Unknown Device

"Let's have a little chat, shall we?"

The sniper didn't respond. Well, more like he couldn't, as he was having difficulty breathing. Seems like I was choking him a bit too hard.

It was fine though. I made sure it wasn't enough to kill him. It would be even more convenient for me if he were to lose consciousness. I doubt he'd answer me willingly, so I needed to move him somewhere where I could torture him. As I've never tortured anyone for information before, it might take some time before I succeed.

He desperately tried to push me away. I frowned as I grabbed his wrist. Why was he only using his left arm?

I quickly glanced at his right hand and immediately stepped on his wrist, putting in enough strength to make him lose his grip. He's been repeatedly pressing a button on what seemed to be some sort of communication device. Having his wrist crushed, he winced in pain and dropped it on the ground.

"So, what do we have here?" I stopped choking him and reached for the device. It resembled a walkie-talkie, with several buttons and a small, primitive screen. Has he been trying to contact anyone just now?

If that was the case…

I glanced back and reached out my hand, stopping an incoming bullet. Unfortunately, that meant I had to let go of the guy's wrist. He immediately took advantage of the opportunity and snatched the device from my hand.

I wanted to knock him off, but I was under constant fire from the other location. Looks like they finally got serious. Those were not regular shots, it seemed that the sniper disturbed the reality laws to power them up in some way. Although I was still able to block all of them, it required a lot of focus.

Of course, the guy I captured wasn't lying around waiting like an idiot. I tried to keep him in place with my knee pressed on his stomach and my foot on his right wrist, but he managed to wriggle himself out from underneath me. As soon as he freed himself, he pressed several buttons on the communication device.

With a wave of my hand, I sent some of the bullets hanging in the air in his direction. Having to block the still incoming bullets at the same time, I couldn't aim properly, but a good few of them managed to hit him anyway.

However, it was too late.

The space contracted and sucked him in.

My eyes widened in surprise at the sight. But I didn't have time to ponder about it now. I immediately jumped back on the rooftop and ran over to the other spot.

I didn't hope for much. I knew that my chances of catching the second sniper were extremely thin, but that was the only thing I could do right now.

As I expected, when I arrived the second spot was already empty.

I fucked it up. I should have knocked the guy unconscious as soon as I caught him. Then he wouldn't have time to alert his teammate.

Cause that's what I believe must have happened. My initial assumption was slightly off. It was likely that from the start, there were two snipers. They were taking turns teleporting in and out of those two locations. Once I left one place, the sniper currently in action sent a signal to the other, teleported out of his spot, and his teammate teleported into the location I had just left…

Of course, I couldn't tell for sure. But that seemed to be the most likely scenario.

I ruffled my hair and took out my cigarette pack.

I was completely soaked from all the running in the rain, and so were my cigarettes. I sighed and quickly dried them. Previously wet cigarettes felt a bit iffy even after being dried perfectly breaking the reality laws, but I didn't care right now. I didn't want to leave that place just yet.

I leaned against a wall and lit one up.

Although it was highly unlikely that they would resume the attack tonight, I decided to wait here for a bit anyway. It's not like I had anything better to do.

Failing to capture the snipers was quite a shame, but at least I managed to obtain some new information.

First of all, they might not be able to teleport after all. While I can't say for sure, since I've never seen anyone else do that, it is likely that they escaped to another reality. The way the space contracted reminded me of the feeling I have when moving from one world to another.

Second, there are at least two of them. It would be safe to assume that there might be even more people coming in the future.

However, how were they able to travel to a different reality, and then return to this one, was a complete mystery to me. I can only leave a world when it's already falling apart, and I have no way of choosing where I'm going to end up. I'm just randomly thrown into a new world.

Was this ability somehow connected to the device the sniper had? After all, he did press some buttons right before the space contracted.

Next time, I need to make sure to at least get the device.

Thinking about all that I've learned so far, I waited in the sniping spot until I ran out of cigarettes, but nothing happened.

I guess they really decided to retreat for now.

***

I returned to that Emily, or whatever her name was, girl's apartment to get some sleep. The dead bodies of the two women were still there, but I didn't care. They were still fresh, so they haven't started to stink yet, and I was too tired to dispose of them. Corpses lying around never bothered me anyway.

I took a hot shower and threw myself on the bed in one of the two bedrooms. I think it used to belong to the red-haired girl, but it didn't matter. I just needed to get some rest.

I was about to get really busy.

I decided that from tomorrow on, I would begin slowly destroying this world.