As the loud music played, 11 o'clock arrived.
Snap!
The auction hall's main lights turned on, and the music stopped.
The ghouls in the center of the venue stopped dancing. A few grumbled in dissatisfaction, but no one dared to cause a scene.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the auction is about to begin. Please take your seats," announced the host, a ghoul wearing a clown mask, in an odd accent.
"Mr. Clown, do you have any surprises for us tonight? I wasn't very satisfied with the last auction," said a ghoul dressed like a wealthy socialite.
All the ghouls in the room were wearing masks. Ghouls couldn't let humans see their faces, and it was the same among ghouls. If two ghouls became enemies, one could report the other to the CCG, leading to a grim fate for the exposed ghoul.
Most ghouls lived like rats in the sewers, hiding in the shadows. However, there were exceptions, such as a certain audacious young woman named Eto Yoshimura, the leader of Aogiri Tree, who also moonlighted as a novelist and openly presented herself in public.
"Enough talk. Tonight's items will definitely satisfy everyone, so let's..."
Just as the host was about to announce the start of the auction, Su Xiao, standing among the crowd, pressed his Bluetooth earpiece.
"Move in."
The moment Su Xiao gave the command, several ghouls near him became alert, backing away a few steps.
"What did you just say?" one of them asked.
"He said, 'Move in.' Something's not right. Kill him."
"Is he a CCG investigator? I'm getting out of here."
Just from Su Xiao's single word, a small section of the auction hall erupted into panic. It was no surprise—years of being hunted by the CCG had left many ghouls with frayed nerves.
The tension spread through the auction hall. On stage, the ghoul host realized something was wrong.
Snap!
All the lights in the auction hall went out, plunging the venue into complete darkness.
Screams, shouts, and the sound of tables and chairs being knocked over filled the air.
Su Xiao was also enveloped in darkness, but he remained calm, his expression unchanged. A moment later, he slipped a device resembling a monocular over his head. Once equipped, his vision returned.
Although he could only see through his right eye, and everything was tinged with a green hue, it was enough.
Su Xiao had prepared a night vision device and had previously instructed his team to cut the power to the auction hall once the operation started.
With Dragon Slayer now in his hand, Su Xiao walked up to a nearby ghoul and placed the blade at their neck.
The ghoul didn't sense a thing. Their hands were outstretched, body bent slightly forward, blindly groping around in the dark.
Su Xiao was testing whether ghouls' kagunes gave them night vision. Clearly, they did not.
With a smooth motion, Su Xiao pulled the blade across the ghoul's throat. The sound of slicing flesh was faint, and blood spurted out.
The ghoul's eyes widened in shock, a gurgling sound escaping their throat before they collapsed a few seconds later.
In the pitch-black auction hall, Su Xiao was like a hungry wolf that had infiltrated a pen full of sheep. Walking calmly among the ghouls, he swung Dragon Slayer, cutting down one after another.
Slash, slash...
The sound of flesh being sliced echoed repeatedly, and ghouls fell one by one, their blood staining the ground along Su Xiao's path.
The chaos in the auction hall masked Su Xiao's actions. In just a few seconds, more than 20 ghouls lay dead at his feet.
The venue was semi-enclosed, so the thick scent of blood quickly spread, and the remaining ghouls realized something was terribly wrong.
"What's going on? Why do I smell blood?"
"It's a trap by the CCG! Run!"
"I don't want to die! I don't want to die!!"
The hall descended into utter chaos, with over a hundred ghouls frantically running in all directions.
Some ghouls with more extreme tendencies immediately released their kagunes and began swinging wildly, killing any ghoul who got too close. The death toll rose rapidly.
Su Xiao knew his time was running out. The ghouls wouldn't let him slaughter them indefinitely.
With a blank expression, Su Xiao continued moving through the panicked crowd, cutting down ghoul after ghoul. Blood splattered across his face, but he didn't care.
Would killing ghouls cause psychological stress? Perhaps for others, it might. But in the world of Reincarnation Paradise, it was either kill or be killed. Faced with that choice, Su Xiao would always raise his blade.
As limbs and blood flew through the air, Su Xiao's eyes began to glow with a cold light.
Crash! A glass bottle shattered, and a fire flared up, roaring to life.
On stage, the ghoul host, having found a bottle of liquor, fashioned it into a makeshift Molotov cocktail and smashed it on the ground. The fire illuminated the auction hall, dispelling the darkness.
Drip, drip...
Blood dripped from the tip of Dragon Slayer. All eyes in the room turned to Su Xiao.
Around him lay the bodies of at least 30 ghouls, all of whom had their throats slit. Blood had soaked the floor beneath his feet, forming a thin pool.
Gulp. A B-rank ghoul swallowed nervously, his eyes wide with terror.
Now that all the ghouls had noticed Su Xiao, their first instinct wasn't to attack but to flee.
However, they soon realized that all the exits had been sealed off.
This was Su Xiao's doing. The CCG personnel outside were just a backup in case something went wrong. Even though Su Xiao was leading the purge squad, the contribution points he would earn for kills made by the CCG would be minimal.
If he wanted to quickly rise to the rank of Senior Investigator, he would have to kill the ghouls himself.
With the exits sealed, the ghouls could see through the gaps that a large number of CCG officers were waiting outside. This pushed the trapped ghouls further into madness.
"What now? We're doomed. We're all going to die."
"Run! That guy with the sword is killing everyone!"
The chaos only intensified. Su Xiao drove his blade through another ghoul's throat, killing them instantly and adding their points to his total.
Not all the ghouls were fleeing, however. Two S-rank ghouls remained. One was the host on stage, wearing a clown mask. The other was now standing in front of Su Xiao.
This ghoul was enormous, with a body resembling a giant ball of fat. Weighing at least 300 pounds, the S-rank ghoul wore a pig mask.
"You... You're human," the fat ghoul growled.
His kagune was an armor-type kagune, specifically a koukaku, which manifested from his shoulders. Once fully formed, it resembled upper-body armor.
This ghoul was clearly a tank—slow, but durable.
Su Xiao dashed forward, and the fat ghoul roared, charging at him like a heavy tank, his footsteps shaking the ground.
"Die!" the ghoul bellowed, lowering his head to ram Su Xiao. Su Xiao, however, stopped dead in his tracks, his attention laser-focused.
With a quick sidestep, Su Xiao easily dodged the charge, slashing at the ghoul's legs as he passed.
Slash!
One of the fat ghoul's legs was severed cleanly, the momentum of his charge making the cut effortless.
The ghoul let out a pig-like squeal and crashed to the ground.
Su Xiao quickly moved in, stepping on the ghoul's back and pressing the tip of Dragon Slayer against the back of the ghoul's head.
"N-no, please... Don't..." the fat ghoul stammered, his voice shaking as he felt the cold steel against his skull.
Thunk! Without hesitation, Su Xiao drove the blade through the ghoul's skull.
The ghoul's body convulsed beneath Su Xiao's boot before going still.
A light green treasure chest floated above the corpse. Su Xiao raised an eyebrow. He hadn't expected to get a green chest from this S-rank ghoul.
Pocketing the chest, Su Xiao turned his attention to the second S-rank ghoul, the clown-masked host on stage.
Seeing Su Xiao's gaze land on him, the ghoul host panicked.
"Wait! I'm from the Tsukiyama family! You can't kill me!"
(End of Chapter)
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Translator's Note :- I am Not that familiar with a lot of the fictional worlds mentioned in the story. So if I make a mistake naming something please correct me by writing a paragraph comment on the mistake. Thank you.