THE AFTERLIFE PARADOX

"Vroom" Engines roared to life as Wallace and the lady entered the car. The other cars had already arrived. He started his car and zoomed off. The cars behind chased for minutes before he left them behind.

"Call your boss now," he said.

"May," he called out.

"The screen lit up," he said.

"Look out for any call she makes and track the location of the phone," he said, focusing on the road.

"You are still in the mood to worry about that when you don't even know if you can get out of this city alive," she said.

"Just call now," he said.

"Okay." She picked up the phone and called while he focused on the road.

"What's happening?" a rough voice was heard on the other end of the line.

"Bos, I just want to ask how it's going," she asked.

"We are already in the city, and we have to tread carefully, so we haven't been able to corner him," the latter said.

"Okay," she said.

Wallace sighed in relief when he heard that the person they were pursuing had not been caught yet. Very soon, a map with a dot appeared on the screen.

"Hmm." He squinted his eyes as he crossed to the next lane. At the same time, a large truck emerged from the street onto the road he was passing through, missing the car by just a hair's breadth. If he had continued on the lane, the truck would have crashed into his car.

I just need to get out of the city, he thought, as he drove at full speed toward the end of the city. Finally, after three minutes, he was almost out of the city, but he saw a blockade using cars in front of him. He saw that people had already gotten down from the cars, and guns were pointing at him.

"You can't escape," she said.

"If I can't escape, you'll also not live a good life," he said, as he drove toward the blockade.

"Bang, Bang." Gunshots were heard, but the bullets bounced off the glittering solid body of the car without causing a scratch. Just when he was some distance away, a platform suddenly rose from the earth, and his car passed through the platform, jumping above the cars.

"What the hell?" The people there looked at the car in the air and the platform that had already collapsed. The car then landed on the other side.

"Screech." He pressed the brake as he stopped the car, which almost went off the road before turning and driving off.

"How the hell did that happen?" she asked him, with wide eyes, but he ignored her and drove off at full speed.

After thirty minutes of driving at full speed, the car finally arrived at an abandoned factory. There were dark vans in the abandoned factory and also a car, but the car had been riddled with bullets.

"May, don't let her out," he told his assistant, and he got down from the car. His clairvoyant ability had already spread twenty meters, and he calmed his mind down, entering an empty state.

Inside the factory, there was a lady who looked like she was on her last leg, as she had been gravely injured. She was strapped to a chair, as men surrounded her, beating her. There was a man sitting on a chair, watching the whole spectacle.

He walked to the entrance and got his two guns ready. He counted the people in the factory, and they were thirty, while each magazine of the gun he was holding was only seven, making fourteen. He sighed as "Bang" he kicked the wide metallic door of the factory open. The large door crushed the two people at the entrance.

He entered and shot two times with each gun, taking four people down. The others were only just able to react and turned toward him, starting to shoot.

"Bang." He smashed the ground with his right leg, crushing the earth underneath him, and he used the momentum to jump into the air.

"Bang, Bang." He shot each time with each of his guns and took two guys down. He landed on the floor and rolled on the floor, and he reached a guy who was still trying to adjust to his position. Wielding the gun, he smashed his head in, as he hid behind the pillar. Gunshots were heard as they hit the pillar. Dust rose up into the air as a bullet grazed past his arm.

He waited, as he looked for opportunities with his clairvoyance ability. Meanwhile, while the gunfight was going on inside, two people already appeared outside.

"The target is inside," one of them said to the earpiece on his ear.

"Don't worry, he should not have been able to fuse with the treasure; we will kill him and take it," he said.

The two walked toward the entrance, which was wide open.

Inside the factory, the gunshots subsided as the shooters had finally emptied their magazines. He walked out from his hiding place as he shot in rapid succession, emptying his gun while taking eight people down.

"Thirteen more," he thought, as he rushed out at a speed their eyes could not catch. The remaining had already reloaded their guns, but they couldn't shoot, since their eyes couldn't catch Wallace's movement, so they just shot widely, hoping that it would take him down.

He passed through a guy and smashed his head in. He arrived in front of another and also smashed his head in, fracturing his skull. He fought using the most primitive weapon, his hand and his strength. With each punch, a skull would be fractured, and multiple bones would be broken in the body.

Within some moments, the remaining were already on the floor with multiple broken bones.

"Ahh," Wallace groaned. A bullet had grazed his right arm, while he had also been shot in the stomach, but the pain was something he could endure, and blood had stopped coming out of the wound.

He looked at the man, who was already paralyzed with fear on his chair, while he heard the wailing of souls. The man quickly pointed his gun at the lady.

"Don't come near, or I'll shoot her," he said, clutching onto his last straw of survival.

"Puchi." A bullet pierced through his head. His face showed confusion as he died.

Only the lady saw what happened - the bullet behind him slowly rose into the air and pierced his head. She looked at Wallace, whose eyes had already turned dark.

Tentacles emerged from his back, piercing into the dead bodies, as they absorbed their soul essence into his body. She only saw that his eyes had turned dark, but she did not see the tentacles and the soul essence being absorbed.

A warm current flowed through his body and coagulated in his abdomen region. Wallace's eyes turned normal again.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"Someone who is here to make a deal with you," he answered, as the chains around the woman loosened.

"Hmm." Wallace moved his body back, as the chains that had just been loosened around the woman lashed out toward his former position.

"Boom." A sound of collision was heard, as the chain collided with a spear that materialized in thin air. The chains broke into pieces, while the spear pierced into Wallace's temple, but it could only pierce a little before it fell to the ground.

He felt an intense burning feeling on his head.

Two men walked into the factory, and they started metamorphosing. They turned taller and more bulky, as their heads turned longer. By the time the lady could see them clearly, she saw two creatures standing over two meters tall, with long heads and bulky bodies. They had gleaming white armor on their bodies, while each of them had one tentacle on their back.

"Where's Karum?" they asked in deep voices, as they looked at Wallace.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"Arishem children," one of them answered.

"This Karum nonsense again," he said, as he looked at the lady.

"You might have to hide," he told her.

"Hmm." The lady crawled her injured body to a safe place.

They ignored her completely.

"I don't have any Karum on me," he answered.

"We can sense it on you; stop lying," the tentacle behind one of them straightened into a sharp spear, as it extended toward Wallace.

Wallace raised his hand up and caught the tentacle, but it had already pierced into his chest. He could only stop it. His clairvoyance ability could sense them clearly, but his body couldn't follow it clearly.

"Hung." He gritted his teeth, as he dragged the creature with the tentacle. His eyes shone, as pillars of earth surrounded him, and he raised the creature up.

"Bang." A second tentacle from the second creature struck the pillar, shattering it, while whipping toward Wallace, but he was not in his former position again, while he had already thrown the first creature away.

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At this point, I will just call them tentacle creatures.