Episode 8 — Purge Night
Nexus City never slept, but tonight it held its breath.
The skyline blazed with emergency sirens. Neon lights dimmed under red warnings projected across every tower. Drones patrolled the skies like vultures, loudspeakers blaring one message on repeat:
"ATTENTION: OFFICER KAIRO SHIN IS A ROGUE ELEMENT. DEAD OR ALIVE. BOUNTY: UNLIMITED. SHOOT ON SIGHT."
Billboards that once flashed perfume ads now showed his face. Cold eyes. Cigarette in his mouth. Blood on his collar. Underneath: Purge Target #1.
Kairo stood on a rooftop, cigarette glowing against the wind. He read the signs, smirk tugging his lips. "Unlimited bounty? Guess I'm priceless now."
⸻
The Streets Below
The purge began in the underbelly. Every wannabe merc, washed-up soldier, and junkie with a pistol stormed the streets hunting for him. Police cruisers prowled alleys. Riot squads marched in formation. Snipers took roofs.
The whole city was one trap.
Kairo didn't hide. He strolled through it like a man walking home from the bar. Tentacles writhed under his skin, itching to play. His intelligence—now sharpened to level 12—mapped every angle, every sniper, every heartbeat waiting to pull a trigger.
"Cute," he muttered. "They think numbers matter."
First Wave
The first squad spotted him near the river docks. Ten officers in riot armor, shields glowing, rifles humming.
"Hands on your head, Shin!" one barked.
Kairo flicked his cigarette into the water. "You boys ever hear the phrase suicide by cop?"
The tentacles exploded. Shields shattered. Bodies crumpled. One officer screamed as he was dragged into the river, skull cracking against steel pillars. Another begged before a tentacle whipped his head clean off.
Blood sprayed the dock. Sirens wailed louder.
[Assassinations Confirmed.]
[Level Up: 13.]
[Intelligence Increased.]
Kairo lit another smoke on a burning corpse, chuckling. "One wave down. How many assholes left?"
⸻
The Comedy of Carnage
Further up the street, bounty hunters swarmed. One cyborg carried a minigun the size of a car, spinning it up.
Kairo sighed. "Compensating much?"
The tentacle shot through the barrel, bending it back. The minigun exploded, shredding its owner into sparks and red paste.
Another hunter screamed, swinging twin axes. Kairo caught him mid-swing, shoved a grenade down his throat, and walked away as his body popped like a gore balloon.
From the roof, a sniper fired. The bullet froze midair, caught on a tentacle tip, then whipped back into the sniper's skull.
Kairo exhaled smoke, grinning. "Reverse delivery."
The Betrayal
Then came the squad he knew. His old unit—Jensen's replacements. Fresh rookies he'd once marched with. Their commander raised a megaphone.
"Kairo Shin! Surrender now! We don't want to kill you!"
Kairo chuckled. "You think you can kill me. That's adorable."
The rookies hesitated. Fear in their eyes. They'd heard the stories. They'd seen the aftermaths.
One whispered, "He's not human…"
Another muttered, "This is suicide…"
The commander shouted again. "Shin, drop the weapons!"
Kairo spread his arms, calm. "I am the weapon."
Tentacles burst outward, carving the squad to ribbons before they fired a single shot. Limbs flew. Blood painted the pavement. The commander gurgled on his own tongue as Kairo walked past.
[Assassinations Confirmed.]
[Level Up: 14.]
[Intelligence Increased.]
His brain sharpened further—predictive paths now automatic, betrayal readable in a glance. He saw the city like a puzzle he'd already solved.
The Hunters' Trap
By midnight, the real killers came. Not rookies. Not mercs. Hunters.
Dozens of armored elites dropped from dropships, weapons glowing. Drones swarmed the skies, cannons humming. The city itself bent to the purge.
"Shin!" their leader roared through a speaker. "By order of the High Council, you are sentenced to death!"
Kairo smirked, lighting another cigarette. "High Council, low IQ."
The fight turned nuclear.
Plasma lit the night. Tentacles lashed through steel, ripping hunters in half, hurling drones into skyscrapers. Explosions shook the streets. Civilians screamed and ran as buildings collapsed around the chaos.
One hunter pinned him with a plasma blade, burning through his chest. Kairo laughed in his face, immortal body healing as he headbutted the man to mush.
Another squad fired missiles. Kairo caught them midair, spun them around, and sent them screaming back into the dropship, lighting the sky with fire.
Blood. Screams. Fire. The city became his playground.
Explicit Comedy
At one point, Kairo ripped off a hunter's armored leg and used it as a baseball bat, smashing another's skull like a piñata.
"Home run," he muttered, chuckling through cigarette smoke.
Another begged for mercy, sobbing. "Please—fuck—I have kids—"
Kairo grinned coldly. "Then I'll save them therapy." The tentacle crushed his skull like a grape.
⸻
The Purge Ends
By dawn, the streets were quiet. Smoke rose over Nexus. Bodies littered the roads, hunters and officers alike. Dropships burned in the skyline.
Kairo stood in the middle of it all, calm, cigarette glowing against the sunrise. Blood dripped from his boots. His tentacles slithered back into his skin.
The purge had failed. The city had failed. He was still standing.
[Mission Complete.]
[Level Up: 15.]
[Intelligence Increased.]
⸻
The Commander's Office
The Commander met him with whiskey, face unreadable.
"You just turned Nexus into a warzone," he muttered.
Kairo smirked. "Correction: they did. I just cleaned the trash."
The Commander shook his head, chuckling dark. "You're not a cop anymore, Shin. You're a one-man apocalypse."
Kairo lit another smoke. "Apocalypse pays better than the badge."
The Anti-Hero's War
That night, standing on a ruined rooftop, Kairo looked down at Nexus City. His intelligence hummed sharper than ever, predicting every move the brass would make next. They'd regroup. They'd double the bounty. They'd send armies.
He grinned through the smoke.
"Good. Let 'em try."
⸻
[Current Level: 15 | Intelligence Status: Godlike clarity. Reads armies like open books. Cold, untouchable, predicting battles before they start.]