My foot strikes nothing but mud, and my fist only impacts a gravestone. He is already gone! I frantically and blindly swing close to the ground, but I don’t hit anything but the ground and some tombstones.

  With the rain pouring down and the sound of thunder rolling across the area, I can’t hear anything either! Worst of all, my mindless attempts at finding the mage got me completely lost. I have no idea where I am standing now, and I can only hope that the severed arm in my maw will be enough for me to recover my sight quickly.

  ‘Living Metal’ should allow me to regenerate eventually, regardless, but what were the odds that this mage wouldn’t go and bring reinforcements back? The average guard was no threat to me, but this one knew what I was capable of. He knew that I was a dangerous creature, and he would know to ensure that whoever showed up would have the means to kill me.

  Shit… Shit… Shit… This is bad! This is very bad! I am deep in it!

  I was never in such a bad situation before! I always got away with it before!

  Miss Nebulo, please calm yourself

  I don’t need you to tell me what to do! I know that I need to stay calm! But does it look like it's easy to do right now?! Why don’t you make yourself useful instead of spouting nonsense? Aren’t you a damned offshoot of the thing that is literally everywhere? Can you just not see for me?

  The system stayed silent for a few moments, but I could just feel it mulling over something.

  I am not allowed many transgressions, Miss Nebulo. But my purpose is to help you

  Huh?

  Take three steps forward

  My maw squeaks as it slightly opens. What did the system just say?

  I take three steps forward.

  Turn to the right

  I turn to the right.

  Move forward until you encounter a gate

  I begin to walk, and soon enough, I do feel my feet strike against something metallic. I don’t need the system to tell me what to do. The rusty steel the gate is made out of is of poor quality, barely nourishing, but right now, every scrap counts.

  My sight does not return just yet.

  Take five steps forward and then turn left, keep on walking

  I listen to the system’s instructions, and after several minutes of moving through the downpour, I reach what seems to be a rather odd door, made of steel and what feels like glass, a design I am wholly unfamiliar with… Glass is expensive, so making some for entire doors? That just seemed like a waste of money.

  Break in

  I reel back my fist and punch right through one of the doors, confirming that it was indeed glass.

  I force my way inside, the sound of rain quietens as I step inside… My five senses have become a bit weird ever since I became the being that I now am, but I still have them all, and something about the smell of this place is familiar, and for some reason, I instantly feel like thrashing everything.

  Oh… It smells like Harvey’s Diner…

  And then I felt it, the call of steel, the call to consume… It is stronger than it has ever been. I have never felt such a strong pull before. It feels like ‘Living Metal’ desperately desires to devour whatever it is that I am sensing, it's to the point that it almost seems like I can see again. I can pinpoint exactly where the pull is coming from.

  I move toward it, bumping into chairs and tables as I do so. I just kick or fling them away as I go straight for what I desire, but I hit something else, not a piece of furniture this time. It’s almost like the goods are elevated over the rest of the room? Like they are…On a stage?

  Oh, is this really a place just like Harvey’s Diner? I climb up on the stage, and sound finds out that this is precisely it, the lumps of steel I crave are in the overall shape of a skeleton and wrapped in some sort of fabric.

  They are clearly ‘entertainment’ automatons. I would have thought that those stupid things would have fallen out of favour long ago, but instead, they are now on stage inside a place that wastes money to put glass doors? Did they grow in popularity instead? And isn’t this still a commoner neighbourhood? Is this place owned by a commoner? Or did the wealthy actually set a place here?

  And the main attractions are… These things? I can’t see what they look like, but I do not doubt that they are uncanny stuff. The ones at Harvey’s Diner were truly awful to look at, and even the costumes that the workers would have to wear to entertain children sometimes looked horrible… Well, all except for one…

  It was mind-boggling to imagine that these things had seen any form of success, and it was even more confusing to think that twenty years had passed since they began being introduced, meaning that they had not only seen success, but had stayed for two whole decades.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  I honestly struggled to even think what could possibly be the reason for this, but I warmly welcome the high-quality steel they offer. Without wasting time, I begin devouring and absorbing the automaton's whole, their hefty steel bones, their wires and whatever item they are equipped with.

  Only leaving their empty shell behind, and all of this consumption finally brings back my sight, on top of fixing all of the damage I sustained from that foul mage… Frankly, it is so dark in here that with or without sight, I can’t see a thing.

  But I can sense more steel calling out to me in the backrooms. There, I managed to get my hands on an item I don’t recognise, which causes the room to brighten up as a mana light activates, revealing a room full of spare parts and tools ready for my consumption.

  I don’t eat everything on the spot, however, I learned my lesson today and decide to stuff my pockets with easy-to-carry pieces of steel in case I need rapid regeneration.

  Though today wasn’t all bad, I learned that getting stabbed through the skull was only a mild inconvenience for me, and that my body was actually quite resistant to mana… The first part made sense in hindsight. I am a curse and a spirit, I just happen to have this body as my vessel, but ultimately, my real self is not corporeal at all… So, I could probably survive even if I were blown to pieces.

  Not that I was going to put this theory to the test… At least, not of my own will.

  By the way, thank you, System. You really saved my hide just now. You can officially be my little sister from now on. You’re definitely much better than my bastard brother, that’s for sure.

  It was nothing much

  Oh no, it was tremendous! I realise that I have been a bit harsh on you, and frankly, you didn’t deserve it. Just like you said, you’ve only been trying to help, and frankly… I haven’t been helped for a long while.

  So from now on, you are officially family. Try to think of a good name other than ‘System’ for you, it feels a little odd to refer to you by what you are, it’s like if people called me ‘Curse’ or ‘Spirit’, I would hate it.

  I shall think of a name, then

  You sure do–Oh crap, they followed me here?!

  As soon as I stepped out of the backrooms, I saw the figures of several people marching through the rain, lanterns in hand as they shone light upon the door I had broken to gain entry here.

  I swiftly moved back into the backrooms and extinguished the lights, moving further in toward a door I had noticed previously.

  Say… I wouldn’t happen to have an upgrade available at the moment, right?

  There are none available

  I could only keep on moving. Thankfully, this place was pretty big and connected to another street, the opposite way from where the lantern-bearers were coming from, so by being fast enough, I was able to get out.

  But that just poses another problem. I don’t have a clue where I am now, everything is obscured, and I am in an unfamiliar place. If I take the wrong direction, I could run into guards looking for me.

  Admittedly, most of the ones looking around are probably not a threat, but it was best to be careful and avoid them all.

  I looked left and right and tried to think about all the movements I had made to end up here in the first place.

  The guards are after me, and the mage knows what I look like. In his eyes, I am a monster. They won’t just stop looking for me now that they know there is a damned monster in town… The presence of something like me, regardless of the neighbourhood, is a threat to the authority of the lord. My mere existence within these walls makes him look bad, as the fault for ‘letting me in’ will eventually fall on him and his poor management.

  Nobles refuse to bear responsibility for anything, but a lord in charge of something will inevitably be seen as incompetent when things happen on their territory that they should have been able to prevent.

  Even if the fault really wasn’t on them, their fellow nobles would make quick work of using any failing to mock and bring him down. So in short, I wasn’t just in ‘deep shit’ as some might say, I was already drowning in the cesspit.

  They would search relentlessly for me and employ much greater means to do so now.

  As such, I head toward where I believe the closest city wall should be, taking off running as fast as I can. My steps are loud, but the rain muffles most of it.

  I thought that I would risk slipping by sprinting across wet ground, but it seems that my worry was unfounded, as I moved without restraint.

  Damnit… Here as well?

  I see light peering in the distance from a corner… I stopped and quickly made my way into an alley, hoping that whoever that light belonged to would either not come this way at all or would at least ignore my hiding spot.

  My hopes were crushed as a group of guards came walking by and shone their lanterns directly onto me. They step back in fright as I don’t hesitate to rush them down. They yell, and one of them attempts to bring out some sort of item, pointing it at the sky.

  I bit the closest one’s shoulder and brutally flung him against the street corner. Slammed the back of my hand against the next one, but as my fist collided with the third guard’s face, he managed to use the item nonetheless, firing a bright, blue glow high into the sky that remained in the air for all to see.

  That’s bad… I didn’t pay attention to the bodies on the ground and just took off running again.

  I knew for a fact that many people were probably converging on my position at this very moment, so I needed to be quick–Very quick.

  Thankfully, that group I just maimed and slaughtered must have been the only one in the area. My rush through the streets goes unimpeded, and I end up in front of the city wall, right next to a gate at that.

  But it’s closed, and I have no clue how to open that thing, so instead, I head toward a door leading to a set of stairs that will get me on top of the walls.

  “I think I see something over there!”

  Damnit… I rush up the stairs as quickly as I can–And here I am, atop the wall with basically nowhere to go.

  …Miss Nebulo? I don’t think there is any way out…

  You can stop calling me Miss Nebulo, just call me Mara at this point… And there is an obvious way out.

  Did I ever tell you that I once got a copper medal for athletic swimming?

  Pardon?

  I jump from the wall. Directly into the moat.

  Boy… I never actually left this city in my entire life… This is making me more nervous than getting pursued…