LIGHTNOVELONLINE 024
@Priscilla sighed with difficulty.
"Can you still walk?" She asked, finally changing the subject.
It sounded like she was trying to recover from her moment of emotional vulnerability. @Priscilla was a pragmatic person. Excess sentimentality was meaningless in a life-or-death environment like Vetita, and players who were too obsessed with their past often failed to recognize how much of severe liability it was.
In a precarious world where you might be killed every day, it was important to invest 100% of your focus in the present.
Petty grudges and impulsive drives for revenge could often result in one's untimely death. Emotions were often misleading, and it was important to think rationally. Pragmatic behavior was the best way to survive in this dangerous world.
@Priscilla approached me and brushed my fur with uncertainty.
I wasn't wearing shackles anymore, so it was certainly possible for me to walk on my own.
I pushed myself up to my feet gingerly, mainly because I wasn't used to my blindness yet. However, my feline body was already beginning to adapt to to this drastic change, and I was starting to recognize the other non-visual senses that I could rely on in order to compensate. A cat has many sensitive sensory organs, and blind cats on Earth still function and navigate perfectly well despite their disability. My whiskers could detect faint currents of air, and I had some degree of vague spatial awareness in my head even though I couldn't see anything. A cat can fall from a high ledge and still land on their feet with their eyes closed, so these natural instincts were quite powerful.
I grumbled a little, but it seemed like this wasn't going to be as bad as I thought.
The vampire girl still picked me up in her arms.
"@Fiie?" She asked.
'I'm okay.' I answered with telepathy.
@Priscilla sighed again, finally relieved to hear my voice.
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The was a knock on the door.
"@Priscilla? Are you in there?" A feminine voice came from the hallway.
The vampire girl snapped to focus and turned towards the entrance.
"Yes! I'll be right there!" @Priscilla called back.
She immediately ran to the door and pulled the knob open. @Priscilla was still carrying me in her arms, and I could feel the faint pulse of her elevated heartbeat through our direct skin contact. She seemed to be a little anxious. Since I no longer needed to be transported in a dark sack, there were many additional kinds of information that I could detect with my nose exposed to fresh air.
The stranger at the door smelled faintly of gasoline and plastic.
This was very unusual, and the unnatural body odors led me to suspect they might even be a synthetic creature. Although it was uncommon, there were players on Vetita who used cybernetic or android avatars.
"@Zie?" @Priscilla asked. "Is something wrong?"
"Lord @Adrian needs to see you immediately," the girl said in a vaguely robotic voice. "We received distress signals from Cheshire Grove. They are under attack and attempting to evacuate. The transmission requested for emergency assistance from any nearby forces that can provide cover for their escape. @Adrian said you were a former baroness of that settlement, so he thought you should be informed."
The vampire girl slowly grew pale.
"Cheshire Grove is under attack?" @Priscilla said in disbelief. "That outpost is nearly entirely residential. It's civilian, remote, and has little strategic value. I don't understand why the United Coalition would target such a place, even if they knew the coordinates."
"Queen @Trisha has ordered Rose Squadron to ignore the distress calls," @Zie said. "She believes that the Hades Rook will be tracking the refugees, and she fears that accepting them here will lead the enemy to uncover more of our bases."
@Priscilla's arms tightened further.
"I need to speak to @Trisha right now," she murmured tersely.
Her body was stiff and almost cold.
The vampire girl suddenly pushed me into the stranger's arms without warning.
"Can you watch over this cat?" She said. "There's something I need to do."
@Zie barely had time to react. @Priscilla slipped out of the door and was immediately halfway down the hallway. For a level one player, @Priscilla was surprisingly agile, and her movements were efficient. Based on her capabilities, she had likely been trained as an assassin or thief, and significant amount of her knowledge was still relevant even if she lost all her primary abilities.
The vampire girl darted swiftly like a moving shadow.
"Is this really safe?" @Zie shouted after her in the hallway. "Isn't this cat a special asset and dangerous? Why isn't he restrained???"
The robot girl's cybernetic arms were awkward, and she seemed terribly unsure of what to do with me. If anything, cat babysitting definitely wasn't part of her job description, and she seemed unfamiliar with animals. The female cyborg shifted me uncomfortably in her arms, but she didn't seem to know the right way to carry a cat. For that matter, she seemed nervous about my close proximity.
There was no response in the corridor.
@Priscilla had already disappeared without a trace.
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There was a long awkward moment as @Zie adjusted her grip.
"Um..." She sounded confused. "Well about that..."
I purred in response.
The robot girl seemed surprised by the sudden noise I made, and she nearly dropped me. However, she recovered her grip and shifted me uncomfortably in her arms once more. Most importantly, she didn't seem to react negatively to my purring, and my gut instinct was that this girl was soft-hearted. If she was truly the sentimental type, this could turn out extremely advantageous for me.
There were many people who were weak to animals.
If I played my cards correctly, there was a chance I could manipulate her in the future.
I continued to purr and press my head affectionately against her chest. First impressions were important, and I wanted to give the girl the impression that I was trustworthy. Aside from some loose gossip that had inevitably circulated around this community, she seemed unfamiliar with the specific details of my situation, which would work in my favor. It was always easier for me to put on an act for total strangers than it was for people who already knew me in the past.
@Zie laughed a little awkwardly.
"Um, my name is @Zie," she said. "I'm an administrative assistant on this forward operations base — Refuge."
She rubbed the fur on my back hesitantly.
"Um, you're not going to explode into a giant fireball like you did with our flying whale, right?"
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