The first explosion came at 3:47 AM.
Mira was on her knees, wire cutters in hand, when the sky turned orange. The shockwave hit her a second later—a wall of heat and pressure that threw her into a ditch. She tasted blood probably from biting herself after collision or something worse. Her ears rang.
Too early, she thought. The air strike wasn't supposed to come until dawn.
She looked up.
Three missiles streaked across the night sky, trailing fire. They were aimed at the center of Nhamo—the church, the school, the monument. Where the people were hiding.
Then something moved.
The Speed Demon.
It appeared between the missiles and the ground, a blur of shadow and motion. Its arms extended, faster than thought or casual physics. It caught the first missile by the fuselage and redirected it—toward the river a few meters away. The second missile followed. The third.
All three exploded in the water. Geysers of steam and debris shot into the air. The shockwaves rattled windows, but was not fatal.
The Demon landed on a rooftop, breathing hard.
[Three missiles neutralized. Fourth missile incoming. Trajectory: Eastern edge of village. Impact in 4 seconds.]
The Demon turned.
The fourth missile was different. Smaller. Faster. It wasn't aimed at the center—it was aimed at the open field where two hundred villagers had gathered, fleeing their homes. The nearest water was about two kilometers away.
Too far, the Demon calculated. I can't throw it in time.
[Analysis: Fourth missile will impact in 15 seconds. Casualty radius: 150 meters. Current population in blast zone: 197. Speed Demon can extract maximum 50 individuals before impact.]
[Recommendation: Select 50. Prioritize young men and women of reproductive age. Maximize community survival.]
The Demon froze.
Select?
[You have 12 seconds.]
It couldn't. It wouldn't. Fifty lives for a hundred and fifty? That wasn't a choice. That was a slaughter. The Demon started moving anyway—toward the crowd.
***
Goran moved first.
The Reincarnated Weight Lifter had been sitting on a rock, waiting. When the sky turned orange, he stood. When the Demon caught the first three missiles, he started walking. When the fourth missile appeared, he ran.
Seven hundred years of death and rebirth. Seven hundred years of strength cultivation. Seven hundred years of learning to control every muscle, every bone, every breath. He reached the missile's impact point 5 seconds before it hit.
He dug his fists into the ground and the earth split. He pulled up a slab of dirt and rock, a shield the size of a door, and held it above his head.
Then the missile struck.
The explosion was blinding. The heat was absolute but Goran's body absorbed the shock—his legs drove into the soil up to the knees, his spine bent like a bow, his arms screamed. But the blast didn't spread. He contained it. His body was the wall in the line of fire.
The ground shook. The villagers screamed. When the fire faded, Goran was still standing.
For a moment.
Then he collapsed.
His chest was wrong. One of his ribs had bent backward—not broken, bent—and punched through his heart. Blood poured from his mouth, his nose, his ears. His eyes were open, staring at the sky.
The Demon appeared beside him. "Goran."
"Seventy-three," Goran whispered. Blood bubbled between his lips. "That's how many I've lived. Seventy-three lives. This is seventy-four."
"Don't talk."
"Have to." He coughed. More blood. "The next one... the next body... three families. High probability. Mark them, System."
[Acknowledged. Reincarnation coordinates noted.]
"Tell them... tell them I'll be back." Goran smiled. "I always come back."
His eyes went still.
[Asset 3: Goran – Deceased.]
[Reincarnation sequence initiated. Estimated time to fully recover and recruit new body: 12-18 years.]
The Demon stood. It looked at the villagers—the ones Goran had saved. They were staring at the body, at the crater, at the steam rising from the dead man's chest. The Demon felt nothing. It had been bound to the System for three hundred years. It had seen worse.
[Deploying replacement Asset 3 – Strongman Class. Stand by.]
The sky cracked.
A figure fell from nowhere—a man, mid-thirties, bald, covered in scars. He landed on the crater's edge with enough force to crack the ground. Dust rose around him like a shroud.
He cracked his neck. Rolled his shoulders. Looked at Goran's body.
"Seventy-three lives," the new Strongman said. "Amateur. I'm on my hundred and twelfth."
He didn't wait for orders. He grabbed a boulder the size of a car and carried it toward the village entrance. A barricade. In case more missiles came.
The Demon watched him go.
Then it turned to Mira.
***
The Bomb Technician was already moving.
She had been disarming mines when the missiles hit. Now she was running from shell to shell—the artillery shells Goran had pulled from the ground, the ones he had dropped in the ravine. They weren't in the water. They were on the bank. Still live.
"The detonators are on a timer," she shouted to the Demon. "Whoever planted them wanted them to go off during the chaos."
[Time to first shell detonation: 11 minutes.]
The Demon grabbed her. "Hold on."
She barely had time to breathe before they moved.
The world became a blur. Mira's stomach lurched. Her vision tunneled. The Demon was moving her from shell to shell at a speed faster than sound. She disarmed one. Two. Three. Her hands moved on instinct—cut the wire, pull the fuse, safe.
At the seventh shell, her fingers slipped.
The detonator sparked.
"RUN—"
The Demon moved. It grabbed her and pulled, a burst of speed so violent that her bones rattled. The explosion bloomed behind them, a flower of fire and shrapnel.
They landed fifty meters away. Mira was on the ground, gasping. Her ears were bleeding. Her eyes wouldn't focus.
"I can't—" she started.
"You can." The Demon's voice was flat. "One more shell."
"I can't move."
The Demon looked at her. Then it looked at the timer in its vision.
[One shell remaining. Detonation in 90 seconds.]
It picked her up. Slower this time. Careful. Her hands worked the wires with trembling fingers.
Cut. Strip. Disconnect.
The timer stopped at 0:03.
Mira collapsed.
[Asset 1: Bomb Technician – Incapacitated (extreme fatigue, inner ear damage).]
[Minefield: 94% cleared. Remaining mines non-critical.]
[Air strike: Ongoing. Additional missiles detected. Estimated arrival: 20 minutes.]
The Demon stood over Mira's unconscious body. It looked at the new Strongman, who was stacking boulders like bricks then at the villagers, huddled in the church, praying.
It looked at the sky.
[System Decision: Current assets insufficient to guarantee village survival.]
[Contingency Protocol: Activate Decapitator.]
[Target: Solomon Vhara. Method: Decapitation.]
[Time to activation: 130 hours ahead of schedule. Reclassifying as Side Mission to ensure compliance.]
[Note: Decapitator (Kin) is currently asleep. He will be notified upon waking. Expect resistance. He has not fully accepted his role.]
The Demon said nothing having been bound to the System for three hundred years. It knew how this worked. It however had no idea who the new decapitator was ever since the last one was slaughtered by a samurai bodyguard who guarded a gang leader. The samurai was well prepared for years because he heard of the exceptional skills the decapitator had. He however had the advantage of stamina since the decapitator had been worn out fighting the 200 armed guards and was severely shot. It was displayed all over the news as a hero samurai finally killed the most wanted assassin but now a new one had emerged. This was both intriguing and exciting.
The Decapitator would come and he would kill. And the System would keep spinning.
***
Far away, in a small apartment above a laundromat, Kin stirred in his sleep.
Lina's arm was draped across his chest. Her breath was warm on his neck. He didn't open his eyes.
But somewhere in the back of his mind, a blue light flickered.
[Side Mission Generated: Nhamo Village.]
[Target: Solomon Vhara – Businessman/Warlord.]
[Reward: 180,000 SN + Legacy Transfer + New Asset Unlock.]
[Time to mission: 6 hours (upon waking).]