8 Chase
Several events after waking up in a whole new world, Lyrica came to realize that the flower field she admired is the home of the slimes.
Boing! Boing!
Not just blue slimes, there are red, white, green, brown, and yellow slimes that are present in the flower field.
The infuriated Lyrica tried to flee from the ones who are approaching her.
"I have to outrun... Wha–!"
Lyrica can certainly outrun the horde of bouncing creatures. But as the sound of her footsteps kept making loud noises, more and more slimes are being attracted towards her, hence she couldn't widen the distance.
"How troublesome...!" Lyrica cursed aggressively as she started panting almost immediately.
Lyrica did participate in physical education, more precisely sprinting during her school days back on Earth, but she didn't dedicate her life to trying to become an athlete. She merely did it for the scholarship.
That said, her body isn't built for doing incredibly long runs. This is evident as her speed began to dwindle, not even a minute had passed ever since she started running.
"This is not... how my new life should begin... and end."
Boing~! Boing~! Boing~!
"Tch!" Lyrica spat out such a strong vulgar word that it attracted more slimes in the process.
As the chase went on and on, Lyrica is gradually losing speed, allowing the slimes to close the distance. At the same time, Lyrica's head is also losing its cool.
She clenched her teeth in anger. "That voice... That lying bastard! I'll find her and make her pay for bringing me in the middle of a slime nest!"
For a brief moment, Lyrica can pick up the speed and manage to maintain the gap between her and the slimes.
"Damn it... Damn it!"
However, the boost she gained through anger and her will to live didn't last long as she felt her stamina being drained from running by the second.
"If only I have my headphones with me... I'd be running without trouble!"
But, as the words escaped her lips, something that seemed like a miracle happened.
"Huh?"
Lyrica felt it. She reached her left hand onto her left ear. But what she touched wasn't her earlobe.
It's a round and solid object combined with a band that's attached over her head, reaching down to the other round and solid object covering her right ear.
"This is...!"
Yes, it is none other than Lyrica's headphones.
"I'm wearing it this entire time? I was certain that I left it in the bag back on earth."
Seemingly clueless about how her headphones mysteriously materialized over her head, a smile of hope formed on her face.
"No matter," She mouthed confidently. "If I can listen to some calming music, I'll outrun these things in seconds!"
Lyrica turned on her wireless headphones and tried to reach from inside one of her blazer's side pockets.
"Huh..."
Lyrica tried to reach every nook and cranny of the pockets, but what she was trying to get inside doesn't seem to be in either of them. In that instant, her expression that's full of confidence disappeared.
"My phone's not here!"
This time she's certain. If it's not inside her blazer, then it's definitely inside her schoolbag which was left back on Earth.
"I can't play any music without my phone!"
Lyrica lost all hope as fast as how she gained them when she realized she had her headphones on her. Without her mobile device connected with her headphones, she cannot play any kind of music, nor even try to pick up radio channels.
But at that moment...
[Systems Online - Headphones Connected]
Listener: Lyrica Ley Rael
Lv. 0
HP: 100%
MP: 20
dB Limit: 0
[Statistics]
Strength: 10
Durability: 10
Agility: 10
Stamina: 10
Senses: 10
Available Stat Points: 0
[Playlist]
Playable Music:
--> Jazz Harmony (Lv. --)
--
--
Background Music:
--
--
--
> Acquired EXP: 45
> EXP Required: 800
> Total EXP Earned: 45
Instead of playing music, or picking up a radio channel signal, a blue holographic image appeared right before her very own eyes, at the same time as her headphones announced the systems turning online.
The said image is displaying what appeared to be similar to that of a character window in video games, including the one Lyrica's playing along with Erika. And so, she could understand almost every info written in the image.
"Listener... Level... dB Limit? Statistics and Stat Points... Playable Music... Jazz Harmony?"
While she's reading the contents of the hologram projection, a question started boggling her mind.
'Why did a hologram projection suddenly appear out of nowhere, displaying a layout of a game character's general info? To top it off, this character window seemed to be mine, and it follows me wherever I look.'
The girl couldn't fathom the reason why.
"Damn it! I don't have time to hallucinate about being inside a virtual game world! All I want is to listen to music, that's all!"
[Now Playing: Jazz Harmony]
Without realizing it, Lyrica's desperate plea to listen to the music triggered the mysterious system to play Jazz Harmony.
In that instant, the soothing feeling from the harmonious jazz enveloped her body. Her exhaustion miraculously disappeared and her breathing had finally calmed down.
Right after that, Lyrica started picking up speed. She kept running with her eyes staring blankly upfront. She lost consciousness eventually after that.
And because she lost consciousness, she had no idea how fast she outran the slimes the instant Jazz Harmony started playing.
***
Almost three minutes later...
"Huh? They're gone."
Lyrica took a glance at the slimes in the far distance, bewildered and oblivious of what happened. After that, she turned her attention to herself.
"Hm?" Lyrica started flexing her left arm repeatedly, her brows furrowed in the process. "Wait..."
Lyrica gave herself a full body check and even tried to observe her breathing. After doing so, the girl found out that everything about her is in top condition.
"But how? What's going on? Shouldn't I be dying for air right about now?"
Still oblivious of what happened, the floating blue screen distracted her.
"I can't tell if I'm hallucinating or not."
Lyrica tried to interact with the character window, but her right hand would only go through the screen.
"I guess that should have been obvious. It's a projection, after all."
Instead of trying to interact with it, the girl decided to just read everything in it. That's when the Statistics caught her eyes.
"Hm? What is this?"
[Statistics]
Strength: 10 (+50)
Durability: 10 (+50)
Agility: 10 (+50)
Stamina: 10 (+100)
Senses: 10 (+50)
"+50, +50, 50, 50... +100?"
Alongside all five stats which have 10 points, additional points can be seen in each one of them.
[Jazz Harmony will end in five seconds.]
"Wha–!"
A system notification startled Lyrica. And at the corner of her view, Jazz Harmony's countdown started counting.
This prompted Lyrica to check out the Playlist section, where Jazz Harmony can be seen listed on the Playable Music category.
[5]
After giving Jazz Harmony a closer and serious look, another image appeared in front of the character window.
Lyrica eyeballed the image which contained information about Jazz Harmony's effects and drawbacks.
[4]
She knew that there's not enough time to read the entire information, and so she went straight for Jazz Harmony's drawbacks, in concern of what would happen once the music stopped playing.
[3]
"Once Jazz Harmony ends, all bonus stats will disappear."
[2]
"At the same time, exhaustion, mental fatigue, and pain will return to how they were before Jazz Harmony is used."
[1]
"Moreover, depending on how much decibel is used, the Listener's exhaustion, mental fatigue, and pain will be amplified... Ampli–!!"
[0]
Even though she went straight to read the drawbacks of Jazz Harmony, Lyrica wasn't able to process everything in time, nor even prepare herself for what's about to happen.
With the countdown reaching zero, Lyrica's body collapsed as a surge of pain struck her like thunder.
"Gaahh!!"
