Miao Miao stared at the 'fake Sherlock Moriarty' standing in front of her. For a brief moment, a flash of surprise flickered in her eyes, but in the very next instant, it turned into cold analysis.
"Why… are you blocking my path? That system tried to stop me before as well?" the fake Sherlock said in a cold voice, as bullets of fire shot out from his fingertips.
Miao Miao did not respond directly. Instead, she lightly moved her hand.
In an instant, the air around them grew heavy.
Miss Assistant said, "I am using the system's advantages."
"System: Speed Reduction 30%." Miss Assistant announced loudly.
The fire bullets slowed down but did not stop completely.
"Hm… it's not working fully?" Miao Miao frowned.
In the next moment, she stepped aside one fireball almost grazed her shoulder.
But she did not stop. She held the knife she had just taken from her space ring, and wrapped a thin wire around the blade.
The fake Sherlock laughed, "You think playing with time will defeat me? And what are you even doing with that knife?"
His body suddenly blurred one became three shadows rushing forward together.
Miao Miao closed her eyes for a moment.
"System: Sensory Filter Activate." Miss Assistant declared loudly.
All surrounding sounds, light, and spiritual fluctuations separated clearly.
"The one on the right… is the real one," a voice echoed in Miao Miao's ear.
She hurled the knife fiercely toward the right.
Clang!
With speed and precision just like Klein, the fake blocked the attack. A paper figurine floated in front of him.
"Interesting…" the fake Sherlock whispered.
This time, cards flew out from his hand sharp metal edges, each one deadly.
Exactly Klein's style.
Miao Miao said coldly, "You are his copy… but not complete."
She spun the knife, deflecting card after card.
Clang! Clang! Clang! But one card sliced past her side, cutting her arm slightly, and a lot of blood flowed out yet she did not step back.
The fake Sherlock then muttered a spell in Hermes, "Exile."
Miao Miao suddenly felt it the space around her twisting. She felt like she was being torn away from reality.
"Miss Assistant…!"
"Emergency Stabilization Activated."
Gray fog condensed around her and her position stabilized.
But blood trickled down from her lips.
"This attack… it strikes directly at the soul…" she realized. Miao Miao gave a faint smile, though her body trembled.
"Then… you really are different," Miao Miao whispered.
"Alright… Miss Assistant, don't you have something that lets me hide and strike?"
She stepped forward and directly attacked again, trying to bind him using the wire.
But at that very moment the fake Sherlock's body shattered into pieces of paper. Miao Miao's eyes widened in shock.
"He… is using Klein's best trick too!"
Suddenly from behind, an ember-covered card struck her back.
She fell forward. "You're too slow…" the fake Sherlock's voice echoed.
Miao Miao tried to stand. Her breathing had grown heavy.
"I keep losing…" she thought to herself.
"Yes, Reality Editor can be used, but it comes with a cost. It is a cheat code created by the system. At this moment, it can only perform Conceptual Mirroring and Gravity Control. To activate it, you must spend 1000 pounds, and blood will flow from the user's nose and mouth."
"Use 1000 pounds, and activate Gravity Control," Miao Miao said to Miss Assistant.
"System Command: Gravity Manipulation Zero G!"
In an instant, gravity in the alley vanished. The fake Sherlock Moriarty, who had been standing with the perfect balance of a Clown, suddenly lost control and began floating in midair. His scholarly facade shattered, and extreme shock appeared in his gray eyes. He flailed his limbs in the air, but in a weightless state, none of his techniques worked. Only Miao Miao remained standing on the ground.
But the cost of using this power was terrifying. Blood began dripping steadily from her nose. Her brain felt unbearable pain, as if thousands of volts of electricity were surging through it.
While floating, the fake Sherlock used his 'Magician' ability. Dozens of paper figurines separated from his body and scattered around. Those figurines floated in the gravityless air, moving in a strange, dancing pattern toward Miao Miao. Each one looked exactly like the fake Sherlock, holding sharp tarot cards.
Miao Miao's condition worsened rapidly. Maintaining gravity control meant pushing her brain toward destruction. She cried out in pain, and a mouthful of blood burst out and splattered onto the ground.
"Ahhh! Gravity… off!" she was forced to restore gravity.
Immediately, the fake Sherlock and his dozens of paper figurines slammed onto the ground. The fake Sherlock quickly stood up and adjusted his glasses, his eyes now filled with anger and cunning.
Miao Miao was panting, but she did not stop. She could not let the investment go to waste.
"I… want the next one," Miao Miao said while gasping.
"System Command: Conceptual Mirroring Activate!"
In an instant, the 'light' and 'space' of the alley trembled. As the fake Sherlock prepared to burn Miao Miao with his flame control, he was stunned because he saw countless reflections around him.
Some held knives ready, some swung wire threads, some simply stood observing calmly.
Miao Miao's real body disappeared among the reflections. Suddenly, dozens of reflections across the alley laughed at once. The laughter was cold, confident, and slightly mocking.
All the reflections moved their lips together, as if speaking in unison, but only one voice could be heard.
"Of course, I will win."
Miao Miao knew that when an opponent is told of defeat with such firm belief and mystery, it creates a crack in their subconscious confidence. They begin to feel inferior.
The fake Klein screamed in pain, "Impossible! What is your Beyonder pathway? How are you deceiving my spiritual senses like this?"
He began firing fireballs wildly. A dozen reflections were burned to ashes, but dozens more replaced them instantly.
Suddenly, the temperature behind the fake Klein dropped by one degree. No sound, no footsteps—Miao Miao's figure materialized directly from the mist.
"Before you strike… you need to be still," Miao Miao's cold voice echoed beside his ear.
With swift movement, Miao Miao wrapped the wire tightly around his body. The binding was so strong that he could not move. In truth, during her time as an Assassin, she had subdued powerful opponents like this capturing them without them even realizing it.
With flawless precision, Miao Miao drove the knife straight through his back toward his heart. When the blade entered the fake Klein's body, no blood came out. Instead, a burst of intense green light erupted.
The fake Klein screamed in agony, "You… you cannot save him… I will take his body one day…"
Miao Miao pressed the knife harder and pulled it out in one motion. Instantly, the fake Klein's entire existence turned into a swirl of smoke and began dissipating into the air.
[System Notification: 'Reality Editor' mode ended. Mission successful. Target eliminated.]
The alley returned to its previous dark and silent state. Miao Miao was breathing heavily, sweat dripping from her body. She saw the ordinary man lying on the ground, now in a normal condition. She checked her pocket only 1360 pounds and 5 pence remained.
Then she looked up at the sky and murmured in her mind, "You may be Klein's shadow… but you failed to use his strategies properly."
- - - -
Miao Miao quietly slipped into her room through the window like a thief. The interior was pitch dark, with only the faint glow of the street's gas lamps filtering through the glass and casting a long shadow across the floor.
She walked slowly to the bathroom and washed her face and nose with cold water. Looking into the mirror, she saw that although the bloodstains were gone, traces of fatigue and excitement still lingered in her eyes.
Wiping her hands by the sink, she leaned back onto the bed. Beside her, Miss Assistant floated gently, emitting a faint blue glow from the spiritual world.
Staring at the ceiling, Miao Miao whispered,
"Assistant… that virus… has it attacked before?"
"Yes," Miss Assistant replied in a single word.
Miao Miao remained silent for a moment. Then she asked again,
"Tell me… how will I know when it tries to attack Klein again?"
Then she turned her eyes toward Miss Assistant and said,
"Wait… you brought me to Minsk Street for this reason, didn't you? So that I can always stay close to him… and intervene the moment I detect the signal?"
---
Around the tents of the Rice Circus, the festive atmosphere still lingered. Just moments ago, Klein had exited the blind magician's show. The man's flawless misdirection had left him deep in thought how could someone create such illusions without any supernatural powers? Undoubtedly, it was an important lesson in acting.
A few steps later, the scent of freshly baked pies wafted to his nose. In the misty twilight, he caught sight of a familiar figureMiao Miao sitting alongside a brown-haired girl, Rosie.
"Hello, Mr. Moriarty! Please, come and sit with us," Miao Miao called out with a smile.
Klein tipped his hat slightly and said politely, "Thank you, Miss Nightshade," before taking a seat at their table. After a brief introduction, he glanced at Rosie, then back at Miao Miao.
At that moment, for just an instant, he felt a spiritual presence emanating from Miao Miao.
Silently, he activated his Spirit Vision.
Yet the result surprised him Miao Miao's spiritual form appeared completely normal, showing no anomalies.
"Strange… could it be my imagination?" he wondered. From the outside, he remained composed, but Klein decided that he would ascend above the gray mist that very evening to make a proper divination on the matter.
---
Above the gray mist, the grand palace stood silently.
Klein pondered for a long while why he had sensed a spiritual presence from Miao Miao.
He pulled out a piece of parchment made from goat skin and wrote a divinatory statement: "The cause of Miao Miao's spiritual anomaly."
He pronounced it seven times, but there was no effect.
Could Miao Miao be a Bystander? He wrote again on the parchment: "Miao Miao is a Bystander."
Entering a deep state of meditation and completing all the steps of soul investigation, Klein opened his eyes and looked at the result.
The gem locket spun rapidly, its hands moving with high frequency.
The result was positive. Klein, astonished, set down his dark red fountain pen, picked up the parchment with the divinatory statement, and leaned back in his chair.
He whispered repeatedly to himself, "Miao Miao's pathway…" as his lips moved.
With his eyes closed, he saw a figure in white, delicately moving their hands in the air. Suddenly, another figure's pocket was carefully rifled through, and everything blurred. Then he saw the figure pick a lock without a key.
Klein opened his eyes and whispered to himself, "Marauder… an extraordinary theft." He was now certain that Miao Miao was using their Sequence 9 ability to keep their spiritual existence hidden from everyone.
(Share your opinion, it will inspire me to write more.)