Crow's figure darted out of the shadows that were scattered all over the ensuing chaos. Every time he showed up, he would grab the head of the corpses.
"System Command: Phantom Hands"
Suddenly, his hand passed through the skull of the corpses. When he felt something squirming inside, he grabbed it and pulled.
The corpse shrivelled up and fell on the ground.
Crow glanced at the squirming object in his hand then crushed it before going to another area.
Upon seeing the figure of Crow suddenly appearing before them, the cockroaches that were busy fending off his former army would scream his name in fear and panic even more. However, before they could even finish their words, his figure would disappear, leaving only the shrivelled dead bodies.
'How long before my teleportation ability is going to be deleted?'
Crow asked this seemingly virus-like system. He wasn't really expecting any response, but surprisingly it did.
[Approximately at 50%, Phantom Hands will be deleted. At 75%, Shadow Blink will also be deleted. And finally, at 100%, your dysfunctional ability will be completely debugged.]
'Then how much time do I have left?'
This time, the voice remained unresponsive, only showing him a window with a timer at the corner of his vision.
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Reforming old system. Please be patient. 43% (00:07:56)
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'Eight minutes left, huh?'
He stopped for a moment and looked around, watching the cockroaches scattered all over the place with disappointment in his eyes.
He had saved three cockroaches and civilians on the way, but there were still many more in danger. Fortunately, that scary woman was trying her best to defend everyone she could defend with her ability.
But those cockroaches called heroes... Didn't they want to fight him earlier? With that kind of strength?
Crow scoffed.
Even without his former corpse manipulation ability, he could thrash these guys around. But with a twist of fate, he was back, trying to save these guys' pitiful asses.
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Profanity detected!
Degeneration Points +1 (209/1000)
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The familiar sting was back. Crow hissed in pain but forced himself to endure it.
'When did I even curse?!'
As Crow glared at the warning notification, something fast suddenly came at him. He hurriedly dodge out of the way then blinked to another shadow.
Shang! Shang! Shang!
From where he was standing earlier, knives and blades had penetrated the concrete ground deeply, their metallic body still shaking from the sudden impact.
Crow glanced at the direction where it came from, and the first thing that he saw was the voluptuous figure of Vesper.
He whistled. "Wassup?"
Her expression remained unchanged. Another set of sharp and hard objects levitated around her.
Crow tried to be careful with his words. "Say, what do you think about cooperating for a moment?"
Not even a second later, he received the answer to his question. Rocks, steel bars, knives and blades flew toward where he was standing as though hungry for his blood.
'I guess the answer is no.'
Once again, Crow teleported to another place where a little cockroach was fighting off a horde of zombies.
The cockroach had already exhausted all his skills, so much that he was being overwhelmed, with zombies almost drowning him and clawing through his skin.
He felt heavy and beaten, with bodies piling up to try and eat him. The sky was being enveloped by the zombies' open mouths, their saliva almost dripping to his face.
However, before everything was about to disappear, a figure of a man with messy long black hair suddenly appeared behind the horde. At first, he saw hope. But not long after, he recognized who it was.
"E-Error Crow!"
His heart fell.
No more. He would probably die here today.
"Yo," Crow greeted and waved.
From behind the cockroach, a zombie was just about to bite off his neck. Crow ran toward him with a grin.
"Look out."
Hearing Crow's words, the cockroach was flustered.
"Huh?"
A few seconds later, Crow had grabbed him from the center of the horde, his hand passing through their bodies easily like a phantom. Then, he found himself being flung into the air.
The cockroach blinked, still confused.
What just happened?
His confusion lasted until the flying objects chasing Crow appeared from the horizon, about to hit him instead.
Was Error Crow just using him as a shield against Lady Vesper's attack?
As realization struck him, he felt a chill on his spine. Will he instead die in the hands of another hero and not from the zombies?
Yet, just as the objects were about to hit him, it suddenly halted. Crow laughed and let go of the cockroach before disappearing from the shadows again.
"What kind of hero attacks another hero? I just saved someone, you know?" Crow's words were left with the wind.
Shameless! Utterly shameless!
The villain is calling himself a hero? Was that even considered saving someone? Using them as a meat shield?!
However, it was true that the hero was no longer in danger of being surrounded now that Vesper was near him.
Vesper frowned. Why did Error Crow suddenly come back when he had successfully escaped?
However, now was not the time to worry about it.
Instead, she just chased after Crow's presence to prevent him from doing anything that might endanger the innocents.
***
Crow stole a peek at the figure in his hot pursuit from the corner of his vision. No matter how he tried to shake her off, he just couldn't do it.
It was partly because of these hero cockroaches!
"E-Error Crow!"
"Error Crow is here!"
"No! Don't come closer!"
Whenever he appeared to save those people in a pinch, they would scream his name, giving his location away.
Tsk.
'Aren't they all just crybabies?'
Once again, he made use of another hero as a shield from her attacks. However, she had already learned her lesson from earlier. Instead of attacking from just one direction, the objects attacked him from all sides while she joined in herself.
"Are you heroes just all talk? Why don't you save others first instead of dealing with me?"
'Help me in here, would you?'
At the same time, he quickly glanced at the corner of his vision.
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Reforming old system. Please be patient. 48% (00:05:37)
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Probably a few seconds left before Phantom Rend would be deleted.
Seeing that he had no time to eliminate the zombies, Crow just flung the hero out of their reach and towards Vesper.
At the last moment, he used Shadow Blink. Vesper's attack decimated the zombies in turn.
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Reforming old system. Please be patient. 50% (00:05:00)
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Phantom Hands was also gone.