In the kitchen of the same house, two figures could be seen cooking.

“The cabbage soup smells delicious.”

“You promised the leader it’d be a killing, after all. If it’s not good enough, he may punish you.” The tiger-man said jokingly.

“Haha, don’t worry about it, It’ll be great. More importantly, Jenh, were you serious about what you said before?”

“Absolutely. Shera, I fear that the kid is not as simple as we thought. The boss will not be here for a few minutes, so stay alert in case anything happens.”

“You’re overthinking it,” said Shera, the cat-woman. “What do you think will happen? It’s not like he can blow up the room and escape, everything there is made of meta—”

BOOM!

“He really blew something up!” Jenh exclaimed in a frenzy.

Without wasting a moment, they both ran toward the room, but unlike their expectations, they found it closed. The door was undamaged and as clean as new.

“Nothing blew up?” They were confused.

“I’m sure that the sound came from here, let’s check inside.” Jenh opened the room and barged inside, only to find nothing.

“WHERE IS HE?!” Falling in panic, they both ran inside and started to search for him. Jenh checked inside the wardrobe while Shera looked below the bed. But even then, they did not find any clue of Shu Himo's location.

The reason they could not find him was due to their inexperience. They had forgotten to check an important place: the ceiling.

Hidden on the ceiling's corner close to the door, Shu Himo was trying desperately to not fall. His right hand was bleeding, injured from the earlier impact. There was, however, a smile on his face.

Suddenly, a drop of blood fell from his hand to the floor. A quiet splash echoed through the room, and the woman turned to look above in shock.

“Abo—” Before she could finish her word, a disturbing sound resounded in the room.

Crack.

It was the noise of bones breaking, coming from her neck. All she could see was black, black from the shadow of Shu Himo’s foot.

Without making a single groan, she fell to the floor, her body lifeless.

Abusing the force of gravity and the woman’s position, Shu Himo managed to assassinate her before the man could react.

Impossible! The tiger-man shouted to himself. He was terrified. He did his best to suppress his emotions, but he then noticed that Shu Himo ignored him and ran directly out of the room.

"I won't let you escape!" Panic overwhelmed him and blurred his judgment. He began to run frantically after him without a second thought. The moment he passed the door, however, his eyes widened in shock.

In his sight, the only existing thing was an approaching fist. It was at that moment that he realized it. Shu Himo was not trying to escape, he was trying to ambush him!

Damn! But if he believes that a single punch will be enough, then he is definitely wrong! While he knew it was already too late to evade the punch, he trusted deeply his own endurance. Instead of defending himself, he promptly decided to take it as a chance to counter with his own punch.

It was a mistake.

As if he were against a running train, his so trusted endurance was pierced easily by Shu Himo's punch. With a crushed nose and teeth cracked, his vision became distorted. He could barely stand up as blood dripped down his chin.

How is he so strong? He remembered clearly how feeble Shu Himo was just half an hour before. Thinking back at the strength of the fist, he felt his back shiver.

He felt he was about to succumb to despair. However, he bit his tongue to call back his resolve. I have to recompose myself! He forced his body to jump backward, planning to take distance from Shu Himo.

But it wasn't enough.

Not giving him any chance to rest, Shu Himo quickly chased after him and sent a punch. He manipulated his Khenqi to coat his fist, exactly how he had done with the previous punch. As if it were lightning coming down from the sky, his punch resembled a hammer about to announce its judgment.

It was at that moment that the man widened his eyes, staring at the incoming punch. His expression vacillated between disbelief and despair. He could not turn his eyes from the Khenqi coating Shu Himo's fist. His Khenqi… how is it so pure?

He had finally understood why the resistance he was so proud of turned out useless. In front of Shu Himo’s Khenqi, his defense was akin to a paper wall put against an iron spear.

Encountering the tiger-man’s last defense, Shu Himo’s punch pierced through it and hit the man’s jaw. Reaching the limits of his endurance, the man passed out.

However, Shu Himo did not stop.

As if taken over by a frenzy, Shu Himo continued punching him until he was sure of his death. Looking over the destroyed face of the man, Shu Himo fell on the floor, sitting down. His breath was heavy, his heartbeat erratic.

So this is what it feels to kill someone… it isn’t as bad as some says, but it also isn’t a great feeling.

Unlike how most would react, he did not feel regret, he wasn't scared, and he wasn't confused. He was ready for it to happen the same day he had first wished to live in another world.

He had dreamed countless times to fight a life or death battle. While it was different from reality, it still helped him to calm down quickly.

[Congratulation to the user for winning the first life and death battle.]

“Oh? Did I get some rewards?” As if his previous distress vanished immediately, Shu Himo asked excitedly to the system.

[No.]

“Oh.” Shu Himo was disappointed.

"Crap! I almost forgot the existence of the third member!" He instantly stood up and ran around, checking every room of the house. He found three bedrooms, a kitchen with burned meat, and a living room. However, there was no sign of the third member.

[Completion of the quest: 2/3 kills.]

Hearing the notification from the system, Shu Himo thought about the sky quality weapon that awaited him. “I must get the third guy! But how?”

Unlike the first two that were just a single phase higher, the last one was in the Blood Strengthening phase. If he wanted to kill him, a solid plan was needed.

He did a second, more in-depth search in the house. Unlike before, he checked everything thoroughly, hoping to find some useful weapon. In the end, he only found a few sharp nails and some kitchen knives in the kitchen. He then used the storage function of the system to store everything.

“These guys are so poor, they don’t even have a decent weapon…” He murmured to himself as he stared at the charred food. There were just a small chicken and a few vegetables.

He shook his head and walked toward the room where he was previously held captive. He then dragged the bodies of the two kidnappers inside of the room.

“Hmm… this heat should be enough.” He paused, looking at the bodies. “I really don’t want to do this, but I have no choice.”

He summoned the storage and took out one of the kitchen knives he had found earlier. Not wanting to waste any more time, he started to execute his plan.

-----

30 minutes later, the leader of the kidnappers had finally returned.

"I'm back!" he yelled as he walked through the front door. "The negotiation went well, they’ve brought the goods, now we only have to bring..."

Before he could end his sentence, the words he was about to say were gulped back in his throat.

Instead of seeing his two allies as he had expected, he was greeted by the view of a young child sitting on a sofa right in front of the entrance. The youth's right foot was on the sofa, his knee drawn to his chest. With his face resting on his arms, he gazed amusedly at the newcomer.

For a moment, the man felt to be in front of a bored sovereign. A bored sovereign who had just found a new plaything. A plaything such as himself.

The man did not know why, but he felt that the youth was used to such posture. It wasn't something that could be done by just pretending. The atmosphere developing around him seemed like he had already done it countless times.

“You... You- How are you here?” His stutter showed a crack of fear, but the man regained himself quickly. “I don’t know how you’ve killed them, but if you believe that you can fight a Blood Strengthening phase at your level, you must be really overestimating yourself.” Contrary to his mocking tone, the man was, in truth, alarmed by the air around the youth in front of him.

He hoped that the child would soon drop his facade, however, the reply that came back to him was unexpected.

"I think you misunderstood something... cross-realm battles are only the norm for the main character!"