Chapter 46: Monster
“It’s really quiet; there’s no one in the special zone SEMA either.”
Nagi muttered boredly.
Although SEMA is one of the organizations for ability users, it also employs many ordinary people to maintain its public environmental protection work.
So at this time, most of the staff have already gone home.
Especially in the remote and peaceful city of Kawano, even the ability users left to guard it are very few.
The entire building feels quite desolate at night.
After Nagi and Kanade changed into freshly washed uniforms,
Nagi called both her and Kanade’s families on her phone to report their safety and is now sitting in the medical room, waiting for Makki to come and take her home, feeling quite bored.
Having settled down, Kanade, under Nagi’s insistence for a knee pillow, has now slipped into a shallow sleep.
“Tap tap~”
Meanwhile, Nagi is poking Kanade’s face with her finger to pass the time.
“What are you… doing?”
DD-chan’s figure appeared, unable to watch any longer.
“Don’t you think girls doing this are cute?”
“But when it’s done to you, it just creeps me out…”
“Hey! Are you here to pick a fight or what!”
“Alright, getting back on track, when do we start the operation?”
“What operation?”
Nagi tilted her head, completely confused about what DD-chan was referring to.
“Hmph~ You still want to play dumb at this point?” DD-chan said smugly.
“When you suddenly helped that doppelganger block an attack, you intended to use this opportunity to enter SEMA, right!”
“No, not at all.” Nagi replied immediately, inwardly complaining: What is this guy imagining?
“Actually, entering SEMA isn’t that complicated; I can tell you a much simpler and 100% successful method.”
“What!?” DD-chan was extremely surprised.
“SEMA is a public organization, so even students can visit SEMA anytime as long as they register at the front desk.”
“I see… Just kidding! That’s not what I meant!”
“DD-chan, when did you become such a headstrong child?”
Nagi sighed and gently placed Kanade’s head on a pillow beside her.
“Geez~ Since you insist, I’ll take you around a bit~”
“Why suddenly act like an old mother?”
Though DD-chan complained, its expression was very excited.
It seems it has some obsession with SEMA, the stronghold of its nemesis.
“Alright then, I’m just in the mood to confirm something as well, so let’s go together.”
Nagi stood up.
“Together? I’ve already signed a contract with Kanade; I can’t just transfer to you like before to act.”
“Well, it’s a small problem.”
Stars twinkled in her eyes.
“Let’s go.”
“Wait, wait, wait!?” DD-chan shouted anxiously.
The suspected carbon-based being had just casually made an entirely unreasonable move.
“What did you do?! How is this even possible—”
DD-chan confirmed the contract deep within its soul: remarkably, the object of the contract had shifted from Kanade to the Nagi in front of it.
“Don’t you know my ability?” Nagi raised an eyebrow, wearing a “what are you still talking about” expression.
“This is completely a different matter!?”
The ability to change perception isn’t rare.
But it’s important to know that the contract with a summoned beast is strongly bound to the soul; even if perception changes, it shouldn’t be able to directly transfer the contract’s subject like this.
Otherwise, wouldn’t this guy… be able to infinitely steal others’ summoned beasts?
—Who on earth is this person?
At that moment, DD-chan reevaluated its understanding of Nagi.
Even calling her a “suspected carbon-based being” needed to be marked with a big question mark.
Seeing DD-chan trembling uncontrollably, Nagi revealed a playful smile, unwilling to explain further.
The “Star Catcher” series of games is trash.
As a player of the dark side facing trash, exploiting bugs has been ingrained in her.
Without even this ability, how could one fight against this world?
Completely overturning the common sense on the extraordinary side of this world.
If Nagi is the enemy, then humanoid forms are the worst match.
For the “beast masters,” where “summoned beasts” are the main combat power, she is even a natural disaster.
From a gaming perspective, Nagi is the true “PVP” god of war.
From a real-world perspective, Nagi is truly—
…..
…..
A monster.
I can’t stay in this city any longer—
The doppelganger thought, running wildly in the rain.
It continuously changed its appearance, praying that this little trick might provide even the slightest cover.
Just as it reached the edge of the city, about to step out of the “barrier,”
“By proactively moving away from the city center, you have spared me a lot of trouble.”
A shadow fell from the sky.
It blocked its path.
Mud splattered in all directions from the impact.
Cold rain poured down on the shadow.
Immediately, the high temperature it radiated evaporated the rain and turned it into wisps of white smoke.
The uninvited guest forced the doppelganger to stop.
Alice, dressed in a black uniform, stepped out of the mud, her golden hair styled into a high ponytail that stood out starkly in the darkness.
The uniform of an SEMA combat operative.
Underneath, she wore a black bodysuit made of special fiber that was both lightweight and offered excellent protection, able to withstand magical impacts to a certain degree.
Over it, she donned a large trench coat, the high collar adorned with blue energy crystals, emitting a faint glow in the dark, providing necessary internal communication functions and serving as an identification marker.
As an environmental public organization, SEMA has the responsibility to protect ecological diversity.
It needs to eliminate “outliers” that do not belong to this environment.
And this black uniform symbolizes “cleaners.”
Implying they will secretly deal with threats harming the environment.
When the doppelganger saw the arrival, it breathed a small sigh of relief.
The corners of its mouth split wide as it took on a combat stance.
It had fought with this human before.
The opponent’s strength was considerable, but it knew it could put up some resistance, and the opponent seemed unwilling to catch its movements with her gaze.
In this vast rainy night, both hearing and smell would be severely affected.
Having sight puts it at an advantage—
But in the next moment, the doppelganger saw the human disappear, and only its severed arm floated high in front of it.
“I can completely dodge visible attacks, but does it fail if it’s not in sight?”
The human’s voice came from behind it.
—So fast!
The doppelganger turned sharply and leaped into the air, attempting to distance itself from the enemy.
At the same time, its not very intelligent brain was racing.
Clearly, when it encountered the other party this afternoon, she wasn’t this fast—
“Where are you looking?”
Alice, her body steaming, reappeared behind the doppelganger.
Her dragon-claw-shaped black blood blade severed the latter’s right leg.
“GAAaaa——!!!”
The doppelganger screamed as it fell back to the ground.
“Even if you know I’m going to attack, it’s ineffective if you’re not in sight?”
Alice analyzed as she “spread her wings” and hovered in the air.
The doppelganger, lying in the mud, raised its head and finally saw how this “human” was different from this afternoon.
Her petite body now had a pair of dragon-like but bat-like black wings, and a vicious horn protruded from the right side of her head, with a layer of scales reflecting light covering her fair skin.
“Half-dragon transformation.”
This is Alice’s special skill.
Flowing with the “Dragon Blood Prince” lineage, she can actively pursue draconic form and later return to normal through blood absorption.
In this draconic state, her flesh gradually displays draconic characteristics, and both physical capability and magical power increase exponentially.
Hovering in mid-air, Alice tightly closed her eyes; her enhanced senses from the half-dragon transformation allowed her to keenly catch every movement of the doppelganger in the silent environment.
“You seem to possess a certain level of intellect; tell me, what is your purpose?” Alice inquired as she slowly descended.
“GAAaaa——!!!”
The doppelganger emitted a beast-like roar, black mud oozing from its dark body and writhing toward its severed limbs, reconstituting into four limbs.
It burst forth with enough speed to leave an afterimage, suddenly appearing before Alice, its newly-formed hands now resembling dragon claw blood blades identical to Alice’s.
“I can’t understand——”
Alice swiftly maneuvered behind the doppelganger and kicked it into the air.
The doppelganger crashed heavily back to the ground.
“Tell me, what is your connection to the Byakurei Shrine?”
Alice stepped closer.
“Why do you consume your kind?”
“GAAaaaaGeeee——”
The doppelganger’s stick-figure body twisted and distorted in the mud pit.
Its body suddenly grew larger, transforming into a giant pitch-black fox.
“Mother—— please grant your child strength!”
The doppelganger roared towards the sky.
Even with her eyes closed, Alice could sense that the doppelganger in front of her was unleashing an enormous amount of magical power.
—Threat Level 6?
—Only at this level, it’s still far from classified as a prime species.
“You—have no idea what kind of monsters are hidden in this city!”
…..
…..
Inside SEMA.
With stars twinkling in her eyes, Nagi seemed to be familiar with every corner of this building.
She skillfully turned a few corners and, under the stunned gaze of DD-chan, opened several hidden doors and delved deeper into SEMA.
Until she stopped in front of a room that clearly had an unusually high security level.
It had several identity verification devices on it, obviously requiring very high clearance to enter.
“Wait a moment…”
Nagi fumbled in her pocket.
Then she pulled out a student ID card.
“What?” DD-chan was left with a plethora of questions.
Stars twinkled.
Nagi swiped her student ID over the card reader in front of the door.
[Permission Confirmed]
The door opened.
“Hah!?”
DD-chan was utterly stunned.
From the inside appearance, this was a data room.
In this fully digitized age, it’s filled with paper documents.
Out of curiosity, DD-chan casually grabbed the most recent proposal.
Reading the words before its eyes left it dumbfounded.
[Artificial Deity Project v2.1]
