I found her near the Black Alley, where businessmen and thieves do business. Anything can be sold, it's all stolen. I could kill them all.

Do they think they can hide their evil deeds by hiding in the shadows? Can you hide the cold light of the dagger? Can you hide a dirty deal? I can smell the shimmering smell of wine in the mouths of the homeless man on the other side of the ruined city.

I know their sins. I can taste it.

Then I saw her. She was picking up a message, and she was met by Baron Spino's man, with a face full of flesh and scars. She put the message into the pipe. Then he whispered something to her.

I didn't even expect this guy to be able to speak and even write. All I had heard was his screams before. The last time we met, I took one of his legs. Now his prosthetic limbs are rusty.

He passed a few silver wheels in his fat palm, and she reached out to take them. The coin in the shape of a gear makes a crisp sound and smells of blood. This pain is passed from one person to the next. If you want to get something in this city, it doesn't matter how many silver wheels you have. Pain is the hard currency here.

There was one person in my memory who knew a lot about this—a lot of blood and a silver wheel—but that person was no longer there.

I howled, and the two of them were startled and shrunk. My augmentation glowed a vicious green, and even the shadows seemed to flinch. The girl glanced at it and turned to run, but did not run deeper into the alley. She was a messenger after all, and she climbed up quickly into the darkness, and the path she chose was almost unattainable.

Fear. It's fast, but it's weak. A voice tube with the seal of the Alchemy Baron. The gang will definitely be lured out by her.

It's perfect......

I started hunting.

We ran as fast as we could, the city reduced to a blur, my claws piercing through the smoke, jumping over rooftops in search of a place to stay, chasing the microphone messenger. I carved a path through the city with my claws, like a wound, flowing with the venom of alchemy technology, gathering into puddles in the alleys.

She turned around and jumped over a cart with tinctures. She knew the city almost as well as I did. She knew where I wanted to push her. Away from the safety of shelter, to the danger zone that the messengers fear most, only the haze can escape.

I need to remind her that I am scarier than what awaits her in the dark. I landed right in front of her and yelled angrily, grabbing a steam pipe along the way. She hesitated, but it didn't take long for her to turn and run down. That's the direction I want her to go.

She struggled to climb the high wall and slid down the slide to the ground, and I could hear her rapid gasps. She was praying to the Goddess of the Wind to save her. Maybe I should pray for her too. The beast inside me wants more than just killing. It wants to eat meat.

I can kill her now, easily. I felt the tips of my claws stretch outward, craving for flesh. I had forgotten why I had left her alive until I had pressed closer. She staggered over a railing, then looked back at me, and I saw my own reflection in her eyes.

Her eyes filled with tears.

This scene...... So familiar.

I slowed down, howled into the darkness, and drove the girl forward. She jumped down into the labyrinth of the ancient system of sound transmission pipes. I continued to follow behind, and she entered a dead end, and I hid far behind.

The girl thought I was going to kill her. Thought my fangs were at her throat. But she's just bait. She will lure my real prey here.

Those who took her as prey.

"Oops, look what's coming out of the haze." A gang member comes out of the shadows. He and his accomplices surrounded the girl, the blades in their hands reflecting the last bits of light in the pit. I know the rags they wear. Gray Spikes. A dead man with whom he had some friendship in the past.

Same scene, different girls......

I chased away the memories. I don't want to recall.

"I know you," said one of the Grey Spikes, who wore many rings on her face. "You're running errands for Bergen, aren't you? Spinro's cannons. What did that pervert say to you again? Is there anything you don't want us to know? She laughed and tapped the tube with her dagger.

"Please spare me, you don't understand!" The girl sobbed as she looked at the dark corner behind her, trying to escape.

"You don't get it either," said the gang leader. "We're going to have some fun."

I hesitated for a moment, and the bully knocked the tube out of the girl's hand. This piece of information is worth more than their lives. This is a ticket to get them out of this miserable abyss and go to another, less miserable abyss.

I was going to use a microphone to distract them for a while. The pipes slammed into the stone wall next to the alley. Spinro's seal was broken.

What did I do?

The Grey Spikes gruddely grabbed her. She screamed helplessly. There was a struggle, a flash of the knife, and then ...... Blood.

The smell ignited my anger.

The reservoir behind me began to pump the medicine. I lost control.

A roar pierced the darkness.

"It's him! Howling ghosts! "As soon as one of the Grey Spikes shouted, I rushed into the clearing, trying to target the thug. I slashed him down, and the walls of the alley burst into a red mist. He was scattered on the gravel road.

Where's that girl? I lost her in the confusion. Enemy on the belly and back. The blade grinded against me, the shadowless claws, tearing indiscriminately, the bones and armor breaking together.

I tasted blood. There is more blood.

I saw her. A Grey Spike Gang was on top of her head, knife in hand. I can stop him.

But the machine pumped again, and my limbs were infused with strength.

Red clouds churned in my mind. Everything is blurred. I don't remember anything.

Everything is blood.

I don't know if I saved the girl. I don't know if I killed her. I'm still gnawing at the flesh, and the surviving Grey Spikes have fled into the darkness.

I turned around and chased them into the night. I had no choice..

They're the monsters I'm going to hunt. And I'm one of them.

The prime time of the day is during the fifth and sixth bells. That's my favorite time of day, and it's also the time when most people in Fangmu District finish work. Though they were so tired that their bones were falling apart, they had finished the day's work. The work is over, and what awaits them is a warm meal and a warm home. The people here are friendly, and the Fangmu area is always full of kindness, pouring my gel body through the rock crevices. I could feel a father radiating fatherly love, rushing home to see his newborn son. I also got a taste of the eagerness of a couple who were going to the border market tonight for a romantic dinner.