At the same time and place, War Freya spotted Reno, who was wandering aimlessly near her home. However, she didn't call out his name loudly like she did in the simulation. Instead, she took a more cautious approach.
At this moment, Freya's main body had already gone to her landlord's house nearby. Under the pretext of paying rent, she struck up a conversation with him. As for War Freya, she wore a hat with the brim pulled down very low, so that at most, others could only see her chin, and not her face at all.
Then, she actively walked toward Reno, and when she was three paces away from him, she called out in a moderate voice, “Reno?”
Just as he looked over, War Freya tilted her head up slightly. She raised the brim of her hat with her right hand, just enough for him to see her face clearly. Then, she quickly pulled the brim back down, turned around, and walked away.
Reno was taken aback for a moment, but still driven by instinct, he followed War Freya. After taking a few twists and turns, they arrived at the empty alleyway.
The difference this time, however, was that in the previous run, Freya had walked all the way to the end of the alley before stopping. This time, she stood right at the corner, pressing her back against the wall, tightly gripping her dagger. The moment Reno stumbled around the corner, her dagger thrust out like lightning, plunging straight into his neck.
For Freya, she had fought Reno several times and was extremely familiar with this enemy who wanted to “eat” her. But for Reno, this was reality; his impression of Freya was still just a cute, ordinary girl, a delicious little cupcake his instincts urged him to eat, nothing more.
Thus, Reno never expected that this little cupcake, whom he viewed as prey, would suddenly strike back without a word, and with such ruthless precision!
In the last simulation, Freya had tried to talk to Reno first, and Reno had initiated the attack after his sanity snapped. But this time, she took the initiative.
After plunging the dagger into his neck, Freya twisted it hard, turning the blade halfway inside his throat.
“Pfft—”
Instantly, blood spurted out. After completing the strike, she quickly let go and leaped back. The very next second, a cold-colored tail sliced through the air with a sharp whistle, but it struck nothing but empty space.
Reno's fighting style had always relied on instinct. He would always prioritize attacking whatever threatened him, with his second choice being the enemy's vital points.
When Freya held a gun, he would attack the hand holding it. In the last simulation, when Freya was empty-handed, Reno's tail had targeted her head.
Therefore, this time, Reno's tail would definitely lunge at Freya's right hand holding the dagger. Just as she had anticipated, she dodged the blow, lowered her center of gravity, and swept her leg out, sending Reno crashing to the ground.
Then, while he was off-balance and still falling, Freya reached out and grabbed the dagger again. Pulling it out, she plunged it back down in tandem with his falling body, this time aiming directly for his eye socket!
“Thud—”
By the time Reno hit the ground, he was already a corpse. The entire battle, from start to finish, hadn't even lasted five seconds!
Swift and decisive!
Freya pulled out the blood-stained dagger, wiped it on Reno's clothes, and slowly stood up. For someone who wanted to kill her—no, someone who had already killed her once—the thought of showing mercy never even crossed her mind.
Right at that moment, the system screen popped up uncontrollably before Freya's main body inside the landlord's house:
【First death crisis successfully averted. System upgrading...】
Not even five seconds later, a notification reading 【Upgrade complete】 popped up. Freya couldn't help but blink in surprise. “That fast?”
She carefully examined the upgraded system and found that a new save slot, '02', had been added. But other than that, there didn't seem to be any other changes.
“Uh... that's it? I thought there'd be an inventory module, a quest module, or a shop module or something...”
However, as she muttered to herself, Freya looked at the very bottom of the system screen. This was where the remaining time for her death crisis had been displayed. Now, the countdown had turned into a jumble of garbled text, with numbers flashing rapidly as if it were scanning or loading something.
Finally, the scrolling numbers stabilized, and the notification changed to: 【Time remaining until the next death crisis: 30 days】.
Freya: “?”
Are you kidding me? Is this city cursed or something? I just survived a three-day ordeal, and now you're telling me I'm going to die again in thirty days?
Just as Freya curled her lips in exasperation, she noticed a small icon next to the notification—a video player icon she was very familiar with from her previous life. When she focused her attention on it, a video began to play before her eyes like a movie.
It was a street engulfed in roaring flames, with fire shooting high into the sky. With just a glance, Freya could see the street littered with a dense packing of corpses, blood staining the entire pavement.
Thud... Thud...
Then, after a slight tremor, the camera began to move forward rapidly. Freya immediately realized that this was a first-person perspective. As for whose perspective it was, there was no need to guess—it was highly likely her own thirty days from now.
As the camera moved, accompanied by heavy, ragged breathing, she ran out of the street, only for an even larger sea of fire to come into view. It was as if the entire world were burning.
Just then, several people wearing thin, light-green clothes and no shoes, standing barefoot on the ground, appeared in the frame. They were men and women, their expressions solemn and anxious. But upon seeing Freya, a look of pleasant surprise clearly washed over their faces.
“There's another survivor here!”
“Child, quickly, come over to our side!”
However, the moment those words left their mouths, Freya seemed to hear something. The camera whipped around, and on the path she had just come from, a dense mass of black figures had appeared, nearly filling the entire street.
These figures were entirely black, with no clothes and no facial features, looking extremely eerie. In the next second, like wild horses breaking free of their reins, they surged toward Freya at an incredibly absurd speed.
It was like a fully formed tsunami or avalanche—there was nowhere to hide, nowhere to run!
Because Freya already possessed a War Pathway clone, she could clearly tell that every single one of these figures possessed running speed no less than that of War Freya!
The camera quickly whipped back around as she continued to run, but in less than three seconds, she was swallowed up by the black figures. In the final split second of the footage, Freya saw the people in light-green clothes running toward her, their hands glowing with a green light.
Click...
The death preview ended. The entire clip lasted only about ten seconds, but the sheer amount of information was staggering. Inside the landlord's house, Freya rested her cheek in her hand, her mind racing.
She recognized the burning street from the beginning of the video. It was near her school, a place she passed by every day. But 【Cobdo National Academy】 was located in the very center of the city!
This meant that this death crisis—this disaster—was not targeted at Freya alone. It was highly likely to sweep across the entire city, and she was merely one of countless victims.
Just a moment ago, Freya had been considering whether she should just ignore the Obsidian boss, since whatever they were plotting didn't seem to affect her anyway.
But now, it was clear that it absolutely affected her. There was no need to even guess—this crisis that would engulf the entire city was almost certainly engineered by that Obsidian boss!
Only a Rank Five extraordinary could possibly orchestrate a disaster of this scale.
Still, knowing what would happen in advance made avoiding this death crisis relatively simple. Couldn't she just leave the city before the disaster struck?
But... would that really be the right thing to do?
To stand by and watch an entire city of people perish?
Honestly, Freya didn't consider herself a good person. But... watching an entire city burn to the ground was something she couldn't bear to see.
“Whatever, let's give it a shot. At worst, I'll just die trying!”
There were still thirty days before this disaster. Even if she maximized every simulation and ran them for a full thirty days, she would still have at least twenty-odd chances of trial and error. What if she actually found a way to resolve this crisis?
And if all else failed and she really couldn't solve it, she could always just leave the city the day before the disaster struck, right?
No sooner said than done. Freya first recalled her clone from the distant alleyway. While summoning her clone required picking a spot near herself, there was no distance limit for recalling it.
In the alley, War Freya's figure gradually faded, finally vanishing into thin air without a trace, as if she had never existed in the first place.
Afterward, Freya chatted with her landlord a bit longer, scoring a free dinner thanks to his warm hospitality, before finally returning home.
The moment she got home, she didn't hesitate for a second and immediately started a simulation.
“Select save slot 【War Freya】.”
But how to solve this remained a problem. After pondering for a moment, Freya decided to try tipping off the police again. This time, however, she wrote the letter in much greater detail. Not only did she mention Obsidian's stronghold, but she also stated that the enemy was at least a Rank Five powerhouse who was plotting to cause a massive disaster that would sweep across the entire city in a month.
Then, she set off without a pause, wrapping the message around a stone and throwing it through the police station window once again.
Although it was already eight in the evening, Freya knew that Captain Nolan would definitely still be on duty and would certainly see it.
After doing all this, Freya hid in a small corner. Sure enough, it wasn't long before Nolan walked out of the police station, looking around with a puzzled expression, seemingly searching for the person who had delivered the message.
However, it was too dark now, and Freya had wrapped herself tightly in a black trench coat, so Captain Nolan naturally failed to spot her.
But to Freya's surprise, after looking around to no avail, Nolan actually left the police station and headed south all by himself.
“Huh? Didn't I say the enemy is likely a Rank Five powerhouse? How does he still dare to go alone? He should at least call other Special Service captains or report it to request support from a 【Mobile Squad】, right?” After a brief moment of confusion, Freya suddenly realized: Nolan clearly didn't believe the information on the note—or rather, he didn't fully believe it!
Last time, Freya's note had only mentioned Obsidian's stronghold. Whether he believed it or not, Nolan would definitely investigate. It was the same now. Although Freya's note contained more information, Nolan couldn't possibly believe such an anonymous source completely right off the bat. Thus, going to investigate personally was only natural.
As for whether the enemy was Rank Five, that didn't matter. Regardless of the enemy's strength, Nolan was a police officer. He had to investigate. It was impossible for him to be too scared to move or investigate just because of a few words on a strange note.
Watching Nolan gradually fade into the distance, Freya hesitated for a moment but decided to follow him to see what would happen.
In the previous simulation, she had died without even catching a glimpse of the Obsidian mastermind's face. If Nolan was still going to fight them in this simulation, she wanted to at least get there early to see if she could catch a glimpse of the enemy's appearance and gather more clues. She couldn't let this simulation go completely to waste.
Freya intentionally waited a bit before setting off stealthily toward the southern part of the city. However... on the pitch-black, deserted street, just as she passed a corner, a hand suddenly shot out, grabbing her back collar and lifting her straight up like a little chick.
Freya: “Huh!?”
Nolan stepped out from the shadows. Feeling the unusually light weight in his hand, a slightly surprised expression crossed his face. “A child?”
“Uh...” Freya wore an embarrassed expression, silently grumbling in her mind, What is with this old geezer! She had intentionally waited a while just to avoid being ambushed, yet she still got caught.
Sensing her confusion, Nolan said, “You threw that note just now, didn't you? I figured you wouldn't have gone far and would likely follow me, so I intentionally hid for a bit. It seems I'm the one with more patience.”
“So, tell me. What is your purpose in leading me to Sanheng Street?”
......
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