My Avatar Is Becoming the Final Boss-Chapter 83: An Old Acquaintance

Bloodline thought for a moment, then tilted her head. “I see… so your Tianqu Power is the same type as Jack the Ripper’s, huh?”
That made Ji Minghuan raise an eyebrow—he’d just been wondering if this made-up excuse would be exposed. He didn’t expect that there really were Tianqu Powers in the world that grew stronger through killing?
No wonder dismembering people was as easy as drinking water for Jack the Ripper. She had to kill to level up her Tianqu Power. As he thought this, he replied,
“Maybe?”
“Well, then you’re pretty lucky,” Bloodline cut in. “Powers like that usually have really high potential. Like Jack the Ripper—she’s only a second-tier Exorcist, but she’s already that strong.”
“So… I get to handle them?”
Ji Minghuan glanced at the nine men still hanging from the carousel’s disk.
“Of course,” Bloodline smiled. “Since you want them, I’ll let you have these toys. I’m bored of them anyway.”
As she spoke, the blood-red threads suspending the nine guards snapped. Their bodies, wrapped in blood, floated like they were cocooned, drifting over toward Ji Minghuan.
Then, in the next second, the blood glow around them vanished, and the bodies dropped to the ground one after another—plop, plop—like chunks of rotten meat hitting the conveyor belt in a meat factory.
“Go ahead, newbie.”
Bloodline rested her cheek on one hand, gripping the carousel pole with the other, smiling teasingly. “You’re adorable—like a little kitten begging me for food.”
“Do you need a reason to kill?” Ji Minghuan asked. “I’m curious—are there rules in your brigade for that?”
“If I’m happy, I kill… why do I need a reason?”
Bloodline turned her face to him, her predatory crimson eyes locking onto Ji Minghuan’s. “What? Are you scared?”
“I’m just saying—it’s good to know.”
Ji Minghuan replied flatly, turning his eyes toward the nine suited men on the ground. Their faces were twisted in agony, their eyes filled with fear.
In an instant, he summoned the Tianqu Power inside him.
A black-and-white halo rippled from his skin, forming a Möbius ring around Xia Pingzhou’s body.
Illusory chess pieces appeared on the ring, spinning around him.
He reached out and picked three Pawn Pieces from the black-and-white ring. They shattered, and three Black Iron Soldiers materialized—now each equipped with a giant square shield on their left arms, thanks to the “Shield Guard” skill.
Their footsteps were heavier now, weighed down by the shields.
The Black Iron Soldiers advanced step by step toward the nine men on the ground like executioners approaching a chopping block.
With each swing, their blades pierced the already fragmented bodies like cutting through tofu.
At that moment, Bloodline cruelly dissolved the blood threads that had stitched the men together. Thousands of blood chunks fluttered through the air like a snowfall, dyeing the playground red.
The Black Iron Soldiers were splashed with blood. One splatter even landed on Ji Minghuan’s cheek.
Bloodline remained composed. Her elegant red dress fluttered in the breeze, like the evening sky.
Then a system prompt popped up in Ji Minghuan’s eyes:
【Detected: Player has killed 9 “C-class or higher Espers.” Unit Two’s exclusive development system “Winter of the Hunt” task progress updated—Kills: 3 → 12】
【Second phase complete: Kill “12/10” Extraordinary Species or Demons】
【Reward: 1 Attribute Point received】
【Third phase: Kill 18 C-class or higher Extraordinary Species or Demons (Current total: 12)】
Ji Minghuan showed no expression.
He didn’t know how many more people he would have to kill, or how many of them would be good or bad. But staying in the White Crow Brigade meant killing was unavoidable.
To them, killing was no different from eating, drinking, or breathing.
And when the underground auction began, this city was bound to be drowned in blood.
Bloodline twitched her nose slightly, savoring the scent of blood in the air. After a moment, she asked:
“Just to confirm—you didn’t take those toys from me because of some naive idea like ‘better to kill them now and free them from their suffering,’ right?”
“You’re really something,” Ji Minghuan said.
Calmly, he wiped the blood off his cheek with the back of his hand.
A storm of blood was now flying backward into the clear Tokyo sky.
Ji Minghuan slowly looked up, blood still on his face, his gaze fearless as he locked eyes with Bloodline.
He said, “The way you talk… it’s like a little girl scolding me: ‘I gave you my toys, and you didn’t take care of them properly.’”
Bloodline blinked—then burst out laughing.
She smacked the carousel horse’s head as she giggled. “You… you’re way more fun than I expected. No one’s ever called me a little girl before. Hmm… wanna guess how old I am?”
“Nineteen?”
“Add a zero to that,” Bloodline said teasingly. “Then cut it in half, and you’ll be close.”
An old hag… Ji Minghuan rolled his eyes inwardly.
“You’re a hundred and still look like this? Are you a vampire pretending to be an Esper?” he asked, genuinely curious.
“Who knows?” Bloodline smirked and winked. “But I’ll say this… you feel familiar somehow.”
“Familiar how?”
Bloodline lowered her gaze, falling silent for a moment. Then she said, “Decades ago, when I was still a little girl, I met someone.” She lifted her hand and touched her chin. “He gave me the same feeling you do… like he was close, but very far away—his eyes always fixed on something else. I guess you’d call it ‘detachment,’ but that’s not quite it.”
“What was his name?” Ji Minghuan asked, intrigued.
“He forgot his name. But he said he’d been looking for someone for a long time—a white-haired girl—and still hadn’t found her. So he wandered the world alone.”
She shook her head. “It was during the world war. He saved me on the battlefield.”
“He was looking for someone?”
“He said… a white-haired girl.”
Ji Minghuan froze slightly, staring at her. Slowly, he squeezed the words from his mouth:
“A white-haired girl?”
Bloodline didn’t answer. She looked off into the sky, dazed.
“What did you call him?” Ji Minghuan asked.
“1001,” Bloodline said. “He called himself by that number. Said it’s the only thing he remembered.”
“1001?”
Ji Minghuan murmured the number, his heart stirring.
Suddenly, he remembered—his own designation in the Salvation Society was Restricted-level Esper “1002.” His Instructor had told him that “1001” was the previous Restricted-level Esper—and that… he’d died in the last century.
Could it be that the Esper Bloodline met a century ago was actually the previous “Restricted-level”?
Thinking that, Ji Minghuan looked back at Bloodline and asked again:
“What did he look like? Can you tell me?”
“Hmm… he looked young. Asian. Black hair, black eyes, a cute face,” Bloodline said casually. “But he was strong—crazy strong. He was the weirdest Esper I’ve ever seen—just couldn’t be killed. He took so many bullets for me on the battlefield but got up every single time.”
She fell silent for a moment, still staring at the clear blue sky.
“I was an orphan. Didn’t have a name. He gave me one. That name was a secret between us—the only bond we shared.”
“So for many, many years afterward, I told people I didn’t need a name. They could just call me by a codename. And that’s how I ended up with ‘Bloodline.’”
She paused, then smiled faintly, almost mocking herself.
“Living this long… sometimes I can’t help but wonder who I really am, what my name used to be. And when I do, I always remember him. So even after a hundred years, my memory of him is still crystal clear—as if it happened yesterday.”
She finally turned to look back at Ji Minghuan, her crimson eyes meeting his.
“That’s enough of that. I let you hear a bunch of weird stuff because you remind me of him… Too bad, you don’t look anything like him.”
She said it while staring at Xia Pingzhou’s face reflected in her pupils, then looked down at the carousel horse beneath her.
Ji Minghuan thought for a moment. “It’s been a hundred years… and you’re still looking for him?”
“Yeah.” Bloodline nodded. “I know a normal person’s lifespan isn’t nearly as long as mine, but I’m still searching for him. That’s actually why I joined the brigade.”
Ji Minghuan was silent for a while. Then, without expression, he said:
“You’re really devoted… I hope you find him.”