Chapter 124 - 123 - South Quadrant Conundrum(Part 3)

"Huh? Who do you think you are, cunt!?" Exclaimed one of the remaining four thugs. 

"Heh, I think I like her spunk...yeah, imma make her my bitch," Declared one of the others with a lustful smirk. 

So gross, I've got a newfound respect for women that have to put up with catcalls and stuff like that. Ugh, I can feel my skin crawl, he's practically drooling with list...some of the others seemed to have more...murderous intentions, though. Well, either way, they're all scum...and they're not worth my time. So if they waste any more of my time...I'll just kill them. 

"Fine, I'll warn you once more, which is more than what you lowlives deserve...get out of my way or I'll kill you," I warned them, maintaining my dramatized imitation of Suri, taking a step forward. 

"You need to learn you place, you arrogant little b-...!" Began one of them, blocking my path and starting to grab my shoulder. 

Before he could, I caught his wrist and threw him over my shoulder with a swift flick, eliciting a gasp of pain from him as his back slammed onto the ground behind me, before a loud crunch echoed out as I slammed my foot onto the side of his neck, snapping it like a twig. 

"No...you're the one that need to learn your place," I replied icily, as the remaining three surrounded me. 

I don't have time for this shit...here's hoping none of them have the Dark Attribute. I pulled out one of my poison smoke bombs and dropped it, as it exploded the instant it hit the ground, smoke rapidly filling the alleyway as they let out alarmed yells and backed away, but they couldn't outrun it.

And within seconds, all of them were on their knees, coughing and struggling to get up. Good, they're all getting affected, which means that none of them have Dark Attribute XFE. Well, guess I should get going. 

"W-wait, you won't g-get away with th-," Began one of them weakly, grabbing my ankle, before I cut him off by taking one of my X-Blasters out of the hoodie I was wearing and firing a shot at his head, killing him. 

"Much better. I thought I warned you, get in my way and I'll kill you...those of you that are still alive, come at me if you want to die too...otherwise, just writhe on the ground like the maggots that you are," I remarked as I walked away, bringing up the map again...no changes on this end. 

Let's get back to the task at hand, shall we... 

... 

Alright, I'm here, at the location where the signal from Sofia's I-Watch is coming from. Looks like this area had been hit especially hard when the Wights infiltrated and attacked, the buildings has sustained heavy damage and I could see some small traces of dried bloodstains on the street. 

It was also a fair bit darker than other areas, since most of the lampposts around were broken. Not a problem for me though, since my glasses have a night vision function. Also, a lot of thugs around. I was getting stared at a lot, but so far, none of them had approached me after that earlier group-...and never mind, I spoke too soon. Damn it. 

"Out for a walk, young lady?" Inquired a dirty looking man with a long, messy beard, he was followed by seven others, who had me surrounded.

They had X-Weapons pointed at me, mostly gun types. It should be okay if I kill them, right? I mean, I'm recording all this, so it should be enough evidence that I acted in self-defense, just like with the last group in that alley. 

"We don't necessarily gotta take your life, you understand...but we will take everything else, yes, we will. Unless you want things to get rough, and I really hope that you do...take off your clothes, girl," Remarked one of the others with a smug grin. 

"Nah, what are we gonna do with her clothes? Be more adventurous, man. I've got a better idea...hey, sweetheart, how about you get on your knees and give me some head? Let's see what that mouth can do," Suggested the bearded one...with a visible erection.

...okay, yeah...I'm killing them...

"<Activate Anomaly, Tier Two: Pause>."

Now, then...how do I go about doing this? Ooh, maybe I could experiment a bit with Tier Three. What if I switch their heads up? Hey, now that could be interesting.

Okay...how do I do this? Hm, guess I'll first remove all their heads. 

"<Activate Anomaly, Tier Three: Cut>...," I chanted, before focusing on the ground, "<Activate Anomaly, Tier Three: Paste>."

I repeated that process till all their heads were on the ground. And then...I used Cut and Paste again, to put the heads back onto the bodies...but I couldn't remember which heads came from which bodies, oops, how careless of me. Oh, well. 

"And now...<Activate Anomaly, Tier Two: Play>."

The moment I resumed the flow of time, all of them collapsed immediately, the light rapidly fading from their eyes. 

All the others in the area were a lot more alert now and had their attention firmly locked onto me now, standing up with widened eyes. I then walked over to the bearded man, who lay on the ground as lifelessly at the rest.

"Hm, what's the matter? You asked for some head, did I do it wrong or something?" I inquired innocently, before letting out a scoff and walking away, after giving his corpse a firm kick. 

Hm, used up a bit more XFE for that than I should have...I've still got plenty left though, so it's fine. Now, then, that's enough wasting time, and after that showing, I doubt anyone else in this area is going to give me any trouble. Alright, looks like that's the building where the signal is coming from...looks like an abandoned bowling alley.

It wasn't nearly as badly damaged as some of the other buildings around, but it clearly hadn't been used in several weeks, definitely not since the Wights attacked. The front doors were broken in, so I won't have any trouble getting inside...but before I do, it might be a good idea to get some intel... 

I glanced around, before locking my gaze onto a man who was staring at me from an alley. Huh...I think I've found myself a target. He flinched as my gaze met his, before turning around and beginning to run away as I gestured to him to come here. He's not getting away... 

"<Activate Anomaly, Tier Three: Cut>, aaand...<Activate Anomaly, Tier Three: Paste>."

"H-huh, what the-...!?" He began to exclaim in a panic. 

"Answer my questions or I'll kill you. Understood?" I remarked bluntly. 

"Y-yes, okay! D-don't kill me, please!" He pleaded in terror. 

"I'll keep my word if you tell me what I want to know. Let's start with this...are all of you here working together or individually? In other words, are you all involved in organized crime?" I inquired, getting straight to the point. 

"Y-yeah, th-that's right. Well, not at first, but...then HE showed up a-and organized all of us."

"And who's HE?" I narrowed my eyes suspiciously. 

"None of us h-have seen his face...h-he approached all of us from behind, pressing a weapon t-to our backs and then convinced us to work for him...a-anyone who betrays him dies."

"What kind of weapon did he use? And how did he kill those that betrayed him?" I pressed him impatiently. 

"I-if I tell you, he'll kill me too, and I-!" He started to respond in fear. 

Tch, stop wasting my time...!

"And if you don't tell me, I'll kill you right this very moment, understand?" I warned him in a cold, threatening voice, "Talk. Now." 

"I-it was a metal weapon, l-like a knife or something, it wasn't an X-Weapon, th-that's all I know! N-no one's seen him kill, b-but anyone who's ever shown dissent has wound up s-stabbed to death at home or in an alley somewhere."

"I see...when you say you work for him, what kind of work do you usually do?" 

"N-nothing major, actually...h-he just tells us which areas to stir up commotion in, other than that...he tells us to do as we please for the most part."

"If you've never seen him like you say...how does he communicate his commands?" I asked suspiciously. 

"W-with these...," He replied, holding up a device, "None of us wear I-Watches a-anymore since those can be used to track us, s-so we communicate with these instead." 

Oh, I recognize those, they're communication devices that use a special encryption that can't be cracked without the decryption key, they were banned a couple of years ago because they were resulting in a few small instances of organized crime, and the governments agreed that they should snuff out that possibility while it was still a minor issue, and that's what they did. 

Should I ask him how they got their hands on these devices? No, that's hardly relevant to my investigation, I need to stay on topic... 

"Tell me, did this person particularly order the murders of innocent people or was that just you guys 'doing as you please'?" 

"It w-was, um...a combination of both, I suppose. He did tell us to do as we please...but he also did encourage that we kill people," He replied, averting his gaze. 

Is he lying? Or just feeling guilty? Doesn't matter, I suppose, I'll just try and get as much information as I can, there's no way for me to immediately prove whether or not what he says is true. 

"Okay, moving on...now I have some questions about this building," I remarked, nodding at the rundown bowling alley and narrowing my eyes at him, "Tell me, would you happen to have any idea why I want to know about this building in particular? Lie to me and I'll kill you." 

"I-I won't lie! Th-this place is...where X-Warriors snooping around have disappeared in. The first one th-that showed up, we were told to feed him information to lure him i-into this building...since then, I-I've seen several others enter and never come out. He ordered us to never enter the building ourselves...three of the others thought he was just bluffing and went in...a-and then, the next day, we found their heads in the trashcans outside the building. Th-that's honestly all that I know, I swear!"

I don't think he's lying, he's too afraid of dying to risk it. I doubt I can get much more information out of him anyway. 

"Alright, then...you can go now. Congratulations, you managed to hang on to your life. For now, anyway," I remarked, gesturing for him to leave. 

"Wh-what's that supposed to mean?"

"Take my advice and turn yourself in, pass that along to the rest as well. See, my target for today is whoever your boss is...but next time, I might be targeting the rest of you. And if that happens, I can assure you that it'll be an absolute massacre," I remarked with a murderous smirk, before adding tauntingly, "Disregard my warning at your own peril."

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