The moon hung above the cumulus clouds was slowly disappeared. The cold breeze coming from the east cooled the environment with a sense of rapport. Yet, one light from the surface had to illuminate both sky and earth, turning it into flashy and bloody ashes of death. The smoke came from the burning warehouse merged with the clouds. And its color underneath had changed from dark to red as the wind continued to interrupt the meeting between it.
The shadow of the culprit melted away from the crime scene.
The craters from the second floor had drastically destroyed, and the walls slowly collapsed on the ground. The surface covered with ashes and corpses had slowly split up into two opposite directions. There, this crack caused the secret tunnel to reveal itself. Inevitably, some scorched raw materials such as woods and crates fell down into it.
A newspaper floated down near to the scattered with scorching body parts of one corpse. It suddenly struck in one metal stick and a magical crest appeared from the thin material.
[Mission Complete: Subjugating the enemies without taking lives. Success.]
[Virus Detection: The user is now dead. All body parts are scattered and scorched from the powerful tier spell.]
[Virus Detection: Due to the successful completion of the mission, the user will be given an exemption and will be rewarded.]
The content of the newspaper changed into a new page. Inside the scorched upper body, a tiny gooey liquid had been appearing on it. It turned black and formed a cylindrical shape like a normal size of a soccer ball.
[Evil God Slime: Scanning the whole field. Scan completed. ]
Its body spread across the devastated warehouse and picked up all the body parts scattered around there. From here on, the corpse had suddenly returned into a shape of a healthy naked young man with black hair after the black cylindrical shape swallowed all of the parts and went inside through its body.
The creature went outside in the form of a tiny marble and began to scan the place again.
[Evil God Slime: There are spirits and souls scattered in the place had been confirmed, sinners. The number of souls is around fifty thousand including those from the past and present loose spirits. However, with the low-level capacity of the user, only twenty souls will be sucked in. All the evil souls will now begin to be absorbed.]
[Virus Achievement: Resurrection.]
[Insanity Level: Sane.]
[Souls collected: 20/20.]
[Evil Slime: All souls will now begin to be penalized and converts into mana.]
[Insanity Level: Normal.]
[Souls collected: 0/50]
[Evil God Slime: Collecting all the loose spirits around the place. However, with the low-level capacity of the user, only fifty souls will be sucked in. All the evil souls will now begin to be absorbed. Collection completed.]
[Insanity Level: Sane.]
[Souls collected: 50/50]
The same process had repeatedly kept doing by the creature until it reached the level it wanted to achieve.
[Evil God Slime: Collecting all the loose spirits around the place. The user is now on a high-level mindset and uncontrollable progress. The user is now authorized to fully use the armor according to its will. Collection completed.]
[Insanity Level: Psychopath.]
[Souls collected: 10,005/50,000 sinner souls.]
A new notification had appeared to the newspaper, while the gooey liquid marble rolled down, forming an unknown magic circle around the corpse.
[Virus Achievement: 'Grim Ripper Level' achieved successfully. Ten thousand years ago, a pathetic human being died from exhaustion and starvation from the years of slavery. His soul met the Grim Reaper and refused to be taken into hell. The soul fought back and successfully stole the weapon. He struck its heart and killed the holder of all souls and gained the weapon of 'Spectre of Death'. The pet of the Emperor consumed the tomb of the previous owner and now possessed the weapon. The user is now qualified to penalize sinners and can kill demons and other races by his weapons as long as he likes it. The user cannot be killed nor be penalized by Gods.]
[Virus Achievement: Weapon Mastery - Bronze 1. The user can freely use any weapons of his choice but limited within his grasp. However, the user is authorized to kill other races except for humans, unless necessary. According to one of the ten Gods' commandments, killing fellow humans is prohibited. Unable to comply with this content will result in instant vaporization of the user's soul. However, the bad spirits without remorse are qualified to perish and punish by the user.]
[Virus Achievement: Weapon Summoner. The user can freely customize and summon any type of weapons that were stored inside the Evil Slime Armor.]
[Weapon 1: 0/50 sinner souls needed. User's choice.]
[Weapon 2: 0/100 sinner souls needed. User's choice.]
[Weapon slots: Locked]
[Evil Slime: One thousand souls are ready to be a sacrifice. Objective complete. All souls collected have been confirmed vaporize completely. The body of the master has been confirmed ready to be revived. Resurrecting the master will now begin.]
[Insanity Level: Normal.]
[Souls collected: 5/50,000 sinner souls.]
The magic circle around the corpse started to illuminate the place. A large amount of mana emitted on the ground made all of the surrounding things to be thrown away from the strong air pressure. The black gooey liquid marble entered the corpse, and a large explosion once again burst around the place.
The villagers who were still awake saw the light coming from that place. The bandits who were patrolling the next block struck up from the terrifying purple light that appeared from the sky. It vaporized the clouds by its tremendous light beam and made the moon stood alone.
A few hours later, a large number of black-suit men arrived and investigated it.
"What's going on here?" a light-skinned male, who had short spiky blonde hair with bangs that were brushed to the left, and lime eyes, said. His attire consisted of a black blazer, worn buttoned above a grey shirt, and black trousers with a brown belt around his waist. His footwear was a pair of black boots that went underneath his trousers. "The…. the place is completely wiped out. Hey, does anyone of you had witnessed what just happened recently?"
"No, sir," the guy beside him answered.
"Crap, we need to find who's responsible for all of this. Anyone… Does anyone find any clues around here?"
"Sir Jerald, we found scattered body parts around here. We also found a small-ranking emblem of our clan." the henchmen showed him the object, " That thing has a name underneath, sir. It is noted as Rag's property."
"Rag? Who's that?" Jerald tilted his head with confusion.
"Sir, Rag is just a low-ranking member of the clan." With that response, the henchmen noticed his leader's smirk about hearing it. "S-sir? Sir Jerald. Sir Jerald, you're spacing out."
"Ah, sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to. Anyways, lieutenant, order your comrades to clean up all of the messes and garbages around here. As the assistant of the Underboss, I shall be the one to report this issue. Alone. Give me all of the important details and report it after you guys finish it."
"Yes, sir."
"Hey," Jerald pulled him back and whispered, "Whatever you saw and found here must not be leaked out from the other high ranking officials residing here. Remember, this is just a small issue and not a big deal. But no matter what happens, just doctor the documents to your leader. Y' know who I meant right?"
"Sir, the capo―"
"―Sssh," Jerald covered his mouth with his other hand placed on his lips. He said in a low tone, "I told you not to say those people. Listen, you'll get a profit from this if you cooperate with me."
"Sir, I'm already working with you. But still, I'm under the leadership of 5th Caporegime Patioche Woale. It is against the oath of ―"
"― I can guarantee that you'll get profit from this. You'll get a large sum of money and a brand new car if want to."
"I'm not very hooked with money, sir," the henchmen turned black while thinking about the money. "But, a car? That's too expensive. You can't afford that though."
"Of course," Jerald placed his face near him. "If you don't want to cooperate, say goodbye to 50,000 luzers."
"I'm in."
Jerald grabbed his hand and shook it, he said, "Good decision. You'll never regret it. Now go before the others suspect us."
The sun rose up and illuminated the whole place of Neue Fiona Village. The villagers came out of their homes and started their daily activities and routines.
Inside a place that no one's willing to live, there's a young black-haired man laying down on his wrecked white sheet bed. His face was covered by a black mask and his whole body was covered by newspapers.
His eyes, half-opened, covered it quickly by his pillow after the sunlight hit his face. He felt dizzy at first but he got used to it afterward. His upper body raised, chin up and down and cracked his neck from left to right. He stretched his arms and got up from the bed. He removed his mask and rubbed his eyes.
Not intention to, his face hit a hard and solid metal bar infront of him after he stepped forward. His eyes opened wide from the shock and his consciousness had finally awakened. He, surprised, was no idea why he's here.
"Oh, you're finally awake, huh," said a man with a village guard suit. It had the same color as the Sheriff but the difference between the two, it had no logo on their chest.
"Gah, my head," Hermes placed his mask back to his face, and turned his gaze at the guard. And he asked, "Hey, why am I here?"
"Y' ain't going to say any kind of greetin', boy? Sounds like a filthy peasant-like y' need to learn more about society."
Hermes moved his face between two metal bars, and he asked, "Enough of that, sir. Why am I here in prison? What did I do to deserve this kind of treatment?"
"Well, you ask. You're a freaking pervert who walked in the street like nothin' but a squeezed. Anyhow, I don't believe that you're a criminal maniac. Based on your physical appearance, you're a pathetic young brat. So, there's no reason for me to let you stay there any longer. Some folks of mine reported us about you so I quickly moved to your location and found y' lying down there like a filthy drunk no-good fuckin' brain drinkers. Anyways, that's all," replied the village guard.
"Oh, is that so?" sighed Hermes as he scratched his head before gently brushed his hair up.
"Be grateful that I'm the only one who found you first before Captain Mattia's men. If not, I don't know what would happen to you. Some of my folks are not as friendly as what you think they are. Anyways, we're the only people here. How about we introduced ourselves?"
"Oh, should I be grateful for that?" sassed Hermes, "Anyways, its better if you release this young man first from this smelly cell before you asked for it? Right, officer?"
"Is that how you supposed to thank me?" the village guard sighed and gave in, "Alright, wait there," he picked up the key hanging on the key lodger, moved towards the cell bar, and unlocked the door. He said with a satisfying gaze, "There you are. Now, we can talk, — or not yet."
"Sir, how about you offer me some clothes?" asked Hermes, shivering from the cold temperature. The village guard slightly laughed, "Oh, right. Take this shirt, and have a seat next to my table."
The village guard offered him a cup of coffee, and bread after he dressed up. He sat down and ate the bread before he took a sip from his cup. The village guard pressed his hands on the table before he sat down, and started the conversation.
"Hey, do you want to know? The funny thing is, you just walked around the street that night. Naked. I just can't believe you have a strange hobby to stroll with a strange and rare mask. I mustered myself to use my old newspapers to become your alternative clothes for you. You're lucky, boy."
"Yeah, yeah," Hermes took a sip of his cup and placed it down before he talked, "Anyways, I won't tell you my name if you don't introduce yourself to me first, sir."
"Right, right, my name is Nicolo Francesco. A village guard Sergeant of District 4 Eastern Protection Office. Now, you are?
He raised his hand, waiting to be shaken by the young Don. However, Hermes folded his arm and crossed his leg instead.
"Aljen, an ordinary mob merchant from the Southern Cimeria Desert."
"Ah," Nicolo laughed with a disappointing tune. "I see. Nice to meet you, Aljen. Anyway, kid, how did you end up like that? Where exactly have you been before you went naked?"
The young Don placed his palm on his forehead and tried to recall everything. However, some fuzzy memories made his view blurred and his head spun. Thanks to the glass of water offered by Nicollo, the young Don prevented himself to collapse.
"Hey, are you alright? Do you need some water again? I can get you more," Nicolo offered and stood up from his seat. However, Hermes raised his hand telling him not to be bothered. "Please, no need to worry. My apologies, I don't remember anything that happened last night. Even I want to, I still can't."
"Sucks, I thought I can hook some information from you," Nicolo muttered aside. "So, you didn't even see that purple light, did you?"
The young Don nodded.
"Sucks, another failure," Nicolo clicked his tongue.
Hermes fixed his dress before he faced him.
"My apologies, I have no idea what happened that night. It's kind of rude to ask, but now that you mention it. Can you share some information related to it?"
"Kid, sorry. It's confidential, " simpered Nicolo as he hid his notepad back to his drawer that was hidden under the table. "I just can't fully trust you yet. That's all. No heart feelings. Oh, by the way, these are yours, right? I found them behind your back covered by an outdated newspaper."
Nicolo placed down on the table a plastic bag. The young Don opened it and found one tourist card from the village hall and the emblem of the Carmella family.
"Yes, these are my properties," confirmed Hermes as he returned it back inside the bag. "Thank you for returning this to me without taking charges. I mean, thank you for returning my properties for free."
"Oh, it's nothin'. You're welcome, kid. Be grateful that you have that emblem or else I won't even dare to free you off-charges, lend you some clothes, and offer you food and drink."
"Oh, is that so? Well, I'll tell Chief Zamor that you save me as my repayment for your duty. How 'bout it?" said the young Don as he gulped the cup 'till the last drop.
"Ho ho, it's been an honor to hear that part. Y' know what. We're going to be good friends."
'I hope not. I don't wish to be friends with someone like you.' Hermes thought as he turned his gaze at the people outside through the window.
"So, what's the history behind that mask?" Nicolo changed the subject and pointed his index to his mask. Hermes, sighed, turned his attention at the guard, "It's for my protection. Nothin' more, nothin' else."
"You're very secretive. How can we become friends if you don't even share somethin' about it?" Nicolo took a sip and leaned his chin on his hands.
"Hey, officer. Does your law have some sense here?" Hermes nagged. "Like, respect the right of the citizen, literate, illiterate, slut or bitches, stupid, moron or doughbag to be quiet?"
"Oh, you're using some logical defense here. A'ight, you win. I won't ask anything anymore. But to be frank, I still want to learn about that mask. That time. That night. I tried to remove it from your face but for some unknown reason, I couldn't."
Hermes remained quiet while listening to his story. To his surprise, he learned that the mask remained intact to his face even he tried to pull it by using pushed bars. There, it was actually strange phenomenon. He had a doubt that the man in front of him was lying but reading the eyes of Nicolo made the young Don shivered with the complicated face. Listening to his story, Hermes was happy to learn that he hadn't discovered yet his true identity.
"There, I saw you at that time at the right block in the middle of the street in District 4. Now, that's the story."
"I see. Thanks for sharing it," Hermes stood up and stretched his arms onward.
"Hey, do you want me to pour your cup with coffee?" Nicolo offered.
"No need, officer. I'm good," replied Hermes.
"Hike, it's a waste if we don't drink this, after all, I'm the one who made this." he sighed with a disappointed face.
"Oh, by the way, officer," Hermes leaned his back against the wall. Folded arms.
Nicolo turned his gaze at the young Don and smiled, "Yes?"
"Have you seen a black-haired maniac. *cough* Excuse me. I mean a black-haired butler with lime eyes and light-skinned teenager. He might be at his 20's and have a height might be around 180 centimeters tall or higher than that."
"Unfortunately, I have not seen anyone like that. Does that mean he's your friend?"
"My personal butler," the young Don scratched his head before he continued, "Nothin' more but a loyal servant of mine."
"A butler? It's not a surprising fact because you already told me that you're a merchant though. It's quite simple. Anyways, I won't help you to find your servant even you have that emblem. There's a limitation for that item that sometimes useless to be used, you know. Sorry, if you want me to ask for my help, you need to give me some valuable reason to do so," explained Nicolo as he cleaned up the table.
Behind his mask, the young Don was mad. This man had a duty to protect and serve the people, but even he used the emblem gave to him by the chief, this guard sarcastically declined before he asked for his assistance. The society in his previous world was already rotten since the beginning of civilization. But to think the influence of the original had affected the game setting was unsettling. Humans tended to do anything on their powers that benefit themselves. Even there's love, people opted for their personal and rational reasoning to gain power in that world.
"Good morning," a familiar voice made Hermes turned his gaze at the door. "Good morning, is somebody there?"
"Come in." Nicolo cleaned his hands and opened the door after the door being knocked in the fourth time. As the door opened slowly, a young and handsome man with black hair and lime eyes wore a butler suit and black trousers appeared. He had white gloves on his hands and a short blade hanging on his left waist.
"Oh, good morning," he lowered his head before he spoke, "It's been a pleasure to meet you. My name is Justin. And, am I not mistaken that there's someone I know that had been here."
"Ah, that's great. Hey kid, he's here. That one you're looking for."
The young Don stepped forward with his arms still folded and pressed on his chest.
"My Don!" simpered Justin with glistering eyes.
"Hey, Justin," the young Don smiled.
"My Don!" Justin slowly stepped forward and readied himself to hug him.
"Justin~" the young Don spread his arms. "Come."
"My beloved Don~~~"
"Jus― tin!" before he could embrace his master, the young Don closed his fist, bent his left knee before he punched his face. The butler dropped down on the surface thereafter. "Where the fuck have you been, you fuckin' moron?"