The First Defeat
Nera had been defeated. For several days, she had been hunting down the "ugly friends" hiding in the shadows.
Every time she entered a new district, those ugly friends would inevitably lunge at her. Given their similar appearances, she had assumed they would be in close communication, but that didn't seem to be the case.
Regardless, she had spent her time losing track of it, systematically rooting out the ugly friends hiding in various corners. But... was it really okay to spend her vacation like this?
What she was doing here felt more like cleaning than combat, but in the end, it wasn't much different from her work as an Enforcer.
Well, who cares! As long as it's fun, that's enough. It wasn't exactly boring to go around looking for those ugly friends, either.
If anything, there was a certain thrill in expanding her territory. It felt like playing a game of "land grab" against an unknown offline player, "L."
Offline player L's skills were certainly nothing to sneeze at. She brought in new ugly friends without ever getting tired. When Nera thought she had already conquered a region, only to find it completely plastered with L's ugly friends, she had been genuinely shocked!
From the moment L refused to give up on occupying the territory, this had become a holy war, each side asserting their own definition of justice and conviction.
Two masters could not exist under the same sewer. Only the one who proved their ability here could conquer this Eastern District.
Nera could wipe out all the ugly friends by herself, but L possessed a magnificent technique: the "mindless ugly friend drop."
Furthermore, hunting down the ugly friends hiding in every nook and cranny was surprisingly exhausting, making for an unexpectedly good match.
A battle between an individual rivaling an organization, and an overwhelming organization itself!
However, this match ended all too anticlimactically. At some point, the ugly friends began to dwindle noticeably, and soon, they vanished without a trace.
It was a truly deflating conclusion, but since the opponent had fled, the winner of this "Land Grab Tycoon" was Nera.
She didn't feel too bad about it.
Whatever the reason, her offline friend L had tucked her tail and run away from her!
So, what was she doing now? She was playing hide-and-seek with a new kind of friend.
She hadn't known it herself, but besides the ugly friends, there were many "fake friends" mixed in among the residents.
Unlike the ugly ones, these new fake friends possessed quite a human-like appearance. And using that ability, they had hidden themselves among the residents of the Central Sector Arc.
The shock of meeting her first fake friend was beyond words. She had been rejoicing that there were still some ugly friends left to deal with, only to be startled by a signal that was far too close.
Her detection ability was decent, yet she hadn't noticed them until they were right on top of her!
Ah, of course, the opponent hadn't noticed her either, so she had lured them to a dark, quiet place and disposed of them silently.
Perhaps, if she hadn't cleared out all the ugly friends in the vicinity, she never would have found the fake friends. The fake friends' signals were weak to begin with, and their range was so short that they were easily buried by the miscellaneous signals in the area.
Honestly, she had thought they’d given up on the confrontation, but she never imagined they would attack in such a cowardly way.
However, Nera never turned down a challenge.
The moment she realized fake friends were hiding all over the sector, her faded competitive spirit reared its head once again.
She couldn't turn back just before making this Eastern District her own land!
Her vacation was short, but she had enough time to find the fake friends. If she worked hard, she could just barely manage to find them all!
She walked around the area diligently. The range at which she could detect fake friends was so short that she had no choice but to run around on foot.
In a wide plaza crowded with people, a man brushed past her.
Detection: Target Identified
- *Zzzzt!*
A new fake friend right on cue—how lucky.
But this time, she wanted to approach it in a slightly different way. She had become a bit curious about the ecology of these fake friends.
Specifically, she wondered if they only took on human appearances, and if they truly acted like humans. L's ability to build a legion seemed decent enough, but the performance of the individual legion members had been lackluster.
Even if they managed to dress up their appearance, they were ultimately just cadavers in human skin—could they really mimic a person? Or would they just blindly patrol the area like NPCs in a game?
Nera moved her feet slowly, naturally following behind the man.
Like a passerby whose path just happened to coincide with his. Well, in truth, there was no need to be that careful!
People were surprisingly uninterested in each other; as long as you didn't act overtly suspicious, they wouldn't pay you any mind.
Furthermore, she was a cute, pretty, and lovely young girl, so she had no worries about being suspected.
If anything, being overly cautious would only disrupt her usual rhythm and make her look unnatural.
Therefore, she was currently at her most natural.
If there was one problem, it was that it was a little boring. After all, she couldn't forcibly drag along a fake friend who looked human enough on the outside.
Either way, she had no choice but to wait for him to enter an alleyway where no human eyes could reach.
Still, she wasn't too worried.
For some reason, the creatures would occasionally avoid people's gazes and hide in alleyways.
The disposal afterward was simple.
She just had to chew them up thoroughly with her tentacles right there on the spot.
The fake friend, who had been walking along just fine, stopped in his tracks.
She had been wondering when he would arrive, and it seemed the signal had finally come.
The man began to scan his surroundings with a frantic expression.
Before long, the fake friend's gaze locked with hers. In the open plaza, there was only one place where human footsteps didn't reach.
The fake friend's gaze fixed on the alleyway, and he headed straight for his target.
Nera followed suit, slowly trailing the fake friend's movements, maintaining a distance of about 10 meters.
The fake friend's level of focus was no joke. In his hurried footsteps, she could feel an urgency, as if he were about to dash to the bathroom.
Soon, the fake friend entered the dark alleyway, stuck his tongue out long, and began to heave.
My, my. Perhaps because he was still a social novice, he hadn't learned that you shouldn't vomit on the roadside.
He had eaten quite deliciously with his other friends, yet he was throwing it all up like that.
"You shouldn't vomit on the floor."
But it's okay. She was very understanding. The important thing was the attitude of wanting to learn.
She would now judge whether this fake friend was a "good friend" or a "bad friend."
The fake friend, seemingly shocked by something, fidgeted about before looking at her.
"Are you having trouble digesting? Are you the type that can't digest anything but human flesh?"
"W-what are you talking about? I don't understand what you're saying."
She approached him and caught the fishy scent wafting from the man. It was soaked into his clothes more than his skin.
"Hmm... it really does smell like human flesh. What are you going to do if you vomit up human flesh while you're at it?"
The man wore a blank expression, then his face twisted.
"What rotten luck. Are you crazy? I'm just not feeling well. Get lost before I call the police."
Oh, she hadn't expected the conversation to flow so naturally.
She had thought he would spit out a few lines like a macro and then run away while making weird noises.
The man shoved her shoulder and went on his way.
The man's vomit was still scattered on the floor, and a sour, musty stench wafted from it.
Really, he shouldn't go around making such a mess.
Nera grabbed the man's arm and tore it right off.
"Eh...?"
- *Squish, squish!*
This was a mandatory autopsy procedure to confirm if the man was a cadaver.
Seeing the blood fountain out like that, she knew he was healthy!
"G-gah! Ugh...!"
He suddenly rolled his eyes back and tried to scream, so she covered his mouth.
"Shh~ be quiet. You might startle others. Ah, are you still a social novice, so you don't know about things like this?"
The man struggled violently, as if he had something to say. When she opened his mouth slightly, he began to speak as if he had been waiting for it.
"I, I was wrong. Please, spare me. Please. I'll be quiet. I'll just leave. D-don't do this."
Suddenly, the man began to beg with a pathetic expression. It wasn't fun when they acted like this...
Until now, she had thrown the fake friends into her tentacles before they even had a chance to react. She had wanted to see what their actual reactions would be. Why wasn't he lunging at her with his eyes rolled back? And where did that cool, monster-like skin that cadavers had gone?
If he were a cadaver, shouldn't he be arming himself with rage and lunging at her even if he were to die? Showing such a side was so disappointing...
Or, perhaps it was because she was an inspector? Even if she looked like an ordinary young girl on the outside, to the man, she might appear as a brilliant elite inspector.
If so, she had to present evidence that would make him see her as a fellow friend. And that was a very easy task.
She stepped back from the man. Then, she pulled out a large, cute tentacle from her body and wrapped it around him. As a bonus, she placed a monster mask that cadavers would love over the young girl's body.
Now, look at me. I'm the same kind as you!
"M-monster!"
He was a tougher one than she had imagined! To think he wouldn't abandon his "fake friend" concept even in the moment of his death.
She would give him that. His tenacity was comparable to the 1st Platoon Leader, Carlos.
Yes, come to think of it, whether it was a fake friend or an ugly friend, their combat power was nothing to write home about. Since they were that kind of creature, they would need the ability to confuse their opponents in other ways.
In other words, the man was already competing with her. Whether she could peel off the man's fake friend mask or not! That was the only standard that determined victory or defeat!
Now then, first guest. The next part will sting a little.
"Calling me a monster is too much. Shall we see who the real monster is?"
She tore off his remaining arm as well. Naturally, the man screamed, but his mouth was firmly blocked by the tentacle, so no sound escaped.
"Hngh! Ggh...!"
His face turned completely red. His body trembled as if he were enduring the pain.
Truly, the tenacity with which he desperately maintained his act was enough to make her shiver.
"Next is your stomach. Shall we check what you ate?"
She sharpened her tentacle and sliced open his belly. Even though he had heaved so much, the man's stomach was still filled with all sorts of things.
She saw fingers, she saw toes, and she saw lumps of flesh that looked like they were almost digested.
Soon, the sour scent of gastric juices and the fishy aroma of blood wafted from his opened belly.
"Ughhh..."
The man's eyes went limp. There was no fierce resistance like before.
Huh? This looks like he's dying, doesn't it?
If he were a cadaver, his recovery should be good; even if he couldn't regenerate the torn parts immediately, shouldn't he be able to stop the bleeding and crawl away on two feet?
"Are you planning to lie until the very end? You might not know well since you're a social novice, but lying is bad, isn't it?"
- *Thud.*
In the end, the man reached out a hand, only to let it fall limply into the air.
To think he would act out his humanity until the very moment of his death... My goodness, how could such a thing happen.
It was truly unbelievable, but it was Nera's first defeat.
She had crumbled helplessly before a man's fair and square battle.
A sense of defeat flowed down her back...!
"Yes, in the end, you're just a cadaver. Was it fun killing people?"
No?