This Is the Angel’s Anatomy Manual
Hyu~ the sound of air being sliced.
The knife the skinny man thrust out stopped right in front of my face.
… Yeah. No need to bother dodging.
I didn’t even blink. I didn’t move a muscle.
A normal six-year-old would probably be screaming and collapsing right about now, huh?
But you see, I can tell.
That timid posture.
That half-hearted step in.
And above all, the trajectory of that knife.
It’s obvious from the start, you had no intention of actually hitting me.
Just a thug’s threat meant to scare me and squeeze out some money.
That’s not enough to beat me.
So, want me to explain a little about this world’s “combat system”?
If this were a world like a run-of-the-mill RPG, I’d be on my knees right now, licking this old man’s shoes.
Because games like that usually have stats like “Defense” or “HP,” don’t they?
If my attack power is 10 and the enemy’s defense is 100, then no matter how perfectly I strike a vital point, the damage is a merciless zero.
Or they’ve got several thousand, tens of thousands of HP, and even if you slash their neck it’s just, “HP decreased by 1%,” thanks to some utterly baffling body structure.
I don’t dislike those kinds of games.
But if that were the case here, there’s no way I could ever beat these guys, no matter how hard I tried.
… However.
In this goddamn masterpiece of a game called Gnosis Online, human stats don’t include concepts like “Defense” or “HP.”
No matter how much you level up, your skin doesn’t turn into steel.
There’s no such thing as an HP bar to begin with. The vessel we players inhabit is structured almost exactly like a real human body.
So no matter how much of a hero you are, stab them with a sword and they’ll be wounded. Cut off their head, and they die.
Tear an artery and blood will spurt out like a pump that’s broken.
Lose enough blood, oxygen stops reaching the brain, and anyone will die of shock just like that.
The human body has countless “vital points” that can’t be trained away, no matter how hard you try.
Soft eyeballs. Thin eardrums. Blood vessels close to the surface. Tendons that do nothing but support the body.
If you can precisely destroy those, even a level 1 rabbit can kill a level 100 dragon.
So, you see, gentlemen.
Your loss was already decided.
“… Huh? What’s with this brat, too scared to even scream?”
The man leered as he waved the knife, probably thinking it was intimidating.
Watching his completely unguarded flank, I reached into the hidden pocket of my skirt.
What was there was a blackened dagger knife I’d secretly borrowed from the mansion’s armory. A simple piece designed purely for portability and practicality.
But the blade itself was real.
Cold steel, honed for the purpose of killing people.
You brought your knives as “tools to threaten.”
As for me…
… I brought this from the very beginning to kill.
“… Eiy.”
With an adorable little cry, I slashed with perfect precision at the inside of the man’s wrist, right where the radial artery runs.
Whoosh.
An awful sensation.
The feeling of flesh tearing and the blade biting into a blood vessel traveled through the hilt into my palm.
“A—ga—!?”
Before he could even scream properly, fresh blood erupted like a fountain.
Pshhh! The red liquid sprayed violently, staining the alley wall.
This world doesn’t have any kind, gentle feature like pain nullification.
“W-what the hell!? My hand… my hand!?”
The man dropped his knife and writhed on the ground, clutching his wrist.
Arterial bleeding. If left alone, he’d lose consciousness in a few minutes.
But I wasn’t about to wait around that long.
I slipped around behind the writhing man.
My movement must have been light and elegant, like a waltz step.
Behind the knee.
A single horizontal slash at the tendon that supports body weight.
There was a gori sound, like a string on a stringed instrument snapping.
“GYAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!”
The man’s massive body collapsed.
The chunk of flesh that had lost its support sprawled across the ground.
Now our eye level matches, right?
I peered into the crawling man’s face and smiled sweetly.
A drop of splattered blood might have gotten on my cheek.
But surely that was just acting as rouge, enhancing my beauty right now.
“… M-monster…!”
Primitive terror surfaced in his eyes.
You’re really that scared? That’s kind of mean, Alice-chan has such a cute face, you know.
I pressed the tip of my dagger against his Adam’s apple.
Soft.
A resistance-free sensation, like sinking a finger into a ripe peach.
Zup.
I destroyed the airway and blood vessels at the same time.
A wheezing hyuu, hyuu sound leaked from his mouth, and soon red bubbles gurgled out.
His body convulsed, then gradually went still.
The lukewarm smell of blood.
The scent of rusted iron.
And the indescribable silence at the moment a life disappears.
—Dingdong♪
A light, cheerful system sound echoed inside my head.
[Mission Complete: Detailed information for the skill “Blessing of the Murderer” has been unlocked]Oh?
Thinking that, I followed the window floating in midair with my eyes.
What was written there was an absurdly extreme, thoroughly malicious “spec.”
—
[Blessing of the Murderer]
- When killing humans: Experience gained - Extremely High
- Other actions (defeating monsters, training, etc.): Experience gained - 0 (null)
—
“… Huh?”
My thoughts froze for a moment.
Zero experience from killing monsters or training?
Then isn’t it impossible to live as a proper adventurer?
It’s like the rails have been laid forcing me to live purely as a “killer of humans”…
There was no time to be dumbfounded.
My body was forcibly made to understand what the word “Extremely High” meant.
—Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!
The level-up sounds ringing in my head were no longer bells of blessing, but more like shrill alarms.
[Level Up! You have reached Level 7] [Level Up! You have reached Level 8] [Level Up! You have reached Level 9]……
…
[Level Up! You have reached Level 21]My vision flickered.
My whole body burned. It felt like every single cell was being forcibly rewritten.
Just… one person, okay?
Just killing one small-time thug and my level jumped straight from 6 to 21!?
“… Aha.”
A laugh slipped out.
I see. So that’s how it is.
This trash-tier management is telling me to become an “enemy of humanity.”
Not a hero who hunts monsters, but a monster who grows by devouring people.
Yeah, fine by me.
As an efficiency-obsessed gamer, I’ll gladly adopt that “optimal solution.”
I lightly flicked the blood off my dagger knife and stood up.
Mission complete. I shouldn’t have any business left here.
… Or so I thought.
“H-hiii…! W-what are you!? What the hell are you!?”
The other man, the pudgy one.
He’d lost all strength in his legs and was backing away, shaking violently.
I gazed at him with a melting look.
Just a moment ago, he was “just a dirty old man.”
But now it’s different.
To my eyes, he looks like nothing but a “lump of experience points.”
Hey, mister.
With a body that doesn’t gain even a single point of experience from killing monsters, how do you think I’m supposed to get stronger?
The answer’s simple.
… I just have to eat you all up, right?
“S-stop! Don’t come closer! Don’t come any closer…!”
The man turned his back and tried to run.
But maybe his legs tangled from fear, he tripped and fell pathetically.
I jumped onto his back.
Innocently, lightly, like a child giving someone a piggyback ride.
My level 21 stats made my body feel as light as a feather.
And then…
Zash!
I slid the blade precisely into the gap between his cervical vertebrae.
A merciful strike that severed the nerves instantly.
The man didn’t even get to scream. He went limp and silent, like a marionette with its strings cut.
—Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!
That electronic sound started ringing crazily in my head once again.
The level-up notifications wouldn’t stop.
It sounded like overlapping fanfares, as if this world itself were celebrating me.
… Phew.
In the now-silent alley, only my breath lingered white in the air.
At my feet lay two corpses.
A spreading sea of blood.
The soles of my shoes made a squelching sound.
I stared at my hands.
Small, white, delicate hands.
Now stained a dark red.
Strange.
They’re not shaking.
I don’t feel nauseous either.
If anything, my chest is filled with a peculiar sense of “accomplishment” and “omnipotence,” like when the final piece of a puzzle clicks into place.
I’d done this thousands of times in games.
But this world looks just like reality.
The hardness of bones, the stickiness of flesh, the warmth of blood, everything is just as real.
“… Hmm?”
As I wiped the blood from my cheek with my fingertip, I lowered my eyebrows in mild confusion.
“Could it be that I have more… ‘talent for killing’ than I thought?”
If that’s the case, it’s kind of complicated…
I mean, that kind of not-so-cute talent doesn’t really suit someone as cute as me. If people found out, they’d totally freak out.
“Well, whatever. …For now, let’s check my status.”
Standing atop the corpses, I stuck out my tongue cutely.
Right now, I must be wearing a cruel yet beautiful smug face, like a flower blooming at the bottom of hell.
What do you think about this chapter?
