Jin wanted to escape the noise of the other students he was already exhausted and sleepy.
So he decided to take another path through a small forest by the lake instead of the main road.
It was a bit longer, but much quieter.
But apparently, that was a bad idea… because now Jin was surrounded by three incredibly annoying people!
They were laughing at him mockingly, their eyes full of anger.
"How can you be this disrespectful to the saints, you fucking peasant?" one of them spat aggressively.
"Motherfucker, who do you think you are?" another shouted.
Mark laughed. "Leave him for me. I'll make sure he remembers my name first, then we'll crush him together."
"Saints? Hah! What are you even talking about?" Jin said, looking at them with tired confusion.
"Don't play dumb, you son of the bitch!" Mark yelled.
"Can't you just leave and talk about this later? I'm way too sleepy right now," Jin muttered.
Mark stepped closer, grinning. "Hahaha, in your dreams."
At that moment, Mark lunged at Jin and punched him hard in the face.
"Take this, you bastard!"
Jin was shocked by the sudden punch, and blood started falling from his nose.
"Ughh, fuck why did you do—"
Before he could finish, Mark kicked him in the leg, making him lose his balance and fall to the ground, then he started kicking Jin in the face.
"My name is Mark, you filthy bastard!"
"BAM, BAM, BAM!" Mark kept kicking him, one kick after another.
Jin started to stagger, his vision blurred, and his face was bleeding.
Then a powerful kick hit his stomach, making him scream in pain. "Ahhh…!"
Jin gritted his teeth and tried to put his hands over his face to protect it from the kicks, but...
"Haha, look at this insect!" The other two laughed and then joined Mark, attacking him too.
"BAM, BAM, BAM!"
They took turns kicking Jin while he lay on the ground, trying to defend himself.
His face and his whole body were covered in bruises and blood, and after several minutes of brutal torture passed, Mark grabbed his hair and glared at him.
"This is what happens to anyone who talks shit to me, so listen you—"
Jin couldn't hear the rest, his vision blurred completely, and everything went dark.
Suddenly, he found himself in a white void, empty and silent.
"Agh, where am I?" Jin looked around as he felt devastated.
"Am I hallucinating? Why am I here?"
He touched his head—no blood, not a single scratch.
"Huh… am I… dead? Wait… this place feels familiar!"
Suddenly, the paper appeared in front of him, but this time it looked different... it was completely red, and white letters appeared on it.
"Your body is in critical condition. The spirit of Amon will temporarily take control of your body."
"Huh…?"
Suddenly, Jin felt a strong headache that made him scream and collapse to the ground.
Several minutes passed while he remained in this state, then the white void started to fade... and he began to regain consciousness in the real world.
"Agh, my head hurts…"
Jin looked at his hands then touched his head... He didn't find any wounds or any blood, as if nothing had happened minutes ago!
"Huh… where are my injuries? Wait, where did those three go…"
Suddenly, a loud ringing filled his ears, as he heard something whispering close to his ears.
The whisper sounded like it came from a girl.
Jin couldn't really describe her voice other than that it was terrifying… so terrifying that the moment he heard it, every hair on his body stood on.
"Ding! Congratulations, you killed a human. Your stats have improved."
A cold sweat broke out on Jin's body. "W-What..?"
At that moment, he heard the voice again.
"Ding! Congratulations, you killed a human. Your stats have improved."
Then the voice came again.
"Ding! Congratulations, you killed a human. Your stats have improved."
Cold sweat broke out on his body, and he felt a surge of anxiety. He looked behind him to find the three of them lying lifeless on the ground. The sight of their bodies was horrifying!
They'd been ripped apart, torn into pieces, and their faces… their faces were frozen in shocked horror.
But the worst part? Not a single drop of blood anywhere. Not on them, not on the floor.
It was like all their blood had been sucked out before they were torn to pieces.
Jin felt panic, afraid, and his voice was barely audible. "What the fuck happened here…"
Then he dropped to his knees, stunned by the horrific sight in front of him, and then he began to vomit.
He had never seen anything so horrific in his life...
After two minutes of violent coughing and vomiting, Jin forced himself to look at the corpses again, bit his lip hard, and then said,
"Paper… show me the stats."
The paper appeared in front of him.
─────────────────────────
[ Statistics ]
Title: ???
Rank: Dormant
Artifacts: 0/1
Weapons: 0/1
Summons: 0/1
Kills: 3 / 500
Ancient Souls: 0/ ???
─────────────────────────
When Jin looked at his statistics, terror coursed through his body. He wanted to run away, to escape from here, but his legs were shaking, and he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"Kills: 3/500 .."
"How...? How did I kill them? How did this happen…"
Jin bit his lip so hard that blood dripped from it, and he forced himself to stand.
"I have to run from here… If the bodies are discovered while I'm next to them, I'll be thrown in jail, or maybe they'll kill me in revenge!"
He started running as fast as he could, terrified, nervous, and afraid that someone would catch him.
He just kept running and running and running... until he reached the residential complex building and made it to his room as fast as he could, then he closed the door behind him.
Jin couldn't control himself, so he went to the bathroom and threw up again, then washed his face while staring at the mirror hanging in the shower.
"I killed them… No, I didn't kill them! That fucking thing did!"
He pressed his fingers together, trying to calm himself, but even though he was so sleepy, he just couldn't…
He couldn't sleep from all the stress and spent hours tossing and turning in bed until he finally passed out from exhaustion...
The next morning, there was a loud knocking on his door.
Jin woke up terrified. "No... don't tell me they are here for me, no, no…"
He felt like he was suffocating, but when he heard the voice of the person knocking, he felt relieved.
"Student Jin, it's time for the second day's ceremony, please get ready to leave," it was Howell's voice.
Jin shouted, "Huh, yeah yeah I'll be there…"
He slapped his face twice to clear his head of those thoughts, then went to the closet to change his clothes. "Where are my uniform? Where the hell are they!"
He looked around nervously, but finally realized... he was already wearing them.
"Fuck, how stupid of me, I never took them off."
His uniform was dirty with dust and torn, but strangely enough, he didn't find a single bloodstain on it.
Jin had a very bad feeling about that, then opened the door to find Professor Howell waiting for him.
It was really weird that he was waiting and waking him up for the second day in a row.
Teachers normally didn't stick around with students or show them around the academy like Howell did, but Jin guessed this had something to do with Park somehow.
Howell looked at him. "Why are your clothes torn and dirty?"
"Ah… haha… I fell yesterday and my clothes got ripped because of that… hahaha," Jin stuttered.
Howell looked annoyed and said, "Wait a moment. I'll get you another uniform."
He left and came back a few minutes later with a new uniform. It was tighter than the one Jin had before, but he didn't argue about it because he didn't really have a choice.
As Jin walked with the crowd heading toward the colosseum for the second day's ceremony, he heard some of their conversations.
"Did you hear what's going on?"
"This is insane..."
"why is there a Chaos creature in Lucaria?!"
"How the hell did a Chaos creature break into the academy grounds!"
"This is fucking unbelievable, the guards are watching all the time—how did that creature get inside?"
A lot of students were talking about that; some were overreacting, some stayed calm, and some others didn't care at all.
"Huh… so there's a Chaos creature inside the academy too? Why is all this crap happening at the same time?" Jin cursed under his breath.
He was already annoyed about possibly getting arrested, and now there was a Chaos creature roaming freely inside the academy.
Eventually, everyone reached the colosseum. It was a massive ground with a huge stone statue in the center; it was the statue Jin had seen in the main city gate, but now it was much larger.
The surrounding walls were covered in beautiful sculptures, giving the whole place an ancient, majestic vibe.
At the top of the arena, Saruman and several other teachers were seated in their chairs, looking down at the students below.
A large number of guards were spread out along the walls, inside and outside the colosseum, and they all had the power of the Awakened.
The reason for the large number of guards was the growing concerns about a Chaos creature being inside the academy.
Everyone was still talking about it until Saruman's powerful voice cut through the noise.
"Silence!"
The crowd fell silent and looked at Saruman.
Saruman stared at everyone and said, "As you all know, today is the second day of the welcoming ceremony."
"You are supposed to swear your honor as warriors of Marta and dedicate your lives to fight the Chaos."
"This oath is the most important and noble act you will do during your time at this academy."
"But there is something extremely important I must tell you before we begin the oath ceremony."
Saruman's expression grew darker, more serious, and angrier...
"Yesterday, we lost three great students."
"They weren't killed somewhere far away… they died right before our eyes inside our great academy!"
The moment Saruman mentioned three people, sweat started running down Jin's forehead and his anxiety spiked.
"Wait… does he mean-?" Jin muttered.
Saruman continued,
"Our honorable warriors Mark Manchester, Kaled Marven, and Sato Abrinum were murdered yesterday in cold blood. May the saints have mercy on their souls!"
Saruman and the other teachers placed their hands over their hearts and lowered their heads in respect, silently praying for them.
All the students in the courtyard did the same, wishing peace and mercy for them.
Jin did that too… just so he wouldn't get suspicion.
"I'm dead, no doubt about it. They already know about me!"
After a few suffocating moments of tension, Saruman's voice cut through Jin's thoughts.
"The one who slaughtered our beloved students is a vile Chaos Creature. This monster may even be a high-ranking Chaos Demon!"
The crowd was shocked instantly. They realized that a creature capable of evading the senses of many saints, even the strongest on the continent, was no ordinary being.
Saruman clenched his fist.
"Our warriors and dozens of Saints are sweeping the entire city in search of this creature, so there is no need to panic."
"Therefore, today's ceremony and tomorrow's as well will be postponed until further notice. All students should return to their rooms immediately."
"No one is allowed to leave until we tell you so!"
After that, Saruman and the other teachers walked down to leave the colosseum, so all the students did the same and started to leave.
Jin was stunned by what he said.
"What? What? How? Wasn't it me? Wait… what's going on? Am I safe now? Haaah—!"
A huge wave of relief washed over him when he realized he wasn't a suspect.
But at the same time, Jin was completely confused.
"How the hell did they conclude that a Chaos creature was the killer?"
"Was the killer really a chaos creature? No, no, if it were a creature, my kill stats wouldn't have changed."
He bit his fingers as he thought. "Did they just blame a random chaos creature to cover up their failure to protect their students?"
Jin started moving with the other students and eventually made his way back to his room. He couldn't sleep well that night; he was still anxious, completely lost in his thoughts…
In the meantime, dozens of Saints had arrived in Lucaria to investigate the mysterious creature that had supposedly invaded the academy.
Among them was a team consisting of Leonard, Park, Lamar, and Orosawa. They were investigating the spot where the bodies had been found.
Park knelt down, inspecting the ground around him.
"This looks like Chaos creature work… but I don't sense any trace or smell of one here."
Lamar nodded. "I don't sense anything either."
Leonard was sitting on a rock, calmly observing the scene.
"What do you think, Orosawa?"
Orosawa let out a low chuckle as he stared at the severed body in front of him.
"This wasn't done by a Chaos creature. I'm sure a human did this."
Park raised an eyebrow. "Are you saying that because you used to be an assassin… or is that just a guess?"
Orosawa smirked. "There are many strange and terrifying types of Chaos creatures… but I don't believe any of them could do this."
He pointed at the corpses.
"The wounds were made by a blade, not claws or anything else."
Then he lifted Mark's severed head slightly, examining it.
"And that's not all. If you look closely, the cuts are incredibly clean."
He let out a quiet laugh.
"I don't think I've ever seen clean cuts like this before."
Lamar asked as she stared at the ground, "Then how do you explain the complete absence of blood on the ground? Not to mention the bodies themselves didn't have a single drop of blood?"
Orosawa straightened up.
"I think the absence of blood is the result of an Awakened ability."
"There are countless different abilities among the Awakened. I'd bet the killer is human. But the real question is… why kill those three specifically?"
Park sighed, rolling his shoulders. "We don't know. And we don't even know how we're supposed to find this killer. There's not a single trace left behind."
Leonard smiled as he looked at them all. "I also believe the killer isn't a Chaos creature." He paused.
"In fact… I think the killer is a student."
Park looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "A student? How could a student possibly do this?" He gestured at the distorted body remains on the ground.
Leonard chuckled. "I know it sounds crazy… but I have a strong feeling about it."
"Anyway, let's go back to tell Saruman about what we found..."