Chapter 4: I’m stuck here

*Thud!*

A heavy, dull sound echoed through the empty street.

The Baseball Bat in Bai Yu’s hand slammed heavily into the Wanderer’s head.

The point of impact caved in instantly, and dark green blood splattered everywhere.

The Wanderer let out a mournful wail before its body swayed and collapsed to the ground.

That single blow wasn’t enough to kill it.

Bai Yu raised the Baseball Bat again and delivered several more fierce strikes to its head until it was reduced to a mangled mess.

Once it was completely dead, transformed into a pile of literal pulp, Bai Yu finally stopped and leaned against a nearby streetlight to catch her breath.

“Whew…”

In the end, it was only a Level E Wanderer, the lowest grade.

It was only slightly stronger than an average human.

Before an Esper like Bai Yu, it was nothing more than a punching bag.

Though she had been nothing but Cannon Fodder—a mere bit-player Esper—during the battle to subjugate the Pale Witch, that was only in comparison to the Pale Witch herself.

Regardless of the circumstances, Bai Yu was still a genuine Level C Esper.

According to the world setting of *Star Song*, no matter what kind of ability one awakened, the process would always enhance the user’s physical fitness to some degree.

Even though Bai Yu’s ability was a fairly useless support type, her body was still stronger than that of an ordinary person thanks to the awakening process.

Dealing with a bottom-tier Wanderer like this was no problem.

Thinking of this, Bai Yu kicked the corpse on the ground.

The victory didn’t bring her any joy; she was merely using the opportunity to vent some frustration.

She had a clear understanding of her own strength.

She could only manage to defeat the lowest-level Wanderers.

Level C was actually a very awkward rank among Espers.

At this level, one could typically use their abilities normally, but it was limited to just “normal use.”

Looking up, Level B Espers could use their abilities with mastery while also discovering the hidden potential of their powers, allowing them to evolve and gain even greater strength.

Further up, Level A and the even higher Level S represented the elite class.

They were the core force protecting the human world.

Looking down, Level D and Level E were the bottom-tier Espers.

They had almost no combat capability and couldn’t even use their abilities properly, leaving them with only logistics work.

Only Level C fell into that middle ground—possessing a little bit of combat power, but strictly just “a little bit.”

In summary, a Level C Esper was stuck in an embarrassing position where they couldn’t move up, yet weren’t at the very bottom.

They were just… stuck.

To make matters worse, the ability Bai Yu awakened was the most unpopular type among support classes: Perception-type Precognition.

If it had been a buff-type or a healing-type, she could at least be a decent support despite being Level C.

But instead, she had Precognition.

At Level C, Precognition was basically non-existent.

Out of 100 things, she would be lucky to accurately predict even one.

She wanted to evolve it into something like the Color of Observation, where she could see directly into the future.

However, since her awakening, the only things Bai Yu had successfully predicted were which supermarket would have a sale on eggs and that it might rain the next day.

As for predicting an enemy’s attack direction?

She had not a single successful record.

It was, quite literally, a useless ability.

‘Sigh, I’m really a disgrace to all Transmigrators.’

She wondered if there were any other Transmigrators more pathetic than her.

She had only managed to defeat that Wanderer because of her enhanced physical stats.

Without them, she wouldn’t have dared to approach even the lowest-level Wanderer given her useless Precognition.

Fine. Now that the Wanderer was dead, she needed to hurry back before another one suddenly popped up.

She couldn’t be that unlucky, right?

However, the moment she turned to take a step, a spine-chilling coldness suddenly rose within her.

It was the sensation of being targeted by a predator.

Bai Yu turned around warily, gripping her Baseball Bat tight.

Not far away, a figure stood beneath a flickering streetlight.

It was a spindly, ghost-like entity with skin of an eerie grayish-white.

Its arms were unnaturally long, hanging down almost to its ankles, and its fingertips ended in bone claws as sharp as daggers.

The moment she saw it, Bai Yu’s heart constricted.

If she remembered correctly, that was a Level D Abnormal Entity, specifically a Hunter.

If the Wanderer from before was just a brainless, walking corpse acting on instinct, then a Hunter was a beast that knew how to hunt.

Though it was only a jump from Level E to Level D, a Level D Hunter possessed significantly higher combat prowess and was fully capable of threatening or even killing an average Esper.

‘Damn it…’

Bai Yu couldn’t help but curse in her mind.

Although this was the Lower District of Red Maple City near the Slums, it was still supposedly within the protection of the Star Ring Field.

Logically, an Abnormal Entity of the Hunter rank shouldn’t appear here.

Meeting a Wanderer was one thing, but why was a Hunter joining the party?

Her luck was truly abysmal.

Wait… A possibility suddenly occurred to her.

The reason she was encountering two Abnormal Entities here… could it be because of Loweia?

After all, Bai Yu’s appearance had changed the timeline.

Instead of being picked up by an evil organization, Loweia had been taken home by Bai Yu.

Since they hadn’t found Loweia, that organization would surely send people out to search for her.

‘Hell… Is this the situation? Have they tracked her here?’

No, probably not. This was just a Hunter, not a higher-ranking Abnormal Entity.

That meant they were likely just casting a wide net and hoping for a lucky break. They hadn’t found Loweia’s exact location yet.

If they had actually found her, the one coming wouldn’t be a Hunter; it would be a much higher-ranking entity, perhaps even an executive from that organization.

In that case, Bai Yu might as well just run her head into a wall and hope for a restart.

Once Loweia recovered a bit more, she would have to move.

Even if they didn’t have to worry about exposure for the moment, the fact that the enemy was searching nearby meant they might stumble upon them eventually.

She had to take Loweia and run.

Of course, that was for later.

The most important thing right now was the Hunter in front of her.

Bai Yu had zero confidence in her ability to handle it.

Just as Bai Yu noticed it, the Hunter noticed her.

A split second later, it let out a screech and lunged toward her.

“So fast!”

Bai Yu dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding the Hunter’s pounce.

In the next moment, the Hunter spread its arms, preparing for another lunge.

Bai Yu moved to dodge again, but that move seemed to be a feint.

It opened its mouth, and a long tongue suddenly snapped out like a spring, instantly impaling Bai Yu’s body.

‘Guh…’

It had only just started, and it was already…

Wait… No!

Bai Yu’s vision flickered.

Suddenly, she realized the scene of her being impaled had vanished like mist.

The Hunter was still holding its arms open, preparing to lunge.

Bai Yu hadn’t made her move to dodge to the left yet.

‘Wait… did my useless Precognition actually just work?’

There was no time to think about why.

This time, the moment the creature lunged, Bai Yu dodged to the right.

Sure enough, the Hunter’s tongue snapped out toward the left—exactly as she had seen in her vision—and pierced the ground where she would have been.

Given the force of the impact, it definitely would have punched straight through her.

Taking advantage of the recovery frames of the creature’s attack, Bai Yu swung her Baseball Bat with all her might, slamming it hard into the creature’s waist.

Although the Precognition didn’t trigger again, the single opening it provided allowed Bai Yu to land a heavy blow that caused significant damage.

After successfully knocking the creature off balance, Bai Yu followed up with a relentless assault.

Exhausting most of her strength, she finally managed to kill the Hunter.

“Whew…”

Without taking a moment to rest, Bai Yu gripped her Baseball Bat and dragged her heavy body back toward the apartment stairs.