"This girl... is Felicity?"The question asked in Alessa"s heart gave her a feeling akin to being showered with icy cold water in winter. It froze not only her body but also her brain. Fear consumed her chest. It was the natural fear of someone who might be holding a greater s.p.a.ce in her loved one"s heart. Fear of not being chosen.
At that moment, she felt afraid to look at Chris" face. Her reaction was not unfounded since they just started getting close to each other for not more than a month and the half-host had yet to confirm what their real status was.
She bit her lips and made the d.a.m.n thoughts go away. "Stop demeaning yourself, Alessa. You"re prettier, wealthier, s.e.xier... and more troublesome than anyone else. You have so many merits. And you"ve been with him for three years. Even if he likes her, who cares. Just steal him... Steal him. He can only be yours... It"s okay to have him for yourself, right?"
She had to bit her lower lip again to chase the selfish and heart-freezing ideas. The price of doing so was feeling a few drops threatening to well up from her eyes. For some reason, she felt some pang of pain in her chest and all sorts of thoughts were swirling in her head. Even she hated the selfishness coming out of her.
Alessa was simply not mentally stable. For hours, bombs ticked by her ears while she was stuffed inside a dark, moldy, and cramped room. With her body drugged to not be able to resist whatever fate was stored for her, it was hard not to be devoured by fears, insecurities, and insane ideas.
All of these combined might have even made her forget her real profession and how to hide from her face what was on her mind. Or even if she subconsciously did, how could half-baked acting escape the man"s eyes?
The woman also was too muddle-headed to remember that the other girl was supposed to be familiar. In particular, the girl was someone whom Sofia Mendoza greeted and said to be Sofony Silver"s sister. If she was in her right state of mind, even though she would have gone to another veiled truth, at least she would not readily accept what she heard or question if Steffy was Felicity.
Now, all Alessa felt was confusion and greed for security, and for her security means him. She was afraid to stare at Steffy. Who knows what kind of dark thoughts would pop up inside her mind if she does?
Without looking at him directly, the actress busy catching her breath quietly said, "T-thank you... For saving me. I"m happy to see you. What do you plan to do now?"
Her absentmindedness told him she also wanted to know what he planned for the other girl in the place.
"If you can now move, untie that girl. She"s Sofony"s sister. We can"t be held accountable for that woman"s life."
"A certain degree of selfishness is not really a sin, Alessa..." He also wanted to tell her.
However, she was not the person he must confront right now. It was also not Alda. The table she was trying to throw fall onto the older woman when Chris discreetly fired a gun at her and proved that she was not the real threatening person in the room.
"Ugh," Alda followed the groan with a shriek when weights suddenly pressed her down the ground. Blood trickled down her forehead. But she still managed to crawl out her upper body from under the table.
Angrily, the woman said, "You pathetic boy!!! You should be thankful for bringing back my daughter Felicity to you! I tied her so you can easily carry her home! You can torture her then! Make her pay for being a s.l.u.t who broke our hearts! Hahahaha! You saw what she did! How can she do that to me?!!!! I"m her mother!!!! She"s alive!!! Someone only helped her change face and memories! But she"s alive! And we should kill her!!! We have to kill her!!!"
The abrupt change in the woman"s choice of words and manner of speaking startled everyone there. Even the half-baked devil in his head couldn"t help but comment,
Chris simply thought speaking with and mistaking a madwoman for a sane mother for a split-second was the most foolish thing he had ever done in his life.
"Can"t reach out to the police and the guards..." He felt like sinking in a cold pond after realizing that no phone calls or messages could be sent outside. The real tough, and perhaps most dreadful opponent since he became a half-immoral host, was actually nearby. Lurking, maybe even laughing in the dark... Waiting for him to drag Alessa out only to lose hope after knowing that every escape route was sealed.
Chris held his breath. He looked at Steffy Mendez and had a headache thinking what he should do with her.
Alessa was his priority. For this girl the Dimatrionez madam was claiming as her daughter, he felt like tossing the problem to her sister, but there was no way for him to do that now, as both the Original and Clone were in the empire.
As if he speaking to no one in particular, he softly said. "If your target all this time is me," suddenly, he stopped, and gritted his teeth in fury and helplessness. "I supposed you"re playing around when you did not kill me earlier. You"re waiting to stage this farce, huh? I was not able to tell this to you this afternoon, but it seemed you never change, Leo Jones, have you...?"
The happenstances in the room ever since Chris chose to pull up the stun gun happened only within a minute, yet it seemed so much time had already pa.s.sed since then.
"No choice. So much for being cautious when everything will still come down to a fight." The young man stood up and said to no one in particular once again, "Sorry for the disturbance... And sorry, since that person sealed off the perimeter, it would be useless to leave this room. I"m left with no choice..."
The moment he stopped speaking, his chest heaved up from inhaling, his eyes shone faintly, the glow appeared so enchanting, even for Steffy, much less Alessa.
A second later, activities suddenly could be heard outside... Footsteps echoed all around, the collective noises gathered and became louder than louder until not even the downpour outside could mask the boisterous sounds.
"What"s that?" Alda temporarily sobered up and perked up her ears to the broken window"s direction.
However because she precisely did that she did not notice Chris soundlessly landing beside her after taking a jump. A slight sting suddenly came from her neck, and when she subconsciously touched it, red entered her sight, making her let out a soft yelp. "E-eh?"
"Leo Jones, come out!" After standing up and taking a step back, he coldly said while his eyes roamed around. "Stop hiding! I"m alone and so much weaker than you. What are you hesitating for?"
When silence came back to him as a reply, he continued taunting, "This woman is your ally or minion, right? Let"s be direct to the point. I"m sorry but the poison I injected her is not from me. She"ll die in a minute if you don"t come out. Just wanna say, not even I know what weird decoction it was. Or maybe, not even the person who mixed it knew. How about you come out to heal her? She"s too low-level to cure herself, no?"
With a single swept of his gaze to the shocked woman, he arrived to this conclusion.A poisoned system user wouldn"t bat an eyelash if the level of toxin could be solved by his or her AI.
"W-wait? I"m poisoned, and I can"t be cured? I"ll be dying within a minute? No no no!!! I"m innocent! I"m only a mother betrayed by my husband and daughter! Why are you doing this to me!!? Chris, when did you become so heartless!!!? I"m only trying to send you the person whom you hate or love!!!"
Such hysterical lines uttered with both hatred and panic did not make the man turn his head to her. He went back to Alessa"s side. He threw the red raincoat somewhere, revealing him wearing a white b.u.t.toned up dress shirt tucked in an ash colored pants. His adam apple bobbed. If a fight took place, he wondered if there would be a chance for survival.
He felt his presence materializing to the left, by the crying madwoman"s side.
A lively voice echoed to everyone"s ears. "Just curious, hehehehe. How are you sure that I"ll come out if you threaten her life?"
Both girls cried out in shock as they saw small lights as luminant as the fluorescent lamp above suddenly forming a person"s image until it became a live person, in particular a boy wearing a wide grin. Chris simply bent down and threw the bombs out of the broken window. It wouldn"t hurt to lessen the hazardous items nearby.
"Save me!!! Leo!!! Save me!!! I can hear the voice in my head saying I"ll be dying soon!!!"
As if reminded by something very important, the boy made a thinking pose and widened his eyes at Chris.
"Wait! I just realized, the real problem is... When did you newbie become this insane? You"re supposed to be the sanest of us all. Even that woman had gone mad when her man went MIA for three years. As for you, your innate mental strength is quite good even amongst us or else how could you remain a harmless human aircon? Apart from that, though quite not right in her head, she"s like us, and given your state, it would be dangerous for you to bet that she"s lower leveled than you! Also, this woman is still that girl"s mother. You"re supposed to exercise more caution."
"d.a.m.n, the first few words he said mean he"s aware of most things about me and Sofony!"
The half-host felt a chill in his heart, but outwardly merely said, "I"m only a cornered rat. And exactly because she"s a dead friend"s mother that I did not kill her."
Leo pouted. He chopped on her nape and rendered her unconscious. Apparently he was annoyed by Alda"s whining which resounded in his ears even when he was talking to the half-host. Seeing this, Alessa and Steffy unconsciously held their breath.
"So ruthless.."
Chris lowered his head a bit and seriously asked Leo. "Are you an enemy or just a busybody in the current fight?"
"Heh, you ask? Good that you didn"t immediately have those brain dead minions of yours outside rain down stuff on me. Hahahaha, as expected you"re probably even brighter than Sofony Mendez. Am I an enemy or not, what do you think?"
"Why do you have to do this? You"re a teleporter who can appear anywhere you want. If your goal is to kill me, it"s as easy as pie for you..." The half-host muttered as if he was contemplating. "All I can think is that you"re not really working with that woman. But the bombs are yours. And she knows you."
Leo"s eyes formed two twinkling crescents, taking joy at the actor"s confusion. He decided to be generous again to the man.
"Thank your luck for being cloneless. The answer is she"s an experiment subject. Hehehe. Don"t ask of whom. We"re still quite humane so since she requested to see her daughter and you, we fulfilled it. I thought this Alda planned to stage a ghost marriage between you and that supposedly dead girl. Hahaha. It"s so funny. She"s actually aware that the daughter she killed is actually alive!"
"That"s not in the video shown..."
With a flip of a hand, a gun appeared. A second later, a bullet bought from the system was shot to the translucent round device lying on the floor.
He took a deep breath, remembering the teenage boy mentioning "we". His face turned grimmer.
"Leo Jones how about we stop now." Chris proposed solemnly. "Don"t force me to fight, boy. I"m weaker personally. But my brain is working well enough to hack through the military. The real threat from my side is that I also locked the s.p.a.ce the same time that you did."
"Oh?" The Level 6 system user appeared intrigued. "Does it mean once the device expiration comes, you"ll have those braindead folks surrounding this house to rain down attacks at me while you hide inside a barrier?"
Chris disregarded the mocking tone of the boy playing with grenades using both hands. "You told me I"m the sanest of us all so of course you know I won"t come here without any preparation. You"re right, this place is surrounded by people mind controled by me. Unlike Sofony, I have no reservations using the army as I please. But what if I tell you that before having them fired waves of bullets and explosives here, I plan to drown this place with crude oils while activating another s.p.a.ce lock?"
Alessa trembled at the crazy words Chris mouthed with the same expressionless face.
Leo clapped as he understood the intention. "Ooh, quite genius. If you time it well, perhaps before I warp away, even I might die."
The half-host self-mockingly smile. "Of course, there"s a high chance that you"ll survive. I honestly don"t know what you can do. Who knows if you have other life saving skills apart from body swap and teleportation? Aunt Alda is initially a puzzle to me too. Precisely because I have so many things I"m not sure about that I formulated many extreme plans before coming here."
Chris laughed but added in a cold tone, "Believe it or not, I am even ready to have this whole city wiped off of the world map by a nuclear bomb if I and Alessa died..."
"..."
To this serious declaration from Chris, even the lunatic bomber fell speechless. Alessa subconsciously grabbed the man"s shirt, her fingers trembling. Steffy who had finally regained her ability to speak murmured in a low voice.
"Crazy..." The girl curled up in the corner and cried for her sister to save her from the bunch of crazies in the room.
As for whether she understood why the madwoman kept saying she was her hated daughter, the fear for her life made her unable to process the information in her brain.
...
Right outside of the seemingly haunted house, two people stopped before a blockade of armed people surrounding it.
One of the men frowned. The other said in a calm tone, "Most of them seemed to be soldiers. Should I ask them to make way or leave?"
A voice commanding both respect and awe replied, "Don"t bother. They"re all probably under hypnosis. Let"s just bypa.s.s them. I want to finish this as soon as possible and go home."
The one who asked was dumbfounded at first but then recovered and slightly bowed his head, "By your will..."
...
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