I spent the entire night digging for any more clues about the Murderer. There wasn’t much to show for it, but I did manage to gain a few things.
[You have obtained a bundle of Coins!]
[ !!! Title acquired: Fox with the Most Coins! +More]
For example, things like this… What’s with this “+More” now?
[ !!! Title acquired: Fox with the Most Coins! You can now extort coins from other foxes.]
Apparently, I’d become a fox that shakes people down. The absurdity of it made me giggle stupidly—until a shadow suddenly loomed over me.
“Why are you here?”
Kyuuu.
A voice I didn’t recognize. With the lighting behind him, I couldn’t clearly make out the man’s face.
“This isn’t a place where a little fox should be.”
The man picked me up. I was used to users hoisting me into the air, so I let myself be held without resistance. But the direction he was walking in… was odd.
Fending off the clinging ghosts with a whip made for exorcising spirits, the man strode all the way to the storage room at the end of the hallway. Then, leaning against the door, he shut it behind them.
His lips, partially visible through the backlight, curled into a meaningful, twisted smile.
“Good boy.”
He whispered as he kept stroking my head. But then, without warning, he grabbed the Golden Collar. I felt it tug at my neck—struggled for a moment—then snap, it broke clean off.
He yanked it away from me, and I stayed still until he placed my now uncollared body on the ground.
My instincts as prey were screaming: Be cautious. Be careful.
“Such a quiet little fox. No wonder you get so much affection.”
He nudged my belly with the tip of his shoe—then suddenly kicked me hard, shoving me away.
Kyaiiing!
A sharp yelp burst out reflexively as I bounced and rolled across the floor like a skipped stone.
My flesh was so soft and squishy that it didn’t really hurt. But just as I tried to get back up, the man cracked the door open and slipped out. The door slammed shut before I had any chance to squeeze through.
He had locked me in this musty storage room.
I just stared at the door, dazed.
‘…What the hell is that psychopathic bastard?’
The sudden turn of events left me speechless. The guy had kidnapped me, taken my leash, and locked me in here. I was the one who got the ‘Extortion’ skill—so why was I the one getting robbed?
Just because I looked cute didn’t mean everyone would be nice to me. In the natural order of things, the weak got trampled by the strong.
On the second day, when I was starving, someone had tried to beat me to death for meat. Another time, I’d been walking just fine when some idiot tried poking me with a stick for no reason—and Noona stepped in, furious on my behalf.
I twisted my body toward the narrow sliver of light leaking through the tiny crack in the door. That little bit of glow was all I had now.
There was no one left to protect this tiny version of me.
Ghosts tried squeezing through the crack, peeked at me, and left again—bored, apparently.
Crying like a fox with the runs wouldn’t change a damn thing now.
I closed my eyes. My only goal was to survive through today.
***
When Kessler woke up from his sleep, he realized that what he was holding onto was not the plump butt-cheeks of the fox, but the tail of the strongest reptile on earth—Snake Rim.
“Why are you sticking your tail in my face?”
“I was just trying to cover you with a blanket, but you grabbed it, Kessler-nim.”
Snake Rim was utterly wronged. He hadn’t even wagged his tail once—he had only stood quietly, cheering on his master’s good night’s sleep. And this was the thanks he got—scolded for his efforts.
To make matters worse, Kessler even tossed the tail away in annoyance. Snake Rim’s precious tail hit the floor with a dull thud.
Expressing his hurt feelings, Snake Rim curled his scales in displeasure, but Kessler paid him no mind and headed outside.
“Where the hell is that little rascal running around again?”
He prowled around where users were gathered in small groups. Places the fox often wandered into.
Considering how much the little guy was adored, he figured the fox was probably nestled happily in someone’s arms, playing and showing off.
But no matter how much he scanned the area, he couldn’t spot the fox.
Kessler resonated the air to make the fox’s Jingling Bell ring from his neck. But there was no response from anywhere inside the castle.
Kessler’s brow furrowed sharply. The bell wasn’t ringing?
Had someone taken it off the fox’s neck and stolen it? If so, there was a high chance it was treated as a trophy.
How dare they. Who the hell?
“Ugh? Why do my ears feel clogged?”
“Same here, same here.”
“I swallowed, but it’s still weird.”
Kessler kept resonating the air. He had to make sure he could locate whoever had taken the bell at any moment.
While walking through the crowd of users, Kessler approached a group of girls playing marbles against a wall.
“Huh? Kessler! You wanna play too?”
“Did you see our fox?”
“Oh, the baby Arctic Fox? Hey, you guys saw him, right?”
“Didn’t see him after last night, right?”
“Yeah. Why? Did he go missing?”
Kessler ignored the only part of the answer he wanted to hear and turned on his heel to leave. Whatever else the girls were muttering behind him, he didn’t care.
“Hey! Kessler!”
The next group to grab Kessler’s attention was a cluster of users grilling meat over a charcoal fire. Responding to a beckoning from a female user, he approached, his gaze involuntarily drawn to the meat sizzling on the grill.
No way, he thought. That meat looked yellowish. There was no way the pure white, soft-furred fox would turn into such greasy-looking meat.
…But then again, if the belly was chubby, it would be full of fat, right? Now that he looked closer, this meat was indeed packed with fat. And strangely, it was small.
Kessler’s expression stiffened as he stared intently at the meat.
“What kind of meat is that?”
“Oh, this? Fox meat.”
“…….Which fox?”
At that moment, the users froze. Not a metaphor for the mood—literally frozen solid.
[System]: You have fallen into a Frozen state!
Frost gathered on their eyebrows, and their gaping mouths refused to close.
One of them, who had been slightly less affected, managed to gulp down a potion and break free from the status effect, then looked up at Kessler with an annoyed glare.
“I hunted that fox outside, okay? Why the hell are you cursing us all of a sudden?”
“You should’ve said so sooner. Why were you wiggling your damn eyes like that?”
Not wanting to argue anymore with Kessler, who was basically growling with a rag stuffed in his mouth, the user bit back any further words.
Kessler—that bastard’s eyes had clearly gone mad. And when a guy with good looks went crazy, there was no way to win against him.
Meanwhile, Kessler, with a sharp, irritable kick, flipped the entire grill over.
Where the grill clattered down, there was a skinned fox hide. It was yellow.
“Isn’t that guy totally insane? Ack! What’s happening to my body?! D-d-d-damn…”
Upon confirming the yellow fur, Kessler felt an odd wave of relief, and turned to leave. But not before freezing the body of the user who had just called him a “psycho” for a full hour.
He scoured every corner of the castle. Any ghosts that dared to wobble into his field of vision were annihilated on sight. It was a form of venting his rage.
Sensing the foul temper of his master, Snake Rim swore not to appear before him at all today.
“Baby Arctic Fox, if you can hear my voice, answer me.”
Kessler walked the corridors, listening carefully. Anyone making the slightest noise was immediately silenced.
After failing to find the fox, Kessler returned to his room and flopped down heavily on the sofa. As he did, a few strands of white fur floated up into the air. They were the Baby Arctic Fox’s fur.
He caught it—a tuft of white fur that had ridden the air, soaring lightly before fluttering down with a fragile motion.
Suddenly, he recalled his first encounter with the Baby Arctic Fox. The only being that had dared to run toward him, even when everyone else was terrified of him.
That tiny body had bumped into him, clumsily demanding to be held. Those wide-open eyes, the tongue lolling out, the tail swaying gently.
When the fire had broken out, the little thing had rubbed its soft rump frantically against his face to wake him up. Remembering that small, desperate gesture, a hollow, lonely smile tugged at his lips.
It was all just a fleeting, meaningless bond.
***
Screeeeeeeeeech.
The door opened, letting sunlight flood in. I squinted against the rays that slipped through the skeletal janitor’s cracked ribs and fractured skull.
Nyang?
The skeleton raised its twisted hand in a wave. I raised my front paw and waved back.
Clack clack clack. The skeleton clicked its teeth together, beaming as if delighted.
I stretched and stepped aside so the janitor skeleton could clean more easily.
[The murderer has found a hint about you. (2/5)]
That message popped up in the system window I habitually checked. No idea how they’d found it, but the clues were piling up fast.
Could the Murderer be that guy from last night?
Maybe. Maybe not.
Now freed from the storage room, I zipped through the crowds of users with purpose.
“Oh? It’s the baby fox!”
“Hey, fox! Your owner was looking for you earlier!”
Owner? Who’s the owner? I don’t have one. I launched a dirt-splashing attack at the man who’d spoken such blasphemy—but I was so weak, all I did was cover him with worms and soil.
“Fox, where have you been? Everyone’s been looking for you.”
Nyang nyang!
Bori Noona—one of Noona Haru’s old party members—scooped me up with a bright smile and gave me affectionate strokes. I stuck out my tongue and grinned, and she burst into giggles, saying I looked like a total pushover.
“Haru would’ve loved to see you like this.”
“Why’re you bringing up a dead kid?”
Good point. Better to get eliminated early and eat premium shaved ice in a breezy spot than to gut bats in a heatwave and munch on their entrails with a pounding heart.
Jealous, really. Unlike me, who was trapped in this game like it had possessed my whole life.
Which meant I had to find the Murderer—fast.
“Hello, Miss Bori.”
I nearly barked from shock. That voice. The guy who locked me up last night.
“Hi! You’re… Jung Dawoon? Jung Da-hoon?”
“Da-hoon.”
She fumbled a bit, then looked up at the man. He gave a soft, eye-smiling grin and naturally reached out to stroke my head.
“Hello to you too, fox.”
The bastard in front of me looked, at minimum, like a shameless creep. At worst? A full-blown psychopath. I snuggled deeper into Bori Noona’s arms—but strangely, she seemed flustered. I perked up my ears. Her heartbeat was loud.
“Do you like animals?”
“Yes, they’re adorable.”
“Would you like to hold him?”
“I’d love to.”
As if I were some plush toy for affection points, Bori Noona handed me over without a second thought. But then—
“Don’t you dare put those filthy hands on my fox.”
I didn’t want to be held anyway. And just in time, Kessler appeared—looking like he’d rushed over. His usually neat bangs were fluttering wildly.
