<[CHAPTER 6]>
[The Awakening of the Corrupted!] [Part 3]
•━
•━ ━
•━ ━ ━
Login…
Darkness arose, without an absence of light… it was an absence of interface. When eyes opened, their owners didn't find that familiar character feeling.
–"…this…this isn't the standard login!"
He thought about the silence that lasted mere moments, and then, the sound alert appeared.
WEOM… WEOM… WEOM!!!
With the sound, red lights began to flash violently, and with them an irritating female voice.
"The contamination in the Experimental Bunker has reached maximum capacity. To avoid more devastating consequences, the Self-Destruct Protocol has been activated, so you suckers should escape! Otherwise, you'll die like the disposable trash you are, hahaha!"
The voice of the bunker's security system spoke, and then the long-awaited interface appeared, but not for the first individual of dubious origin to awaken.
⊰◉⊱━━━━━━━━━━━━⊰◉⊱
「 NOTIFICATION 」
⊰◉⊱━━━━━━━━━━━━⊰◉⊱
• WELCOME TO THE OTHERWORLD RPG
- Character Kiriku successfully created…
• WARNING
- The Underground Bunker has begun its countdown to self-destruction, time remaining 00:05:00 until detonation.
⊰◉⊱━━━━━━━━━━━━⊰◉⊱
Kiriku opened her eyes, the connection to the NeuroLink was complete, the red lights began to disturb her vision until she adapted and immediately recognized the interface.
–"...what a problematic situation!"
Lying down, she sighed and felt the cold metal of the iron bunk bed touch her hand, the smell of rust and blood permeating the completely white and icy, almost immaculate room with flickering lights.
That's when she noticed other bodies in other bunks around her and realized she wasn't alone. Dozens of others were breathing, some confused, others motionless and trembling, and others desperate. She didn't speak. She simply observed, trying to learn and adapt to the situation. A door opened calmly, the metallic smell of rust and blood mingling with a putrid odor.
Without hesitation, in one movement she slowly stood up; it was easy, she was on the bottom bunk, so… she ripped off her sheet and tore it into strips, which she tied around her wrists to her elbows and around her heels to her knees.
It was an improvised protection, but quite effective.
In the shadows, someone was watching her.
–"… light movement, absurd control of her body, without fear or panic, nor confusion in this hostile situation… she's certainly not an NPC!"
The sound of a door opening interrupted his analysis.
CLANK… SHHHH!!!
He looked, a corridor was revealed. Dark, the only illumination was the flickering red lights, then in the distance they appeared… erratic, yet coordinated movements. Bodies full of festering wounds, rotten and stinking flesh, they were the infected individuals, the contamination that irritating voice had spoken of, they were zombies.
Returning to Kiriku, she was now standing, unarmed, simply with sheets tied around her arms and legs in an improvised, efficient way.
–"...that woman... she's dangerous, but interesting!"
The man observing spoke mentally as he turned his attention to her and frowned. He noticed that on the table beside her, she was holding a metal mug, then the sound of clashing metal echoed...
CLANG... CLANG... CLANG!!!
She began banging on the metal of the bunk bed.
–"Hey! Stop that...!"
Someone shouted among them, but it was too late. The door at the back opened completely; hell heard the call and entered in the form of deformed bodies, torn skin, and empty eyes.
–"Zombies!!!"
Another shouted. Chaos ensued; some hesitated, others panicked. And… our young woman, with her athletic, extremely defined body, long, voluminous white hair, and intense eyes, advanced without any remorse.
The first to enter the room lunged straight at her; Zombie lunged, trying to grab her.
She, in motion, approached close enough, took a sideways step, followed by a low kick, twisted her torso, gave a shove, and the loss of balance occurred.
CRACK!!!
He fell against the metal, the zombie's skull smashed against the iron of the bunk bed. A silence echoed for half a second; her secret admirer smiled.
–"…I understand… the slow one dies! Hahahah…"
The admirer thought, while others fled… he didn't flee immediately, he stayed observing. The difference between Kiriku's attributes and the zombie's skill—the damage was completely based on pure precision and brute force.
Other zombies entered the room following the first, but went straight for the others. Some reacted, well… others froze in fear, screamed, and died without even fighting.
She looked around after her feat, searching for an opening. When she found one, she didn't hesitate and ran without looking back.
In the narrow corridor, blood, screams, and more dead bodies she noticed ahead.
A group of stronger zombies appeared ahead; they were bigger and faster than the previous ones, but their objective was further ahead, in the elevator where others who had escaped with her were fighting at the edge of it.
"Hold them!"
Someone shouted from inside the elevator.
"We don't have access, we need a card!"
She listened, stopped for a moment. "It's no use..."
He thought, then turned to the stranger, postponed the elevator ride, and disappeared down the hallway.
Someone was following her, but she didn't care; as long as they didn't bother her, everything was fine, so she kept running.
That's when she found a room. The door was ajar; through the broken glass, she could see inside: broken equipment and tubes, as well as some deformed bodies. It looked like a laboratory.
She cautiously entered the half-open door. The silence inside the room felt wrong, very wrong. Her steps were light and her breathing controlled. After some time searching, she found nothing but a body lying on its back, wearing a white lab coat with bloodstains. When she turned it over, she noticed broken glasses, and there it was: the badge hanging on his chest.
–"...A zombie?"
She thought, no, it was something worse. The body, which seemed dead, rose too quickly, its eyes regained their glow.
–"A mutant, it has to be..."
She said, smiling after jumping to the rear, startled because she had narrowly escaped being bitten.
The zombie didn't give her much time to think; immediately, without hesitation, it attacked with a punch. She dodged by centimeters, cornered against a secretary's desk. The monster attacked again.
She grabbed a ballpoint pen from the desk—ridiculous, I know, but for her, it was enough.
The fight was short, but very violent and precise.
It tried to scratch; she locked its arm, twisted its body, and then plunged the weapon directly into the base of its eye, deeply and lethally.
A critical hit was applied. The body fell, and the silence was broken by the sound of the system interface notifying the loot. She didn't smile and left immediately after the verification.
⊰◉⊱━━━━━━━━━━━━⊰◉⊱
「 NOTIFICATION 」
⊰◉⊱━━━━━━━━━━━━⊰◉⊱
• LOOT
- Access Card
- Mutation Fragment.
⊰◉⊱━━━━━━━━━━━━⊰◉⊱
While she faced the mutant, the guy chasing her became hypnotized by a symbol on one of the doors in the center of the room.
His vision became shaky.
–"...that...come in!"
A voice whispered in his mind, and he obeyed, opening the door in a trance, oblivious to the danger.
–"Touch and prove you're worthy... or don't touch, and then we'll know you're an idiot or a coward."
The voice disappeared, silence remained in his mind, he came to his senses, and then he smiled.
And he touched without hesitation; he was an idiot after all. However, as the experienced player he was, albeit transmigrated, he would never waste or refuse a hidden event like that.
–"So... this is the tutorial!"
The voice replied.
–"No, it was here that you were chosen by me!"
He was speechless.
–"...now I remember, you again!"
The voice replied.
–"Of course, I've always been here... you're the one who forgot!"
He clenched his fist while his other hand grasped the thick glass of the enormous tube that held the mortal remains of the demonic entity.
–"Then remind me…"
The voice fell silent for a moment.
–"That's what I'm here for, no filters!"
The entity spoke, the glass shattered, a black smoke erupted from his hand and enveloped his body, consuming him.
The pain wasn't physical at all; it was existential. Her mind went blank, the notification appeared, the interface was dark red…
⊰◉⊱━━━━━━━━━━━━⊰◉⊱
「 NOTIFICATION 」
⊰◉⊱━━━━━━━━━━━━⊰◉⊱
• CORRUPTION INITIATED
- Changing Fanalica's race to Corrupted Fanalica. Unstable user core, compatibility at 35%...
⊰◉⊱━━━━━━━━━━━━⊰◉⊱
–"Aaaaaah…"
He screamed and fell to his knees on the floor.
When he left the compartment inside the laboratory, the world changed. He was no longer the same; in the distance, he observed through the glass the destroyed corridor with even more bodies scattered, and in front of him the woman covered in blood, holding a pen and the mutant's body on the floor.
She looked at him, and he at her. Both remained silent until the first dialogue between them arose.
–"You didn't die!"
He said to her.
–"No, not yet."
They were silent once more in a brief pause.
–"You are strong, I admire that!"
She didn't answer immediately, then smiled slightly, saying:
"You're strange, I liked that… I'm Kiriku, and you?!"
The annoying voice returned.
"Imminent explosion, 00:01:13 remaining… you're going to die!"
In the elevator, the survivors fought, needing access, and the elevator's last line of defense was…
"Hail Mary, full of grace, throw holy water on that devil's voice!"
Someone defending the elevator murmured.
"We're going to die because of this, don't irritate her!"
Shouted a madman inside the elevator; it was the armed hacker, completely frustrated with life.
Few of them remained; there were more bodies fallen on the floor than fighting. Monsters everywhere, everything was mixed up, then a zombie's head was thrown away.
BOOM!!!
It was our damsel, delivering a flying kick to the bastard's face. A zombie fell and she threw the badge into the elevator; the guy caught it on the first try in mid-air.
"Try this!"
She yelled, holding onto the rows with the help of the strange, though weak, guy who chased her like a stalker. With the others fighting, they managed to hold on; silence remained inside the elevator. One, two, three seconds later…
ACCESS DENIED!
"Damn it… seriously!"
The guy, completely fed up with life, gave a valiant punch to the electronic lock with the card inserted. Then…
ACCESS GRANTED!
The doors began to close, everyone entered; she held on and at the last second jumped into the elevator, the zombies advancing behind her.
Silence.
"Good!"
They said unanimously, she entered, the doors closed.
On the surface, natural light, real wind, a beautiful world as they exited the elevator. And then… a few seconds later, a bang echoed behind them.
BOOM!!!
An explosion echoed, they looked back, the bunker disappeared.
The surface offered abundant light, pure air, and that feeling of freedom.
But the moment of choice arrived. Some left in groups, others, like Kiriku, left alone; the stranger simply observed.
"She doesn't trust anyone, but if I want to live in peace in this world, I need her in my life. I think I'm in love!"
The voice in his head emerged.
"Funny, then make her trust you… I guess it's that simple!" "But between you and me, you just want to use the relationship system to get stronger, I don't judge your abilities, I would do the same."
He smiled in surprise.
"Ah, so you have control over…"
The voice remained calm, replying lazily.
"That's nothing, we practically have the same consciousness, I know everything… you virgin masturbator!"
He felt awkward and fell silent. His mind wavered, his vision blurred, the interface appeared, and then moments later he lost consciousness.
⊰◉⊱━━━━━━━━━━━━⊰◉⊱
「 NOTIFICATION 」
⊰◉⊱━━━━━━━━━━━━⊰◉⊱
• CORRUPTION COMPLETED
- Stable core, 100% compatibility… altering the race to a corrupted variant, remains of the entity consumed in their entirety, achieving total integration… 3…2…1… rebooting!
⊰◉⊱━━━━━━━━━━━━⊰◉⊱
IN STARTING CITY
The boy closed his eyes in front of the Bunker and opened them again in another place, where chains, blood, and a cart were part of the scenery.
–"…so that's how I got here… stupid system!"
Baazelbu laughed Damon then replied,
"Yeah, you weren't exactly captured… you were put in this situation. Look, we're here!"
The wagon stopped with a violent jolt. In that place, they could hear cries of agony, voices conversing calmly, and extravagant laughter. The smell was of wealth, decay, and death.
A very unusual combination, all together in one place. The building was luxurious, but the aura it exuded was utterly putrid.
He slightly raised his head, analyzing the surroundings of the cart.
With his perception, he managed to notice five visible guards, two hidden by their irregular breathing, and one magic user.
"Basic security is good, but not perfect!"
He thought, smiling.
The chance of escape was practically perfect; escaping before the auction seemed possible.
"I can't fight… not yet, but that won't stop me from seeing her again!"
The preparation for his plan began. Simulating total weakness was easy considering his worried state, so… he slowed his breathing, relaxed his body, and let it hang looser, his eyes half-closed.
Two guards arrived, conducting the inspection, and approached him.
"Is this one still alive?"
The most robust of them asked from afar.
–"I think so, but only just…"
Said the skinny guard, touching him to check his pulse. Big mistake, a big and serious mistake. As soon as he leaned over, he was grabbed, Beelzebub was silently activated. This time… unlike the room in the laboratory, he used it in a controlled manner.
He had no mana, so he forced it to negative numbers. The guard was a Rank F individual, so the gain wasn't that significant, but he drained every last drop.
The target froze, his eyes went empty, his life ebbed away. The second one turned, trying to escape to alert everyone, but it was too late. The chain broken by the ability was used as a weapon; a dry sound echoed, pulling him into the carriage.
CRACK!!!
His neck broke in the process; silence remained that afternoon.
–"…great, now it's just a matter of time until my epic escape!" Hahahah..."
He laughed and devoured it too while checking the notification and his current data.
⊰◉⊱━━━━━━━━━━━━⊰◉⊱
「 NOTIFICATION 」
⊰◉⊱━━━━━━━━━━━━⊰◉⊱
• REWARD SYSTEM
- Earned +75 XP per kill, leveled up from 0 to 5…
- Earned +1 AP to +5 per level up, current level F-5…
- Absorbed +10 AP per individual Devoured…
⊰◉⊱━━━━━━━━━━━━⊰◉⊱
–"Finally… I'm not going to balance, I'm going to specialize!"
The voice in his mind returned.
–"Finally… you're getting the hang of it, but we'll see what you're thinking."
He used Beelzebub once more and devoured the talisman embedded in the chain.
–"…magic is the best bet!"
The voice answered him.
–"…really, you got the idea…"
The silence in the carriage wasn't empty.
It was calculated. He leaned against the caravan's wooden wall, his red eyes analyzing every detail of the interface before him. But something in him changed… it wasn't just the numbers, it was the desire for more, a genuine hunger… consumed.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
[DAMON]
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Age: 23 years old
Height: 1.82m
Weight: 74kg
Gender: Male
━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ABILITIES]
━━━━━━━━━━━━
• Beelzebub (F)
- Hostile Sense (F)
- Abyssal Prison (F)
━━━━━━━━━━━━
[INVENTORY]
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Broken Chain (F)
━━━━━━━━━━━━
[STATUS]
━━━━━━━━━━━━
HP: 25 -> 30
SP: 20 -> 45
MP: 25 -> 40
━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ATTRIBUTES]
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Resistance: 10 -> 10
Perception: 15 -> 25
Physical Aptitude: 20 -> 20
Magical Aptitude: 5 -> 30
━━━━━━━━━━━━
[EXTRA INFO]
━━━━━━━━━━━━
Race: Corrupted Fanalic
Class: Beginner
Rank: F
Level: 0 -> 2
XP: 0 -> 150 pts
PA: 50 -> 85 pts
━━━━━━━━━━━━
//////////////////////////
━━━━━━━━━━━━
He smiled, feeling a little stronger and more confident, and spoke.
–"...so... when devouring, I don't copy... I improve!"
He clenched his fist. When he consumed the chain, it wasn't just the residual energy he absorbed, it was the magical structure itself; his mind wavered and his vision blurred.
–"Relax, these are the side effects of my power... look, my stomach has reached its permitted limit of abilities, so be careful and avoid devouring useless things; it's a lot of work to vomit up this garbage!"
He heard the voice in his mind, He paused to reflect and then replied.
–"Alright, then I just have to keep devouring to make you evolve… it must be something simple like that, right!"
The voice didn't answer, Baazelbu got bored.
He didn't pay much attention to it either, so he opened a few more menus. Not like someone lost, but like someone who won games that way.
–"Knowledge is power, so let's go after that power!"
━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ABILITY]
━━━━━━━━━━━━
•Name: Abyssal Prison
-Rank: F
-Type: Active
-Cost: 10 MP
•Description:
-Summons spiritual chains and immobilizes enemies.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ABILITY]
━━━━━━━━━━━━
•Name: Hostile Instinct
-Rank: F
-Type: Passive
-Cost: Zero
•Description:
-Detects murderous intent and increases combat reaction by +10%.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
He didn't stay there long doing nothing; he gathered enough information.
He slid out of the cart, his movements low and his breathing controlled, his perception on high alert, sound minimized, then he saw tents, nobles, and distracted guards.
–"…very well, controlled chaos."
That's what he thought, a guard saw him.
–"Free slave!!!"
He didn't run, he waited. The guard advanced, his sword raised, ready to cut him in half.
–"Even with some wounds you'll still be worth something!"
He chuckled softly at the guard's provocation, then whispered.
–"Too bad I can't say the same for you… Beelzebub!"
He reached out and used the skill directly.
⊰◉⊱━━━━━━━━━━━━⊰◉⊱
「 CONVERSION 」
⊰◉⊱━━━━━━━━━━━━⊰◉⊱
• (10 MP + 30 Magic) ×1
- 40 Strength/Speed = 80 Damage
⊰◉⊱━━━━━━━━━━━━⊰◉⊱
The guard's body collapsed instantly, Damon's eyes widened slightly in surprise.
–"...very strong!" The voice in his head laughed.
"This is just the beginning… you thought my powers were insignificant? Sorry to disappoint you, they're not, sucker!"
Chaos erupted at the auction; guards began to disappear, bodies were found—three so far—and then the alarms sounded.
He was in an alley, observing everything without haste or fear. The guards began to walk in larger groups, and a group of three appeared before him; it was a group test, for Baazelbu it was perfect training as a skill.
"Very easy, I can even taste the sweetness of freedom… Abyssal Prison!"
CRACK… SHHHH!!!
The black chains exploded from the ground. The guards were instantly trapped, taken by surprise with no chance to react.
"What? Magic?!"
He raised his hand and uttered.
"…Beelzebub!"
The drainage was massive, everything was ripped from them until their bodies dried out and collapsed.
A brief silence.
–"Efficient strategy…"
⊰◉⊱━━━━━━━━━━━━⊰◉⊱
「 NOTIFICATION 」
⊰◉⊱━━━━━━━━━━━━⊰◉⊱
• LEVEL UP
- XP +225, went from Lv 5 to Lv 8.
- PA +6 to +8, total +21 pts.
• BELZEBU
- Progression at 25%...
⊰◉⊱━━━━━━━━━━━━⊰◉⊱
The interface flickered faintly.
–"Too fast… too overpowered!"
That night… he managed to escape and forged a new identity.
He tore fabric, covering his entire body with bandages up to his face.
–"Nobody needs to know… no name, no origin, no master, but if anyone wants to know they can call me… Nobody!"
He murmured to Baazelbu.
–"There he is trying to look tough hahahah… but, the name is cool, now it remains to be seen if you are up to his level."
After that conversation.
Some time passed, days turned into weeks, and weeks into months. That name became renowned among organizations of hunters, adventurers, mercenaries, and contract assassins. He worked for almost anything that could bring him anything—not gold, though he earned a lot—but information.
Unlike others, he sought information; he hunted for the power behind it, and in his most recent contract, he found something. An old report, somewhat burned and worn by time, but still legible, about the Experimental Bunker. It was a list of confirmed survivors; a single name made his heart race.
–"Kiriku… she's alive!"
Baazelbu's voice smiled in his mind.
–"Of course she is… she's far more sinister than you, you fool!"
An awkward silence fell between them.
He turned to the horizon, jumped out the office window, and the mansion exploded immediately afterward.
–"Then it's simple… I'll find her and prove it."
He began to walk naturally after camouflaging himself in the crowd and disappearing into the movement of the big city; only one phrase remained in his thoughts.
–"Kiriku… I will tame you!"
He vanished without looking back while the damage caused to the mansion began to receive due attention.
–"Now the real game begins… I'm going to play seriously!"
Deep down he knew… this wasn't love. At least, not only that. It was something much deeper, destiny? Convenience? Or perhaps something much worse? Who knows, only they can discover.
Then Damon left.
In another region. There she was, crushing the The skull of a fire beetle, unaware that someone was looking for it.