"Phew~"
"Finally, it's done."
Alexander wiped away beads of sweat from his forehead and released a long breath as he relaxed his tensed muscles. He was sitting on the floor of a room on the second floor of the slaughterhouse. This place was quite nice and much better than the quarters on the ground floor.
It was silent and odour free.
As his left hand was supporting his leaning body and right hand was massaging his forehead, his body was half lying on the floor making an obtuse angle with his legs spread in a relaxed manner.
In front of him was an induction heater and a steel pot on top of it which was leaking some steam occasionally. Probably something was boiling in it.
Looking at the rising steam, a smile formed on Alexander's tired face. His dull eyes lit up and he took a deep breath in, inhaling some of the stream.
A spicy flavour instantly travelled from his nose to his brain making Alexander moan out in pleasure.
"Whoa! This is great! I can already feel its effect."
Ofcourse it was just an exaggeration. After Yang Tao arranged a room for him here on the second floor, he brought his big sack along with him and started his work. He asked Yang Tao for some utensils and an induction heater. From the time Yang Tao delivered these things to his room till now only two hours have passed and the boiling mixture in front of him was just beginning.
Right now, he was boiling materials to clean them and extract out waste and poisons from them. So the rising steam can be considered a kind of poison.
….
This Alexander was somehow becoming an idiot from the moment he entered the forest for the competition.
He himself also realised this but the problem is he was not able to do anything about it or find the reason for it.
At last, he can just blame everything on the system. Before, even though this body was not a genius, it was still far from being an idiot but looking at the conditions right now, he wasn't far from being declared an idiot legally. And the only thing that changed in between was the addition of this system. So it should be that damn system's issue.
As he thought of this, he suddenly felt buzzing in his head and a severe pain started spreading out from his head to all his body parts like a web of falling domino tiles.
'Damn! Don't tell me this system is going to kill me for figuring out the truth?'
He roared inwardly, as he clutched his head with both hands, trying to press it hard to get some relief from pain. But what he got in return was his hands becoming numb. He wasn't even able to exert any force after that.
"Water"
He muttered in pain as he felt his throat drying up. But this was just beginning, once he felt this, this feeling just intensified after that. His saliva was evaporating fast, forming cracks in his throat and mouth making him feel just like a crazy man. Thoughts like cutting his throat off, slitting open his hand and drinking his own blood to get relief were becoming prominent in his numb brain.
'This… should I do it?'
He thought for a moment but then pushed it away. This was asking for death!
But so what? Isn't death coming anyways if he just stays like this? His skin will crack, his blood vessels will rupture in this thoracic cavity and last he'll die of blood loss. Blood will be lost, blood will be wasted anyways.
What should he do?
This thought was reasonable. At least reasonable for a person who was on the end of the string, going to die soon. But he suppressed his thoughts with his will power.
He moved his hands using all his energy, and swept over the floor in search of something drinkable. He swept once, twice and thrice but got nothing. However, he didn't give up, his life which was kind of burning away slowly gave him energy to rotate his body. With a push he turned his body a bit and swept his hand all over the floor again.
This time he caught something; it was something cylindrical. Without any thoughts he knew this was the water bottle he used earlier to pour water into the medicine pot.
'There should be some water left.'
He tried pulling it towards him but it was just too heavy. It wasn't filled up with water completely, it was just that his hands were numb and he wasn't able to exert all his strength.
Water was here, still he wasn't able to drink it.
This was a pain very few can understand and feel. This can make humans go crazy like a bull in a bullring. Trying to hold onto the last part of the string of life, hidden strength erupted from inside and he brought over the bottle to his lips slowly. Luckily, he didn't put the cap on again after pouring the water into the pot, so water started flowing into his mouth directly.
Hiss~
But after a moment, he hissed in pain. The water was hot. It was kind of boiling. But the thirst was not allowing him to stop. He resisted the pain, moaning every now and then he continued drinking.
'It must be due to cracks in my throat. How can this water boil?'
He relaxed after a while and kept the bottle on the side. Finally not feeling the thirst, he felt good. Even his headache lessened quite a bit.
But soon he realised, he was being too optimistic. His throat became dry again after a few minutes, this time with a speed which was way faster than previous time. He wasn't even able to react when his veins popped up, and like worms they started crawling all over his body. His headache amplified while his muscles became numb. And then the room started spinning and his vision became blurry.
Time passed and the symptoms became worse with it.
At last, when the darkness was enveloping him slowly, he thought about various things, people and moments of his life; this life and past life.
He clearly understood these symptoms, this was his second time experiencing these.
This was the message of incoming death.
Death was knocking on his door again.
'Is this the end? I don't have to worry about ruling the world from now on?'
He thought before his consciousness disappeared into void. A place where it was all dark and cold.
DEATH WAS HERE!