Chapter 2

My flesh emitted a faint sizzle undetectable by ordinary people. The violent, piercing pain felt like fire.

But I didn't dodge.

The massive shock of rebirth and extreme hatred activated the "pain compartmentalization" I had honed through years of special ops training.

I stayed rooted by the door, letting the unknown liquid drip down my jawline into the collar of my camo uniform. I didn't even blink.

The air in the tin-roofed room instantly froze.

A few steps away, Corporal Jack stood holding an empty canteen, paused in the throwing motion, his highly aroused expression freezing solid on his face.

Behind him, David and Smith tightly clutched wooden sticks and crosses, their eyes wide as if they had seen a ghost.

They had expected me to have a stress reaction.

Just like in my previous life, backing up in agony, clutching my neck, cursing them for putting chemicals in the water—so they could naturally declare, The monster has revealed itself.

But I refused to give them what they wanted.

I slowly raised my hand, casually wiped the burning liquid off my face with the back of my hand, shook off the droplets, and looked up. My eyes perfectly conveyed a hint of oblivious confusion.

"Jack?" I frowned, glancing at my soaked collar, then at the bizarre formation the three of them were standing in. "You guys aren't sleeping in the middle of the night—what kind of crazy trip are you on? Splashing water on me? What? Is the Sergeant Major coming for a surprise inspection?"

The moment I said this, the atmosphere in the room turned utterly bizarre. The three of them stared at me in sheer disbelief.

No absolute rage. No screaming. No mutating reactions to being burned by "holy water."

I acted just like a normal soldier who got accidentally splashed by his bunkmates after coming back from patrol. My tone even carried just a tiny bit of annoyance.

"You... you're okay?" Medic David's voice cracked. He unconsciously took a step back, bumping into a metal locker.

"Why wouldn't I be okay?" I stood up straight, rolled my shoulders, and deliberately took a step forward.

Jack instinctively shrank back, his eyes locked onto the red spots forming on my neck. His voice trembled. "You don't feel pain? That water was splashed on you..."

"Why would water splashed on me hurt?" I cut him off, looking at him like he was brain-dead. "Though this water does smell a bit stale. Which purifier did you get it from? Or did you guys lose a card game and are playing some stupid FNG truth-or-dare?"

The more normal and nonchalant I acted, the more their expressions turned into ones of sheer horror.

Jack's meticulously prepared "exorcism test" instantly turned into a complete joke—punching cotton—thanks to my completely counter-intuitive "nothing-is-wrong" reaction.

Their self-righteous, paranoid logic was shattered right there by my are-you-out-of-your-damn-minds response.

"Impossible... but your neck is red..." Smith pointed at me, stuttering.

"No shit. It's over 100 degrees out there. You splash lukewarm water over heat rash I've been sweating in, of course it's gonna be red."

I rolled my eyes, turned to my locker, and pulled out a dry tactical towel with my back to them. "Alright, enough fucking around. I've got to ride out on an outside-wire patrol tomorrow morning."

While wiping the subsiding burns on my neck, I used the small cracked mirror inside the locker door to coldly observe the three men behind me.

Jack's face cycled between green and pale, the canteen in his hand squeaking under his furious grip.

Years of sleep deprivation had already made his brain paranoid, and right now, it had visibly crashed.

David and Smith, at a loss, lowered their wooden sticks, exchanging alarmed and uncertain glances—if I truly was a vampire, how could I be so calmly busting their balls?

These three idiots!

I lowered my head, calculating how I was going to properly exact my revenge on them.

Physical killing would be letting them off too easy.

Plus, if I got caught, I'd end up in front of a court-martial.

In the previous life, they played psychological warfare and framed me. In this life, starting right now, I was going to use psychological warfare and military law to destroy them. Before sending them to trial, I wanted to gradually push them into becoming actual mental patients.

Behind me, Jack clenched his jaw, suppressing his panic, and muttered to David in an extremely low voice, "He's faking it... he's forcing himself to hold it together... Go prep the next plan. Tomorrow night, we put goat blood directly on the doorframe! I don't believe he won't slip up!"

With my back to them, I picked up my M4 carbine, expertly worked the charging handle, and dropped the magazine.

The metallic clatter perfectly masked the extremely cold, cruel smile curling on my lips.

Good.

Keep playing.

Let's see what kind of fools you make of yourselves tomorrow.