"What a disgusting smell..."
Floating slightly above the ground, Satoru scratched his white hair as he entered the Sendai Colony.
But the moment he stepped inside, an intense and irritating stench hit him directly.
It was the smell of blood.
The surrounding environment had already been destroyed beyond recognition. Corpses of players and ordinary people alike were scattered everywhere across the ground.
Compared to Tokyo No. 1 and No. 2 Colonies, the top-tier combat power within the Sendai Colony might have been slightly weaker, but it contained a much larger number of strong players overall.
Because of that, from the very beginning of the Sendai Colony, the intensity of battle here had far surpassed Tokyo's.
"Those three are responsible for this, huh..."
The usual playful grin disappeared from Satoru's face.
Before entering, he had already checked the situation. There were three high-point players here, and judging from their methods and personalities, they were most likely ancient sorcerers reincarnated into the present.
And they were extremely arrogant.
Even just after entering the barrier, Satoru could already sense several obvious cursed energy sources nearby.
"Well then, time to get to work."
His foot lightly tapped against the empty air, and in the next instant, he had already crossed several thousand meters.
Just as Satoru approached one of the cursed energy sources, an enormous shikigami suddenly blocked his path.
The creature resembled a gigantic lizard. As it opened its mouth wide, a massive tongue shot toward him at incredible speed.
"A shikigami?"
Satoru did not dodge. He simply allowed the sharp, barb-covered tongue to fly straight at him.
Yet the tongue stopped less than a meter away from his body.
More accurately, it was not truly stopped. It was still moving closer, but so slowly that the human eye could not perceive the movement.
That was Satoru's Infinity, a power that turned a short distance into an unreachable horizon.
"Hm?"
But in the very next second, Satoru extended a hand filled with cursed energy forward.
Because the tongue had suddenly pierced through his Infinity.
It was the effect of a domain.
Meanwhile, inside the first floor of a nearby building sat a nearly naked old man whose body looked thin as a skeleton.
He sat cross-legged while forming hand signs with his thumbs and index fingers as massive cursed energy continuously poured from him.
He was currently the highest-point player within the entire Sendai Colony
Dhruv Lakdawalla. Ninety-one points. An incarnated-type player.
Notably, this was Dhruv's second reincarnation. During the chaotic era of ancient Japan, he had once suppressed the entire archipelago by himself.
His cursed technique revolved around controlling the shikigami he created. In other words, he was a pure shikigami user.
By itself, that ability should not have been enough for him to survive in the bloodthirsty Sendai Colony, much less become its highest-point player.
But his true strength lay in his domain.
Without personally expanding a domain, he could temporarily transform the movement paths and effective range of his shikigami into part of a domain itself.
That giant lizard shikigami belonged to him. As soon as he sensed a strong opponent approaching, he immediately controlled it to battle using the guaranteed-hit effects of his domain.
However...
"Don't block my way."
Satoru could not care less about any of that.
"Cursed Technique Amplification: Blue."
The overwhelming attraction force instantly tore apart every nearby building.
When his hand swept toward the shikigami, the giant creature towering dozens of meters high exploded into pieces.
Its flesh looked as though it had been violently ripped apart by hand. Blood and meat rained down from the sky, dyeing the entire ground crimson.
"My shikigami died?!"
At that moment, Dhruv realized something was wrong, and cold sweat instantly covered his entire body.
He only possessed two shikigami, but each was incredibly powerful. They were capable of fighting even special grade cursed spirits, and combined with his unique domain abilities, he had never feared facing powerful opponents.
But now, one of them had actually been killed in less than a minute after engaging the enemy. How could he not panic?
Dhruv's thoughts raced rapidly as he attempted to recall the other shikigami that had been sent elsewhere to monitor the area.
Unfortunately, he was too slow.
That arrogant figure with both hands in his pockets had somehow already appeared directly in front of him.
"You brat!"
Dhruv's eyes widened violently. His arm, thin enough to resemble skin stretched over bone, swung forward in an attempt to strike Satoru.
"A shikigami user who doesn't train in hand-to-hand combat? Way too weak~"
Satoru did not even bother taking his hands out of his pockets.
Pfft!
His long leg lashed out.
Then, accompanied by the sound of blood spraying into the air, the old man remained seated in the exact same posture as before.
Except something was now missing from his neck.
"Obtained Dhruv Lakdawalla's ninety-one points! Five additional points awarded for killing a sorcerer player!"
Beside Satoru, Kogane appeared and shouted enthusiastically.
In barely over a minute since entering the barrier, he had already almost accumulated enough points to add a new rule.
"Next up... hm?"
Satoru scratched the back of his head and was just about to look for his next target when he noticed many eyes staring at him from the exit of a nearby stadium.
"Gojo-san!"
Among them, one of the Windows who had entered earlier recognized him and called out excitedly.
Truthfully, after Rule 11 was added, he had already wanted to escort the civilians out, but Dhruv had directly occupied this entire area. Earlier, someone tried leaving and was immediately slaughtered by him.
That man seemed to treat everyone here as hostages, or perhaps as movable points that could increase later.
After all, nobody knew whether ordinary people trapped here too long under endless stress might suddenly awaken cursed techniques.
The difference between one point and five points was huge.
"Just keep going straight in that direction until you reach the edge and leave. This area was probably controlled by the guy I just killed. There shouldn't be any other players along that route."
Satoru casually pointed toward the path he came from.
Although he had practically teleported here, he still briefly observed the surroundings along the way.
He found nothing suspicious. Only a few weaklings hiding in corners too scared to come out, likely terrified of being discovered by Dhruv.
"Yes!"
'As expected of Gojo-san... He's so reliable!'
The Window member had become completely excited now.
With a special grade sorcerer supporting them, there was practically no risk left in this mission.
Rustle... rustle...
"Help me!"
Right as everyone prepared to evacuate, a desperate cry for help suddenly echoed from nearby.
Along with it came a strange sound, like countless grains of sand rapidly rushing toward them.
Following the noise, they saw a young man desperately running toward them while being chased by something countless in number.
"Those are... cockroaches?!"
Panic instantly spread among the crowd. Chaos broke out as many people began pushing each other, trying to flee as quickly as possible.
In certain situations, even a single cockroach was enough to terrify many people.
But right now, thousands upon thousands of cockroaches were surging toward them.
Everywhere they passed, even the metal bodies of cars were devoured cleanly. It looked as if they intended to swallow every person present in one sweep.
"Cursed Technique Amplification: Blue."
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