Chapter 17: The Executioner

Slightly disheveled hair, a delicate and pale face, and in his hand, an unnamed short sword glinting with silver light.

Niino Li stared at the twisted, horrifying patterns on the spider taller than a man, his gaze unconsciously growing heavy.

An unprecedented strange ability—the most difficult urban legend!

When he looked at his reflection and realized he had returned to reality, the identical layout but radically different style of the bathroom left him disoriented.

Influenced by some strange feeling within him, Niino Li tried to push open the door of the furthest stall—

Behind the door was empty.

Then, ignoring the camera still overhead, he sprinted at top speed toward the women's restroom and found inside the furthest stall a cocoon woven from crimson spider silk—

It was Minazawa Yuu, long missing!

In an instant, all the information he had gathered shattered and reassembled, forming two intertwined threads within Niino Li's mind.

"Miss Ringo… no, Miss Ringo is probably out shopping with her friends right now." Niino Li wiped the green blood from Minazawa Yuu's blade.

"I didn't expect you to survive—this means my other half is dead, doesn't it?" The spider turned its body, its eight blood-red eyes glowing faintly as its mouthparts opened and closed.

Niino Li nodded, offering no denial.

If possible, he wanted to extract as much information as he could from the creature—for example:

How had the Medium-level Bug Grudge gradually collapsed?

From the fact that Minazawa Yuu obtained the spirit talisman and could suppress the mantis, then single-handedly eliminate the centipede:

The mantis's strength was roughly on par with the centipede's.

Therefore, even if the third insect spirit's power were higher, it would not have surged geometrically as it now did.

"No need to tell you!" The spider's eyes filled with venomous hatred, and instantly a web as thick as a finger rained down, covering Niino Li in an instant.

Seeing this, Niino Li gripped his blade tightly and slashed at the web with lightning speed, his arm trembling rapidly as silver afterimages flashed across the air.

The blood-stained web proved as fragile as paper before the sharp blade.

"Niino-kun!"

While Niino Li was busy breaking the web, Okura Sa'u, gritting his teeth against the agony in his shoulder, shouted a warning about the stabbing leg piercing toward him.

Leveraging his boosted physical strength, Niino Li moved nimbly in a small space near the door, his blade a dense curtain of silver, and the countless vicious, erratic afterimages were continuously blocked.

Clenching the blade tightly, Niino Li's arm muscles tensed, flooding him with a sweet, numbing ache—even his enhanced strength was beginning to strain.

With a powerful horizontal swing, Niino Li knocked the spider's attack aside and recalled Minazawa Yuu's battle that night and their first encounter—he immediately formulated a strategy.

"If this stalemate continues, the first to die will be these humans—especially the two who came with you…" The spider sneered.

"They've already 'died' in my world."

"The rain's almost over. Bugs should seek dry places to survive quietly." Niino Li's expression remained calm.

Suddenly, the spider's form shot forward with unnatural speed, its sharp front legs stabbing violently toward his neck.

Yet just before impact, Niino Li shifted his left foot slightly and slipped through the spider's defenses like an ice skater.

A blade inscribed with runes pierced its hard carapace, pinning its body to the ground.

【Defeated 'Bug Grudge'—Spider, absorbed the resentment…】

【Strength +3, Constitution +2, Agility +1, Intelligence +2】

【Unknown Entity detected, system error, Constitution cannot be boosted, current value: 0】

【Current Task: Resolve three consecutive urban legend events (3/3)】