After leaving the restaurant, Xu Xiaoyou wound her way through streets and alleys following the map's guidance, heading toward the Scarlet Lady bar.
Shadowy figures moved around her. Occasional acts of violence and crime broke out, but only a few people stopped to watch. Most went about their own business, living dejectedly in their own worlds, rarely interacting with others. This was the norm for this city.
Every individual was a part of this city, like a tiny nut, together supporting the massive, operating machine that was the hive city.
Each person was insignificant. One person's life or death could not cause a single ripple in this city. Even those who became legends in the eyes of others or performed earth-shattering deeds would, after death, merely become a name on a commemorative drink at some bar. As soon as the wind blew, the city's pages would hurriedly turn over.
A single tiny nut falling off while the machine's wheels turned forward would not affect the operation of this gargantuan apparatus.
Only when every component on the machine had rusted away over years of wind and rain would it roar toward the sky like a giant whose strength was spent in the wasteland, leaving one last massive footprint before collapsing with a crash.
Eventually, Xu Xiaoyou stopped in a desolate area not far from a shopping mall. The city's network of overpasses crisscrossed above, and the reinforced concrete ceiling cast massive shadows. The blue and purple holographic advertisement screens of the mall flickered. Beside a giant 3D projection of a sule joy drink, several drunken figures clung to the railings, rainbow-colored vomit spewing from their stomachs.
Their bodies were thin, their skin covered in festering sores, and their expressions were stiff—they looked like numb zombies.
The colorful, frothing liquid reflected the faces of these junkies. As bubbles gurgled to the surface, several fish-like creatures with insectile appendages leaped joyfully within it, jumping into the air. Their tails slapped against the junkies' faces before they vanished into the air like dreamlike phantasms upon being noticed.
"Come out. I know you've been following me since I left the restaurant," Xu Xiaoyou said without turning her head.
"I didn't expect you to be so sharp."
From behind a massive concrete pillar that would take several people to encircle, the figure of a girl wearing a cat face mask emerged, a short blade gripped tightly in her hand.
It was the same cat-girl she had seen at the restaurant.
"I was planning on giving you a big surprise."
One of the junkies looked up, sensing something. As the girl walked past him, a line of blood appeared on his neck. He clutched his throat in terror, and after a dizzying spin, he saw his own body collapse and the girl's figure walking forward with a feline grace. That long cat tail was the last thing he ever saw.
'From this angle... what a shame, I can't see anything at all...' were the junkie's final thoughts before he died.
The remaining junkies were terrified by the scene and scrambled to flee in all directions.
The cat-girl's outfit was daring and sparse. Her upper body was covered only by a white short-sleeved shirt full of holes, the bottom half of which had been torn away to reveal a large area of pale skin around her waist and abdomen. Beneath her hot pants, her straight, fair legs were eye-catching. She flipped her short blade in her hand while a spiked club rested across her shoulder.
"As expected, seeing you again, you're still so cute!"
Seeing the blonde girl looking at her warily, the cat-girl's body trembled with excitement.
"I've changed my mind! I'm not planning on letting you go anymore, hahaha!"
Her tone turned grim as she licked the blood from the tip of her blade, a desperate gaze projecting from beneath the cat mask.
"How could I let such a cute girl go so easily?"
Xu Xiaoyou's brow furrowed as she stared at the bizarre figure before her.
"From the moment I saw you, I liked you so much, so much, so much, so much, so much..."
The other party seemed to be imagining a specific scene; her emotions became high-pitched as her sharp fingertips constantly rubbed her own shoulders, leaving behind several terrifying bloody gashes. Finally, she cupped her face, strange laughter constantly leaking from her mouth, her eyes full of greed and longing as they reflected the blonde girl's form.
"I want to become one with you! Just like with the other girls!"
The cat-girl began to babble insanely, pointing at the sewing marks on her wrists.
"Let me think, this one is Xiao Lan..."
She then pointed to the stitch marks on her calves, thighs, and arms.
"This is Xiao Hua, and Xiao Wei, and Xiao Qing."
"Oh, right..."
The cat-girl thought of something and tilted her head back, removing the cat mask to reveal a delicate, pure face. A long, scarlet tongue flicked out like a snake's, and she pointed to her own neck—the only part of her entire body where the skin was clean and intact.
"Look here... it's still empty here."
"Let me become you, how about it?"
"Damn it," even Xu Xiaoyou, who had seen much in her life, couldn't help but curse. "You lunatic!"
She drew her gun quickly, knowing there was no point in reasoning with such a psychotic individual. No one knew how their brains worked or what irrational move they might make next.
"A gun...?"
Seeing the dark muzzle pointed at her, the cat-girl didn't hide in fear. Instead, she tilted her head with a look of curiosity.
Bang—!
Xu Xiaoyou pulled the trigger, and the bullet flew out.
A scene that horrified her occurred: the cat-girl simply tilted her head slightly, and the bullet actually passed through her hair.
'She can even dodge bullets!?'
Xu Xiaoyou's eyes widened. She took a step back and pulled the trigger again.
This time, the cat-girl didn't dodge the second bullet. Instead, she held the short blade in front of her chest and actually sliced the bullet vertically in two!
The fragments hit the ground with a crisp clinking sound.
"How can you call me a lunatic..."
The blade reflected the cat-girl's saddened face.
"That really hurts my feelings!"
In the next instant, the cat-girl suddenly lunged, sprinting toward Xu Xiaoyou with the short blade and spiked club in hand.
"Anya!" Xu Xiaoyou barked.
The young girl bared her teeth and darted out from beside her, sharp claws manifesting on both hands. She stayed low to the ground as she charged, closing the distance of several meters in an instant.
Anya's claws swung violently, but the cat-girl's footwork suddenly became phantom-like and agile. Several afterimages followed her as her slender body leaped nimbly through the air, performing countless deceptive movements in the blink of an eye.
The enemy's shadows were a dizzying blur, but Anya's gaze quickly locked on. She launched another pounce, and this time her claws just barely grazed the cat-girl's face, leaving only a single bloody scratch.
A mad grin spread across the cat-girl's face. From beginning to end, her beast-like gaze had never landed on Anya; it was fixed tightly on the blonde girl behind her.
Xu Xiaoyou felt a sense of dread. After evading Anya's attack, the cat-girl used her hand to vault nimbly off the ground, jumping directly over the little girl's head. The moment she landed, the muscles in her calves surged, exploding with powerful kinetic energy like a cannonball as she shot toward Xu Xiaoyou.
"Stop struggling, darling~ Just be a good girl and become one with me. The pain will pass quickly."
The cat-girl closed in on the girl's position. Her short blade fell, and Xu Xiaoyou was too slow to dodge completely; a gash was torn into the sleeve of her suit.
"Of course, you're also very cute when you struggle. I love it!"
Xu Xiaoyou dodged the cat-girl's successive attacks somewhat disheveledly. She kept her mind calm, judging that it would take several seconds for Anya to rush back to her position. At the distance between her and the cat-girl, she didn't even have the possibility of aiming her gun. She would have to find a way to rely on herself to dodge the next few attacks.
In her frantic state, her gaze locked onto an iron bar on the ground. She quickly rolled in that direction, scooped it up, and fell into a swordsman's stance. The knowledge from her previous Sword Arts Training flooded into her mind all at once...
Rate on N.U.
