First Sequence Altered User

Altered Users.

For all sorts of reasons.

Ability Users who had touched sources of contamination, higher-ranking Altered Users, or Calamity Beasts and been corrupted into "creatures."

They fed on the despair and collapse of humanity.

Merciless beings that trampled over life at will.

Ever since the first Calamity Beast tore through the sky and descended upon the earth seven hundred years ago.

The war between Calamity Beasts, Altered Users, and humanity had never ceased.

But... why had an Altered User suddenly appeared in the city?

Su Youzi was puzzled.

A dark red domain spread out, dyeing more than half the combat training hall in a gloomy crimson.

This was an Innate Ability belonging to Altered Users or Calamity Beasts.

"Calamity Domain."

Within a Calamity Domain, conventional weapons could inflict only negligible damage on Altered Users or Calamity Beasts.

The stronger the Calamity Beast or Altered User, the larger the Calamity Domain it could unfold.

It was said that... when that Valkyrie from Imperial Capital University had fallen.

The Calamity Domain she unleashed had nearly covered the entire town in an instant.

Even now, that Calamity Domain still roamed the land eternally, like a curse branded upon the earth, proclaiming the terror and strength of its former owner.

"Abyss of Eternal Smile."

That had once been the title of the "Empire's First Archer" as an Altered User.

At the same time... it was also the most difficult World Boss to defeat in the game.

Thump, thump, thump, thump!!!

As the dark red Calamity Domain spread, the battle music from the game began playing as well.

The world itself seemed to freeze in that instant.

Before Su Youzi, annotations appeared one after another, just like the guidance trial in the game.

[The Calamity Domain will continuously reduce the operator's stamina.]

[Once an operator's stamina is depleted, she will begin entering an Anomalous state.]

[...]

The so-called Anomalous state was represented in the game by the operators' Defeat CGs.

Su Youzi could only say... they were very useful.

After all, most Altered Users in the game were girls with tempting figures.

Like the female monsters in most mobile games or erotic games, Altered Users wore increasingly eye-catching and alluring outfits.

And... the higher an Altered User's rank, the more provocative her clothing became.

First Sequence Altered Users... were almost entirely wrapped in black silk-like anomalous material.

That anomalous material would extend all the way over their faces.

Like a full-face mask, it covered their noses and mouths, leaving only a pair of Dark Golden Vertical Pupils exposed.

And Sixth Sequence Altered Users... like the Empress who occupied the abyss.

Aside from the black angel wings spreading from her waist and the thigh-high boot on her right leg... there was practically no fabric left on her body.

[Please select a weapon—]

[Training Combat Gloves]

[Training Kodachi]

[...]

[Girl's Umbrella]

Weapon icons appeared one after another before Su Youzi.

Sensing the gloomy, despairing, collapsing presence behind her.

Su Youzi directly chose the strongest one among them: Girl's Umbrella.

Even the weakest Altered User was a First Sequence.

For Su Youzi, who had yet to step into the First Sequence, this already counted as a formidable enemy.

What was more... she also had to protect Saotome Yukina.

She forcefully pulled Saotome Yukina up by the arm, gathering the girl who had been limp on the floor a second ago into her embrace.

Su Youzi wrapped her left arm around the girl's waist.

Behind her, the Altered User's blade was less than a foot from her shoulder.

The next second... a snow-white oil-paper umbrella appeared in Su Youzi's hand.

The umbrella snapped open in an instant.

Clang—!

The ring of metal striking metal resounded through the entire combat training hall.

In Su Youzi's arms, Saotome Yukina merely stared blankly at Su Youzi's profile.

"Sen... pai..."

With Saotome Yukina in her arms, Su Youzi was sent staggering back several steps by an overwhelming force.

She folded the oil-paper umbrella shut.

Su Youzi took the opportunity to glance at its canopy.

There was not even the slightest mark where it had been slashed.

Only the web between her thumb and forefinger had gone numb from the impact.

"So..."

Su Youzi turned to look at the Altered User.

Unlike an ordinary First Sequence Altered User, the anomalous material covering the one before her seemed to retain diamond-shaped marks from chain restraints.

Furthermore, a large section of anomalous material had been gouged out around her waist and abdomen.

The maiden's fair waist and stomach were exposed, the definition of her abdominal muscles clearly visible.

On the maiden's lower abdomen, black-purple lines Depicted the pattern of an opened eye.

Those golden eyes did not possess the vertical pupils of ordinary Altered Users either.

Instead... they looked hollow and unfocused.

[Level 10—Anomalous: Puppet].

Even if she was merely the lowest-level First Sequence, Su Youzi, only a Level 1 Telekinetic Ability User, had to be careful. Careful beyond careful.

Fortunately... a lowest-level First Sequence Altered User.

Did not seem to be a fully transformed Altered User yet.

She had not reached the point where Su Youzi could not resist at all.

Time froze once more.

The Altered User maiden, who had stepped on the ground and swung her sword as she charged after Su Youzi, also came to a halt in midair.

Around her lower abdomen, four arrows formed a crosshair, reminding Su Youzi of the Altered User maiden's weakness.

—That eye.

She snatched the kodachi from Saotome Yukina's hand.

Rather than retreat, Su Youzi advanced, stepping straight toward the blade in the Altered User maiden's hand.

Saotome Yukina stood blankly where she was.

In her eyes, within that Dark Red World, only the maiden's short hair, like ink spreading through water, fluttered in the air.

Her figure was slender.

Her neck was fair and long.

Other than her excessive brute strength, the Anomalous: Puppet before them seemed to possess no other abilities.

But... she still could not let her guard down.

Yet in the Altered User maiden's eyes... Su Youzi looked completely different at that moment.

A seemingly slender maiden's form.

Those Crimson Eyes shone brilliantly.

Fervent, and filled with excited killing intent.

Even the Anomalous: Puppet, who possessed little rationality.

Actually felt the urge to retreat at that moment.

The white umbrella knocked the descending blade off course.

The kodachi in her right hand stabbed straight into the Altered User maiden's lower abdomen.

The price... was that the long blade wrapped in faint black lightning would inevitably slash down upon the maiden's shoulder.

The Altered User's breathing echoed by Su Youzi's ear.

Chaotic yet intense.

As though she were feeling pain and fear.

A First Sequence Altered User could still be restored.

Naturally... the girl trapped within the Altered User's mind could also clearly feel that pain and fear.

The maiden before her was absolutely an "anomaly" even more abnormal than herself.

Spinning gears burst out through the maiden's back, then shattered.

The black-purple eye-like totem patterns peeled away from the Altered User maiden's body bit by bit.

The anomalous material covering the maiden gradually turned into black-purple motes of light and vanished, leaving her pale skin entirely exposed to the air.

But... the blade that had been slashing toward Su Youzi's shoulder did not change its trajectory because of that.

Su Youzi looked at the dark-purple blade inches away.

She felt that she had never been as calm as she was now.

Her Crimson Eyes widened.

Ting—

A crisp sound rang out.

Just like when she had bent an aluminum spoon for the first time at the Soga Family estate—

The blade spawned from the Altered User's body... was forcibly... bent into a coil like a mosquito repellent spiral.

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