Chương 112: Not a good day for her

Every action carried both risk and reward. A good life, therefore, was the one where you reaped the greatest rewards with minimum risk. Her school friends were boring and reliable. She studied hard because there were few drawbacks to having good grades, and it offered great opportunities. When deciding on a career, her pick was between an electrician, a doctor, and an accountant – all basically a guarantee of a stable income.

Becoming a doctor required too much of an investment, and being an electrician would bring problems of being a woman in a field that was too male-dominated. So, without fanfare, she became an accountant. Aside from the job, she had a diversified investment portfolio, a mortgage in a nice neighborhood, a rather large circle of middle-class 'friends', and a husband whose best qualities were 'boring' and 'predictable'. Three times per week she also went to yoga classes.

She did not plan on ever having kids, and her husband, of course, agreed. She picked him well. She bought a lottery ticket once per month. She had no pernicious habits. Her life was planned nearly to the point where she knew which retirement home she would go to, despite being barely over thirty. Sydney was genuinely a happy woman. She plotted the course of her life almost from childhood, and walked it steadily. All of her goals were achievable and required nothing but moderate effort.

Some would say that it was plain. Boring. She thought it perfect – to aim for more would require more luck, risk, and stress, and to aim for less was just laziness. She was exactly where she wanted to be. To say that the sudden end of the world was an annoyance would be an understatement. Her house lost all property value, her finances were in ruin, her job and schedule destroyed to the point of no recovery, and even the very government she relied on no longer existed. Also, her husband died.

The man thrived in routine, without it – not so much… Monsters and levels and magic ruined her plans, but they didn't change the equations. So, she shrugged, and started again with the same semi-bored intensity. Took calculated risks, applied moderate effort, adjusted her plans for the new reality… And she was thriving again. Society was barely hanging on from collapsing at best, so she had to fix that to ensure a stable retirement.

Of course, she couldn't fix the world, but ensuring the survival of at least one city-state turned out to be within her capabilities. Monsters and dungeons were a constant threat, but fixed easily enough with strength and proper culling methods. Skills were a blessing that allowed them to adapt, but they were also her biggest source of frustration. A society built on key individuals was doomed to collapse. If she wanted to, she could destroy NLA in less than an hour.

Six targeted assassinations was all it would take. Fifteen if she wanted to be thorough. Food, water, energy, communications, transportation, defenses, logistics and management of low-level masses – all of that hinged on Elites with appropriate Skills. Of course, they had more than one Farmer, and more than one Water Sorcerer, but… not much more. In fact, just four people were responsible for the mass purification of water.

She alone was responsible for the fact that there were no dungeons inside the habitable part of the city. Should she stop clearing them – the whole system would be under much more strain. Should something else break – everything could collapse just like that. That was unacceptable. To live her comfortable and cozy life she needed a society.

She needed a balanced diet, food made from varied and properly cooked ingredients, an ability to sleep without being interrupted by another monster attack, electricity, plumbing, healthcare… her yoga classes. The elf was the answer. Or, to be precise, wizardry. Unlike sorcery-type Skills, which were broad but still confined to a theme and dependent on luck to get, wizardry was something that anyone could do. It was a way to change the structure of society into a self-regulating and self-sustainable system.

She had ample means to enforce such a change. The rewards were immense, and the risk… Maybe she had miscalculated the risk. El'el came with two problems attached to her hip. Or, maybe it was the other way around, she was attached to two problems. Lily, the mind-controlling girl, was easily manageable. Just one glance was enough for Preparation is Key to whisper that it could counter the mind-control aspect of the girl's power.

As long as Lily didn't tap into the more dangerous applications of her Skill, she was harmless. And with the way the girl was terrified of her own Skill, the danger was negligible. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. Dennis, on the other hand… She had definitely miscalculated the risk. New Global Quest: Kill Dennis Smith. Immense rewards for both participation and completion. She fucked up. System screens were more than just letters in the air.

It was raw knowledge. She knew exactly who Dennis Smith was. The unconscious boy beside her. Worse, she understood what 'immense' meant, and how little one had to do to have 'participated' in killing. A level one person could become an Elite just by telling others that they knew where Dennis was. An Elite could become something truly exceptional just by making the boy bleed. It was possible to become 'friendly' to any and all monsters. It was possible to get hands on items of immense power.

The word 'immense' wasn't just a word – it was a picture of you on top of the world. A taste. A promise. Sydney didn't believe in people being inherently 'good' or 'evil'. They craved safety, and were generally neutral. People were predictable, controllable, and generally a net-positive to their surroundings if left to their own devices. In general, people were also pragmatic. Usually, that wasn't a problem. Usually. For an hour, Sydney was bound to be the public enemy number one.

"I…" she swallowed, trying to find the right words.

"I hate you all." The next moment she was almost drowned in gunfire and Skills. The guards, almost all as one, decided that they liked 'immense rewards' more than they liked Dennis Smith. She couldn't even blame them. The boy was hard to like, and was particularly horrible at making first impressions. Control is a Virtue – Projectiles are forbidden. Preparation is Key – Minor negation of offensive Skills in an area. She was an island of safety surrounded by an assault from all sides.

The sound of gunfire was deafening. Ice and electricity and fuck knows what else dissipated into nothing before approaching her. She was wounded, didn't have the time to heal, and halfway exhausted from a frustratingly difficult fight. Her only saving grace was that they were all weak. Weak enough for their Skills to shatter against hers. Weak enough to still rely on ordinary bullets – and those were almost free to block. Didn't have the weight behind them to strain her rule.

She had to push herself to her limits to disable the boy's skill for a fraction of a second. She could negate gunfire almost indefinitely. She hated fighting crowds. The attacks were too varied, too many, while she specialized in fighting one strong foe. It forced her to use weak all-purpose defenses. Worse than that, she had to make them even weaker to protect the boy as well.

Usually she would've defended herself with one Skill while she attacked with the other – but she was stretched too thin to do anything but endure the assault. And time wasn't on her side. The city's Elites were coming, and their attacks wouldn't be cancelled so easily. It was a blessing already that Mark was unconscious. Though, it would've been a flip of a coin if he decided to attack or help. Fucking hell.

"I need a fucking moment!" she shouted over the noise. Locked into two defensive powers, she had literally no other hope than to bet on someone in the crowd having both enough power to do something and no common sense. Somehow, it worked. Hundreds of butterflies flickered in front of everyone's faces, making the whole assault halt simultaneously for just a moment as everyone groaned and clutched their heads. Preparation is Key whispered a simple counter to her in case she needed it.

A slight adjustment to the Mind stat to protect from information overload. She dismissed it. No point in countering her allies. Preparation is Key – Minor invisibility in an area. Control is a Virtue – Bloodstains and noise are forbidden. She needed to fix the fucking hole in her abdomen, but before that she needed to hide. Sydney grabbed the boy and ran, no more than a slight shimmer in the air to everyone around her.

It wouldn't help against the scouting Skills, but she would have an answer to scouting Skills the moment she'd drop the invisibility in a safer place. Her Skill made her prepared for anything – but not everything. Waking the boy up was a priority, but it would take her at least a few minutes. She couldn't counter herself easily, and she had put a lot in that final effect.

More than that, it was a risk – he could still be antagonistic, he was quite vulnerable when he was the one in danger, so his use was questionable, and worst of all, he was a fucking nightmare of chaos, and she hated that unpredictability so much that dragging a body around felt like a safer bet. In any way, she needed a safe place first. Plans made in the heat of the moment weren't exactly her preferable way of doing things. A butterfly flickered at the periphery of her vision.

Mary had no problems seeing through her illusion, and dashed towards her, hiding under the effect of the mass invisibility. To her other side, an unimportant girl joined them, obviously capable of seeing through the invisibility as well. She was– Preparation– Sydney dropped the line of thought. She couldn't stretch her Skill further. Whoever it was, they weren't attacking, so it was probably an ally. She'd deal with them later.

They ran towards the nearest alley, bypassing the guards who were still too confused from the assault on their minds. Sydney thought about running back to her mansion, but the Elites would check it first. She needed a better place. A butterfly flew nearby, whispering into her ear without making a sound. We need to save Ellie.

'What?' Sydney mimed the question, the rule forbidding her from making noise. It's the elves. Ten of them, they just appeared out of thin air about a mile away. They look like… like ninjas. Five of them are running towards us, five towards Ellie. They… they feel stronger than Dennis. Ah. Of course. Being hunted by her own city was not enough. Too simple for her to deal with.

It was like the end of the world all over again – she could make perfect plans, prepare for any likely eventuality, put her life on the right track to early retirement again… None of it mattered when shit just appeared out of thin air simply to fuck with her in particular.

"How strong?" she asked, dropping the rule that made them silent as they escaped the encirclement.

"Do they feel completely out of anyone's league, or just stronger than him?" There was a difference between strong and strong. Not to brag too much, but she wasn't who she was because she couldn't punch above her weight class. Although she would've preferred the circumstances to be maybe just slightly more lenient.

"Stronger than him," Mary replied.

"Not too much, I guess. Both are like looking at a mountain, but I don't get the feeling of inevitability." The unimportant girl was listening closely.

"Do you have any idea who they are?" Sydney asked.

"It's the Hunters," the girl replied.

"Ellie told me about them. They want to take her away." Sunk cost fallacy was, of course, a fallacy. But Sydney was at a point where she would fucking obliterate the fuckers who thought to take her ticket to early retirement from her. She would build another city if needed. Or take over one. Whatever. But without the wizardry it wouldn't be the thing. Thankfully, bad things usually came with good opportunities. She had ten more potential sources of knowledge to dissect.

These ones not so protected by overly heroic speedsters. She spun in place, and ran towards her mansion.