Chapter 16: Chapter 16: No Death Wishes Here

Nikola's mouth hung open as she stood there limply and watched the guard stride calmly back towards the palace. What... why? She had half the mind to march back into the city and demand answers from him. He had been chasing her with such fervor just moments ago - but at the same time, she had only escaped by the skin of her teeth, so it would be an understatement to say that going back in would be unwise.

She didn't have a death wish.

She pulled in a few deep breaths, feeling the air fill the space behind her rib cage and expel through her nostrils. Who knew that breathing could have a feeling - but she had been feeling a lot of that feeling, recently.
Her knees felt weak and wobbly, like a set of limp noodles. She braced them against one another and let herself catch her breath, feeling the air flow through her in a few more rotations, and then cast a glance over to the girl she was still allowing to ride her.

"It seems I have followed through on my word," she delivered with a trickle of pride.

"So... tired..." The former prisoner breathed, her muscles sagging.

"I most certainly agree with you on that one."

She didn't keep trying to talk to her just in case she started to spew the dreaded words again. Instead, Nikola readjusted her grip on the girl's limbs and started her long, barefoot, trek back to her home village.

Truly, it wasn't so far away from Flapnap, and the road was made of well-traveled dirt. It felt sturdy against the skin of her feet, but she kept an eye out for rocks and other sharps as she tried to balance her own personal safety with keeping up a steady pace. She didn't know of Luke's status, after all, besides 'still trapped', and he'd been quite adamant about her getting back to him as soon as was reasonable.

Her small, steady steps added up to an hour of travel, and then another. Several people passed her on her journey and each time she was hyper aware of her outfit, still white but now scuffed with dirt and dried blood. Luckily, it wasn't unusual to have blood on one's clothes, but her state of dress was peculiar and it showed that they thought so too in their gaze.

You have o?? new me??age. The female voice cropped up within her brain, some of her words garbled and unrecognizable.

Nikola's shoulders rose up at the female voice's intrusion within her mind. What the...
Had she not gone along with her line of questioning about what place she wanted to visit just to get rid of her? And now, here she was again.

She thought back to her conversation with Luke. He had called what she had gone through 'character creation', and had suggested that she had 'entered into the game'. Could it be that this female voice wasn't an indicator that she was going insane, and rather a fixture in this 'game', like the blue rectangles and the gesture she had to do to summon them?

You are reading story Cutting to Life: an NPC LitRPG (Battle Royale) at novel35.com

Hmmm... perhaps, then, the voice was not worthy of blame. It was not any more to blame than a cutting board protecting a tabletop from scratches, or a knife slicing through flesh; they were serving their purpose, and so was it.

"I am going to take a break for a moment," she decided, stepping off of the path and on to the grass to the left. She let her passenger slide off of her back and she tumbled easily backward into the blades. Nikola quirked a brow at her lack of response, but her face betrayed something like peace and so she just allowed her to stay there for a while. Perhaps Nikola was not the only one who needed a break.

Nikola lowered herself down beside the red-haired girl, taking a seat on the earth and then drawing the squiggly line in the air that brought forth the box. It popped up easily, making a swooshing noise as it manifested. There were a great number of symbols sitting upon it that she didn't yet understand, but she pressed the same one she had pressed the first time - this time, the number 1 was hovering over it with a loud red circle behind it.

When she opened it up, a message from Lukeknight64 was waiting for her.

Lukeknight64: Nikola?
Lukeknight64: Nikooolaaaa
Lukeknight64: ok cool you're not responding
Lukeknight64: so I've been trying to be cool and just wait down here, but water just started coming in under the door and it's freaking me out
Lukeknight64: I am hyper aware of the fact that I am in a basement right now
Lukeknight64: Nikola
Lukeknight64: Nikola
Lukeknight64: Nikola

Nikola paled as she read through the messages. They were still fuzzy and garbled to her eyes, sliding around the box and distorting as she tried to puzzle through them. But the sentiment was that Luke was in distress - or, even more distress than a man trapped in a basement would already be in.
Water was trickling in?
Why would water be trickling into her basement?

Oh, fuck.

Nikola peered into the distance. The snow capped mountain that was beside her village, even from where she was standing, was looking slightly less snow capped than usual. It still looked frosty, but it also looked wet, sporting a soggy sort of sheen. It was a massive mountain, even taller than one might expect from something called a mountain. It was extremely mountainous. The tip was so high up that the clouds had to redirect to get past it.
That meant there was an astounding amount of surface area for ice to build up on, and if all of that was melting... it would be more than just her basement that flooded, or even her village.

Nikola Brightdark: Luke.
Lukeknight64: omfg YES finally
Lukeknight64: how close are you
Lukeknight64: have you gotten out of jail yet because I would really not recommend it, being in here sucks

Nikola Brightdark: Yes. I do not know what you mean by 'sucks', nor why that would lead to you not recommending it, but I did not enjoy the experience.
Nikola Brightdark: I have escaped and I am on my way back.

Lukeknight64: I am not in the head space to remember the etymology of the word sucks Nikola
Lukeknight64: the water is up to the place between my feet and knees
Lukeknight64: I'm freaking the fuck out Nikola
Lukeknight64: I don't even remember what the thing between my knees and feet is called
Lukeknight64: it's not a fnee or a kneet
Lukeknight64: wherever you are just hurry

Nikola Brightdark: Attempt to remain calm, Luke. I am on my way.

You can find story with these keywords: Cutting to Life: an NPC LitRPG (Battle Royale), Read Cutting to Life: an NPC LitRPG (Battle Royale), Cutting to Life: an NPC LitRPG (Battle Royale) novel, Cutting to Life: an NPC LitRPG (Battle Royale) book, Cutting to Life: an NPC LitRPG (Battle Royale) story, Cutting to Life: an NPC LitRPG (Battle Royale) full, Cutting to Life: an NPC LitRPG (Battle Royale) Latest Chapter