Chapter 165: Cold-Hearted Girl Kazumi’s Brain Internal Love Obstacle Options (Not!)
“As expected, the completeness of the corpse affects the quality of the sacrifice.”
In the dim grove by the river on the west side of the city, a girl in a black robe leaned against a small tree. While controlling the corpse crows in the air to record the surrounding routes in her mind, she observed the situation after the corpse was thrown into the corpse crow’s nest using her consciousness.
This was probably the downside of using ghouls. Especially after issuing combat commands, it was difficult to get an intact corpse. After all, their combat methods were ingrained in their souls, and they were not something that Kazumi, their master, could restrict.
The corpse, which had been bitten a few times by the greedy Little Black, was thrown into the nest, which looked like a pile of rotten flesh, by two ghouls under Kazumi’s command.
The nest, covered in black feathers and void-like holes, began to squirm eerily, as if digesting something. Several dark, scarlet-glowing bird-like creatures slowly emerged from the holes of the nest, circling above it.
Through her control over the [Black Coffin], Kazumi could clearly observe the state of these corpse crows. Although the data for the three newly produced corpse crows on the panel were the same, reality was different from the game.
It was evident that these three newly summoned corpse crows were smaller than the standard units gifted with building construction. Their aura and even the color of their feathers were weaker, like pitiful, malnourished crows, making one feel pity for them.
Kazumi silently noted “Sacrifice quality affects the quality of produced troops” in the notebook in her hand, and added “What is the limit of the impact of offering quality on troop quality?” as a new experimental direction in her plan. After that, she put down the notebook and picked up her phone.
The goofy smile on the screen made the girl’s originally cold eyes soften, but soon she shifted her gaze to the time, muttering to herself.
“Still half an hour left…”
Yes, Kazumi was currently by the abandoned factory from which Little Black had transmitted information, waiting for the appointed time.
Habitually preparing for everything, Kazumi had finished her studies early at two o’clock, set out in advance to deal with some matters, and also to scout the area.
Using corpse crows to observe the surrounding terrain and environment was just a basic operation for Kazumi. It was an important point for both setting up contingencies and escaping in times of danger.
“But not getting an achievement reward for killing for the first time? Is it because I didn’t do it myself? Or does it not count towards achievements if it’s not killed within the Black Coffin’s territory?”
Looking at her phone, which showed about half an hour left until the time given by that voice, Kazumi, who had basically completed all the arrangements in her plan, relaxed for the first time and began to sort out the plan that had been constantly changing due to various recent events.
“This can be recorded in the daily tasks. If this test goes smoothly, I’ll try again by capturing a live person within the Black Coffin’s territory. I remember that in the game, the first kill should have an achievement reward.”
Tapping the back of her other hand with her finger, Kazumi lowered her head and pondered the events that had occurred.
Killing was not a big hurdle for Kazumi. Or rather, for her, whose moral consciousness was now indifferent, doing such a thing was like playing a game and farming monsters in the wild. The only things she truly considered were the balance of profit and risk.
As for the homeless person who was the target of her hunt, Kazumi had planned for him a long time ago. After all, grave robbing could not be a long-term solution; it was too easy to get exposed and discovered.
The death aura provided by dry bones without flesh and blood was definitely inferior to fresh flesh and blood. Moreover, many troop types could not be summoned using only dry bones, just as the corpse crow nest definitely required the sacrifice of flesh and blood.
Both the trouble and investigations that might arise from repeatedly digging up graves and being discovered, and the appearance of Mai Shinomiyai and the psychic group behind her, told Kazumi that this path could not be used repeatedly. The more she did, the greater the chance of exposure.
This group of people living at the bottom of society, with low status, and possibly even unregistered residents, had long been noticed by Kazumi. They had no complex social relationships, no one cared about them, and their disappearance would not even be noticed. These characteristics, in Kazumi’s eyes, were the best source of fresh flesh and blood material.
Of course, all of this was based on a certain degree of risk. This was Kyoto, the headquarters of the Heroes Association and the main police station of Neon were both located here. Therefore, the crime rate here was much lower than in other cities, and the security measures and density of patrolling heroes were considerable.
Originally, the priority of these few items in Kazumi’s plan was not that high. Knowing her own weakness and the dangers of her surroundings, Kazumi always chose the option with the lowest risk rating for everything. However, many events that had happened recently had forced Kazumi to elevate these originally high-risk plans.
For survival, or rather, to have the right to live as a weakling, Kazumi had been moving forward cautiously in everything.
Even so, troubles still found her in various strange ways.
There was definitely something wrong with the original owner’s parents, otherwise, she wouldn’t have become one of the targets of the organization’s attack by sheer coincidence. And judging by the pill swallowed by Little Black, she was even an object the organization wanted to win over.
The identities of the original owner’s parents were definitely not ordinary researchers. Those who could connect with [Shadow] should not be ordinary. Moreover, if they were ordinary researchers, how could they have established such a deep relationship with Akihiko Fukada, an executive?
And Kazumi Shimizu’s own identity was also problematic, including the origin of her abilities, and why she was targeted by the [Shadow] organization here?
It should be noted that the [Black Coffin] was owned by the original Kazumi Shimizu before her transmigration. The golden finger after she arrived was the “Undead Lord” game system. Was there any connection between all this, or was it originally the same thing?
Thinking even more extremely, was Uncle Fukada hiding a lot of important information that she didn’t know? Or did he have his own plans?
Although Kazumi felt that Akihiko Fukada’s concern for her was genuine, he, who always hoped she would live as an ordinary person, must have kept many truths from her.
And all of this could only be investigated by Kazumi herself. Whether it was seeking the truth or utilizing the convenience of the organization, Kazumi believed it was a very important step. With her abilities, her ultimate belonging could only be to join such an organization.
The issue with the psychics was also very tricky. According to the information from Doggy, the abilities and influence of psychics were inferior to professional heroes.
But even so, their ability to identify identities by the aura of the dead was enough to make one vigilant. Her own background was not clean, and if those people caught her, she would probably not be far from true exposure.
Moreover, she seemed to be mistaken for another faction by that girl Mai Shinomiyai. In that case, it could only be said that trouble and opportunities had increased equally. The probing and investigation of this faction were also within Kazumi’s considerations.
Whether benefits could be obtained from them, whether cooperation could be established with people of similar types, and also the test of the upper limit of the psychics’ abilities to restrain her undead, all of these were things Kazumi intended to investigate upon contacting the psychic circle.
Because in many works, so-called exorcists, monks, divine officers, and other existences were naturally antagonistic to undead creatures and took it as their mission.
Kazumi could not be too careful when dealing with this group that was naturally hostile to her and might have great restraint over her.
Then there was her own need for power.
The former Kazumi thought of hiding and developing silently. Anyway, her golden finger was powerful enough. After accumulating a little strength, she would do what she wanted to do.
But after experiencing the academy attack incident, the girl truly realized the importance of power in the real world.
Lying on the hospital bed, Kazumi felt for the first time how naive her previous thoughts were. Being played with like a doll, having her body and life controlled, and being treated like a chess piece whose emotions were manipulated, was truly unbearable.
Perhaps in the girl’s heart, compared to the act of almost killing her, the enemy’s intention to make Shinichi Sato do such things to her emotionally, and lead him into darkness, was even more hateful.
Especially now that she was about to touch upon the tip of the iceberg of this dark organization. Although Kazumi fed the potion to Little Black, unintentionally avoiding their plan to control her with the potion, no one knew what she would encounter when she went there. Therefore, it was the most prudent method to improve her abilities as much as possible before then.
Currently, her combat power was not very strong. She had ghouls and Little Black, who had been strengthened by an unknown ability, one corpse crow and three malnourished small corpse crows, as well as the death aura in the Black Coffin, and the final act of summoning the Black Coffin to smash people?
Her control over her abilities was also a weakness. Especially the weakness exposed last time made her unable to even use her abilities and directly lose her combat power.
Having suffered such a loss once, Kazumi would definitely not make the same mistake again. Although she hadn’t found a way to improve her release methods yet, she also had ways to arrange in advance to avoid repeating the same mistakes.
Although the improvement of the three corpse crows did not seem like much, the combat power of each corpse crow was quite considerable. With a high-speed charge, their sharp beaks could easily pierce through a ordinary person’s head. The flexibility as flying units and the bacteria and toxins carried by undead units were also very good characteristics.
It was not easy to find solitary wanderers like Tazawa Kitayama. In a short period, Kazumi could only find one within her planned safe zone, so she couldn’t achieve the swarm of corpse crows she had imagined.
With the principle of making the best use of everything, Kazumi also used him to buy her a lot of things that were previously inconvenient or troublesome to buy.
And the disappearance of a solitary wanderer in the park, especially when there were no detective-type heroes nearby, was discovered only after several weeks, and it was even normal for it not to be discovered at all.
Moreover, Kazumi had used the [Human Skin Cloak], the reward for building for the first time, to conceal her appearance and aura. Her figure and voice were also completely different from her own. She used the [Black Coffin] for long-distance underground movement. Both the corpse and bloodstains were cleaned up thoroughly.
With such processing methods, unless someone could directly locate this time point, even if the owner with the time-viewing ability [Time Eye] came, they probably wouldn’t be able to connect this matter to her.
“I’ll judge whether this path is feasible based on the police department’s reaction later…”
Muttering the final plan for this matter, the skull mark on Kazumi’s hand flashed. The dark, ancient coffin appeared in the darkness, and several black figures darted out, quickly merging into the night sky.
Looking at the numbers on her phone screen jump to four o’clock, Kazumi wore a strange smile and tightened the self-defense weapon tied around her waist, then stepped onto the path leading to the abandoned factory in the distance.
Black shadows flitted by, and a cold, yet seemingly tinged with excitement whisper echoed in the silent night.
“Let me see, true darkness…”
(PS: Regarding the plot of the previous chapter, Yugan has something to say: In the original setting, Kazumi’s faction preference was probably chaotic evil. Except in front of Doggy, due to her abilities, in other situations, her morals were indifferent, and she would do anything for her own benefit. So, turning classmates into undead was not just talk; she really wanted to do it!)
(Also PS: But it seems that this setting is not accepted by the brothers, or is it not pleasing? After chatting with group friends, they said they probably wanted to see a chaotic neutral feel? That is, the protagonist, apart from her abilities, is still righteous and honorable. Although she kills, she only kills bad people or those who deserve to die. She herself is a villain but also abides by many rules. Actually, I think this is fine, but this way the follow-up plot will need many changes, and the story direction will also change.)
(One more PS: So I’ll write this chapter to see the reaction. If too many people dislike it, I’ll change the last chapter and resurrect the homeless man from the previous chapter, not kill him…)
