The four captors landed on top of the dispensers. Their feet clacked on the marble floor, and as the shroud of smoke receded, they studied these huge anomalies. They moved their attention to the edge with eyes gazing at the dim air hovering beneath, seeing nothing but silence waiting for them.

Broad mouths on the sides adorned by chiseled clouds and stone remained closed. But to their wonder, they found no ground; rather, something obscured their view, and there were many of them.

Marble paths stretched from one building to the next. They extended meters far with no solid piers to hold them up. Their expansive width and depth endured the heaviness and kept them upright, forming webs that interlinked the huge edifices at every level. The design lacked order, resembling a chaotic web. Some slanted downward or inclined upward—whichever way to perceive it. Others barely stuck out, stopping halfway when another trail overlapped them.

Anyone who entered this field would easily become lost or confused. Above all, the men couldn’t utilize their abilities in this pact zone. Despite their disadvantage, they advanced.

They dropped to the nearest branches of marble. These platforms were a couple of meters thick, allowing them to be balanced without trouble. One by one, they descended to the field of ceramic and glass, hopping to the next path until they saw the ground.

They settled for the closest platform, just a few meters below the ground. Perched high above, they looked around in every direction. Their eyes adjusted to the lack of sun, and the scent of plastic and… a sugary fragrance tingled their noses. They failed to spot any sign of a person wherever they directed their gaze. Chanting whistles of the wind seeped through the tight confinements and brushed against their ears. Everything about this place swelled with suspicion. They knew they were not alone.

A gentle purr emanated from behind. One turned, and out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a cat’s tail disappear behind a dispenser. He narrowed his eyes, questioning what he had witnessed. With half-expectation, he raised his hand to catch the men’s attention—until a sound burst from the side.

A loud shatter reached their alert states. They turned and saw a broken cup lying on the floor. A couple of shards jiggled back and forth. It was tossed against the wall, but there was no one around. Their eyes grew more wary, more cautious if it’d happen again.

Another man spotted a tabby cat dashing out from one tower and hiding behind the next one. A second cat caught their eyes, toying with their confusion and frustration. They griped, aware they were being messed with.

Out of nowhere, a man felt a sudden thud on his head. A soundless mutter escaped him as he felt something soft and circular hitting behind him. He quickly caught it before falling and brought it to his face. He grew puzzled when he saw a small brown dough with chocolate chips staring back. “A cookie? What is this doing–”

A piercing whip broke the suspense. The men heard the pitch approaching from a blind spot, approaching the one holding the cookie. They tried finding where it was coming from. It traveled so fast they could barely spot it. The only thing they could see was a white blur flying towards one of their men. When he lifted his head, he was too late to react. All he could see was a pointer finger charging at his face.

It bore through his hand. It ripped through the skin. It ruptured the bones and came out on the other side. It struck the cookie and broke it in half. It drove through and lodged itself in the man’s face. The pointer finger buried itself right in the middle of his head.

He curved his back and gazed at the sky. His mouth opened. He screeched with a horrifying cry. The cookie fell out of his flaking hand. Smoke consumed his body as he disintegrated into ashes that got carried away by the subtle winds. His death howl ceased when his lips fragmented and joined with the rest of the drifting mist.

With the body fading, the cursor fell to the ground. Nearby, someone emerged from hiding.

Three men watched with shock, witnessing their member dying in an instant. They peered down in the direction of the shot. In their unexpected confrontation, it was a boy.

----------------------------------------

Moko tossed one of his cursors and successfully vanquished one of the captors. He clutched his Cookie between his jaws. The screen hovered beside him, his arm raised to grab more orbs if needed. The blue cat ran and joined him as it watched the battle proceed.

Men dropped, striking the floor and glaring at him intensely. They pulled out their daggers from their pockets and dashed forward.

Moko ran behind a tower and escaped their advance. He hugged near the structures, winding around the maze to lose them. Despite the dim field, the men effortlessly spotted him and caught up. They transformed into a ball of smoke when traveling in a straight line. They ran on foot on times they made turns.

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One captor took the lead and threw his dagger. The blue cat hissed beside Moko’s sprinting feet, almost yelling to grab his attention. Its warning prompted him to dash to the side. The blade missed him by a couple of feet. It zipped past and clanged against a dispenser and fell to the floor.

The passing edge of a knife fills your heart with fear. You can feel the murderous eyes prickling your back. |

He cleared the words to see where he was running. According to the plan, he mustn’t recall his cursors until the time hits 12:15. As far as he knew, one recall would count every single cursor. This meant he needed to use his Assets sparingly and with effort. Any blind throw to slow the men would cause him to deplete his cursors. Despite having 82 in store, it took about the same amount to kill one man when saving Impy. He needed to be careful as he was facing three this time.

The frontmost man diverged from his team, running closer and closer to Moko. He closed the gap until there was no more distance between them.

Neylan’s voice shouted from behind a tower. “Heads up!”

Moko felt the ground sink and rise. As he ran, in front of him came two responding dispensers heeding her call. The leading man and he swiftly passed, while the other two fell into the trap.

On both sides, the towers opened their mouths. The gateways heaved upward to reveal their dark interiors from the first level to the eighth. They began spewing their cups behind Moko by the thousands. Roads of marble hanging by the top broke the storming hail. Glass and ceramic cracked and expelled by the impacts, and they flooded the ground with razor fragments.

The glassy rain fell onto the two men. They transfigured into a collection of smoke to retreat. Cups bombarded the ground with nonstop pouring, and the growing pile quickly condensed into a mountain. Chaos suppressed them, separating them from Moko and the third man.

The dispensers stopped releasing cups and remained dormant. They piled enough cursors on top of each other that it reached up to the highbound roads.

Moko stopped running and turned. He faced the lone captor, appearing to be astonished by what he witnessed.

“Moko!” Neylan shouted, appearing from behind a tower. Refocusing on her eager presence, he saw her holding a plastic cup. But it wasn’t an ordinary plastic cup. It was the size of his torso—perhaps bigger. It was so large he couldn’t see her face. She put effort into holding it by the enormous handle. “Catch!”

She tossed it in his direction, barely traveling a distance before falling down. It thunked on the dirt and tipped to the side, rolling until the handle stopped its track. Moko had to analyze what she wanted him to do with the cup she gave him. As the man refocused on the chase, Moko promptly grabbed it. There was a slight heftiness to it, making his left hand exert a lot of strength to keep it up.

She explained, “Use it as a shield. It might help you.”

“What?!” Moko exclaimed, utterly confused by her proposition. This thick and tough round of plastic as tall as half of his body was going to protect him? It was probably one of the strangest things he had ever heard.

You grabbed the unusually large cup and felt its smooth but matte surface. You wonder how you would use a chunk of plastic to defeat your foes... |

“I’ve kept the other two at bay,” she said, “so hurry and get the first one! Terayla will keep giving me their whereabouts, so don’t worry about us!”

Terayla peeked from behind Neylan, her little frame and the tabby cat accompanying them. She nodded with tension and pumped her fist for Moko, giving a light cheer while avoiding any glance at the captor.

~ Moko, do her cats do anything? They all seem to have different personalities. The blue cat covers your wound, which seems like a nurturing cat. The tabby one guides. The golden cat just… watches. They’re not normal cats, are they? ~

~ I don’t know either, but I know her System appears to link her with her cats. Whatever they feel, she also feels. Whatever they see, she also sees. Because of this, she is very aware of her surroundings. She heard a captor approaching before I or Impy could even realize it. ~

Moko had no certainty of agreeing or nodding at Neylan’s statement. He lifted the cup and guarded his front as if it was a shield. His problem was the absence of a fighting method. He was like an armored soldier running into danger without a sword.

As the captor brought his two daggers out of his pocket and readied his stance, Moko kept his Cookie in his mouth and poised his large plastic cup between him and the man. He had to maneuver with whatever he had, and he had to act quickly.

He spun the cup upside down. The flat underside acted as a sheltering surface while also mitigating the chance of getting grasped. Maybe the shield could work. All he needed now was how to attack with a broken arm, a plastic cup, and his Cookie in his mouth.

When the man turned into smoke and closed the distance in seconds, the first hand-to-hand battle commenced.