158: Death Sentence, Part One

Death Sentence, Part One

Just like everything else surrounding Neve Stephens, this set the internet on fire. 

That short stream of hers was all anyone was talking about. The forums were ablaze with people asking what they could send her, how the other higher-level players died, and some asking if, perhaps, the video she showed was fabricated somehow. 

The fact remained, however, that this was in fact Neve Stephens, she was in fact in the Final Challenge, and, as far as anyone knew, she was one of the only two remaining players, as no one else responded to the donations sent their way. 

So, people had to take this seriously. 

Some players began compiling lists of potential gifts. Gifts which included mostly accessories, since weapons and armor that were available to be used by healers were scarce. 

Charlotte had a different idea, though. 

She felt that instead of strength and power, perhaps she could provide information. 

Her mind had mostly focused on the fight Neve had mentioned, and so, as she roamed the Player Library, she tried to find things that would help with this. 

The Player Library was an actual library in Starlight City that had seen all of its books, previously ranging from dealing with history to discussing sciences, replaced by books and scrolls pertaining to the Unity Trials. 

People donated scrolls, here, that others could use to learn Spells and Techniques. 

These scrolls were, usually, not very high quality, of course. Partly because {Rare}, {Unique}, and {Legendary} scrolls were very rare, but also because players simply did not like sharing the truly overpowered things they found. 

Charlotte hoped this would be enough to make a difference, though. 

She walked into the library in a hurry, looking over her shoulder to make sure she wasn't being followed.

It was largely empty, save for a couple of players sitting down and reading scrolls with bars over their heads, slowly filling up as the knowledge from the scrolls made its way to their minds. 

She found one other player standing by one of the shelves, sifting through books. This woman was the person Charlotte had come to meet. 

"Salut!" She called out. 

The lady she'd called, a woman with wild, white hair tied into pigtails, wearing glasses and a brown pencil skirt that made her look like she'd just walked out of an office, turned to her with a smirk. 

"Good evening," the woman said as she walked over to Charlotte and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "I'll be honest, I was half expecting you not to show up." 

"What do you mean? I called you here." 

"I know. I was worried you might find someone else more interesting on the way. Your heart does tend to have a... slightly short attention span." 

The woman's name was Beatrice. Unlike Roxy, Charlotte hadn't pulled her name from her collection of past girlfriends, but rather from her collection of past friends with benefits. 

"By the way," Beatrice continued, "are you certain she's going to see the stuff you send her? She's probably going to be drowning in an ocean of notifications and messages in the coming days." 

"Probably," Charlotte conceded, "but I have a good feeling about this. Besides, it can't hurt to try." 

"I suppose so," Beatrice shrugged. "Well, I did my job. Here you go," she said, before gifting Charlotte a notepad. "I compiled every Spell and Technique assassins can use. That I could find, anyway. The Bloodletter Guild is somewhat open about their players' skillsets, but even then, it was hard to acquire much information." 

"Understandably," Charlotte replied as she checked the notepad she was just sent. "Having information about a Technique or a Spell is almost as beneficial as having the thing in question." 

"Which is why you're doing this," Beatrice noted. "I'm sure Neve will appreciate the effort... If she ever does receive your messages." 

"Let's hope she does," Charlotte responded. "Tha- ACK!" 

"And," Beatrice cut her off, slapping her ass, "I would appreciate it if the calls I receive from you are less 'business' and more 'pleasure' in the future. I'm stressed enough as is." 

Giggling, Charlotte gave her a little bow. 

"Perhaps~" She responded as Beatrice gave her another kiss. "You'll have to wait and see." 

"God, you're a handful. In more ways than one," Beatrice winked at her, holding up the hand that had just gotten that greedy little touch in. 

Entertaining as it was to talk to Beatrice, Charlotte wanted to get this information to Neve as quickly as possible. So, she gave her goodbye and quickly walked out of the library. 

Making her way back to Roxy's home, Charlotte sent Neve a message on Tweeter. 

[Ms. Healer, do you have a moment?] The message read. 

Keeping it short and sweet, Charlotte sent her that message through her phone and walked inside. 

[Hopefully, I actually did send it to her. I may have gotten the username wrong since the instant that stream ended a ton of people made accounts with similar names. Hm. I wonder what the point of that is. Are they trying to roleplay as her, or something? So weird.] 

Roxy was out working, so Charlotte had all of the house to herself. 

Pushing her heels off and jumping onto the couch, she only had to wait a few seconds before a notification reached her phone. 

To her surprise, the healer answered almost immediately. 

[Yes.] 

"Oh," Charlotte said. "I guess she was expecting me." 

Charlotte grinned and quickly responded: 

[Can you do a video call?] Charlotte asked. 

The two of them briefly exchanged contact information and, before she knew it, Charlotte was sitting in front of her laptop getting ready to speak with Neve face-to-face for the first time. 

The journalist honestly felt somewhat nervous. 

The object of her curiosity was about to see her for the first time. 

Suddenly, she was a lot more self-conscious of the faded jeans and low-cut white shirt she wore. 

[I hope I look at least a little decent,] she thought as she pushed her pink hair back. 

The call rang, and rang, until... 

There she was. 

Neve Stephens was sitting in front of the camera in much the same way as she had been before when she did her stream. This time, however, there were dark blue spots on her dress. 

[Is that... monster blood? I guess she's been busy.] 

The healer's brows went up just a little as Charlotte's image appeared as well. The journalist didn't know what to make of that reaction. 

"So..." Neve said, her voice coming across almost perfectly. "You're Charlotte?" 

[Get it together,] she told herself. [You are charming, you are sexy, you are fun to be around. No need to be nervous.] 

"Indeed," Charlotte responded with a polite smile. "And, you are Neve Stephens. It is a pleasure to finally speak with you." 

"... Yeah," the girl nodded slowly. "Uh... Same, I guess." Neve's face, however, may as well have yelled "I don't really give a shit." 

[God, she's such an ice queen! AHHHH!] 

Externally, though, the journalist remained composed, long enough at least to say:

"Well, before I say anything else, I would like to let you know that I have a little gift prepared for you~" 

The journalist looked for Neve's player ID and then sent her notes she'd just received using the new "gift" option, which, of course, hadn't been there up until recently, when the Forces That Be decided to add it.  2

"What is this?" Neve asked, as she went and looked at what she'd just received. 

"Oh, nothing much. Just every single Technique and Spell assassins are capable of using. That I could find, anyway. I figured you might need something like this soon." 

"Wait, what?" Finally, some emotion showed in Neve's expression. "Holy shit." 

"Indeed. Think of it as a- there's a monster behind you, watch out!" Charlotte yelled as a half-human, half-snake creature suddenly appeared behind Neve, moving up to the camera. 

The human turned around and saw it, only to look back at Charlotte with a completely calm and relaxed expression. 

"Her? Her name's Erin. She's not a monster, she's a friend." 

Charlotte's eyes went back and forth from the snake to the human and then back to the snake. 

"A... friend?" 

"It's a long story," Neve waved her concern away before then whispering something to the half-snake. The woman huffed and then slithered away. "Sorry about that. She was just curious. Uh, so, you were saying," Neve continued. "These notes have a bunch of assassin stuff in them?" 

"Y-Yes," Charlotte responded after clearing her throat, "there is quite a lot there, so I advise you to take your time with it."

"I see..." Neve nodded a little. 

Charlotte gave her a second or two to look through the contents of the notes. Then, she asked: 

"If it is alright with you, Neve, could I ask you some questions?" 

"Hm?" Neve brought her sapphire eyes back to Charlotte. 

"As I told you before, I am a journalist. This exchange we are having at the moment is quite the opportunity. I would like to get to know your circumstances a little." 

"Oh..." Neve responded with a nod. "Could this wait till after I've killed that fucker?" 

Charlotte pulled back. The sheer amount of venom in those words stunned her. 

"Um, are you that certain you will win?" 

"No," Neve quickly answered. Then, looking at Charlotte with a pair of beautiful, but almost soulless eyes, she said, "but I can't really think about anything else right now. I'm sorry."

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