Deep in the Living
Chapter 358 - 346: Under the Storm

Chapter 358: Chapter 346: Under the Storm

Snap!

Brain matter splatters, skull shatters.

The curse blade handle in Luo Di’s hand hadn’t even manifested its blade before swinging out.

Like a handcrafted hammer smashing into the man who had just finished vomiting, it pulverized his head, with the blade handle piercing into his neck, nearly crushing his lungs.

Luo Di wasn’t merely killing indiscriminately. Immersed in the role, his spiritual power was highly focused, efficiently gathering combat information.

Observing the broken camera on the bed and the photos cut by the Squad Leader’s hair, he roughly identified the issue with the [immobilization] and analyzed the opponent’s two different abilities.

More specifically, it should be the monster’s unique "calamity," a kind of calamity directly related to cameras and photographs.

This calamity wouldn’t deeply affect everyone like the starlight from a past vacation island.

Instead, it’s an external or internal radiation based on the camera, or a strange effect centered on the photograph.

The two confirmed abilities currently are:

1. "Taking a direct shot, the subject witnesses the photographing process with eyes open, forming a complete frontal photo."

This causes the individual to be immobilized until the photo is destroyed. It should be avoidable by closing eyes, not looking at the camera.

2. "The unavoidable flash, seemingly a selfie"

This resets the scene, even if the man is utterly destroyed and dead. He can be instantly restored to his previous state after the flash.

There’s currently no solution for this, as it probably transcends regeneration and is a higher-level ability.

But to Luo Di, it was nothing. Based on what he learned, any action, once performed, incurs energy loss.

If one kill doesn’t work, then kill ten times,

If ten kills don’t work, then kill a hundred times.

Eventually able to kill...

At least the means this photographer displays mainly rely on tricks, ambushes.

The opponent’s physical strength and combat experience don’t seem strong; Luo Di could easily kill him without even forming the blade handle.

Looking at the corpse with a shattered head on the ground, less than three seconds have passed.

Click! After the unavoidable flash, the corpse vanishes.

The corners of Luo Di’s mouth beneath the mask slightly curl up, apparently enjoying it all, hunting such novel and powerful prey offers a unique satisfaction.

Crack~Crack~ His spine wriggles, a kind of gray steam leaks out, seeming as if the Old Spine is about to saturate.

Following the thin gray mark, Luo Di walks out of the guest room, returning to the hotel’s counter. This time, the man doesn’t seem to have "refreshed" inside the hotel; his trace isn’t seen in either corridor.

Luo Di first glances at Agatha almost fused with a steel pipe, withdrawing his gaze, he looks towards the hotel’s door, seemingly locking onto the mark’s source.

In his right hand, he holds the Hell Blade Handle with an unconstructed blade,

In his left, a normal metal knife, movie prop issued, with painful iron wires coiled around the blade’s surface.

He lifts his front foot and gives a powerful kick!

Boom!

The heavy door is ripped from the wall and flies out into the mud-pit-filled front yard area of the hotel.

The torrential rain hasn’t stopped,

continuously pounding the earth.

The man refreshed by the flash stands outside, about fifty meters from the hotel, amidst the rainstorm.

Not only that,

The original scholarly image has altered,

his white shirt sleeves rolled past elbows, revealing forearms covered with self-inflicted scars.

Glasses on his face retracted, the camera hanging on his chest gone, replaced by eyes akin to camera lenses.

His huge hairstyle loses shape in the rain, drooping over his shoulders.

Step!

As the size-45 leather shoes step out of the hotel door, his entire weight suddenly shifts backward.

Luo Di’s body slightly leans back, his left arm fully drawn back, taking an all-out throwing stance, locking onto the target about fifty meters away.

Throws with the arm,

just like previously in the hotel when he threw the blade directly through a head, except this time with even more power.

Buzz!

The metal knife entwined with the monastery iron wire rips through the rainwater towards the opponent’s brain gate.

Ding~

Two slender fingers as delicate as a woman’s clamp the flying knife steadily without touching any of the iron wire structure, with terrifying precision.

The photographer in the rain doesn’t even move his body, simply raising a hand naturally to execute the action.

"Originally, I wanted to show a bit of love to your girlfriend, then see what you think... But it seems I underestimated you guys.

Though it doesn’t satisfy my hobby, I have to make a quick job.

I’m tired of this place, killing you and then taking Wu Wen straight back to the Corner. I’ve already prepared a special sweet little house for her; although you won’t get to appreciate it firsthand, you should be able to imagine that scene.

Since I didn’t bring my [Corner Object], I’ll have to use fists, fingers, and nails to kill you, which might take a while."

He finished speaking.

The man suddenly takes out a photo from his pocket, an old photograph taken long ago, its edges curled and faded like dry leaves.

The photo shows a small boy in a school uniform, short in stature, with a face somewhat resembling a girl’s.

The boy stands in a corner, whipped and bruised all over. Around him is a group of girls in similar school uniforms, holding whips in their hands.

The man looked at the little boy in the photo, his gaze dark and brooding, then directly swallowed the photo.

Immediately after,

waves of pitch-black aura oozed from his pores, causing the raindrops to divert from their original path and avoid falling upon him.

The black aura in the night air transformed into a hideous face, then fully retracted back into the man’s body.

A physical transformation began to occur,

the fingers that were once delicate like a woman’s suddenly became thick and calloused.

Bang!

With a gentle effort, he crushed the blade.

Moreover, his body began to swell, his height increased, and the top two buttons of his shirt popped off.

As his spine lengthened, it also bent forward, causing his upper body to hunch forward, and his arms hung in front of him.

His eyes, replaced by camera lenses, widened as if ready to take a picture at any moment.

His lips stretched up and down, exposing the gum structure to the fullest, revealing two perfect rows of gleaming white teeth, larger than an ordinary person’s, fully exposed and maintaining a smile.

His aura entirely changed.

When Luo Di first saw this person, he merely considered him an "Hunter" intruding on his territory. Now, this man’s classification had completely changed, unable to be defined as "human."

Rather, a [Monster].

However, no matter how the opponent transformed, he remained within the hunting range.

Luo Di, stepping down in his size forty-five leather shoes, opened the Old Spine to its maximum extent, sending pure nutrients toward the blade handle.

Blade body construction.

A composition including keywords such as [metal], [chainsaw], [gray tentacles], [old].

The metal forms the "base" of the blade, shaping into a heavy straight knife.

Gray tentacles serve as the chainsaw’s track, adhering to the outline of the straight knife, rotating through some kind of biological activity.

Sawtooth similar to Old Spine clings to the track’s surface, its ultra-high hardness and bone regeneration capability able to handle various combat scenarios, particularly effective against flesh-like substances.

The final chain saw, weathered and aged, bore mottled engravings on the blade’s surface, like a war weapon that had seen many battles.

The intense chainsaw noise overpowered the surrounding storm, perfectly aligning with Luo Di’s current image.

Even when the man saw this weapon, he slightly turned his head in apparent apprehension, clearly indicating it was something not found in the Corner.

Luo Di also preemptively closed his eyes, simultaneously sliding his left hand across his eyelid, using Painful Iron Wire to seal his eyelids shut like book staples.

In the upcoming battle, he would abandon his sight, avoiding direct photography to prevent immobilization.

Once his vision was sealed, Luo Di used color to target, sensing clearly the grayness lingering in the opponent’s body, needing only to chop toward the grayness.

The speed of moving his leather shoes increased,

gradually switching from walking to running,

the cameraman also moved his huge body, approaching proactively with an awkward posture, engaging in direct combat.

Meanwhile, the Squad Leader remained in the form of a head on Luo Di’s shoulder, seemingly rooted in place with neck nerves.

The dull eyes appeared to be seriously preparing for battle, or perhaps merely spectating the fight as a front-row audience.

...

Engagement!

Under the torrential rain,

two figures, one black and one gray, collided.

As a piece of meat was torn from Luo Di’s shoulder,

the chainsaw sliced!

The swing and cut easily severed the opponent’s entire arm, even slicing into part of the man’s left side, causing some organs to slip out.

The grayness infiltrated internally, the physical body considerably damaged,

the destruction power of this Curse Weapon was beyond imagination.

Yet the next moment,

the man’s camera lens-structured eye blinked once.

Click! Shutter sound.

Despite Luo Di’s eyelids being nailed shut, he could still perceive the most direct flash.

But it wasn’t a photo being taken, rather a scene refresh! The entire arm and left side, previously severed, disappeared, and the man instantly refreshed back to normal.

This refresh speed was faster than before.

A fist struck directly into Luo Di’s gut, and the sound of ribs cracking and organs bursting could be heard.

The immense force blasted Luo Di away, blood spraying from his mouth mingling with rainwater to soak the ground.

The man flexed his just-cut-off right arm, savoring the sensation from the cutting, "Good weapon, seems besides collecting your pituitary, there’s a nice Otherworld weapon to gain... Using this to cut those girls’ bodies, I wonder if it would feel delightful?"

The cameraman didn’t pause, immediately pursuing Luo Di.

After only three steps, a beast trap buried beneath the wet soil activated, click! The sawtooth sank deeply into his thigh, and wires began to drill into his body.

But...

In a blink, click!

After the flash ended, there was no one on the beast trap, not even a trace of blood remained.

The man returned to the spot just as he’d stepped, effortlessly maneuvering around, looking at the steamy, wire-knotted beast trap, his pure white teeth parting, a tongue gently licked across the teeth’s surface.

"Among the girls I’ve collected, there were plenty as aggressive as you, but after a few photos, they all became perfectly tame."