Chapter 183

Under the cover of an illusion, Joker Eren blended into the crowd like a drop of water merging into the sea, disappearing without a trace.

It didn't take long.

Joker Eren's figure reappeared two hundred meters away from Fisk Tower, inside a room that directly faced the building.

From here, he had a clear view of everything happening at Fisk Tower.

It was the perfect observation deck.

The only minor inconvenience was…

The room Eren had chosen was already occupied.

As he leaped inside using the Venomous Threads, a voluptuous woman was showering in the bathroom, separated by frosted glass.

Glancing at her faintly visible silhouette through the glass, Joker Eren casually remarked:

"Nice figure..."

Just as the words left his mouth, the Venomous Threads on his right hand suddenly extended, piercing into his wrist in a swift, sharp motion—almost like a warning.

"Hiss..."

"You idiot! I don't even have a girlfriend, so why the hell are you stabbing me? It's not like I'm some heartless scumbag."

"Even if the original me has his eyes on Gwen, what does that have to do with me, Joker?"

Grumbling under his breath, Joker Eren cursed at the Venomous Threads, berating them until they hesitantly admitted their mistake and promised not to repeat it.

Only then did he let them off with a huff.

Though Joker Eren's voice wasn't exactly quiet, the woman in the shower remained oblivious, continuing to hum a tune as she lathered body wash over her fair, enticing skin.

She had no idea that an uninvited guest had intruded into her room.

The explosions set off by Bullseye caused quite a commotion.

Beyond those fleeing the building in fear of its collapse, the deafening blast, which echoed across multiple city blocks, quickly attracted the attention of the NYPD.

Harlem's recent disaster was still fresh in everyone's minds.

At a time when the NYPD was on high alert, any unusual activity in New York City—especially in Hell's Kitchen, a notoriously chaotic area—immediately became a priority.

In the past few days, even the smallest disturbances had been scrutinized.

Despite its lawless reputation, the massive explosion at Fisk Tower compelled the NYPD to dispatch a significant force to the scene.

However, due to the tower's… special status, and their awareness of the power behind it, the police didn't storm in right away.

Instead, under the pretense of maintaining order, they focused on evacuating onlookers from the area.

At the same time, they waited for Fisk Tower's representatives to come forward with an explanation.

Given the current tense climate, NYPD leadership was under tremendous pressure.

Just recently, they had personally warned every crime syndicate in New York—big or small—to keep a low profile for the time being.

And yet, barely any time had passed before this happened.

A massive explosion at Fisk Tower…

This single event reignited the frenzy among the media, especially reporters who had only just begun to settle down.

The NYPD brass didn't need to be told what tomorrow's headlines would look like.

Another brutal reminder of their incompetence would be plastered all over the news.

This incident had already thrown them back into the fire.

If Fisk himself couldn't provide a satisfactory explanation, even as the so-called Kingpin of New York's underworld, the police would make sure he paid the price.

But then—

Just as the head of the NYPD's 31st Precinct, Chief Loren Clyde, stood outside Fisk Tower with a grim expression, waiting for Fisk to give him an explanation…

A sudden wave of bloodcurdling screams erupted from inside the building.

"Holy shit, run!"

"Help—!"

"Ahhh!"

"Oh my God! What the hell is that?!"

Through the tower's glass exterior, Clyde caught a glimpse of the first floor—where an enormous shadow had suddenly emerged.

And with its appearance…

Panic erupted.

People who had been descending from the upper floors, still in the process of evacuating, suddenly went mad with terror.

Eyes wide with horror, they sprinted toward the exits in a frenzy, trampling over one another in their desperate attempt to escape.

The speed at which people fled the building skyrocketed.

But before many could make it out, a grotesque wall of flesh—woven from countless writhing, blood-red tendrils—erupted at the tower's entrance, sealing it shut.

Hopeless screams filled the air.

Within moments, a dark crimson liquid began seeping through the gaps of the flesh wall, flowing outward like a slow, ominous tide.

As soon as one of the more experienced detectives saw this monstrous barrier at the entrance, his face twisted in horror.

He rushed to Chief Clyde's side.

"Sir, something's wrong. We might need backup—now."

He stopped mid-sentence, staring at the nightmarish sight before him.

The first-floor glass faintly reflected a massive, shadowy figure.

Voice grim, the detective muttered, "It looks like there's… another monster inside Fisk Tower."

A monster.

Another one.

The moment Clyde heard that word, his heart sank.

Once upon a time, "monster" had only been a term used in horror movies.

Aside from classified case files, Clyde had never encountered anything truly monstrous in real life.

But now…

It seemed as if these creatures were emerging from every corner of the world.

Not just here.

All across the country, the NYPD, the FBI, Homeland Security—even the military—had encountered similar horrors.

Back then, the monsters that had surfaced were terrifying and powerful, yet they were not an insurmountable threat to humanity's advanced weaponry.

In fact, to avoid widespread panic, the federal government had kept all information regarding these creatures strictly classified.

Until… the Harlem Incident.

That was when these nightmares stepped out of the shadows and into reality, forcing the public to face their existence.

Recalling the monstrosities that had appeared in Harlem, Chief Loren Clyde involuntarily shuddered.

Snapping back to the present, he quickly reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.

As he hastily dialed a number, he barked an order at the detective beside him:

"I'm contacting headquarters for backup right now. Until then, we need to—"

Realizing that he himself was at the scene, Clyde swiftly corrected himself:

"We need to contain that thing inside Fisk Tower. Do not let it escape."

Lowering his voice, he added in a grim tone:

"I don't want to see my officers dying here. Their lives are worth far more than the scum inside that building."

The detective standing next to him hesitated for a brief moment before nodding. "Understood, Chief. I know what to do."

Without wasting another second, the detective rushed off to relay Clyde's orders.

Meanwhile, Clyde contacted HQ, urgently reporting the situation and requesting reinforcements.

At the same time, he ordered every remaining officer at the precinct to mobilize and transport all heavy firepower from the armory to the scene immediately.

While the police treated the area around Fisk Tower as a warzone, hastily evacuating civilians, Joker Eren stood by the window, staring at the building 200 meters away.

His eyes gleamed as he sensed something shifting within.

"…It's here."

The next second—

A tidal wave of blood erupted.

Thousands of crimson tendrils surged outward, shattering the countless glass windows of Fisk Tower.

At that moment, the horrors inside were laid bare for all to see.

Compared to the grotesque sight Joker Eren had witnessed in the underground levels, Fisk's form had undergone a drastic transformation.

The once-opulent lobby, now resembling a hellish slaughterhouse, was littered with corpses—bodies piled upon one another, forming a gruesome carpet of death.

Dark red tendrils, covered in rotting fur, slithered out from the blood-soaked floor, stabbing into the lifeless bodies scattered across the ground.

Each tendril was lined with gaping, fang-like maws that tore into the flesh, sinking deep into the remains.

As the tendrils burrowed in, a network of eerie, vein-like patterns crawled beneath the corpses' skin, writhing as if alive.

Under the influence of these nightmarish markings, the bodies' flesh began to dissolve into a thick, flowing liquid.

Siphoned by the wriggling tendrils, the liquefied remains were absorbed and funneled into the building's massive, twelve-meter-high lobby.

And there—

A colossal creature, standing over ten meters tall, was taking shape.

Its grotesque body was an amalgamation of countless faces, limbs, and organs, stitched together into an abomination beyond human comprehension.

Gashes of rotting flesh split open across its form, exposing pulsating, dark-red arteries that twisted and fused together.

From these gaping wounds, flesh and blood siphoned from the dead continuously oozed, filling in the gaps as the monstrosity grew.

If one looked closely—

Faint traces of Fisk's face could still be seen emerging from the creature's forming head.

"Not enough… it's still not enough…"

"I need… more flesh!"

Even after devouring most of the corpses in the lobby, the abomination's body remained incomplete, riddled with gaping wounds.

Its hungry, rotting gaze slowly shifted—

Turning toward the crowd outside.

"This thing's got to be at least ten meters tall… That's giant territory."

Joker Eren murmured in mild fascination.

The new Fisk wasn't just bigger.

The stench of decay radiating from its body had intensified to an unbearable degree.

The tendrils writhing across its grotesque form had darkened from blood-red to a deep, necrotic crimson.

And everything around it—

Corpses, furniture, potted plants, even the walls and glass of Fisk Tower itself—was rotting away at an alarming rate under its corrupting aura.

Even from a distance, Joker Eren could smell the overpowering stench of putrefaction.

"…It's losing control even more than before."

Just as he fell into thought, a deafening roar echoed from within Fisk Tower.

"Offer your flesh and become one with me, insignificant mortals!"

At that moment, a murderous glint flared in the abomination's eyes.

Then—

With a single, earth-shaking movement, it charged forward, slamming into the tower's outer wall.

BOOM!

The impact was cataclysmic.

The concrete exterior—once thought impenetrable—shattered like brittle paper.

The monster burst through, emerging onto the streets of New York.

Even after demolishing the outer wall, it didn't stop.

It immediately rushed toward the densest part of the crowd.

Watching the ten-meter-tall horror—a walking mountain of rotting flesh and writhing limbs—Chief Clyde felt his face go pale.

With trembling hands, he raised his radio and screamed:

"OPEN FIRE! ALL UNITS, FIRE AT WILL!"

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Even without his command, panic-stricken officers had already started shooting.

Driven by sheer terror, dozens of police officers unloaded their weapons the moment the abomination emerged.

Their aim, however, was wild and erratic.

But it didn't matter.

The monster was simply too big to miss.

Dozens of bullets tore into its grotesque form.

However—

Aside from tiny, oozing holes and splashes of putrid blood, the attack barely seemed to faze it.

(End of Chapter)

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