The profiler, the scammer and DHB (5)

Like the hunting group, the ones safekeeping cards seem to divide tasks among themselves while the ones holding onto the cards from the foxes' camp (the newly-arrived ones) appear to be the guards.

After observing people for a little while, I approached someone.

"Excuse, I'm in charge of safekeeping the hunting group's cards now."

After getting a few cards, I waited for the person I talked to to leave my sight until I repeated my lie to someone else.

Afterward, I casually approached the guards holding onto my camp's cards and skillfully pickpocketed the cards in question. That way, that will reduce the enemy's score and make it easier for me to enter the top 10 later.

Wow, that was so simple that I find them a little pathetic.

They got stolen by two different people in the same day.

Sometimes, I slipped up and got caught while trying to steal the cards in a guard's pocket then hid by blending in among the crowd.

The way they 'tightened their security' actually made it easier for me to rob them. If they had kept the same arrangement as before, the probability of me succeeding would've been far lower. Thank you, previous unknown thief.

Moreover, they aren't really professional 'guards', they are only civilians acting as guards. Even if some of them were in the police, the others aren't trained to pay attention of their surroundings. Civilians wouldn't really take this situation seriously either and will start to chat with each other because they're bored. Lastly, an untrained person's attention span isn't that long so they wouldn't be able to stay focused for hours. Even though they may have been careful when they received the task of safekeeping cards, it has already been a while since then.

That way, I gathered most of the cards from the hunting group.

「4. The group that stole the most cards at the end of the scenario wins (only the prey's cards are counted).」

Even though only the prey's cards are counted and the vipers aren't our camp's prey but our enemy, the cards of other camps can still be useful later.

Yes, I did infiltrate my predator's camp and stole their own cards, so what?

I'm so glad to have practiced pickpocketing so much at school, actually. Not that I stole anything, I only tested it on my friend (not Lou-Ann) and gave back the objects afterwards.

I also often took that friend's glasses, coat, whatever was in his bag's front pocket while he was carrying it, etc… Poor victim.

I think pickpocketing is not that hard. My father would be proud. I mean, my mother would scold me.

I stopped myself before my thoughts crossing the verge of legality could turn into reality with me stealing a book at the Fnac.

Now that I took everything I could need from the vipers' camp, I don't need to come back here.

Anyway, they're going to be in even more chaos when they discover that their own cards on top of their prey's are missing this time.

For the third time of the day, I searched through the huge scenario area until evening, squatting to look below things just in case, until I finally found something unusual.

I extended my hand toward the strange silver thing under a dumpster and struggled to reach it. Then, I grabbed it and something happened.

[Congratulations.]

[You have found the hidden item corresponding to the foxes.]

[Please input your nickname.]

Finally. It's been one day. I want to cry.

「6. An object to temporarily hide your identity in the rankings for the duration of the scenario will be hidden for each camp somewhere in the scenario area. Only the top ten will be shown.」

Actually, I thought I'd never find it because I suck at searching and intended to give up tomorrow.

Sighing a breath of relief, I sat up and looked at the silver necklace in my hand.

Do you know how dirty I got to find you?

Thankfully, there weren't any bugs on the floor and it didn't rain recently.

I lifted my head and faced the imaginary keyboard waiting for my answer.

Hmm.

What should I enter? My initials? E. J.? J. E.? Or E. W.? Or W. E.? Or Ayasenisan1713?

I thought of the various usernames I usually use then glanced at the rankings.

No, let's do this.

[Nickname confirmed.]

[You will be called -Writer- for the duration of the scenario.]

Now, the objects hidden in each camp have all been found.

As I got up and put on the necklace, someone called out to me.

"Hey, you. What are you doing here?"

It's true that it's a little suspicious to wander off alone into an alleyway.

He must've been one of the people from the vipers' camp patrolling the area since we are near the Fnac.

"From which camp do you belong? Show your card."

The chickens, Sir.

"I'm not from any camp since I'm a non-player. I belong to the vipers' hunting group."

However, the man didn't seem to believe me.

"Really? I'll have to search you then. It wouldn't do if we let in a spy after all."

Since I've stolen your camp's cards, you'll certainly find even more than you imagined.

After around one second of deliberation, I decided to… run away.

Running away is also my specialty. Let's go-

Now, if risking my life, hiding guns, infiltrating the enemy, pickpocketing, and running away are my specialties, that should make me quite suspicious; but I'm not a strange person, I swear.

I'm just a law-abiding citizen who knows unusual things.

Since my mother is never in the wrong, everything is actually my father's fault.

Wait, no, that would mean he taught me something in the first place…

While trying to find who the put the blame on for my weird upbringing, I bolted out of the alleyway as fast as a hard-working turtle.

Then, I ran down the street with as much speed as a walking lion, and was already exhausted not even two streets away.

So, as you understood, the guy being at least twice as fast as me, was rapidly closing the distance between us. I told you I was slow.

「But I can still get away.」

Hmm? What is this? It's true that I think I can get away, but these weren't my thoughts just now. It seemed clearer.

Ignoring this strange detail, I turned my gaze to the parked cars nearby and slipped through the narrow space between two of them. Instead of being slowed down by choosing the same path as me, I heard his footsteps a little more on the left, most likely because of having chosen a wider path between the vehicles, and turned to the right.

Even if he isn't slowed down by taking the same path as me, I can take advantage of the detour he makes to widen the distance between us. Most importantly, I have to avoid taking a straight path since that puts me at a disadvantage.

I saw some trees by the side and headed there. They were not nearly enough to form a forest but it should be perfect to obstruct him. After all, the trees are very close and it'll be impossible for him to run straight.

I'm more skilled at keeping up the same speed while going through obstacles than going fast so I should use it to my advantage.

Trying to even my breaths while being chased by the man, I took in my surroundings.

I hope he'll become tired and give up soon…

"Hey, there's a suspicious girl here! Help me catch her!"

No, don't call for help. This is a one on one.

Contrary to my prayers, more people came our way.

「Let's hit him.」

After this betrayal, I went out of the trees, turned back to the speeding up man and sent a kick to his face to put an end to this date (?). Because of his momentum, the man was caught of guard and couldn't avoid it. His speed also increased the impact of the collision between my foot and his face.

"Sorry."

Were we already so close?

Since I know I don't kick hard, I picked up my pace and ran back to the buildings before he could regain his senses, followed by a lot of other guards from all directions.

I definitely won't be able to come back to the enemy camp after this.

I went between the buildings and turned right, using my hand as propulsion to turn the usual deceleration you have when changing directions into an acceleration. Anyway, I can only use small tricks to earn time. If there were things to jump over as well, that could also hinder the enemy.

Suddenly, I came dangerously close to someone waiting at the other end of the road to catch me and continued to run at the same speed toward my opponent, sending a punch to their jaw by the way. The element of surprise can also be useful in these situations.

"Sorry."

I'm sorry, I was actually aiming for your stomach.

With my very weak strength, the man unfortunately regained his senses immediately and tried to grab my precious hair, so I elbowed him in the face.

"Sorry."

Because I aimed right for this one.

I can feel how he's inwardly cursing me for apologizing…

I'm out of breath, I have to find somewhere to hide before it gets even harder to run.

I saw an outward staircase leading into an apartment and struggled to jump over the railing before going up the stairs, followed closely by others.

「Jump.」

Once on the first floor, I climbed over the railings toward the void, sat down, grabbed the floor's edge to hang of it and be the closest possible from the ground, then jumped and landed onto the street, effectively shaking of the pursuers that followed me up the staircase by jumping in the safest way possible from the first floor. Do not repeat this at home.

This is weird. I keep seeing these strange things like 'let's hit him' or 'jump'. It's like it shows me what I intend to do before I make it become reality. Is this my skill?

[Imagination Lv.1 is activated.]

「I can run away.」

As I ran, I began to forget that I was out of breath, only focusing on where I was going and how to make it harder for others to chase after me.

On the floor, there were a lot of corpses. A big amount of people had been killed in only one day when murder wasn't even required by the scenario.

I figured that these corpses should also be a good obstacle to jump over and slow down my opponents at least a little so I chose to head into narrow alleyways where bodies had been thrown.

Then, after a while, as I turned right while putting my hand on the wall to propel myself forward and accelerate, I noticed a corner where I could hide in the neighboring building.

It was a caved in place (leading to a door) in a location to store bikes (even though there were nearly no bikes there).

I glanced behind me, saw nobody, put my body in the corner against the closed door to try to meld into the shadows as much as possible, then stopped moving.

Even though I was out of breath, I stopped inhaling to avoid making sounds that could give away my position. Then, it took me a lot of effort to slowly exhale as silently as possible to calm down my breathing while people went back and forth, seemingly not noticing I was there.

When my breathing went back to normal, I waited until I couldn't hear any footsteps nearby, then a little more just in case people decided to come back.

I sighed.

[Imagination Lv.1 is deactivated.]

Glancing around, I went out of my hiding place and prepared to sprint straight toward another camp to get away from this area.

However, as I turned, I bumped into someone and fell down.

When I looked up, the person in question smiled at me.

"See who we have here, isn't it the rat we were searching for?"

He grabbed me by the collar and raised his fist.

"I'm going to make you pay for hitting me, you damn bitch."

Oh-oh…