It wasn't that hard to try and save those who were in a pinch even with a beautiful but scary woman in his pursuit. He didn't have to fight her, after all.
However, what's making it hard is this system. Now that Phantom Rend was gone, he couldn't just freely grab those larvae easily from the zombies' heads like he used to. And he couldn't yeet those hero cockroaches freely either.
It would take even more time to save those dumb fools.
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Profanity Detected!
Degeneration Points +1 (210/1000)
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Crow shuddered in pain as he appeared from the shadows in one of the buildings to hide.
'Argh!'
Additionally, he had to take care of his words and thoughts because of this. It was already a habit, so it was hard to get rid of.
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Reforming old system. Please be patient. 54% (00:04:16)
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Despite being in pain, Crow had to stand up once again and teleport to a nearby skirmish.
This time, it wasn't just a single hero cockroach. Behind him, he was trying to protect a group of civilians.
"Don't run! I can't protect you all if you're all scattered everywhere!"
The civilians stayed put and watched the fight with utterly terrified eyes.
The cockroach was good at evading though, he deserved to be called a cockroach.
However, he was up to a strange corpse.
Unlike the others, this one had a large body, seemingly bloated with pus and other bodily fluids.
Despite being good at evading its attacks, due to the corpse's bloated body and the other smaller ones attacking him at the same time, the area which the hero could dodge safely was getting narrower and narrower.
And when he saw another human's figure suddenly appearing before him, he was surprised and failed to dodge. Fortunately, Crow was able to kick him in time to not let him die.
He crashed into the group of civilians behind him.
Just then, Crow merged with the shadow, appearing just behind the corpse. Oblivious to Crow's presence, its eyes continued to roll all over the place, seemingly trying to find the figure that just disappeared.
Crow tripped the guy down with a single kick on its sheen. A dagger suddenly appeared on his hand.
As the corpse fell downwards, Crow used this time to penetrate the dagger on its skull to kill the larvae inside.
Instantly, the corpse finally met its demise. However, the little ones were still on their way to attack him. One by one, they jumped and ran towards Crow's location.
And just as Crow was about to teleport out of the way, a familiar blinding pain assaulted him, stopping his skill midway. He landed on the ground with a thump.
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You've killed someone!
Degeneration Points +100 (310/1000)
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***
When the minor hero recovered from Crow's friendly attack earlier, the first thing he saw his unknown saviour's situation.
"!!!"
He quickly raised his hand. In his mind, he commanded his system. A gooey dark liquid was let out from his palm. As the substance reached Crow, it immediately stuck to his back.
The hero pulled.
Bam!
At the same time, the group of zombies jumped down on the place where Crow was just earlier.
"Are you okay?!" the hero asked in a high pitched voice.
He glanced at the writhing figure of the person he had just pulled and noticed something amiss.
Messy long black hair… Suddenly appearing from the shadows….
Immediately, the hero darted away from Crow.
"Fuck, it's Error Crow!"
Meanwhile, Crow was unaware of what was happening.
The hero's screech had also reached the ears of Vesper. Instantly, she flew toward the voice's direction, where a few civilians had gathered.
Her eyes landed at the hero. Seeing that they were unharmed, she then turned to Crow, then at the little zombies.
Her body moved, intercepting the zombies and killing them. She then turned back at Crow who was still lying there abnormally unprotected.
"What happened?" she asked.
The minor hero was staring at Crow in panic. But with Vesper's presence, he snapped out of his senses. With a blushing face, he looked down and explained.
"I-I don't know... He just saved me, and then I saved him. I didn't know it was him!"
"Saved you?"
The civilians nodded.
Despite doubting what she heard, her expression didn't betray her feelings. She just watched Crow still writhing in pain and almost unconscious with an unreadable expression.
"Did he get bitten?"
"I-I don't know."
She frowned then instructed, "Go on and help the others. I'll deal with him."
Still baffled, the hero could only abide by her words and turn elsewhere there was trouble.
Vesper approached Crow, observing him and trying to find any bite marks. However, something was off.
Why does she have to worry about it? Weren't these zombies one of his skills?
But that's not all. Why did he come back? And why was he saving the others?
Was he even trying to save them? If he was, then couldn't he just deactivate his skill?
As she was thinking that way, she handcuffed Crow.
Crow came back to his senses, feeling the cold sensation of the handcuff on his wrist.
'Oh...'
He glanced at the corner of his vision.
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Reforming old system. Please be patient. 74% (00:02:58)
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With the few seconds left that Shadow Blink still on his skill list, he tried to activate it. However, his handcuff was a modified one which can suppress another's system, so she didn't have to worry about Crow suddenly teleporting somewhere else again.
Not that Crow was able to though.
The Shadow Blink finally faded from his skill list.
He couldn't escape anymore. After 2 years of making fools of these NUN guys, he had been finally captured.
'Well, fuck me.'
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Profanity Detected!
Degeneration Points +1 (311/1000)
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Despite being stung, he continued to curse the system. Since his points had gotten closer to 1000, and he was already captured, what's the use of keeping it in place?
Just then, It increased once again when another cockroach died somewhere else.
But Crow couldn't care less. He would probably die here now.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1...
The voice once again rang in his mind.
[System Reformation complete...]