The Crown Prince Who Raises Alt Characters

Chapter #321 Boss Quan (2) - Survival A deafening gunshot that seemed to tear the eardrums echoed through the narrow, humid alleyway. The smell of gunpowder mixed with the distinctive earthy scent before rain and floated in the air. Qiana's head fell backward. Her slender neck twisted at a grotesque angle, and her shimmering silver twin braids scattered into the air along with crimson bloodstains. Brutal murder. A gruesome corpse. A horrific killing that was difficult to describe. "Huu." The man who exhaled cigarette smoke for a long time silently looked down at the scene, then wordlessly aimed the gun barrel at Qiana's heart once again. Bang! Another gunshot rang out. But this bullet failed to pierce its target. A corpse that shouldn't move. Because Qiana's body writhed grotesquely, then quickly rolled to the side. The bullet bounced off without penetrating the hard pavement blocks, and the characteristic smoke of firearms spread through the air. And Qiana's counterattack was fierce. Her five fingers stretched long and transformed into blade-like shapes, then swung toward the man. The wall surface of the gray five-story building that formed the alley was helplessly torn apart the moment it made contact with the blade. Considering that even cutting wood of the same thickness with an ordinary blade wouldn't be easy, it was an overwhelming cutting power beyond common sense. However, Qiana, who had performed that miracle, neither showed off her power nor rejoiced in that achievement. Because the man who was actually the target nonchalantly leaned his body backward to avoid the attack. Right after recognizing that fact, Qiana's vision was again dyed red. She was hit by a bullet. And once again between the eyebrows. 'How!?' Before recovering from the damage to her head, Qiana's eyeballs quickly rotated to gather information about her opponent. Finding the answer wasn't difficult. The man's right hand as he fell backward, almost halfway upside down. Because the gun barrel held there was pointing straight at Qiana's head. An unstable posture, acrobatic shooting that relied purely on instinct without even acknowledging the opponent. Without even a moment to be shocked at being hit by such a thing, another bullet embedded itself in Qiana's chest this time, sending her body flying backward. From an even heavier blow than before, Qiana's slender body fluttered like paper and became tangled with a nearby garbage can. The man who achieved that result with the second pistol in his left hand nonchalantly performed a backward roll the moment his body touched the ground and got back up. "Tsk." Clicking his tongue as if displeased that dust had gotten on the coat worn over his suit, he aimed the pistols in both hands toward Qiana. However, before the two gun barrels could spit fire again, Qiana's body moved. Not rushing toward the man, but fleeing from him. The man quickly shot her thigh with the precision-strike pistol in his right hand, but instead of falling as she rolled forward, Qiana changed her posture like a feline predator and disappeared into the darkness. He briefly holstered his pistols, extinguished the cigarette he had been holding in his mouth in a portable ashtray, then took out a new cigarette to light but soon looked up at the sky. "It's going to rain." *** Qiana staggered and burrowed into the darkness. Two shots to the head. One shot to the chest. One shot to the thigh. The body hit by a total of four bullets screamed incessantly, creating terrible pain. She dragged her legs and walked across the muddy ground full of filth mixed with rainwater. As if annoyed by her body that wouldn't move as she wished, an irritated sound leaked from Qiana's mouth. "This is why human bodies...!!" For Queen, the 'queen' of anomalies, this level of damage was originally not that significant. The opponent's gun also seemed to be somewhat modified, but even so, to her at her peak, it would have been nothing more than minor wounds that would heal in a second. Conversely, for the current Qiana, who was an anomaly but born with a human body and didn't even possess 1% of her previous life's power, these were not minor wounds at all. Just healing the fatal wounds and the subsequent escape had completely depleted her spiritual energy. She had somehow managed her external appearance, but damage still remained inside, and now even transforming her body from its basic form was difficult. Feeling irritated at her weak flesh that couldn't even properly block pain, Qiana pondered new escape routes. The first thing that came to mind was to quickly go out to the street and ask people for help. Qiana's appearance boasted top-tier beauty by human standards, which was an advantageous trait that could evoke goodwill from most strangers. Even aside from that, there was a low possibility that a frail woman covered in blood and dust on her clothing would be ignored when asking for help. However, Qiana immediately discarded this method. While this might secure immediate safety, in the process, Qiana's information would inevitably be left in digital records. If the man who attacked her was from the management bureau, he could easily track her just by checking nearby hospital or police records from the time of the incident. If he wasn't from the management bureau, that would be troublesome in its own way. While the management bureau also prioritized anomaly extermination over civilian damage in unavoidable situations, it was fundamentally an organization that protected people. But among esper groups outside the management bureau, there were plenty who didn't regard civilian casualties as particularly important. Of course, if they blatantly caused civilian damage, they would immediately be crushed along with their organization by the management bureau, but criminals in the world don't commit crimes because they're stronger than the army or police. There were countless moths willing to take high risks for high returns—too many to count on both hands. In other words, if she was going to avoid them, she needed to go to a place without human eyes. What Qiana chose was the huge, humid sewer system lurking beneath the glamorous city. Even as she gathered strength in her fingertips to pry open the manhole cover, the unhealed chest wound screamed in pain. She couldn't help but resent her current situation, having lost her peak power and being trapped in a human's fragile shell. After struggling for a long time, she finally opened the manhole cover and was about to hide her body inside. Click. The cold feeling of metal touching the back of her head. There was no need to confirm who the opponent was, and there was no way to confirm it in the first place. The moment Qiana tried to look back, the opponent would mercilessly pull the trigger. Qiana let out a sigh. "Damn human. This is a crime. You know that?" "Ho." The voice heard from behind contained a faintly amused tone. "It's quite refreshing to hear an anomaly talking about crime. So, what crime is it?" "You shot at a beautiful girl you just met without even introducing yourself, then chased after her as she ran away to do violent things. One hundred out of one hundred people would take my side, right?" "If they knew that beautiful girl could still flap her tongue even with holes in her head, more than half of them would probably change their vote." "Don't underestimate human desire and vulgarity. With this chest and face, there would be plenty of humans who'd say it's no problem." "Can't deny that." With a "hahaha" laugh, the gun barrel relaxed slightly. Not missing that opening, Qiana deflected the gun barrel to the side of her head and rotated her body. Time gained by inducing trivial conversation. The spiritual energy she barely managed to squeeze out transformed the side of Qiana's hand into a blade and aimed for Quan's ankle. —Bang! But before that hand blade could reach him, a newly fired bullet completely blew away the lower part of Qiana's right shoulder. Qiana, who collapsed as if half-thrown against the wall, gritted her teeth as she looked at her opponent's indifferent eyes. The man had neither been careless nor succeeded by reflexively responding to a sudden surprise attack. He had noticed Qiana's intention from the beginning and deliberately showed an opening as if he had been fooled. That was more humiliating to Qiana than being simply overpowered by combat ability. A brief silence flowed. The blood overflowing from Qiana's arm mixed with rainwater and stained the surroundings, and Qiana's white skin gradually turned more pale blue. Now there was no spiritual energy left to recover. At this rate, she would die. Of course, originally that wouldn't be such a big deal. The Qiana here was, at best, just one fragment of the special-grade anomaly called Queen. While being a 'fragment that could act freely according to its own will' was quite unique and valuable, there was still a possibility that the remaining fragments could become the same. Then Queen would be resurrected. The existence called Qiana had no more meaning to Queen than a severed hand. Even that could be completely recovered by devouring it again. So Qiana said nothing. Since psychological warfare wasn't working either, there was no need to babble further and give away information. That would be disadvantageous to 'Queen.' Qiana had to keep her mouth shut and die here. She accepted it that way. "Hey miss. Are you crying?" "...What?" —She thought she had accepted it. Qiana momentarily couldn't understand what the man was saying. The man silently holstered the pistol in his left hand inside his coat, then tapped around his own eyes with his freed hand. Qiana mimicked that motion, touching around her own eyes with her still-intact left hand. It was wet. Among the moisture she had thought was just rainwater, something else was mixed in. Qiana's thoughts were momentarily dyed blank. Why? Why was she crying? She had cried as an act before. To portray a pitiful appearance, to make prey let their guard down, to gain the goodwill of those around her and evoke sympathy, she had cried many times. But not now. This wasn't someone who would fall for clumsy acting, and Qiana hadn't intentionally tried to cry in the first place. Yet, she was crying. Upon recognizing that fact, Qiana began to consecutively realize other facts she hadn't noticed until now. Her body was trembling. It wasn't just from cold and blood loss. Separately from that, her body was trembling. It was a trembling that Qiana knew. It was the trembling that 'Queen' had seen hundreds and thousands of times. The trembling caused by the fear unique to humans facing death. "No, why, me." Qiana is an anomaly. She is a fragment of Queen, the queen of anomalies, and an existence that inherited her spirit. Even if she possessed a human body, her essence wouldn't change. And the fear of death doesn't exist for anomalies. Fear itself is the essence of anomalies, so how could there be an anomaly that feels fear? But she was actually trembling, wasn't she? The moment she became aware of that again, words overflowed from Qiana's mouth. "...Sa, ve me." These were words an anomaly shouldn't utter. Because they weren't words meant to bewitch, deceive, and backstab humans. Because they were truly pure pleas uttered from a desire to live. "I'll do anything. If you just let me live, I'll do anything. I'll even give you information about the other fragments." These were words that Queen's clone shouldn't have uttered. Because they were words of one right hand betraying the entire rest of the body to save itself. Still... ...Even so... "I don't want to die like this...!!" That was Qiana's true feelings without any falsehood. The man's eyes weren't clearly visible due to his black sunglasses. But the corners of his mouth curling up slightly were clearly visible. The man opened his mouth. "In that case, why don't you try working with me from now on?" "My name is Quan. I'm the boss of a small, modest and harmonious organization." "If that's what you want, miss, let's say what just happened was an interview." "You might ask, 'Where in the world is there an interview that starts with bullets?'. That's no problem. In my organization, I am the law." "—Welcome to the family, Miss Anomaly."