The Gacha Of Forbidden Taboos

Chapter 8: The Contract Of Blood

Lin Feng's POV

The Arena of the Silver-Spire was a bowl of cold basalt, its floor stained with the history of a thousand "lessons" taught to those who dared to climb too high.

Young Master Shen didn't step down himself. He sat in the velvet-lined VIP box, his fingers white as he gripped the railing.

Standing in the center of the pit was his lead enforcer: Tie Yan. A Tier-3 Earth User whose skin had the dull, grey sheen of reinforced granite.

He was a wall of muscle and mountain-mana, a brute designed to end fights before they truly began.

"You really think a few lucky tricks in the dark make you a warrior, Lin Feng?" Tie Yan’s voice was a low rumble, like tectonic plates shifting. "I’m going to bury you so deep the drakes won't even find your bones."

Tie Yan slammed his palms onto the basalt floor. The arena groaned.

"[Earth Art: Grave-Born Sentinel]!"

The ground shattered. Jagged shards of rock and sediment swirled into the air, pulled together by a violent vortex of brown mana.

Within seconds, a three-meter-tall golem stood between us, its limbs made of compacted boulder and its eyes glowing with a malevolent, muddy light.

I didn't draw the [Phantom Rib]. I didn't even raise my hands to a guard position. I stood there, my feet planted, watching the behemoth loom over me.

"Kill him," Tie Yan commanded.

The golem moved with surprising speed. Its massive, stone fist whistled through the air, a blunt-force instrument weighing over a ton. It slammed into my chest, the impact sounding like a hammer hitting an anvil.

CRACK.

My sternum buckled. Three ribs snapped instantly, the jagged ends piercing my lungs. I was launched backward, my heels carving twin furrows into the basalt before I slammed into the arena wall.

[CRITICAL INJURY DETECTED: PULMONARY HEMORRHAGE.]

[VITALITY: 42%.]

[PAIN-TO-POWER CONVERSION: STRENGTH +400%.]

"Is that it?" I coughed, a spray of bright, arterial blood painting my chin. I pushed myself off the wall, the internal agony fueling a dark, intoxicating rush of energy.

"I’ve had harder hugs from the Scavenger drakes, Tie Yan."

Tie Yan’s face twisted. "Stubborn rat! Crush his legs!"

The golem lunged again. It grabbed me by the waist, its stone fingers digging into my hips with enough pressure to pulverize marble.

I felt my pelvis groan. The crowd leaned forward, sensing the end.

[POINT HARVEST PEAK: 15,000.]

[BONUS: 'MASOCHISTIC RESOLVE' MULTIPLIER ACTIVATED.]

Now, I thought, my vision blurring into a haze of red and black. Give me the chain to bind the mountain.

The Gacha wheel manifested in the center of my failing consciousness. It wasn't spinning anymore; it was vibrating, the "Massacre" Tier bleeding into a deep, abyssal violet that seemed to swallow the light of the arena.

[TOTAL POINTS EXPENDED: 20,000.]

[EXECUTING 'TABOO-GRADE' PULL...]

The needle landed on an icon of rusted, barbed links wrapped around a screaming soul.

[CONGRATULATIONS!]

[You have obtained the 5-Star Skill: "Abyssal Chains of the Weeping God".]

[Type: Soul-Binding Artifact (Passive/Active).]

[Description: These chains do not strike the body; they strike the origin. Ignores physical and elemental defense. The more the target struggles, the more mana is drained from their core.]

The golem squeezed harder, its stone fingers sinking into my flesh.

"Die!" Tie Yan screamed, pouring the last of his Tier-3 reserves into the construct.

I looked up, my eyes suddenly flashing with a cold, void-black light. "My turn to pull the strings."

I slammed my good hand onto the ground.

Black, oily smoke erupted from the cracks in the basalt. From that smoke, four massive, rusted chains lashed out like vipers.

They didn't hit the golem's stone exterior, they passed right through the rock as if it were water, wrapping around the core of mana that animated the beast.

The golem froze. The muddy light in its eyes flickered and died.

"What... what is this?" Tie Yan gasped, his own arms suddenly jerking forward as if pulled by invisible wires.

The Abyssal Chains didn't stop at the golem. They shot across the arena floor, snaking up Tie Yan’s legs and binding his wrists.

He tried to pulse his Earth-mana to shatter them, but the moment he touched the metal, his face went pale.

[SKILL EFFECT: IGNORE DEFENSE ACTIVATED.]

[DRAINING TARGET MANA...]

"You like burying things, don't you?" I asked, standing up straight. My broken ribs gave a sickening pop as the stored energy forced them back into alignment.

I made a pulling motion with my hand.

The chains tightened. With a deafening roar of grinding stone, the golem was ripped apart from the inside out, its boulders scattering like pebbles.

Tie Yan was jerked off his feet, his body slammed face-first into the dirt as the chains began to drag him toward the center of the pit, toward the "Void" I had become.

He clawed at the ground, his fingernails tearing, but the Abyssal Chains were relentless. They pulled him until he was pinned at my feet, his Tier-3 pride literally being squeezed out of him in ragged gasps.

I stood over him, the dark chains pulsing with a heartbeat that wasn't mine. I looked up at the VIP box, meeting Shen’s terrified gaze.

"Who's next?" I whispered.

[REWARD: TIER-3 EARTH CORE (REFINED).]

[NEW STATUS: THE UNBREAKABLE VOID.]

The basalt of the arena floor was still warm from the friction of the Abyssal Chains when I turned my gaze from the broken body of Tie Yan to the High Priest’s podium.

The silence in the stadium wasn't just shock; it was a vacuum. I had dismantled a Tier-3 Enforcer with nothing but blood and shadows.

"The challenge is met," I stated, my voice carrying through the still air. "Under the Law of the Damned, the victor claims the spoils of the loser’s station."