Chapter 4
The Hunt Never Ends
The sun was about to reach its peak. The heat of the sun did not affect the figure clad in heavy armor, nor do the cold breeze from the snowcapped mountains make her shiver. She just stood still, the remains of a tragedy in front of her.
Slowly, Janica moved forward and walked through the dirt path between the ruins of several burnt buildings. She stopped right in the center of what once used to be a simple town and closed her eyes. Just by blocking her view, she could imagine how the town would have looked like if the distaster had not struck.
The townspeople doing their daily tasks, children playing on the streets, men struggling with heavy labor, women doing household chores...
She opened her eyes, and the sight once again filled her with disgust and contempt towards those who had done such an atrocious act. She went to the makeshift graveyard.
Janica: "There must be a survivor."
Otherwise, there was no one who would have buried the corpses of the NPCs who died. Players will not do such an act. It was common game knowledge that corpses disappear 24 hours after death.
Looking to the river, she found a small building with stone walls and a waterwheel.
Janica: "A workshop?"
She went inside the building to find broken tools and burnt furnitures. The waterwheel was barely visible from the inside through the broken wall. She checked the items on the ground and found common metal tools like pickaxes, hammers, saws, and also weapons and armors.
When she walked towards the non-functional furnace, the stone floor made a strange sound as her heavy metal boots landed on a slightly raised slab. She crouched down and knocked on the slab. It was hollow inside. Finding a thin blade among the scattered tools and weapons, she used it to pry the slab open by inserting the thin blade through the gap on the edges. The slab was removed removing a small space underneath.
Janica: "A hidden storage..."
There was a long object wrapped in a thick cloth, and a sealed envelope inside the hidden space. There was a simple note on the back of the envelope: "To my son, Valecore Edin."
A slight headache caused Janica to almost drop the items she was holding. She checked the time and frowned when she saw that it was already past noon. Hurriedly, she stored the items into her inventory and logged out.
Sitting up on the bed, Janica took off the gaming helmet, revealing a beauty with long silver hair, pale blue eyes, small pink lips, well-defined nose, and soft white skin. She stood up from the bed, and took off her thin nightgown, exposing a figure that could make people worship her as a goddess.
She stood there naked for a while, bathed in moonlight through the glass window, thinking about the town and the things she found.
Janica: "If there's a survivor, that person may know who this Valecore Edin is."
There's also the chance that he was the survivor, but the odds of that was low, she thought. She then remembered the strange player she saw in the forest. There was also a possibility that he was the one who buried them, although that would make him even stranger.
As she thought that, the slight headache returned, a bit stronger this time. There was a pitcher of water and a glass on the side table by the bed. She pulled the drawer and took out a bottle of medicine. She took a pill and gulped it down with water.
As the pain receded, she walked towards the window and looked outside. The bright moon illuminated the entire city. She was in a unit on the 50th floor, the top floor, of the condominium. From her vantage point, she could clearly see the wall dividing the city into two areas, the upper-class and lower-class residences. She chose to stay here because of this view.
Past the wall, a slightly bigger structure compared to the others around it was barely visible from where she was, if it was a normal person looking. Janica's enhanced vision captured the sight with clarity.
The structure was an orphanage, and its lights was still on even during this time.
Janica: Some of the children probably woke up crying again in the middle of the night.
She knew because she had been there before. More than a century ago, she woke up in a hidden room beneath that place without any memories. It didn't bother her that she couldn't remember, but what took her attention was the uneasy feeling of "It's not yet time, but it is approaching." The young clergyman who worked in that place took care of her, and taught her about the current world and society. Although she couldn't remember, she knew that before she had lost her memories, she lived in a completely different world.
Normally, Janica was quiet and had no expressions on her face, but living in the orphanage for a time allowed her to adapt to society and develop a facade. She learned how to interact as appropriate to the situation and conversation. However, when she was alone or on a job, she reverted to her true self.
Her job... was to hunt. Without memories, all she had was a sense for combat. She could feel herself lacking something, causing her to be unable to fully release her capabilities, but this didn't hinder her from her job as an assassin. She took this job because she felt some sort of pleasure in taking down the modern demons of society. Her job offers mostly include the assassination of leaders of corrupt organizations.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Her inability to fully unleash her strength frustrated her for a long time now, but three months ago, a game allowed her to finally feel free of these constraints.
After looking back at the past, she went to the bathroom to take a bath. She took a shower, then soaked at the tub. Her appearance had remained unchanged all these years, which was unnatural. This didn't bother her, but the fact that other people will notice lead her to the decision of transferring from the orphanage to this condominium unit.
The young clergyman who took care of her back then had died of old age. The orphanage still remained as its funds still continued to flow in. Janica was providing those, using the money she earned from her job.
After the bath, she changed to her hunting outfit, a black full body suit that does not reflect light and covered her from head to toe. Her figure was accentuated by this suit. A short blade was sheathed on the back of her waist.
She walked to the balcony and jumped without hesitation.
* * * * * * * * *
Valecore was hiding behind a tree at a distance, observing a party of travelers take down a group of wolves in the forest.
Valecore: They really are powerful.
He watched them use their skills to easily defeat the beasts.
Valecore: Hmm? Skills?
The blue panel was still present in his field of view, and upon thinking about that word, he finally noticed it.
Valecore: Skills... Demonic COrruption... I have a skill? Am I... a traveler now?
It was strange for him. He had never heard about a normal person becoming a traveler before. He only believed that only travelers could learn skills, which was in fact not true. The Oracle he met before had skills, and the soldiers of the kingdoms also possess skills. Valecore, being a normal person in a small obscure town, had no way of knowing that.
Looking back at the travelers, he strained his ears to hear their conversations. They made weird hand movements as they talked, while some of them began looting the corpse of the wolves. Whatever they took seemed to disappear to thin air.
As the party left, Valecore sat down behind the tree trunk.
Valecore: "Was it like this?"
He tried copying the strange hand movements of the travelers. Whenever his fingers touched the blue panel, the static would decrease in intensity. It started to feel solid under his touch. He felt that it was a weird feeling, but he continued with his experiment.
After a while, he managed to successfully 'hold' the blue panel and swiped it to the side, making it disappear from his view. He panicked slightly, but when he was able to make it reappear, he sighed with relief. He thought that he lost his qualifications as a traveler without that blue panel. Once more, he swiped it to the side and stood up. Looking ahead, he found the small rabbit. It was looking at him with those red eyes. He tried approaching it, but it ran away and hid behind a tree.
Valecore: "How long will you keep on following me?"
Of course, it did not respond. He shrugged and started to walk away when an idea suddenly popped in his head.
The rabbit sensed and heard his receding footsteps. It jumped out from behind the tree it was hiding and hopped towards the direction that the footsteps disappeared to. As it passed by a tree, a figure suddenly jumped from behind, catching the rabbit.
Valecore: "Finally caught you, you white little lump."
The rabbit struggled in his grasp until finally it gave up. Noticing the sharp horn on its head, Valecore remembered that normally, the horns weren't that sharp for their species. There were also faint red lines running on its skin beneath its white fur. For a moment, he thought he saw those lines slightly increase.
Valecore: "Now, what to do with you?"
As he began pondering, the sound of grass being stepped on came from behind. He swiftly turned around to see a figure holding a bow with an arrow knocked and ready to shoot.
His thoughts swirled with rage as he remembered the night that his town was burnt and the two figures firing arrows at him. Before he could think of what to do, the figure spoke.
???: "Hey big brother, do you mind selling that rare pet to me?"
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[End of Chapter 4]
I'm starting to feel the limits of my grammar and vocabulary skills. Took me a while to finish this because I was debating myself whether I should already expose hints of Janica's identity or not. Oh well...
I don't really feel good about this chapter, but I hope you guys like it.