I raced back to the "Town of Beginnings".
A conversation held a few minutes ago:
//Do you know where I can find a suitable host quickly?//
//Your best bet would be another player... but seeing how you're so paranoid, the second best option would be to roam the slums of the beginner village and find a suitable NPC.//
(A/N: Since she is in his brain, she has access to all his emotions that show up, but she can't access his memories, as Shinobu locked them up right when he felt that Verminus was aiming for his brain.)
//Is it even possible to converse with NPCs here?//
This was one of the many questions that I had wanted to ask in the first place, as Verminus would almost certainly know the answer.
//Yes, so to explain, all the NPCs in this main tower were actually people that died in other main towers. Obviously, before coming here, their memories were wiped and the important NPCs that gave quests and such had their minds reprogrammed to do such things. All the NPCs that weren't given important tasks were just given some fake memories and then set about to live in this world again, so they are basically freely thinking humans like you, they just can't actively climb the tower unless a Player asks them to climb it with them and the NPC agrees.//
I took some time to digest the information.
'That sure is a lot of rules that the NPCs are under.'
As I was reviewing what she said, I paused at a certain phrase that was extremely sus.
//You said "Other main towers" didn't you?//
...
Her silence was enough of an answer.
//Are you kidding me?! There are other towers?!//
//Too loud!//
//Oh, sorry.//
I became silent, hoping that she would explain herself.
...
//Aren't you going to explain?//
//Not yet, I already told you that we need to find another host ASAP, so that should be our top priority. I'll tell you afterwards.//
This assuaged my worries, as if she said that she was going to tell me after finding a host, she would do it due to our contract which stated that she would always have to tell the truth to me.
So I didn't dilly-dally any longer and started running towards the "Town of Beginnings".
Present:
Arriving at the front gate, I paid the entrance fee of 5 TCs before quickly entering into the slum area.
Verminus had informed me that the slums were my best bet, as they had the highest concentration of unprogrammed NPCs, and the slums also had the highest chance of having a hidden gem buried there somewhere.
'Who would have thought that all the NPCs that I spent literally years programming would just all be replaced by real people with commands imprinted in their heads? It's kinda depressing to be honest, all that hard work... just gone.'
I mean, most of the other stuff that I had created had made it in, but one of the most time-consuming projects hadn't been included, and had just been replaced with a cheap, but admittedly effective, solution. My original goal before this whole thing was to see my game come to life, but now that it had become real life, it just lost one of its most important parts (to me).
As I approached the slums, the air started feeling heavier, darker, and had a extremely pungent quality to it.
'Whew, at least the mask filters it out.'
//Are you able to sense if there is a good host somewhere, or is it just going to be hit or miss?//
//I'll be able to find a suitable host, just start moving your body around the area.//
So I did just that.
I felt like a cat for some reason as I stalked the shadows of the back alleys of the slums, passing, an honestly surprising number of drunken NPCs that were collapsed in their own vomit.
Of course, there were the cliche "dark alley beatings" and some dead bodies in the alleyways, but unfazed by this, having seen this happen all the time even before the tower became a reality, I just kept my head down, turning a cold, blind eye to it all, switching into a shadow whenever I sensed with my perception that someone was coming.
I continued doing this for 12 more hours.
Of course, during this time period, many other Players had tried to find the way to the second floor, and a few minutes ago, everyone received the notification that Zero had successfully moved on to the second floor.
'A bunch of dummies, trying so hard to be the fastest whilst not building up their foundation at all.'
This was a fact that had been imprinted into my mind during the countless beta tests. Each time I moved up a floor too early, it made the subsequent floors just that much harder. This effect multiplied and oftentimes, I would have to start over.
That was why I had formulated the perfect ranking plan, at least that was if nobody got in the way or no events happened, which was going to be a nigh impossible possibility anyways, so it was basically useless in terms of time predictions, but the requirements that I had found to move past each floor were still the same.
Finally, after 8 hours had passed in silence, Verminus raised a notification for the first time.
//They're somewhere around here.//
'Wow, the person HAD to be in the last section of the slums that I checked.'
I quickly slowed down my inspection rate and started using my shadows to infiltrate all the houses around us.
//They're in this house.//
My shadow slipped under numerous doors as I checked each room.
My shadow then streaked up to the second floor as I checked all the rooms up here.
In the first room I checked, there was a random dead body, and it looked like that person had been killed extremely recently, literally with his pants down.
I then immediately headed toward the 4th door.
I mean, you would be extremely dumb if you didn't notice the still wet trail of blood that had obviously been created by someone dragging their injured body, that was leading to the 4th room.
My shadow quietly slipped under the door and I took in the scene in front of me.
Blood could be seen on the handle of the doorknob of the door that I had just passed under. From there, the trail of blood continued until it reached a pair of extremely thin, small, frail looking legs.
The little girl that was the owner of these particular pair of legs was slumped head down, against the wall, unconscious.
There was dried blood on the corners of her mouth and everywhere over her clothes and body, covering her mostly naked body that had seemingly had its clothes ripped off. This created an extremely eerie effect as the deep, crimson red contrasted with her extremely pale, bordering on white, skin in the moonlight that came from an open window.
'Judging from this scene, it's probably the same old story. A little girl walks around in the slums, is noticed by a lustful man, gets forcibly taken into an abandoned building, and then gets raped.'
In usual cases, the girl should have then been murdered right afterwards, but it seemed like she had somehow killed him and escaped to here, where she lay now.
//Is she the one?//
//Yes, she has an unusually high affinity for my powers, it's unnerving actually. It's a shame that I hadn't noticed her back in her original tower. Who knows what could have happened if I had sponsored her and grown her talent. What a waste.//
Not listening to the lamentations of Verminus, I changed back into my human form and slowly approached the little girl.
Reaching out with my hand, I removed her from the wall and laid her down, so that I could get a better look at her injuries.
I quickly bought a few mid-grade potions from the shop and poured them on her wounds.
Seeing that the healing wasn't happening fast enough, I resorted to what I would consider drastic measures.
I mean, after all, if I wasn't able to get this girl to accept Verminus' powers, I would be as good as dead, as I only had about 2 hours left to find another host anyways.
I poured the potion into my mouth, and then slowly brought my face over to the girl's.
I opened her mouth with my hands, put my lips on hers, and then force fed the potion to her by pushing it down with sharp bursts of breath.
After finishing the first potion, I took a breather before proceeding to so the same with a second and third potion.
Her wounds started healing at a visibly noticeable rate and color returned to her pale face.
Just as I thought everything was going well, I felt a sudden jolt as I was busy feeding her the fifth potion.
Looking up at her face whilst still feeding her, I watched as her eyes snapped open.
The confusion in her eyes changed in less than a second after they met my eyes.
Staring at those eyes brimming with hatred, I could only let out an exasperated sigh in my mind before a foreign object connected with the side of my head.
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A/N: So, some sad news. I'll be posting less frequently this upcoming month and a lot more sporadically as it's the final push to the end of the school year. I'll be doing projects, studying for tests, taking AP exams, and then finals, so I won't have that much time for writing. Furthermore, I'll be mainly focusing on "A Requiem for the Ruined" as I want to try my best during the WSA 2022. Sorry about that everybody. The updates will come back to normal after we enter June, and I'll probably update more than 7 chapters a week, as I have nothing better to do during summer break anyways, so look forward to that. Well, see you guys next chapter.