Chapter 103: Answer me

Before any of them could even notice any change, Lucian moved from his spot, his body closing the small distance between him and Glasses in an instant.

Their eyes barely managed to follow the movement before he was already in front of his chosen target.

His hands shot up abruptly in a swift, precise motion as his boots scraped against the ground from the sudden burst of momentum.

“Aghkhhhh…!”

Dork choked up as Lucian grabbed him by the neck.

His scream tore from his mouth in an unfiltered shock and pain.

Lucian’s fingers around his neck slightly tightened, making it difficult to breathe.

All of their eyes widened, their bodies tensed instantly as they froze in their spots.

The situation had escalated too far from what they’d expected.

The metal rod in Dork’s hand slipped from his fingers with a dull metallic sound ringing as it hit the ground, rolling before it stopped onto Lucian’s feet.

His hands shot up instinctively, trembling, trying to move Lucian’s hand away, grabbing onto it with both of his palms.

His fingers dug into Lucian’s wrist, his nails pressing into his skin—

But Lucian’s grip didn’t falter.

His fingers didn’t move an inch.

“I asked you something…” Lucian muttered in a low voice, ignoring his struggle to break free.

His voice wasn’t loud—but it was emotionless.

Cold.

His once remaining calmness had shattered, and his eyes—

They looked threatening now, carrying a dangerous intent.

He had been holding so much till now.

His sister had vanished—run outside without their notice, disappeared into somewhere he didn’t know—

And he was here, running through empty streets, surrounded by corpses, trying to find her without any clue of where she could be.

There was no way he would’ve been calm.

And he wasn’t.

He truly wasn’t the entire time.

When he tried to ask these fools about his sister, none of them answered his questions properly.

Their tone.

Their expressions.

Their half-hearted responses—

They grated against him more than they should have.

For some unknown reason, the man wearing the cricket gear looked frustrated, his reply half-assed, as if Lucian’s words were nothing more than an inconvenience to him.

And if he put that aside, the man with the glasses…

There was something suspicious about him.

Either he was just an introverted coward, or—

He was clearly hiding something.

Was Lucian right or wrong?

He didn’t know, and right now—

He didn’t care about being right.

He was only keen on finding out and also making sure he spat out the truth one way or another.

He was already on edge.

“Answer me, did you see my sister?”

Dork’s eyes trembled, his entire body shivered as Lucian’s cold, emotionless eyes stared into his.

For some reason, it felt like Lucian’s gaze could see straight through his soul, and that one wrong answer might cost him his life.

Unknowingly, his breathing hastened, turning rushed and shallow as panic took hold, clearly revealing his fear.

His lips quivered, as if they couldn’t decide whether to stay shut or give in, and he seemed like he was about to say something, making Lucian loosen his grip just slightly—not enough to move, but enough so he wouldn’t choke while he spoke.

“What the fuck are you doing, you fucking bastard?!”

Lucian’s expression stilled for a split second.

Before he let out an exhausted sigh, growing tired of these three.

He turned his head towards the cricket joker.

Cris—the so-called Joker—raised the bat in his hand and swung it in a horizontal attack, aiming directly for Lucian.

Lucian’s eyes followed the moving bat. His other hand moved in a swift motion, and the moment the hit struck his palms—

His grip tightened over the base of the bat, stopping the strike with a visual ease that didn’t match the force behind that swing.

“What…” Knife bro muttered in shock in a low voice, not believing his eyes for a moment.

Cris was very good at cricket and baseball, and his strikes were no joke to stop like that.

And yet—

It had been stopped.

Like it was nothing.

For a moment, he thought he had done it intentionally—that he had held back his strength on purpose—but seeing his expression, that thought faltered.

Cris’s eyes widened in disbelief, but before he could even gather his thoughts—

Lucian snatched the bat from his hold with a sharp jerk, the sudden force making Cris stumble forward.

Lucian flung the metallic baseball bat upward.

It spun in the air, rotating a few times—before dropping cleanly back into his grip as he caught it by the handle with effortless ease.

“One more word, and his head will be smashed like a watermelon.”

Lucian said flatly, his voice devoid of emotion as he swung the bat over Dork’s head at extreme speed, stopping just a fraction before impact.

“Aghh…!”𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

Dork screamed loudly, his entire body jerking violently as the bat almost bashed through his skull.

He couldn’t even move because Lucian’s other hand was still holding his neck, holding him in place.

“Is that clear?”

All of them nodded quickly, along with Cris, who was still slightly dazed.

“What… what the fuck do you want from us?” Knife guy asked hesitantly, his earlier aggression gone, replaced by something far more cautious and far more aware.

Lucian clicked his tongue softly, seeing that he’d even forgotten the question he had been asking for a while.

“I know!”

His attention shifted back to Dork, who shouted suddenly.

His voice cracked with fear, the sound breaking unevenly as the bat tapped lightly against his head again and again.

Though Lucian had been doing that just to scare him, it seemed it was working more than he had expected.

All of their attention turned toward him.

“Where?”

Unconsciously, Lucian’s fingers tightened around his neck again, the grip enough to make Dork’s breath hitch violently, only to loosen slightly as the man began choking.

“Where?” He asked again, his voice rising into a sharp, cutting tone.

“Th–There!”

Shouting unsteadily, Dork raised his trembling hand and pointed in a direction, his arm shaking so much it barely held steady.

It was a direction neither Lucian nor the trio had taken before.

“I saw a girl… who looked just like you said, go in that direction.”

His fingers trembled uncontrollably as his arm slowly lowered, and his expression turned pleading, desperate for this to be enough—for this to end.

Lucian turned his head in the direction indicated, his gaze lingering there for a long moment.

Then, he turned back, his eyes settling on Dork again.

Seeing his eyes turn moist and his breathing broken, Lucian loosened his grip around his neck.

The moment the vice-like grip disappeared, he collapsed back on the ground onto his butt.

His legs felt like jelly, and he had no strength to get up.

It felt like he would’ve died if he hadn’t answered.

“If you’d known, then why didn’t you tell him this before, you fucker!” Cris shouted suddenly, looking down at Dork with a mix of anger and contempt.

“I wasn’t sure…” Dork mumbled weakly, his words barely a whisper, but loud enough for both of them to hear.

“I’d seen a woman-like figure in the far distance going in that direction, but I wasn’t sure if that was a human or not…” he lowered his head as he said that.

When he had noticed the silhouette, he hadn’t been sure whether to tell his friends, wondering if they would go after it—without even knowing if it was a person or a man-eating monster.

“You fucker…” Cris stepped forward, rolling his sleeves up slightly, irritation bubbling in his expression.

Dork trembled again, but before he could even attempt to apologise—

“Guys…!”

Knife guy suddenly shouted in panic, drawing both of their attention.

“What?”

Cris turned, irritation still on his face, before narrowing his eyes slightly when he saw his friend’s widened eyes.

“Oi, what is it?”

“That man…” The knife guy raised his trembling hand, pointing forward with his shaking fingers, his voice holding a tremor.

“Where did that man go?”

“Huh?” Cris’s frown deepened for a second.

Then, slowly, his eyes widened as the sudden realisation hit.

His gaze swept across his surroundings in a quick, almost frantic motion, trying to find the man who had been there with them just a moment ago.

“Did… did he run away?” he muttered uncertainly.

He tried to look again, but there was no one else other than him and two friends.

“Thank god…”

A small, relieved sigh escaped Dork’s mouth, his shoulders slumping forward as if the last bit of tension had finally drained out of him.

He had almost pissed himself right now, so it was a huge relief that the problem had disappeared—that he had disappeared.

“Wait… my bat!” Cris cursed suddenly, the relief replaced by frustration.

“He took my weapon along with him!”

Both the Dork and the knife guy looked at him as he grumbled in frustration.

Slowly, both of them sighed.

“At least that fucker ran off…” Knife guy said, trying to cool off the tension.

“Or else I would’ve cut him up with my—”

His words halted abruptly.

His hand, which he had raised slightly for emphasis, froze in place.

His eyes dropped on it, and they suddenly widened as he noticed his empty hand.

“My… my knife…”

Dork and Cris’s expression changed instantly, their attention snapping toward him.

“He stole it too…?” Dork spoke with an uncertain tone.

All of their chest tightened with unease, the cold air brushing their faces, making the environment even more horrifying than it was.

Cris, they understood.

Lucian had taken it beforehand, right in front of their eyes.

But the knife—

The knife had been taken from his hands without any of them noticing it.

Without the owner himself noticing it as it vanished from his grip.

And on top of that—

He had disappeared.

Just like that.

“That… that wasn’t a ghost… right?”

The question lingered in the air, unanswered.

All of them shivered as they ran away from there, glancing over their shoulders every few moments.

***

Unaware of the sudden fear he had inflicted on the men, Lucian ran in the direction pointed out by the one with the glasses without looking back.

Taking their weapons had been easy—and he was already short on them—so he had taken theirs.

He was somewhat annoyed by the baseball guy, but he had no time right now to teach him a lesson.

Something else was far more important right now.

The baseball bat in his left hand and the thin, sharp knife in his right hand disappeared from his hold, vanishing seamlessly as they were stored in his Inventory.

While moving, he could hear the faint monster’s noises in the distance, echoing faintly.

But there was something else too.

Something that didn’t quite match those sounds.

Lucian’s brows furrowed as his head lowered to the ground.

Something felt different, something he couldn’t properly pinpoint.

His mind lingered on it for a few seconds.

Before he lifted his head again, letting it go as he increased his speed, despite the sharp sting that came into his right thigh with each movement.

On his way to find his sister, and to teach her a proper lesson…

For thinking she could walk into death… without him.