Chapter 391

“……”

That’s not it… Just a few minutes ago, you were saying how courageous I was, how much you appreciated me, and how you hoped I’d join the Scorpio Division. Now what’s with this sudden change of heart telling me to scram before I get myself killed?

“Thank you for your kindness…”

After a slight twitch at the corner of his mouth, Leon clenched the centaur imprint in his palm and replied through gritted teeth:

“But I’ll pass. I’m paid by the Clearing Bureau, so I should do the work of the Clearing Bureau. Moreover, I want to contribute to the kingdom…”

“Tch! Forget it!”

Upon hearing Leon’s words, the lanky man scoffed and extended his hand further.

“How much salary can a Level 3 Cleaner possibly give you? Is it worth risking your life for?

And contributing to the kingdom? Are you joking with me? Has the kingdom been good to you? If you hadn’t joined the Clearing Bureau, your family would’ve probably been wiped out. Is such a kingdom worth your effort?”

“The kingdom may not be worth it, but the people striving to live within it are.”

Looking at the persistently extended hand of the lanky man, Leon slightly narrowed his eyes and then asked expressionlessly:

“Also… how do you know about my past?”

“That’s because we investigated.”

The Chief of the Scorpio Division furrowed his brows upon hearing this and somewhat impatiently said:

“I’ve already said it, I see great potential in you and want to bring you into the Scorpio Division, so naturally, we had to investigate… Hurry up, don’t waste my time, Soulfall Black Abyss is about to merge with reality!”

“……”

“Alright, here…”

Glancing at the ‘Chief of the Scorpio Division,’ Leon slightly narrowed his eyes and then reached up to touch the red hair wrapped around his shoulder. But…

“Crack!”

With the sound of bones dislocating and breaking, a rather large hand emerged from behind and clamped down on the neck of the ‘Chief of the Scorpio Division.’ With a snap like breaking celery, the lanky man’s neck was twisted 90 degrees.

Then, the corpse of the lanky man trembled slightly, emitting a hysterical, manic scream from its chest and abdomen.

But before the ‘Chief of the Scorpio Division’ could finish screaming, that same hand burst through his chest again, gripping a writhing black figure struggling desperately. With a cruel squeeze, the black figure was instantly crushed!

“You’re absolutely useless!”

As a voice filled with mockery rang out, the world before Leon’s eyes distorted slightly, and the familiar scene reappeared.

The tall, slim middle-aged man holding a large suitcase appeared silently once more in front of Leon.

However, unlike before, the sun lingering on the horizon had completely vanished at some unknown point, and the people waiting in the dock passenger area had all fallen asleep in various positions. Only Leon and the man remained standing.

The gaunt face of the travel-worn tall man no longer bore any trace of appreciation or smiles; instead, it was filled with disdain and contempt.

“At least you’re a cleaner, yet you got tangled up by some leftover nightmare fragments? If I had arrived any later, you might have actually handed over your hair… How did you even survive in front of Aquarius with this level of skill?”

“……”

This feels right.

Looking at the tall man who slightly lifted his head with a cold arrogance, Leon couldn’t help but exhale slowly.

Moreover, he had been tricked afterward, forced to admit having interacted with the Aquarius Director, losing face in front of everyone in the entire Clearing Bureau, and it would be strange if he spoke kindly to him now.

“Mr. Edward.”

Taking out the pocket watch he had handed over during the previous nightmare from his pocket, Leon also replied stiffly:

“You’re late, twenty-eight minutes past the scheduled time. The Soulfall Black Abyss has already begun descending!”

“Ho ho, that I came to save you is already giving enough face to Honorable Taurus, and it hasn’t even started yet, has it? Also… your watch needs serious adjustment!”

Taking the pocket watch from Leon, the tall man adjusted the second hand forward by a third of a dial with his pinky finger, looking full of disdain, before hanging it on the pendant button on his lapel.

“Let’s go! The timing is perfect…

Besides, I don’t have time to babysit you. Remember to stay alert, otherwise just get lost! I don’t want to suddenly get stabbed from behind halfway through!”

After shaking off the sticky black liquid that had gotten on his palm while crushing the nightmare, the tall man’s pupil in his right eye turned white from black, glanced at Leon again, sneered disdainfully, and kicked the suitcase on the ground with force.

“Clunk!”

With the sound of the spring mechanism releasing, a pale doll covered in thorns crawled out of the opened case, its hollow eyes fixed on Leon.

Meanwhile, a shade of darkness deeper than the night sky quietly seeped into reality from the depths of the night where the sun had disappeared.

Following this, the position of the Milky Way in the sky was replaced by countless black and red speckled stars. A vast river composed of countless broken nightmares flowed along the original trajectory of the Milky Way, cascading down toward the capital city that had fallen into deep slumber.

…

It’s starting.

Watching the river of nightmares pouring down from the sky, Leon couldn’t help but take a deep breath and closed his eyes in advance.

“Boom!”

At the moment when the two worlds were about to fully merge, a blazing but insufficient sunlight broke through the sky, briefly resisting the falling otherworld and burning away the nightmares that almost covered the entire sky.

But the brilliance lasted only three seconds before the sun that shouldn’t have existed during the night faded under the grinding of the dream realm.

The dark waters of the nightmare river flowed again, mixing countless fragments of dreams with the equally dark night sky of the capital city, rushing down once more toward the countless sleeping beings below.

Support from headquarters ended; it was time for the director to act.

After the mere three-second sun disappeared, Leon looked through blurred eyes as a familiar figure directly entered the enormous void “burned” by the sun above, diving fearlessly into the descending dream realm.

Then, a tide of crimson hair unfurled gracefully amidst the descending dreams.

Tens, hundreds, thousands, millions… In less than five seconds, billions of soft and bright red hairs stretched between the nightmare-filled night sky and the sleeping reality, creating a sharp and blood-soaked world.

Millions of shadowy figures born from shadows, reapers wielding rusted scythes, laughing ghosts in tattered prison uniforms, fiery hooved black horses… Countless creatures of the dream realm surged forth along the river of nightmares, attempting to rush into the real world for a feast.

But as they passed through the thin and sharp crimson world, they were like tender tofu falling into a wire fence, instantly shredded and fragmented into countless pieces the size of fingernails.

Even terrifying creatures towering like mountains were powerless against the fully unleashed [Slaughter Blood Hair], being instantly sliced apart and forming an eerie crimson rain curtain over the deeply sleeping capital city.

(End of Chapter)