Light footsteps chased by heavy boots, crazed satisfaction pursued by justice, as Mochi panted and sprinted from the courtyard into the night-shrouded streets. The soldiers' warcries echoed behind her while her eyes darted across her surroundings - smooth stone pavements, residential and commercial buildings lining the roads, abandoned stalls between them, and piles of trash accumulating in hidden alleyways.
Ah, Vespral Hollow. The western town of Twilight's Basin near the outskirts, a developed district under Baron Aldric Veyne's "grace," and the game's starting area.
Was that mansion she'd escaped from also the Baron's property? Then why had she awakened in its master bedroom? Where was the family that should have been living there?
Mochi clicked her tongue, pushing aside these questions as the metallic footsteps grew louder behind her. Her lungs burned and her steps faltered, her will crumbling along with her exhausted body.
If she'd known she'd need to outrun literal death sentences, she might have exercised more - maybe even trained these spindly legs that could barely lift a dumbbell.
Options dwindling, she turned another corner, mentally mapping an escape route to the outskirts.
"System. Buy
A low-tier spell that couldn't even properly mimic the user's appearance, but...
Her frantic escape stuttered as she noticed a beggar, his wares displayed on a rough rag under the moonlight.
"Miss, care to buy- hey!"
"Sorry, scam artist. I need this more today."
She yanked the rag free and ran, ignoring the clatter of fake valuables hitting the ground and the NPC's outraged screams as the guards' footsteps grew ever closer.
Red tinged her vision as sanity frayed. Turning another corner, Mochi swung her palm out. "
Her bony arm protested as the skill launched her to a rooftop. She stumbled deliberately, letting the guards glimpse her before draping the stolen rag like a cloak and running across the rooftops.
The guards' eyes widened as the cloaked figure disappeared, then reappeared jumping to another roof. With renewed determination, they gave chase, convinced they could capture this gravity-defying murderer as her stamina failed.
"...is what they'd better be thinking."
On the original rooftop, the real Mochi panted as she sprawled on the dirty surface, peeking over the edge at her decoy's distant form. Finally, the metallic footsteps faded, leaving only the thunder of her own heartbeat in her ears.
Well, not quite - her heart still burned like fire. A crazed smirk of relief twisted her lips.
The
As for outrunning the guards? Please. The shut-in NEET in her would face the guillotine before completing such a marathon.
Gritting her teeth, Mochi grabbed the rooftop railing and summoned another
Her lips tasted of phantom iron as the notification appeared. Red tendrils threatened to consume her vision entirely while her knees trembled, craving violence like a lover's embrace.
"Wha-what the hell..."
She bit down hard on her tongue, the pain and copper taste offering slight relief from the all-consuming hunger. Her heart pounded wildly, every vein thrumming with predatory instinct.
"Big sister...?"
Mochi jerked backward, her hands clawing at the air like frantic keystrokes, the blood on her lips her only tether to reality.
A little girl stood in the street - ragged clothes marking her as no noble, likely an orphan.
No... Mochi recognized her. The Lost Child from a side quest, searching these alleys for her missing mother.
...But she was just an NPC, wasn't she?
So why should she spare that fragile neck?
Mochi lunged forward, her clawed hands reaching for the child's throat as the girl tilted her head in innocent confusion.
Strangle her. Murder her. Return her to paradise. Offer her to God's hands.
But as her shadow fell across the child, another intervened.
Impact came swift and brutal - Mochi's face smashed into an open palm with enough force to flip her onto her back. Her skull cracked against the ground, the pain shockingly clearing some of the bloodlust haze.
The first time her lips touched another's skin... and it was the dead-cold sensation of a slap.
As consciousness wavered, Mochi glimpsed purple silk fluttering in the moonlight, framing golden eyes that narrowed with cruel amusement.
"How weak of you to submit like that, my... little thief."
The sneering voice brought unexpected calm. Closing her eyes, Mochi surrendered to the darkness, strangely at peace with dying by such beautiful hands.
<...compiling rewards....>
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<...Warning...warning...>