Julia helped Noara to a chair.
"Easy now, Noara… come, sit here. You did good, girl."
She hands Noara a water bottle.
"Drink it."
The smell of blood and alcohol assaulted her senses together with the cacophony of the chaos reigning around them. Shouting, crying, glass breaking, chairs scraping against the floor.
"What's going on?"
She asked weakly, her mind still reeling from the earlier efforts.
"No idea. Clara is trying to contain those people, but…"
She gestured towards the exit door. Clara was there, hands raised, voice steady. A futile effort to impose order.
"The monsters are inside!"
A burly man, almost two meters in height and with cultivated muscles, was screaming at her.
"THE MONSTERS ARE INSIDE! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIEEE!!!"
He shoved people aside, trying to get through the small crowd that was already cluttering the door.
The problem was that everyone was trying to do the same at the same time. Dozens of people trying to pass through the same opening at the same time.
This is bad. Someone's about to-
She didn't even have time to finish her thought when it happened right in front of her eyes.
A petite girl slipped. There was something wet on the floor, a mix of blood and spilled drink.
The people right behind her couldn't stop their advances because they were being pushed by other people behind them.
Her screams only served to make the people even more eager to flee.
"Fuck…"
Julia let out a defeated whisper, prompting Noara to look at her. She was pale, her lips trembling. Her eyes were locked on the girl disappearing beneath boots and bodies.
I gotta do something…
The earlier warning from the System still echoed in her mind. 'If you freak out, you die.' And she was just seeing it in real time.
And then she remembered another thing in the midst of all the chaos.
Velvet Snare!
She reached for the pressure in her chest, the feeling of activating the skill she had learned just minutes before.
But there was nothing, an emptiness that turned into a headache, a sharp pain in her temples.
For a moment there, her vision went black, and she felt like she was about to faint, but it receded.
[SKILL ACTIVATION FAILED. INSUFFICIENT MP]
The words flickered in her vision, then disappeared.
"What?"
There was no response, no new message appearing. Just Clara, approaching her and Julia.
"It's useless. Nobody will listen. And yet… nobody managed to leave. Maybe they are just too panicked to notice, but nobody is actually crossing that door."
Noara's eyes darted from Clara to the door and back to Clara.
It's true… even with the chaos, they should've been able to leave.
The music had stopped some time ago, and the lights looked like they would give up at any moment now.
"Did you see… some kind of barrier, or something?"
It was Julia who asked, her mind already rationalizing the situation and switching gears towards survival.
But what Clara answered next was enough to break the little composure she had regained.
"Not a physical one, at least. It just feels like… the panic increases the closest one is to the door, so they just change direction without even noticing it… going back away from the door, thinking that they are going towards it."
Julia stared back at the door, squinting her eyes.
"Yes… Now that you've pointed it out, I can see it."
Noara could see the overall aura of the people getting redder and redder.
"And the longer they're in it, the worse it gets… I sh-"
She didn't get to finish the sentence.
Before she could, a knife flashed. The metallic brightness reflecting the club's lights before getting buried into someone's guts.
Blood was spilled, and this time the monster was human.
A man had lost control, the same guy who had finished the third shadow earlier was now running berserk with his knife.
Fuck. I need to use that skill again. How much mana do I have? How do I-
Stats. I need my stats. Now.
The moment she thinks 'stats,' something activates in her brain, and a screen appears in Noara's vision.
===
Name: Noara Vasconcelos
Class: Velvet Witness
Level: 1
XP: 30 / 100
Core Attributes
Strength (STR): 9
Agility (AGI): 11
Endurance (END): 10
Perception (PER): 14
Willpower (WIL): 13
Charisma (CHA): 12
Resources
HP: 85 / 85
MP: 3 / 100
SP: 164 / 159 (boost: energetic drink) (overcap)
Active Skills
Velvet Snare (Lv. 1)
Effect: Emotional suppression / redirection (single target or small cluster)
MP Cost: 25–40 (scales with intensity & number of targets)
Eyes Behind the Curtain (Lv. 1)
Effect: Allows perception of emotional states as color/shadow overlays
MP Cost: 0, mentally taxing
Status Effects
[MP Depleted]
– Active skills locked
– Minor headache, cognitive pressure
[Adrenaline High]
– Suppresses fatigue penalties temporarily
– Crash pending
[Emotional Overload: Area] (Environmental)
– MP regeneration reduced
– Control-based abilities less effective
===
Her head throbbed harder just looking at the numbers, as if the act of focusing was costing her something by itself.
"Oh, great. I spent all my mana, and this fucking place reduces regen."
Julia looks at Noara, startled.
"Mana? What are you talking about? You think this is a game?"
While they discuss, the fight near the door is getting worse.
"Huh? I mean, gorgeous… haven't you seen the System screens? I thought everyone had…"
"Oh, I saw. I just… didn't pay that much attention, with all this happening."
She gestures to the chaos just a few meters from where they were calmly chatting, as this was just another Friday.
Though, in a sense, it was, at least for Julia. As a child of Brazilian favelas, she has already seen worse than a mere knife fight.
Before Noara could say anything else, Clara cut in.
"I found the pattern. The more anxious and impatient people are, the more the door disorients their perception. The only way to pass through it is to be CALM about it."
"Great, and is there another way out?"
Just as Noara voiced that question, the air changed again.
The big mirror on one of the walls shifted.
Now, instead of reflecting the images of the club, it was like a door, leading to a dimly lit corridor.