Kisaragi Station || Apocalypse Paradise #3

239: Let's Die Together

The teenage girl scraped her delicate skin against the rough concrete ground. However, that bit of pain was long overwhelmed by a stronger surge of pain from her injuries. Rena closed her eyes. She felt a warmth within her nasal cavity. While warm blood dripped from her body, she felt a slight itchy feeling at the side of her mouth. She coughed. A wheezing sound came deep from her chest, and she finally managed to inhale a breath of air.

'Why am I still alive?' she thought, perplexed.

At that moment, she focused on a single faint twinkling star in the dark sky. It felt like a little consolation from heaven. Usually, a person full of energy and drive toward their goal would not notice such minute details.

Rena turned over with much effort, and she accidentally tore the large wound between her chest and abdomen. For a second, Rena couldn't even catch her breath. She lay in the darkness without moving for quite some time. She realized that she wasn't dead yet.

Even after Hannie used some sort of Special Item and created a deep large wound around her diaphragm area, she did not die. Her clothes were soaked with blood that continued dripping from the wound. Her clothes were undamaged. Hannie's attack had damaged her skin, muscles, and internal organs, bypassing her clothes. If she didn't have her clothes to hold her broken body together, perhaps her guts would already have spilled out from her body.

Rena panted heavily and slowly stood up with her trembling legs.

"I'm still alive. So, is that all you've got?" Rena tried to smile, but she looked a little pitiful instead.

Hannie's expression wasn't that fantastic either.

That last attack was supposed to be lethal. It was Hannie's third attack after she activated her [Truth or Dare] ability. In other words, Rena was the requester for the next game round. Feeling restless, she sneered and tightened her hands around her black metal pipe.

"You were supposed to die. This doesn't make sense." Her eyes glowered cruelly. She wanted to look at Rena, but the next round of her [Truth or Dare] had already started, so she couldn't move at will.

"Maybe I am just very tenacious," Rena said softly as she coughed. "It's my turn to be a requester now."

"Yes," Hannie raised one of her brows. "Before you make your request, I want to tell you something."

The woman's lips turned upward, showing a smile, "If I attack you one more time, you will die," she spat through her teeth. "Do you have the confidence to kill me with a single request?"

Rena did not say a word. She just breathed strenuously. With her current condition, speaking took a considerable toll on her body.

Hannie made a disdainful sound before keeping quiet and displaying a nasty expression. After a few seconds, she asked, "What will you choose? Truth or Dare?"

"Truth." Rena was almost whispering; she sounded so weak that her voice was almost inaudible.

Hannie showed an "I knew it" expression and scoffed, "Are you going to ask me questions about the weakness of my ability?"

Rena was momentarily stunned. Her mid-pubescent small face turned visibly white. It was very apparent to Hannie what the girl had planned to do.

"So, Hannie is prepared?" Rena's lips trembled, and her body swayed as if she couldn't stand straight. After she lowered her head and thought for some time, she muttered, "Then... I'll still choose Truth."

Hannie eyed her coldly, "Your question."

Rena's lips were even paler than her face. She appeared determined to put all her hopes and bets on that question.

"As the ability owner, you know what circumstances would kill you in a single round! Tell me!"

Hannie's expression turned icy cold. Then, she suddenly laughed mockingly, "Even if you know the answer, do you think you have the chance to execute? If I answer you, I won't die. Instead, you're just going to die earlier."

Rena panted and did not say a word. She did consider that. However, even if she was going to die, she just wanted to create an opportunity for her brother and Lin Sanjiu to know that woman's weakness.

Seeing that Rena had no intention to change her request, Hannie scrutinized her for a while. She had some suspicions. Her face gradually turned grim, perhaps after wondering why Rena was still not dead. When she opened her mouth, her words startled Rena, "I chose not to answer. I don't know what you're planning, but even if you are about to die, I wouldn't reveal things I shouldn't reveal." Hannie smiled coldly, "You can come attack me."

Rena did not expect Hannie to be so tight-lipped, so she didn't know what to do momentarily.

'How should I attack her? I'm badly injured and almost at death's door while she's full of vitality... No, if I could kill her with one attack.' Rena quickly ran through all the Special Items she brought with her in her mind, trying to find something lethal. 'The fly-whisk is more powerful, maybe I should use it—'

Rena's hands froze because she remembered that she was alive, even though she should have died from her injuries. She considered the possibility that the number on her back was related to why she was alive. If that was the case, she wasn't sure if the same thing also applied to Hannie.

"You won't die. Get up. You still have 3..."

Hannie's words suddenly surfaced in Rena's mind. Rena zoned out momentarily and suddenly realized that her previous logic was wrong.

She should have thought of that earlier!

The information from Hannie's slip-up already explained more than enough. She wouldn't die because she still had 3.

If she didn't have 3 but had 2, she probably wouldn't die, too, because there isn't a large difference. Using this logic, a person would die when the number on their back reached 0. Following this line of thought, the number on their backs represented a life or health point.

At the start, Rena remembered that the number on her back was 4. After Hannie attacked her once, the number became 3. If she wasn't dead now, it was possible that she had not used up all that number. If Rena wanted to kill Hannie with one attack, she had to reduce the number of Hannie's back to zero with just one try.

However, she had a problem. She didn't know what number was on Hannie's back.

Panting, Rena's body swayed as she approached Hannie weakly and stood in front of the woman. Hannie looked at her coldly without moving an inch.

"If I ask you what your number is, you definitely wouldn't tell me." The teenage girl placed her hand on the back of her neck. Rena removed a white-colored necklace among the dozens of colorful necklaces she wore. "1, 2, 3..."

She started to count the beads on the necklace.

"There are 20 beads." Rena looked up and stared at Hannie's darkening face. "No, I should say that there are 20 Ripple Spheres."

The white paint gradually faded from the pearl-like beads, revealing the Ripple Spheres' original shiny surface.

"No, no! Are you stupid? You can't run away! If you use so many Ripple Spheres so close to you, you will be killed by the explosion!" Hannie's expression changed rapidly. This was the first time she sounded anxious. Due to the restrictions on her ability, she could only deactivate it after receiving an attack from Rena.

"It's alright. Let's die together." Rena smiled faintly and tossed the Ripple Spheres.