8 Chapter 8

Ah, I know now. That's the guy who beat up this body right before I transmigrated. I continue to glare at him while clutching my abdomen. 

The pain was gone thanks to the Healing Protocol, but I still acted as if the pain were there. 

As for the glaring, I would say it's both the combination of my body's natural instinct because of what happened in the past and me personally for getting hit. 

I can manage my emotions well, hide them if needed, but I decided to let this animosity out since it has its own use. 

[Skill: Cold Aura has been activated.] 

"I don't like that look in your eyes, Venti." 

The guy who has the most unlikeable face out of all the elves surrounding the perimeter to prevent my escape spoke. Elves are known for their beauty. I would lie if I said I didn't like my new look. 

However, despite that, there are still these kinds of punchable faces you just want to rough up for some reason. Just seeing them from afar, and you'd already know what kind of annoying personality they have. 

'I don't like your face.' 

Again, I kept that thought to myself. I don't want to make my already bleak situation even worse by talking back. 

"I really thought you'd die when I left you in that place. Who would've known you'd survive and become this strong, eh?" 

No one. In the first place, the original Venti did not survive. It was me who grew strong; I'm just using his physical body as a vessel. 

"If you had just kept a low profile and not hunted monsters that fast, that basically emptied every hunting ground, leaving us nothing to hunt for food, we would've ignored you. However, your actions speak otherwise." 

I agree. If there's no Jinwoo coming into the dungeon to murder every elf inside, I would've done exactly what he just said. But he's showing up. 

If I didn't do this, I might as well be dead. Surviving Jinwoo partnered with the system is hard; that's why I needed to get strong in the shortest time possible so I could evade that guy. 

"Count yourself lucky, though. If it hadn't been for the order of the Chief to bring the one responsible alive for over hunting monsters, I would've killed you right here." 

Lucky, it is. The elf approached, seizing my long white hair and hoisting me to his eye level. His grasp tightened, mirroring the widening of his malicious grin.

"You really got us chasing you like herding dogs. Now that you're caught, I want you to come with us without a fuss. Unless you want yourself to get beaten more than what I did in the past. This time, though, I'll really go for the kill." 

Realizing what was going to happen, my mind went back to the escape strategies shown by AI when I was running away from them. All of them were hard to pull off. That is if I did it manually. 

Right, what if I let AI handle the situation for me? I know it's too early for me to use it as I'm only in the 8th chapter, but... 

'I have no choice.' 

I still don't want to meet Baruka. I can't even defeat this 9 elf without the help of AI, who would probably just be fodder compared to Baruka. I need to get even stronger. I need to grind more. 

[Activating Auto-Pilot for lethal engagement. Confirm execution of "Kill Everyone on Sight" protocol?] 

"I'll leave everything to you, AI." 

The elf looked at me. I saw the reflection of my eyes through his, turned from one filled with bloodlust to that of a lifeless one. The light dimmed as my face turned completely emotionless.

...

The elves were confused as to why his bloodlust disappeared all of a sudden. Shouldn't it get stronger? Even if he realized his situation and that escaping is pointless, it's still confusing.

"Ha? What's this? Muttering something and then going mute? Have you finally realized how helpless you are in—" 

Before he could utter another word, Venti seized the elf's wrist and deftly pushed the elbow, executing a swift and seamless break.

"Huh—?!" 

Without even having the chance to recover from that surprise retaliation, Venti, who is now in complete control of AI's auto-pilot, materialized a dagger and was going to stab the elf on the side of his neck.

However, the elf managed to react to this, so he moved his head back, only resulting in his throat getting a minor slice. He let go of Venti as he staggered back. Everyone was looking at the elf's neck, spurting fountains of blood.

"What..." 

"The fuck."

"Just happened?" 

The attack isn't all that amazing to garner such a reaction. It was how it was done. Venti didn't show an ounce of emotion doing so. He looked like a puppet when he did that. It honestly left them feeling creepy.

"—Gah!" 

Only when the elf with a punchable face let out a groan did the other elf start to arm themselves to attack Venti. But he was one step ahead of them. 

Venti, who was blankly staring forward, stomped his foot on the ground, causing the snow to fly everywhere, restricting everyone's vision of their surroundings.

"Guard the perimeter; he's going to escape!" 

Everyone was busy clearing the snow by using their respective ice magic. One of the elves noticed someone who was not doing anything.

"Hey Cyran, what are you doing?! Didn't I tell you to guard the perimeter—!" 

The elf named Cyran disappeared on his spot and reappeared behind. He wrapped his arms around the elf and put him in a chokehold. There was pale blue smoke oozing out of his arm; he was infusing mana into it.

"You fucker! What are... you... doing..." 

As soon as the elf lost his consciousness, he went and snapped his neck, successfully snuffing out his life. His countenance shifted momentarily, only to revert back to Venti's emotionless visage.

[Skill: False Appearance has been deactivated.]