“What was in that note you wrote?” Fate asked Chloe, adjusting the body of Neo on his back.

“Stuff meant to mock them.” Chloe gave him a simple answer.

“You really are Neo...”

“Yes dumbass. You are correct dumbass. Who would’ve thought dumbass?”

“Please… please stop.”

“Of course dumbass.”

“You are quite cruel.”

Currently, Chloe and Fate were moving across rooftops, away from the neighborhood that Lilia’s master and Chloe’s house resided. It was decided that they would leave due to the fact that the organization behind the scientists inside Chloe’s house were sure to go after her. The same thing had happened to the Gatemaster, but he had managed to regain the powers of his game body after returning to his real body. Using that power, he somehow managed to throw that organization off of his trail permanently. Or so Chloe had theorized.

Quickly, Fate and Chloe reached the end of the neighborhood. Shooting each other a glance, they nodded and went in different directions. Chloe went to the left and Fate to the right. Fate, however, only pretended to separate. After going only a few yards, he turned back and followed Chloe. Though splitting up and meeting again later at the predetermined meeting spot was a good idea, Chloe had not kept most of the strength she had as Neo. Fate had known Neo for 12 years, as they were friends in the beta as well. Though his opinion of Neo had been low, it still never hit unacceptable, as he knew he was a good person. In fact, he had once thought that if Neo had been a girl, he might’ve fallen for him. Now that he knew she was a girl, he wasn’t sure how he felt about her. However, he still thought of her as close, and would not let her die. Because of this, he decided to follow her and keep her safe.

Chloe had assumed that Fate would not be willing to leave her alone due to her current weakness, so she had gone a different way. It was not a that she did not trust Fate, nor did she dislike him, she simply wanted to play around with him. Though she would not be able to see his face, she would get a good laugh out of imagining the look on his face after being unable to find her. She had stayed quiet and silently moved in a different direction. She quickly found the road, and followed it.

Behind her, Chloe heard a car engine. She slipped into the tall grass and laid down to reduce the chance of her being seen. However, the car suddenly stopped very close to her. Cold sweat started to run down her back. She had not known how they found her, but now she had an idea. The opening of doors caused her crawl backwards and slowly get on her feet. The doors shut and the sound of footsteps started getting louder. Chloe shivered and picked up the pace.

“Chloe Ashfield’s tracker is rather close. We’ve stumbled upon something rather nice, haven’t we?” A voice said joyfully.

“Yeah. Though, I wonder what the higher ups are thinking.” A different voice said.

“What do you mean?” The previous voice asked.

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“Well, they said they needed her for testing, but is it that important? I mean, she just woke up from the VR world, it’s not like she was bathed in radiation or something. Besides, why did they have a tracker in the first place? Didn’t she only just wake up a few hours ago, and escaped before they could do anything?”

“I dunno… All I know is that she apparently didn’t need food, water, or even need to use the bathroom the entire 10 years, only when she woke up did she need any of that.”

“Is that so…?”

Chloe heard their entire conversation. If she was in the place of the ‘higher ups’, then she would certainly do the same thing; however, that did not meant that she would go with them because she sympathized with them. Hearing confirmation that they had a tracker on her, she concentrated on her body. During her time as Neo, she had learned how to internalize her vision. In other words, she could look at the inside of her body without cutting herself open. It was a useful technique of discovering internal damage when she had no potions, but it was coming in handy once more. Though a thing like would normally be considered a skill, it was not identified as one, so she was able to bring it along with her.

Looking over her body, she found the tracker nestled in the back of her neck. It was an annoying position to remove from, but she was able to do it easily. Using her sword, she directly cut out the chunk of flesh that held the tracker. Taking out the gauze she had slipped into her pocket before, she wrapped it around her neck. She grabbed the neck flesh and ran in a different direction than her pursuers.

“She’s suddenly accelerated!”

“Damn! She’s caught onto us! Go after her!”

Chloe grimaced when she heard the duo’s voices. She increased her pace and looked behind her. Since her body was not trained and still weak after the 10 year coma-like state, the trained military professionals were already gaining on her. One of them raised his gun and aimed for her leg. Seeing this, she jumped to the side just in time for the shot to miss. The other man raised his gun as well and shot at roughly her torso. Due to the small distance between them, Chloe would be unable to defend herself in time.

“[Sins]!” Chloe shouted out desperately.

The blue flames of [Sins] burst into life, shooting her physical ability far above the human limit. With her increased speed, she deflected the bullet coming at her. The two men gawked at the sudden change. As men of science they did not believe in magic. As members of a multi-trillion dollar science corporation, they had information on the latest technologies. [Sins] had not resembled any technology they knew of, and such, they though it was impossible. Spooked by this sudden burst of mysterious blue fire, the first shooter pulled the trigger on his gun, sending a spray of bullets towards Chloe.

Chloe’s pupils constricted and her foot moved back a small amount. She rapidly moved her sword between herself and the bullets. If she had been in this situation as Neo, she would’ve been able to deflect each and every bullet, but her real body’s physical strength was incomparable to Neo’s. Due to this lack of dexterity, a few bullets scraped her. Enduring her wounds, Chloe fell to a knee, panting heavily. She stared at her shooter with infinite coldness in her eyes. He backed up a bit, afraid of the look in her eyes. Suddenly, Chloe thrust her palm on the ground.

“Wind!” Chloe shouted.

All of the mana that Chloe had gathered and circulated were all discharged in an instant. Wind pressure instantaneously built up beneath her and released, sending her high into the air. The flames on her hands spread to her sword and turned white. Though she kept her eyes locked on her two pursuers, her mind blurred and she loosened her grip temporarily due to mana deprivation. Managing to keep her consciousness, she used the force that had propelled her to the air to twirl and face downwards, once again obeying the laws of gravity. She raised her sword over her head and gave a roar of determination and she brought it down on the space between her two pursuers.

The ground exploded out from under them, sending them flying. The gave shrieks of fear as they flew through the air. As soon as they hit the ground, their consciousness was deprived of them. Chloe looked at both of them, making sure that they were out cold. Confirming that, she deactivated [Sins], and the flames disappeared. Suddenly, a rush of fatigue hit her, and she dropped to the floor, unable to move. This was the backlash of [Sins]. Although she had been affected by it as Neo, it wasn’t as bad because she never had to go beyond her limits of stamina before.

Chloe turned her gaze to her pocket, where she had put the piece of her neck that had the tracker in it. At this point, she deeply regretted having not removed the tracker from the chunk of flesh. The blood that was still running out of her flesh soaked into her pajamas, which depressed her greatly. It was her favorite pair, and she was uncertain how many time she would have to wash that spot to get the blood out of it. However, no matter how badly she wanted to remove it, she did not have the strength to take it out.

Suddenly, Chloe heard the sound of somebody moving through the corn crops near her, and it was slowly getting closer. The rustling came closer and closer, until a figure appeared in the flattened area where Chloe lay, unable to move. Upon seeing who it was, Chloe said something to herself.

“Ah… Why now?” Chloe muttered. “I’m doomed...”