Chapter 3
The pitch-black tactical karambit, carrying a suffocating screech, rapidly magnified on my retinas. The icy blade was practically kissing the major artery of my neck.
("Mommy, don't cut my throat! I don't want to die yet!!!")
My soul was furiously kowtowing and begging for mercy. But to everyone else in the room, facing this guaranteed lethal strike, my body didn't even blink. Instead, I let out an extremely arrogant, disdainful scoff.
The next second, [CQC Close Quarters Combat Mastery] completely took over my physical shell.
My body executed a move that utterly defied gravity, bending backward into a perfect backbend, arched like an iron bridge.
"Swish——"
The blade grazed just millimeters above my throat, drawing out a singular, microscopic bead of blood.
With his strike hitting empty air, the 'Red Pole' enforcer's massive body lurched forward from the momentum, leaving his chest wide open.
My muscle memory did not let this 0.1-second opening slip by. My right leg stomped hard into the ground, and channeling the brutally violent twisting force of my waist and abdomen, a vicious uppercut shot out like a cannonball, smashing upward right into his jaw!
"Bang—Crack!!!"
A scalp-numbing sound of shattering bone echoed through the hall!
The immense kinetic force actually lifted the two-hundred-pound giant clean off his feet.
A mouthful of teeth, mixed with pulverized bone fragments from his jaw, sprayed into the air like scattered flower petals. With a heavy thud, he slammed onto the carpet like a pile of wet mud, knocked out cold.
An instant one-hit KO! The mafia bosses who had been waiting to see my throat slit collectively sucked in a sharp breath of cold air.
Before I could even catch my breath, a cold, haughty female voice echoed from the hall's spiral staircase:
"You can't even get rid of a piece of trash bug from the slums. What the hell am I paying you for?"
I looked up. Victoria was standing on the second-floor landing, hiking up her astronomically expensive pure white wedding dress.
The pigeon-blood ruby on her neck gleamed with arrogance, and she looked at me like I was a glaring pile of dog shit.
She didn't even want to waste another word on me, merely waving a hand at the bodyguards below. "Don't give this lunatic any more room to perform. Beat him into meat paste and throw him out."
[Ding! Detected the core antagonist forcibly acting tough!]
[Core Quest Updated: Walk up to the high platform and, in front of the entire Mafia, ruthlessly slap Victoria across the face!]
[Failure Punishment: The blood vessels in your brain will instantly boil and explode! Like an egg in a microwave, you will die violently with brain matter shooting out of all your bodily orifices!]
"I'll screw your granddaddy! Boiling blood vessels?! Are you trying to cook porridge inside my head?!"
I had no choice but to swallow my desperate tears.
Slapping the female lead while surrounded by dozens of Mafia guns was basically knocking on Hell's front door!
But if I didn't slap her, I'd immediately turn into a blood-spraying human fragmentation grenade.
"Victoria," the System forcibly tugged at the corners of my mouth, stretching them into a manic grin far more psychotic than the Joker's. "Don't be in such a rush to kick me out. I specifically came to give you a wedding gift."
Facing her death-stare, I strode up the stairs, casually digging into my ripped pants pocket and pulling out a coin covered in slop and black slime.
"Catch. My entire net worth. Consider it payment for buying your virginity."
Ping—
The foul-smelling coin traced an utterly humiliating arc through the air and landed with precision right into her expensive deep-V cleavage, leaving a glaring black stain.
"You have a death wish!!!" Victoria's arrogance instantly morphed into sheer hysteria.
"Protect the Miss!"
The three heavy-duty bodyguards in front of her instantly drew large-caliber Colt revolvers, the dark muzzles aiming straight at my head!
("Ahhh help me! I'm not even gonna leave ashes behind!!!") I closed my eyes in despair and charged blindly.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!" Three deafening shots rang out.
[Ding! Quest Reward deposited: Localized Titanium Bulletproof Skin now covering upper limbs and head!]
Amidst the muzzle flashes, the high-explosive rounds violently slammed against the back of my hand and my forehead.
Clang! Blinding sparks flew! Aside from a massive concussive shock, it didn't even leave a scratch on my skin.
The air in the room froze solid. The eyes of the bodyguards who fired almost popped out of their sockets—tanking revolver rounds with his bare flesh?!
They froze, but I didn't.
Boosted by a [Painless Frenzy] state, I crashed through their defense line like a heavy bulldozer. My hands moved in a blur. Crack, crack! I snapped the arms of the three bodyguards like dry twigs and tossed them aside like garbage.
In one step, I crossed the platform and cornered Victoria.
The infinitely arrogant corporate princess finally showed sheer, unadulterated terror. Trembling all over, she scrambled backward, her scream breaking off-pitch: "Don't come near me... Daddy! Save me!"
"Too late, bitch."
The death countdown lashed at my soul like a whip. I wound up my right arm, channeling every ounce of strength in my body into my palm.
"SMACK————!!!!!"
A crisp, gigantic explosion of sound echoed through the hall!
That incredibly beautiful, high-and-mighty face looked as if it had been hit by a Mack truck.
She was literally slapped off her feet, sent spinning backward in a 360-degree mid-air spiral!
Victoria crashed heavily onto a crystal display table. The pearls around her neck scattered onto the floor with a clatter, and the heels of her custom stilettos snapped right off.
Her previously flawless cheek visibly swelled into a massive, purple-red handprint, and blood trickled woefully from the corner of her mouth.
Humiliation! A devastating, crushing blow to her dignity!
Sprawled on the floor with her hair in a disheveled mess, she clutched her face, too terrified to even sob. Her lofty psychological defenses had been completely crushed into the mud.
[Ding! Core Quest 'Face Slap' completed! Boiling Blood Vessels punishment lifted!]
Phew—I kept my miserable life.
But before I could even finish exhaling that breath of relief, the air pressure in the hall plunged straight into the lowest depths of Hell.
"You... how dare you..."
Patriarch Vito, still standing on the platform, was trembling all over as he looked at his blood-spitting daughter.
The mob boss's eyes were bloodshot, looking exactly like a completely enraged man-eating ogre.
"You goddamn bastard! Are you all fucking blind?! Open fire!!! I want his flesh sliced off piece by piece and fed to the dogs!!!"
Clack! Clack! Clack!!!
From the corridors, private boxes, and the bottom of the stairs all around, the deathly sound of metal cocking echoed simultaneously.
More than fifty heavily armed Corsican Black Gold Enforcers leaned out like phantoms.
Over fifty Thompson submachine guns—the infamous 'Chicago Typewriters'—formed an inescapable web of crossfire, completely locking onto me on the platform.
Even if I had titanium hands and a titanium head, my body was still made of mortal flesh.
Fifty submachine guns firing at once? Even Superman would be turned into a sieve.
("System! Daddy! Drop your ultimate move! Otherwise you're gonna get physically exorcised right along with me!!!")
Facing a hail of bullets with absolutely zero chance of survival, my soul let out the most tragic howl imaginable.
