T/N: I.... want.... to... sleep!!. Ughhh, Time flies so fast I can't even read my favorite fanfics properly.Holidays are way too short, TwT.Anyway sorry for the rant lets go back to the main text.
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After the porsche 356a drove away from the bustling city, it turned onto an unfinished dead-end road.
After driving for some time on the bumpy road, a lonely, unfinished building came into view.
Gin had Vodka stop the car several dozen meters from the unfinished building, and then the two walked silently towards it.
They ascended the exposed staircase, finally reaching the unfenced rooftop on the 7th floor.
In the center of the rooftop, a figure had already been waiting for a long time.
It was a woman with emerald green eyes and long black hair.
Her bangs slightly obscured a small part of her cheek.
Along her gracefully curved jawline, her red lips held a faint, enigmatic smile.
This wasn't Gin's first meeting with her, he knew her name was Sarah.
Of course, it was most likely a pseudonym, but he didn't care.
At this moment, Sarah was casually leaning against an exposed concrete pillar, resting her chin on her right hand.
Seeing Gin and Vodka arrive, she smiled and said, "Mr. Gin, you are very punctual."
Gin skipped all pleasantries and went straight to the point, his tone icy. "Where's the merchandise?"
Sarah chuckled softly, straightened up, and took a silver briefcase from behind her.
She elegantly placed it on a relatively flat concrete slab and unlatched it.
Inside the case, five slender glass tubes were neatly embedded in black velvet, the liquid within them a vibrant orange-yellow.
"Five Blessing Reagents," Sarah introduced. "One hundred million Japanese Yen per vial, for a total of five hundred million Japanese Yen."
"What?!" Vodka instantly bristled, instinctively reaching for his gun. "One hundred million Japanese Yen per vial?! Are you joking?! We agreed on one hundred million Japanese Yen for five vials! We only brought one hundred million Japanese Yen!"
After speaking, he shifted the leather briefcase containing the cash, which he was carrying, behind him.
Sarah's expression remained unchanged. She took one Blessing Reagent from the briefcase and gently shook it in her hand:
"Mr. Vodka, please calm down. One hundred million Japanese Yen per vial is a very reasonable price. The effects of the Blessing Reagent far exceed your imagination.
Not only can it permanently and significantly increase a person's strength, speed, and reflexes, breaking through human limits... but also,"
She paused deliberately, emphasizing her words,
"As time passes, individuals injected with the Blessing Reagent can even develop a resilient physique capable of withstanding ordinary bullets. Isn't that worth the price?"
A mischievous smile, characteristic of a 'bad woman,' played on Sarah's lips.
What she didn't explicitly state was that this so-called "Blessing Reagent" was actually a degraded version of the "Sacrifice Serum."
It could indeed permanently grant the user immense power, but the cost was that the injector's body would undergo irreversible half-Etherialization.
Although this process was very slow.
Initially, the injector might not notice anything, even delighting in the increase in power.
But after a year and a half, the user's consciousness would be completely eroded, eventually becoming a pathetic puppet driven only by instinct, a living weapon controlled by The Exaltists.
Gin's gaze swept over the five orange-yellow reagents, then returned to Sarah's face. He offered no comment on the price, only asking coldly, "What are the conditions?"
Before the transaction, they had already agreed on a price with The Exaltists. The other party clearly knew they had only brought 100 million Japanese Yen, yet still wanted to raise the price at the last minute, clearly intending to add extra conditions.
Sarah closed the briefcase and changed the subject. "Trading five vials for one hundred million Japanese Yen isn't impossible. However, we need your cooperation for a small verification. We want to know if this video is real or fake."
As she spoke, she took a thin tablet computer from behind her.
After a few taps on the screen, a video began to play.
The footage was a bit shaky, clearly shot from a phone's perspective.
The scene inside was a spacious and luxurious bathroom, with the camera focused on the edge of the bathtub, where Gin and Vodka's figures were clearly visible.
It was the video Rum had recorded!
"Pfft—!"
Vodka only took one look, and his face instantly turned a livid shade of purple.
He trembled with rage, pointing at the tablet and roaring, "Fake! This is a fabrication! It's a computer composite made by that shameless, Rum! Don't you dare believe it!"
Vodka gritted his teeth, wishing he could smash the tablet immediately.
Sarah watched Vodka's furious reaction with interest, then glanced at Gin, who remained expressionless but whose eyes seemed a few shades colder. She smiled noncommittally.
"Oh, really? We also thought this video was fake. Well then, let's continue the transaction. Five Blessing Reagents for one hundred million Japanese Yen. We can accept that price."
Vodka stepped forward with the money case to complete the transaction for the Blessing Reagents with Sarah.
Gin stood to the side, his eyes on the video still playing on the tablet. He appeared unfazed on the surface, but in reality, he was close to crushing the concrete slab beside him.
He cursed Rum over and over again in his mind.
Meanwhile, several kilometers from the unfinished building, inside a specially modified black van.
A grey-haired man leaned comfortably in an ergonomic chair, a faint smile playing on his lips.
On the several screens in front of him, real-time footage from the hidden pinhole camera on Sarah was clearly displayed.
He saw Gin and Vodka's reactions completely.
Only then did he finally become certain that, that Rin was indeed his sister from his original world.
Besides his sister, no one else who has this kind of dark morality.
As for why he said that, Akira stated that he empathized with Gin and Vodka's experience.
The Pain! It was truly too painful!
Just as Rin's real-world name was indeed Rin, his name was truly Akira. He was experiencing the game in an immersive way, so to speak.
His friends even jokingly called them 'three-dimensional counterparts'.
But that car accident five years ago completely shattered their peaceful lives.
He still remembered that afternoon, the memory was as vivid as yesterday.
He and his sister, Rin, were carrying large bags of recently purchased items, standing at a bustling intersection, waiting for the red light.
Rin was still chattering excitedly with him, sharing the Furina and Focalors "Evil God" figurines she had just bought, her smile bright.
The green light turned on, and they stepped onto the crosswalk with the flow of people... Then... the world seemed to slow down.
The piercing roar of an engine grew louder from a distance. A heavily decorated Furina Itasha van, like a runaway wild horse, completely ignored the traffic light and slammed into them from the side!
He watched with his own eyes as his sister's slender figure was struck and sent flying high into the air, the contents of her shopping bags scattering like falling flowers.
Before he could even feel sorrow or rush to check on his sister's condition,
Another equally flamboyant Focalors Itasha van, from the other direction, crashed squarely into him.
(T/N: Quick question, do you prefer using Wise or use the japanese name that is Akira? in fact i prefer to use Akira.)