Reincarnated In a Cthulhu World And Everyone Is Obsessed With Me - Chapter 19

Chapter 19: Slaughter – To kill one is a crime; to butcher ten thousand is to be a hero.

As the transport ship approached the perimeter, the artificial sky dissolved into a small, molten metallic opening. Xia Mingyu stared deeply beyond the barrier. The crimson, barren earth outside had been stripped of all vitality, radiating a deathly, cryptic silence.

Xia Mingyu had chosen dual blades. Before descending, he wrapped several layers of snow-white bandages around his forearms, tying them into neat bows. The pilot, clad in protective gear, nodded to him as the narrow hatch slowly opened.

He chose to drop into the area with the highest concentration of monsters. The pilot wanted to protest, but seeing Xia Mingyu’s cold, focused expression, he swallowed his words. Without the ship’s protection, demonic howls drifted across the wasteland, intertwining with the frigid wind.

Xia Mingyu gripped the rope ladder, his high ponytail dancing in the gale like dark algae in a violent sea. He donned his protective helmet, hiding his face and hair. As the ground rushed up to meet him, strange monsters wailed below, their eyes hidden within grotesque folds of flesh. To an observer, it looked as if he were bait being fed to piranhas.

Timing it perfectly, Xia Mingyu leaped. He landed in a nest of writhing tentacles that pulsated like giant Rafflesia flowers, emitting a wet, putrid stench. In the pilot’s eyes, Xia Mingyu vanished instantly into the “heart” of the monster.

The pilot’s heart hammered as he toggled between the Star-Net display and the thrashing tentacles. Amazingly, Xia Mingyu’s vitals remained perfectly stable. Even his mental pollution levels were as still as a stagnant pond—unheard of for someone in the thick of combat.

Soon, the mass of tentacles went limp. Xia Mingyu stood up amidst the bubbling, corrosive green blood. His gear was a mess of filth. He pulled his long blade from the monster’s core—a precision kill. Standing among the corpses, he signaled the hovering ship: Return.

The pilot spoke into the mic, “Sir, mission complete. Please board immediately.”

But the ship’s system weirdly overrode the pilot, forcing a return maneuver without the passenger. Looking at the receding ship, Xia Mingyu chuckled softly. “Well done.”

“Pika pika!”

Xia Mingyu didn’t need basic combat classes; he planned to finish the entire term’s requirement today. He tore off a piece of bandage to wipe rotting flesh from his blade, watching three more monsters charge toward him. They had human-like structures but scythe-like limbs covered in tumors, with eyes wandering randomly across their flat, wall-like bodies.

Holding a blade in each hand, Xia Mingyu met them head-on. One blade blocked a scythe meant for his chest; the other severed the monster’s head-tentacles. Green blood hissed as it corroded his armor.

He moved with the grace of a surgeon on a bloody operating table. Precise cuts. Clean movements. No wasted effort. This was his pursuit on the battlefield. The mountain of corpses beneath his feet was merely a staircase to his throne.

…

In his previous life, by the end, Xia Mingyu’s ruthless methods and near-zero mental pollution had made him a legend in the ruins. To hide his status as an ordinary human, he had always fought alone, which was why his eventual death had gone unnoticed.

Now, he stood over the final monster. It looked dead, a stream of blood pooling at Xia Mingyu’s feet. He reached his arm—even though armored—into the creature’s gaping maw, filled with rows of fangs.

The monster’s eyes flickered. The fangs snapped shut like a meat grinder.

Xia Mingyu smiled.

His blade pierced the monster’s heart-eye, pinning it to the earth. As the fangs touched his arm, they didn’t bite through; instead, they crumbled like shifting sand into the thick blood. This “reverse erosion” spread through the monster until it was nothing but a lifeless, pulpy mess.

He exhaled and wiped his blades again. Using mental power made him tired faster than physical slaughter. Hearing a viscous sliding sound behind him, he raised his dual swords once more.

…

Inside Dove Academy, a stir was brewing. Most students had skipped Daniel’s mission to prepare for tonight’s ball. Who wanted to smell like monster guts before a glamorous party? Only a few had attempted the mission, and they returned with shocking news.

A single student has been hunting outside the base for over three hours and hasn’t come back.

The Star-Net forums exploded. “Is it a Sentinel? What rank?” “No one saw him use mental power. Just raw weapons.” “Is he in a frenzy? But there’s no alarm.” “He must be a natural-born butcher.”

…

A crescent moon hung over the crimson wasteland. Xia Mingyu knelt, his blades embedded deep in the dry earth. His bandages were gone. He used the earth itself to scrape the flesh from his dulled edges.

The world was void and dark. He stared at the blood moon—a hallucination or a reality of the apocalypse. “Can you hear the calling from the void?”

“Pika…” (A denial).

“I think… something is interfering with me… calling me… tempting me…” Xia Mingyu murmured.

“Mr. Xia Mingyu,” the Sanctuary’s childish voice spoke up, “Please come home.”

He had hunted for three hours and forty-seven minutes. His voice was husky. “Check mental pollution.”

“Within safe limits, Mr. Xia Mingyu.” “Give me the absolute value.” “3490, sir.”

Xia Mingyu smirked. “Ha… really.” A value he had never encountered before.

“Mr. Xia Mingyu, were you always this suited for the battlefield?” the AI asked.

“No,” Xia Mingyu said flatly as he boarded the returning ship. “I’m just naturally gifted.”

The pilot nearly stopped breathing when he saw Xia Mingyu. The cold, violent aura in the Guide’s eyes was terrifying. But as Xia Mingyu removed his filthy gear and revealed his stunning, “Medusa-like” beauty, the pilot’s heart skipped a beat for a different reason.

“Mr. Xia Mingyu,” the Sanctuary projected a screen, “There is a lot of discussion about you on Star-Net. Would you like to see?”

Xia Mingyu scanned the posts and closed them. “My identity isn’t there. Besides, staying on the battlefield for three hours makes you a madman; thirty hours makes you a hero.”

“To kill one is a crime; to butcher ten thousand is to be a hero.”

The Sanctuary flickered, and the constant mental surveillance over Xia Mingyu briefly vanished.