My Avatar Is Becoming the Final Boss-Chapter 81: Madness

He turned his head, watching the man in the floral shirt walk away. Gu Zhuo’an didn’t stop him—if they were in a different place, maybe he would’ve gone after him and asked for answers, but he didn’t want to draw attention in this underground bar.
After all, everyone here was a major player in the underworld—definitely not the kind of crowd you wanted to mess with.
The bar’s proprietress was an old college classmate of his, Amemiya Chihiro. She had transferred from Japan back then.
Gu Zhuo’an had known her for many years. Amemiya Chihiro had witnessed his relationship with Su Ying—falling in love, getting married, and then spiraling into madness and obsession after the Rainbow Wing incident, abandoning their child to set out alone on a path of revenge. She had helped him a lot along the way.
You could say Amemiya Chihiro was perhaps the only person left in this world who still understood him, even just a little.
Today, she’d said she wanted to meet. He’d come just for a brief visit—but ended up caught in this mess. At the thought of that, Gu Zhuo’an frowned and looked down at the voice recorder left on the bar counter by the man in the floral shirt. After a moment, he slowly picked it up.
He turned the device over in his hands, examining it as he took the drink the server brought him.
No matter what was in this recorder, since it appeared here—and was given to him by name—it definitely wasn’t something simple.
He stood from the barstool and headed toward the bathroom. Seeing no one around, he entered a stall.
Slowly closing the door, he put the toilet lid down and sat on it.
His head throbbed. Even though his Extraordinary Species physique was far superior to that of normal people, he had definitely drunk too much last night—his vision was still fuzzy. He rubbed his forehead, then leaned forward to study the recorder closely.
He powered it on. The screen showed only one audio file. He turned the volume all the way down, selected the file, and pressed play.
With a “beep——,” a clear recording began to play inside the stall:
“Mr. Gu Qiye, you were only thirteen when it happened, right… From that day on, you’ve harbored resentment toward those Reality-altering Espers who abuse their power under the guise of justice… You wanted to earn enough prestige within the Reality-altering Esper Association, get recommended to join the UN organization Rainbow Wing, and find the Esper who crushed your mother like an ant.”
“You… how do you know who I am?”
Silence.
Dead silence.
Gu Zhuo’an froze, as if struck by lightning. The hand holding the recorder trembled like a spasm…
A delayed reaction—his pupils slowly shrank to pinpoints.
“Qi…ye?”
He murmured hoarsely.
Gu Zhuo’an had followed the hostage incident at Lijing Square involving Blue Arc and Green Wing, and he had heard of the mysterious new figure “Black Cocoon.” But he’d only skimmed the s—he hadn’t watched the footage closely.
So, he had never heard Black Cocoon’s voice.
But the last voice on the recording? He knew it too well—it was Blue Arc’s voice.
What shocked Gu Zhuo’an even more was the name at the beginning of the recording:
Gu Qiye.
That was… his son.
The recorder fell from his hand, spinning once in the air before hitting the ground with a crisp sound.
Clack…
Tap…
In the silence, Gu Zhuo’an slowly nodded, his trembling gaze fixed on the unremarkable recorder—as if staring into a blinding sun.
“No… this is fake. Someone in the underworld must know my identity and is using this recording to throw me off… But who could it be? How do they know so much about me—and those around me? Could it be… Amemiya Chihiro betrayed me?”
Gu Zhuo’an sucked in a deep breath, trying to calm the storm in his mind. His head hung low, shrouded in shadow.
As if anticipating his suspicion, a moment later, the recorder spoke again:
“By the way, Mr. Gu Zhuo’an, no one betrayed you. This recording was made on the night of July 9. That night, I helped your good boy, Gu Qiye, defeat Green Wing and bail him out. Then we had a private meeting on a path near the square, and that’s when this recording was made.”
“Now then… you should know who I am, right?”
Black Cocoon… A strange, twisted figure suddenly flashed through Gu Zhuo’an’s mind.
After a moment, the recorder played that teasing voice again:
“That’s right—it’s the name you’re thinking of, Mr. Ghost Bell… On July 15, tomorrow night, I’ll be waiting for you on the rooftop of an abandoned building near Rainbow Bridge in Tokyo Bay.”
“I only want to meet with you privately. Otherwise, I’ll reveal both your identities to the world—Super-criminal Ghost Bell and Reality-altering Esper Blue Arc are father and son. I imagine that headline will explode across the world instantly… If you don’t want to see that happen, you know where to find me.”
Black Cocoon, Black Cocoon, Black Cocoon…
Gu Zhuo’an stared deeply at the floor, veins bulging on his forehead.
He repeated that name over and over in his mind, recalling the final moments of the Green Wing incident—how Blue Arc had vanished at Lijing Square. Although Blue Arc had denied it, many online speculated that Black Cocoon and Blue Arc had met privately that night.
Putting the pieces together, Gu Zhuo’an slowly arrived at a shocking conclusion:
“The recording… is real.”
He sat frozen like a statue, eyes blank, sweat pouring from his palms and forehead.
In that second, his thoughts crashed over him like a tsunami—nowhere to run.
He clenched his jaw, clutching his head, suddenly remembering the first time he fought Blue Arc—how he’d torn half the mask from his face.
And saw that bloodstained face beneath it.
For a moment, Gu Zhuo’an had been stunned.
Maybe it was because he hadn’t been home in two years… but he’d felt like that bloodied half-face looked just like his child.
“No… no way, impossible…”
He whispered hoarsely, pressing his fingertips harder into his forehead until his nails broke the skin.
Cold sweat ran down his cheek to his jaw and dripped to the floor, leaving a small black dot.
Staring at that blood-colored dot, Gu Zhuo’an’s pupils shrank.
He suddenly recalled how he had battled Blue Arc time and again like a beast—wounding him without holding back.
He could still hear the crack of bones when his fist struck Blue Arc’s chest.
Still see the wrist blade slashing across Blue Arc’s neck—how clean that line of blood was, the way it sprayed through the air with electric arcs…
Blood…
Soaring blood…
The thrill he had felt then had now multiplied into unbearable guilt.
The blood that had splattered on Blue Arc’s mask seemed to return now, splashing mercilessly into his face, dying his entire vision red.
He felt like the entire world was soaked in blood. Blue Arc’s cries were still ringing in his ears—over and over, echoing endlessly in his mind. The blood on the mask flowed like a river, drowning him.
My son is… Blue Arc?
Gu Qiye… is Blue Arc?
How could that be?
How could that possibly be true?
Suddenly, he laughed.
“Heh… haha…”
Gu Zhuo’an’s face twitched violently. A twisted smile broke out across his face… He hadn’t smiled in five years—not once since his wife died.
Yet now, he laughed.
Like he was mocking himself—or laughing at how ridiculous the lie was.
But even now, his right hand still trembled. The body doesn’t lie. He knew he was afraid.
To overcome that fear, he slowly reached down and picked up the recorder, his hand shaking as he pressed the play button again.
He wanted to confirm whether the recording was just a hallucination.
But before he could hit play, his knees gave out and he collapsed to the floor, head hanging low.
Fear had engulfed his heart.
He clutched at his neck with both hands, like he wanted to choke himself—to silence the wails in his mind, to wipe away the blood on the mask—even though when his trembling fingers scratched at his face, he found no mask there.
But the blood-soaked mask wouldn’t come off…
His son’s blood still flowed from it.
Gu Zhuo’an’s eyes bulged from their sockets. He tilted his head back, mouth slowly opening wide, letting out a soundless, guttural scream—a scream from the depths of his soul, as if his chest were about to burst.
In that moment, a beast-like roar erupted from the bathroom, echoing throughout the bar.
Mistaking it for trouble, a few bodyguards rushed in with guns, surrounding the stall.
Bang! Bang! Bang…—dull thuds kept coming from within—like some monster was slamming its head into the floor over and over. The stall door shook, and the dim orange light flickered.
Sweat the size of beans dripped down the bodyguards’ foreheads—they had never seen anything like this.
Moments later, Gu Zhuo’an pulled himself up, leaning on the stall door. He gripped the recorder tightly and pushed the door open.
Blood ran down his head. His eyes were hollow, but his expression was like a mad bull’s—he exhaled like he could spew steam.
The bodyguards immediately raised their weapons to his head—but then froze.
The man looked up. His crimson eyes seemed to shoot fire.
A wave of pressure slammed into them—like they were aiming at something no longer human.
Gu Zhuo’an lowered his head, staggering out between them like a dying, trapped beast.
Maybe it was a hallucination, but they swore they heard a bell tolling.
Like a funeral bell, beginning to ring.