Chapter 2: 2. Autonomous Character

Even though I struck the back of his head with a sharp rock, my strength was insufficient.

Blood was flowing, but it didn’t look like a serious wound at first glance.

I resented Rie for immediately pressing the attack choice.

My hand holding the stone trembled.

What now? If I prostrate myself and beg for forgiveness now, would he accept it? It’s not like I wanted to do this! My body just moved on its own regardless of my will, right?

If I honestly confess everything and bow my head, wouldn’t he let it go?

My legs began to shake.

As I stepped backward, the pig-like man wobbled his fleshy body and took large strides toward me.

I didn’t have enough time to grasp what was suddenly happening or make a judgment.

“I’ll chop off your limbs and sell you to a cheap brothel!”

The Pig shouted in a grating voice as he reached out to grab me.

It seemed he wouldn’t forgive me even if I apologized for my mistake.

And fighting back seemed absolutely impossible to win.

That left only one thing I could do right now.

I immediately turned around and ran.

No matter how frail this body was, everything is relative – if I resolved to run, that lump of fat couldn’t possibly catch up to me.

[…You attacked first, so why are you running away?]

Why am I running?

Hearing that from the source of all this trouble made something surge from the depths of my chest, but I barely managed to suppress it.

As my emotions raged, my breathing suddenly became labored, and as my breath faltered, my lungs hurt as if being wrung out.

“Haa… Haaack……”

Clutching my chest, I tried to run as far as possible.

Everyone who saw me frowned as if avoiding something filthy and moved aside, so I could escape more easily than expected.

[Is it because of the trait I gave you?]

Trait… you say.

Something suddenly flashed through my mind.

Hiding in a gloomy alley, I recalled something that might be possible.

‘Status Window’

Traits: Autonomy B, Silent Step C, Gloomy Aura E

Skills: –

“…Huh.”

I wondered if this would work – and it did.

I calmly began examining what I possessed.

[Silent Step C]

As a filthy orphan from the slums, no one wants you to move about openly while revealing your presence. To avoid being hated and suffering under such people’s gazes, you’ve learned to walk silently.

That was the setting behind Silent Step.

Regardless of the pitiful description, being able to walk silently seemed surprisingly useful.

Next thing to examine…

[Gloomy Aura E]

Frequent abuse and torment have caused you to emanate a gloomy aura.

This uncontrollable aura of yours will give people ample reason to avoid and dislike you.

It was a completely useless trait.

Was this why everyone avoided me while I was running away?

Moving on to the next one.

B-grade.

This seemed to be the perk included in the Ultimate Eternal Package that Rie mentioned.

[Autonomy B]

When the character feels extreme aversion to the player’s command, they will not properly execute the order.

“…What?”

The trait description that had been addressing me as “you” suddenly used terms like “character” and “player” for direct explanation.

Biting my lip, I fell into brief thought.

Something was definitely strange.

[I told it to fight, but it suddenly went to a corner and crouched down… Is this a bug? Should I delete and recreate it?]

At Rie’s voice, I stood up.

Rie probably said it without much thought, but to me, it sounded terrifying.

I didn’t know what effect deleting and recreating a character would have on me.

If deleting the character would send me back to reality, I’d gladly be deleted.

But judging by how things worked, a groundless fear that deleting the character would kill me too began creeping through my body.

Knowing that staying crouched here would really make someone of her personality delete and restart, I decided to move first.

Since I’d smashed that swaggering Pig with a stone, I needed to at least leave this shantytown to be safe.

The problem was, even if I left here, I had no idea where to go.

I didn’t even know why I had to go through this.

Though I felt wronged and angry, I clearly understood what needed to be done.

Move.

Wherever it may be, I had to move first to keep Rie interested.

[Ooh… It’s moving… But where is it going? You don’t know either?]

Ignoring the voice, I kept walking in one direction to leave the shantytown.

I thought that continuing in any one direction would eventually lead to an exit, and that proved correct.

At the exit of the shantytown was a gate blocked by two guards holding spears.

As I cautiously approached, a guard looked down at me and pinched his nose.

“…What’s this.”

“Excuse me, may I pass through?”

“You got a Pass?”

“……Uh.”

Is that a thing?

I frantically searched through the pockets of my tattered clothes but only found small insect corpses.

I had nothing.

Not even proper clothes – just a top with no pants.

No shoes either, so I’d been stepping on filth.

Who knows how long it’s been since I washed, but while I thought the awful stench came from the scattered filth on the streets, I realized upon reaching the relatively clean gate area that the smell was coming from me.

“No Pass, no passage. Just seeing you slum dwellers makes citizens feel uneasy and disgusted. You need a Pass proving you won’t cause trouble in the streets before we can let you through.”

“…How do I get a Pass?”

“Even the slums have an administrative office, right? Buy it there.”

“……Sigh.”

I felt depressed.

He meant I needed to buy a Pass to cross.

If I had money, I wouldn’t be homeless on these filthy streets.

Moreover, with all the extortion fees and such.

However I might have earned money, that Pig probably took it all, so there’s no way I could have any.

Though I didn’t know the full situation, I could make some deductions.

I was a beggar.

Not just any beggar, but an orphan beggar.

Suddenly, time stopped again.

Cold sweat dripped from the familiar sensation I’d experienced before.

This time, more nonsensical choices would appear, and Rie would probably pick another insane option.

1. Talk

2. Go back

3. Attack

[I kinda want to attack this too… But since the Autonomy trait makes it act weird if I pick something too strange… Let’s just safely choose talk.]

Talk. <

Fortunately, really fortunately, she picked the most reasonable option.

Regardless of my will, my mouth moved, and a frail voice I couldn’t believe was mine came out.

“I don’t have money… But would you perhaps have any work for me…?”

“Work…?”

The guard stared at me for a long time before clicking his tongue and gesturing to the ground with his chin.

“How about cleaning? We clean this area daily, but slum folks have no hygiene sense so it gets dirty again fast – real headache.”

He sounded annoyed but seemed to be taking me seriously.

“I’ll do it!”

“I’ll warn you upfront – the pay won’t be much.”

“I’ll still do it!”

[The guards are nice though? Giving a kid work?]

Yeah, tell me about it.

For the first time, I agreed with Rie.

In a world like this, if a grimy girl emitting gloomy aura came asking for work, ignoring or chasing her away would be standard, yet they listened to my troubles and even gave me work.

I smiled brightly and answered energetically. One guard went inside the gate and brought back cleaning tools for me.

Accepting them, I bowed my head in gratitude.

“No pay if you don’t clean properly, got it?”

“Yes!”

If I worked near the gate, that Pig couldn’t do anything to me.

I could earn money and protect myself – things worked out better than expected… but remembering my circumstances quickly depressed me.

The mere fact that this was happening to me was extremely unpleasant.

Holding the broom, I swept away filth and such.

Splat! More filth fell where I’d just swept.

Looking up, I saw an open second-floor window – someone had apparently thrown garbage out the window.

“Fucking hell.”

Just as expected from a medieval setting.

Hygiene and cleanliness concepts seemed properly underdeveloped.

The unfairness made tears well up slightly.

Wiping my eyes with my sleeve, I moved the broom again.

After repeating this until blisters burst on my hands and legs trembled, I returned the cleaning tools to the guard and received 2 Copper Coins.

I didn’t know exactly how much the money was worth, but I could intuitively tell it was a very small amount.