Li Pan couldn't move a finger. He could only maintain a stiff, polite gesture as he lay on the ground, blood gushing from his body.
01044 leaned in with curiosity, though not daring to get too close.
"What is that?"
Li Pan rolled his eyes at her. "Aren't you going to finish it off?"
01044 crouched beside him, holding up a shard of glass to examine the Sword Orb.
"Your monster is impressive. But don't you know? Demons can revive infinitely within their own domain."
Damn it, who was supposed to know that? Oh, sure—halfway through the raid, you decide to add new rules. Like telling him after the fact that if he collects seven Dragon Balls, he can summon the Holy Grail and win instantly. That's the kind of thing that deserves a beating once the game's over…
Grinding his teeth, Li Pan lifted his head. Belial wasn't dead after all.
It was still shrieking, still spewing blood. Its massive bulk of fat and flesh quivered violently along with the fleshy throne it lay upon. Yet the gaping wound on its neck was already regenerating at a speed visible to the naked eye, sprouting a new head like a lizard regrows its tail.
Damn it… if it can resurrect, and he can only reset, then how long was this fight supposed to drag on?
01044 seemed to know what he was thinking and explained calmly:
"That's why destroying an outer container or projection of these extradimensional demons is useless. Even if you banish them back to hell temporarily with a ritual, unless you seal the dimensional rift itself, they'll just crawl back through again and again. Best not to let them descend in the first place.
One or two cracks can be patched. But once a mind has been broken, it can never be restored the same way again."
As she spoke, she pointed toward his trembling, cowering suit in the corner.
Li Pan stayed silent.
01044 smiled faintly.
"0791 has been rebooted many times already. Not every time required something as drastic as the 'Eye of Horus/Purification,' but this world is like a vase broken and glued back together too many times. Full of cracks, leaking everywhere.
Not just Belial—every plane, every dimension sees this as the weakest entry point. And…"
She brushed her bangs aside, fixing her gaze on Belial's swollen belly.
"You understand, don't you? Humans may be worthless to humans. But to demons, they're perfect sacrifices—delicious offerings.
Just as a field of ripe grain attracts pigs and crows, 0791 is nothing but a wasteland to most companies.
But from another perspective, it's like a blazing lighthouse in the dead of night, drawing every aberration from the abyss straight to it.
That's why, from time to time, you have to harvest the field—to prevent something truly catastrophic from hatching."
Li Pan glared at her.
"Easy for you to say! Then give me a hundred billion credits to reincarnate in another world!"
01044 tilted her head.
"A hundred billion? That's ridiculous—ninety-nine percent of that is just service fees. Why not simply file for reassignment? Transfer to another subsidiary. Kill a greater demon, and at the very least, you'll be promoted to cadre. You could even apply for travel stipends."
Li Pan squinted. "…Travel stipends?"
"Aaaarghhh!"
Suddenly Belial roared, shrill as millions of monkeys screaming at once. From the bloody wound on its neck, a half-formed human body emerged—horned head, upper torso of a woman, wailing as its halo flared overhead.
01044 immediately popped open an umbrella—hey, maybe cover him instead!
Then—boom!
The newborn demon exploded instantly. Blood geysered across the chamber, drenching Li Pan head to toe.
"Pffft! Blegh!" He spat out chunks of meat, gagging. "Disgusting!"
01044 frowned. "A failed ritual construct? Strange… it shouldn't make such an apprentice-level mistake." She raised another shard of glass.
Li Pan nearly lost it.
"Quit analyzing! It's at one hit point, I've already carried the DPS! Just finish it off!"
01044 only shook her head.
"No… you may have wounded Belial, but it shouldn't be destroyed so easily. This feels like a trap—"
Another roar. From the wound erupted a long pink intestine, coiling outward, twisting into a grotesque mass that looked like a brain or a lump of viscera.
Li Pan gagged. "Ugh, so gross…"
Then—boom!
Belial exploded again, showering him with gore. He was nearly buried alive until 01044 yanked him free.
"Bleeghh! The stench—too damn disgusting! 044, I'm begging you, just kill it already!"
01044 shoved the glass in his face. "Look for yourself."
Through the shard, Li Pan could see it clearly: the cut left by Demon-Slayer was not a single scar, but tens of thousands of overlapping sword marks, entwined like a crown of thorns.
Every time Belial tried to regenerate, new flesh slid across those marks, only to crack like porcelain and shatter.
"Mariaaa! What is this?! What have you done?!" Belial shrieked, its body writhing as fountains of blood surged, flooding the chamber.
Li Pan roared back, "Who cares what it is! Look at it—it can't birth anything now! If you're that curious, slice it open and do a C-section already!"
01044 finally nodded.
"Very well. I'll banish it."
She snapped her fingers. Her giant eagle swooped down, carrying Li Pan into the air.
Below, she raised her broken umbrella, stepping through the blood rain. Wherever her shoes touched, prints ignited in pink fire. Rings of flame blossomed into layered wards, wrapping Belial, its throne, and its castle in a sea of magic.
Belial's body convulsed, trapped between endless blood loss and the cutting edge of the lingering sword aura. Each failed rebirth tore it further apart. Slowly, inevitably, it was collapsing into death.
Li Pan sighed in relief. Finally, the Collector's foothold would be destroyed. All he had to do was deal with the two fools still standing in his way and—wait. What was that?
He blinked. On Belial's swollen belly, he thought he saw… a handprint.
"AAAAAHHHHHH!!!"
Belial screamed louder than ever before. Its belly twisted into a vortex. And then—
A hand pressed outward from inside.
01044 froze, her nearly-complete ritual unfinished. She drew another shard of glass, watching with fascinated curiosity.
Damn it…
Li Pan understood. This was the Monster Company's way.
If you weren't already dead, you'd push until you were.
With a final, piercing scream, Belial's body split open.
From within emerged a raw, bloody mass—a premature embryo shaped like a human infant. Its head and arms were formed, but its legs were still underdeveloped.
Banish it!
Banish it!
Banish it!
But 01044 dropped her umbrella and her bag, stepping forward with arms outstretched—as if to cradle it.
The infant opened its eyes.
Golden pupils burned.
In an instant, 01044 was consumed in flame. Three seconds later, she was ash. Not even a cry. Only her eagle gave a final screech before burning to cinders.
"…Idiot."
Li Pan barely managed a comment before plummeting into the swamp of gore. His organs rattled with the impact.
"Xiao Hei… Xiao Hei…" he whispered, calling for his guardian suit.
No response. It was still cowering.
The infant clawed its way free, crawling toward him. Golden eyes locked on the Sword Orb still in his hand.
Fine. If this was the end, so be it.
"Demon-Slayer. Kill."
The Sword Orb leapt, streaking golden light toward the infant's head—
But the creature grinned. From its nose shot a red beam, colliding with the sword and knocking it back.
Li Pan shut his eyes. This was it.
The infant chuckled, a crimson ray stabbing into his abdomen. His dantian burned, all his qi drained away in a rush, spraying from his body like a scarlet arrow—
And then, midair, the blood condensed into a hand.
Smack!
The blood hand slapped the infant across the face.
Both Li Pan and the monster froze.
Then—smack!—a second slap, even louder.
The infant shuddered, flipped backward, and fell to its knees. Hands crossed over its chest, palms up, fingertips bleeding, twin lotus-shaped flames igniting.
It spat out a glowing blood pearl, spread its arms wide, and bowed low.
A child's voice echoed in Li Pan's ear:
"Disciple Duan Kecheng greets the Supreme Lord! Forgive this disciple's ignorance for not welcoming you sooner! May the Supreme Lord's power be unmatched, may your life endure as long as the heavens, may you rule all realms for eternity…"
The blood hand seized the pearl, waved impatiently.
The infant kowtowed furiously.
"Thank you for sparing me, Supreme Lord! Thank you for sparing me!"
Then it burst into a red streak, unfurling across the sky like a blood-dyed veil, vanishing into the distance.
Li Pan gaped.
The blood hand returned, stuffed the pearl into his mouth, and pressed against his abdomen, sealing his shattered dantian.
The pearl melted instantly, sliding down his throat. He coughed. "So… you guys have an organization, huh?"
The blood hand gave no answer.
The ground shook violently. The pocket dimension was collapsing.
"Xiao Hei! We're leaving! If you don't come now, I'm leaving you behind!"
Finally, the suit darted out, wrapping around him. Li Pan drew his last silver key, jammed it into the wall, and opened a door.
He stepped through—and plunged into icy water.
"Brrghhh!" He choked, thrashing, trapped in a sealed cold chamber. Weak, he could only pound faintly on the door.
Fortunately, someone heard. The lid was thrown open, and he was dragged out.
"Boss! Boss, you're alive! You okay?"
"Ugh… cough… Rama? Where…"
Wiping his face, he realized he was in a motel room. A magic circle painted across the floor. In the center, an ice-filled tub rigged with a Philosopher's Stone. Rama sat nearby, gaming.
"Oh, this is the motel we're staying at. Miss Forty-Four set this up as an emergency exit. She said if you fled too quickly, you might get thrown into the demon's hell, so she prepared a back door. Huh? She didn't make it out?"
At least Li Pan had survived.
"She was reckless… get me back to the company, quick… I can still recover…"
Rama glanced at his rotting, peeling flesh, hurriedly hoisted him up, and bolted out.
This time, Li Pan truly was at his limit. His body, already on the brink from using three monsters, had been roasted and boiled beyond repair. Even a med team couldn't save him.
Worse, his reset had erased all implants and systems. Even emergency calls wouldn't go through. Rama didn't have elite membership, wasn't a citizen—no service would answer.
The city was under Ye Corp's lockdown. The dreadnought still firing from orbit. Transport grid collapsed. Not even taxis were running.
At the brink of despair—Rama rose to the occasion.
Turns out, Old Liu had taught him how to hotwire cars for fun. Using half-baked skills, Rama stole a family SUV outside the motel, tossed Li Pan in the back, and gunned it down the highway.
The same highway Li Pan had raced down earlier—once full of tanks and APCs, now reduced to burning wrecks. Charred bodies littered the road.
Against the dreadnought's railguns, the armored divisions hadn't stood a chance. One volley could obliterate an entire brigade.
So Rama swerved and skidded through a battlefield of hellfire, blackened bones crunching beneath the tires. Two hours later, impossibly, he pulled up at the company's front gate.
The car hadn't even broken down. Pure luck.
Li Pan, barely clinging to life, couldn't even black out—the ride was so rough his bones rattled too much to let him sleep.
In the end, though, he survived. And survival was enough.
Back into the Archive Cabinet. Reset. Full restore.
Today's quota met. Six silver keys spent. Even if he wanted overtime, he had no more cheats left to burn.
Still, the overall situation was settled. A narrow escape.
A quick round of calls gave him the update:
Under orbital bombardment, the Tokugawa forces were annihilated.
Ashiya's squad captured Tokugawa Nagamatsu.
Shiranui's group in Hakone secured the "Great Flesh."
0113012 had dispatched shuttles to pick them up.
Even Ye Corp had finally chosen a side.
The Secret Council, through anonymous vote, invoked "bribery and tax evasion" to sever ties with the Fabius family's enterprises.
And in response, the acting patriarch of House Fabius announced their secession from the Council—declaring allegiance to the Demon Party.
.
.
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⚠️ 30 CHAPTERS AHEAD — I'm Not a Cyberpsycho ⚠️
The system says: Kill.Mercs obey. Corporates obey. Monsters obey.One man didn't.
🧠💀 "I'm not a cyberpsycho. I just think... differently."
💥 High-voltage cyberpunk. Urban warfare. AI paranoia.Read 30 chapters ahead, only on Patreon.
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