Three hours quickly pa.s.sed after the incident. Sofony had already wasted so many practice ammo. But the stares she received from the others made her conscious, thus halfway her afternoon practice, she snuck out and went back wearing a black dress, a bottle of iced coffee and biscuits were in her hand. By the way, when she was still outside, she began asking the ever-so-sarcastic system about some things that could probably help in her current mission.
And while pa.s.sing by a newsstand displayed outside of a bookstore, she learned about the sudden removal of every news and materials related to Clarissa on the internet and other media. Reckoning this was probably what occupied her enemy for the last two days, her heart became heavier and many gloomy sighs escaped from her lips.
Actually, the news did not shock her so long since she knew this kind of things was just normal for any host. It was just she still felt extremely annoyed and pressured.
In her heart, she complained about why the opponent was so difficult. She also questioned the system if her luck stats really became more than 20 because she just couldn"t feel its effect on her life. She reasoned that if it"s not bogus, then she would not have ended up in this situation where she had to constantly worry whether Clarissa was cooking up something life-threatening against her.
Unfortunately, all the system answered to her questions was deafening and mocking laughter.
Sofony was in the middle of thinking about her next countermeasures when she suddenly got startled by an unfamiliar voice.
"You are here!"
At this time, she was already back inside the shooting range and aiming again at the target from her stall.
Due to being distracted by it, the bullet she just fired did not even hit the seventh ring. Sofony gasped. Surprise showed on her face after she turned to the culprit who made her most recent shot miss.
Of course, her expression immediately turns sour when she saw that it was the same guy who caused her to pay for the food she didn"t even manage to taste.
"What are you doing here?" she curtly asked. Reminded of his past actions, she decided this person was someone undeserving of even the minimum courtesy.
The man in grey turtleneck shirt ignored the gloom in her face and chuckled, "Hi! And I"m a regular here so why can"t I be here?"
Sofony"s eyes narrowed as she remembered that he was supposed to be roaming outside wearing an embarra.s.sing outfit. Wariness appeared on her face as she backed away a bit.
"...My hypnosis did not work on him?" she asked the system.
When it answered "yes", she backed away more, thinking there could only be two reasons why someone would not be affected.
"...Another host...or someone related to a host?"
Before she heard the reply from the system, the man in front of her spoke,
"So what"s your name, fair lady? Since you can come to this place, I"m sure you"re someone who should not be appearing at a convenience store to buy cheap food. Also, is this your first day here? I didn"t see you here last week."
With knitted brows, she also asked, "Who are you? Why are you hara.s.sing me? And how is it your business whether I eat street foods or not?"
The man was stunned for a second before laughing,
"Haha, it seems our encounter earlier left a bad impression on you. Why else will you become this defensive to a very handsome man like me?" he paused to shake his head. "But actually, you"re not wrong. I intentionally did that to get your attention!"
Then he started laughing as if he didn"t see the look of anger and revulsion that came upon her face. He even did a gentleman vow and said, "I"m Marc Goldwin. Admiring you for your beauty. And what you eat is my business because ---"
"Bang!"
The loud sound of a bullet breaking the upper part of the gla.s.s stand interrupted the man"s introduction. It was followed by an equally thunderous voice which she knew had come from Claus.
"Oy, Dumb*ss Marc, just stop scaring the newbie! Can"t you see she"s uncomfortable around you? Just go to your private booth and stop terrorizing this part of the world!"
Sofony widened her eyes at the man who actually dodged that bullet with ease without any change in his face. With her mouth slightly open, her gaze robotically to her mentor who looked annoyed that the man evaded it.
When she also tried to check the reactions of the others, she saw them looking unfazed as though what these two did was just normal exchange of hi"s and h.e.l.los.
"Claus, even if you"re one of the best gunners here you should refrain showing it off in such a vulgar and unsightly manner. See, you"re the one who really scared this pretty miss," said the man who called himself Marc.
Claus glanced at her first before saying to the other, "Stop bullsh*tting, man. Quit bothering this girl. She won"t care about you. She already has that other demon, Gio."
Her mentor even sneered at Marc, adding, "Given your overboard narcissism and ADHD, it"s not surprising that women will find you less attractive than that refrigerator guy."
The other man"s face immediately became gloomy at the mention of Gio"s name. The change in his expression did not escape her notice.
"...Gio"s enemy?"
"But why is he in the same shooting club as Gio?"
The moment this thought appeared in her mind, she hurriedly asked the system to provide information about him. Him being another special ops member surprised her a bit. But actually, the reason for her amazement was the fact that his information was not hidden, yet as expensive as an official host.
"Is he a host, or not? But how can he dodge bullets at almost point blank? My hypnosis also did not work on him? Even if he is a special agent, it should still be impossible to accomplish these, right?"
"...Unless he is actually like me!"
A faint sense of danger and dread started to bud within her. Sofony started to have so many questions in mind. The system said he was normal. But Sofony"s instincts were not letting her settle for that.
In front of her, Marc and Claus were still arguing. In the end, it was Marc who had to leave since the other kept bringing up Gio"s name. Nevertheless, before the guy walked towards the leftmost part where the private booths were located, he gave her a pitying glance.
Sofony heard Claus click his tongue in annoyance, "Ignore him, missy. That dumb*ss is just very compet.i.tive when it comes to Gio. Luckily, I came before he got your name from you. If you did, I"m sure he"s going to start stalking you and steal you from Gio."
"He"s treating Gio as a rival?"
"Yeah, ever since their military time. I don"t know much. But it"s his hobby to compete with the other. And when I mean compete, it"s for everything, including women. So you"re lucky that he didn"t get your name or contacts."
After getting what Claus was hinting, she directed her burly mentor a weird gaze. "He looks rich though. He seems the kind who can immediately find out about something or someone. If he really turns out to be a rich man, then me not giving my name is meaningless."
"Oh. You make sense. I"m normally more involved with the merc"s circle so I momentarily forgot that he is also in the upper circle."
When the girl received another pitying glance, this time from Claus, she smiled wryly and wished the irritating person to never bother her again. After all, she"s already dealing with another host. If he happens to be one as well and she becomes his target...
Uh, she doesn"t want to think about it.
....
Heavens had seemingly wanted to tell her that wish was impossible.
It was because when she started brainstorming on how to pa.s.s the current mission, she only managed to come up with two ways.
First was to probably use her acting skills and accidentally stab Gio at somewhere not fatal. Maybe she could lead him to the kitchen and then fake an accident there. Anyway, she realized the mission only said to stab, not stab to death.
There was only one problem. She really disliked the idea of hurting Gio.
Hence if there were other choices, naturally she would be more willing to try those first. Anyway, she still has around 7 hours before midnight. Once these fail, that"s when she"ll ask for Gio"s cooperation.
Therefore, she picked the second way.
The only thing she didn"t foresee was that this option would lead her back to the person she didn"t ever want to meet again and that it would make her do something she never considered for today.
Life is really a series of unplanned, unexpected, and unexplained coincidences and happenstances.
Hours ago, she was the one trying to direct the person into doing something that would probably shame him for life. Unfortunately, it failed, and the system said it was just due to him being naturally immune to mental attacks.
Hours later, when she followed the nearest location marked by the system, she then ended up the one directed by the other.
To what he had forced her to do?
Nothing.
Only to use a knife to stab an already heavily wounded and bleeding Gio Albarez to death.