Cesya, Attempt #4.

ID: CONSTRUCTIONSITE_SPILLWAY_FOREST_M.50.40.10

Seed: wZvR-pKJT04EVxCbLfV2HAUm5v8SjdY5E

Cesya, outwardly, was still calm. She still had it in her to remain still and composed as the world appeared around her, pushing the thought of three previous failures out of her mind to focus solely- well, almost solely- on her next attempt. It was only natural that after three large, fancy drinks, certain pressures would begin to settle into the back of her mind... and in her lower abdomen.

It wasn't bad enough to distract her yet, which made it all the more frustrating to Cesya. Normally, the three drinks she'd already had wouldn't cause any hesitation or worry on her part- but receiving them as a punishment, in her current situation, framed things a lot differently than bar-crawling through the Amoraccia Bay district or taking on some self-imposed challenge on stream. Every rule of the game, every goal she had, every action she could take, everything- all of it looped back on putting pressure on her in a very specific way, and it was difficult to remain unaware of it for that reason.

Even though she really couldn't feel it yet, at least not to any meaningful degree, her mind was still fixated on it. It was difficult not to be, in the space between runs, with nothing better to focus on but her own status and condition. Outwardly, Cesya was fine. Internally, she was worried.

"No reason to get anxious over a few early attempts..." she started, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes as the map finished loading in around her. "No reason to be anxious at all, in fact. No true Inryoan girl would bend under the weight of a mere three drinks, especially not someone as prideful- or wide- as myself!"

She was saying that more for herself than for her chat, but having them hear it did help her uproot the growing doubts in her subconscious all the same. Bolstering herself with that artificial confidence, she opened her eyes and took a look around- and her uncharacteristically stoic, thin-lipped frown quickly turned into her more suitable, signature smug grin.

"And won't you look at that, the map generator is finally playing nice."

The area immediately around Cesya was lightly wooded, trees and bushes dotting a grassy hill and offering plenty of visual cover. The sloping greenery gave way abruptly to a section of flat pavement, lined by two guard-rails and littered with various heavy machinery and vehicles. Beyond that, a deep, barren spillway formed a man-made valley- one that would have posed a significant threat, if not for the twin bridges offering a far more covered approach over the concrete canal. Finally, in the distance, yet more equipment and a large, if incomplete, three-story building could be seen, looming over the surrounding area. What appeared to be a storage area nearby had haphazardly-stacked concrete pipes, smaller vehicles, and a temporary trailer, nestled behind a covered chain-link fence concealing anything smaller that might have been in the area.

Naturally, that made it the best place to look for a certain something.

"Alright, let's do this. Definitely the best map we've had so far, I couldn't have even asked for something easier than this."

Cesya sounded her usual, cocky self, but that didn't mean she was rushing things. Although she was quick to start moving, she took her time with her approach, moving between the best bits of cover she could find, stopping to listen for enemies while her cloak recharged, and keeping her silenced pistol in-hand, just in case. She made smooth, if not rapid progress- up until reaching the center of the bridge.

"Nngh... still two hours? Goddess give me strength..."

Thankfully, there was only a single guard up ahead. Although Project 3K's NPCs were, ultimately, entities made entirely of code with no physical form or sentience driving them, it was easy to lose track of that fact while in-game. Constructed with a particularly advanced neural network fed not just tens of thousands of hours of player data, but terabytes of raw data on interactions, conversations, and even unrelated topics, they could carry on seemingly meaningful conversations amongst themselves, react in understandable and realistic ways, and even find themselves in rather unique situations.

Cesya poked her invisible head up out of cover to see what was going on. A single guard stood watch over the very bridge she was on- though her focus was very much not on the task at hand. It was painfully obvious why- the short, raven-haired guard girl was writhing about, twisting herself up like a pretzel and whimpering audibly to try and soothe the raging, urgent agony of her visibly-swollen bladder.

A sizeable pile of empty tea bottles rest against the bridge railing next to her, explaining her predicament. As if the slow, quiet trickle of liquid runoff coming from below the bridge wasn't enough, that inescapable sound was supplemented by the splashing of water spilling from a cracked pipe running the length of the bridge, mere feet away from where this particular guard was stationed. Once she had a full picture of the scene, Cesya dipped back behind cover to give her cloak a chance to recharge.

"I-I can't believe they STILL haven't installed the restrooms... 'Coming Soon' m-my ass... By the Goddess, I haven't gone since yesterday morning!"

By the ambient lighting, Cesya could guess that it was currently late afternoon.

"E-even if it's my fault for partying last night... then waking up late... then needing all this tea just to stay awake... Even though this is my usual post... It's still cruel to station me here!"

Any second now, Cesya's cloak would be recharged. She briefly pulled up her chat window- and, as expected, everyone was going wild. There was time to send a quick message, probably...

"Nnnngh..! J-just two more hours, and I can... finally..."

The girl's speech to herself fell apart, into needy, mostly mindless whimpers and mewls of **** need. Cesya took her sweet time as it happened, finally sending her message a good half of a minute after her cloak was fully charged again.

"I guess our starting credits weren't the only values our dedicated modding team played around with! Then again, I suppose this isn't so unrealistic a situation that it wouldn't appear in the base game... Either way, chat, don't get too salty over what I'm about to do."

Cesya creeped out from behind her cover, this time without her cloak. It was trivially easy for her to remain unnoticed, even as she took careful aim.

Her first shot would be even quieter than a normal suppressor could allow for- the only problem was every shot after that. However, she'd only need one in a situation like this- and she couldn't go feeling sorry for lines of code now. At the end of the day, this girl was still an NPC guard, and she was still hard-coded to raise the alarm if she spotted Cesya. No amount of diplomacy would change that.

In an instant, the girl disappeared, leaving behind a neat pile of gear where her feet had been.

Cesya had noticed a couple of things chat hadn't. Namely, the SMG that the guard had been carrying, or the lootable boxes nestled behind perfect cover just nearby. Cesya quickly cloaked herself and moved forward to collect her coveted spoils. Real confidence swelled within her as she took everything she could. She barely even bothered looking at the items she was shovelling into her inventory- she'd stop to sort through everything once it was all in her possession.

Mentally, she was even further ahead than that. With this, she could definitely get through the construction site. Things wouldn't go like they had on her first run with some proper equipment at her fingertips. This was it- this was her run, the one that would seal Amaya and Gloria's fate for sure, the one that would spare Cesya from ending up anything like that guard.

Cesya was sure of it.