99

"Now that's 99."

Kai dressed in a white shirt and blank pants, sat in the chair as Nathan stood beside him in horror witnessing the massacre before him.

"You why don't you stand over there," Kai ordered at the one remaining gang member who was trembling standing above heaps of corpses of his fellow members.

From his perspective, everything had happened in an instant. 

Like any other night, they had just received a shipment of weapons they were boxing, and the next almost everyone was slaughtered without being able to let out a single scream, their bodies cut in half.

The few that remained were left clutching their wounds, gasping for breath, their eyes wide with terror as they bled out on the cold, concrete floor. The room reeked of blood and fear, the stench overwhelming.

Then the man with crazy tattoos and an evil grin came in as he ordered the man beside him to bring him a chair, after which they were tormented to different forms of death as if everything was just a game to him.

"Did I break him?" Kai asked, tilting his head slightly as he observed the trembling gang member. The man was barely holding himself together, sweat pouring down his face, eyes darting around the room as if searching for an escape that didn't exist.

Nathan, standing nearby, could hardly mask his horror and disgust. He had never seen such brutality up close, and the sheer casualness with which Kai dispatched these men was deeply unsettling.

Kai sighed, rising from his chair. "I said move a little bit to the right."

The gang member stumbled to comply, his knees almost giving way beneath him, his eyes no longer portraying any emotions whatsoever.

"Good," Kai waved his finger as he sliced the metal beam above the gang member's head with a precise motion, causing it to collapse with a deafening crash on top of the man as he died an instant death.

Kill points: 100/100

"Would you like to retrieve a finger now?" The system's voice rang in his head as Kai shook his head,

"Hmm... so even indirect deaths caused by me count," Kai mused aloud, a satisfied smirk spreading across his face.

Nathan, still shaken, could barely process what had just happened. The finality of the last gang member's death, crushed by the falling beam, was almost too much for him to handle.

"Let's leave!" Kai ordered, walking away from the massacre he had caused.

Nathan, still trembling, hurried to follow, casting one last horrified glance at the carnage behind them. The warehouse, once filled with the hum of illicit activity, was now a silent tomb. The air, heavy with the scent of blood and death, seemed to cling to him as he stepped out into the cool night air.

Kai led the way to a sleek black car waiting outside, its engine idling softly. As they got in, Nathan struggled to compose himself. The sheer brutality of what he had witnessed was unlike anything he had ever experienced.

Kai, seemingly unperturbed, started the car and navigated through the darkened streets.

"Withdraw," Kai said aloud in his head as a finger appeared before him.

Unlike before the system didn't have to force-feed him the finger, as he played around with the dried, almost rotting finger. 

Although disgusted, he forced himself to consume it. The taste was foul, and he fought back the urge to retch. As the finger was swallowed, Kai felt a surge of energy coursing through him, revitalizing his body and mind. 

The consumption of the second finger was clearly potent as he felt his strength increasing by almost twice the power he had before.

Kai could feel the surge of power coursing through his veins like a torrent of electricity. It was as if every fiber of his being had been amplified, his senses heightened to an extraordinary degree. He could hear the faintest rustle of leaves outside, smell the distant smoke from a chimney, and see with a clarity that bordered on the supernatural in the dimly lit streets.

Nathan, beside him in the car, glanced over apprehensively, sensing the change in Kai. The once subdued and calculating man now exuded an aura of danger and dominance that made Nathan's skin crawl. It was a stark reminder of the capabilities Kai possessed, capabilities that Nathan had just witnessed in the warehouse.

"Are you alright?" Nathan ventured cautiously, unsure of what to expect from Kai now.

Kai turned to him slowly, his eyes gleaming with an intensity that sent a shiver down Nathan's spine. "Better than alright," Kai replied, his voice low and filled with a newfound confidence. 

His power boost came with a side of increased sensitivity to the cursed energy around him as he could feel the negative energy around him much better than before. The oozing aura of fear rising from Nathan was something he couldn't sense before but now he could vaguely tell what form of negative emotion the man was displaying without him having to guess it.

He could tell that his sensitivity to cursed energy would continue to increase with the consumption of each and every single finger, making him more susceptible to changes in people's emotions and their deep hidden feelings towards him. But he couldn't tell why, as it had never been mentioned 

'System, why can I-'

"Feel the negative energy? It's because you're the sole user of cursed energy in this world making you an existence that's unique to this world. Even I am not sure what changes would occur to your powers as you grow more powerful."

"Can't you be more mysterious..."

"Did you say something to me, sir?" Nathan asked,

Kai remained silent for a moment, his mind processing the implications of the system's revelation. He glanced at Nathan, who was waiting for his response, concern etched across his face.

"No, but since we have the whole night ahead of us, let's carry on our hunt. Find me the gangs that would be active at this time and target those who are closer to us." Kai said calmly, his voice now carrying a hint of determination that reflected his newfound strength and focus. Nathan nodded silently, understanding that despite the horror of the recent events, they were now committed to a path that Kai had set.

As they drove through the dimly lit streets, Nathan quickly accessed the local intelligence networks, his fingers flying over a small tablet device to pinpoint potential gang activities. The city hummed with a muted energy, oblivious to the darkness that lurked beneath its surface.

"I've identified three possible locations," Nathan reported, his voice steady despite the lingering unease. "Each of these spots has reported increased gang activity over the past week. They could be your next targets."

Kai nodded thoughtfully, his mind already calculating the next move. "Let's prioritize the closest one."

Nathan nodded, as he began driving to the said location, the sleek black car cutting through the quiet streets like a blade through silk. The city's usual nighttime activities continued unabated around them, ignorant of the imminent storm Kai and Nathan were about to unleash.

Arriving at the first location, a derelict warehouse district on the outskirts of the city, Nathan parked the car a discreet distance away. The air was thick with anticipation as they observed the rundown building from their vantage point.

Kai's enhanced senses picked up faint traces of intense negative energy, despite being vague the amount of cursed energy expelling from the place was rather haunting.

"Who did you say was here?" Kai couldn't help but ask as he had never seen anything like this before.

Nathan paused for a moment, gathering his thoughts before responding. "The reports indicate this place is currently occupied by a group known as the Crimson Blades. They're a new, smaller faction but notorious for their brutality and ties to the underworld."

"No one knows for sure, how they've managed to do what they've done with the very few members they're said to have but according to the intelligence we've collected we suspect they're either a group of mutants or have some form of enhanced weapons or drug that allows them to complete their feet."

Nathan showed Kai several pictures on the tablet, focusing on the incidents the group was involved in, and clearly, every single picture was a total massacre. Unlike Kai, whose power involved slicing people in one go, these people were purposely going out of their way to brutalize the corpses in a sickening manner.

"..."

Kai tried to connect the dots as he tried to retrace his memory to any groups of individuals who could perform such heinous acts under the radar.

"Well, there's no point in thinking too much... you stay in the car," Kai ordered as he walked into the warehouse casually, his hands in his pocket and his demeanor calm despite the gravity of the situation.

The warehouse, a dimly lit maze of shadows and discarded crates echoed with eerie silence broken only by the distant sound of dripping water. Kai moved with purpose, his senses attuned to the subtle shifts in the atmosphere and the heavy stench of blood that covered the entire place.

As he ventured deeper into the labyrinthine corridors, the air grew thicker with tension. Every step seemed to reverberate through the stillness, announcing his presence like a harbinger of impending doom.

Kai's mind remained focused, his thoughts crystalline amidst the chaos of emotions swirling around him—fear, anticipation, and a primal instinct honed by the consumption of cursed fingers.

He approached a large chamber at the heart of the warehouse, its entrance guarded by a heavy steel door adorned with cryptic symbols. Kai paused briefly, sensing the concentrated malevolence that radiated from within. With a steady hand, he pushed open the door, revealing a scene bathed in flickering fluorescent light.

"A cold room..." Kai thought to himself as he stepped into the chamber, his gaze sweeping across the chilling tableau before him.

The bodies of 5 completely naked young women hung on the metal rod, the women were still barely alive as they bled through the wounds in their bodies, and their blood trickled down their bodies onto the huge tub below them.