I Was Written as Cannon Fodder, Now I'm Rewriting the Genre

When Victor returned from the eleventh underground level to the first-floor lobby of the Saint Building, his eyes were completely red.

Old Saint stood before the shattered floor-to-ceiling windows. The men he brought had already finished purging the first floor, and the technicians were attempting to retake control of the entire building’s defense system.

”Ignatius, you killed Evelyn,” Victor said.

Old Saint turned around, looking at the beast-like Victor in astonishment.

He didn’t need any explanations anymore. By this point, Victor had been completely brainwashed by Adeline. He felt overwhelmingly guilty for having worked for his enemy all these years. If he couldn’t exact revenge, he would be failing his deceased sister, failing Lucia who had been fighting so hard, and most of all, failing himself!

Brimming with murderous intent, Victor launched himself at Old Saint like a cannonball. A tall, skinny man next to Old Saint stepped laterally and thrust both palms forward, erecting a wall of ice right in front of Victor.

Victor’s fist smashed the ice wall into pieces. Beside him, a burly Black guard whipped out two laser swords and slashed down at Victor. Victor dodged sideways, the blades grazing past his shoulder. He kicked the guard’s knee, and a crisp crack of fracturing bone exploded in the air. As the guard dropped to his knees, Victor immediately kicked his head in, making it burst.

The tall, skinny man darted through the shattered ice, thrusting a sharp ice cone at the back of Victor’s neck. Victor tilted his head, grabbed the man’s wrist, and twisted. Another crack of bone rang out. As the tall man screamed in agony, Victor smashed a fist into his face, caving it in and sending him flying.

Old Saint stood there with a dark expression. Everyone around him surged toward Victor. Among them were at least six Extraordinary Ability Users, while dozens of cybernetically modified guards raised all sorts of high-tech weapons.

Extraordinary Abilities and artillery fire erupted in unison. Victor was nearly completely submerged in the onslaught, yet none of it could halt his advance. His muscles tore, his bones trembled, and the blood burned within his veins, fueled by sheer hatred.

Blood and Flesh Ascetic Method, Fourth Level: Willpower Breakthrough.

As long as he refused to fall, no one could make him fall!

Victor was like a mindless beast driven only by the desire for slaughter. He struck down the Extraordinary Ability Users one after another. Charging head-on into the barrel of an Electromagnetic Cannon, an arc of light pierced through his shoulder, but he forced the pain into the deepest recesses of his consciousness through sheer willpower. He grabbed the Extraordinary Ability User in front of him to block the Electromagnetic Cannon’s muzzle. Suddenly, a Mechanical Heavy Hammer slammed into his back. He stumbled forward, spewing blood from his mouth, but he didn’t go down. Reaching up, he caught the handle of the hammer and snapped the wielder’s neck with a single punch.

Corpses littered the floor!

Dragging the Mechanical Heavy Hammer behind him, Victor walked toward Old Saint. Blood streamed down his face, dyeing his eyes crimson. Their bullets depleted, the few surviving guards were so horrified by the scene that none dared to approach any further.

Old Saint could no longer simply stand by. The prosthetic eye beneath his white hair locked onto Victor’s eyes. His energy shield fully charged, he raised his arm and splayed his fingers. A sphere of white light gathered in his palm as high-energy particle streams rapidly compressed.

”She single-handedly opened the curtains on mechanical immortality, yet she wanted to destroy it all! Julian needed her technology to save his life. I had no other choice! I already gave her the most dignified and painless death possible!”

”AAAAAH!”

Victor roared hoarsely and charged forward, swinging the Mechanical Heavy Hammer down with all his might.

BOOM!

The Plasma Cannon fired. A beam of light pierced right through Victor’s left chest, bursting out from his back and splattering blood and minced flesh onto the wall behind him.

Victor’s body jolted, but he still didn’t fall. The heavy hammer in his hands slammed ruthlessly into Old Saint. The shield’s energy was instantly depleted, and the prosthetic limb that had just fired the Plasma Cannon was smashed to pieces, sending metal shrapnel flying in all directions.

The second hammer strike landed on Old Saint’s shoulder, drawing a miserable shriek from the old man. By the third strike, Victor had absolutely no strength left. He staggered as he hoisted the weapon up one last time and brought it crashing down again.

Old Saint lay amidst the rubble. His prosthetic eye was still whirring, but his flesh and blood were completely mangled together with broken machinery. Before anyone else around them could react, Victor used the very last ounce of his strength to smash a fist into Old Saint’s head, driving it straight into the floor where it burst like a crushed watermelon!

Victor dropped to his knees beside Old Saint’s corpse. His body was completely battered and broken, his mouth overflowing with blood as indistinct noises slipped from his throat.

”Evelyn... Lucia... I’m sorry...”

BANG!

With a single gunshot, a blood blossom erupted from the center of Victor’s forehead. His eyes widened in shock as his head snapped backward, spraying blood and brain matter from the exit wound at the back of his skull. The darkness of death rapidly encroached from the edges of his vision. The last thing he saw was a woman clutching a sniper rifle, swiftly approaching him.

In a daze, Victor felt as if he saw Evelyn holding the hand of a much younger Lucia. She smiled and reached out a hand to him, while Lucia loudly called out, ”Uncle!”

”Evelyn...”

Victor’s head slumped forward, though his body remained kneeling, refusing to fall over.

The one who killed Victor was Nan Jiamu. She struck at the exact moment his revenge was fulfilled, when his willpower was at its most relaxed. She was similarly covered in blood. She looked completely disheveled, but her eyes remained astonishingly bright.

Old Saint’s surviving guards finally snapped out of their daze and opened fire on Nan Jiamu. However, a dense hail of bullets tore into them from behind before they could land a hit. Trouble and the others, who had been hiding in the shadows all along, stepped out from their cover to back up Nan Jiamu. Adeline laid the unconscious Ian behind some rubble before joining the fray to help.

It took them more than half an hour to completely clear out the remaining Saint Group guards on the first floor.

Nan Jiamu stood up from the ruins. Trouble, Signal, Quit Game, and Ye Se were similarly covered in wounds. Only Adeline had managed to avoid getting much blood on herself, merely looking a bit exhausted. Trouble was coughing up blood. Signal’s left arm hung limply by his side from a gunshot wound to the shoulder. Quit Game’s leg was still seeping blood, while Ye Se slid the final magazine into the chamber of his gun.

The blood source element they had brought was completely depleted, and they had long since overdrawn the natural regenerative abilities of their Blood Clan bodies. Even if they had more blood source element, they wouldn’t be able to heal rapidly in such a short timeframe. On top of that, their physical stamina and spiritual power were nearly exhausted.

Nan Jiamu’s condition was even worse. Killing the S-Class Kalan had exhausted her entire stockpile of items. It was no exaggeration to say that managing to arrive here alive was entirely due to the effects of her protagonist halo.

Unable to hold back any longer, Adeline said, ”Continuing in your current state is just asking for death. Why don’t we just—”

”No!” Nan Jiamu cut her off before she could even finish. ”I didn’t fight so hard to get this far just to give up here!”

Adeline hesitated, swallowing her words. Until she figured out exactly what Blossoming Prosperity was trying to do, she really didn’t want to see everyone—who were entirely devoted to Ancient Abyss—turn into bitter enemies over a misunderstanding.

The roar of drone swarms and armed hovercars echoed from outside the building once more. Searchlights beamed down from high above, sweeping their pillars of light across the shattered floor-to-ceiling windows and illuminating the entire lobby floor as if it were broad daylight.

The Guard Team’s reinforcements had arrived.

Nan Jiamu’s body trembled violently. It wasn’t out of fear, but sheer rage.

”Enough! I’ve really had enough of this!”

She gnashed her teeth in fury. It was like this every single time. Every time she thought she could finally bring an end to things, something always popped out of nowhere to obstruct her path. Because of this damned ”Kings Never Meet” rule, she had missed far too many opportunities to end all of this. Why must a protagonist inevitably go through so many obstacles and setbacks? Why!

She had done so much and struggled so hard to get here. Everyone had fought with absolutely everything they had. Yet now, it was as if fate were telling her that she had to wait, that she couldn’t achieve her goal just yet, and that she still had another wave of obstacles to eliminate. She felt like someone whose head was repeatedly being shoved underwater by fate. She would struggle to the surface just to take a single breath, only to be forced back down, forced to struggle to the surface all over again.

Nan Jiamu stared wide-eyed in fury, her eyes covered in blood silk. She took a step forward. Her legs felt incredibly heavy, but she took another step anyway.

”To hell with it! To hell with ’Kings Never Meet’!”

With a CRUNCH beneath her boots, she ruthlessly ground the broken glass into dust. She was the one who chose this path. She was the one who made it this far. She wouldn’t stop here, and she wouldn’t die here. Nobody was going to stand in her way!

”Today, this is the final battle!”

Her pace grew faster and faster. Adeline couldn’t stop her. Signal gritted his teeth and was the first to follow her, dragging his limp arm by his side. Trouble wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and became the second. Quit Game shifted his weight onto his uninjured leg and hobbled after them. Ye Se took the rear, planting detonators and explosives on several pillars in the lobby before glancing at Adeline. Seeing this, Adeline turned around to follow the rest of the group.

BOOM!

The lobby collapsed as the group followed Nan Jiamu into the elevator shaft.