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Emily steps out of the stairwell into the black market again, this time using her machina to hide her mana signature from the start. She heads straight for The Crystal Skull’s tent, moving through the streets unnoticed. Arriving at the tent alone, she moves around to the back and slips into the hidden compartment in the wall.

I don’t need to waste any potions to hide until someone else comes back here.

She moves sideways, creating distance between herself and the entrances in and out of the space, curving around the tent for a couple of steps before sitting down on the floor at the point where the internal and external walls meet. After settling down, Emily starts summoning her scouts into her hands.

She releases two spiders, rolling them both towards the tent’s entrance as they unfurl themselves. They scuttle over to the exit flap, holding the bottom open and waiting for their bird brethren to leave. The birds waddle past, moving slowly on their mechanical feet before spreading their wings outside and soaring into the air.

Emily directs each of the four birds to find a high perch overlooking each of the sides of the tent, watching for anyone approaching. One of the spiders leaves the flap afterwards, scurrying over to the closest building and up the wall, positioning itself in a shadow watching the tent’s hidden entrance. The other spider releases the flap and turns around instead, pushing further into the tent and settling out of Fox’s line of sight to watch her.

Emily remains still, with her eyes shut, watching the feeds from her scouts calmly, a vial of her potion resting in her palm at the ready. She stays like this for over half an hour, never spotting anything out of the ordinary. A few of the market’s visitors enter the tent in that time, and Fox greets them with a smile, offering to sell crests to them. No one shows much interest, leaving once they realise they have no interest in what she’s selling, but Fox’s gentle smile never leaves her face.

Eventually, one of Emily’s birds spots something that draws her attention. Weaving through the market, with a familiar level of skill, is a scruffy-looking man in torn clothes. He has grey hair, and his face is marked by time, appearing to be in his late fifties.

Vagrant?

He slips between a tent and a building, heading in a straight line towards The Crystal Skull tent. Emily’s bird takes off from its perch, following him from above as he approaches. She drinks the potion in her hand as he steps into the view of the spider watching the hidden entrance, and, by the time he slips into the hidden compartment, Emily is invisible once again.

He repeats the same process as Barbarian, listening for a while before whistling to alert Fox to his presence.

“Enter,” Fox calls, and he obliges. “Report.”

“My informants spotted someone who may be a target leaving the nearby station about an hour ago and heading towards the market. But they were moving fast and covering their face, so we have no confirmation,” Vagrant croaks, receiving a nod from Fox to continue. “I’ve almost finished spreading my influence into the trading district, but most possible informants are already in the pockets of the merchants, so it’s proving difficult. I think I’ve pushed as much as I can without drawing unwanted attention.”

“How much control do you have?” Fox asks with a glare.

“About twenty per cent of the homeless population, and five per cent of the low-income shopkeepers.”

“Fucking useless. How many resources have I given you so far, for only twenty per cent control? Do you even have anyone on the higher layers?”

“I do! I’ve managed to get twenty people on the fifth layer of the district!” Vagrant argues, his brow creased into a frown.

“That’s passable I guess,” Fox sighs, starting to turn back to the tent’s front entrance.

“At least I’m staying at my post,” Vagrant grumbles, pulling Fox’s attention back as she fixes him with a chilling gaze, making even Emily shiver slightly as she watches through a spider.

“What are you saying?”

Vagrant flinches back, sweat starting to fall from his brow.

“I had some of my informants watching, and they’ve seen Lurker straying into my territory again. My territory’s nowhere near her posts so she’s clearly disobeying orders,” he scrambles to explain in panic.

“What did I tell you about spying on the others?”

“Don’t do it. It just draws more attention to us and makes me a weak point.” Vagrant gulps, stepping back.

“Oh? So, I have told you. That’s good!” Fox’s face melts into a warm smile as she stands up and approaches the cowering Vagrant.

“So, tell me then -” she grabs him by the throat, digging her nails into his skin, “Why are you still doing it?”

“I’m sorry,” he chokes through her grip. “I’ll kill all the informants with Lurker’s description and stop. I’m so sorry. It won’t happen again!”

“Good,” Fox says, releasing her hand and patting his cheek. “We wouldn’t want to find out what happens when you disobey orders a third time, now would we?”

Vagrant shakes his head, sighing in relief and massaging his lightly bleeding neck as Fox returns to her seat.

“Since you already know where she is, go tell Lurker to report in so I can switch her posts and question why she’s disobeying orders as well. Now, get out of my sight.”

Vagrant doesn’t waste any time before turning and walking out of the tent.

Jackpot! Time to find the last member.

Emily stands up, dropping her connection with her scouts and following Vagrant out. He heads across the market before ducking into an exit stairwell. Emily follows him up, the potion in her system deadening her footsteps. She slips out through the door behind him as he steps out into the sunlight again.

Vagrant sets off through the city, heading west towards the centre. Emily shadows him, noticing the number of slum dwellers acknowledging Vagrant with greetings as he passes.

These must be his informants.

He keeps walking for a while and Emily is forced to down several more vials of the shimmering black potion to remain completely hidden from the keen-eyed middle-aged man. Eventually, after entering into a better-developed residential sector, Vagrant enters a building. It’s a dingy-looking pub, with a chipped dark blue painted metal exterior and an etched sign saying ‘The Broken Keg’ above the worn, dark wooden door.

Emily keeps close to him, entering the door close behind, careful not to touch him and break the potion’s effect. Vagrant gives the bartender a silent nod before turning to a booth in the corner and marching over. He drops in, glancing around once before turning to the current inhabitant.

Emily stands beside the table looking at the plain-looking woman sitting there. She seems to be about thirty years old, with short blonde hair and dark brown eyes.

“What do you want, Vagrant?” Lurker hums in a low, gravelly tone.

Emily tunes out their conversation, pulling out The Clock as she watches them.

Looks like I have all my targets lined up.

The day rewinds one last time.

***

Emily heads straight down the stairs into the market, making her way towards Barbarian. She quickly arrives at the food stand he uses as cover and spots him sitting in place, hood up, watching her approach. She doesn’t spare him more than a glance after confirming his presence, simply walking past him with her mana unconcealed.

As Emily expects, he stands up to follow her after she passes. With a smug grin, Emily leads him to the edge of the market before ducking into a secluded alley. The moment she leaves his line of sight, she wraps her heart in dense machina, concealing her mana signature, and waits in the shadows behind a large boiler attached to the side of a building.

A few moments later, Barbarian steps around the corner into the alley and looks for her. Seeing nothing, he steps further in, getting closer to Emily. The second he steps a foot past the boiler, Emily slides out with a smooth, practised motion, slipping a Claw into the side of his neck and closing her hand around his throat, holding the blade in place. Lightning courses from her fingers, locking his body in place as she pulls him closer.

“You like being the ones hidden in the dark, right?” Emily whispers into his ear, never letting him see beneath her hood.

“Then die without knowing why.” She releases her grip on his neck and rips her Claw forward, tearing out his throat and splattering the walls with blood.

Barbarian drops motionless to the ground, red gushing from his throat and painting the floor. Emily crouches next to him, picking his inhibition powder and mana detection crystal out of his pockets before standing up again. She steps over him, calmly walking out of the alley while casting cleanse and removing all signs of the crime from her body.

One down.

Emily turns towards Stray and sets off across the market again, her magic once more concealed. She quickly arrives at the girl’s hiding spot and steps into the dark alley. She slowly walks forward, approaching where Stray was tucked into a corner before.

Seems she doesn’t want to make herself known.

Acting as if she doesn’t know better, Emily steps into the line of sight of the figure pressed flush against the wall, trying to go unnoticed. Her arm whips out sideways without warning, clasping the killer’s face.

Emily’s palm lights up in a burning white and orange before exploding with heat. Fire pours out, wrapping Stray’s head in a silent inferno. Stray doesn’t even get a chance to scream, the intense heat wiping out her consciousness as she feels the searing pain of her nerves melting.

Emily takes Stray’s magical possessions from her pockets before dropping her to the floor with enough mana left in the flames to turn her head to ash.

Two down.

She turns to leave, quickly checks The Clock, notes that she has time before Vagrant arrives at The Crystal Skull’s tent, and heads towards the arms dealer. It doesn’t take long to arrive at the small store. The owner is still sleeping on his counter, so Emily calmly walks over and plants one of the Claws into the back of his head.

She takes the keys off the corpse’s belt and opens the door behind him. She finds a small storage room through the door behind the counter, with ten barrels of black powder set up along the floor and shelves of products surrounding them.

A small smile parts Emily’s lips as she looks around.

“A dead man can’t miss his goods,” she mutters while passing spatial mana over the whole room, sending everything not bolted down into her utility belt.

Within seconds, the room is stripped bare, and Emily turns on her heel to leave. She leaves the storage room hanging open, with the keys still in the door, and steps back out onto the street.

Three down.

Emily finally starts weaving through the market towards the tent. She uses the short route Barbarian kindly showed her and quickly arrives at the front entrance to the tent. Before entering, Emily reaches for her thigh and unholsters the Spitter under the cover of her robes. She summons its silencer into her other hand and screws it on before pushing open the tent’s flap and stepping in.

“Hello there. How can I help you?” Fox asks with a smile.

Emily doesn’t answer, silently knocking her hood back and watching surprise and amusement cross Fox’s face.

“Well hello again, cutie. It’s not often someone escapes me, and none of them were dumb enough to return. Did your escape give you the confidence to come back?”

“It did! Did killing so many other mages give you the confidence to target me?” Emily responds with a confident smirk.

“Ha. You’re nothing special, honey. You were lucky to get away the first time. Why did you return?”

Emily notices Fox’s eyes shifting towards the entrance behind her, her brow flickering in annoyance.

“Looking for someone following me?” Emily asks, her smirk only growing. “Sorry. But your associates won’t be coming to help you.”

Fox’s eyes narrow.

“Who says I need them? What can you even do in here?” She glances towards her burning incense as she speaks, clearly unnerved by Emily’s confidence.

“I don’t know. Why don’t you ask Barbarian? Or maybe Lurker. Though, you don’t seem to like them or Vagrant, so maybe you’ll ask Stray instead?” Emily teases.

A look of horror forms on Fox’s face, but before she can think to respond to Emily’s provocation, a high-pitched hiss sounds off as Emily squeezes the trigger of the Spitter. A bullet silently bores a hole through Fox’s chest, straight through her heart.

“Sorry, but if I gave you time to process that you’d probably crack that tooth. I don’t plan on letting any of you go on your own terms,” Emily says with sadistic glee.

Fox gasps breathlessly, looking down at her chest and the crimson flood slowly painting her clothes. She reaches up a hand and presses it to her chest while looking up at Emily again with intense, seething rage.

“Don’t blame me,” Emily says spitefully, raising her gun out of her robes. “You targeted me first.”

Lightning flickers in Emily’s eyes as she places a bullet between Fox’s.

Four down.

Fox’s brain splatters onto the tent behind her before her head drops lifelessly onto the table in front of her. Blood leaks from her skull, pooling around the collection of crests, mirroring their bloody origin.

Emily takes a deep breath and shuts her eyes, reining in her anger. After regaining her calm, Emily walks around the table and pulls out the chair from under Fox’s body, which drops to the floor, before sitting down facing the hidden entrance to wait for Vagrant’s arrival.

Sitting alone in silence, Emily's eyes eventually drift over to the corpse beside her, and a small frown creases her brow.

I just killed four people without batting an eye.

“I even enjoyed it,” she mutters in confusion.

I swear I should have more of a problem with murder. Have I desensitised myself by killing people during frozen time? I mean, I didn’t really have any problems letting people die on the expedition, but I haven’t actually killed a person permanently yet myself. Wait… Have I?

She quickly opens her system notifications and flicks back to the start.

ˉˉˉˉˉ

Congratulations on your first kill!

[Reward granted]

Sub-system unlocked: Progression

_____

I got rewarded for my first kill, but I reset time after that and never killed anyone else before the end of that loop. Does it not follow the same rules because it was a system reward, not a quest? Or had I actually already killed someone? I did leave a few people in very bad states before Dad took me in. Now that I think about it, I never confirmed if they lived or died.

Emily’s frown deepens.

Logically, most of them tried to kill me. But, realistically, can I say the arms dealer deserved death? He didn’t actively try to kill me, just send me towards those who would. Should I not have killed him?

The thought of mercy makes Emily’s skin crawl, her stomach twisting into a knot. She shakes her head and leans back in her chair, relaxing and shutting her eyes to focus on the hot and cold dance of mana and machina through her body, letting it soothe her mind and calm her emotions.

A few minutes later, a whistle comes from the compartment before her. Emily silently raises the Spitter, her eyes still shut, and fires a shot. She opens her eyes to see Vagrant’s body drop against the fabric, parting the entrance and falling into view with a hole through his right eye and out the back of his head.