In a deserted corner hidden within the darkness, a man in Buddhist robes stroked his chin while observing something through a cursed spirit.
“A newly born special-grade cursed spirit?
Just as I expected.
Once the Culling Game began, surprises would keep appearing even without my interference.” Anyone familiar with that face would have immediately called him Geto Suguru.
There were quite a few cursed spirits officially classified as special grade in modern Japan.
However, only four sorcerers had received the title of special-grade sorcerer.
A special-grade sorcerer was someone capable of destroying an entire nation alone, and Geto Suguru had been one of them.
Yet any sorcerer with basic knowledge knew that Geto should have been personally executed by Gojo Satoru after the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons.
He was already dead.
Therefore, the man before them could not possibly be Geto Suguru.
A faint breeze lifted his bangs and revealed the stitches running across his forehead.
The answer was obvious.
This was Kenjaku, the sorcerer who had survived for a thousand years by transferring his brain between bodies and now occupied Geto Suguru’s corpse.
He was the mastermind behind the Culling Game, a schemer willing to turn all of Japan into an experiment to discover a new form of cursed energy.
With ambitions so vast, Kenjaku naturally would not ignore anything valuable within the game’s colonies.
When the Culling Game began, he released cursed spirits with specific techniques into each colony to secretly observe the players.
Inside this Tokyo colony, the newly born special-grade cursed spirit naturally attracted the most attention.
It had only just emerged from its cursed-womb state, yet its cursed-energy reserves were already comparable to those of a special grade.
That alone proved how extreme the chaos across Tokyo and the rest of Japan had become on the night the Culling Game began.
Kenjaku had not placed many outstanding sorcerers inside Tokyo No.
2 Colony.
The most overwhelmingly powerful player here was Kashimo Hajime.
As long as the cursed spirit avoided Kashimo, it would probably encounter few opponents capable of defeating it.
“This is a cursed spirit worth capturing.” After taking over Geto’s body, Kenjaku had naturally inherited Cursed Spirit Manipulation.
His strength was directly tied to the cursed spirits under his control.
He already possessed special-grade spirits that had once contracted with him, but one could never have too many special grades.
Before long, Kenjaku noticed that the newly born spirit had begun hunting sorcerers on its own.
Allowing it to grow stronger before capturing it suited his plans perfectly, so he had no intention of interfering.
“The targets it chose…
Heh.
The young lady of the Togawa family and two newly awakened modern players?” Through his observing spirit, Kenjaku watched Sakiko step forward despite her fear and saw Konoe Mayoru willingly place himself before the enemy.
Even so, he instinctively regarded the battle as one with no suspense.
The greatest threat among the special grade’s targets was merely the young lady of the Togawa family.
She was a half-trained sorcerer who had abandoned her education and posed no meaningful danger.
The other two were sorcerers, but they had only just awakened.
Their control over cursed energy was painfully crude.
Even if they could activate their techniques, how much power could they possibly display?
Kenjaku disliked outcomes that were too obvious.
He lived for unexpected developments.
Only things that escaped his control could genuinely entertain him, which was precisely why he had created the Culling Game.
However, what followed was nothing like what he had predicted.
The modern sorcerer should have been crushed effortlessly.
His cursed-energy flow and technique activation were both unbelievably crude, yet somehow he injured the special-grade cursed spirit instead.
Even Kenjaku found that surprising.
His eyes narrowed.
“A cursed technique?” “With cursed-energy control that crude, he can still activate his technique and defend against that attack?” “Ha.” The corners of Kenjaku’s lips rose.
Nothing pleased him more than something beyond his expectations.
He had used Idle Transfiguration to alter these modern people’s brains, but truthfully, he had never expected much from the so-called newly awakened sorcerers.
Yet his first surprise had already appeared.
How could he possibly ignore that?
“Even I couldn’t identify his technique at first glance.” “It appears there are worthwhile possibilities among the modern awakened sorcerers after all.” “Whatever his technique may be, his cursed-energy usage is still far too crude.
If he underestimates that spirit because of one successful defense, he will still be the one who dies.” Kenjaku murmured while watching the battle between Mayoru and the special-grade cursed spirit through his spy.
He had initially been delighted by the spirit’s birth, but his attention had now shifted entirely toward the boy.
Mayoru naturally had no idea that an amusement-seeking mastermind was watching his battle.
Instead, he was feeling rather disappointed by the cursed spirit’s first attack.
‘So this is a special-grade cursed spirit?’ Its cursed-energy reserves were the most overwhelming he had ever encountered, but its actual usage of that energy seemed inferior to the ancient sorcerer’s.
Mayoru’s goal was to refine his technique through battle.
If this was all the spirit could offer, it might provide even less pressure than the ancient sorcerer who had nearly caught him with a surprise attack.
“You’d better show me something impressive next.” “Otherwise, you’re going to die, third-rate.” Mayoru taunted the spirit with a cold smile, partly to provoke it and partly because he genuinely meant every word.
The cursed spirit had been staring blankly at its twisted arm, unable to understand why it had been injured.
After hearing those words, its body trembled.
If a human fought an ant and somehow lost, the humiliation would be unbearable.
The boy it had regarded as worthless prey had injured it.
Worse still, he was now looking at it with that mocking expression.
How could it not become furious?
Rage surged through the cursed spirit.
Some faint shred of reason warned it that something about this enemy was wrong.
However, cursed spirits were born from negative emotions.
How could mere reason ever overpower their instincts?
Sakiko could feel that the spirit had finally become serious.
Its surging cursed energy instantly repaired its ruined arm, and the creature released a roar filled with hatred.
A chill ran down Sakiko’s spine.
She still had no idea what Mayoru had done, but she could practically see an enormous sign reading certain death hanging above his head.
A sorcerer at her level did not have time to act.
Before she could shout a warning or activate her technique, the enraged cursed spirit had already raised its fist.
“Die!” The newly born spirit roared one of the few words it had learned.
“You…
die!” An attack far more violent than the previous one descended.
There was no structure or skill behind it.
Its control over force was terrible.
It was merely an endless storm of wildly thrown punches.
The cursed spirit had only just been born and possessed little intelligence.
It probably assumed Mayoru’s technique created an invisible shield, perhaps one that also carried some form of counterattack.
Therefore, it decided to break through that shield with overwhelming violence.
It did not care if it was injured in the process.
Even if it had to endure the pain, it would tear its enemy apart.
Its furious assault left Kei and Sakiko completely speechless.
The deafening impacts sounded like thunder exploding beside their ears without pause.
Shock waves from the spirit’s cursed-energy-coated fists tore through the air, shattered the convenience store’s outer walls, and riddled its interior with holes.
‘So this is…
special grade!’ Sakiko stared in stunned silence.
Her education had taught her to instinctively fear special grades, but she had never imagined one could be this terrifying.
Without any concern for its surroundings, every punch became a natural disaster.
At her current level, she doubted she could survive even one.
Its destructive power alone was frightening, but what truly shocked Sakiko was its regeneration speed.
Just as before, every punch was reflected with enormous force.
The spirit’s arm repeatedly snapped, twisted, and shattered under the recoil.
Sakiko did not understand Mayoru’s technique, but it was clearly more than simple defense.
It resembled a shield capable of returning the damage it received.
In theory, every attack should have inflicted devastating backlash upon the special-grade cursed spirit.
Each time it threw a punch, its arm was reduced to a mangled ruin.
Yet whenever it raised that arm again, it had already regenerated completely.
It seemed almost like a challenge.
As though determined to repay its earlier humiliation, the spirit insisted on tearing through Mayoru’s shield with nothing but brute force.
Relying on its incredible regeneration, it ignored every injury and continued unleashing its violence.
Rapid regeneration was one of the natural advantages possessed by cursed spirits.
Sorcerers needed Reverse Cursed Technique to heal their bodies.
Cursed spirits, however, were formed from negative energy and could regenerate by pouring cursed energy into their damaged areas.
Even so, this spirit’s recovery speed was astonishing.
Sakiko instinctively began to worry about Mayoru.
She knew nothing about the limits of his technique.
She feared that his cursed energy might eventually run dry—or that the cursed spirit would finally shatter his defense.