Chapter 1039: Birdwatching

Chapter 1039: Birdwatching

Tsubaki spent the first half of the following day simply finding the materials that she would need to enact her plan. What she was looking for could be found in most hardware or sporting good stores, but she was confident that nobody among the survivors would be interested in these niche goods, as they would generally be counterproductive to the survival of anyone that owned them.

Once she had acquired her materials, she went back to her safehouse, checking her maps. She had seen the snake on the road the night before, and used that information to determine its most likely nest for the day. There were only so many buildings in each part of the city that could house it, after all.

After Tsubaki found her possible targets, she hurried to investigate them. If she gave it another day, the snake might move again, and she would need to start her scouting all over again. Thankfully... she had an easy way to tell if it was hiding in a particular building, as long as she avoided the other monsters along the road.

There were a total of three buildings large enough to house the snake in the area that Tsubaki had seen it traveling to. When she arrived at them, all she needed to do was use the pipe bombs that she had confiscated from the school group previously. By throwing one deep into a second story window, she would create a shockwave that the snake wouldn’t be able to ignore if it was there.

At the first building, she lit and threw her explosive, ducking behind a nearby street corner. She could hear the explosion, and feel the faint vibration that managed to reach her from it. Then, she counted a total of thirty seconds. If the snake was in there, it would have to respond within that time period.

When thirty seconds passed, and there was no sign of her target, she simply moved on to her next target building. Staying any longer would just invite unwanted guests to find her. Thus, she moved to repeat the process with the second building several blocks away.

In the second building, there was a response almost immediately after the pipe bomb exploded. The ground shook as a massive, black head emerged from one of the windows, scanning the area. Tsubaki knew that it could see her, even if she just barely peeked out to confirm its presence. However, the serpent didn’t leave its nest.

That was how it hunted. It didn’t care if someone was outside of its nest, not unless they inflicted actual pain on it. Only then would it leave its nest. Otherwise, it was happy to devour any monsters or people that recklessly entered.

Tsubaki smiled when she saw that the serpent pulled its head back in. No doubt it was adjusting itself to be ready for a nice meal if she entered, but she had no intention of doing so. Instead, she entered the adjacent building and began to climb the stairs, getting out of the way of any other monsters that would be drawn by the noise. Let them be the snake’s meal.

As for Tsubaki, she climbed to the roof of the building she had entered, scanning through the open windows to look for her target. It didn’t take long to find large splotches of blurred colors where the snake had camouflaged its body.

With a node, she pulled out the equipment that she had brought and took aim. This was a simple paintball gun, with an effective range of a hundred meters, more than enough for her to hit her target. She steadied her aim, and began pulling the trigger, letting small green beads fly out.

It was hard to tell if the snake even felt the paintballs hitting its side, the green paint splashing out to cover a small area each time it hit. Tsubaki covered as much of the snake as she could through that open window, before scanning to find another spot she could shoot.

Sure enough, there was a screech of pain, and Tsubaki felt a throbbing heat in her head, causing her to wince and grip her forehead. As soon as it passed, she took a deep breath. She grabbed her rifle and turned, finding the crow staring in her direction from just outside the window.

On pure instinct, she pulled the trigger, the bullet rocking back the bird’s head once again. Its eyes flashed, but it had lost sight of its target with the second shot. Worse, its brain had been rattled too much, leaving it dazed. Tsubaki took advantage of this to load a third bullet, aiming for the underside of the creature’s throat.

The third bullet shot out, piercing a hole into the crow’s throat. This time, Tsubaki didn’t try to fire another bullet, and ran to the innermost room of this floor. She knew that she had dealt a lethal blow, and now she needed to make sure that she survived longer than the crow. As long as she achieved that goal, she would have passed her trial.

The building shook along with the gurgled cries of the giant monster outside, its talons tearing into the walls. She could feel the tremors when it shoved its head into the window, but didn’t dare to make herself visible. All she could do was wait, and hope that it wasn’t able to make it far enough into the building to reach her before its injuries got the better of it.

She heard the chaotic sounds outside slowly dwindling over the course of the next ten minutes, before a loud crash signaled to her the death of the crow. Only then did Tsubaki poke her head out, gradually moving to investigate. She was certain that the crow was dead, but still needed to confirm that the snake was motionless.

Outside, she found that the crow had actually landed on the snake’s body, the two of them lying in a heap on the ground. She nodded her head with a smile. Cici, just to make sure. They are both dead, right? She asked, grabbing her rifle again in case Cici said an answer she wasn’t expecting.

The crow had torn through almost half of the floor to get to her, but that also made it incredibly easy for her to aim at the targets below. The crow is, indeed, dead. Cici said, Tsubaki immediately aiming at the snake’s head. There was no sign of movement, leading her to believe that the snake might be faking it. As for the snake, it is technically still alive, but was rendered comatose by the multiple psionic shocks. If it’s not treated within the next few hours, it will be braindead.

Tsubaki let out a brief sigh when she heard that. End the simulation. A smile spread across her lips when she sent that message. The world around her went dark, and she felt the familiar visor on her head again.

Tsubaki pulled the visor off of her face, setting it aside and sitting up. She always felt a sense of accomplishment when she completed one of her trials, and this was no different. In fact, this time may have been even more satisfying because of the fact that she had no ability to bring her powers into play, whether she wanted to or not. From the beginning to end, she was only a normal person, relying on what was in her surroundings.

Additionally, this was her first time holding such a trial in an urban setting, which made it all the more challenging for her to adapt in the early stages. Despite all of this, she managed to complete her trial in a single run. In the back of her mind, she began to think of how she could have made the trial more difficult for herself, but shook her head.

If she had been in a wilderness setting, she wouldn’t have had access to the firepower necessary to take down any of the giant monsters, nor the ability to expose them to the crow’s power. If she had added more powerful enemies, conventional firearms wouldn’t have been effective at all.

Perhaps the only way she could have made such a trial more difficult would be if she had made it a conspiracy instead. A trial where the only ‘monsters’ were the Stalkers, and she had to identify their leader through context clues without being uncovered. That could have been a national event, and it would definitely have been more difficult. However, it would have also taken her months to complete a single run, and it would rely more on her investigative prowess as opposed to her fighting instincts. Because of that, Tsubaki didn’t particularly feel like it was a suitable trial.