Late at night.
After chatting for a bit with One Sin and Hundreds of Good Deeds, briefly greeting Judgement Bird, and spending quite some time playing with Punishing Bird, today's exploration time was already half gone.
Then, while exploring. the Abnormality world of Spider Bud, X accidentally disturbed one of its webs and nearly got wrapped up by a giant spider.
By the time he finally escaped, only a third of his remaining exploration time was left.
"Ha… ha…"
Leaning against the wall of the Safety Department corridor, X checked himself over to make sure there were no spiders clinging to him. Only then did the tension in his body ease slightly.
"next time, I'm absolutely never coming back to your Abnormality world…"
He brushed at strands of spiderweb that didn't actually exist, muttering to himself,
"These spiders are seriously annoying… You can't clean anything, you can't touch anything, and the moment you disturb a single web it's like you skipped a payment—instant rage. How am I supposed to communicate with that?"
While grumbling, X arrived at the next containment unit.
"The next Abnormality is… Der Freischütz."
With his hand on the handle of the outermost containment door, X mentally reviewed what he knew about it.
HE-class Abnormality, but its weapon is WAW-class.
Its damage type is Erosion (BLACK). It has a counter, but it does not breach containment.
It has average affinity for instinct and insight work.
Its favorite is… repression work.
Most importantly, it was one of the rare Abnormalities that the Manager himself could directly communicate with.
After communicating with Der Freischütz, one could spend Enkephalin to hire it to perform a single, precise penetrating shot anywhere within the facility.
Even if its counter dropped to zero for various reasons, it would merely fire a single random shot inside the facility.
As long as proper precautions were taken in advance, it was even possible to avoid any casualties at all.
A very useful—and very manageable—Abnormality.
—
Hummm—
X opened his eyes.
The scenery before him was unlike any Abnormality world he had entered before.
There was no natural forest.
No endless ocean.
No grotesque flesh, nor a claustrophobic dark room.
He was standing in a city.
More precisely, in a narrow alleyway within a city.
"…Help… help me!"
A weak, tearful cry for help came from deeper within the alley, drawing X 's attention.
A skinny boy who looked to still be in middle school was pinned against a wall by several thugs covered in cheap tattoos, their eyes fierce and cruel.
The boy's once-clean school uniform was stained with grime, and his youthful face was filled with terror.
"Hey, kid. You can scream your lungs out—no one's coming to save you."
The thug closest to him, clearly the leader, sneered.
"Don't even think about running. We checked everything today. The money your mom gave you for school fees is on you, right?!"
"Last time you said you didn't have any money, and we were generous enough to let you go."
The other two chimed in, blocking off every possible escape route like feral cats toying with a mouse, cruel smiles on their faces.
"This time, you're paying back the 'interest' too!"
"No way!"
The boy's body trembled with fear, but he still shook his head and mustered every ounce of courage he had, shouting back,
"I—I'm never giving you another cent! You scum!"
"Oh? Got bold after a few days, did you?"
Thud!
The leader swung his fist without hesitation. The heavy, dull impact of bone and muscle colliding landed squarely in the boy's soft abdomen.
"Ugh!"
That single punch crushed what little courage he had left, stomach acid surging up as he collapsed to his knees, clutching his gut. His face twisted in agony, cold sweat beading on his forehead.
Thud! Thud!
But it wasn't over.
The thugs didn't stop just because he'd fallen. If anything, the violence only excited them further as they continued to kick and punch the boy curled on the ground.
Filthy soles slammed again and again into his back and legs, each blow producing a heavy, sickening sound.
Only when they began roughly trying to tear away the backpack clutched tightly to his chest did the boy finally claw back a bit of strength and resolve. He held onto the worn bag with all his might, refusing to let go.
"You little bastard—!"
One thug clearly ran out of patience. His fists rained down even harder, curses pouring from his mouth in the foulest language imaginable.
"Hand it over! Now! Hand it over! Damn you! Let go!"
BANG!!!
A completely different sound suddenly rang out.
Sharp. explosive. It drowned out every curse and every blow.
A black-purple bullet—seemingly condensed from pure malice—shot out from an impossibly strange angle, tearing through the air with a shriek as it pierced straight through the head of the thug carrying out the robbery.
"..."
"..."
Time seemed to freeze.
Warm, sticky blood mixed with brain matter splattered across the faces and bodies of everyone present.
The corpse collapsed to the ground, its shattered head a horrifying sight. The vivid crimson left both attackers and victim alike completely stunned.
Then, after a moment of deathly silence, panic erupted.
"AAAAH! Murder! Murder!!!"
"Run! Run! Run!!!"
The two surviving thugs were scared out of their wits. They didn't even spare a glance at their companion's body, screaming as they scrambled and fled the alley that had instantly turned into hell.
As for the boy who had been saved, driven by sheer terror and confusion, he scrambled backward on hands and feet, then turned and ran out of the alley.
Throughout the entire ordeal, he never once looked back.
He didn't even say a single word of thanks to the figure who had just lowered her long rifle.
To him, the one standing there wasn't a savior—but the next demon that might kill him.
The figure didn't seem to care.
She merely tilted her head slightly, turning the black flames that formed her head—marked by two blazing points of light as eyes—toward the other end of the alley.
"Um… hi?"
X stepped out of the shadows and casually greeted her.
Yes—although the figure's head was nothing but roaring black fire, with no discernible features beyond those burning eyes, the slender, triangular silhouette of her body made it clear:
She was female.
"Didn't expect Der Freischütz… to play vigilante."
The woman before him was the master of this Abnormality world itself—Der Freischütz.
"…You?"
Her voice was unmistakably female as well—cold and sharp, just like her bullets.
Relying on sound alone, she immediately identified who stood before her.
And precisely because of that, her surprise was evident.
"Why are you here?"
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