It took about half an hour for everything to be tallied and for Vernisha to get paid.

  Now, the big question was: how much did she get paid?

  Was it a lot? Or was it alooooooot?

  It was a lot.

  Four hundred silver pints. That was how much she got paid. Four hundred. Four.

  When rounded down to the nearest tenth, anyway. It obviously wasn’t four hundred on the dot.

  In one day, she made more money than many would see in a damn year. Of course, she had somewhat risked her head to do that.

  She said “somewhat” because her healing powers made her practically immortal.

  Anyway, to celebrate the night, she went to eat at a nice, small restaurant—Nalmor’s Restaurant.

  Vernisha had never lived in any big or wealthy country, so she had never gotten the chance to visit restaurants with cool themes or anything experimental. So when she walked up to a building made of stacked glass blocks—each one filled with water and fish swimming lazily inside—she was more than a little shocked.

  She leaned back against the glass chair—also filled with fish swimming inside it.

  For dinner, she ate baked fish and drank juice that tasted like lemon and apple.

  After eating, she leaned back in the chair and looked at the stars in the dark sky. She wondered how this establishment protected its customers from rain. The last thing anyone needed was to be soaked by a heavy downpour while waiting for their meal.

  After gazing at the sky for a while, she decided to think about some important things—like her level and what that meant.

  She had gained eleven levels, meaning she had twenty-two mod points.

  Her intention was obvious.

  System, allocate fifteen mod points to mind, five to strength, and two to speed.

  Modification in progress. The changes will take effect after you’ve rested for two hours.

  Two hours. Not bad.

  Now it was time to experiment with the new Life Buff she’d gained. Merely thinking about it made her fingers spasm.

  Action Sequence… Action Sequence.

  It meant she could do cool anime fighting combo sequences without needing half the battle IQ. Not that she wasn’t a fucking genius.

  She grinned but covered it quickly since she was in public. She didn’t want people thinking she was a weird kid.

  She thought about how to activate it. The System was intelligent, so she didn’t need specific words.

  System, create an Action Sequence. Make me lightly stomp the ground whenever I blink. And after five seconds, make me slap my knee.

  Command accepted.

  Oh, that was smoot—

  Suddenly, Vernisha felt like a passenger in her own body.

  Both her feet lifted off the ground, landed back down, and kept doing so every time the world went black for half of a second.

  For those five seconds, she had no control over her body.

  She didn’t absolutely hate it, but she was absolutely terrified of losing agency over herself.

  But since she knew what was happening, it wasn’t too scary. It just felt weird as hell.

  Her arm rose, and her hand slapped her knee. In the next moment, she had full control of her body again.

  That was… bizarre.

  She half-frowned. She didn’t like that she was locked into the sequence until it finished. But that was literally in the name, so she didn’t have the right to be angry.

  Except she was.

  She needed to experiment more. Maybe she could add a condition to break the sequence if something specific happened.

  She could ask the Network, but she hated the strain it put on her mind. And honestly, doing her own research would make her wiser and less lazy.

  She got up and left the restaurant.

  When she was approaching the city gate to leave, her left palm throbbed.

  It was a different ache from Tarnisha—two separate throbs.

  Vernisha turned around, guided by the throbs. It was telling her to look behind her.

  Half of her expected Tarnisha, but somehow she knew it wasn’t going to be her. The throbs felt… different.

  What she saw were two kids.

  They were covered from head to toe in green and white robes.

  Vernisha stared at them a bit too long.

  They were just like her.

  Were these the Darsean cultists Tarnisha warned she’d attract? She doubted it. But Tarnisha did say the throbs probably happened to alert fellow “servants” that they were in a nearby vicinity.

  But Vernisha and Tarnisha clearly weren’t Darsean cultists. They simply had those seals, for reasons she didn’t completely know.

  Of course, Natasha had something to do with it. But she couldn’t say for certain that Natasha was responsible.

  One of them suddenly stopped and snapped his head toward her.

  Vernisha immediately looked away and walked off.

  That was odd.

  He looked like a teenage boy, maybe thirteen or fourteen. Before she had completely turned away, she noticed an expression of despair on his face.

  She left the city and returned to what was, for now, her home.

  She hit the bed and quickly fell asleep.

  And like always, whenever she slept, she was surrounded by black fog.

  But things were different from before.

  She understood things better.

  With a mere thought, the fog parted around her.

  Vernisha took a deep breath before saying, “Hello, Natasha. Mom.”

  …

  …

  No response.

  She wasn’t there.

  But Vernisha felt that if she truly tried to reach her—if she really wanted to—she could.

  But she also felt that doing so would go against Tarnisha’s warning.

  After all, Tarnisha had warned her about playing in the dark.

  So Vernisha swallowed the urge to talk to Natasha.

  She shoved it deep down.

  The trembling in her fingers, the itching in her throat, the burning in her feet—those were the symptoms of that urge.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Mom… I want to talk to you so badly you can’t possibly imagine.

  She sighed and sat in the darkness.

  Then she looked at the fog and wondered what it truly was.

  Somehow, it could fight against mental invasions, and she wondered what else it could do.

  It only existed in her headspace, so maybe it existed to protect her mind.

  Vernisha thought about it a bit more, then shook her head.

  It gave her some reign in her own head. She could command it.

  She lazily lifted a finger. A piece of fog stretched from the mass and floated toward her.

  “What else can you do?” she asked it.

  Obviously, she didn’t expect a response.

  She needed to test it.

  “Expand.”

  The piece of fog swelled like it was being inflated.

  “Compact.”

  It shrank.

  “Bird…?”

  Vernisha wasn’t confident about that one, but to her surprise, the fog took the shape of a really ugly, misshapen form of a bird.

  Her control over the fog was probably linked to her imagination and confidence.

  She smirked and was about to command “bird” again when something disturbed her.

  Throbs. Two throbs. But different.

  It wasn’t in her hand, and it barely felt like throbbing—more like intense buzzing saying, look at me. Answer us.

  Curiosity took over, so she focused.

  Suddenly, she felt a much nearer buzz—different from the others.

  It wasn’t open like the others. It felt secluded, like it didn’t want anyone to approach.

  Was this some kind of trap? A mental trap even the fog couldn’t protect her from?

  But another part of her mind—the optimist, the curious part—shone brighter.

  As long as I’m careful, I’ll be okay.

  But before she could reach toward the buzzes, they suddenly stopped. She could still sense them, but the shift made her hesitate.

  She wasn’t so sure anymore.

  **

  The next day, Vernisha continued training with Abella.

  “So… anything you want to tell me?” Abella asked, her chin resting on the handle of her sword.

  Vernisha was confused at first, then realized there were plenty of things.

  “I was supposed to go to a funeral today, but I heard it was postponed to the end of the week.”

  Ferzan had given her that information.

  She continued, “Other than that… I got a new Life Buff, and I got a lot of money. I want to make a bank account.”

  “How much money?” Abella asked.

  Vernisha couldn’t hold back her smile.

  “Four hundred silver pints. Well, four hundred and forty-seven silver points.”

  Abella looked genuinely impressed. “That’s a lot more than I expected. You could afford a decent-sized monster farm.”

  “I know, right? But I don’t want to spend all that money already. I want to have enough money to buy something two and a half times.”

  “Smart. I like that. I’ll teach you the lifestyle of a Monster Fighter so you’ll be wiser with your money.”

  She tapped her chin. “So many things to do. Let’s train your new Life Buff first.”

  She grabbed her sword and pointed the tip at Vernisha.

  “Create an action sequence that only activates if I try to behead you. You have four seconds.”

  Only four?

  Vernisha blinked rapidly, overthinking. Abella made it sound like it needed precision.

  “Four!” she shouted.

  Vernisha blurted, “Create command: if an attempt is made to behead me, prevent it.”

  Abella rolled her eyes. “Prevent it? Really? You don’t need a command for that. Think better.”

  She waved her arms in frustration. “You have to think outside the box. Something like forcing a monster out to protect you despite being at your limit—and for safety, add that your brain forcefully falls asleep after x seconds. You must be specific.”

  “Falling asleep sounds dumb,” Vernisha said.

  Abella mumbled something under her breath. Vernisha was fairly sure the woman thought she was dumb.

  “Give me something better, then,” Abella said.

  After training, Vernisha went to the Great Monster Forest to hunt.

  She wondered if there was a limit to how many monsters she could kill without disrupting the ecosystem or something.

  But fewer monsters existing was in everyone’s best interest.

  Hahaha.

  Oh—and about the girl Brenda—it turned out she no longer had the guide, so she couldn’t enter the second dome. Vernisha kind of preferred to call it the dome within the dome.

  She hunted alone for most of the day.

  When she got tired from all the fighting, she leaned against a tall blue tree that felt cold as ice.

  It must be nice to have no secrets.

  Then she smacked her head to punish herself for thinking that way. If she allowed her mind to drift into sad thoughts, she’d just reopen the can of worms festering in her soul.

  She wanted to be happy. She needed to be happy.

  Yet here she was, by herself.

  Everyone had to make sacrifices to get what they wanted in life. She wanted money. She needed money. So she risked her life to get it.

  It would make sense to hang out with Ferzan and Katie after hunting.

  But she didn’t have the energy for that.

  She could cut down her hunting time, but she didn’t want to.

  Vernisha didn’t see herself as a lover of money, but she believed in the power of wealth. So how could she not want to surround herself with it?

  This wasn’t an obsession.

  She slid down the tree and sat in the yellow grass that curled tightly.

  When the Silo began to set, she got up, gathered the monster corpses, and traveled toward the monster zone exit with Crusbull.

  After a couple of hours, she reached the first layer. It took so long because dragging so much weight wasn’t easy.

  And because it took so long, she had to give her mind breaks from controlling Crusbull.

  Did she really need to sleep immediately when she got home?

  She wondered what Katie was doing. Ferzan and she needed to talk, too.

  Her head was low in thought when suddenly she heard—

  “You caught a crazy lot of them today!”

  Vernisha looked up and saw the same girl from yesterday. She looked far more roughed up, covered in scratches, cuts, and bruises.

  “Yeah… Where’s your friend?” Vernisha asked.

  The girl raised an eyebrow. “What friend?”

  Vernisha glanced at the trees. “The ugly dude.”

  “Oh. He’s not my friend. I said that yesterday.”

  She did, now that Vernisha thought about it.

  Vernisha pretended to think. “Are you sure…?”

  “Yeah. For sure.”

  “Hmmm… Are you really sure?”

  The girl was about to say yes but caught herself. Doubt crept in, and Vernisha couldn’t help but chuckle.

  “I’m messing with you. You did say that.”

  She shrugged.

  “It’s instinctive for me to say ‘friend.’”

  “Ah…”

  “So how’s your hunt?” Vernisha asked.

  Before, whenever she energetically started a conversation, it was usually to manipulate someone. But this time around, she was being earnest. Kind of. She didn’t really care about Brenda’s hunt—she just wanted conversation.

  Brenda sighed, shrugged four times, and said, “Horrible. I get one kill every hour. Been here since lunch, so I only have like… six kills.”

  “That’s not too bad. I’m sure those corpses will earn a decent penny.”

  “Yeah…” Brenda stared at her arm shield, wet with green blood. “I guess. But not that much. I just want to level up fast so I can be sent on missions, you know? There's where the true money is at.”

  Vernisha nodded. “I get you. Do you live by yourself?”

  Brenda stared at her like she was a predator.

  Before she could say anything, Vernisha quickly added, “I’m asking because it sounds like you’re the breadwinner. Like you need the money to survive.”

  Brenda’s face brightened and she laughed. “Oh, okay. ‘Cause I was wondering why the hell you’d ask that out of nowhere. But yeah, I live by myself.”

  Yeah yeah… that came off weird.

  “That must be lonely.”

  “Eh…” Brenda cringed. “A little, I guess. But who cares? I need money. I need to be strong.”

  Her fist tightened, and her eyes pierced through Vernisha. It was almost uncomfortable.

  “…Why?” Vernisha asked.

  “Because… you need money to eat and live?” Brenda laughed awkwardly. “And the world’s super dangerous.”

  All of that made sense, but something about her body language felt off. Like those words meant something more.

  “Hm… You want to grab something to eat?”

  “I’m kinda cheap.”

  “I’ll pay.”

  **

  Brenda made every excuse not to eat at a restaurant. Vernisha would’ve assumed she didn’t want to hang out, but that would’ve contradicted how she acted yesterday.

  So Vernisha followed her home. Brenda lived far from the adventurer guild—about a two-hour walk.

  And she really walked the whole distance.

  To avoid dying of boredom, Vernisha got a brilliant idea.

  System, create command. Command name: Chase Her.

  Arguments: Follow the target stealthily, bite my own tongue if something suspicious comes up to snap me out of the sequence, and appear normal.

  Command accepted.

  Heheheh. I’m one lazy fucker.

  Initiate Command: Chase Her.

  It felt weird. Having her mind controlled was always going to feel weird. At least she was the one controlling herself. That sounded so weird.

  Feeling her body move on its own was like sitting in the back of a car while watching the steering wheel move by itself.

  Her movements were natural enough not to look robotic. Whenever Brenda rounded a corner and disappeared, Vernisha’s body sprinted after her; when Brenda reappeared, her pace slowed to casual.

  Brenda slowed when she saw two individuals standing by a massive building.

  They clearly weren’t random, because as soon as they spotted her, they pushed off the wall and approached.

  Vernisha’s teeth smashed down on her tongue, and she regained control.

  Before she could enjoy feeling normal again, she had to fight the urge to scream in pain.

  Honestly, why the hell had she thought biting her tongue was a good idea? Did she forget how much it hurt?

  “You took damn long, kid,” the slightly shorter man said. “The big man wants his money. Since yesterday.”

  Brenda tensed. “I’m close! I’m just missing two more silver pints! Just two!”

  The taller one—gangster—pulled out a knife. “I’m gonna have to take a finger, kid.”

  At least that explained why she refused to eat at restaurants. They’d lose their minds if they saw her eating while she owed them money.

  Brenda stepped back, about to run.

  Fear must’ve slowed her, because the shorter guy easily grabbed her arm.

  He slammed her into a nearby wall and reached for her pinky.

  But before he could touch her, Vernisha’s foot collided with his head, sending him flying several meters away.

  She landed with ease and struck the other gangster before he even realized what happened.

  Her fist sank into his stomach. He arched forward, mouth opening and closing silently.

  She pulled back and let him collapse.

  Vernisha turned to Brenda, who was frozen in shock.

  “I was stalking you,” she said, “but not in the weird way.”

  Brenda glanced at her, then at the unconscious men on the ground, then back at her.

  “Oh…”

  Vernisha didn’t like that oh. It sounded like she’d screwed something up.

  How the hell did I screw something up?

  “Is it going to be worse for you now that I intervened?” Vernisha asked.

  “Yeah… they’ll use it to send a message to others.” Brenda rubbed her eyes, letting out a shaky sigh.

  Vernisha stepped over and leaned against the wall beside her.

  “What’s their name? The gang—or whoever—you got into hot water with.”

  Brenda didn’t answer.

  So Vernisha added, “You know how strong I am, right?”

  “I mean… I guess, but… it’s not something you need to worry about. It’s my mess. I don’t want help. I don’t want you thinking I’m some… loser? I don’t know. Just don’t worry about it.”

  “Nah. Anyone who maliciously loans money to a kid is asking for consequences.”

  Her mouth twisted to the side. “It’s not even a gang. Just some dude named Larlo.”

  “This Larlo is gonna disappear. And you don’t owe me anything.”

  “So why are you helping me?” Brenda lifted her head and looked Vernisha dead in the eyes. “You just felt like doing a good deed?”

  “Uh. Yeah.” Vernisha pushed off the wall.

  Brenda looked away and tucked her head against her knees. “I sound ungrateful, but… thank you.”

  “Just one more thing,” Vernisha said.

  “Where does he stay?”