"Glad you finally noticed," Scar muttered dryly. "But you should focus on the more important thing right now. Like how we are both going to get out of this position. I'm starting to get uncomfortable."
Rose smirked, a dark, defiant glint returning to her eyes. Instead of backing away, she leaned even closer.
She pressed her conjured pink blade harder against his stomach, the heat searing his skin. Simultaneously, she pressed her own neck tighter against his obsidian dagger. A thin, bright line of crimson blood welled up on her pale skin as the razor edge bit into her throat.
Scar scoffed, his eyes widening in genuine disbelief at her absolute lack of self-preservation. "Are you crazy? If you lean any closer, you'll kill us both."
"It's not so bad," Rose whispered, her voice carrying a haunting, hollow weight. "I've had enough of life anyway."
"Well, I haven't," Scar retorted sharply, refusing to blink. "I've not even lived for a whole week in this life yet."
"Huh?" Rose paused, raising a skeptical brow. She was genuinely confused by that statement.
"It's not important," Scar deflected. "Just get off me."
"I'll only do so if you promise to stand down," Rose stated firmly.
Scar analyzed her eyes, searching for any hidden malice. Despite the blade at his gut, there was absolutely zero bloodlust radiating from her. She didn't actually want to gut him; she was just incredibly, dangerously stubborn.
"I promise," Scar said.
Slowly, carefully, he pulled the dagger away from her bleeding throat. True to her word, Rose instantly dissipated her energy blade into a shower of pink sparks. She pushed herself off his chest and stood up, taking a cautious step back.
Scar rolled to his feet a second later, banishing his dagger to the inventory and brushing the dirt off his tracksuit.
"Why did you shoot at me earlier?" Scar asked, crossing his arms and looking at the scorched tree. "You could've killed me y'know."
"Well, I did warn you to lower your weapon." Rose replied flatly, wiping the thin line of blood from her neck. "You didn't, so I took it as a threat. And I don't like being threatened."
Scar let out a scoff. "So your solution was to try and murder me?"
"I did what I did out of self-defense," Rose argued. "You were pointing a gun at my face. What else was I supposed to do? Plead for my life until you finally do shoot me?"
Scar almost laughed. "You have an interesting definition of self-defense."
Rose shrugged. "Yeah, well pointing a gun at someone's face is considered an hostile act. I responded accordingly," she said. Then she remembered how he had his gun placed at the back of her head earlier, yet didn't shoot her.
She let out a soft sigh. "But perhaps I might have responded a bit rashly. I apologize for that."
Scar shrugged. "It's fine. I'm just glad I was able to evade it. If not, we both might not be alive right now. Trust me." He chuckled.
Rose nodded. Then she tilted her head. "Well, aren't you going to apologize as well?"
Scar raised a brow. "For what?"
"For pointing a gun at my face!" Rose said sharply.
Scar chuckled, a dark sound of genuine amusement. "Oh, no. That wasn't my fault," he said. "It's your fault for not telling me who you were from the very first moment I asked."
"You weren't entitled to know," Rose scoffed, crossing her arms to mirror his stance. "I just wanted the beast carcasses."
"You should have just asked nicely," Scar pointed out.
"I did." Rose retorted.
"No, you didn't," Scar corrected dryly. "You only asked if I was going to take them."
Rose rolled her eyes, blowing a strand of pink hair out of her face. "Then maybe next time I'll just take them without asking."
"I actually wouldn't mind," Scar shrugged carelessly. "I don't need them."
Rose paused, her cold facade cracking with pure surprise. "Oh... wait. Are you the one who has been leaving carcasses all over the forest?" She looked around the clearing at the slaughtered hounds. "I've been spotting dead beasts all day. I thought it was a rogue monster doing the killing at first. But from the deep, surgical cuts and the plasma burns... I knew it had to be a Hunter. That was actually you?"
"Yeah," Scar said. "I don't take the carcasses after I kill them."
Rose was openly amazed now. "Then why do you hunt?" she asked.
Scar smirked, leaning casually against the oak tree. "For the thrill," he said. He couldn't exactly tell her he was grinding Exp for a divine LitRPG system.
Rose chuckled, shaking her head as if he were insane. "That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Most people consider Hunting a highly dangerous job, and they only do it for the massive income. And you do it... for the thrill?"
"I'm not most people," Scar shrugged.
"Yeah, that much is certain," Rose agreed, looking him up and down with renewed interest. "I never knew the son of Felicity Myers was this skilled. The rumors said you were a powerless, anti-social boy who never left his room."
"Yeah, well, that was the old me," Scar replied smoothly, feeding into the narrative Felicity had crafted. "As you can see... I'm not powerless. I'm different now. And apparently, the whole world is about to find out."
Rose's eyes brightened slightly. "Oh. So that's what the party is for." she murmured.
Scar furrowed his brow, instantly suspicious. He pushed off the tree, his muscles tensing. "How did you know I was having a party?"
"I saw it on the internet," Rose said quickly, waving a dismissive hand. "I'm actually a big fan of your mom, so I'm always updated on the latest news of whatever goes on in the Myers household."
Scar hummed quietly. "Okay."
He didn't buy that story. The happening of a private, indoor soirée at the Glacier Palace wouldn't be broadcast on public forums yet. But he decided not to pry; he had a much more profitable game to play.
Rose checked the sleek, holographic interface on her wristband and let out a sigh. "Look at the time. I actually have to get going. I have somewhere else to be."
"Okay," Scar nodded.
She motioned to the massive pile of decapitated hounds in the clearing. "So... can I have them? Since you said you don't need them."
Scar tilted his head, pretending to deeply contemplate the request. He rubbed his chin, and a highly mischievous smirk spread across his face. "Actually... I was planning on taking these ones home today."
Rose frowned, clearly annoyed. "But didn't you just say you don't take the carcasses?"
"I don't. Usually," Scar lied smoothly, his tone perfectly conversational. "But I sometimes take a batch home as a souvenir. My mom actually really enjoys fresh beast meat."
Rose shrugged indifferently. "Okay, fine. How many are you going to take? Or do you want to take all of them?"
"Actually, none of the ones here really interest me anymore," Scar said casually. "You can have them. But in return, you have to give me one from your haul. Something different from these hounds."
Rose raised a skeptical brow. "But it's the same thing I've been hunting all day. Boars and hounds."
"I still wanna take a look," Scar insisted.
"I don't think that's necessary," Rose refused flatly.
"Relax," Scar placated, stepping back and holding his hands up to show he wasn't aggressive. "I just want to see if any one of them interests me. The carcass has to be absolutely perfect for the Ice Queen. I'll pick just one."
Rose thought about it. She didn't see any logical reason not to. It wasn't like he was going to steal the heavy, bloody carcasses; he had been leaving them to rot all day. Besides, half the kills in her spatial ring were ones she had scavenged from his leftovers anyway.
"Unless..." Scar added mockingly, his purple eyes glinting, "you haven't even been hunting at all, and you've been lying this whole time."
"Of course I've been hunting," Rose snapped, her pride taking the bait effortlessly. She raised her right hand and tapped a silver storage ring on her index finger. A massive spatial distortion rippled in the air above the clearing.
THUD. SQUELCH.
Roughly forty beast carcasses—a grotesque mix of massive boars, feathered aviants, and hounds—tumbled out onto the grass in a massive, bloody, towering pile. The metallic scent of blood grew overpowering.
Scar's smirk widened into a triumphant grin. He walked slowly toward the pile. "Is this everything?" he asked.
"Yes," Rose said, crossing her arms defensively.
"Okay," Scar said. He bent down and began meticulously inspecting the corpses one by one. He lifted a boar's heavy leg, examined the feathers of an aviant, putting on a highly convincing, Oscar-worthy act of judging meat quality.
Meanwhile, his true aim had just materialized in bright gold text directly in the center of his vision.
[Several Mana Cores Detected]
[Will you like to acquire 21x Mana Cores?]
Scar revealed a cunning smirk. When he demanded to see her haul to choose a "single beast," his singular goal had been to get her to pull the corpses out of her dimensional storage so the Celestial System could physically detect them. And as expected, half of the beasts she had hunted herself still had their cores intact. The other half were the ones Scar had killed and looted earlier, which she had scavenged.
She clearly wasn't aware that half her haul had already empty chests. Just like she wouldn't be aware of what he was doing right now.
Yes, Scar commanded mentally.
In a flash of invisible, silent digital light, twenty-one Mana Cores vanished from deep within the beasts' chests and deposited directly into his Inventory.
Scar stood up, casually dusting off his hands. He stepped back from the massive pile. "You know what? I didn't find any that really interest me. Don't bother. You can keep your haul. And you can have mine, too."
Rose's eyes brightened considerably. "Really? Gee, thanks." she said with genuine appreciation.
"It's my pleasure," Scar said, his voice dripping with faux generosity. "The cores are all still intact. Do with them however you please. I don't need them either."
"Wow," Rose said, genuinely surprised by the massive windfall. "Mana Cores are incredibly valuable. Are you sure?"
"Yeah. Have it all," Scar smiled brightly. "I don't want em'"
"Okay," Rose nodded, a rare, small smile touching her lips. "Thanks again. Who knew you were this generous."she chuckled.
"Oh, it's nothing," Scar said, pretending to be flattered. "I'm simply fulfilling my part in making the world a better place."
Rose couldn't help but smile at his statement. Tough, nonchalant girls like her were attracted to kindness. It was something they never got often which led to their indifferent, apathetic behavior.
This was a fact Scar knew. And he used it to get into her head.
Rose tapped her ring, pulling all forty carcasses back into her spatial storage. Then, she turned toward the pile of hounds Scar had killed in the clearing, and collected them as well.
Then she turned back to offer one last word of thanks to Scar, but she paused in awe. The clearing was empty.
Scar was gone.
Rose raised a brow, mildly confused by his sudden, ghostly exit. Then, a deeply cynical, terrifying thought occurred to her. Why had he been so suddenly generous? This was the same guy who was going to blow her brains out without a second thought ten minutes ago. Why would he demand to see her haul, only to give her all his hard-earned carcasses and leave so quickly?
Something wasn't right.
She immediately tapped her ring and pulled out one of the F-Rank hounds she had just acquired from the clearing. She conjured a small pink energy dagger and sliced directly into the beast's chest, reaching her hand in to extract the valuable Mana Core.
Her fingers met empty, cold flesh.
She frowned, digging deeper, her hands covered in blood. But she found nothing. The core was gone.
Her eyes widened. How was this possible. The beast's chest hadn't been cut open. So how was its core missing?
Panic rising, she tapped her ring and dumped her entire haul back onto the grass. She moved frantically, using her energy dagger to tear open the chests of the beasts she had hunted herself earlier that morning. But there gave the same results.
Empty. Empty. Empty.
Every single one. None of them had Mana Cores.
She stood up, her chest heaving with a mix of absolute, bewildering confusion and boiling, incandescent fury.
Her thoughts went to Scar. If he hadn't physically dug into the carcasses' chests... how the hell did he acquire the cores? It defied all known logic and magical theory.
But regardless of the impossible method, it was painfully obvious it was his doing.
It was why he asked to see her haul. It was why he gave her all of his own empty haul. It was why he left so quickly.
He had tricked and completely scammed her.
Rose clenched her fists so hard her nails dug into her palms, drawing fresh blood. Her green eyes blazed with absolute, venomous hatred.
"Argh! That bastard!"
Meanwhile, miles away from the hunting grounds, Scar was casually walking through the massive, frosted iron gates of the Glacier Palace, a highly satisfied smirk plastered on his face.
He chuckled to himself as he walked up the winding driveway. "She was so easy to trick. Good thing I didn't kill her that time I had the shot."
[Wait. You weren't really going to do it, right?] Miley's voice chimed in his head.
"Oh, but I was," Scar replied smoothly, slipping his hands into his pockets. "I missed on purpose because she had also missed on purpose earlier when she first shot at me. I didn't evade that beam at all... she shifted her finger further from my head a fraction of a second before firing. She could've killed me, but didn't. So, I thought I'd return the favor."
[So, you robbed her instead,] Miley scoffed digitally. [How is that any better?]
Scar shrugged unapologetically. "I had to teach her a lesson somehow. For interrupting my sleep and stressing me out this afternoon. Honestly, I don't even have a use for these Mana Cores. But I took them from her because I knew they were clearly valuable to her."
Miley let out a heavy, static sigh. [You are irredeemable]
"Awwn. Thanks," Scar grinned.
Miley shook her head… well if she had a body, she would've. [Anyway, I think those Mana Cores might actually be of use]
Scar paused, his interest genuinely piqued. "Really? How so?"
[I believe they can be converted into Shop Points] Miley explained.
"Oh. That's cool," Scar noted, a glint of excitement in his eyes. "We can test that theory after I shower."
He stepped into the grand foyer of the Glacier Palace and immediately noticed the chaotic flurry of activity. Estate workers, decorators, and high-end caterers were moving frantically around the lower levels, setting up ice sculptures, long tables, and lighting rigs. They were clearly preparing for the grand soirée happening in just a few hours.
Scar ignored them all. He made his way up the grand, sweeping staircase to the private wing, walked into his room, shut the heavy door behind him, and headed straight for the bathroom to wash the blood, sweat, and dirt off his skin.