My waist-length hair was suddenly gone, and now my hair barely reached my shoulders. The wind blowing past my neck felt a little chilly.
The sun was about to sink below the horizon, and the stars in the sky were becoming faintly visible.
The boundary between day and night was chosen as the starting point of the game, clearly to extend the game time, allowing players to quickly conceal themselves in the dim environment, thus avoiding accidental elimination at the start.
Shiba had mentioned that this abandoned housing development had "residents." As far as I knew, people who lived here generally fell into two categories: the homeless, and criminals engaged in illicit activities.
The game rules stated that being discovered by "residents" would result in immediate game failure. This indicated that the ability of "stealth" was one of the key assessment points in this game and a fundamental skill required of a professional assassin.
Therefore, with the cover of nightfall, I needed to quickly ascertain the distribution of "residents" in this area, while avoiding their activity zones as much as possible, and search for Illumi's trace.
No, that was too troublesome; there was a simpler, safer method.
Players familiar with "stealth assassination" games should have heard the phrase, "If you kill everyone, no one will know I was here."
Hmph, I was a devout follower of that principle.
Once the area was cleared, I could explore all the rooms openly, collect all the items, and even get a special game achievement. It would be incredibly satisfying.
[Experience Points +3]
Getting experience points too? Even a tiny mosquito is meat, so why not?
Weapons were still prohibited in the game. It was only after [Heart Stealing] reached Level 4 that I realized my claws were indeed the best "weapon" for the early game. The Zoldyck family made this rule to prevent future generations from going astray.
The amount of blood that got on my claws when I used them was actually a matter of speed. I used to be too slow, which is why my hands would end up covered in blood.
If I became more proficient, the "three-second rule" for wiping my hands clean would probably become unnecessary.
Wiping the blood from my hands, I leaped over the humanoid figure that had just contributed 3 experience points, and moved like a shadow.
After gaining two more [Experience Points +3], an unexpected corpse made me freeze in my tracks.
Was someone competing with me for experience points? Was it Illumi?
Warily scanning my surroundings, I cautiously approached the body to observe it. It was a young man in his twenties, dressed neatly and with a clean face. He was clearly not a homeless person, nor did he seem like a criminal. The strangulation marks on his neck appeared to be the cause of death.
This probably wasn't Illumi's doing; he wouldn't use such an amateurish method.
Judging by the color of the strangulation marks, this person hadn't been dead for too long. I soon found four young men of similar age on another floor of the building. They were completely unaware of the danger, complaining about how long their companion had been in the restroom.
From their conversation, I learned that they had come here for a midnight dare. Unfortunately, they didn't know that in this world, the human heart is far more terrifying than ghosts.
Desolate, abandoned places are ideal locations for murder and disposing of bodies. Besides Illumi and me, others were using this place as a hunting ground.
Was the hunter one of these four, or someone else entirely?
Unaware that their companion's body was on another floor, they searched for him along the way. When they couldn't find him, some mocked him, saying he was likely too scared and had used the restroom as an excuse to go home.
Meaningless bystander dialogue, the foolish decision to split up – these were horror movie tropes I'd grown tired of. I wished this game had a fast-forward function.
When the hunter struck again, and I was like a mantis behind a cicada, I also seized the opportunity to make my move.
[Experience Points +6]
[Experience Points +3]
Huh?
This killer actually had 6 experience points. Was it because he had killed someone, and the deceased's experience points were transferred to him?
If that were the case, the more people one killed, the higher the experience points. Then, how high would Shibar, and the future members of the Phantom Troupe, have?
[Experience Points +3]
Only one person was left from the group of foolish teenagers on a midnight dare.
I needed to finish them off quickly and leave this building. The sounds and lights they were creating were likely attracting a lot of external attention. If too many people were involved, it would be troublesome. I didn't want to be discovered and fail the game.
[Experience Points +3]
As a result of our shared training, Illumi seemed to have the same idea as me. Attracted by the commotion, he was also hiding in the shadows, intending to play the "mantis stalking the cicada." This time, I was the mantis.
However, he underestimated me. Hmph, I wasn't that amateur character with [Experience Points +6]; I was a character with over 30 accumulated experience points. With a counter-attack, I swiped at him.
Following the family teachings of "don't act without confidence" and "if you can sneak attack, don't fight head-on," after the sneak attack failed, he showed no hesitation to retreat, wanting to disengage from the battle.
I can't let this brat escape!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He was determined to flee, and with my current strength, I couldn't keep him here. What should I do?!
In a moment of inspiration, I ripped off a whistle and threw it to the side.
Come on, Illumi. Grab the "designated item" and return to your starting point, and you'll win the game. Can you bear to leave immediately?
His footsteps paused. He was indeed tempted by the allure of victory within reach.
This hesitation was exactly what I wanted!
My claws tore through fabric and pierced flesh. Although it was a sensation I was already intimately familiar with, almost numb to it, at this moment, thinking it was Illumi, I felt an inexplicable excitement.
I felt my blood boiling like magma, churning, surging.
I felt my heart in my chest vibrating like a bronze bell, swaying, roaring.
I felt the scene in my eyes slowing down like a movie, pausing, rewinding.
My breathing became heavy and hot. I craved him; I wanted his blood; I wanted his heart.
With his wounds as the price, and his health bar at four-fifths, he ultimately abandoned the whistle and escaped.
I picked up the whistle.
I was very agitated.
I was very, very agitated.
No, this won't do. Whether as an assassin or in any other profession, emotional instability leads to mistakes, and then failure. My current state is not suitable for pursuing Illumi; I could easily fall into a trap.
I hid back in the shadows, leaned against the wall, adjusted my breathing, and spent some time regaining my composure.
When I checked Illumi's last traces again, I found something on the ground besides bloodstains... a chocolate candy.
That clever Illumi! Thinking that this game might also be long, he had prepared food in advance, so he wouldn't have to go into battle on an empty stomach!
Damn it!
I was too stupid!
Why didn't I consider that!
Although I had plenty of ingredients in my game backpack, I couldn't use them. I didn't know how Kikyo and the others were watching. I couldn't expose my special abilities here.
【"If you go out to work in the future, and you see a dessert on the table at your destination, will you choose to eat it right away?"】 Kikyo had said that.
Uh, considering Kikyo was watching, and I had cut off my long hair in front of her at the start of the game, I didn't dare to be careless about her feelings. I put the chocolate candy in my pocket without eating it.
Perhaps inspired by me, on my way to track Illumi, I successively found people he had killed.
A clean kill, a swift fatal wound. It must have been him, right?
If not him, this level of skill is a bit troublesome.
In any case, the experience points I could have gained were snatched by someone else. Unhappy.
As dawn broke, I found Illumi, or rather, Illumi found me proactively.
To snatch the whistle and win the game, he had to approach me.
This was bound to happen.
There was no need to worry about being seen by "residents"; all the "residents" here had been eliminated by both of us.
"We can be uninhibited now," Illumi said. "Hmm, killing all potential witnesses in the vicinity, although a bit tedious, is not a bad approach."
"By the way," Illumi blinked at me, "was the chocolate candy tasty?"
Did Illumi deliberately lose the chocolate candy? Fortunately, I listened to Kikyo and didn't eat it.
"Poisoned?" I asked with my lips.
"How could it be?" Illumi said with slight surprise. "Poison doesn't affect us, does it?"
"..." Then what did you do? Did you mix shit into the candy?
"Ah, judging by my sister's reaction, you probably didn't eat it." Illumi belatedly tilted his head slightly. He was a bit shorter than me, and by tilting his head, he could meet my eyes directly. "I put chili in it, the devilishly spicy kind."
"..." You're truly a terrible person!!!!!
As I've mentioned before, my current body has sensitive senses and cannot tolerate hot food. There's something else I forgot to mention: spicy food is also something I can't handle well. While I enjoyed spicy food in the "real world," here I've become someone who is naturally afraid of spicy food. Alas, afraid of both heat and spice, half the joy in life is gone.
What happened next is unnecessary to recount; it was a fierce brawl where you hit me, and I hit you.
Illumi's fighting style was more conservative, while I fought for damage, trading blows. As the saying goes, "the barefoot are not afraid of the shod," and I gradually gained the upper hand.
Learning from the lessons of the previous game, I knew I couldn't defeat Illumi in a game arranged by the Zoldyck family. In the end, I ended the fight with a "Ruthless Face-Shattering Punch," knocking out one of Illumi's incisors.
Retrieving the "designated item" from Illumi's body, I thought about it and didn't leave him behind. I dragged him back to my starting point, hoping to pacify Kikyo a little.
The game's victor was decided, and Kikyo and Shiba already knew. They were waiting for me at my starting point.
I showed them the "designated item" I had obtained. Illumi, that little brat, with about one-seventh of his health remaining, had surprisingly good recovery abilities. By this time, he could stand up by leaning on his knees.
"As a game, Millers won," Shiba announced the game result, then shifted his tone. "But as a test, both of your performances..."
"Are unsatisfactory," he said. "When we get home, you will both be punished."
"?!" x2