CHAPTER 407: CHAPTER 407: BLOODY MORNING

Far far away, a galaxy that was fifteen million light-years away from the Void Spill Galaxy.

The universe had a lot of galaxies, so many that even immortal entities couldn’t remember all of them.

Unless the galaxy was special, having a lot of intelligent races or multi-species galactic civilizations, most entities from heaven wouldn’t bother.

This particular galaxy wasn’t like that.

Only a few star systems on this planet harbored life and not all of them were intelligent.

One of these planets had a very nice atmosphere.

From afar, the planet had blue waters and greenish-brown land, both of which were suitable for organic life to develop.

Planet Kareem, six continents, two of which are connected by a strip of land.

Intelligent life?

Humans.

Zooming in on the planet, one would see that it was home to many creatures big and small.

There was hardly any Origin Essence here and as expected, no creature had awakened their hearts.

But at least, there was technology.

Tall concrete buildings stretched for miles in different cities all over the world. It was like a concrete jungle, the perfect habitat for the intelligent life of Planet Kareem.

The masters of this world, the humans, bear a striking resemblance to the humanoid forms of certain creatures.

Two arms, two legs, standing upright, average height, eye position, hair formation, and a variety of skin complexions.

These humans had built for themselves a civilization that was based heavily on the advancement of technology. From the looks of things, they were advancing steadily as there were already a few thousand satellites orbiting the space outside the planet’s atmosphere.

This human civilization was divided into nations that covered every continent, some democratic, some were monarchies, and some theocratic.

In one of the democratic nations, the most popular nation of them all. The Daystar rose from the horizon, casting a warm golden glow on the vast city below.

Skyscrapers stood tall, their sides which were covered with tinted windows reflected the light of the morning sun.

Cars, buses, and other mobile vehicles drove out of their apartment garages or residential estates.

It was a scene that Kael, if he were here, would recognize very well.

Among the many tall concrete buildings, one of them was positioned near the city square, the busiest part of the city.

This city wasn’t the most populous or the most prosperous, but it had its fair share of busy moments like this morning’s rush hour.

In the ten-story apartment complex, the fifth floor contained four apartments. Each of these apartments were simple self-contained models. One living room, one bedroom, one bathroom, and one kitchen with access to a small balcony.

One of these apartments was home to a single individual.

Within this particular apartment, inside the bedroom.

The morning sun pierced through the curtains of the bedroom, shining light on the bed and the young man in his early twenties lying on it.

After sufficient sunlight had infiltrated the room through the gaps in the curtains, the young man opened his eyes.

Immediately, he sat up in a hurry as though he had just woken up from a nightmare. But this was barely an instinctive reaction of his.

The young man glanced at the draped curtains, frowning. There was an air of danger around him.

There shouldn’t be so much sunlight, he knew it. He remembered how he carefully closed the curtain and shut the window the previous night.

This wasn’t how he left it.

His eyes fell, his sight landing on a piece of paper on the floor close to the window.

Seeing the paper, the young man didn’t react in surprise. He was calm.

He sat there on his bed in silence, observing the paper for more than five minutes.

Finally, he took a deep sigh, the furrow of his brows relaxing.

Lazily, he rolled out of his bed, exposing his bare chest and boxer shorts.

The weather was cold here, both night and morning. Yet, he didn’t seem too disturbed by the temperature and acted fine.

Not even a shiver.

The young man stood up, then went down on all fours to start a push-up exercise routine.

Up and down he went, his lean and slightly muscular biceps trembling every time he pushed his body upward.

He was deliberate with every movement, ensuring to go down slowly and push himself back up slowly. He strained his muscles as this was the most effective way he knew to actually get results from his exercise.

Ordinary resistance-based exercise didn’t do much for him these days.

After he was done with the pushups and other simple calisthenics that he could do on the floor, the young man stood up and walked to the bathroom.

Inside the bathroom, he stood in front of his sink, staring blankly at the mirror hanging on the tiled wall in front of him.

He observed his features. Grey short hair and thick black eyebrows.

His irises were a sharp and piercing yellow with deep black pupils. These eyes weren’t natural, even among humans.

But a lot of things had stopped being natural a hundred years ago on Planet Kareem.

His face was bare, no sign of beard hair as he had shaved it the day before yesterday. He liked to keep his face smooth.

The young man stared at his reflection, seeing the predatory look he had in his eyes. He sighed, took in a deep breath, and closed his eyes.

When he opened them again, he saw that his reflection had not changed, but his demeanor was calmer.

After cleaning up and performing his toilet duties, the young man walked out of the shower with a towel wrapped around his lower body.

It was at his time that he decided to attend to the piece of paper on the floor next to his window.

The young man picked up the paper. It looked like it had been torn off from a bigger paper as the edges were quite rough.

Before reading it, he pushed the curtains aside to see that the window was still somewhat closed but there was a small gap at the bottom.

The person who sent this crude form of message didn’t bother to hide his tracks

Down below, cars zoomed past the wide street and around the city square not far from here.

Observing that nothing else was up or in disarray, the young man brought his head down.

[Meeting Location: Holy Sin Club]

That was what was written on the paper for him to see.

The young man didn’t react much, not even a frown.

He raised the paper to his face, bringing it close to his nose. He took in a big sniff.

"Oh," He opened his mouth and exclaimed barely audibly.

His voice was deep and magnetic, not exactly matching his young appearance.

Without a word, he dropped the paper to the ground and walked away.

Now that he had read the content of the paper, his movements seemed a bit more aggressive and precise. He moved fast, quickly dressing up in comfortable jean trousers, a white shirt, and a black leather jacket.

He went to another wardrobe and packed his bag, assembling everything he needed.

One of the things he put into his bag was a hospital ID card, his eyes lingered on the card for a while before he slipped it into the side of the backpack.

Some of the things he put inside his backpack were questionable and would be considered a little bit dangerous, but no one was here to judge him on safety.

Once he was done, he slung the duffel bag over his shoulders and walked out of the bedroom.

He walked through the short passage, past the bathroom, and past the empty kitchen and into the living room.

He ignored the television that had been kept on intentionally to muffle the sound that would come from this apartment.

The volume of the television was turned high at the moment and a random news channel was broadcasting morning news.

Why would he need a loud noise?

The young man looked down at the floor, careful not to step on the sticky and dried pool of blood.

Unlike the other parts of the apartment, the living room was not orderly at all. Rather, it looked like the aftermath of a horrifying slaughter.

Dried blood stained the walls and ceilings, forming patterns that indicated sprayings.

The wooden center table was broken in two and thrown into one corner of the living room.

There was also a wheelchair parked at the corner of the room next to the door.

The single sofa had three claw marks on the backrest also with a big patch of dried blood.

Sitting on the ground and resting his back on the base of the sofa was a dead middle-aged man.

One of his legs was wrapped in a white cast and one of his hands was covered in white gauze. This man had clearly been in an accident or had been coming from a hospital before he was brutally murdered.

His chest was open with blood staining all around the claw marks on his chest and bite marks on his neck.

"Hmm," The young man stood over the carnage with a blank expression, his mind momentarily wandering to the events of last night.

Once he assessed everything and confirmed that none of his traces were left behind, he opened the door, walked out of the apartment, and shut the door gently behind him.