“Sure enough!”
Before the sky had even darkened, around four in the afternoon at most, a figure in a black trench coat appeared in Freya's line of sight.
Since she had already been killed by this guy once, Freya would never forget his face. Without a doubt, this was the stalker. Since he wanted to “eat” her so badly, there was no way he would just show up right on the dot. He had likely been lingering around the neighborhood since much earlier.
However, the stalker's current appearance was slightly different from what Freya remembered.
His eyes were not red slit-pupils, and he didn't look nearly as crazed or mindless. Instead, he looked like an ordinary person with something on his mind, walking hurriedly into the distance.
Even though he was walking away from Freya's house, a moment later, Freya saw him loop back from another direction, repeating this cycle over and over.
It felt as though he still retained some of his sanity, though not much. He was like a drug addict who knew drugs were bad but still couldn't resist the urge. The stalker surely knew that eating humans was wrong, but he was simply too hungry to resist.
Cold sweat kept beading on his forehead. He tried his best to control his gaze, but his eyes would still drift toward Freya's residence unconsciously, without him even realizing it.
The only thing Freya didn't understand was why this stalker had to target her specifically if he just wanted to eat people. However, that didn't hinder her next move.
After the stalker left and returned for the third time, Freya finally stepped out from her corner and walked straight toward him.
It was past five in the evening. Although the area Freya lived in was remote, there were still quite a few pedestrians around. She even spotted the two blonde punks who worked under Brother Scar. As she passed them, the two loafers whistled at her. “Yo, little Freya, school let out early today?”
But Freya ignored them completely. Her gaze was locked onto the stalker. When there were only about seven or eight paces between them, she drew her gun without warning.
Gripping the 【Lococo 191】 with her right hand, Freya aimed and fired!
“Bang!” “Bang!” “Bang!”
The crisp gunshots echoed down the street. At first, upon hearing the shots, the pedestrians didn't react immediately, all of them freezing in place.
The stalker was no exception. He had been strolling along normally when a complete stranger suddenly shot at him out of nowhere. Who could possibly react to that? Who could have ever expected it?
Only after the three gunshots did most of the pedestrians scream and flee away from Freya. As for the two blonde punks, because they knew what Freya was usually like, their eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
“Huh?”
“Wait, what the hell is happening?”
You're telling me that the soft, cute little angel who usually didn't even dare to speak loudly and would cry for ages if slightly frightened was now shooting to kill in broad daylight in front of everyone?
WTF!?
You've got to be kidding me!
As for the stalker, he hadn't fully processed it either, but driven by instinct, he managed to react in the nick of time, raising his hands to shield his forehead.
Of Freya's three shots, two hit his chest and one hit the hands shielding his forehead. In truth, she had aimed all three shots at his head, but two of them had veered slightly off-target.
It couldn't be helped. After all, she had only trained for a month. To have this level of accuracy was already quite impressive—at least she hadn't missed entirely, right?
Seeing this, she didn't show any disappointment or discouragement. With a cold, calm expression, she continued to fire.
“Bang!” “Bang!”
Meanwhile, although he had no idea what was going on, the stalker was still driven by instinct to charge at the “enemy” attacking him.
In Freya's past life, there was a saying: beyond seven paces, the gun is fast; within seven paces, the gun is fast and accurate. This saying was true, but not entirely.
Never underestimate a human's explosive speed. For instance, in a certain land of freedom, some people could charge a police officer and attack them from seven paces away before the officer could even draw and fire.
Currently, this stalker was an extraordinary. His physical fitness was bound to be much higher than any ordinary human from her past life, making his speed naturally faster. However, since Freya was the one initiating the attack, she didn't need to go through the process of drawing and aiming; she only had to keep pulling the trigger.
Even so, in the brief moment it took to fire two shots, the stalker had already closed the distance. One of the shots hit his hands again, while the other missed entirely, grazing his scalp.
The 【Lococo 191】 had high accuracy and low recoil, but its power was mediocre. It couldn't penetrate the stalker's overlapping hands.
“Whoosh!”
Then, a pale, cold shadow tore through the black trench coat. Still shielding his head with his hands, the stalker chose to attack with his tail. His target, naturally, was Freya's right hand holding the gun.
“Squelch!”
A sharp bone spur pierced right through Freya's palm. Just like in the first simulation, animal instinct dictated that the stalker would prioritize attacking “things that threatened him”—which meant Freya's armed hand.
“Sss...” Even though she was mentally prepared, the intense pain still made Freya gasp. It was too fast; she couldn't track the movement of his tail at all. But... she hadn't planned on dodging in the first place.
At the exact same moment the stalker launched his attack—or perhaps a fraction of a second earlier—her left hand had already gripped her other gun, the far more powerful revolver. As the enemy attacked, Freya raised the muzzle without a hint of hesitation.
“Bang!”
A much louder, more violent gunshot rang out. At such close range, there was no need to aim, but Freya still missed slightly. The shot hit the stalker's neck, the bullet exiting through his cheek.
The stalker tried to retract his tail, but Freya let go of the 【Lococo 191】 with her right hand and grabbed his tail instead!
This action was no different from grabbing a bare blade with her bare hands. The retracting tail tore her right hand apart, but as long as it could slow him down even a fraction, it was enough.
With her left hand, Freya pressed the muzzle of the revolver directly against the stalker's chin. She gritted her teeth, enduring the agonizing pain. “This time... I definitely won't miss!”
“Bang!”
The high-caliber revolver bullet blasted straight through the stalker's skull. Crimson blood with a metallic scent splattered everywhere, quite a bit of it landing on Freya's cheek. Even such a cute face looked somewhat terrifying when drenched in blood.
The stalker's body slowly went limp, but Freya fired four more shots in rapid succession, all aimed at his head, not stopping until the revolver was completely empty. She had to make absolutely sure this guy was dead. If he wasn't fully dead and suddenly reanimated, what then?
Only after doing all this did her legs give out, and she collapsed onto the ground in a W-sit. “Sss... it hurts so bad...”
After taking several deep breaths, she hurriedly took out the medicine she had prepared in advance and began to perform basic bandaging on herself. First aid was one of the skills she had learned at the Special Service during the second simulation.
During this time, she glanced around. The two blonde punks still hadn't run away. Logically speaking, Freya was currently in excruciating pain and had virtually no combat capability left. Just about anyone could easily knock her down, let alone two healthy young men.
But when Freya looked over, the two blonde punks were nearly wetting themselves. One of them actually had a large wet patch on his trousers. How could they possibly have the courage to mess with a lunatic like Freya? They turned around and fled, scrambling away in terror.
“Mommy, I want to go home!”
“Holy shit, holy shit, help!”
In short, after wrapping her mangled right hand in layers of bandages and treating the wound well enough to ensure she wouldn't bleed to death anytime soon, Freya began searching the stalker's corpse. Soon, she found a black envelope in his coat pocket—the contact details for 【Obsidian】.
Since her right hand throbbed with agonizing pain at the slightest movement, she had to use only her left hand. Just opening the envelope took quite a bit of effort. Then, she saw the contents inside:
【No. 13 Huangzai Street, Broken Axe Tavern, a glass of Cold Orange Special】
Packing up her firearms, Freya gritted her teeth against the constant throbbing in her right hand and quickly left the area.
Some time later, she successfully found the 【Broken Axe Tavern】 mentioned in the letter. It was located deep within a narrow alley, extremely remote and looking incredibly run-down. The sign wasn't even hanging above the entrance; instead, it stood upright beside the door.
It took Freya some effort to make out the words “Broken Axe” from the cracked sign. “Is this the place?”
The blood on Freya's face had been washed away, but due to her hand injury, her face was pale, and cold sweat beaded on her forehead. It made her look even more delicate, like a fragile vase that would shatter at a touch.
Without hesitation, she pushed the door open and stepped inside. Immediately, she was hit by a wave of cheap tobacco, alcohol, and the smell of unwashed feet. Perhaps because it wasn't late enough yet—only around six o'clock—the tavern wasn't very crowded.
Freya looked around and saw only two tables of customers. One was in the corner sipping a drink, while the other was at the bar, seemingly chatting with the bartender.
Freya walked toward the bar. The owner glanced up at her and said flatly, “A kid? We don't serve juice or milk here. Did you walk into the wrong place?”
The customer at the bar couldn't help but whistle upon seeing Freya. “Oho~ What a pretty little girl.”
To make matters worse, as Freya approached the bar, the man actually reached out toward her bottom without saying a word. Freya quickly dodged to the side, putting some distance between them.
The man clicked his tongue. “Tsk, tsk, tsk. You've already come to a place like this, so why play innocent? I've got plenty of fun toys at my place. Want to come over and play with me later?”
Freya ignored him and looked at the owner. “I want a glass of the 【Cold Orange Special】.”
Hearing this, the owner was taken aback. He looked at Freya with a hint of confusion, and only spoke after a brief pause. “Sorry, little girl, I don't have that kind of drink here. Did you make a mistake?”
Seeing this, Freya didn't feel like wasting time with secret codes or beating around the bush. She got straight to the point. “I know you have Devil Pathway potions here. Aren't you guys distributing them everywhere? I want one right now!”
The owner fell silent for a moment. “Are you serious? Though I don't know how you found out about this, it's not some child's toy. The Devil Pathway requires consuming human flesh and blood to maintain sanity. Honestly, do you even dare to kill? I'd hate for you to starve yourself to death.”
Freya didn't speak. At times like this, taking action was much simpler than trying to persuade someone with words. She looked at the customer who had just harassed her and walked toward him.
Seeing this, the customer grinned. “What's this? A change of heart? I...”
Before he could finish his sentence, Freya said, “What kind of decent person would come to a place like this? Whether it's you, or me...”
As she spoke, her left hand emerged from under her clothes, pointing the muzzle of the 【Lococo 191】 straight at him.
“Bang!”
Clean and decisive, a point-blank headshot. Before anyone could react, the body collapsed to the ground with a dull thud.
Only then did Freya turn back to look at the owner. She tilted her head slightly, wearing a cute expression, and asked in an adorable voice, “How about now?”
The owner stared blankly for several seconds before letting out a laugh. “Haha, hahahaha! Truly astonishing.”
Suddenly, the owner's eyes filled with intense interest as he looked at Freya. A girl this cute, with such a deceptive appearance, yet capable of casually killing someone without batting an eye... wasn't that just wonderful?
The owner said, “Don't tell me you killed 【Reno】 and looted that envelope from his corpse?”
It sounded like Reno was the stalker's name.
Freya nodded, not denying it. Seeing this, the owner smiled. “I won't give you a Devil Pathway potion. You deserve something better.”
...
Rate on N.U.
