If left unchecked, Raiden Mei would die. The gem would fall into the hands of the nobles and likely be sold off, causing no secondary harm.
The ten million people of Nagazora City would continue to live their peaceful lives as before. The one who died would just be a high school girl named Raiden Mei. Perhaps years later, people mentioning ME Corp would recall that there was such a person who became a Herrscher at a young age and was eventually killed, thus allowing Nagazora City to luckily avoid a terrifying, unknown disaster.
But what did that have to do with him?
Li Wu's brown pupils gradually focused. In his field of vision, three knives gleaming with cold light were constantly approaching, reflecting his iron-cold face.
"If you really act as bystanders, you will become the braves who slay the demon king, the knights who subjugate the evil dragon, the heroes who save everyone. This cannot be faked. I cannot refute it."
Li Wu's abrupt words stunned the three nobles. One said with a mocking tone, "Did you take the wrong medicine? It's too late to regret now..."
The moment the wind swept across the rooftop, the three knives moved.
The muscular boy lunged first, the tip of his knife aiming straight for the chest. It was a very standard street-brawl thrust, full of openings.
Li Wu didn't even shift his center of gravity. He simply turned sideways to dodge the blade, smoothly grabbed the boy's knife-wielding wrist with his left hand and twisted it outward, while simultaneously grabbing the boy's head with his right hand and pressing it down using the momentum.
Bang!
The muscular boy's face smashed hard against the concrete floor. His nose bridge collapsed, and he lost consciousness.
The knife flew out of his hand. Li Wu flicked it up with the tip of his foot and skillfully caught it in a reverse grip.
The second person's knife swept in from the left. Instead of retreating, Li Wu advanced. After quickly dodging the attack, he struck the opponent's chin upwards with his left elbow.
A sound of bone cracking accompanied by a painful whimper rang out. The second person fell backward, crashing straight onto the ground, holding his chin and trembling.
The whole process was smooth and flowing, without a single superfluous movement.
The third was the noble girl. Seeing her companions fall one after another, she immediately dropped her knife and began to beg for mercy: "Don't! We won't trouble you anymore, really! I can give you..."
Before she could finish, Li Wu delivered a fierce kick, sending her flying to the edge of the rooftop, nearly falling off.
From beginning to end, it took no more than three or four breaths.
His movements were becoming more and more proficient, but his memories were becoming increasingly blurry.
Li Wu walked toward the muscular boy who had tried to pierce his heart. He crouched down, reached out, grabbed the boy's neck, and slowly tightened his grip.
"You have your reasons. Whether out of selfishness or righteousness, in terms of results, you are indeed not wrong," Li Wu's tone was calm. "But the fact that you wanted to kill me is also real."
Li Wu pinched his neck with his right hand. The fragile cartilage and desperately beating pulse seemed to be begging for mercy on behalf of their owner. His left hand played with the military knife, its cold light flickering, the blade reflecting their vastly different expressions—
Calmness and panic.
"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. After getting my revenge, maybe one day the real me will wake up and feel pain, emptiness, and despair. But you will die here. Only your deaths can end the crisis plot, and only that is compensation for me."
Li Wu began to exert force. The muscular boy's eyes began to bulge, his face turning an oxygen-deprived purplish-red. His legs trembled incessantly, and his two hands weakly grabbed Li Wu's wrist but couldn't pry it off.
He could only watch helplessly as his consciousness became increasingly blurry, his brain's thinking slowed down, and then went blank...
Li Wu had absolutely no intention of letting go. He just watched, his eyes exactly the same as before—a pool of dead silence.
Right at this moment, the sound of the door opening suddenly came from behind.
Following that was Raiden Mei's exclamation: "Li Wu, what... are you doing?"
Li Wu slowly turned his head and replied naturally, "I'm solving a problem. They wanted to kill someone, so before they could make a move, I decided to kill them first."
He spoke so lightly, as if this matter was as natural as eating and drinking.
But soon, Raiden Mei suddenly rushed over and hugged him tightly from behind. Her two hands overlapped on his arm, trembling slightly.
"Don't do that. You can't... at least not here, not now... Let go, Li Wu. I'll help you handle everything. Don't continue this..."
"Are you worried I'll go to jail because of this? Don't worry, the three of them attacked me with knives; this is self-defense. Don't stop me. I must kill them today."
Li Wu completely failed to understand the meaning behind Raiden Mei's words, blindly stating his own thoughts.
In the comic plot, these three never gave up. After the protagonist mercifully let them go, they repeatedly used their connections in Nagazora City to create crises.
They only died when the Third Honkai Eruption occurred. Before that, they were a constant nuisance.
The muscular boy had stopped struggling. His eyes rolled back, and his arms fell limply to the ground. He was only half a step away from death.
"Let him go. Don't make me say it twice." Kiana's cold voice pierced the air like thunder, echoing across the empty rooftop.
[Kiana Kaslana is disappointed in you.]
Unlike her usual gentle whispers, Kiana spoke very loudly this time, seemingly even a bit angry.
The commoner boy took out his phone and muttered softly, "Sorry, I was afraid the situation would escalate, so I called the study representative up here. Only she can suppress everyone..."
Li Wu didn't listen to his words. Instead, he turned to face Kiana and asked back, "You're going to help him?"
"I'm helping you. If you kill him, there will be no turning back. You will make enemies out of even more people because of this, and then there will only be two outcomes: you kill all of them, or they kill you."
Kiana took a few steps forward. The sunlight fell on her face, adding a touch of gentleness to her words.
"Is that not allowed?"
Li Wu pushed Raiden Mei away, stood up, and looked Kiana in the eye without yielding.
[Kiana Kaslana is very disappointed in you.]
"Hatred only breeds greater hatred. Revenge is fine, but your method is wrong, Li Wu! You are completely using a self-destructive method to perish together with the other side!"
Kiana reached out to grab the knife but failed.
Li Wu reacted too fast, quickly moving his left hand behind his back, his eyes resolute.
"That's because you don't understand me well enough. Because you are Young Miss Kaslana. Because you can get anything you want with just one sentence. Because I am nothing, with no status and no ability, yet I still want to achieve those seemingly impossible things!"
"That's not a reason for you to give up on yourself. If you kill him, you will die too. Calm down first." Kiana tried to make her tone non-aggressive, attempting to soothe Li Wu.
[Kiana Kaslana is extremely disappointed in you.]
The system's narration poked into Li Wu's blank emotional module like a bloody needle.
"I have nothing. Whoever wants to kill me, I will kill them. If it really comes to that point, I have absolute confidence I can kill them all! Until no one dares to harbor murderous intent against me again, until all enemies are dead! I can only do this! I must do this! Only I can do it!! Only I can do it!!!"
Li Wu's gaze was piercing, like a blood-stained knife. Even if the edge couldn't be seen, the sharpness was chilling.
[Kiana Kaslana is profoundly disappointed in you.]
His words fell.
Slap!
A resounding slap rang out clearly on his cheek. It didn't hurt much, but it burned. An inexplicable emotion welled up in his heart. Li Wu's mind was full of "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." Without thinking, he subconsciously backhanded Kiana with a slap.
Slap!
He didn't pull his punch, so a large patch of red swelling quickly appeared on Kiana's fair cheek, like a white canvas painted with the sky suddenly being scribbled with messy vermilion.
The rooftop suddenly fell silent, leaving only the sound of the wind...