A9 suddenly had a severe bad omen. The premonition made it so restless inside its space that it wished it could tear out its own fur to relieve its agitation.
Instinct told it that someone was pulling something behind its back.
Great. There weren't many bugs lately—precisely only one, in fact.
Could the "Tourist" have failed as well?
Then this NPC truly received one-of-a-kind treatment, slippery as a loach.
A9 sneered. Was she really that hard to kill?
Could she be the actual protagonist?
Yet no matter how it reassured itself, its eyelids kept twitching uncontrollably. It scrambled up, viciously preparing to see what had happened.
...
Semi-congealed bloodstains lay scattered across the white porcelain tiles beneath the pale glare of the overhead fluorescent tube.
A9 stared dumbfounded for a long moment before finally discerning the features of the person lying on the floor.
Forsiman...
Dead.
The Tourist was dead!
What! What happened?! What on earth had been done during the time it wasn't looking?! Did the world blow up? Was the universe destroyed? And Forsiman bit the dust!
No, seriously, bro, isn't this a bit too hasty? That's not how you feed kills, are you treating this like a game?
A9 whipped its head around to look at Lin Mo, who was leaning against the wall, gasping for breath. She was equally battered, the bones on the side of her chest sunken in unnaturally, and the wrist bone of one hand slightly twisted. Hunched over, her legs seemed barely able to support her weight.
She gasped sharp breaths of air, seemingly frightened by the sight before her. Her eyes averted themselves, damp strands of black hair clinging to her forehead and veiling the emotions on her face.
Did she do it?
How was that possible? How could that be possible?! This made no logical sense whatsoever. Was she an alien? A monster, a beast?
Yet the marks on her body clearly resulted from close-quarters combat, and this surreal, nonsensical reality left it completely stunned.
How did she do it? Did she have an accomplice? If so, where did the person who helped her run off to?!
Could she... all by herself, really have taken out Forsiman, someone who had served on the battlefield and was a doctor!
“Ugh—”
A whimpering sound suddenly echoed within the space. Pulling its consciousness out of the confusion, A9 watched helplessly as the woman below—who seemed to have regained a bit of strength—began emitting incomprehensible sounds.
Was she crying?
Was she rejoicing over eliminating another threat to her life, or agonizing in terror over shouldering yet another sin?
The woman's throat worked as if she were about to vomit. Looking intensely uneasy and unable to process the scene before her, she wiped her filthy hands against her clothes, but couldn't get them clean.
Being so close to a morbid character from the book made its skin crawl. Although A9 possessed warped values, it had always functioned merely as a bystander. Knowing this world was full of evil and madness, it had observed everything from behind the thin boundary of pages from beginning to end, rarely stepping in of its own accord.
A9 floated backward two meters involuntarily, passing straight through the wall, though disjointed sounds still faintly reached its ears.
Psychopath! Absolute psychopath!
Absurd, utterly absurd!
A character who was supposed to shine bright in the main storyline and fully demonstrate his worth had actually died in this obscure little city, killed at the hands of an NPC who was originally supposed to be dead.
Is this a parallel universe?! Is this some fanfic derivative work?!
Wait, that wasn't right either—this NPC wasn't even a local! She was just a normal person who had lived in a comfortable world, a student who had just entered college.
Perhaps she had gone crazy. Killing two people in two days, and now having to deal with an extraordinarily messy crime scene—anyone would go mad.
Her psyche had already reached its breaking point, causing this breakdown.
A9 consoled itself. Lacking a physical body, accustomed to arbitrarily disposing of lives and manipulating rules, it had long considered itself above the world.
Yet the turn of events was simply too far-fetched. Shocked, it couldn't comprehend what on earth had transpired.
Forsiman, the "Tourist," was completely different from yesterday's former-killer-now-corpse who had activated "Tracking." He wasn't some minor nobody. Given his past abilities and track record, A9 couldn't even curse him out as a useless trash.
No, things couldn't go on like this. It had assumed the "Tourist" could correct the plot deviation, never expecting he would throw his own life into the mix.
What could A9 do? It couldn't control the actions of characters within the plot. Was it supposed to drag another person from the outside world just to kill an NPC?
At this point, its only choice was—
Grit its teeth and throw caution to the wind. It passed through the wall once more, rushed forward, and took the moral high ground.
【Look at you! What on earth have you done?! I gave you a second life, yet you used it to take away someone else's life?!】
A9 had never felt so miserable in its life. To think it actually had to expose itself just to have a chance at getting the plot back on track.
If it didn't influence her now, there was no telling what this NPC might do next.
If the plot and the catchers couldn't guide her, then it would take matters into its own hands!
A9 believed its words were cold, serious, and packed with deterrence. Tone aside, a voice suddenly ringing out inside someone's head was terrifying enough on its own.
Perhaps she would even treat it as a lifeline to return to her original world. After all, fiction in that world contained fantasy concepts like systems and similar entities.
Besides, supernatural phenomena weren't nonexistent in this world anyway, so it could serve to reassure her.
The NPC was now an unregistered person who had killed two people, so her desire to return to her hometown and escape this world had to be exceptionally urgent.
...
Water gushed from the sink, flowing past her fingertips and swirling down the drain.
Lin Mo urgently washed away the stains on her body. Her frame felt heavy—beyond the water drenching her, it felt as though something had been added to her soul, weighing on her so heavily she could barely breathe.
Her soul felt imprisoned. She was in agony; even having achieved victory, she felt none of the relief of resolving a crisis.
She wondered if she had become the person dragged under by a drowned ghost. Was his expression of relief before death because of his doctrine?
Since he believed one needed to atone for taking a life, had he been pursuing death all along from the very beginning?
Had Forsiman discovered something that made him firmly believe death was the most perfect ending?
The abnormal sequence of events and the suspiciously easy outcome heightened her vigilance just the same. Why had Forsiman smiled right before dying? Why had she succeeded so easily?
“Hey! Is anyone there? Is there anyone in the shop?” A stranger's voice called out from outside.
Lin Mo quickened her pace.
A9 assumed she hadn't heard its voice. It shouted repeatedly, but Lin Mo gave no reaction whatsoever. Pausing for a moment, it finally said:
【I can help you. Don't go out there right now. In a place like this, if a customer can't find an employee, they'll leave after a bit. But if you stand here, a surprise is bound to happen.】
Lin Mo washed herself clean, took off her current clothes, changed into the work uniform stored in the corner, put on her apron and hat, and walked out.
“Coming right away! What would you like to drink?”
The main dining area was a complete mess, looking almost like a place mid-renovation that hadn't been cleaned up yet.
Her arms lacked strength. With great difficulty, she gathered the tools, the spilled powder turning the counter into a messy disaster. Pain in her ribs caused a cold sweat to break out, yet she skillfully prepared the order with practiced movements and pushed it across.
“Thank you.” The customer cast an extra glance at the cut on her face, looking somewhat repulsed by the mess in the dining area. “I originally planned to sit down for a bit, but it's a little too messy out there. Did you guys just open recently?”
“I'm very sorry for giving you a poor dining experience,” Lin Mo said with a fake smile. “Please come again.”
A9 waited and waited, but even as Lin Mo began cleaning up the wreckage of the chairs in the dining area, it still received no response.
...Was she pretending to be deaf, acting as if it didn't exist at all?
Why? This was completely meaningless.
【I know you can hear me! Stop pretending you can't. You can communicate with me in your mind so no one will notice. Don't tell me you don't want to go back to your original world?!】
In truth, A9 didn't possess the ability to send anyone back, but if neither of them brought it up, who would ever know?
【I can resolve all your doubts, as long as you do what I say.】
Lin Mo tidied up the mess on the tables, wiped down the equipment briefly, and after confirming no one else would be coming anytime soon, walked to the restroom to handle the rest.
The moment her eyes landed on the tiled floor, her pupils contracted violently.
Gone.
Everything was gone. Not only Forsiman, but all remaining traces of him had vanished, leaving behind only sparse spots of her own blood.
She bolted to the back door, but found no signs of anyone entering or leaving.
She had only been outside for ten minutes. How could anyone possibly clean up the scene and drag Forsiman out without making a single sound?
Lin Mo's face turned even paler. Ignoring the pain, she stumbled over to the computer to check the surveillance footage.
The back door! The back door footage!
Replaying the footage from that recent time slot several times, she saw no one entering or leaving, let alone someone carrying an adult man.
Agitation flared inside her. Lin Mo bit down hard on the inside of her cheek. Pausing before the computer for a moment, she shifted to reviewing the internal shop footage she hadn't had time to delete yet.
Eerily, the segment where she conversed with Forsiman had vanished...
No—that forensic doctor, his entire presence had vanished.
—In the surveillance footage, aside from her, no one had entered at four in the afternoon at all!
The footage showed only her taking over the shift from the other cafe employee.
“Ah...” Her mouth opened, a short scream escaping her throat. This bizarre turn of events sent throbs of pain pulsing through her temples, her heart spasming in turn.
What happened? Was she having an episode again? Why?! Why was this happening?! Why was reality failing to match her memories once again?!
Was she truly sane? Was everything that happened this afternoon just a hallucination?
A barrage of questions brought on a splitting headache. Fumbling in her pocket, she grabbed her phone and dialed the other employee.
A calm voice spoke from the other end. “Hello? What is it, Lin Mo? Is there a machine you don't know how to operate?”
“Um... no,” Lin Mo straightened her posture and took a deep breath. “Did you see me with anyone this afternoon?”
Hearing her breathing over the line, the employee asked in confusion, “No? Didn't you come alone this afternoon? Don't worry, I don't have a habit of prying into your privacy.”
“O-Okay.”
Hanging up, Lin Mo stood there numbly.
So... it really was a hallucination...
She had thought she was mostly cured, yet the hallucinations had returned. Lin Mo touched her own body, feeling at a total loss for a moment.
Was the pain all over her body a hallucination as well?
But it hurt so much.
Just then, a strange noise echoed inside her mind again, the voice echoing as if returning from far away, swirling within her brain.
【You should believe me now, right? Playing deaf and mute won't let you escape reality. Now that Forsiman is gone, do you still disbelieve my existence?】
【Don't be afraid. This is a normal phenomenon. Right now, I'm the only one who can help you.】
Rate on N.U.
