The Villainess Returns with a System-Chapter 107: Vivian and the Talking Dodo

Losing Mrs. Becky like that was something that would weigh on Vivian’s mind. Her quest was limited to two weeks; tonight was the end of the thirteenth day, and tomorrow was the final day to find Mrs. Becky.

Still, the penalty for rescuing Mrs. Becky was mild. Karma and SP loss were the least of her worries at the moment, but failing a quest still left a bad taste in her mouth. ƒreewebηoveℓ.com

"Let’s just kill Natasha and get out of here," Vivian sighed as she turned around, facing the remaining carriages.

One of them ought to be Natasha’s.

Knowing the nature of Gratia, Natasha’s magical cosmetic, if she is still using it up until now, it means that there is a good chance she survived this blast. That’s why Vivian asked for an entire gunpowder keg to be left in the wagon... just in case.

Vivian raised a hand, waving for Voros, who picked up a lantern from his side and waved with it once. This was a signal that there were no other hostiles. Now, it was time for them to safely check every carriage separately.

Voros immediately descended from the rooftop using another line that was previously installed and ran into the ambush sight with two guns in hand, just like Vivian. As he made sure it was all okay, he holstered them and joined Vivian.

"The nearest police station is five minutes from here. I think we lost one minute already, so... Can you open all the carriages in under four minutes?"

"Voros needs two."

"Atta boy!"

Immediately, Voros approached the nearest carriage that was toppled on its side and started checking the locking mechanism. Meanwhile, Vivian didn’t idle around sucking on her thumb; instead, she inspected the locks, which were too sophisticated for her skill. Instead, she started searching the guards for keys, but they didn’t seem to carry any.

GROWL!

ROAR!

But just as she started to busy herself with the guards’ corpses, a loud roar came from the side of Voros’ carriage as he was about to open the mechanism.

"Shit! What’s that?" Vivian asked as she watched the carriage shake and rustle.

"Not scared! Voros not afraid!"

Immediately, Voros—who fell right on his ass—jumped up and ran off from the carriage, hiding behind Vivian.

"That doesn’t sound like Natasha to me! We’ll... keep looking. Just check if the carriage contains... more of whatever that is."

The carriage kept shaking as whatever beast inside tried to break free, but from what it seemed, the carriage was no joke either. If not for Voros being a metallurgist who can completely manipulate anything made of metal, there would be no hope of opening any of those.

While keeping an eye on the carriage with the beast, Voros and Vivian checked the next carriage first to see if anything was alive inside. As they opened it, they found a heap of crates that seemed to have been smuggled from the frontiers, judging by their bad condition.

"Arms dealing! That has Ian Grayson written all over it," Vivian said, and they moved on to the next carriage.

As Voros popped its mechanism open, nothing of value appeared inside except for a strongbox with a complicated mechanism. On top of it, it had an interesting star shape and some inscriptions in a runic language.

"Looks expensive," Vivian said as she picked up the strongbox.

"Take home?" Voros asked.

"Sure. Nobody would miss it, right?" Vivian said jokingly and tried to put the strongbox in her storage purse, but as she did so, it suddenly repulsed her with a strange magical force.

Eyes wide, it was Vivian’s first time experiencing something like that, but as soon as Voros saw it, he nodded to himself.

"Magic push away magic... not good together," Voros said.

"Hold on! I don’t understand," Vivian turned to him.

"Voros too... magic too complicated... makes Voros angry... smash it with a hammer."

As it seemed that there was no use hauling that strongbox in her storage bag, she carried it outside and dragged it to the wagon as Voros opened the next carriage. It was then that a system message appeared right in front of her.

« Quest Accomplished! »

"What?"

« Quest: Rescue Mrs. Becky. »

« Reward: 2000 SP! »

Vivian looked with a confused face at the strongbox she was carrying, then shook her head and turned away to head back to Voros. There, she saw it.

As Voros unlocked the locking mechanism of the carriage, something strange peered its beak at him from the dark, and with an intimidating face that followed, something spectacular appeared.

"Holy shit!" As Vivian saw it, she was in for a surprise that she never expected, but it was too early for her to feel surprised yet, for this was the last thing on her mind.

"Chief! Dangerous?" Voros asked as he nervously stared at the feathery creature.

"No, Voros! It is not," Vivian approached slowly as she watched a large flightless bird, triple the size of a turkey, come out from the carriage.

Vivian realized that what she was witnessing now was the real Mrs. Becky.

"The last of its kind, of course, it all makes sense now," Vivian spoke as she approached the girl with the smile of a child, "It’s a Dodo."

A bird out of place and time, a feathery paradox that waddled through life without fear, never knowing it was nature’s greatest innocent. From the world she came from, Nadia knew the story of the Dodo like many others. The bird that inhabited a land without predators—eating peacefully of its fruits—slowly evolved from a traveler of the skies to a grounded forager. But its fate turned upside down when the bipedal disaster arrived. Men hunted them for sport and food, while the creatures they brought—rats, pigs, and monkeys—raided their nests. In mere decades, the dodo was no more, its remains scattered across history, a ghost of a world that had once known no fear.

And so this one animal was the last of its species. Of all the things a heartless killer like Vivian would feel, it was pity for the animal. Yet the last thing Vivian would expect was...

"Holy heavens! It was so stuffy in there. Thank goodness I didn’t suffocate!"

... the Dodo speaking.

Vivian looked at Voros and then the bird with bewilderment.

"Ah! Annoying!" Voros covered his ears and stepped back from the Dodo.

"Is it PTSD, or is this bird speaking?" Vivian asked.

"Speaking? Wait! You can hear me?" The Dodo looked at Vivian, tilting its head sideways and jumping towards her as if skipping over some obstacle.

"Wai--wai--wai--wait! Stand back, talking bird!"

"Talking?" Voros looked at Vivian as if she were the crazy one.

"You don’t hear it?" Vivian asked with a worried face.

""No!""

Both dwarf and bird replied at the same time.

""I can’t believe it!""

Both the bird and the young lady exclaimed at the same time.

""How?""

Both the young lady and the dwarf felt stupefied.

"Alright, we need to stop doing this." Vivian made a T-sign with her hands that both the dwarf and the bird tried to imitate, making her feel more puzzled, "Oh, boy. This is getting worse."

"You... you must have Karma; only so can you hear me," the Dodo said as he started coming closer to Vivian.

"Karma! Wait! Sir System mentioned that once. I have a Karma Sensor. Do you know what it all means?" Vivian asked with a face filled with worry.

"System? Karma Sensor?" The Bird tilted its head innocently. However, as soon as she removed her face mask, the bird froze, and it jumped back in fear.

"Impossible! It is you! The Villainess!" The Dodo cried.

"Annoying stupid bird!" Voros seemed annoyed and walked away from the Dodo and his bird-talking companion.

"What?!" On the other hand, Vivian didn’t imagine she would be recognized with a term only she uses with herself since, after all, she was once a player.

"Oh! This is bad! Which Fate is this? Her eyes are not red. Good... Good..."

"Hey!"

"She’s alive... so it doesn’t mean she had bad luck yet..."

"Mrs. Becky!"

"So... what is wrong? How did she get Karma? Is something wrong... maybe some Error? Deus ex machina? Impossible!"

"Stupid bird!"

Vivian had had enough of the Dodo rambling and smacked its head.

"No! Begone! I won’t say a thing," the Dodo trembled in a cowardly voice and backed away from Vivian.

As for her, she caught it right away by its neck with a pistol in her hand.

"Last of your kind, my ass. What the fuck are you?"

"Not speaking!" The Dodo replied, and in a fit of fear, it laid an egg.

"Alright! I’m no gentle mistress. So if you tell me everything you know, I won’t pluck all your feathers and dip you in boiling water."

"Al... Alright... I’ll... talk... my... throat."

"Here!"

Vivian let go of the Dodo but held it at gunpoint.

"Damn it! Please... Please don’t be evil!" The Dodo said as it shivered from fear.

"How? What will happen? What does the Game have to do with everything?" She asked.

"The Game... it controls everything you can imagine. The Saints, the Heroes, the World!"

"So? I am in a game world? What’s new about it?"

"You don’t get it. Did someone give you a Mithril Disk?"

The Dodo’s words made Vivian frown as if the game—whose events should have ended long ago — is still taking effect even with the Mithril tokens that she uncovered.

"I got four," Vivian replied.

"Four? One is too much!" The Dodo said and backed away from Vivian, "Don’t get too greedy, Villainess. The eighth path is the cruelest. Beware deus ex machina. Beware, House Moore..."

SWOOSH!

THUD!

And just as it was almost about to say the most important thing, a large object slammed against the Dodo, something the size of a carriage door... actually, it was a carriage door.

Vivian looked back with fear as that heavy door just passed her, not one foot away.

Vivian looked back and saw Voros backing away from someone walking out of the carriage, dressed in rags, but with skin as white as porcelain.

It was her.

"Natasha!"

Vivian looked at the Dodo, whose head dangled, and with the last of its breath, it said two last words.

"Black... Dahlia..."

And it died!

« Rewarded Retracted! »

« Quest Failure! »

« -2000 SP »

« -2000 SP as a penalty »

« New Quest: Find Mr. Vino! »

Vivian stood up and pushed aside all the messages. She turned and faced Natasha with anger. The two saw each other’s faces, and the face of the Novarkish spy turned from mild shock to absolute evil.

"Vivian Moore! The Saints aren’t blind after all. They deliver you to me."

"And you to me, bitch."

A great fight was about to unfold: Natasha’s Impervious Skin against Vivian’s modern firearms... and a whole load of action in between.

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