Night, the wind grew colder.
On the empty ground of North Street, a figure walked heavily.
Zacro, who had been waiting for a long time, slowly opened his eyes.
The two looked at each other for a while, then Manba spoke stiffly, his voice hoarse and dry, unlike a youth’s:
“The coin, give it to me.”
Zacro looked at him and suddenly sneered,
“I’ve seen many dead eyes: numb, powerless… and boring.”
“From beginning to end, you’ve been led around by that thing.”
“All your choices were passive.”
“You’re not a lucky person at all; you’re just a puppet of the coin.”
Manba remained silent.
It was as if, just as the other person said, his heart was dead, and his body was a puppet.
“Kid, have you ever gambled?”
Zacro didn’t care whether the other person responded, slowly propped himself up, and twisted his neck, producing cracking sounds.
“Me, I used to gamble often, but I never liked gambling.”
“Because, for rats like us, who grew up in trash heaps and have nothing, every bet must be all-in.”
“And the powerful Gambler, he always stands on the side where the rules are favorable. It’s they who, with power and might, established these always-unbeatable rules.”
“So, I never believe in luck; I only believe in power!”
“That disgusting thing that toys with our fate is just a higher form of power.”
With that, Zacro took out the lucky coin and flicked it away casually, like a discarded cigarette butt.
The silvery coin spun and glittered under the moonlight, landing in front of Manba—heads up.
“Heh…”
Zacro scoffed disdainfully,
“Kid, are you going to let it manipulate you further?”
Manba stared blankly at the coin on the ground, finally speaking, his voice trembling:
“It said… as long as I collect all the coins, I can reverse my fate. Manla and Lisa, they can both come back…”
Manba humbly bent down, reaching out his hand towards the coin.
Just then, the mechanical blade leg, made of refined steel, struck towards his head!
“Clang—!”
The blade leg and steel claw met, sending sparks flying.
“Why?”
Manba’s eyes were full of bloodshot lines as he looked up, glaring at Zacro.
Zacro sneered:
“Kid, you’re not worthy of this power. And I don’t want to become the reverse.”
With that, Zacro released his force, spun around, and kicked Manba back with a reverse kick.
Manba rolled a few times on the ground, and all the coins in his pocket fell out, all landing perfectly heads up.
“Whir-clunk…”
The gears inside Zacro’s mechanical leg malfunctioned and stopped.
Zacro scoffed with a smile, took out a steel bar, and as if he had expected it, jammed the mechanical leg’s joint, removing the steam core, turning it into a simple refined steel prosthetic.
Without steam power, his combat strength would be slightly affected, but it was more than enough to deal with a rookie like this!
Zacro charged again, kicking at Manba, who had just gotten up.
Manba raised his arm to block but was deceived by a feint, allowing Zacro to kick him in the lower abdomen with his other leg from an unpredictable angle.
“Thud!”
Manba cried out in pain and rolled, using the momentum to create distance, the bloodshot lines in his eyes becoming even denser.
“Do you know why I chose this place?”
Zacro adjusted his stance and attacked again,
“Because it’s empty and deserted here, without so many unexpected lucky breaks!”
“Clang—!”
The blade leg and steel claw collided again.
Zacro gave Manba no chance to breathe or adjust, his every move aimed at a vital point.
Just as he said, when you bet, you bet everything!
In just a few rounds, Manba had several new wounds, bleeding profusely.
On an ordinary person, he would have fainted long ago, but Manba strangely grew stronger with each setback.
Manba let out a beastly roar, his steam gauntlet flared, and he actually knocked Zacro back with one claw.
Zacro looked at the painfully gasping Manba and sneered again:
“So your arm is that Ghoul’s, neither human nor ghost. Is this what you call luck?”
Manba seemed to lose his mind, moving on all fours, responding with a pounce.
Zacro watched the familiar scene, dodged sideways, and kicked the exhaust pipe of the steel arm!
“Hiss—!”
The steam gauntlet jammed, and the sharp claws retracted and stopped.
But a screw, propelled by air pressure, flew like a bullet towards Zacro’s head.
Zacro’s pupils contracted, his body unable to react, but he was suddenly pulled down by his clothes, causing the screw to graze his scalp and fly past, narrowly avoiding the fatal blow.
Zacro broke out in a cold sweat, staring intently at Manba.
The latter groaned in pain, countless blue veins writhing like snakes on his arms and neck.
“Roar—!!”
Manba’s eyes were terrifyingly red, and with a mournful roar, he pounced at Zacro again.
Just at this critical moment, a pulling force came from the back of Zacro’s collar, dragging him out of the attack range.
At the same time, a blonde girl in a dark trench coat burst into his view, striking Manba’s mechanical arm fiercely with a metal baseball bat.
The force was so great that it knocked the latter back several meters.
“Wow…”
Sophia herself was stunned, her beautiful light-red eyes blinking in surprise.
Before they set off, Andy had told her to use a baseball bat against refined steel weapons. She had initially refused, but she hadn’t expected the feel to be so good.
If Andy hadn’t warned her not to kill him, lest she be anchored by the coin, she felt she could have hit him even further.
“Roar!!”
A hoarse beastly roar brought her attention back.
At this moment, Manba was almost no longer human, his hair falling out, muscles bulging and knotting, his face constantly elongating, becoming more and more like a Ghoul.
Sophia dared not be negligent, gripping the bat tightly, her eyes fixed on her opponent.
While nimbly dodging a claw attack, she spun around and struck the gauntlet again with force!
“Thud!”
Parts flew, heading directly for Sophia’s eyeball at an unpredictable angle.
But the next instant, a Specter Nun’s hand appeared out of thin air, easily blocking the unexpected attack.
Sophia frowned slightly, then batted Manba away.
The latter landed, kicking up some dust, twitched a few times, then fell unconscious.
“Hiss….”
Sophia gasped.
She didn’t kill him, did she?!
What if the coin anchored her?!
Just then, Zacro, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly charged out, his sharp blade leg kicking towards Manba’s head!
“Stop!”
Sophia was half a beat too slow.
Just as the blade leg was still half a meter from its target, with a “Boom—!”, the steam core in Manba’s arm suddenly exploded.
As steam and dust billowed, fragmented parts rained down on Zacro’s body like a storm.
Sophia frowned deeply, raising her bat and stepping forward.
Her close-fitting undershirt and shorts suddenly tightened, preventing her from going forward.
When the mist was dispersed by the night wind, Manba was nowhere to be seen, leaving only Zacro, covered in blood.
“Cough…”
Zacro coughed up a mouthful of blood with a laugh, his body covered in burns and cuts, and a shard was embedded in his chest, near his heart.
“I… I lost the gamble…”
Meanwhile, deep in Black Alley.
Reirfu, with only one eyeball remaining, picked up the five coins from Manba’s hand, then let out a long sigh of relief.
“Although the fates of the last hunter and doctor weren’t reaped, the fates collected by those two coins before are enough.”
“Rustle, rustle, rustle…”
The gray feather pen wrote rapidly, and when Reirfu saw its content, his hair stood on end.
【The Gambler, died in the final gamble】
【The Butcher, died from manipulation】
【The last Butcher, finally obtained all coins, congratulations】
“The last Butcher?”
Reirfu’s single pupil contracted, his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down once,
“What do you mean?!”