Requiem of The Godfather: Price of a Memory

Ch 03. The Devil's Awakening

    Eduardo kicked off the muddy seabed.

    

    BOOM!

    

    The force of the kick created a small vortex, launching his body toward the surface like a bullet.

    

    As Eduardo shot upward through the seawater, he read the system notifications with a faint smile.

    

    [PASSIVE SKILL: BONE BREAKER ACTIVATED.]

    [BONE DENSITY INCREASED: 200%.]

    

    On the pier above, the rain was still falling, though not as violently as before. The bald man with the scorpion tattoo, Rico, stood beneath the leaking warehouse roof, lighting a cigarette. Beside him, two other thugs, Jojo and a skinny young man named Ben, laughed while counting several thick stacks of cash.

    

    “Damn, Claude really is brutal,” Jojo chuckled, spitting to the side. “Eduardo was basically mush when we tossed him in. I doubt even sharks would want meat that wrecked.”

    

    “Whatever, job’s done,” Rico replied, exhaling smoke. “Hey, I heard Eduardo’s wife, Emily, is getting taken straight to the main brothel tomorrow morning. Such a waste. We should enjoy her ourselves tonight, right?”

    

    Ben grinned lewdly. “That’s a great idea. Boss Claude would never know if we take a little taste of the collateral. Her husband’s already a corpse down there. Who’s gonna report us?”

    

    “Hahaha. You’re right,” Rico laughed crudely. “After this, let’s swing by their apartment. We’ll say we’re there to ‘secure’ the assets.”

    

    BYUURR!

    

    The explosive sound of water erupting at the edge of the pier cut their laughter short. All three turned toward the noise. Through the rain mist and darkness, a shadow crawled up from the wooden edge.

    

    “What the hell is that? A seal?” Ben squinted, trying to see.

    

    The shadow stood upright. The figure was drenched, clothes torn to shreds, skin pale like a corpse soaked for days. Its head hung low, rainwater streaming from tangled hair.

    

    “Who the hell are you?” Rico shouted, reaching for his waistband, searching for his gun. “Hey. If you’re a bum, get lost now before I put a hole in your head.”

    

    The figure lifted its face. Under the flickering pier lights, Rico staggered back, the cigarette dropping from his mouth.

    

    “E… Eduardo?”

    

    “That’s impossible,” Jojo whispered, trembling, his face turning white. “I threw him in myself. He wasn’t breathing.”

    

    Eduardo stepped forward. Each step was heavy, leaving wet footprints mixed with dark red blood. He said nothing. His crimson eyes stared at them with terrifying emptiness.

    

    “Y… you’re a ghost, you bastard?” Rico finally drew his pistol. “Die again!”

    

    TAKK!

    

    He pulled the trigger, but the gun jammed. Or maybe his hands were shaking too badly, and he forgot to disengage the safety.

    

    In the blink of an eye, Eduardo moved. He did not run. He lunged. His speed surpassed anything Rico had ever seen. Before Rico could react, Eduardo’s hand clamped around the wrist holding the gun.

    

    KRAAAKK!

    

    The sound was sickeningly crisp in the pier’s silence. Rico’s wrist bones shattered into pieces. Not just broken, but pulverized, like they had been run over by a truck.

    

    “AAAAARRGGHHH. MY HAND. MY HAAAAND!” Rico screamed hysterically, dropping to his knees and clutching his mangled arm.

    

    “You said you wanted to ‘taste’ my wife,” Eduardo said in a low, hoarse voice, as if it rose from the bottom of a deep well. “Did you really say that, Rico?”

    

    Jojo and Ben, panicking, tried to attack Eduardo from behind. Jojo stabbed a folding knife toward Eduardo’s back.

    

    TINGG!

    

    The blade struck Eduardo’s shoulder blade, but instead of piercing skin, the metal snapped clean in half. Jojo’s eyes bulged.

    

    “What the fuck. What are you made of, demon?”

    

    Eduardo turned slowly. He looked at Jojo like a predator eyeing prey. With one hand, he grabbed Jojo by the throat and lifted him off the ground, his legs kicking helplessly in the air.

    

    “Please… Eduardo… spare me…” Jojo whimpered, his face turning blue.

    

    Eduardo did not answer. He tightened his grip. He felt monstrous power flowing through his fingers. Bone Breaker. He wanted to know how strong a human neck really was now.

    

    KRETEK.

    

    The sound of a neck shifting. Jojo stopped struggling. His eyes bulged, his head slumped at an unnatural angle. Eduardo tossed the corpse aside like a sack of rice.

    

    Ben, the youngest, collapsed to the ground. He crawled backward, urine soaking his pants.

    

    “Don’t kill me… please… it was Rico’s idea. I just went along with it.”

    

    Eduardo walked toward Ben. Every step forced Ben to crawl back until his spine slammed into a pillar.

    

    “You’re all the same,” Eduardo whispered. “Brave only when someone else is helpless.”

    

    Eduardo raised his foot and stomped down on Ben’s thigh.

    

    BRAKK!

    

    The femur shattered instantly. Ben could not even scream. The pain was so intense his nervous system shut down. He passed out, his leg now bent like rubber instead of bone.

    

    Finally, Eduardo turned back to Rico, who was still whimpering on the pier floor, trying to crawl away with his remaining arm.

    

    “Where is Claude?” Eduardo asked, stepping on Rico’s back and pressing him into the wooden planks until they began to crack.

    

    “I… I don’t know,” Rico sobbed, tears streaming down his face. “He usually goes to a bar called The Red Cage around this time. Please, Eduardo… don’t kill me. I have a kid…”

    

    “You have a kid?” Eduardo tilted his head slightly. “Funny. You didn’t think about my kid when you talked about dragging Emily to a brothel.”

    

    Eduardo bent down, his hand gripping Rico’s jaw, the same jaw that had laughed at him earlier.

    

    “Tell the devils in hell… Eduardo sends his regards.”

    

    With one violent twist, Eduardo snapped Rico’s neck. The crack was the last sound on the old pier that night, aside from the rain, which was finally easing.

    

    Eduardo stood amid the pile of bodies, breathing hard. He stared at his blood-soaked hands. A flicker of disgust surfaced, then quickly vanished, replaced by cold calm. The system had truly changed him.

    

    Suddenly, it felt as if his head had been struck by a sledgehammer.

    

    “AAAKKKH!”

    

    Eduardo dropped to his knees, clutching his throbbing head. His vision spun. In the darkness of his mind, an image was being forcibly erased. He saw a small child running through a park, chasing a brown-furred dog barking happily.

    

    What was the dog’s name? Eduardo tried to remember. I loved him so much. Come on, remember. His name… his name…

    

    ZING!

    

    The memory vanished. Gone. He remembered having a dog, but the name, the sound of its bark, and the feeling of holding it were completely erased.

    

    [PAYMENT RECEIVED: MEMORY OF ‘MAX’ (PET DOG) HAS BEEN DELETED.]

    [USER LEVEL INCREASED: LEVEL 2.]

    

    Eduardo panted, cold sweat mixing with rainwater on his face. He looked at the corpses before him with eyes colder than before.

    

    “The price…” Eduardo muttered hoarsely. “I’m starting to lose myself.”

    

    He searched Rico’s lifeless pockets, taking the phone and car keys. He had no time to mourn the lost memory. He had less than twenty minutes before Claude’s other men reached his home.

    

    “I don’t need memories,” Eduardo whispered to the night. “I only need Claude’s blood.”