The Girl Who Looted Tomorrow

“Uh… that’s it?”

Freya stared at the system interface.

“I thought it would unlock an inventory, quests, a shop, or something like that…”

As she muttered to herself, her gaze moved to the bottom of the interface.

That was where the countdown to her fatal crisis had previously appeared.

The number of remaining days had turned into a string of garbled symbols.

Digits flickered rapidly across the display as though the system were scanning or loading something.

At last, the rolling numbers slowed and stabilized.

[Time remaining until the next fatal crisis, thirty days.]

Freya stared blankly.

What?

Was this city cursed or something?

She had only just survived a crisis that was three days away, and now the system was telling her she would die again in thirty days?

Freya pursed her lips in frustration.

Then she noticed a new icon beside the warning.

It looked exactly like the play button from a video player in her previous world.

When she focused on it, a scene appeared before her like a movie beginning to play.

A street was engulfed in flames.

Fire climbed high into the sky.

With a single glance, Freya saw bodies packed across the road.

Blood had stained nearly the entire street red.

Tap. Tap.

The image shook slightly.

Then the viewpoint began moving forward at high speed.

Freya immediately understood.

This was a first-person recording.

As for who the viewpoint belonged to, there was little need to guess.

It was probably Freya herself, thirty days in the future.

The viewpoint raced down the street while ragged breathing filled the scene.

It escaped the burning road, only to reveal an even larger sea of fire ahead.

The entire world seemed to be burning.

Several people appeared in the distance.

They wore thin, pale green clothing and had no shoes. Their bare feet pressed directly against the street.

There were both men and women among them.

Their expressions were tense and anxious.

The moment they saw Freya, however, relief and surprise crossed their faces.

“There’s another survivor!”

“Over here, kid! Hurry!”

The words had barely left their mouths when Freya seemed to hear something behind her.

The viewpoint snapped around.

The street she had just crossed was now filled with black figures.

There were so many that they packed the entire road from one side to the other.

Their bodies were completely black.

They wore no clothes and had no visible faces.

The sight was deeply unnatural.

The next second, the figures surged toward Freya with impossible speed, like a herd of wild horses breaking loose.

They resembled a fully formed tsunami or avalanche.

There was nowhere to hide.

Nowhere to escape.

Because Freya already possessed War Freya, she could make a clear comparison.

Every one of those black figures ran at least as fast as War Freya.

The viewpoint turned forward again and continued running.

It lasted less than three seconds.

Then the black figures swallowed her.

In the final instant of the recording, Freya saw the people in pale green clothing running toward her.

A green glow gathered around their hands.

Click.

The death preview ended.

The entire recording had lasted only a little over ten seconds.

The amount of information inside it was overwhelming.

Still sitting in her landlord’s home, Freya rested one hand against her cheek while her thoughts raced.

She recognized the first burning street.

It was near the academy.

She passed through it every time she went to class.

Kordo National Academy was located in the heart of Auxerre.

That meant this fatal crisis was not aimed at Freya alone.

The disaster had probably swept across the entire city.

She was only one victim among countless others.

Not long ago, Freya had considered ignoring Obsidian’s mastermind.

Whatever the organization was doing had seemed unrelated to her.

Clearly, that was no longer true.

She did not even need to guess.

The disaster that destroyed the city was almost certainly connected to Obsidian’s leader.

Only a Rank Five practitioner could create something on this scale.

Avoiding the crisis would not be especially difficult now that she knew when it would happen.

All Freya had to do was leave Auxerre before the disaster began.

But was that really the right choice?

Could she simply stand aside and watch an entire city die?

Freya did not consider herself a particularly good person.

Even so, the thought of watching everyone in Auxerre burn to death left her deeply uncomfortable.

“Fine. I’ll give it a try.”

Worst case, she died during a simulation.

The disaster was still thirty days away.

Even if she ran every simulation to its full thirty-day limit, she would still have more than twenty chances to test different approaches.

Perhaps one of them would uncover a way to prevent the crisis.

If every attempt failed, she could always leave Auxerre the day before the disaster.

With that decided, Freya recalled the saved version standing in the distant alley.

She could only summon a saved version near herself.

Recalling one, however, had no distance limit.

In the alley, War Freya slowly faded.

Her body grew more transparent until she vanished without leaving a single trace, as though she had never existed.

Freya continued chatting with her landlord for a while.

After accepting an enthusiastic invitation to stay for dinner, she finally returned home.

The moment she stepped inside, she began another simulation without hesitation.

“Select save file, War Freya.”

The real question was how to stop the disaster.

After thinking for a moment, Freya decided to contact the police again.

This time, she wrote a far more detailed warning.

She included the location of the Obsidian base, stated that the enemy was likely at least Rank Five, and warned that they intended to cause a citywide disaster in one month.

Freya immediately set out.

As before, she wrapped the note around a stone and threw it through a police station window.

It was already eight in the evening.

Freya knew Captain Nolan would still be working.

He would see the message.

After delivering it, Freya hid in a dark corner nearby.

Sure enough, Nolan emerged from the police station before long.

He looked around with a puzzled expression, apparently searching for whoever had sent the warning.

Night had already fallen.

Freya had wrapped herself from head to toe in her long black coat.

Nolan did not spot her.

What happened next surprised her.

After failing to find anyone, Nolan left the station and headed south alone.

“What?”

Freya stared after him.

“I specifically warned him that the enemy might be Rank Five. Why is he going alone?”

“He should at least bring the other Special Affairs captains or request support from a Mobile Team.”

After a brief moment of confusion, Freya understood.

Nolan had not believed the note.

Or rather, he had not believed all of it.

In the previous simulation, Freya’s message had only contained the location of an Obsidian base.

Whether Nolan trusted the source or not, he still had to investigate.

The same logic applied now.

This letter contained more information, but it had still come from an unknown source.

Nolan could not possibly accept every claim without verification.

Going there personally to investigate was the natural first step.

Whether the enemy was truly Rank Five did not change his duty.

Nolan was a police officer.

He could not abandon an investigation because a strange anonymous note contained a few frightening words.

Freya watched him disappear down the road.

After hesitating, she decided to follow.

During the previous simulation, she had died before seeing Obsidian’s mastermind clearly.

If Nolan ended up fighting the same enemy again, Freya wanted to arrive earlier.

Perhaps she could at least see what the attacker looked like and gather another clue.

She could not allow this simulation to produce nothing.

Freya deliberately waited before setting out.

Then she quietly followed Nolan toward the southern district.

The streets were empty and almost completely dark.

As Freya passed a corner, a hand suddenly reached out from the shadows and seized the back of her coat.

Before she could react, she was lifted off the ground like a kitten being carried by the scruff.

“Hey!”

Nolan stepped out of the darkness.

The weight in his hand was far lighter than he had expected.

Surprise crossed his face.

“A kid?”

Freya gave him an awkward look.

Seriously?

What was wrong with this old man?

She had deliberately waited because she was afraid he might set an ambush.

He had caught her anyway.

Nolan studied her.

“You threw that note through the window, didn’t you?”

“I had a feeling you hadn’t gone far.”

“And I suspected you might try to follow me, so I hid here and waited.”

A faint smile appeared on his face.

“Looks like I was more patient.”

His expression turned serious again.

“Now tell me.”

“Why are you trying to lure me to Trinity Row?”