A pleasant surprise (2)

– Warning: possible uncomfortable scenes. –

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Adelaide looked down at her hands with little hesitation before disappearing on the spot.

"…anyways, it seems like #08 couldn't take it anymore."

"Of course. Who in their right mind would be able to endure it? Even those demi-human subjects have their limits."

"But #00…"

"Stop. Don't you know that girl is a taboo now?"

"Oh, don't fret over small things. It's not like I'll die- khoff"

"Ugh…"

"Wha-"

Like a curse coming to life, the two men coughed out blood.

Adelaide reappeared behind the men with a firm expression. Her lower arms and hands were nowhere to be seen, but there was no blood gushing out.

The sensations in her hands brought her goosebumps.

Except for the man in the middle, the other two were holding their chest as pain and disbelief dawned upon them. There were no external wounds, and their body looked intact. However, their young faces distorted due to extreme pain.

It was because they felt their heart being crushed, literally. It was being held on with brute force, as if someone was treating their most vital organ as a wet sponge and squeezing their blood dry.

"Hah…hah…hah…"

"...Hahhh..."

Like an old machine running out of fuel, they gasped greedily for air. Red and blue veins could be seen popping up on their foreheads. Combined with the blood, which was leaking out of their mouth continuously, it was not hard to say that these two would not live for long.

The process felt like an eternity of suffering to them, but in truth, it only took a minute. The two unfortunate men fell down, curled into the fetal position, and died with their eyes opened and faces full of fear.

'And now…'

…

Swish.

'FUCK.'

Adelaide did not have the time to concentrate and reconnect her hand when the men in the middle reacted. With fast and smooth actions, he immediately turned around and swung his long knife in her direction.

Adelaide only had time to convert part of her neck into particle form before sliding to the opposite direction to widen the distance.

The long knife ended up slicing through thin air. It was an accurate swing.

If it wasn't for her fast reaction or the fact that she possessed a flexible teleportation skill, Adelaide's neck would have been sliced neatly in half.

'This posture, those cold brown eyes…it's Number One. Fuck, don't tell me he's the strongest?'

It was not unreasonable to say so.

Despite his colleagues' ambiguous death, Number One regained his composure almost immediately and quickly sensed the strange presence behind him. Though he was now a researcher, his mercenary sense was still there.

The man looked dumbfounded when Adelaide's arms and hands quickly reappeared after a distance was put between them. Blood dripped down from the lower parts of her arms, creating a bright contrast of red and the originally pure white corridor.

But it was not her blood. She was unharmed; he knew that just by looking.

He witnessed part of the girl's disappeared neck restructured by itself. Number One had no idea how such an absurd thing worked, but he knew the origins of the power.

He would never forget this girl even if a hundred years had passed.

"#00?" Number One frowned.

"That's not my name, bastard. No idiot would name their children using numbers." Adelaide retorted.

Contrary to the relaxed tone, her mind was actually in a mess. She was too ignorant.

In her plan, the only one alive, like any other normal human being, should be consumed by shock for some time. Even if he used to be a mercenary who had witnessed unimaginable things, she thought it would cost him several seconds after seeing something unprecedented.

All Adelaide needed was those seconds to 'deal' with the man.

But sometimes plans were made to fail, especially ones that were made and executed on the spot.

She was a normal modern citizen who never witnessed extreme blood, much less kill someone. In that short amount of time, her hands were drowned in another person's body. Their blood sipped through her fingers, and the heart that was beating steadily sped up and struggled as if fighting vigorously for its master's life – despite not seeing what happened with her eyes, the sensation was ingrained in her mind. The 'sticky' blood flow, the heart's veins, and her nails digging mercilessly into it.

The feeling of crushing a person's heart made her skin stand on edge. It was not a comfortable experience.

"How did you escape?" Number One asked.

"I should've killed you first." Adelaide resisted the urge to wash her hands and mumbled. "But too bad, I didn't know you were the strongest."

"You didn't answer my question."

"Why should I?"

'Fuck, now that I'm acting cool, what should I do? I can't jump in – my self-defense is only good against drunk perverts.'

Despite the disgusting sticky feeling on her hands, Adelaide regretted not killing the middle guy first.

'Damn. I wanted the mid guy to enjoy a cool visual effect when the ones beside him die. It should've made him freeze and gave me a chance.'

One could argue that Adelaide could do what she did right now to Number One. However, she did not get the chance. It was because Number One pounced on her like a ferocious beast right after that.

"Tsk."

To teleport, she needed four to seven seconds of extreme concentration, but the middle-aged man's moves fell one after another like rain on a heavy day. A second or two of distraction and Adelaide could lose her life, much less four.

She could multitask, but doing so while your life was on the line is stupid.

Adelaide took several steps to the left, making another of Number One's swings towards her miss its target once again.

The only reason why Adelaide managed to hold up until now was thanks to the sword lessons she took, as well as the fact that the man did not intend to kill her. He aimed for the parts where it would disable her once hit, not the vital points.

Nevertheless, that did not give Adelaide much advantage against a former mercenary. Adelaide had been relying on her eyes to avoid his attacks, but she felt like she would tire herself to death if this were to continue.

'What should I do? He's a witness. He saw me teleporting. For my future safety, I can't let him live.'

She was unwilling to run away. Her blue eyes with a tint of golden reflected the ordinary-looking man's actions.

Then something caught her eyes.

'Wait… He's shaking?'

Most people would not be able to tell since Number One was extremely focused with sharp actions, but Adelaide could clearly see the man shaking slightly.

'Maybe he's…scared?'

He was indeed scared.

To the mercenary, the girl was no longer a normal kid, but something akin to a mythical creature. If not, how could she manipulate other people's life and death as if it was nothing?

'What have I created?' was his sole thought.

He was not afraid of death, but it had always been instinct for normal people to fear things they could not explain.

When other emotions were mixed up, it wasn't hard for one to get distracted.

'How could I distract him? I have nothing on my hands.'

Adelaide continued to dodge as a small part of her brain ran at maximum capacity.

'Ah, right. Stupid Adelaide.'

In front of her, Number One was still trying to catch the little girl. Unfortunately, like a slippery eel, she kept getting away from him. Small scratches and injuries could be seen on the girl's arms, but that wasn't enough.

He wanted to call the guards so they could round her up, but they were in the deepest part of the facility where only trusted personnel was given access. Plus, he felt like once he turned his attention away, this girl would escape his grasp immediately.

Number One had slowly figured out that she needed a small amount of time to get away, and that was not good news for Adelaide. His eyes flashed quickly as the man tried to think of a solution.

Swishh.

He was surprised as a sharp-looking object was thrown at the man. He quickly evaded to the side, but the object still managed to leave behind a clean cut on his face before sticking itself on the wall behind with a soft thud.

"Shit. What was that?" Number One touched his cheek and unconsciously swore. "Where did that come from?"

He knew that his techniques and sharpness had gone dull after working for the Baron down here, but it sounded illogical. Why didn't the girl use the foldable knife as a weapon from the start? Why did she pull it out now? Where could she have hidden it?

Most importantly, how did she manage to pull it out, aim, and throw without him noticing?

Number One froze. Little did he know, Adelaide had something called a Pandora's Box. Something similar to video games' inventory spaces.

That little confusing moment was all she needed. With agile movements, Adelaide disintegrated in front of Number One. She did not even bother hiding the truth from him anymore.

"Did she…escape? By…teleporting?"

He was in utter disbelief. He thought the girl only developed something similar to dividing body parts to a certain range or, in the worst case, psychokinesis, not teleportation itself.

Psychokinesis, from bending a spoon to crushing a ton of metal was possible in this world, but it was super rare; the ability itself originated from the dwarfs who had always been excellent blacksmiths. Even then, only a handful of people were gifted with the ability.

He then suddenly sense someone's presence behind him; but before he could turn his head around, the man could feel two small but cold and sticky hands press firmly on each side of his head.

"Hi~"

Crack.

The man's head was twisted ruthlessly.

The back of a human's neck was vulnerable. With her small legs holding Number One's shoulder in place like pliers, his neck took an abrupt horizontal turn all the way to the right before his entire body fell down motionlessly.

The last thing he perceived was the scent of fresh blood. Everything became black – he didn't even have the luxury to form his last thoughts.

Adelaide jumped down from his body to the ground.

"Do I have to do this again?" she mumbled softly.

"I have to. I only have little knowledge about human anatomy. Who knows if he's actually dead or not?"

The man stopped breathing, but as a former modern citizen, she knew that did not mean absolute death. One could never underestimate a fantasy world's miracles.

Adelaide closed her eyes as her arm disappeared once again. Her face scrunched up in disgust. It was uncomfortable.

"Hah…" when her arm reappeared to where it belonged, the girl sighed in relief. The color of crimson dyed her right arm once again as if someone painted it with another red coat of paint.

Small pieces of Number One's internal flesh and heart got caught in her fingernails.

"…yuck." the girl, who was standing between three corpses, tsked in disgust. "first times are really the worst."

'I did it in such a gory way too.'