They found me much faster than I expected.
To be honest, Gao Hai was quite impressed with the 'Woman Face Gang's' efficiency.
They discovered their comrade's death, killed a surviving player from Shirakawa Apartments on the same day, and then hired players to investigate any newcomers at the market. It was unknown what other actions they had taken, but one could imagine this group must have gone to great lengths in their search.
It was a bit hard to understand.
Did these people really need to go this far?
Could villains who killed others so unscrupulously truly be so devoted to their comrades, to the point of trying every means possible to avenge them after their death?
Gao Hai's gaze swept over the woman's face—a face that seemed to be constantly, subtly writhing, as if something were hidden just beneath the skin.
Boiling malice spread through the air.
For the first time, Gao Hai experienced the ability granted to him by the little girl's blessing so viscerally.
Without even needing a conversation, he could directly confirm that the woman before him intended to kill him. Regardless of whether he was 'the rookie player who cleared Shirakawa Apartments,' she would definitely make a move to kill him.
And it was precisely because he understood this that Gao Hai had adopted a hostile attitude from the very beginning, retorting bluntly with, "Take a guess." Because he knew, with absolute certainty, that she would not let him go.
"Such a tone and attitude are quite rare for a rookie. It seems you really are the newcomer from 'Shirakawa Apartments.'"
In response to Gao Hai's answer, the woman just chuckled lightly, seeming quite pleased.
"Could you tell big sis the name of the veteran player who carried you through Shirakawa Apartments?"
"Don't you worry, just tell your big sis the name, and I won't make things difficult for you. We could even spend a pleasant night together. Wanna try?"
The woman spoke with a low laugh, throwing him a seductive wink. The skin on her face squirmed slightly, as if centipedes were crawling underneath.
"Shouldn't you look in a mirror at that ugly face of yours before saying something like that? My tastes aren't depraved enough to accept someone like you."
This time, Gao Hai was genuinely disgusted. Seeing such an astronomically ugly woman trying to charm him was, for him, far more terrifying than any 'beautiful girl meat paste from an ancient cesspit' or other such horrors. It was one of the hardcore categories he found most unacceptable.
"Oh, so you can see my true face. Your spirit must be quite resilient."
This time it was the woman's turn to be slightly taken aback, a little stunned by Gao Hai's reaction.
And it wasn't until the woman showed this reaction that Gao Hai vaguely sensed that something had been trying to influence his thoughts. But the effect was so faint that not only was he unaffected, but he also had difficulty perceiving its source.
In the very next moment, the woman's figure vanished from before him.
One second she was talking normally, and the next, accompanied by an intense chill, a fatal attack had already reached Gao Hai.
Bang!
Inside the ramen shop, Chika Fujiwara, who had stood up in confusion and was about to pull open the door, only heard a loud crash. Through the translucent door, she saw a figure slam against it and then quickly get back up. Then, a woman's suppressed scream echoed from outside.
"Hey, hey, what's going on, what's going on?"
The girl was utterly bewildered, having no idea what was happening. Meanwhile, in the alley, Gao Hai was already being lifted into the air by a smiling, human-head balloon. He could see the face printed on the balloon slowly transforming into his own likeness.
"I told you, as long as you obediently tell big sis the name of the veteran who got you through, I wouldn't hurt you. Why did you have to go and hurt my feelings?"
The woman in the alley giggled at Gao Hai, who was suspended in mid-air.
Already finding it hard to breathe, Gao Hai just struggled to raise his hands and give the woman the middle finger.
"You ungrateful little thing. Looks like I'll have to snip off your little friend first, then cut you open, bit by bit, all the way up your stomach."
The woman's face writhed even more violently at that moment.
She pulled a small, blood-stained pair of scissors from her pocket, apparently intending to step forward and do something.
But before the woman could make her move, a strong hand reached out from behind and grabbed her shoulder.
[Commencing rescue. Please do not act irrationally.]
A cold voice sounded from behind her.
"Rescue Team? You got the badge? No, wait, the instance has been destroyed, how has the Obsession Item from inside not lost its power?!"
Besides, given the badge's corrosive effect on a person, even a strong-willed player would have lost their sense of self by the stage they could summon the Rescue Team. They should have been sent into Shirakawa Apartments along with the out-of-control Obsession Item. How could they still—
The woman had no more time to think.
Because she was forcibly spun around by that large hand and then met with a fist to the face.
Crack!
The first punch shattered her nasal bone and fractured parts of her facial bones.
Perhaps because of that flesh-based Obsession Item, the woman's head was much more fragile than a normal person's. The blow nearly caved her face in, sending a spray of dark red, filthy blood splattering everywhere. It was a gruesome sight.
Gao Hai, now clad in the Rescue Team uniform, had broken free from the balloon. He looked up, watching the balloon quickly ascend high into the sky before vanishing in mid-air, and couldn't help but feel a pang of regret for not being able to obtain that Obsession Item. But he immediately sprang into action, charging straight at the woman. The scalpel shot out, piercing the back of her head on the spot.
Fights between players often started fast and ended even faster. When an Obsession Item was directed at a player, its effect would, in most cases, either kill them instantly or trap them in an inescapable state. Obsession Items like the Rescue Team Badge, which could enhance a player's physical abilities and repel other anomalous powers, were exceedingly rare and came with massive side effects. If Gao Hai had been carrying any other Obsession Item, he would have been strangled to death by that human-head balloon by now.
The power of the Obsession Item he now displayed had clearly surpassed the intelligence the other party possessed. As a consequence, the woman had to die here.
However, it seemed it wouldn't be over so quickly.
Gao Hai watched as the body of the woman he had just stabbed through the head suddenly turned illusory and slowly dissipated. Before vanishing completely, it morphed into the image of a female office worker who looked tired, seemingly on her way home from work.
He already knew what had happened.
Before coming here, that woman had randomly killed another woman on the street, using her Obsession Item's effect to seize her existence. Thus, at this moment, the existence of the person she killed had replaced her, becoming the one 'stabbed through the back of the head by Gao Hai.'
"How do you have a scalpel?! Did Mido die by your hand? You're not a rookie? My lovely little Mido died at your hands?!"
The woman, who had reappeared disheveled in a nearby part of the alley, stared wide-eyed and roared at Gao Hai.
[The rescue operation has begun.]
The figure beside Gao Hai, clad in the Rescue Team uniform, was already rushing forward.
The woman gnashed her teeth, yet she showed no fear. Instead, she charged toward the Rescue Team member, vanished into thin air, and then reappeared in front of Gao Hai, snipping the small scissors toward his neck.
Getting injured by these scissors seemed like it would lead to something very bad.
Even though he was currently wearing the Rescue Team Badge, Gao Hai instinctively felt that if this woman succeeded, something terrible would happen.
He took a step back.
Gao Hai moved to the side, attempting to dodge the attack.
But at that moment, a rotten, black hand reached out from behind him, grabbed the badge he was wearing, and ripped it off.
The physical enhancement from the badge vanished in the next instant.
Gao Hai tilted his head slightly to look back and saw a woman standing by the wall, holding a black paper umbrella.
Another member of the 'Woman Face Gang,' one who had never shown herself from the start, hiding in the shadows and waiting for an opportunity.
The black umbrella seemed to conceal a person's presence, which was how she had slipped into the alley unnoticed. The rotten black hand had extended from her back; it looked as if it were growing directly out of her body.
Turning his gaze back slightly, Gao Hai could see the triumphant expression on the face of the woman in front of him, as if she were saying, 'Didn't expect that, did you? There are two of us.'
Whoosh—
A flowerpot, pushed from a windowsill by a blood-red doll, came crashing down directly onto the head of the woman standing in the corner.
In the next instant, Gao Hai himself dodged with speed exceeding human limits, avoiding the scissors in the woman's hand. The wide-eyed woman reacted quickly, only to find that her enhanced speed and reflexes were far inferior to Gao Hai's. He easily evaded her, then countered with a kick to her leg, forcing her to her knees. Then, before the woman had a chance to get up, the scalpel slashed down, severing the hand that held the scissors.
"No, my Taozi—"
The woman with the severed hand cried out, not for her own injury, but for the woman who had been knocked unconscious. But Gao Hai gave her no time for chatter. The woman had barely spoken when the scalpel pierced the back of her head once more. Gao Hai then grabbed her severed hand and casually pocketed the bloody scissors.
He pulled out the scalpel and kicked the woman away.
Gao Hai didn't go to search her body, because the woman's face had begun to change drastically, as if something hidden inside had been stimulated.
He just turned and quickly walked over to the unconscious woman by the wall. It seemed that while the 'Substitute Flesh' had the terrifying effect of giving this group a second life, it couldn't be triggered by something like being knocked unconscious.
He took the black umbrella.
He took back his Rescue Team Badge.
The severed hand growing from the woman's back made Gao Hai hesitate for a while, but he eventually chopped it off, deciding he might try to sell it in a few days.
He searched her but found no more Obsession Items. No wonder this one resorted to ambushes.
Next was a clean stab to the temple, stirring her brains a bit for good measure.
Another phantom image appeared, showing that this woman had killed a high school girl on her way home from school and stolen her existence. The woman reappeared, but just as her eyes opened, Gao Hai stabbed her in the forehead again, pulled out the blade, and walked away. The flesh-based Obsession Item quickly went out of control as its host died.
By the time Gao Hai returned to the entrance of the ramen shop, the two women had vanished.
It appeared the Obsession Item going out of control wasn't as terrifying as one might imagine. The flesh had simply squeezed out of the two women's faces, pouring from their eyes, noses, mouths, and ears like popping pimples. Then it consumed their entire bodies and disappeared.
However, this might have had something to do with Gao Hai quickly leaving after the kills instead of sticking around to watch the show.
"I knew there were two of you from the start. My blessing is the perfect cure for you sneaky old rats."
Cursing under his breath, Gao Hai walked to the side of the alley and held out his hand to catch the blood doll that jumped down from above—the one he had secretly tossed out when he was ensnared by the human-head balloon. He let out a slow breath, feeling relieved that he had been able to deal with these two players smoothly.
He took out his phone and called Maki.
Before the call connected, Gao Hai leaned against the wall and exhaled, his heartbeat already returning to normal.
The 'Woman Face Gang's' direct combat abilities didn't seem particularly strong. Their Obsession Items were relatively average, unlike Lao Guo, who had all sorts of gadgets. Gao Hai guessed this group of players was actually just mediocre in skill. They were probably unpopular and feared simply because they had banded together and had rather deviant tendencies.
However, the way they treated each other seemed as if they were a genuinely loving family.
Gao Hai recalled the expression and tone of the woman he had fought head-on and felt a slight sense of abnormality.
Could it be that the 'Substitute Flesh' made them close, causing them to see each other as family? If so, that would explain this reckless, utterly irrational campaign of revenge. But thinking about it that way made the flesh Obsession Item even more unsettling.
And if that were true, could there be other Obsession Items that could 'unconsciously change a person,' perhaps even completely turning them into someone else, without anyone, including the person themselves, ever noticing?
Beep—
The call connected.
Gao Hai quickly brought the phone to his ear and heard a girl's voice from the other end.
"Are you okay?"
The question was spoken simultaneously by both Gao Hai and Maki on the other end of the line.
"I'm fine. Two of them came for me. I've dealt with them. What about you?"
Completely relieved, Gao Hai slowly explained his situation.
"Two on my end as well. They caused a lot of damage, but... they've been dealt with too."
Maki tried her best to keep her tone calm, to stop her voice from trembling.
Before the girl at that moment was a wrecked living room. The sofa was overturned, tables and chairs were shattered, and blood was splattered everywhere.
As for the two members of the 'Woman Face Gang' who had invaded, one had been reduced to less than half a body, gnawed away by the faceless head, while the other sat slumped against a nearby wall, a cleaver buried halfway into her head.
And cowering in a corner of the room were her parents, their faces numb after having watched their daughter engage in a B-movie-style brawl with two bizarre women who had broken into their home.
"I'm coming over now. Be careful."
Gao Hai had already hung up. He contacted Kaguya Shinomiya while quickly running out of the alley to hail a cab.
He lifted his head and looked up at the night sky.
Gao Hai couldn't help but feel that tonight would be a sleepless one.
Speaking of which, did I forget something?
Having already left the alley far behind, Gao Hai was, of course, completely unable to hear the pounding on the door of the ramen shop.
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