“Hiss… ouch, ouch, ouch.”
Su Keke rubbed the back of her aching head and struggled to climb up from the cold floor, leaning against a nearby stove.
Her neat golden twin-tails were now messy, and she even had a few vegetable leaves on top of her head.
‘It hurts…’
Su Keke’s memory seemed fragmented.
She couldn’t quite remember what had just happened or why she was lying on this cold floor.
Her head throbbed painfully, almost as if she had been struck hard by a frying pan.
Ugh… let her think. What was she here to do?
She remembered… she had accepted a commission to investigate information regarding an Abnormal Entity.
Then, she entered this restaurant and walked into the kitchen.
Right, she remembered now.
She had come to the kitchen to investigate the Abnormal Entity.
Su Keke recalled that shortly after she entered, the Detector in her hand reacted.
Immediately after, she saw the kitchenware eroded by Star Eclipse Energy.
Those utensils seemed to have sensed her arrival and attacked her, only for Su Keke to handle them with ease.
That was right.
After she activated her Esper Ability, the utensils lost their ability to move, falling to the ground and returning to their state from before they were eroded by the Star Eclipse Energy.
“Heh-heh~ Easy peasy. As expected of me.”
She remembered saying that after finishing the task.
She had even struck a pose.
After that, her vision had gone black, and she collapsed directly onto the floor.
Wait… she remembered now.
Dammit…
The girl turned her head, glaring fiercely at the empty stove.
Of course, the frying pan that had knocked her out was no longer there.
While she was still posing, she had suddenly heard a sound from behind her.
But before she could turn around, that floating frying pan had slammed hard into the back of her head.
*Clang!*
Su Keke remembered how loud it had been.
After her body briefly stiffened, she collapsed to the ground.
Right as she was losing consciousness, the last thing she saw was the frying pan floating in the air.
Moreover, that frying pan seemed to be bobbing its body up and down rapidly.
Was that movement… a taunt?
Dammit! It was bad enough that Su Keke had been knocked out by a frying pan, but she was even mocked by it!
This was a disgrace—a total disgrace!
Where was the pan? It dared to ambush her?
Did it dare to jump out now and fight her for another 300 rounds?
If she didn’t tear that frying pan apart, Su Keke would take the pan’s last name!
Where was the pot?
Scouring the area, Su Keke failed to find the frying pan’s body, though she did discover several pieces of kitchenware scattered on the ground.
She remembered that these were the items affected by her ability earlier.
Aside from these few utensils, the entire kitchen was empty.
Furthermore, when did that large hole appear in the wall?
It wasn’t there when she arrived.
This was bad…
Could those utensils have merged while she was unconscious and smashed through the wall to escape?
“Hoh, now this is interesting.”
Fine, then. Let her go meet that merged kitchenware monster.
As Su Keke stepped out through the hole, she suddenly heard a commotion coming from outside the shop.
In the distance, she saw a somewhat large figure seemingly locked in combat with someone.
Another smaller, black-clad figure looked somewhat familiar.
“Bai Yu?”
Focusing her gaze, she saw that the familiar figure was indeed Bai Yu.
Moreover, as she constantly dodged the Abnormal Entity’s attacks, she looked quite pathetic.
‘Miss Bai Yu looks like she’s about to reach her limit.’
“Bai Yu, hold on for a bit! I’m coming!”
Regardless of whether Bai Yu heard her or not, Su Keke screamed toward the outside of the shop at the top of her lungs before sprinting toward the exit.
***
A moment ago, Bai Yu was outside the shop, struggling against the Stitch Monster.
Fortunately, the broomstick in her hand was made of solid wood; otherwise, it would have broken after just two hits.
However, compared to the several cleavers used as weapons by the Stitch Monster, the broomstick was still insufficient.
Bai Yu could only be thankful that this Abnormal Entity only looked intimidating.
In reality, its strength was much weaker than she had anticipated, reaching a C-Rank level at most.
If it were truly B-Rank, a small fry like Bai Yu wouldn’t have lasted long at all.
She might have gone down in less than half a minute.
By now, she had probably held out for several minutes.
The broom in her hand would likely snap after another hit, though it hadn’t actually blocked many strikes for her.
All this time, Bai Yu had been working hard to dodge the opponent’s attacks.
Unfortunately, she had tried to activate her Precognition to predict the direction of the Stitch Monster’s next move, but her ability failed to work at such a critical moment.
She couldn’t see even one second into the future.
‘As expected, with my current Esper Ability strength, I can only foresee fatal damage to give myself a chance to avoid it?’
Luckily, the opponent’s movements were somewhat stiff, making them relatively easy to dodge.
But that was also where the problem lay.
Although it was difficult for the opponent’s attacks to hit Bai Yu, her broomstick couldn’t deal any effective damage to it either.
After all, every time she swung the stick, it hit the iron pots forming the creature’s body.
It couldn’t wound the dark red flesh inside at all.
Without destroying the core, there was no way to solve this guy.
Dammit… where was Su Keke?
Bai Yu had been stalling for a while now.
Su Keke should have come out by then.
It was impossible for her to have actually been killed by this thing, making her unable to come out.
‘No way, right? The heroine of the Original Work being taken out by a C-Rank Abnormal Entity… Su Keke shouldn’t be nerfed that much.’
But in the instant Bai Yu became distracted, the Stitch Monster raised its arm—composed of several cleavers—and swept it toward her.
She couldn’t dodge.
Bai Yu could only raise the broomstick, barely blocking the slash.
But as a result, the broomstick in her hands was cut into two halves.
It was over.
Now her weapon was destroyed as well.
Bai Yu could only try throwing the part of the broomstick in her left hand.
With a *clang*, it struck the iron pot on the Stitch Monster’s chest.
The pot was slightly dented, but the core inside remained unharmed.
‘Dammit, if only I could find a brick nearby. At least it would deal more damage than a broomstick.’
At this point, she could only continue trying to stall for time.
‘Su Keke, oh Su Keke, hurry up and get over here.’
“Bai Yu, hold on for a bit! I’m coming!”
Eh?
At that moment, Bai Yu suddenly heard Su Keke’s voice.
‘Am I hallucinating?’
Sidestepping an attack from the Stitch Monster, Bai Yu instinctively looked toward the shop.
She saw a golden figure rushing out toward them at high speed.
Phew… thank goodness.
This girl finally made it.
She just had to draw its attention for a little longer.
Once Su Keke arrived, her task would be finished.