Chapter 49: Player Killers

Walking for more than 30 minutes, Kuroneko stopped to check where she was once again. Because of Shiro being trapped in the dungeon, he couldn't connect to the guild storage, preventing him from passing the map data.

This led to her finding where he stopped at manually.

"These illusions won't work on me!" She proudly mumbled as she is ashamed for getting lost. "Nothing can remain hidd-"

Kuroneko was suddenly interrupted once a thrown dagger grazed at her left cheek. Instinctively, she activated [Thought Acceleration] as she hastily scanned her surroundings. By doing this, she immediately guessed where her opponent was hiding.

"Come out at once! This foolish trick won't work at me!"

"Kekeke... Just look at this little girl!" A player appeared before herself, wearing a set of black leather armor, black leather pants, and a mask resembling a sack. Two little holes were cut in it for his eyes. On top of it, he also wore a black hooded cloak, making his appearance a scary one to others--not for Kuroneko though.

Upon seeing an orange crystal on top of his head, she frowned.

"A player killer?"

"Surprised?"

"No, but I didn't expect that one such player would come looking for his demise."

Kuroneko spoke with poise and confidence that one would really mistake that she's fearless. Things are very far away from that, though. In this mission, they knew that they wouldn't die. However, the players here would still die in real life once killed in the game.

As a person living in modern society, she hadn't expected that she might kill someone one day. During one of her talks with Touka, they tackled this possible scenario. It was a lengthy talk, but what she remembered the most is Shiro's advice on Touka regarding the same matter.

'Killing for a good enough cause accepted by oneself.' She knew that this is a twisted way of thinking, but it's also correct at the same time. Look at Fate Grand Order, the final master of CHALDEA destroyed worlds along with its inhabitants just so humanity could survive. At Kouzuki's world, countless lives had been sacrificed in the battles against BETAs. Even in Kal'tsit's world, such killings is normal.

In the end, it all comes to oneself, on whether they would accept the change forced upon them or stop moving forward...

Suddenly...

Ring~!

The electronic sound rang in her head. 'An emergency quest?', she thought. Suddenly, the quest window popped up on its own, unlike the Daily Quest that she did earlier in the morning.

[Emergency Quest: Deal with the enemies!]

Those with killing intent towards the 'Player' has been detected. Ensure your safety by dealing with these enemies.

Enemies to be dealt with: 2

Enemies dealt with: 0

Failure to comply will result in a penalty.

'Deal with? Does it mean... to kill?' She activated her [Thought Acceleration] once more, slowing down her perception of time. Though, it seems like the status window isn't affected as such, allowing her to mull on it for a while before cancelling her ability.

"Ahahaha! Bro, did you hear what she'd just said?" The orange player spoke towards the other direction, whereas another orange player came out behind a tree.

"...It is interesting, I give it that."

Just like the man from before, he also wore a black hooded cloak. A skeletal mask with two glowing eyepieces covered his face while he wore a black-red leather armor and pants.

"Now, what should we do..? Do we just kill her normally? She's interesting..."

"Let's ask her first. What do you prefer, jou-chan?"

Surprisingly, Kuroneko only stood motionless as many thoughts flashed in her mind.

"Hey... You've scared her too much!"

"Why do you keep blaming it on me? You're the same as me!"

"Are you finished quarreling, foolish mortals?"

As they've heard that, they saw her quickly changing her equipment. Her gothic dress was replaced by a black tunic long-sleeves layered by black-red metal plating on her chest and elbow. Her black pants also has an armor plating on it, such as on her knees and heel.

On top of that, she wore a black shoulder cape with red outlines on its end. In her right hand, she wielded a silver dagger with full enhancements in it. Meanwhile, her left hand held a black metallic ingot, something that she got as a drop.

"Fearless, aren't you? We'll see if you can stay like that after everything..." The skeleton-masked player spoke as he lunged at her, his estoc glowed in bright red light. It glowed so menacingly as if it's ready to claim yet another life.

Unexpectedly, she dodged to her right, allowing her to dodge it just as the blade's edge touched her armor plating. When she came face-to-face with him, her dagger glowed before she activated <<Canine>>.

She surprised him by thrusting it just above the gaps of his armor plating near his stomach, depleting more than 60% of his HP in one blow.

The orange player was quick to react, however, as he used <<Linear>> to dash away from her. Since the dagger's reach is short, she was forced to take it back and avoided the attack.

At this moment, the other orange player was able to react before throwing five daggers simultaneously with <<Piercing Shot>>, a blade throwing skill.

With her superb reaction time under [Thought Acceleration], she was able to avoid them by leaping to her left.

"She's definitely a beater."

"Watch out, we're fighting against a skilled player right now." The player said as he chugged down on a blue HP potion.

During their times when hunting solo players, they were all skilled. If they aren't, they would've died few months back. Them being able to survive up until now proved that each solo players has an outstanding amount of skill and knowledge, and them being a beater is the only possibility of having both.

"What insane reaction speed. She might even surpass the <<Black Swordsman>>."

"Are you serious?!"

They exchanged words as they sieged Kuroneko on both sides. The estoc wielder harassed her on short range while the dagger wielder harassed her by trying to limit her movements using throwing knives. That's right, he tried.

Unfortunately, she already calculated her next ten moves in advance, making it useless. Under their attacks, she secretly transmuted the silver metal ingot into very thin wires. She manipulated them to be placed on certain locations, in which the two would be caught all at once.

Together with her superior processing power, she was able to fight against two orange players that are nearly 18 levels above her.

"Tsk..! She's too slippery!" The orange player with a sack-like mask grumbled annoyingly as he tried to hit her once with his daggers. Just when they are about to hit her, she dodges it in the last second!

"You use it."

"You mean, that skill? But-"

"I'll ensure your safety. You don't want to get beaten up by a solo player whose level is lower than us, right?" A thrown dagger grazed his face as he spoke. He knew that it was coming, but he became more and more impatient to corner the little girl in front of him. Thus, he decided to take a risk.

"Yo, jou-chan. Playtime's over."

Once again, he charged at her while the other player activated a special type of <<Extra Skill>>, <<Paralyzing Blade>>. Sparks of electricity emitted from it as a yellow light covered it. Without any hesitation, he threw it just behind the estoc player.

Kuroneko was puzzled upon seeing his action, but it soon turned into surprise as she saw it fly straight at her. She tried avoiding it, but she noticed that it's locked on her, with it flying on curves just to stab her.

'The estoc..!' She thought as she saw his attack getting closer to her. Left with no choice, her body slanted slightly to her right while the homing dagger grazed her shoulder. At that moment, the skill's effect took place, which is to stun the hit player by 2 seconds. Though, it comes with a price of its wielder being paralyzed for 5 seconds as well as half of his HP being depleted--the said player couldn't consume any items at this state.

In the split second that her body had emitted yellow electric arcs, a sign that she got stunned, the estoc pierced through her right arm, creating a sonic boom that detached it completely to her body. Soon after, it turned into blue crystals as her silver dagger fell to the ground with a clang.

*****

Fact #9: In Terra, there exists a country called "Higashi (i.e., far east). In the modern era, their culture is quite interesting. Manga, anime, and videogames are widespread there, making it an Akihabara or sorts. What's more, the three things above are mostly based on their real urban legends and myths! Moreover, most of the sea people (Aegir) migrated there.