Whoosh!
He took a deep breath, looked at the cocky teenager across from him, and said grimly, "Let's play rock-paper-scissors."
Seeing Marcus with his back-against-the-wall attitude, Leon smiled.
That smile made Marcus's heart skip a beat as a bad feeling washed over him. No way...
The devil's whisper came right on cue: "Not enough."
"Holy shit! Five bullets?! What kind of poisonous mushroom packs that kind of punch?"
"Leon's really going for broke!"
Even the East and West District leaders were blown away. They'd seen plenty of Devil's Wheel games over the years, and had even played when they were weaker way back, but they'd never seen anyone insane enough to play with five bullets.
Five bullets—that was pretty much a death sentence.
"I see what you're pulling now. You're not here to gamble Devil's Wheel—you're here to off yourself!" Marcus thought he'd figured out Leon's game and was sure the guy had completely lost it.
Five bullets meant less than 60% chance of winning. That was way over his limit.
"If you don't have the guts to gamble, hand over the cursed thing."
Leon's words made Vincent's eyes light up. He immediately jumped in: "Damn right! If you won't gamble, hand over the cursed thing!"
Once the East District Leader spoke up, his guys all started yelling too.
Marcus looked stressed. Viper behind him said coldly, "Don't fall for it. This kid's trying to psych you out so you'll give up the cursed object voluntarily. Keep gambling with him. If you're not confident, make him shoot first. He's not a card shark. With five bullets in Devil's Wheel, there's no way in hell he survives!"
The hard thing against his back pressed even harder. The cold metal gun barrel carried a chill that went right through his floral shirt and made his skin crawl.
"Fine, I'll gamble with you. But... never mind, let's just play rock-paper-scissors." Marcus originally wanted to follow Viper's advice and make Leon shoot first, but ultimately chickened out. He wasn't used to leaving his fate in other people's hands. What if Leon's luck really was off the charts and he didn't die after one shot? Wouldn't that mean he was totally screwed?
He still preferred to use his magic right hand, honed over years of practice, to control his own destiny.
Marcus loaded the fifth bullet. There were thirty seconds left until midnight.
In those final thirty seconds, Leon dropped another bombshell: "Not enough."
Whoosh!
The scene instantly went crazy. People even wondered if they were hearing things. Five bullets still wasn't enough? A revolver could only hold six bullets total. Loading it completely and firing would be guaranteed death!
Marcus stared in disbelief. "Do you even hear what you're saying? This isn't gambling at all..."
Before he could finish, he noticed the teenager across from him had already stood up and walked over.
The teenager reached out a mud-covered hand, gently took Bone Spitter from him, then picked up the last bullet under everyone's shocked stare.
10, 9, 8, 7...
Leon counted down silently in his head, those eyes where reason and wildness mixed slowly sweeping across the entire scene.
"I've always had pretty crappy luck. I don't think I can keep winning round after round until the cursed thing accepts me. Instead of that, might as well... settle it in one round."
As he spoke, he loaded the final bullet.
Click!
Cylinder closed, bullet chambered!
Under everyone's stare, Leon slowly raised Bone Spitter loaded with all six bullets, pressing it against his temple. The dark red veins on the gun started writhing, like twisting little snakes digging viciously into the flesh of his hand.
Every single person there thought he'd completely lost it. This wasn't gambling—this was... suicide.
What the hell kind of logic was "I have crappy luck, so let's settle it in one round"? Was this even human thinking?
Looking at all the different faces around him, suddenly Leon's mouth curved into a smile, showing white teeth.
"Six bullets—I bet it misfires!"
Everyone was stunned. They'd never heard such a weird statement before.
Who the hell told you that's how you play Devil's Wheel??
Under everyone's shocked gaze, Leon violently pulled the trigger.
Women and kids in the crowd covered their ears in terror. Some instinctively ducked to avoid getting splattered with blood.
3...
2...
1!!
The countdown ended, and the midnight bell rang!
Bong!
In the endless black night, in a dimension invisible to everyone else, a massive, magnificent golden clock face rose from beneath Leon's feet, quickly covering the ground.
He stood alone on the giant clock face, like a traveler abandoned by time itself.
At the same time, the crowds, trees, buildings, and even the sky around him seemed to disappear completely, as if a divine hand had swept away all existence, leaving only golden clock faces of various sizes.
Those were the materialized forms of all things' time.
The hands on these people's and objects' golden clock faces all pointed to 12:00!
Only... the massive golden clock face beneath Leon's feet showed 12:01.
This was his personal time, one minute ahead of this world.
Feeling his power return, Leon didn't hesitate to activate his ability.
Time... stop!!
Hum!
Strange temporal waves resonated.
The world seemed to hit the pause button.
The previously noisy square instantly became dead silent. Everyone froze in place like statues, with Marcus's shock frozen in his eyes.
Even the cigarette smoke coming from his nose stopped spreading, floating motionless in mid-air.
In this absolutely still world, the only thing that could move was... Leon!
The teenager who had just pulled off this miracle immediately opened Bone Spitter's cylinder with lightning speed and started pulling out bullets the instant time stopped!
"Quick, quick, quick!! Can't waste time! Time is life!"
Ever since learning he only had one minute per day, he'd become super precious about time, because he'd done the math.
One minute a day meant 365 minutes a year! That was 6 hours and 5 minutes. Calculating at 6 hours per year, ten years was only 60 hours. His current body was sixteen years old. In the post-apocalyptic world, living to 50 would be incredibly lucky. Even assuming that miracle happened and he lived to 56, that was only 40 years, which could accumulate 240 hours.
And 240 hours equaled... ten days!!
When Leon calculated that his entire lifetime would give him at most ten days of ability, he truly understood what "time is life" meant.
Maybe it was because his hands were too dirty, plus he hadn't trimmed his nails in forever—he tried several times but couldn't get the bullet out.
"Damn hands! Pull it out!!"
Cold sweat broke out.
Facing the danger-filled post-apocalyptic world, he hadn't panicked.
Facing the life-or-death Devil's Wheel, he hadn't panicked either.
But now, just thinking about how several seconds had already passed, he really was freaking out.
What was passing wasn't time—it was his life!
Luckily, on his fourth attempt, he finally pulled the bullet out.
Phew!
Leon let out a long breath and quickly stuffed the bullet in his pants pocket.
He only pulled out one bullet—the one about to be fired. That way it would be a dud.
After doing all this, he wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and started positioning himself.
He pressed the gun back against his temple, quickly adjusted his mindset, and let his previous smile return to his face, making sure the curve of his smile was exactly the same as before. Only then did he release the time stop.
Release!
Hum!
The strange temporal waves faded away. The entire world's time resumed flowing. No one knew time had ever stopped—everyone's attention was still focused on Leon.
In their eyes, Leon smiled calmly as he pulled the trigger, that powerful confidence radiating from within drawing everyone's attention.
The revolver, with its blend of metallic and flesh textures, had its trigger slowly contracting. The trigger moved the hammer backward, compressing the hammer spring. When the trigger bottomed out, the hammer snapped forward under spring pressure.
It struck hard against the firing pin on the gun body!
Click!
A crisp sound rang out. No gunpowder smoke, no flash, and no... bullet!
Nothing at all, just the teenager's unchanging smile.