Chapter:30 Rocky Morning

[Notification]

[Status: Fatigued (-15% Attributes)]

Last night had been anything but peaceful. Renko barely got any shut eyes due to the banging and crashing noises that came from her neighbor till well past midnight. In fact, Renko was pretty sure she checked the clock once and it said 3 am in the night before the noises stopped.

Thankfully, Renko managed to drift into a restless sleep and barely got two hours' worth of sleep. 

[06:30 AM]

The morning sun cast a warm glow over the city as Renko barely woke up, groggily checking the time on the clock. The noise from the neighboring apartment seemed to have subsided, at least for the moment. She rubbed her eyes and reluctantly got out of bed, preparing for the day ahead.

She stumbled her way into the shower and randomly turned a tap only to be sprayed with ice-cold water in the face. 

'...F*#k'

After the quick shower, Renko made her way to the kitchen.

'Cup noodles or eggs?'

Well, she did have some time on her hands so she might as well try cooking for a change.

She cracked open a few eggs and poured the white and yellows into a bowl, added a pinch of salt, some black and red pepper, and a finely diced onion (Yes, she could somehow do it now).

Set the pan on the stove, light the fire, and let it heat up before applying some butter to it. Once the pan started to smoke a bit, she poured the mixture into it. After a minute flip the omelet and after another remove it from the pan. 

Rinse and repeat!

The first one ended up being torn to shreds, the second was half-burnt, and the third didn't cook properly.

But the ones after them were good enough to eat.

[Cooking: +55 EXP]

Renko placed the simple dish on the table and poured a mug of coffee. Took a minute to admire her work before digging in.

'It's alright!'

Finally, she could cook something edible without ruining half her kitchen!

Renko finished her breakfast, cleaned up the dishes, and checked her schedule for the day. She had school till 3:30 in the afternoon, then a meeting with Kurosawa at 4:30 after which she was thinking of trying out all the new weapons that were unlocked due to the increase in her CP. The driving school lessons were scheduled to be on TTS or Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. So she had the evening to herself.

Dressing up in her school uniform, Renko took one look at herself in the mirror and stopped dead in her path. 

Her eyes had dark patches that reminded her of a panda, the eyes themselves were red from the lack of proper sleep complimented by the long scar running across her face made her look like a ghost from some random horror movie.

'God damn it!'

She hastily checked through her dresser and the bathroom but found no makeup boxes or anything that might help. Powder? Nah, she didn't want to look like a ghost. Sunscreen? Protection from what, the damage was already done.

Seems like she would have to go to school looking like a vengeful ghost.

With a sigh, Renko picked up her school bag and made her way to the front door, she slipped into the shoes and opened the gate to a wonderful urban scenery...

"Huh?"

Instead of the parking lot, the one thing present in front of the apartment complex was a giant, green, and monstrous creature. Its large face sported two arrays of giant fangs in its maw and it was staring intently at the apartment next to hers.

Renko rubbed her eyes, pretty sure that the sleeplessness was taking a toll on her body, despite having the 'Avatar' skill, it seemed she was not entirely a game character. Her body would still suffer from ailments such as overconsumption of substances, missing limbs, or hallucinations due to insomnia.

The speed at which she rubbed her eyes intensified and as she opened them again, hoping to see the empty parking lot instead of a giant beast but...

*Grrrrr* 

*BANG*

Renko slammed the door shut.

'What the fuck is going on here?'

She opened the door again.

The creature was now sticking its face into the apartment complex's open corridor, specifically in front of her office-woman neighbor's door.

'Observe'

[Lv.5555(9999) Tohru, Chaos Dragon] 

Yeah... NO!

She's probably daydreaming.

Renko went back inside her apartment unit. She washed her face using ice-cold water from the fridge, poured another mug of hot coffee, and lit up a cigarette. 

Ten minutes, two cigarettes, and a shot of caffeine later she once again stood at her unit's front door, contemplating her options.

Should she open the door and face whatever the hell her daydream throws at her or should she go back to sleep?

Renko took a deep breath, trying to make sense of the bizarre situation. The creature outside her apartment defied all logic and reason. Sure she had seen bizarre-shaped cursed spirits but she didn't expect to see a dragon first thing in the morning.

After a minute of deep breathing and steeling herself, she decided to open the door, cautiously, half-expecting the creature to have vanished into thin air but to her surprise, the massive creature was still glaring at the door next to hers. 

"What... the hell?"

Renko muttered to herself.

Her neighboring apartment's door opened, revealing the pink-haired office woman who was known to regularly throw drunk tantrums every now and then. What was this woman's name again?

"Greetings Kobayashi-san"

Said the creature in an extremely gruff voice.

Oh yeah, now that she thought about it, the office woman was called Kobayashi...

'Wait that's not the point here!'

Renko clung to the wall, trying to keep her presence at its lowest.

[Basic Stealth: +500 EXP]

[Basic Stealth: +500 EXP]

[Basic Stealth: +500 EXP]

.

.

.

*10

[Basic Stealth(10): 685/1000

Description: The very basic skill of masking one's presence.

- Noise Suppression: 28%

- Odor Suppression: 28%

- Reduced Presence: 28%]

'Huh?'

It seems that the dragon ignoring her presence counted as her using the stealth skill. Well, good for her... OR NOT! 

[Lv.1 Meiko Kobayashi, Spiritually Aware Human]

'The heck! Why isn't there a single normal person in this apartment complex!?'

It seems that her agitation drew the creature's attention because it turned to look at her. Its otherworldly red eyes with a dark slit between them seem to glow with an immense amount of energy that all fixated on her.

[Warning]

[Chaos Dragon 'Tohru' is Directing an Immense Amount of Bloodlust at You!]

[Strength attribute: -99%]

[Vitality Attribute: -99%]

[Dexterity Attribute: -99%]

[Spirituality Attribute: -99%]

[Wisdom Attribute: -99%]

[Condolences]

[New Skill 'Bloodlust Detection' Acquired]

[10*New Skill 'Bloodlust Detection' Had Leveled Up]

[Bloodlust Detection(10): 0/1100 

Description: A skill that detects any bloodlust directed at the user. It is an instinctive skill. Detects bloodlust within a particular range, it also alerts the user of the location.

- Range: 100 Meters]

It took all her strength, but she finally turned her shivering head towards her next-door neighbor. The office woman seemed as clueless as herself but at least she was not shivering.

"Companions larger than a dog are not allowed in the apartment complex."

The woman placed a hand behind her head and smiled embarrassedly,

"Sorry!"

She then turned to the dragon,

"Please come in."

Under the stunned eyes of Renko, the dragon turned into a woman almost as tall as herself. Donning a maid's outfit, she glared at Renko before entering the businesswoman's house. 

Once the dragon was out of sight, Renko breathed a sigh of relief but soon that sigh turned into an annoyed grunt as she stretched her limbs which felt stiff from all the pressure.

[Attributes Restored]

*Sigh*

'This world's messed up.'

The strange encounter had left Renko both exhausted and bewildered, the lack of proper sleep and the unexpected encounter had taken an even larger toll on her body. She retreated back into her apartment, closing the door quietly behind her.

[08:00 AM]

She sat down at her table, trying to process what she had just witnessed. The dragon, the bloodlust, the strange dragon turning into a maid- it all seemed so fucking bizarre, almost dreamlike. 

After a moment, Renko shook her head, realizing that dwelling on the strange occurrences wouldn't do her any good. She needed to focus on the day ahead. The school was her first priority, and she had to endure a day filled with classes and prior engagements. 

'Gotta rush don't I'

She sprinted down the road, rushing through the crowd, desperate to get to the school before she was late.

[08:15 PM]

Renko barely managed to make it on time. Even so, her clothes were ruffled, and her hair was hanging in front of her face. She had an annoyed look plastered on her face, making her look more like a delinquent rather than a normal student.

She marched through the school's crowded halls, looking like a zombie. She didn't notice at all that the third-floor corridor was filled to the brim with students spectating some sort of fight.

Miyamura seemed to have joined her somewhere along the way and now two zombies were treading the pathway to the hell known as class.

"I gave her everything yesterday! The budget notebook and everything!"

Hori was screaming at someone who, Renko was fairly certain, she had met before.

"Remi said she didn't know. Apparently, she didn't check to make sure at the time."

Said the redhead that was starting to blur out of her vision.

"Then..."

Hori replied,

"Yes, we're not guilt-free ourselves. But the real question is whether or not the budget notebook was with the thing that Remi picked up."

They broke off into a conversation that seemed to drag on for a while, but Renko was starting to feel exhausted from standing in the crowd of students. 

With a sigh, she smashed through the crowd, trying to make her way to her class. But now that she noticed fellow students detaining her friends. Tooru was caught by several students and even Yuki was being detained by a couple of girls.

'Whatever, I just need to get to my class.'

As she slammed through the crowd, she found herself standing before the redheaded boy who had been annoyingly shouting for a while now. 

"What do you want?"

Asked the boy in a rather loud voice,

His voice was annoying, too annoying for a headache-suffering Renko.

She stood up to her full height, no longer slouching or dangling like a zombie. Instead, she was now looking down at the boy with an expression of pure annoyance complimented by her dark circles, red eyes, and scar, giving her a rather menacing look.

"Huh?"

[Congratulation]

[New Skill Detected]

[Intimidation]