GAME AND DEFEATED THE NIGHT LORDS!"

Verso shouted with unrestrained enthusiasm.

"Get down from there. You look ridiculous."

Ethan mocked him, but couldn’t help laughing at Verso’s antics.

He was a complete lunatic who didn’t seem to have a care in the world, despite having been transported into a dark game that most people considered impossible to complete.

Even so, Ethan had the feeling that the man before him wasn’t nearly as naive as he pretended to be.

At the very least, he knew how to play the game.

And he was exceptionally good at keeping his cards hidden.

Surviving two Ordeals was proof enough of that.

Ethan still preferred working alone, but he certainly wouldn’t turn down the help of another hunter capable of keeping up with him.

Suddenly, while Ethan was lost in thought, Verso’s expression changed.

His cheerful demeanor vanished, replaced by a mask of seriousness.

Ethan noticed immediately.

"What’s wrong?"

Verso answered without hesitation.

"Gluttony... My curse has activated."

Ethan’s expression grew serious as well.

"Does that mean you need to drink blood now?"

"That’s right."

Verso nodded before jumping down from the edge and walking briskly toward the interior of the tower.

"Fortunately, I brought some fresh blood with me!"

He sounded rather pleased with himself.

Ethan followed, commenting as he went.

"You’re more careful than you look."

"Of course I am! I’ll die if I don’t drink blood, you know!"

Verso complained as he descended the stairs, with Ethan following close behind.

"Speaking of blood, is that really the only negative effect of your curse? Nothing else?"

"Ah... Actually, there’s more. And I’ll be showing you one of them very soon."

Verso answered without turning around.

All Ethan could see was his back, barely distinguishable in the darkness.

The tower was completely abandoned, with no sources of illumination except for the moonlight filtering through the cracks and openings in its walls.

"What’s with the suspense? If you’re going to reveal your secret, just do it instead of keeping me waiting."

Ethan teased him with a smile, and Verso laughed in response.

"Well, since I’m going to drink blood anyway, I figured it’d be better for you to see it with your own eyes rather than hear about it."

Verso spoke just as a faint light flickered in his eyes.

"They’re here! We’ve arrived!"

He suddenly hurried forward, stopping on one of the cluttered floors roughly halfway down the tower.

Ethan looked around, glancing from side to side as he wondered what Verso was talking about.

"You keep saying we’ve arrived, but all I see here is junk."

And he meant it.

The entire floor was littered with worn-out pieces of iron and copper, old fabrics, and all manner of miscellaneous objects.

It looked more like a garbage dump than anything else.

But Verso insisted that this was the right place.

He wandered through the clutter before stopping in front of a large iron disc, positioned in such a way that it appeared to be concealing something behind it.

Judging by its size, the disc must have been extremely heavy.

Yet Verso lifted it aside effortlessly with a single hand, revealing whatever had been hidden behind it.

Curious, Ethan stepped closer to take a look.

Then he froze.

His eyes widened in shock at what he saw...

"Hellooo~! I’m back, just like I promised!"

Verso greeted whatever lay before him with his usual cheerfulness.

There, in the darkness, sat a woman with long, disheveled black hair. Her body trembled uncontrollably, and her tear-filled eyes stared at Verso in absolute terror.

Ropes bound her hands and feet, while a gag covered her mouth, preventing her from screaming or even attempting to speak.

Beside her sat a child who couldn’t have been more than ten years old.

He was trembling too.

His hair was the same color as the woman’s, and he shared many of her features, making their relationship unmistakable.

Her son, most likely.

The bound child wept as he leaned against his mother, terrified.

They sat together in a pool of their own filth, a grim indication that they’d been kept there for quite some time.

Both mother and son were utterly terrified of Verso.

But the moment their eyes fell upon Ethan, that terror gave way to hope.

Desperately trying to crawl toward him, they threw themselves onto the floor.

"Mmmmmm!!! Mmmmmm!!!"

They tried to scream at the top of their lungs.

Ethan couldn’t understand a word they were saying, but he had a fairly good idea of what they were trying to convey.

They were begging for help.

Standing frozen in shock, Ethan slowly turned his head toward the man responsible.

"Verso... What the fuck is this?"

His voice was heavy.

Verso’s smile widened.

But this time, there was something deadly about it.

Not a trace of his usual playfulness remained.

"This? Oh, it’s nothing... Just blood."

Verso extended his hand.

Aura surged through it, the veins beneath his skin twisting and bulging.

Then, with a swift horizontal sweep, he struck both their necks.

Blood erupted.

Two severed heads rolled across the cold floor.

There was so much blood that it splattered across Verso’s smiling face, with some of it even reaching Ethan, who could only stare in disbelief.

"Just blood... Fresh blood."

Verso licked the blood from his face and laughed.

"You see, one of the conditions of my curse... is that I can only drink the blood of people I’ve killed with my own hands."

"Which means I have no choice but to kill every single day."

"But luckily! This world is full of blood-filled NPCs, so I’ve got an endless supply of blood to choose from!!"

Savoring the taste, Verso drank his fill, satisfying his thirst.

And Ethan finally understood the true nature of the man standing before him.

"You’re broken..."

Verso didn’t see the people before him as human beings.

To him, they were livestock.

Nothing more than non-player characters.

He could end their lives without so much as blinking, because he didn’t consider them human beings like himself and Ethan.

And that made him dangerous.

A man capable of doing absolutely anything, simply because he treated this world as a game rather than reality.

"This is insane..."

Ethan unconsciously took a step backward.

Every illusion he’d held about Verso shattered in an instant, leaving him face-to-face with a horrifying reality...