[Room 2705 – Morie: I extremely dislike the way you speak.]

The message was sent.

In room 2705, Morie stood in front of the monitoring screen, her jade-green eyes calmly looking at the private chat frame floating before her.

Out in the corridor, the two massive Titan hands still gripped Dokai tightly. One hand locked his soul drill. The other tightly squeezed his torso and his deformed crab pincer. The lava veins on the surface of the two hands slowly lit up, like Titan blood flowing within a layer of azure glass.

Dokai still struggled.

He didn’t speak.

Didn’t beg.

Didn’t grow angry in the way of a human.

What remained inside his body was just the combat instinct of a creature nearly resembling a wild beast. The soul drill tried to spin another rotation. The distorted crab pincer bit at the Titan fingers. Countless soul tentacles in his mouth extended out, then contracted as they were burned by the lava veins.

But all of it was useless.

He had been caught.

Not just temporarily bound.

But pinned by Morie in both his physical and soul forms.

Elith stood beside Morie, her cold gaze looking at the message frame. She didn’t say anything, but her expression made one thing clear.

She didn’t like Millan either.

A few seconds later, a new message appeared.

[Millan: Are you threatening me?]

Morie looked at those words, her gaze unwavering.

[Room 2705 – Morie: No. I’m clarifying your position.]

[Millan: My position?]

[Room 2705 – Morie: That’s right. You’re begging the person who holds the power of life and death over Dokai. Therefore, you have no qualification to use a commanding tone.]

The chat frame fell silent.

Morie wasn’t in a hurry.

She even slightly tilted her head, continuing to control the two Titan hands to tighten their grip on Dokai a bit more.

Crack!

A section of soul tentacle on the drill was crushed apart. The flattened faces on it distorted and dissipated into gray smoke.

Dokai struggled even harder.

His material body convulsed. His back arched. His bones emitted cracking sounds that made one’s teeth ache. But no matter how he tried to bend his body to the point of almost tearing himself apart, he still couldn’t escape from those two hands.

Millan finally sent another message.

[Millan: Dokai is my older brother. He’s no longer lucid. He doesn’t know what he’s doing.]

Morie read that line, the corner of her mouth lifting slightly.

[Room 2705 – Morie: Then who is the person who knew clearly that he wasn’t lucid yet still let him appear on the battlefield?]

This time, Millan replied very quickly.

[Millan: You don’t understand. He is a victim. He has suffered too much pain. What you saw is not the real Dokai.]

[Room 2705 – Morie: I don’t care whether that was the real Dokai or not. That thing just attacked room 2705’s battlefield, stole room 2705’s Boss, ruined room 2705’s plans, and even almost charged straight into room 2705’s door.]

[Millan: But he didn’t mean to!]

Morie looked at those words, her gaze growing slightly colder.

Didn’t mean to.

This was always the most laughable kind of excuse.

If a monster didn’t mean to eat a person, did the person it killed need to thank it for not carrying ill intent?

If someone who had lost their reason destroyed everything, did the victim have to smile and forgive simply because they were pitiful?

Morie didn’t like this kind of logic.

Disliked it very much.

[Room 2705 – Morie: A wild beast doesn’t mean to eat people. But if it lunges at me, I’ll still kill it.]

[Millan: You’re comparing my brother to a wild beast?]

[Room 2705 – Morie: No. I’m giving wild beasts a compliment.]

Elith slightly raised her eyebrow.

She looked at Morie, a tiny flash of astonishment appearing in her gaze.

She hadn’t expected Morie to retort so sharply.

But right after, Elith felt it was very fitting.

Morie was not a soft-hearted girl to begin with. It was just that before, with her body confined to that wheelchair, her sharpness had been hidden too much.

Now, Morie had stood up.

Not just her legs.

But her aura as well.

Millan’s message was a bit slower this time.

[Millan: I know this matter is unpleasant for you, but room 2705 is very strong. You have the ability to handle situations far more dangerous than I do. A single Boss isn’t everything to you.]

[Millan: But Dokai is different. He’s all I have left.]

Morie read these two lines, her gaze growing increasingly calm.

Calm to the point of being almost cold.

[Room 2705 – Morie: So because you only have your brother left, we should accept having our reward stolen?]

[Millan: I didn’t say that.]

[Room 2705 – Morie: But you’re acting that way.]

[Millan: I just want you to spare him this once. You’re so strong, what’s the harm in giving way one time?]

The moment that line appeared, Elith softly let out a cold laugh.

The atmosphere in room 2705 immediately grew heavy.

Even Thunder Dragon on the screen tilted its head slightly, its purple-black eyes looking at Dokai who was being gripped tightly, as if waiting for the next order.

Morie looked at those words for a long while.

Then she sent a message.

[Room 2705 – Morie: Finally telling the truth.]

[Millan: What do you mean?]

[Room 2705 – Morie: You don’t think we’re in the wrong. You just think we’re strong enough that we should be the ones to take the loss.]

[Millan: I’m just saying you have other choices.]

[Room 2705 – Morie: No. You’re asking the victim to be merciful to the perpetrator, because the perpetrator is your relative.]

As soon as the message was sent, Morie raised her hand.

Out in the corridor, the Titan hand squeezing Dokai’s torso began to move. The five massive fingers clenched, gradually pressing the chaotic mass of souls in his chest to expose itself.

A trembling grayish-black point of light appeared beneath the split-open skin.

It was like a heart formed of countless tangled souls. Within it were silent screams. There were tiny faces pressed against each other. There were also invisible chains wrapping around that soul core.

Morie looked at that point of light.

That was the core.

As long as she crushed it, Dokai would vanish.

Perhaps that was a kind of liberation.

Perhaps it was just an execution.

But to Morie, these two things weren’t very different.

What needed to be eliminated should be eliminated.

Millan seemed to also be watching this scene through some monitoring channel. Her messages suddenly became hurried.

[Millan: Stop your hand!]

[Room 2705 – Morie: Reason.]

[Millan: I already said it, he’s my brother!]

[Room 2705 – Morie: Not enough.]

[Millan: Do you really want to make me your enemy?]

[Room 2705 – Morie: From the moment Dokai charged in to steal the Boss, you already chose your own position.]

The chat frame fell silent again.

This time, the silence dragged on longer.

Morie wasn’t in a hurry.

She had even less reason to hurry.

She knew Millan hadn’t said everything yet. People like Millan wouldn’t only have emotion as their final card. If she had truly dared to let Dokai charge out into the battlefield like that, she certainly had something else hidden.

Morie hated people who hid bombs in their hands, then used an innocent tone to ask others not to set them off.

And Millan was exactly that kind of person.

Sure enough, after a while, a new message appeared.

[Millan: If you kill Dokai, all of us could die.]

Elith narrowed her eyes.

Morie wasn’t surprised at all.

[Room 2705 – Morie: Continue.]

[Millan: Dokai has absorbed many souls. You must have seen the faces on his body. Those are not ordinary Wraiths.]

[Millan: During the process of mutation, he connected with a very terrifying existence outside this apartment complex. It’s very close. Less than 20 miles away.]

Morie looked at this line, her gaze finally changing slightly.

Elith also frowned. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Less than 20 miles.

In this world, that distance could not be called far.

Especially when that existence was related to souls.

[Room 2705 – Morie: What is that existence?]

[Millan: I don’t know.]

[Room 2705 – Morie: You don’t know, but you still let Dokai charge out?]

[Millan: I had no choice!]

[Room 2705 – Morie: You did. Your choice always prioritizes Dokai.]

Millan didn’t answer this line.

Morie could imagine her expression at this moment.

Angry.

Frustrated.

But unable to refute.

A moment later, Millan sent another message.

[Millan: I only know that thing is very strong. The souls Dokai absorbed don’t entirely belong to him. A portion of them is like a sacrificial offering, or a signal. If his soul core is crushed, that connection will be activated.]

[Millan: When that happens, the thing out there will know there is a soul feast large enough here.]

[Millan: Do you understand what that means? Not just room 2705. The entire apartment complex could be dragged into a catastrophe.]

Morie didn’t immediately answer.

She looked at Dokai on the screen.

The soul core in his chest was trembling under the pressure from the Titan hand. The invisible chains wrapping around that core occasionally pulled taut, as if their other ends truly connected to somewhere very far away.

Or not very far at all.

Less than 20 miles.

If Millan was telling the truth, killing Dokai could awaken something out there in the fog.

If Millan was lying, releasing Dokai would leave behind an immense danger.

Morie didn’t like being forced into this kind of choice.

But she even more disliked making a decision involving room 2705 without asking the person who should be asked.

Rover was in the bedroom.

If it had been a normal situation, she would have asked Rover.

But at this moment, the more suitable person was Nanoe.

Because Nanoe wasn’t just Rover’s woman. She was also the best at weighing benefits, losses, and the dirty things lying behind a seemingly simple decision.

Morie opened the private group interface.

[Room 2705 – Morie: Sister Nanoe, there’s a variable. We need your decision.]

She attached the entire dialogue with Millan.

After that, Morie continued holding Dokai in a state of being crushed but not yet killed.