Day 1 of my assassination mission

  The facility has given me the complete whereabouts of a certain man. Inside the facility, there is someone who has Faith power and transmits information directly into other people's brains. They never give a reason why this man should be assassinated. They only insist that I should assassinate him immediately.

  I quickly make my way to the target's location. Fortunately, the target is in the same country as the facility, which is Russia. However, Russia is a vast country, so I increased my running speed to reach the target as quickly as possible.

  After ten minutes of running at my accelerated speed, I have reached the target's location. The target is a man, and he is currently standing in front of me. We are in a back alley of a city in Russia that's only 1.5m wide. It turns out that the man is a leader of some back-alley gang. I had no idea why such a man must be assassinated according to the facility, but honestly, I do not care about all that. I just want to save Michelle, yet I am not prepared to take someone’s life.

  "What do you want, little girl?" said the man who is 180cm tall, while I'm only 120cm tall.

  "Mister, I was tasked to kill you."

  I said those words calmly despite the weight of my words.

  "Huh?? Go home, kid! I don't have time to play with a little girl."

  The man turned away from me after replying. He is about to leave, but I immediately attack him from behind.

  "UAAAGGGHHH!!"

  I threw my clock-hand sword, and it landed and pierced the man's right shoulder from the back perfectly.

  "TCH!! THE FUCK DID YOU JUST DO, SHITTY BRAT?!"

  The man turns around and swings his left fist towards me. I dodged and jumped to the right and landed on the wall of the back alley. I immediately jumped again, using the wall as a stepping stone, and kicked the man in the face. But unfortunately, the man blocked the kick with his right arm.

  He is not just an ordinary man, as he is the leader of a back-alley gang; he is used to some street fights and has quick reflexes.

  *WHAAAM*

  "Ugh!!!! HOOOEEEEKKK!!!!"

  After he blocked the kick, the man launched a full swing left jab towards my stomach. I was sent flying away for 2 meters.

  I immediately regurgitated as my tiny stomach was directly hit by a muscular fist of an adult male. The man grabs the clock-hand sword on his shoulder and tries to pull it out.

  "What the fuck is this? I can't pull it out! It doesn't even budge! HHRRRRGGHHH!!"

  The man couldn't pull out the sword with his raw strength. He walks towards me instead.

  "KYAAAAAHH!!"

  He stomps on my head and presses it against the ground.

  "What the fuck is wrong with you, shitty brat?? I've been having a really bad day, and even after drinking, I can't even cheer myself up. And you had to throw a fucking sword into my shoulder?!"

  ("Just as I thought, I don't have the guts to kill a person. When he showed his back, that could've been the perfect moment to kill him. I could've aimed at his head and ended this right away, but. . . I just can't.")

  The man grabs my hair and lifts me.

  "Oy, oy, shitty brat!! Didn't you say you're gonna kill me? Show me your sword again! I am not a Believer, but I can still crush a tiny Believer like yourself."

  The man lets go of his hold on my hair, but then immediately grabs my face and slams it on the ground with all of his might.

  "KYAAAAAAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!"

  The back of my head is bleeding. Blood also comes out of my mouth and nose. My skull cracked a bit due to the slam. It hurts so much, especially for a mere seven-year-old girl like me.

  "STAND UP, BRAT!! Weren't you going to kill me?"

  Hearing the man's threat, I did not answer him. I kept thinking to myself.

  "(Maybe, I should just let this man kill me off. I really can't bring myself to kill a person. I'm scared of taking away someone's life. I should just. . .disappear.")

  The man lifts his right fist upwards. He is about to deliver a finishing blow to my head. A fist that comes out of a muscular 180cm tall adult male would certainly kill a young girl with a tiny body, especially if the fist was aimed towards her head.

  "GO TO HELL AND REGRET YOUR DECISION TO APPEAR BEFORE ME, SHITTY BRAT!!!"

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  As the man's fist was about to land directly on my face, I remembered a certain line that came out of Michelle's mouth.

  "Lily-chan, thank you for being a part of my life."

  The man misses his punch.

  "Huh?"

  The man was confused as his fist punched the ground instead of my head. My body was just gone as if it had teleported away.

  I appeared behind the man with the clock-hand sword in my hand. The man suddenly got cut in two. There wasn't even a single drop of blood on my sword. He died instantly, and I have recovered from my injuries.

  The glare in my eyes has turned ice cold. His split corpse is falling to the ground, and so much blood is flowing out of his cut body. My fear of murdering someone was shattered right after I remembered Michelle's words. I was reminded of how precious Michelle is to me. I no longer hesitate to kill my target. Everything was for my one and only best friend in this world.

  I also remember that I need to bring back some proof that the target was killed. The proof must be organs, flesh, skin tissues, blood sample, etc, of the sort that belongs to the target.

  The facility said they can identify anything to prove that it belongs to the target. I shove my bare hands inside the inner body of the left part of the cut man's corpse. I casually mess around with his inner organs to search for his heart. I found the heart and immediately roughly pulled it out of his corpse. My hands are covered in blood. The heart that I'm holding is still pulsating. Normally, I would be disgusted by it, but the current me is completely calm.

  "So, this is how my life will be from now on. . ."

  I was killed that night. I was no longer the person I once was. Taking the life of another human being has awakened something within me.

  I casually walk away from the corpse while holding the heart. Rain starts to fall as if the world itself is crying over the drastic change in a girl at a very young age.

  I have quickly made my way back to the facility. I am back in the room where the facility held Michelle.

  "Welcome back, Experiment#496. How was your first mission?"

  I throw the heart of my target to the floor.

  "Give Mi-chan the antidote!"

  "Ah, yes, of course, that is indeed the agreement."

  The man with the lab coat inserts the liquid into an oval pod, which Michelle is in right now. The pod has some kind of green liquid inside. There is a breathing mask on her mouth, and IV lines were inserted all over her body.

  "Why is she inside that equipment?"

  "Don't worry, it's just procedures to keep her alive. We can't let her die from thirst, hunger, and malnutrition, but we can't let her be free from this spot either."

  "So, what do I do now? You said one mission each day, what about if I finished a mission quickly for the day?"

  "You are free to do as you please. You can leave or enter the facility as you wish. We prepared a room that is only accessible with your fingerprint. You can even stay in the room if you want. It will no longer be locked."

  "Sounds very misleading given the situation you put me in."

  "Well, get lost already! We'll give you a new mission tomorrow."

  The man in the lab coat left the room. I approach the glass window and put my hand against it.

  "Mi-chan. . . I'll get you out. No matter how long it takes, even if it's forever, I won't leave you behind! That is a promise!"

  Michelle wasn't in a condition to have a conversation, but hearing my words, her facial expression looked like she was struggling to give a smile. I shed tears after seeing her effort.

  "Mi-chan. . . *sobs*"

  "(What if. . .)"

  I summon my clock-hand sword. I swing my sword to stab the window.

  "What do you think you're doing?"

  My clock hand sword vanishes into thin air, and my fist was the only thing that hit the window, which was futile. The man with the blue hair suddenly appeared inside the room, behind me, and away from the glass window. I turn around.

  "Do you really monitor this room specifically every second?"

  "I need you to be stronger ASAP. Come!"

  The room suddenly changed into the training room where I used to practice avoiding miniguns, but this time, no scientists were looking out from the windows on top of the wall around. The room looked like it had changed only from my perspective, but what actually happened was that the man and I teleported here instead.

  "What are you doing?"

  "I'll give you another way to save your friend."

  "What?!"

  "If you can defeat me in a fight, then I will free your friend, and you won't have to do your missions ever again! The facility won't ever touch you and your friend. I'll give you my word for this."

  ". . .You serious?"

  "Do I look like I was joking?" the man answers angrily and seriously.

  ". . ."

  "There are conditions about the fight. I will forcefully stop the fight if you beat me or if you have reached a condition where you have to heal yourself from fatal injuries, because otherwise, you'll just come at me forever."

  "Very well."

  As soon as I said that, I rushed towards the man with my accelerated speed. I summon my clock-hand sword and swing it towards his head. The same thing happened as before. I swung the sword, but the sword vanished before it even connected to his hair. I jumped back to keep my distance.

  "Explode!"

  The man said such an incomplete sentence, yet my entire right arm blew up, and blood was splashing everywhere

  *BOOOM*

  "AAAAAAAAAARRGGGHHH!!!!"

  "Boom!"

  My entire left leg blows up next.

  "AAAAAAAAAAAARGGHHHH!!"

  I fell towards the floor. My breathing was heavy. I was bleeding too much. The pain is immeasurable.

  "Bleed!"

  *COUGH COUGH COUGH COUGH*

  I started coughing up blood, and my condition worsened. I feel my body is in a fever, it's heating up. I am having trouble just staying still due to my constant coughing. I feel like I'm quickly heading towards death.

  I decided that I have to heal myself. I rewind time on my body to a state before all of these happened. The pain is suddenly gone, and I feel fine again.

  *pant pant pant*

  "So that concludes the fight for today. You can challenge me again tomorrow after you finish your mission."

  "Oh, by the way, the name's Martin. Martin Wedhessle. The number one Strongest Believer in the world. People called me "God". I also go by the title "The man who called himself God". Nice to meet you!"

  Martin left the room as he faded away. I was hit by a realization of how impossible his requirement is. Defeating the number one Believer is beyond a dream for a seven-year-old girl such as me. These are my daily life from now on.

  From that day, I have had to constantly kill people I don't even know. From that day, I have suffered constant defeat towards someone whose power is beyond human understanding. I was unable to do anything. I cannot break the shackles that were placed on me. My nightmare starts from here. From here on, everything is just pain. I cannot smile through all of that and am only able to do so every time I talk to a dying Michelle.

  I am hurt. I am broken. I want to get out of this nightmare. I kept having these thoughts in my head as I diligently obeyed the facility, as well as fighting a losing battle against "God".

  And yet, I must keep going. Because otherwise, I'll lose Michelle.

  If there's anything in this world that I cannot live without, it is my best friend.

  I can't lose her.

  I made her a promise after all.