In just a single instant, Satoru directly appeared behind the man crying for help, standing face-to-face with the endless swarm of cockroaches.
Chi, chi, chi…
Their mouths produced horrifying grinding noises that sounded like countless nails scraping together, sending chills down everyone's spine.
This time, in order to avoid harming innocent people behind him, Satoru did not use the large-scale version of Limitless Reversal.
Sky-blue cursed energy spun around his fingertips. As the massive wave of cockroaches surged forward trying to drown him, powerful attraction forces twisted their paths away before they could even approach.
Crackling sounds echoed endlessly.
The Blue at his fingertips resembled a miniature black hole. The cockroaches were torn into mush and compressed together by overwhelming force.
In barely the blink of an eye, the terrifying sea of insects had become a gigantic black-and-white ball of flesh floating half a meter in front of him.
The corpses had been compressed by Limitless to the point there was practically no empty space left within.
"Hunger... Need food!"
Right then, a cursed spirit with a cockroach head, several pairs of eyes, and an ugly pitch-black body slowly walked over from the direction the swarm originally came from. Its voice sounded crazed and unstable.
Unlike reincarnated or awakened players, it was a third-party existence. The special grade cursed spirit once registered in official records, Kurourushi.
A curse born from humanity's fear of cockroaches.
Now, it had become a cursed spirit player within the Culling Game, holding fifty-four points.
Not long ago, it had been defeated by Kenjaku and forcibly marked to participate in the Culling Game in the future.
But after entering the Sendai Colony, it discovered that the player named Dhruv Lakdawalla possessed abilities that heavily countered its own cursed technique.
So, in order to avoid direct conflict and conserve cursed energy, it chose to enter hibernation.
Kurourushi was a cursed spirit with endless hunger. As an asexual reproducing existence, it could multiply infinitely as long as it continued eating.
The conditions for awakening were either detecting that "Dhruv no longer exists within the Culling Game" or nearing the point limit deadline.
Therefore, the moment Dhruv was killed by Satoru, it awakened from its sleep.
Infinite appetite meant infinite hunger.
Now that it had awakened, it needed to feed. And the first appetizer standing before it was Satoru.
"You're seriously disgusting~"
Satoru casually flicked his cursed energy.
The massive ball of cockroach corpses compressed by Blue instantly shot toward Kurourushi.
Unexpectedly, instead of dodging, the curse opened its giant fang-filled mouth and allowed the flesh ball to smash directly into its body while greedily devouring the cockroaches it had produced itself.
"Ugh..."
Most of the civilians still present immediately began vomiting after witnessing such a horrifying scene.
"Just escort them out the way I mentioned earlier. I'll handle things here," Satoru slightly turned his head and instructed the Windows.
The cockroach swarm released by Kurourushi would be incredibly troublesome for most sorcerers.
Because every single insect carried Kurourushi's cursed energy. Individually they were insignificant, but when combined into tens of thousands, the total cursed energy output became enormous.
However, their individual weakness and tiny size were completely countered by Infinity.
As long as Satoru used Blue, not a single cockroach could get past him. There was absolutely no need to worry about the crowd escaping safely.
If anything, keeping the civilians here would only become troublesome. After all, according to his senses, there was still another individual nearby with extremely large cursed energy reserves quietly observing this entire situation.
"Next is you... None of you are getting away!"
Pfft!
At that moment, Kurourushi finally seemed to snap out of its enjoyment from devouring the cockroaches.
Looking toward the fleeing crowd, it shoved a hand directly into its own chest. When it pulled the arm back out, a short blade had appeared in its grasp.
The blade was rusted and covered with several bloodshot eyeballs embedded into it. Near the hilt sat a half-circle notch.
This was the cursed tool soaked within its body. The blade that mixed life and death together, Festering Life Sword.
When someone was cut by this blade, even Reverse Cursed Technique could not instantly heal the wound.
Furthermore, Kurourushi could inject cursed energy into the wound and generate horrifying insects from within the injury itself to devour the victim's body.
"Love... the taste of iron!"
Whether the intoxicated tone came from the Festering Life Sword or the overwhelming smell of blood filling the air was impossible to tell.
"Foolish... Earthen Insect Swarm!"
Kurourushi launched its attack.
Rather than charging forward directly, it formed a hand sign in front of itself and activated its cursed technique.
Dozens of winged mutant insects instantly appeared around it. Their mouths were packed with sharp fangs, and each creature carried far more cursed energy than the ordinary cockroaches from earlier.
The next second, they all rushed toward Satoru at once.
The swarm rapidly circled around him, creating what resembled a massive insect tornado.
"Why is it always this kind of attack..."
Satoru sighed helplessly as the insects spun while continuously tightening inward, attempting to devour him from every angle.
Unfortunately, attacks at this level could not even bypass his Infinity, let alone injure him.
"Cursed Techni—"
"You fell for it!"
Just as Satoru prepared to use Blue once more to wipe out the pests, Kurourushi suddenly burst through the swarm from behind and swung the Festering Life Sword directly toward his head.
"A curse is still just a curse."
Satoru casually tilted his body slightly before grabbing the short blade with one hand.
He grabbed the weapon by choice, not because it physically touched him first.
In other words, the cursed tool itself possessed no ability capable of bypassing Infinity.
"It's not over yet!"
Kurourushi desperately pushed harder with both hands gripping the sword.
At the same time, the bloodshot eyeballs covering the blade suddenly detached and transformed into insects that lunged toward Satoru's face.
But once again, they were stopped mere centimeters away from his body.
Kurourushi, who could not use Domain Expansion, possessed absolutely no qualifications to challenge Satoru.
"Now then, my turn, right?"
One hand tightly held the Festering Life Sword in place, preventing Kurourushi from moving at all, while Satoru's other hand stretched forward and pressed against the curse's forehead.
"Cursed Technique Reversal: Red."
A crimson flash erupted from his fingertips.
The cursed spirit vanished instantly.
All that remained was a massive destruction trail blasted hundreds of meters into the distance, along with Kogane's newest announcement.
"Player Kurourushi eliminated! Obtained fifty-four accumulated points! Five bonus points awarded for killing a cursed spirit equivalent to a sorcerer!"
* * *
"So that's Satoru Gojo, the one who killed Dhruv earlier? Massive cursed energy reserves aside, even his instantaneous output is absurdly powerful..."
Meanwhile, atop a nearby skyscraper, a man with a strange hairstyle resembling a pompadour twisted into a spiral at the center muttered to himself after exhaling cigarette smoke.
Not only was he unsurprised by Kurourushi's death, his eyes were filled with anticipation instead.
"Will you be my dessert, Satoru Gojo?"
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