Like the previous, almost perfectly identical lawless pit, the nameless area was just like the last, almost perfectly identical pit, and dead decaying bodies were everywhere.
The sight of humans eating each other was the norm here. The population density just became even higher as Cyra climbed higher.
From the previous roughly 100 000 residents on each level became a million, sometimes it was a little less or little more it didn't matter.
What made the difference here is that Cyra didn't start slaughtering them right away; instead, she became the observer and watched the event unfold as such there was peace for a while, but there was one thing sure anything and everything here was just food to herself. Cyra didn't think much about the nameless as most of these walking corpses had less than [Str: 1]; thus, no one could oppose her if she wanted to go berserk.
Her abilities related to stealth made her appear mysterious, and people began to look up to her as she was much stronger than the rest of them.
She changed her appearance to that of a hermit, always wearing dark clothes with her hood on. She never once took it off. As such, she became known as a watcher.
Since the watcher's appearance, many people went missing, as if they were teleported away, but it was Cyra eating them in reality. It was just that none of the people present could perceive her breakneck speed.
One day something strange has happened. She was looking at a group of humans fighting when one of them shot a round of bullets flying randomly, caused one of the barely standing flats to begin to fall.
She was still much more interested in the human activity that the building was about to fall on her, so she ignored it.
But then she could feel a small arm trying to pull her away from the spot she was standing on, at first she didn't think much of it and went with the flow and moved away from her original spot.
But upon turning around, she saw a little boy with glowing blue eyes standing behind her, while there were another two little girls next to the boy.
"Stop looking so dumbfounded and thank him, after all, he saved your worthless life." Said the girl with golden eyes.
"Naiva, don't be rude to the watcher!" Said the other little girl; she looked much more mature than the other 2; she had dark purple hair.
"Celin, don't defend a waste. She doesn't do anything useful, only watching all day long? What is she if not a waste?" Said Naiva with a somewhat annoyed tone, pulled away from the little boy.
Seeing this, Cyra decided to act as such; she eventually said, "Thank you, what's is your name, little guy?"
"Fodar, I'm Fodar one who will reach the peak one day, I will be strong and powerful! Senior, I have to go be careful next time when you watch."
Not long after, the three children boarded a ship that left this level and went for the nameless region's unknown regions.
At this point, she already had countless fractured ethereal Cyra couldn't use it as she needed perfect combinations. It was just like some puzzle game.
Cyra eventually began to ascend the levels. She occasionally stopped if she found something interesting that was a worthy memory or an intense fight but other than that, there was nothing worthy of her attention.
Every time she left a level, only this black substance remained. She was much different than the average human because the waste left her body through her skin. As such, she was able to eat and live without stopping.
While mass killings had not much point as she couldn't get any stronger now, but since she couldn't determine who had intact ethereal, she had no other options.
She could sleep, but it's lost its meaning as a need. It was more of entertainment as, during her sleep, she could recall and analyze that day saw events.
In her eyes, most of the things that existed inside this sub-space were worthless, there were countless times that she considered leave and go out, but her thirst for strength always overcomes her boredom. As such, she continues her lonely hunt in the city.
Her next encounter with the kids happened three years later, as it turned out they didn't go that far, and five levels later, she has managed to catch up to them without any issues.
Rumors had spread about the hermit, a watcher who looked at everything but never interfered with any conflict.
The rumors always spread upwards, but never down; everyone lost contact with the lower floors. If the hermit was the last survivor of a colossal disaster, her floor became the lowest accessible. Nobody could reach closed floors.
[Original Ethereal] [10/120]
When she caught sight of the kids, they were eight years old; even though they lived just like the animals like everyone else in the nameless region, their friendship stayed the same.
The three years they spent fighting for survival to reach higher levels eventually left a mark on them.
Celin, the mature one, seemed to have picked up a necklace of the anchor. She also learned to pray to the anchor. As such, those older people who also believed in the anchor has looked upon her. [Str:2] [Int: 6] [E:3]
Fodar spent most of his time training, even as only an 8-year-old. His strength was almost as close as an average adult male with [Str: 4] [Int: 2] [E: 2]
Naiva, on the other hand, became even more arrogant and looked down on the weak and disabled. Didn't show any of it in front of the other two. [Str: 2] [Int:3] [E: 5]
Cyra's observation was disturbed by the crowd, who started chanting her title as the watcher. Even the kids have realized that Cyra was present as such, each had different reactions.
Fodar was happy to see that the senior was all right. Naiva got pissed by Fodar reaction and stormed away, while Celin approached Cyra and asked her, "Can we talk somewhere more private, Senior?"
"Sure." As she said this, Cyra picked up Celin and vanished from her spot, confusing the crowd even more.
When she reappeared, she was inside a building that once was a restaurant. After putting down Celin on one of the chairs, she took out some wine and began sipping it while observing the little girl, then asked, "What do you want to talk about?"
Celin pointed to her necklace and asked, "Is the anchor real?" She was both eager and scared to know the answer.
"Yes, it's real, but if you think the anchor is a god, then your wrong. In a sense, she stands above you all, yet believing in her is utterly meaningless and stupid." Said Cyra with a wide grin. It was just funny to see people praying to a ship.
"What do you mean?"
"It's nothing, for now, all you need to know that the anchor is real; let's return to this subject when you're older."
"Now it's my turn to ask a question, Celin; what do you think about Fodar and Naiva?"
"They are good to me so that I won't judge them, both have their faults, but they are my only family, so that I will treasure them no matter what!"
Moments later, Cyra took back Celin to the others then returned to continue her drinking session.
Not long after her arrival Ceon stepped out of the shadows; his arrival wasn't much of a surprise as Cyra detected his presence long ago.
"Is that wine?" Asked Ceo as he sat down to the place where Celin was initially sitting.
"Yes?"
"Why are you drinking that? Is that even effective?"
"It is, but I won't get drunk?"
"Than why?"
"I discovered that it could increase my acid production. As such, I can consume faster..."Said Cyra as she was spacing out.
She was somewhat conflicted about why she didn't kill them, even though he said to Ceo previously. Cyra doesn't mind letting them live. It was excruciating being human as she couldn't completely follow her instincts as 1% of her said no to all of her actions.
The question still stands; she wondered why she didn't or could kill neither him nor the children; they wouldn't make a difference, but then why I can't, why are they important to them?
"Are you troubled by something?"
"No... why would I be? Tell me something."
"Ask anything I will try to answer with the best of my abilities!"
"Why do I feel like I'm the one who is looking after your kid? Shouldn't you do that?"
"Ahh, so it's about this, the thing is the high lords has deemed my child as an old one, it means he one of those who remember, they don't need fatherly love nor family, he needs strong people to depend on."
"Ah, look at my self I'm so forgetful; there will be guests visiting you tonight."
The former prisoners were engaged in a civil war to gain more levels after losing most of their foothold to the hunter after them.
They didn't forget about Cyra; the moment the rumors about the watcher reached them, they sent down a strike force made out of the 9th army of 3000 who were led by the Gyro Squad.
Gyro squad is trained to guerrilla warfares and killing hunters who were sent to catch them. Heavily relying on explosives that cannot be reflected at them.
Their armor is durable to survive weaker Essence-related attacks and most of the ammunition produced on the planet.
Seeing how nontechnical Cyra was about her guests Ceon, was secretly happy. It meant that she wasn't afraid of one bit of them, and the purification could continue without any issues.
The strike force wasn't wasting their time; after finding Cyra's location, they began to surround her with their forces while setting up traps.
A sniper fired headshots at her from time to time, but after missing the 10th time, his superior has stopped him from wasting any more bullets.
Even while Cyra was eventually started moving around, none of them were rash and kept a moderate distance.
Unlike the locals, they had the technology to record Cyra's movements, and based on that, determine her strength.
After realizing that they were no match to her, they retreated because while they were stronger than most people, their group didn't possess the means to take down Cyra, and their priorities placed their lives above the idea of suicidal acts.
With minimal losses, they successfully recreated as Cyra only killed 2 of them to increase her military tier further.
Even with the so few casualties, Cyra has managed to leave her mark on them with her behavior as a lunatic who enjoyed killing. The horrific act of consuming their leaders right before their own eyes while also killing any bystanders who were in her way.
[Rank: Tier 3 (+1)]
[Credit: 5000]
[Bounty: 37 001 300 Credits]
[News: Currently under a search for killing the five titans of the abyss and killing the followers of anchor, exterminator of the arena, and killer of namelesses]
With the strike force's activities, most people fled higher or evened lower to avoid contact with them; as such, another horrific rumor has started to spread about the darkness on the lower levels.
But this didn't matter to Cyra as she eventually began to follow the retreating strike to the higher levels. Sadly around lvl 600, she lost track of them in the rivers of people.
It was around this level that Cyra had found another hobby to kill her time, as actual gang wars were going on from block to block, they were continually fighting.
She spent most of her free time observing after hunting became boring as her progress was neglectable. [Original Ethereal] [30/120]