I Only Want To Kill-Chapter 143: The Train Home

Blaze takes a look around the room to make sure there is no ambush and then walks forward.

Trader has a gigantic backpack on his back. Blaze can also see a bike parked right outside the doorway, cloth sacks and bags are on either side of the bike.

The Trader places his big backpack on the floor and opens it. Inside are a lot of food, some tools, and weapons. They aren’t anything fancy, though, and are just ordinary objects that people can find. Some wires, some household tools, nails and boards, a machete, and a hammer.

There are many different kinds of food. Vegetables and some salted meat. There are even some insects, which Blaze won’t be touching.

The Trader inside the bag, signalling Blaze to choose what he likes. Blaze’s stomach feels a little empty. But his physical condition makes him not worry about it at the time. He is probably able to withstand a few more days, even weeks, until he is no longer capable of anything.

What’s more important is water. Blaze can see that the Trader has many clean plastic water bottles. He thinks that there should be no problem finding something to eat. This is the woods, and wildlife is everywhere for him to feast upon.

Water, on the other hand, can be very scarce. Especially a clean source.

"I would like some of those bottles. But I don’t think I have anything to trade for it. What do you want?"

Trader spreads his palms.

"You want to see?"

Trader nods.

Blaze rubs his jaw and thinks for a while. He still has some potions left that he bought but not yet used. But those are way more critical right now and much more valuable than water. The only thing he can think of that is suitable to trade is the matchstick.

"Take a look at this."

Blaze takes out the box of matchsticks from yesterday. Only four of them are left in the box. He throws it to the Trader for him to examine.

The Trader nods his head in rhythm, signaling that it is suitable to trade. He even looks kind of happy.

The Trader raises one of his fingers while grabbing one of the matchsticks. Then he points at the water bottle and raises four fingers.

The matchstick seems to be very valuable, as he indicates that one stick alone can be traded for four water bottles.

Blaze has lots of these. He still has more than twenty matchsticks in his Inventory. The ones that he got from the System.

"That’s a deal. Give me sixteen water bottles."

The Trader shakes his head and throws back a matchstick to Blaze. He then takes out all the water bottles in the backpack. The Trader only has twelve water bottles at the moment, so he can’t trade for four matchsticks.

"I see. Twelve are sufficient."

Blaze takes the water bottles and the returning matchstick. The Trader points at the backpack again, asking him if he wants anything else.

"I don’t need more items. But I do have some questions. I still have more matchsticks, and if you can answer me, I will give them to you."

The Trader closes his backpack and nods.

"How to get out of here?"

The Trader tilts his head. He doesn’t understand what Blaze is asking. He points to the broken doorway, the way that Blaze can get out.

"Not out of this house. Out of this wood. Out of this Dream Layer."

The Trader finally understood. He taps his finger on the backpack. Then he gets a picture and a map out from under his shirt and gives it to Blaze.

"What is this?"

The picture has a train on it. Behind the train is a busy, crowded city that looks like Ranas from many centuries ago. The houses are low and box-shaped. They have no windows but only small gaps that lead out to the outside world. Yellow light leaks out of those gaps.

The other is a map of the woods with some locations being marked on it.

"Where is the way out?"

The Trader grabs the picture and turns it around. Behind the picture are four words: ’The Train Home’. Then he points at a spot on the map, showing ’Road to the Undercity’.

"Undercity... So do you mean that I need to get to this Undercity? This place has a train that can lead me out of here."

The Trader nods, then suddenly grabs Blaze’s wrist. He taps on the Undercity repeatedly and then does a motion of cutting the neck. He seems very wary about what Blaze is trying to do.

"You mean it is very dangerous?"

The Trader nods.

"I have no other choices, Trader. I have to get back."

The Trader lets out a long breath, a disappointment perhaps. He nods to signal that he understands Blaze’s goal.

"How much for the map and the picture?"

The Trader raises five fingers. Blaze gives him five more matchsticks to pay.

The Trader salutes Blaze, then grabs his backpack and leaves.

"Good luck to you too, strange." Blaze says.

Trader nods back and climbs on his bike to ride away.

"What a weird being..."

Blaze can’t feel any energy of the soul inside him. Yesterday he thought maybe the Lantern lost its power. But today, he can still sense it in other beings. The Trader has no soul.

Blaze puts the water bottles inside his cubes and goes his way also.

According to the map, he is in a place called the woodland. To reach the Undercity, he needs to cross a village, the entrance to the Undercity should be on the other side.

Blaze stands still, regulating his breath to its maximum potential. Then he absorbs all the electricity that is left in his lungs. No aura is visible, and the usual status effect it brings is replaced by another thing.

[You have gained a temporary status effect: Outsider]

<Outsider: You are immune to the mental influence of this world>

Blaze takes a look around. Everything seems exactly the same as before. His mind is also the same, it doesn’t seem like he is influenced by any powers. He continues breathing, and the status effect disappears.

"That’s weird. Why didn’t I feel any difference?"

The physical and mental enhancement is gone completely, instead, Blaze has an immunity. But he can’t see what it actually does. He keeps this fact in mind in case he needs it in the future.

Blaze treads on the grassland. He grabs a water bottle to hydrate himself while on the go. The fresh and cool sensation of the liquid calms his nerves.

The sun here is foggy and opaque. It has a sickly grey color instead of white or yellow. This makes its sunlight very gentle, and Blaze doesn’t even feel a bit of hotness.

When he passes a tree, that tree sways to his side, and a branch reaches down to stab at him.

He may not be able to use Lightning Ascension, but his physical attributes are already very high. He simply stops in place, causing the branch to miss.

Blaze’s brows furrow. He stands still to see what this tree is going to do next.

It brings its branch back to strike at Blaze.

"Now this is definitely not a coincidence."

Blaze opens his palm, the Moonlight Karambit appears and stretches into the long Twinblade. He slices through the branch and easily cuts it in half.

Black liquid pours out from the chopped part. It is dense and smells like blood.

The tree screams, and its leaves tremble. A face appears on its trunk. A demonic and aggressive face.

Blaze tilts his head and tries to feel its energy. No soul either.

The roots of the tree burst out from the ground. It looks like tiny whirling legs that pull the giant body of the tree forward.

Blaze splits the Twinblade in two, he now holds two short, curved blades in each of his hands. He strikes first.

Blaze stomps his lead feet on the ground as an anchor and propels himself forward. In the air, Blaze spins aggressively, turning into a mini-vortex that cuts everything in range. He smashes into the branches of the tree monster, becoming a chainsaw that destroys everything.

The tree wobbles left and right. Its branches move like snakes and thrust at Blaze. If this is him a few days ago, these branches may cause a little trouble. But now, these attacks are simply ant bites. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Blaze kicks a branch that is coming at him, causing it to break in mid-air, splashing black blood everywhere. He then joins the Twinblade together and spins them downward.

Blaze cuts a straight, smooth, vertical line from the top of the tree right down to its root. The monster is cut in half. Its two lifeless parts fall on either side, dropping a Crisis Core in the middle.

"Wait... I’ve seen that Core before."

[Congratulations, you have slain a Wood Revenant]

[You have received x1 Wood Revenant’s Core, x3 Corrupted Logs]

The body of the monster gets turned to ash by the power of the System, leaving only the core and three big chunks of brown wood. They fly at Blaze and disappear into his Inventory.

"More useless materials..."

Blaze suddenly remembers that Erin has pointed him to another Conductor that can make use of those materials. He was intending to go to them eventually, but then the Gate of Heaven happened.

"Well. They are still there anyway. I will bring them to the Pocket Center eventually."