Chương 328: Spoiled

With one of the necessary items now in my possession, my poor little prey are simply unable to leave altogether. They are stuck inside this nightmare until they either die or unless they somehow manage to take the doll back from me… Who knows, with final trials, there are often surprises concerning the participants. One victim tended to reveal more skills than they had shown, or one of the victims ended up showing up unexpectedly.

Regardless, if things turned sour for me, I had a few tricks up my sleeve thanks to my 'Nightmare Form'. I can switch to another nightmare sub-form, or even turn into the Cauchemar Beast on a whim. … Though I would rather not have to do any of this. Just like any hunt, this was a game, and thus, a bit of challenge was more than welcome. Not to mention that I am actually quite fond of this pint-sized form I currently have.

I'm so used to being tall that this feels like a breath of fresh air, and it also allows me to see how cute a mini-me actually is, and I have to say… I am adorably gorgeous! In any case, I scampered through the streets until I was back at the tower where I started, which I ascended by running up the side of it, which somehow worked and which made me feel great.

This sort of lightweight agility was greatly enjoyable to experience–I'll definitely have to try using the 'Gynoid Form' to do something similar, but in the real world. I wonder what Leou and Mari would think of such an appearance? So far, it's only been my human looks with them, but they've made it quite clear that they are very, very, very interested in seeing other things from my 'Gynoid Form'. Some of them definitely wouldn't happen, but I suppose I could present Leomi to them… A sigh escaped my mouth.

Where are my prey, anyway? Did they hunker down somewhere instead of all splitting up to search? So far, I've only sensed the presence of four future victims, but I am fairly confident that there should be way more, unless several final trials were created, and the rest of those trials are on hold waiting for me to be done here? That would be odd. This trial is in a very large city. Just a couple of people would never be able to collect all of the necessary items effectively. It would rely purely on luck…

And while the nightmare trials are never really fair to the participants, they are also never really completely impossible. After all, if they didn't have any hope of survival, then it wouldn't be enjoyable to hunt them down.

"Mmh?" I blinked slightly as I swiftly leaned to the right, feeling the wind whistle into my ear as a stone brick went right past my head, and ended crashing and shattering against the edge of the tower behind me, the sound of debris falling to the ground echoing into the silent city as I casually looked at the direction the brick had come from. Someone's got a pretty good aim… And good strength, too. They are too far for me to sense.

I backed off whilst maintaining my eyes on the direction the projectile had come from, simply walking off the side of the tower in reverse before bursting away swiftly in between houses, like a cockroach rushing to get beneath furniture after being caught wandering out in the open of the kitchen at night. This served to make my opponent lose sight of me as I rushed in an arc toward where I believed they should be.

As nice as the throw had been, the problem with a big item like this one was that it was actually quite easy to guess where exactly it had come from. There weren't many ways to throw a damned brick that would have it arrive in nearly a straight line at someone over a long distance. It took me a few minutes, but I soon spotted the offender.

At a glance, he might seem like a regular, young human man, but upon closer inspection, I noticed that he had a third, sideways eye on his forehead, and after observing him from the shadows for a few minutes, I noticed that it was like his bones were made of crystal as a glow within him would get brighter over time, making him go from seemingly average young man, to a bright pink humanoid figure. I do not have a clue what species he belongs to. Is he a demon, Nara? No, he is a human. Just like you were.

The third eye and glow seem to be additions and changes that were made to his body. He's probably some kind of pet or experiment material for some unhinged mage… … His bones are indeed made from mana crystal, but it seems like he can not harvest mana at all. He's probably somewhat defective.

That, or the point of switching his entire skeleton was to make him mana-resistant instead of giving him an edge in spellcasting As I questioned whether to reveal myself or not, a smell I would recognise amongst thousands reached my nose, prompting me to leave this guy to stare at a tower where I no longer was, so that I could investigate. Huh… No wonder I only noticed a handful of people. This bastard is a freaking thief!

Following the smell, I ended up in one corner of the city, the corner that the other man had said most people had seemingly started in… Corpses were piled on each other, all having seemingly been brutally beaten to death, and those who had been carrying weapons when they fell asleep, and thus had them here as well, had been killed with their very own weapons. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. I shook my head. What a maniac!

Who would do such a thing? Am I right, Nara? Had it been you, the killing probably would have been cleaner than this, but on an important note: Why would he do this? Is it an instinct for him to kill everything within range, and if so, how did those other people roaming around not only avoid getting killed but also somehow miss the massacre entirely? They must have appeared away from the rest of the group, or they left immediately while the others stayed in place…

All that matters is that this bastard killed them before I could! How am I supposed to get sweet, sweet souls to experiment upon if someone else murders my prey? I certainly hope his soul is at least a bit interesting to make up for this. Since my fun was spoiled, let's end this trial swiftly… I swear, you can't even save up on trapped innocents so that you can have a good time killing them one by one these days! Someone always needs to mess everything up! Is it because I am not respected enough or something?

Should I slaughter an entire city and then brag about doing it? This isn't my style. I brag during conversations or by myself. Regardless, I picked up a dagger from a corpse, and after making it spin on my index finger and testing its sharpness, I headed back to where I had last spotted the vile thief. I got there just in time to watch him seemingly get bored of staring at the tower, as he climbed down the side of the house he had been standing upon, carrying a bag full of bricks with him.

Did he really have no clue that I had left the tower this entire time? I had pretty clearly jumped off its side, so why had he continued to just stare at its top like a mindless zombie? In fact, watching this guy actually move made it clear rather quickly that something was profoundly wrong with him. He was walking in a wholly unnatural manner.

Sometimes, it was like he would forget to alternate between his feet and make several steps with the same foot, dragging the other before realising his mistake and correcting it. He even walked straight into a wall at one point–Several times before stopping and finally adjusting his trajectory. This entire time, not a single expression made it to his face apart from pain when hitting the wall. Correct me if I'm wrong, Nara, but… Is this guy being controlled remotely?

It does look like it, and it seems like the person controlling him is having trouble, probably because there is interference between the nightmare trial, which is in the Dreamscape, and the real world The controller could be in the nightmare as well, but then, we would have to assume that they just suck, which seems unlikely if we consider that the changes that were made to this man's body were made specifically to turn him into a mindless drone that can be directed at will The 'coachman' has to know what they are doing Huh…

So some motherfucker thought they could infiltrate the nightmares and take a look at them without actually entering themselves? I won't lie, that is quite smart, but I don't like it one bit… Also, all of the participants should have been moved around by me directly so that they wouldn't all get slaughtered by the pre-final trial, and I don't remember any glowing bastard with a third eye.

Wouldn't this mean that whoever is controlling him found and modified this man recently, after probably finding out that they were a victim of the nightmares? Who would want to take a look at the nightmares so badly? Also, why the hell did they murder everyone else? That doesn't even make sense! Unless the point is to annoy me. If so, it was highly successful. Alright… Let me cripple him real quick.

Using my superior speed, I moved ahead of the fleshy drone's path and waited in an alleyway for him to pass by, and the second I had a clear shot at him, I ran right behind his back with the dagger in hand, letting the sharp blade do the work with the help of my speed to slash right through both of his heels, forcing the man to stop moving as I kept on rushing in an alley on the opposite side. Just to be sure, I wanted to observe how he would react.

The one controlling this man seemed to want to keep going, but try as they might, the man couldn't stand up at all. The drone's arms flailed wildly for a few moments, but it quickly stopped, as though the one controlling it gave up. My next two moves were to slash his two regular eyes and then his third eye. Just to be extra careful, I also delivered several more slashes to disable important muscles, and only then did I slowly approach.

"Hellooo? Can you hear me?" I quietly moved around whilst waiting for an answer that I knew was coming due to the jaw movement, but that took several minutes to show up, as though the controller had to learn on the spot how to speak through their puppet.

"I can hear you… Mara Nebulo?"

"Do I sound like Mara Nebulo?" My cheeky response with my cute little halfling voice must be rather confusing for someone who can only work off of audio. I definitely didn't sound like the Mara Nebulo people knew about.

"I've been trying to reach you about a possible deal""What kind of deal? I'll have you know that I don't like people snooping around without permission here. And I like it even less when someone kills my prey! Anyway, who are you?"

"My name bears no importance. I am a messenger of the System Fundamentalists. We have reasons to believe that our goals could align, or that we at least have enough to offer for you to consider lending a hand" Mmh… Guess I'll play along, somewhat.

"What? Do you want me to find those three otherworlders that vanished from Aesther? I don't give a damn about them""No. We have reason to believe that you yourself are one blessed by the Universal System! We wish to meet with you in person, and if you are truly a blessed one, then we would like to grant you a title and the protection of our organisation""What's the catch?"

"There is no catch. We simply want to gather the blessed" I rubbed my chin for a few moments–Dear, is my skin smooth and soft in this form!

"I'll consider it. Where should I go to meet with you guys?"

"That is very simple…"