Hell's Handbook

Chapter 100: Original Sin: Greed

Su Jin wasn’t the only one who felt it. Chu Yi, along with Cai Dexiang felt it too, since Cai Dexiang was the only veteran of his team. But if all three veterans could sense danger, whatever was coming their way had to be really scary.

“Scatter! Scatter, everyone, scatter!” Cai Dexiang yelled at everyone to run in different directions. This thing was very powerful, so if they stood together, they might end up getting killed at one shot.

Su Jin could feel all the hair on the back of his neck stand on end, and so, he also instructed his team to scatter.

But after a few moments passed, nothing appeared. However, none of them dared to relax because the three veterans could feel its presence even more clearly now.

“We can’t see what it is, but it’s already here!” Cai Dexiang was horrified.

Su Jin and Chu Yi didn’t say anything but they felt the same way. This thing was among them but they couldn’t see it at all.

Just then, one of the members of the Moon in the Blue Skies team suddenly lost his mind and drove the spear he had in his hand right through his team mate’s body again and again.

“What’s going on?!” Cai Dexiang exclaimed. Everyone in his team had gone through several Challenges and knew that even if they received a mission to kill other owners, it would always be to kill those from another team, not their own.

“He’s not your teammate anymore! He’s that terrifying thing!” Su Jin was the most sensitive among them since Psychokinetic Spirit Power was excellent for sounding out such things. He could sense that the terrifying thing that was approaching them earlier was within Cai Dexiang’s team mate right now.

“DIE! DIE!!” That team mate’s limbs were bent weirdly and his eyes were bloodshot as he tore his victim apart with his bare hands. That wasn’t the strength that a human could possibly have.

Everything happened too quickly and nobody thought that the first death would occur so soon. But as veterans, the three of them reacted the fastest.

“Triple Qi Thrust! Demon Tiger Emerges!” Chu Yi’s internal energy made him excellent for this sort of hand to hand combat. He reached that person in an instant and used a Triple Qi Thrust without hesitation.

“This power is MINE! It’s all MINE! MINE!” That team mate growled hysterically. He didn’t look like he was going to dodge the attack at all and seemed prepared to meet Chu Yi’s palm head on.

“Don’t kill him!” Cai Dexiang couldn’t bear to watch his own teammate get killed in front of him and shouted at Chu Yi.

This made things very difficult for Chu Yi. He had already launched an attack and it wasn’t something he could stop just like that. But it was also true that his opponent was just an owner who had been possessed, so he let the attack land on his opponent’s arm instead of aiming for any vital areas.

The Triple Qi Thrust landed on the team mate’s arm with a loud blast, breaking it off instantly. Under normal circumstances, this would have been a very serious injury that would have stopped anyone from continuing to attack. But it was also not fatal, so as long as he could make it back to his Personal Hell Domain, he could get his arm back without a problem.

But Chu Yi’s hair instantly stood on end as he sensed danger coming his way even after he had maimed one of his opponent’s arms.

“MINE! ALL MINE!” That team mate didn’t seem to feel any pain at all as he ran his other arm through Chu Yi’s abdomen.

Chu Yi yelped and endured the terrible pain he felt as he brought one palm down to destroy that arm that attacked him, then moved away as quickly as he could.

Destroying two arms and getting attacked had taken no more than a few seconds, so Cai Dexiang had launched his own attack as well. Or rather, it was more accurate to say that Cai Dexiang was just hoping to keep his teammate under control for the time being.

An orange beam shot out from his palm and wound itself around his team mate like a rope made from rubber. This move would have helped to stop his team mate from continuing to hurt others, but Cai Dexiang had underestimated the strength that his team mate now possessed.

The teammate had lost both arms, but he was still pouncing towards Chu Yi like a maniac. He leaped and broke right through Cai Dexiang’s orange beam, landing on the ground and started writhing about like a fish out of water struggling to jump back in.

An arm was still sticking out of Chu Yi’s abdomen and the pain made sweat stream down his face. His injury was serious and even though his internal energy enabled him to move, he couldn’t move as quickly as before.

After Cai Dexiang’s orange beam failed, he started to make a thicker one instead. But Su Jin didn’t think that was going to work, so he retrieved his God Armor from his Handbook, then unleashed the Air of an Overlord.

In that instant, every single person, including the team mate trying to attack Chu Yi, were stunned for one second. Su Jin wasn’t affected, so he dashed over to where Chu Yi was and dragged him back to safety.

One second later, everyone had snapped out of their daze. When the team mate realized that his original target had gotten away, instead of changing direction to run after Chu Yi, he turned to attack the next nearest person, which was Chen Xin’er.

Chen Xin’er was the brains of the team, so she wasn’t strong in other areas. When she saw her own team mate pouncing towards her, she was so stunned that she forgot how to run.

Bang! The sound of a gun firing filled the air as two red bullets flew out from Kano Mai’s Soul Whisperer, breaking that team mate’s legs instantly.

The impact of the explosive rounds caused the team mate to fly out. After he landed on the ground again, he still struggled to move, but it was impossible since he didn’t have any limbs left.

This entire process had taken no more than 15 seconds and most of them were still struggling to figure out what just happened.

“Mine…your lives, your blood…it’s all mine! MINE! MUAHAHA!” The team mate lay on the ground, bellowing and cackling maniacally with a crazed look on his face.

“I’m sorry, I had no choice,” Kano Mai apologized to Cai Dexiang. Cai Dexiang had hoped to just keep him under control, but she ended up incapacitating him instead.

But Cai Dexiang just shook his head dejectedly before squeezing out a smile at Kano Mai. “I should be the one thanking you. If you hadn’t done that, Xin’er would have been in great danger.”

Chen Xin’er herself had finally come to terms with what happened and thanked Kano Mai as well. If Kano Mai hadn’t shot the team mate so decisively, she might have been dead by now.

Su Jin passed Chu Yi over to Yang Mo for Yang Mo to heal him, then frowned and asked Cai Dexiang, “What should we do now? He’s your team mate after all.”

Cai Dexiang had a disturbed look on his face. This limbless man on the ground didn’t look like his team mate at all. He was so badly injured, yet he was still struggling to attack the rest of them.

A blade appeared in Cai Dexiang’s hand and the team mate’s head went rolling immediately after that. He had killed his own team mate himself.

The other two remaining members of the team remained silent as grief filled their eyes. Su Jin could only sigh as well. Cai Dexiang seemed to have made a very heartless decision, but he didn’t have a choice either. This team mate had lost all his limbs and was now a monster that kept trying to attack everyone else. It was impossible to keep him by their side.

It wasn’t wise to just leave him here either, since the Handbook could make use of him to attack others. There was no choice but to kill him.

“Greed…is the beginning of all desires.” After that team mate’s head went rolling, it smiled eerily and actually managed to utter a sentence.

This made everyone’s hair stand on end, since a severed head could actually still talk. Su Jin and Chen Xin’er’s expressions were grim.

The Challenge had barely started and two members of the Moon in the Blue Skies had died just like that. While it was true that the death rate in Handbook Challenges were high, it was rare for a Challenge to introduce something that could have killed them all right from the start.

“Greed, gluttony, lust, wrath, sloth, jealousy, pride. Those are the seven deadly sins, the categories of original sin. He said greed is the beginning of all desires, so…does that mean that other Original Sins will appear next?” Chen Xin’er had a terrified look in her eyes.

Su Jin nodded slightly and frowned. “This Level A Challenge…it looks like we should not remain together after all. If this happens again, we will suffer great casualties.”

“But if we go separate ways and run into another Original Sin, it might be too hard for a team to face it by themselves,” said Cai Dexiang. He had lost two out of five members, so he was really hoping to get the support of Su Jin’s team.

But Chen Xin’er had slowly calmed back down again by this time. She said firmly to Cai Dexiang, “No, we must go separate ways. Otherwise, all of us are going to die.”

“But…” Cai Dexiang trusted her judgement, but he was really afraid that his team would not be able to handle the dangers ahead if it was just the three of them.

Su Jin chuckled when he saw Cai Dexiang’s reaction and said, “Mr. Cai, I think you’re mistaken. When we say ‘separate ways’, we’re not talking about each team going their own way. We mean that the teams have to split up. Everyone will have to continue this journey on their own.”

“What?!” Everyone else exclaimed, with the exception of Chen Xin’er.

.

Chen Xin’er explained, “If the seven Original Sins only attack once each, then we’ve got six more to go. There are eight of us here, and Team Shadow of Thor has another four more owners. If we continue to stay together like this, once any of us is under the control of an Original Sin, it’s very likely that we would hurt or kill the people around us. Also, we’d have to be wary of each other at all times.”

“That’s right. If we walk separate ways, then even if the six Original Sins choose to attack one of us, it wouldn’t be able to wipe all of us out at one shot. We’ll have to leave everything to luck,” said Su Jin with a sad smile.

“Leave everything to luck? Are you being serious now?” Yang Mo just stared at Su Jin.

He had already helped to remove the arm from Chu Yi’s abdomen and used some special techniques as well as the leaves from the Tree of Life to treat Chu Yi’s injury, so Chu Yi was a lot better than before.

Chen Xin’er and Su Jin exchanged glances and sighed at the same time. Su Jin said, “It’s a Level A Challenge after all. Surviving this Challenge was going to be a matter of luck to begin with.”

“What happens if the seven Original Sins can attack more than once, or if it can attack more than one person at a time? What do we do?” asked Kano Mai.

“We’re basically taking a gamble now, and it’s a gamble where we have very little to fall back on. Right now, the only thing we can count on is Hell’s Handbook. It’s very rare for a Challenge to really force an owner into a truly desperate situation,” said Su Jin solemnly.

“So…so we’re going to drive ourselves into a desperate situation instead?” asked Kano Mai puzzledly.

“There’s an old phrase in Chinese: one will fight to survive when placed in a desperate and hopeless situation!” said Su Jin through gritted teeth.