I Want to Die, But I Am Immortal-Chapter 84: Revenge (8)

Adam vanished.

He reappeared right next to Joseph a blur of motion too fast for the human eye to follow. His knife was already moving. It drew a clean red line across Joseph’s throat.

Joseph gasped a wet gurgling sound escaping his lips. His hands flew to his neck trying to stop the flow of blood. It was useless. He collapsed to the floor his body convulsing in its final moments.

"I don’t tolerate lies," Adam said his voice a cold flat monotone. "Especially not the same lie over and over again."

Eric stared in horror. He looked from Adam to Joseph’s twitching body on the floor. He opened his mouth to scream to plead to say something. But he never got the chance.

Adam’s knife flashed again. He slit Eric’s throat with the same detached efficiency. Eric fell to the floor beside his friend his life ending in a silent spray of blood.

Adam stood over their bodies for a long moment. He watched them die a deep breath escaping his lips. He looked up at the ceiling of the silent club.

"I didn’t do anything wrong," he whispered to himself a mantra to ward off the encroaching guilt. "I just took revenge. I just took revenge."

He slapped himself hard across the face. "Why are you so worried?" he hissed. "Why do you feel regret?"

He was still grappling with the unfamiliar turmoil in his mind when he heard it. The distant sound of police sirens. They were getting closer.

Adam’s head snapped up. He turned and looked towards the main gate. He saw shadows moving outside the frosted glass doors. The police were here.

When did this happen? he thought his mind racing. He had been so focused on his revenge that he had lost track of time.

He dismissed his bloody knife. He turned to run for the back exit the same way he had come in. He reached the door and put his hand on the handle. But then he froze. He heard voices on the other side. The heavy thud of boots. The police were at the back door too.

He was trapped. Surrounded on both sides. His first instinct was to fight. He could summon his guns from his inventory. He could try to shoot his way out.

But he stopped himself. He did not want to repeat this loop. He did not want to go back to the train station to face his friends’ betrayal all over again. He did not want to endure the pain of killing them a second time. The guilt was a heavy weight in his chest a feeling he did not want to experience again. He had to find another way. A way that did not involve another reset.

---

Adam looked at the dozens of dead bodies scattered around the room. An idea sparked in his mind a desperate gamble to avoid a reset. He summoned a handgun from his inventory. He loaded it with a fresh magazine. Then he aimed the pistol at his own stomach.

He took a deep breath and fired six times in quick succession.

The first three bullets flattened against his skin and dropped to the floor uselessly. His passive Iron Skin skill was still active protecting him. But the repeated impacts on the same spot created a small crack a point of weakness in his subdermal armor.

The next three shots had a different result. The fourth bullet tore through the weakened skin but only penetrated a few inches before falling out. The last two however punched through. They burrowed deep into his abdomen.

The pain was immense a searing fire that spread through his entire body. Blood began to soak his shirt. He gritted his teeth against the agony. He stumbled forward towards the bodies of the two mercenaries who had been guarding Eric and Joseph.

He knelt beside one of the corpses. He carefully took the man’s rifle still clutched in his dead hand. Without touching the trigger himself he used the man’s own finger to fire a few rounds into the ceiling.

He then placed the rifle back in the man’s grip. He dismissed his own handgun back into his inventory. He collapsed to the floor next to the bodies and pretended to be unconscious. He had created a scene. A story. He was just another victim.

Moments later the police stormed the club. They burst in through both the front and back entrances their weapons raised ready for combat. They stopped dead in their tracks when they saw the scene inside. The main hall was a slaughterhouse. Bodies were everywhere. They stared in stunned silence trying to comprehend the sheer scale of the carnage.

They began to secure the scene moving cautiously through the room. They checked the bodies one by one. Eventually they found Adam.

The police chief a man named Captain Miles arrived soon after. He was a tall imposing figure with a grim expression. He surveyed the scene his eyes taking in every detail.

"What’s the report?" he asked one of his officers.

The officer looked shaken. "Sir everyone’s dead," he said his voice trembling. "Everyone except for one schoolboy. He’s alive but badly wounded."

Captain Miles raised an eyebrow. "A schoolboy?" he asked surprised. "Get him to a hospital immediately. And I want to question him as soon as he wakes up."

The officer nodded. "Yes sir."

Captain Miles then turned to two other detectives. His expression hardened. "And what about the two officers we found dead on the mountain behind the school?" he demanded.

The two detectives who were Andrew’s father’s colleagues looked uncomfortable. They exchanged a nervous glance. "We’re still investigating sir," one of them said.

Captain Miles’s face turned red with anger. "Do you even know how to investigate?" he roared. "Should I get someone else on this case? Someone competent?"

The two detectives stood silently their heads bowed in shame. They were friends of the two dead corrupt officers. And now they were afraid. They were afraid that their connection to the dead men would be discovered.

Captain Miles took a deep breath trying to control his temper. "I want to know who their accomplices were," he said his voice low and dangerous. "I know they weren’t working alone. They were attacking my son because of me. If I find out who else was involved I will send them all to hell myself."

His words were a threat a promise. He was speaking to all the officers in the room. But his eyes were fixed on the two detectives. He knew there was a leak in his department. And he was determined to find it. The two detectives felt a cold dread creep up their spines. They knew they were in deep trouble. They were part of the conspiracy. And now the police chief himself was on the hunt.