I Only Want To Kill-Chapter 142: Trader

In front of Blaze is a large old wooden house with its doors completely broken and falling to the side. The doors were clipped by some type of beast with its claws, leaving visible marks on the wood surface. Whatever that thing was, it was extremely huge. Its claw alone must be as large as an adult.

Blaze lifts up the Lantern and lets its light illuminate the area. He holds Irony tightly and aims it forward, ready to shoot at anything that appears.

He walks inside the house. Wood chunks are scattered on the floor, and broken pieces of furniture are everywhere. The monster ransacked this place and destroyed everything. The wall seems fine enough, only the furniture and doorways are destroyed.

Blaze looks around the room. No living soul or corpse is present. The people in here must have run away or been eaten whole by the monster.

"Why is there a house in the Void? It isn’t just some projection like the Mirror Layer either, it looks like there were people living here."

Blaze finds nothing of interest here, so he moves to another room. The doorway of this room is also broken apart. This is the kitchen. A standing refrigerator is in the corner, and some chairs are lying on the ground.

"This place seems modern enough. So they did have technology."

Blaze opens the refrigerator. Inside is a big piece of rotten black meat. It is so stinking that it makes Blaze want to puke. He slams the door shut.

"Disgusting."

Nothing of interest is found, so Blaze moves on. This time he comes into the bedroom. The door to this room is surprisingly intact. Inside is an undamaged bed with a lonely wardrobe standing in the middle.

People usually don’t put their wardrobe in the middle of the room.

"Hey, anyone inside? Come out now, or I’ll shoot you." Blaze shouts, but there is no response.

He has given them a chance. Now, he aims Irony at the wardrobe and shoots without hesitation.

In the Void, you better assume everything wants to kill you. So if it doesn’t want to talk, it probably is dangerous. The white glowing bullets go inside the wooden furniture, digging holes in it.

Suddenly, screaming comes out from the wardrobe, and whatever is inside starts banging on the door to get out. Blaze sticks one foot on the doorframe, stopping it from going out.

He continues blasting. Bullets pierce the wardrobe into a beehive. The creature inside is shoving the doors even harder, but it is no match for Blaze’s strength.

It goes completely silent after eating a bunch of spiritual bullets. Then Blaze removes his foot, letting the door open up.

A pale human drops on the ground. His skin is as smooth as a fish and as white as a dead man. He wears nothing but a tiny fabric around his crotch.

Blaze aims Irony at his face and blasts him some more.

"What the?"

No notification from the System. He gains no experience points from killing him. It is either the power of the System is restrained or this thing isn’t dead.

Blaze switches Irony into the Moonlight Karambit. The Karambit transforms into the Twinblade with two-headed blades on each side.

With one swift motion, Blaze draws a circular curve that slices through the man’s neck. His head comes off and rolls on the floor.

However, still no experience points appear. Blaze then holds the Lantern of the Damned closer, controlling it to take the man’s soul. No yellow soul is being pulled out.

The power of snatching souls is not working. Blaze wonders if it’s because the Lantern can’t do it or if this man has no soul.

He walks over the dead body of the man and looks at the rest of the room. The wardrobe is empty apart from the man that was hiding inside. A short cabinet is at the side of the bed. Blaze opens that cabinet up.

"This is..."

Blaze grabs a box of matchsticks. There is a gravestone painting on it.

[You have acquired 5x Matchstick]

This looks exactly like the matchstick that he got from the System earlier. The same design and size.

To test whether they’re the same, Blaze lights up a match from the box and drops it on the man’s body. His entire body is engulfed in flame and disappears in an instant.

"This is the same item. So the System took the Matchstick from the sixth layer? Or if it’s because of some other reasons?"

Questions fill Blaze’s mind, but he throws them away pretty soon. He can’t find an answer by simply reasoning.

The window here is slapped shut with wooden boards on it. The doorway is also intact. A perfect temporary safe house for Blaze. He lifts up the wardrobe with one hand and places it in front of the door.

With this, whatever may come at him will have to get through the wardrobe first. If not, it should make enough noise to alert Blaze.

He then dusts off the bed and lies on it. It is quite an eventful day, and he is getting tired already. He needs to rest his eyes for a bit.

In the real world, Alyson just finishes her shower and comes out of the bathroom. Her hair is still wet, and she’s using a towel to dry her hair.

A tapping sound emanates from the outside of her window. She looks out and sees a five-eyed raven poking its beak onto the window glass.

Alyson walks over and opens the window.

"What is it, Isaac?"

"Have you seen Master, my lady?" Isaac’s tone is filled with worry and panic. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

"No. I haven’t seen him all day. What’s wrong?"

"My connection with Master is severed. We can’t find him anywhere. He was at the Crevice, and then suddenly he was gone."

"Hmm. Is Kana safe? Are there any attacks in the city? Did the police say anything?"

"Master’s mother is safe. His two clones are still with her. No attack at all, the police are cracking down on the criminals, but other than that, nothing is out of the ordinary.

We contacted Reddington to ask him for help already."

"I see. Return to the Crevice and wait for your master. I will locate him."

"You can?"

"Yes. In a way. Just keep everyone calm for now. Blaze will be alright."

"How do you know for sure, my lady?"

"You don’t know your master, Isaac? No one can best him."

Isaac blinks his five eyes, her words suddenly snap him out of it. "You are right, my lady. I’ll return to our base."

The raven flies off into the distance, and Alyson closes the window.

"What have you gotten yourself into this time, Blaze..."

She lies on the bed and closes her eyes. The dream quickly takes hold of her. Images of unexplainable scenes pop up in her mind. A golden warrior stands on a mountain of corpses, in his hand is a falcon-shaped long sword. Sounds of battle and people screaming. A giant sun hovers in the middle of the sky, it is at least three times bigger than the normal sun.

When the images go away, Alyson’s mind drifts into an endless dream.

A knocking sound wakes Blaze up. He immediately sits up and points his gun in the direction of the noise.

The door is still closed tight with the wardrobe blocking it. No one else is in the room. Sunlight pierces through the gap of the window. It is already daytime even though Blaze feels he has only taken a short nap.

The knocking sound is on the other side of the door.

Blaze approaches the door carefully with his gun still raised.

"Who’s out there?"

No reply, only continuous knocking. The knocking is calm and rhythmic, showing no aggression.

Blaze kicks the wardrobe to the side. It slides on the floor, opening up space for the doors to open.

On the other side is a hooded figure with black bandages wrapping around his entire face. The stranger wears a pair of black glasses that conceals his eyes completely.

He does not seem to be hostile. However, Blaze still keeps the gun raised.

"You are?" Blaze asks.

The hooded man seems surprised at Blaze’s appearance. They both wear a ragged cloak that is very similar in style. The difference is Blaze has a white mask on him while the man has bandages.

The man bows at Blaze and then holds up a sign. It says ’Trader’.

"You want to trade stuff?"

The man nods.

"What’s your name?"

The man points at the sign. It seems his profession is also his going title.

"How did you find me?"

The man points at his heart, implying something that Blaze doesn’t understand.

"Your heart? What do you mean? Can you speak?"

The man shakes his head and points at his throat. It seems like the man is mute. He seems friendly enough, so Blaze lowers his gun.

"What do you want to trade?"

The man steps back and points his hand to the floor, signaling Blaze to come over.