"Swish!"
After a soft sound that was not particularly piercing, the burly man slowly collapsed. His eyes still held confusion and bewilderment. He seemed to want to cry out for help, but a slender, delicate hand had tightly gripped his throat. No matter how he struggled, he could only make hoarse "urk, urk" sounds like air leaking through a crack.
"Easier than I imagined. Looks like he was only Sequence Nine." Dragging the burly figure into an alley, Trissy began stripping Gray Bear's corpse—well, more precisely, stripping off his clothes.
It was not because she had developed some perverse hobby. It was simply for the sake of caution.
Given the security situation in the Eastern District, if she left the corpse here, whoever found him would strip away everything valuable on him within two hours.
But considering that Gray Bear's organization might find him first, Trissy decided to handle the task herself.
After stuffing the few soli and a pack of cigarettes she found into her pocket, Trissy took out a pocket watch to check the time. Women of this era generally wore waist watches, but Trissy still considered herself a man, so she had chosen this more masculine timepiece.
She did not have to wait long. A moment later, a crystalline crimson drop of blood with a mercury-like texture seeped from Gray Bear's chest. That strange substance seemed solidified, yet retained the feel of liquid, giving off an unusual allure.
"I've never seen this kind of Beyonder Characteristic. I wonder which pathway it belongs to. I'll divine it when I get back... If I can't find a buyer, I can toss it to that cat."
Trissy wrapped her hands in spirituality, picked up the droplet, and casually stuffed it into the cigarette pack.
As for the cigarettes, Trissy had