Rubies, Riches and Crowns (2)

"System, what's the situation of the female lead?" Elena asked as she leisurely pulled out the phone from her purse and went through the contact list on Ruby's phone.

"Host, the drugged female lead has already been taken away by the male lead. The kidnappers hired by Miss Linda Haven are uninformed about that, and hence are lurking around the first floor, looking for the female lead." System then hesitated for a while before asking, "Host, do you want me to relay their positions so you can easily escape?"

She scoffed. "Where'd be any fun in that?" Elena pausing in midst of typing on the phone, and said in a dark tone, "Besides, those guys killed Ruby in the original plot-line. Letting them off like this would be too easy. I'll make them pay for their crimes against the original owner."

"Host, you don't need to do that. The mission doesn't state that you have to avenge the original owner's death." System pointed out.

Elena clicked her tongue and glanced at her wristband in disdain. "Are you stupid? As soon as I stepped into this world in this body, I became Ruby Davis. That means every grievance she suffered, I suffered it too! So, I will return it all tenfold! After all, I am petty enough to avenge for even littlest of grudges."

System, "….."（─.─||）

'What kind of messed up logic is that?! Why don't you just admit that you'd feel restless if you don't make someone's life hell?'

Elena completed her text message and then sent it to her coworker Zoey, informing her that she would be going back to her apartment on her own, and that she didn't need to wait for her. Not that Zoey –the drunk lady that had accidentally smacked Elena as soon as she entered this world- would probably even remember checking her phone, being utterly smashed with alcohol.

Putting the phone back in her purse, she gave one last look to her reflection in the mirror and let out a chuckle. "Let's go! This big sister is feeling generous enough today to play with those guys to their heart's content!"

System resisted the urge to sigh in helplessness. This host of his really liked to dig pits for others, didn't she?

Elena turned and walked towards the door of the washroom. As soon as she touched the doorknob, she changed her smug expression to a calm one. She then opened the door and walked out a bit unsteadily, as if she were drunk.

The system that was about to remind it's host to not be OOC before any person in this world, shut his virtual mouth before it could even speak. So his Host did remember the rules, huh. He had though she was just trolling him, with the way she had brushed him off earlier it truly had seemed that way.

Elena walked down the abandoned hallway, stumbling every once in a while like a tipsy person. Now, Elena admitted that she couldn't compete with the first class actresses out there, but at least she wasn't horrendous in acting. Besides Ruby's character is easy to portray, what with her calm and serious attitude towards life that Elena could easily emulate since she herself was like that whenever she worked on any business project. You don't need to act like anyone else when you can find a little bit of the character you want to portray in yourself.

Also, it's not like you need a PHD to act like a drunk.

'System, send me the coordinates of those kidnappers.' Elena mentally asked the system as she came towards the stairway. She then slowly descended down the stairs to the first floor, supporting her 'unsteady' body by placing a hand over the railing.

System scanned her surroundings, and then replied, "Ding! One of them is around the bar area, the other two have mingled with the people on the dance floor. Another one is sitting on the sides, and- ah! Careful, host! The last one is approaching your location from the right."

Elena, who was about to step down from the last step of the stairs, paused, before she continued on and then turned right. She ignored System's anxious comments and the warnings it was blaring in her mind. Instead kept walking unsteadily, and finally bumped into someone's chest. The smell of cheap cigarette smoke and sweat –with a little bit of alcoholic scent underneath it- assaulted her nose, making her slightly wrinkle her nose in distaste.

The man grunted and patted his chest where the petite woman had just bumped into him. He was about to snap at the woman, but as soon as his eyes fell on her, he halted. The woman frankly looked like an average beauty, except when he looked at her dark eyes, he felt a slight tickle through his heart as she blinked her slightly unfocused eyes. Her slightly flushed cheeks only added to her charm.

"Sorry." the woman apologized softly before she walked past him in an erratic pace.

The man watched the woman in white dress walk away with a dark look in his blue eyes. He immediately called his fellow brothers and informed them, "Brothers, I found the target. Go outside and get ready to ambush her. I will keep an eye on her." He then cut off the call and followed the woman from some distance.

"Host, one of them is following us." System informed her. "The other four have also started moving. They are moving outside, towards the parking lot."

'Oh?' Elena replied to the system in her mind. 'We'll go to the parking lot too, then.'

"Host, what are you planning?" System asked apprehensively. He really didn't understand this host of his. Instead of choosing the safe route and escaping while she had the chance, she's instead walking straight into their trap like a lamb for slaughter. Was it really necessary to make this easy mission difficult? If she had gotten away from this incident scot free, with her business skills the main task could've been completed leisurely. But no, this host of his really had to choose the hard mode.

Elena walked into the lively first floor of the club, and as she stumbled past the various people dancing, partying and interacting with each other, she told the system, 'What are you worrying about? Don't I have you with me? I trust you, okay."

For some reason, the skin of her wrist touching the wristband heated up, making Elena pause in her steps and glance curiously at it. Is this the system's version of blushing? She didn't even know that the robotic system actually had feelings. Huh, that's actually kind of adorable...

System, whose internal core warmed on hearing his host's unexpected praise, suddenly thought that maybe this host of his wasn't as bad as she seemed at the beginning. Maybe he had been wrong about her. Maybe she's not a totally black-hearted scheming person like he had previously thought.

'Maybe she's just misunderstood.'

-X-

A woman walked towards the parking lot in unsteady steps. She squinted her eyes at every car she passed by, as if trying to remember which car was hers. She roamed her eyes across the cars parked around the area, and with a shake of her head she sighed when she remembered the position where her car was located. Suddenly she heard three pairs of footsteps, that turned louder as they neared her location. The woman tensed and quickened her steps, however the footsteps of the people following her also quickened. She quickened her pace even more, turning the speed-walk into jogging, and then started running at full speed. Cold sweat dripped down her forehead and she suddenly felt afraid when the men that were following –stalking?- her started running too and shouted something. She turned, and then quickly made her way towards her car. She shoved her hand in her purse and with trembling hands quickly pulled out her car key and tried to unlock her car. She didn't know whether it was because of her fearful trembling, or her drunken state, but for some reason, the key kept slipping in her hand and didn't get into the lock. When she somehow finally managed to unlock the car door, she didn't even get the time to sigh in relief as a gruff hand suddenly grabbed her shoulder roughly, and shoved her away from her car. She cried in surprise and alarm, and turned towards the assailant, who turned out to be a well-built man, with a slight scar running down his cheek. Another man stood next to him, who ran towards her car and pulled out the key and pocketed it. she could even see the other three people –who had been following her-rushing towards her had finally had an expression of relief on their faces.

"No…" Her face paled and she had a bad premonition. Not wanting to find out what these men have in store for her, she suddenly turned around and pushed the other man –the one who had pocketed her car's key- and started running.

"Stop her!" One of the three men –presumably the leader- ordered. And so, the chase begun.

The woman seemed to stumble into every other obstacle on her path in her tipsy state, but somehow she still managed to avoids the grabs of the two thugs who were the closest to reach her. She somehow managed to put some distance between them, and pulled out her phone from her pocket. With trembling hands, she dialed the emergency number, and placed the phone in her ear as she kept running, while looking back every now and then so as to keep an eye on the thugs who were following her.

Ring…. Ring... Click!

"This is 911 Operator. What's your emergency?"

"P-Please, help me. Some people just started following me and ganged up on me suddenly, and I don't- I don't know why-!" the woman stuttered out, and yelped in pain when she accidentally bumped into a black Toyota, but quickly side stepped it and kept running, and ignored the pain.

"Please Calm down Miss. Can you tell me your location?"

"I'm at the parking lot of Royal club-" She was cut off when she was suddenly tackled from behind. She knocked on the ground face first, an got dirt on her white dress. "Ah-!!" She exclaimed at the pain she felt due to being knocked down. She tried to get back up, but winced when she felt stinging pain from her hands, and it was only now she realized that she had scratched them when she fell down just now and hence they were bleeding.

The other four quickly caught up to them, and then surrounded her.

"Ding! Host, I have detected a signal tracking your phone. The coordinates show the ones tracking your phone's signal are from the Sunset City's Control Room-" System, who had been keeping an eye on the situation told Elena through a scan. He cut off when the Leader of the band of thugs glanced around the surroundings with narrowed eyes and found the phone that had been knocked out from her hand due to the fall. He walked towards it and dissembled it's parts, and then crushed the sim card on it.

"-...….and, the signal's gone." System once again informed her in a emotionless tone.

Elena, "…." Do you think I'm blind? I can obviously see that, okay?!

The Leader of this band of thugs then turned towards her and stared at with a malicious look. His eyes stared at her body suggestively, making her tremble, and she back a few steps away from him, only to bump into another man behind her. Yelping, she turned around and eyed the five men that had now surrounded her.

"You two, grab her and make sure she doesn't run this time. I'll get the car. We need to get out of here quickly. This little bitch actually dared to call the police on us." the leader spoke. The two men nearest to her quickly grab each of her arm, and shoved her forward, making her yelp in pain. The Leader than quickly got a hold of her lower jaw and squeezed it tightly, and stared at her intensely, "Capturing you was such a pain. If you try anymore tricks, I'll make you die a very painful death."

She flinched. When he released her jaw from his grip, the reddish imprints of his fingers were obvious and formed slight bruises on her cheeks. He then snorted, and after giving her another instense stare, went to get their vehicle.

"Host, are you alright?" This time System's voice had a tone of concern in it.

For someone who had gone through a fearful kidnapping incident, Elena didn't seem as shaken up as she did outwards. Instead, she answered the system in a cool tone, while still keeping a fearful face in front of kidnappers, who now shoved her forcefully in a van that had been driven here by their leader. 'Don't mind that.' She then asked him, 'You have a superior technology than anything in this world, right?'

"Yes." System answered her question.

'Good then. I have a task for you.'

A few minutes later, for some reason, a certain System with superior technology and AI felt the urge to flip a table after hearing his host's demands.

Misunderstood, my foot!! His Host is a total manipulative schemer! And he even fell for her sweet words earlier!!!

(ノ-_-)ノ~┻━┻

Give me back my innocence!

'Stop whining!' Elena finally snapped in annoyance at the system's whining. 'Instead of whining, why don't you make yourself useful?! ' Here she was, bound and gagged and forced to sit in an uncomfortable position in the van and the system had the gall to sass her at this time?

"Who told you to be a smart-ass and get kidnapped?" System asked pettily.

Elena scowled through her gag and clicked her tongue, 'Be careful, System. Your true colors are showing.'

The man sitting before her turned to stare at her with raised brows, "Did this woman just click her tongue at us?"

"I heard that too." One of the men sitting next to her said. He then leaned towards her and grabbed her lower jaw and forced her to look at him. "Yo, you sure have got some guts, girlie!"

Meanwhile, the System started blaring an alarm in her mind as soon as the first man reacted to her clicking noise, "Warning! Warning! Host is being out of character!"

Elena, who had just clicked her tongue to sass the system, "…."

Was there any need to blow it so much out of proportion?! She just clicked her tongue, okay? It's not like she straight up insulted anyone to their ninth generation ancestors or something!

（─.─||）

"Host, that was your first warning or being OOC. I'd like to remind you that now if you tried to be OOC more than two times you will be forcefully ejected from the world and your experience points will be deducted –which will be a shame because this is our first task and we don't even have a single experience point." the System generously reminded his absent-minded host.

A certain 'absent-minded' host, "…" System, how dumb do you think I am? Just because I clicked my tongue, it warranted for an OOC warning?!

You damn System, I'll definitely give you a bad review! (￣ヘ￣)

"Of course, this wouldn't have happened if you hadn't gotten kidnapped on purpose." System

Elena just rolled her eyes. 'Stop getting side-tracked. Did you do what I told you to do earlier?'

"System is restricted from doing something like that. If I breach into this world's technology, the world consciousness might get aware of my presence –and yours too, as a result- which would lead to expulsion of host's soul from this world, and-. "

'Spare me the bullshit.' Elena finally told it off. 'Do you take me for an idiot? If you can't breach into this world's technology in fear of alerting World Consciousness, how could you then use your superior tech for the various scans you have been doing till now? Would that not catch the World's attention?" Her remark rendered him speechless. "Also, what we're doing is not straightforward breaching through the technology, but just diverting the signal. It's called misdirection. I'm sure you know how to do that.' since you've been doing that ever since you've been bound to me- was left unsaid.

System ignored the accusation hiding beneath her last statement, and just replied to her former words, finally agreeing that he did know how to misdirect tracking signal in such a lower plane.

"…..Host, do you think shifting the tracking signal from your phone to the kidnapper's is a child's play? It's not that easy, you know. On second note, even if I agree with this, there's another problem. Unless you come in contact with any of the kidnapper's device itself, the System cannot change the tracking signal. Also, your phone is already smashed, which means the signal has already broken. Which is why this endeavor is impossible because you don't-"

'Oh, I have it. It's in my pocket.' Elena said nonchalantly.

"-W-What? You have it?!" (⊙_⊙) "Whose phone do you have? And when did you get it?!"

'I have the phone of that one guy who pocketed my car key earlier. I stole his phone when I bumped into him, before enacting the act of a typical victim of kidnapping scene, remember?' Elena explained. she then remembered another query of the system and replied to it, "Also, about the broken signal, you can just turn it up once again, and make it appear as if the phone had suddenly been out-of-range at that moment. I don't think anyone would notice anything."

Also, weren't you a businesswoman in your previous world? Where the heck did you learn such cheat skills like stealing and pick-pocketing?! Wait a minute......

"You've had planned everything since the moment you were followed in the parking lot?!"

(」゜ロ゜)」

'Nope.' Elena denied, and System relaxed. However, his relief didn't last long, since her next words were, 'I had everything planned the moment I bumped into the leader of this band of thugs back at the club.'

"…." Fucking hell! She had planned it all since the beginning, hadn't she?!

....Host is so good at schemes! No wonder even her younger sister almost got destroyed by her.

'Stop wasting time.' Elena reminded the system as she glanced out of the dark tinted windows of the van and saw that the van was moving towards the outskirts of the town –evident from the lack of buildings and people in the area. 'Do as you're told. I won't hear any excuses.'

".....Yes Host." The system finally agreed to do her bidding. A moment later, a virtual screen appeared before her eyes –and she realized that only she could see the screen. Various codes and numbers appeared on the screen for a few minutes, before the screen flashed and suddenly, a radar appeared on the screen, and on the side the following words appeared in bold letters-

***

Misdirecting tracking signal of Plane 46273.....

Misdirection Complete!

***

The words disappeared, and then a red dot appeared on the radar, and seemed to move in the same direction the van was moving.

'Very good.' Elena was satisfied. 'Now keep an eye on the movement of the police and keep me updated on their position. I'll deal with the rest.'

"Alright Host."

No sooner had System spoken it's words, the van left the highway and drove down a lone road that led to an abandoned warehouse about fifteen kilometres away from the Sunset City. As the front lights of the van slightly illuminated the front of the warehouse, Elena narrowed her eyes at the very place where the original Ruby had been killed. This building is such an eyesore. She'd make sure to deal with it too later on.

The van was parked before the rusty front gates of the warehouse. The two thugs in the front got off, and the other three next to her too opened the doors and walked out. The Leader of the thugs then grabbed her by her arm and harshly dragged her out.

Alright then, the trap was set. All she had to do was to let these pitiful prey to it- no wait, the right term, especially in this situation, should be to lead the predators to the prey.

Ooh boy, how exciting!