115 The Gamble

Since there was no way for her to escape this illusion, Aida would have to make the Reaper approach on its own and then wait for the right moment to attack.

With this in mind, she began calculating the odds with the help of the con system. Ultimately, they determined that there would only be one chance to attack the Reaper. The only time to attack is when the Reaper came in for the kill.

They calculated that the Reaper would only approach right before Aida and Xiao Ai were about to hit the ground. This would be the most logical time to attack as they would be in the most vulnerable mental state. Aida wasn't too concerned about Xiao Ai's survival from impacting the ground since she could inherently float, she only continued falling to keep Aida company. Essentially, Xiao Ai was a cheat in this illusion attack. Aida felt extremely reassured knowing that Xiao Ai wouldn't get hurt from this ordeal.

The ground was rapidly approaching and the two of them had long reached terminal velocity. Aida was intrigued to see that somehow this Reaper seemed to be able to create an illusion that even had realistic physics rather than just having them fall at a constant speed. It seemed the illusion ability was more than just conjuring an illusion but conjuring a realistic experience and re-enacting it.

While waiting for the right moment, Aida spread her senses out and tried to sense any form of killing intent. The next few seconds ticked by extremely slowly and almost felt like an eternity. If Aida striked too early, she would scare the Reaper away before she could make a clean hit, potentially receive mental damage from hitting the ground, and be stuck in an illusion for much longer. If Aida striked too late, she would most certainly receive some permanent mental damage if not get killed in the process.

Loosely gripping her knives, she took deep breaths and relaxed her body with her eyes closed, waiting. Her eyes would only serve as a crutch at times like these since they would instinctively be drawn towards the fast approaching ground. Times like these truly demonstrated Aida's familiarity with walking the fine line between life and death. Her many previous experiences in similar near death situations have taught her the absolutely importance of remaining perfectly calm and collected in critical situations.

As she continued sensing, she finally felt the sharp killing intent from her left side, seemingly popping up out of nowhere. Aida still didn't react but instead mentally forced herself to count to 2 before throwing out her knives towards the killing intent.

There was a quiet thud and Aida opened her eyes to see that she was back in the street full of Enrageds. She quickly turned on her nothingness mode and ripped out the gem from the illusion Reaper, then dragged the still dizzy Xiao Ai away from the scene. She wasn't in a strong enough state to fight against a large group of Reapers at the moment. The illusion hadn't injured her physically, but her mind was still in a slight disarray as it needed a bit longer to reorient itself.

After taking some time to recover, the two of them looked out into the distance to observe the Reaper they had just killed. She saw that the illusion Reaper she just killed had on VR glasses just as Xiao Ai had described. How interesting, the Reaper seemed to have gotten so caught up in the dizzying VR experience that he developed hallucinogenic abilities. This also explains why the Reaper was able to emulate such a realistic scene in the illusion.

Near the VR Reaper, there were also a number of dead Reapers and Enrageds that Aida hadn't noticed before. Each of them had their hearts ripped out, presumably eaten by the VR Reaper. Taking a look at the gem, Aida was satisfied to confirm it was a level 2 gem. It was well worth the trouble.

Humming a song, she continued her hunt for other psychic or unique type Reapers. The illusion Reaper was a mildly dangerous fight, but it was overall quite fun for Aida. She was simply an adrenaline seeking junkie!

Despite her love for dangerous situations, Aida still learned from this past experience and became more cautious with entering Reaper's zones. While she didn't mind putting herself in danger, she didn't want to risk Xiao Ai's life as well. It's hard to determine exactly what unexpected situation may occur with such a wide variety of abilities out there. She'd already eaten enough losses due to her arrogance for a lifetime and didn't intend to get punished by the con system again for no good reason.

The next level 2 Reaper she came across was standing unmoving in the middle of a busy intersection. It's body was covered in a textured pattern that reminded Aida of a turtle's shell. Aida threw a few charged knives at the turtle Reaper to test the waters only to find that it had next to no impact. All it left were a few white marks on the Reaper's skin.

For such an opponent, she wouldn't be able to attack from afar. Sneaking up behind the turtle Reaper, Aida hit his shell with full force using her knife.

Screeechh!

There was an awful noise as it scraped across the Reaper's neck. Aida was also pushed back by the force of the hit. She flew back 4 feet before rolling a few times and landing on her knees.

She shook her arm in pain, the force of her hit rebounding back onto her had dislocated her shoulder. Pushing it back into place with a loud crack, she grimaced. With her high pain tolerance, the pain didn't bother her, but the concept of resetting bones still creeped her out.

Shaking her head, she looked back at the Reaper who didn't react to her attack at all. Offended by the lack of attention, she began to walk around it, looking for a vulnerability. Her hardest hit only managed to leave a slight mark on the shell so that clearly wasn't the way to defeat it.

Her eyes lit up as a new idea came to mind. Dashing away, she went to find a metal rod, then she pushed that metal rod into the inactive Reaper's mouth and directly sent the electricity into its system. The Reaper's eyes shot open and he roared, before dropping dead.

After the Reaper died, his skin was no longer in a hardened state and she was able to retrieve the level 2 gem. Aida realized that none of the level 2 Reapers were going to be an easy fight. Licking her lips, she thought, 'Heh, just the way I like it. Bring it on."

On the side, Xiao Ai covered her eyes as though saying, 'I don't know her.'