POV:
The man now lay there, his face completely combusted leaving only his skin and some visible bones. The man in the business suit lifted his head to look at his surroundings. A part of him probably wanted the crowd to be understanding of his situation but they only took a step back from every direction he looks at.
"It's all your fault! If you had not followed the skeleton so carelessly this wouldn't have happened!"
"Huh?! What could I do in that situation? I would've been killed if I didn't do it! Besides, you were the one who actually killed him! He could probably still live if you had not turn his entire body into a beehive popsicle! What do you mean it's my fault?!"
The businessman's face grew with despair. There was nothing he could counter that with.
"Now, now." The skeleton interrupted.
"It's not all bad news. This man has in his possession a very rare kind of rune. One that would allow him to negate elements at specific points. He had the ability to protect himself, but he died anyway. Don't you think he deserved it?"
The businessman stared at the skeleton with disbelief.
"But the best part, now that he is dead, anyone will be able to take his ability as their own. How wonderful! An ability that completely negate other others, don't you want that?" He went on with his neck bending that he does whenever he said something psychotic.
People stared at the dead man, his face barely even distinguishable. Some looked away, some still stared with disbelief or shock and some stared with hunger, a hunger for power.
"How do I get his power?" A man spoke up.
"Oh, very simple. Eat his finger."
Silence. People were taking their time to process it. Not everyone, though. Two men have already started walking towards the corpse, their eyes almost dead. One was a beggar with torn up clothes and messy long hair. Another person appears to be a middle-aged man. He was chubby, not to the extreme, but was enough to reveal his belly and make the largest shirt seem small. His beard was half-heartedly shaved.
"What are you doing?" The businessman stopped the chubby guy.
"What do you think? I'm eating that finger. Get the hell out of my way."
"You can't do that! That would be committing cannibalism. Don't you have any sense of morality?!"
"Morality? Didn't you see how easily we could kill each other just like that? There's no humanity left for us, this is the survival of the fittest. That man was weak and so he died, but I am different. I will have that ability no matter what. I'll even kill if you stand in my way."
"But we should first calmly assess our situation and work together before we-"
"Shut up," his voice was low, those were the glare of someone who's lost hope, "I don't want to hear that from a murderer."
The chubby guy walked past him. The business couldn't say much less do anything. He did just killed someone, afterall.
The chubby guy spotted the beggar already on top of the corpse searching for the rune. Upon realization, he was suddenly filled with anger.
"THAT'S MINE!" He shouted at the top of his lungs and charged full speed at the beggar.
The beggar glanced at the charging guy before he bumped him. However, there was no movement after the collision. The beggar doesn't seem to be affect at all.
Moments later, the chubby guy fell to the ground with a deep wound on his abdomen. The floor quickly filled with blood. After the body detached from the beggar's finger reveals an orange rune that transformed his index finger into a knife. The chubby guy struggled to reach his hand out to the gray rune on the corpse's thumb.
The bloody knife stabbed into his hand pinning it on the ground, except the knife wasn't strong enough to pierce the cube that make up the ground. The beggar's strength alone should be more than able to completely stop the bleeding chubby guy's hand, anyways.
"So there it was." The beggar said out creepily. He stared at the thumb with lifeless eyes.
"That's... mine." The chubby guy still struggling. "That's..." a yellow glow was spotted on his left pinky and his tongue extended longer than his arm to finally be able to reach the corpse's tongue. He licked it. Smiled, his face filled with the sense of accomplishment. That's before he felt an intense pain on his tongue that caused him to scream out in agony and cry.
As if stomping it once wasn't enough, the beggar proceeded to completely mash the chubby guy's tongue into a messy red matter. This behaviour was almost animalistic. The beggar has gone crazy before even being brought here.
He kicked the chubby guy hard enough to send his face to the opposite side and made him fall on his back. The chubby guy's tears still flowing. He had no strength left, but to only stare at the space-like sky.
The beggar made a clean slice on the thumb and picked it up using his knife like a using a toothpick to pick up grape. His delighted face quickly turned into despair when his finger he worked so hard for went up in flames.
"Have some respect for the dead, you sick bastard." There stood the fire-serpent rune user from before, small traces of flames still lingering on his palm before they disappear. I didn't pay attention to him earlier because of his generic face and black hair. But now that I take a better look, he's got sharp eyes and a serious face that's been there since I first saw him.
"You know what you just did? You know right? What you did? You did? Finger? You? YOU?" The beggar launched himself at the fire-serpent user. His opponent was more than ready to fight, too.
Both were stopped abruptly with an unknown force. Gravity seem to have changed around them as they slam face first into the ground.
"Who do you think is gonna clean all these mess? You think I work for free? I let you all loose for a few seconds and now you're turning this place into a butchery? You're about to leave so why should I still be dealing with your shits? That's it, no more questions. All of you are going OUT OUT OUT!"
The cubes that we are standing on and have been supporting us crumbled apart. To be precise, they detached from each other and formed gaps everywhere. It was impossible to maintain balance. There was no friction. I slipped and fell into the void along with everyone else.
~~
From then on I woke up in the training zone located at the starting area of Stage 1. Everyone was confused at first but quickly got a grasp on our goals.
The goals are pretty simple. Since there are no leveling system. The best way to become stronger was to get used to and have complete mastery over your runes. Majority of the runes have different abilities that could aid with all variety of situations ranging from fighting to cooking.
None of the skills were completely useless. They may appear to be, but they all have their general purpose in usefulness. Is what other people say, but my rune never activated even once, not even now.
I was excited at first. It had the same color as the negate ability which was gray. That means it's rarer than the other runes, right? I tried all sorts of methods to get it to work. Every method that worked for others I have tried, but to no avail. A defective rune might as well be called a useless rune.
Despite that, I was still accepted to Yamato's party on Stage 1. We started out pretty weak at first but soon grew as the leading group in our clan among the Scouting Teams. Scouting Teams are Elite members of the clan devised for exploring brand new areas and most of the time, the team clearing stage bosses.
This might need some explanation. The skeleton mentioned a total of 16 stages and each stage consist of a stage boss. Whenever we clear a stage boss completely, everyone in that stage will be transported to the next stage regardless of what they are doing. As long as one group clears the stage boss, everyone still breathing will automatically advance.
Each stage is a completely different world with vast resources and different environmental monsters. It shouldn't be necessary to explain that as the stage progresses, the more complicated stages become. Boss patterns becomes more difficult to predict and monsters have less weaknesses.
That said, someone who can't activate his rune is practically useless in combat. I've always been the topic of controversies regarding whether they should bring me on expeditions or help with building.
To be honest, I was fine with either results, tagging along would only mean an extra baggage to protect, at the same time, I'd probably die of boredom if I just sit in the safezone all day. For some reason, Yamato insisted I follow the party. This decision was not well received by a majority of the party and some still disagree that I tag along to this day despite having proved myself already in the past stages.
It wasn't easy, receiving all those hostile intentions directed toward me. Getting bullied when Yamato wasn't around and being forced to do menial tasks merely for their own personal satisfaction. I could count three times I was almost killed by their "accidents."
Man, I've come pretty far, didn't I? Come to think of it, I stayed calm throughout all that. The massacre in the temple, our first stage boss, killing monsters. I can't recall any times where I've panicked at all. It's like I've experienced it somewhere before, it all felt so natural.
Didn't we discover passive runes on stage 4? They require no activation, or rather, they are already activated at all times. These runes enhance you the moment they are acquired. Some could let you breathe infinitely underwater, other much more bizarre types include growing an extra arm.
If we assume my rune was actually a passive rune all along, then it would make sense that I could never activate it. So maybe my rune all along was keeping a cool head at all times? But receiving a passive rune as your starting ability... it's the first time I've heard about it. It's not completely impossible eith-
"Hajime!"
Damn it, Ayahina. At the very least you could let me finish my monologue before I die.
"Hajime! Hang in there!"
Ayahina, a young girl who was also bullied along with me during our earlier times. I simply helped her figure out her ability and that somehow got her to feel indebted to me. She's been following me ever since even though she's now one of the archers in our current Scouts Team with the highest potentials.
"You have to hang in there, got it? We found a way to defeat the boss quickly. If you could just hold on until we defeat the stage boss, we could transport you out and heal you before you bleed to death. You must survive no matter what, you hear?"
I'm not sure if I could hold on that long, Ayahina. I haven't been able to feel my legs for a while now. In any case, her voice was way calmer now than it was before, Yamada was probably the one behind this idea. Yamada's a reliable... hard to... c.. an't... feel—
Ah, I bled out.
~~
Hajime's POV:
Heaven was something I expected to be more luxurious. A place where people can freely roam around wherever they like. A place of relaxation for all the hard work you've been through. Is this Heaven? It would be normal to believe this is Heaven. If so why did this system message pop up in here?!
[Welcome to the lobby]
System messages, these things appear whenever you enter a new location. There are plenty of other ways for them to shove their existence into your life but for now let's try to access the situation. People, smooth, white. People, smooth, white.
These are definitely people, they walk like people, they communicate like people, they play like actual human beings. So why is it that they have no faces, no clothing, no hair, nothing. I touched my body on impulse. I have became one of them. Imagine a population of living mannequins in Heaven. Neither can I.
Looking around, it's hard to believe this is Heaven. A safe assumption would be a replica. The land consists of clouds that are strangely fluffy yet still able to withhold all these weight on top of it. Everything is either white or gold. From just my sight alone, I have spotted an amusement park, a fountain, a river, a mountain made up of clouds, a huge temple, I could go on forever.
I walked up to one of the white human figure sitting on a bench to ask for information.
"Excuse me, sir. Do you happen to know where we are right now?" I asked politely.
"Did you just call a lady like me, a sir?!" her voice was raised slightly and she seem irritated.
"What can I do? I could hardly make out anyone's gender in this state." I defended.
"Don't you see these proportions hanging on my chest?" She puffed her chest out.
I observed carefully. True, her chest was slightly inclined and I could just barely make out the outline. "With those?" I squinted my eyes.
"Don't make fun of my boobs! You should have paid attention!" She had a little outburst.
"Well, maybe if you had genitals then I would be able to differentiate better between the two."
"Woah, already sexually harassing the first person you see after just arriving here, you're quite something aren't you?" She made a comeback.
"What will you do about it? Call the mannequin police on your walkie-talkie?"
"Ugh, just walk straight ahead and follow the blue flames, you'll find what you need there."
"You're not the type hold a grudge, are you?"
"What can I do? Work is work." And with that, she shooed me away.
I left her alone and followed the blue lanterns on pathway as instructed, I already had my share of fun, anyways.
It didn't take long before I arrived at my destination. It was just an open field surrounded by street lanterns. It seem apparent that all flames emit a bluish glow here. This place just look like an arena.
Did she trick me? I do see a couple of people standing in the center. They appear to be conversing with each other perfectly fine. Should I try to join in? Or maybe it wasn't necessary at all since they noticed me immediately. The guy in the middle waved his hand at me. This guy and the guy next to him both have "Beta-Tester" labelled above their heads.
"Are you from the boss fight too?" He asked me while the others turned facing me.
"Yeah, you guys too?" There appears to be four of them in total.
"We're all from the boss fight. Since you're the most recent one, could you give us the details on the on-going battle?"
"They figured out a way to defeat the boss, things should go smoothly starting from now on."
They listened closely, the silence indicated they want further information.
"Unfortunately, I do not know anymore than that." I finished.
"That's a shame. All we could do now is hope for the best. I haven't introduced myself yet, have I? I'm Kenji second-in-command on the vanguard. This is Haruto, I'm sure you already know him. And these two are Kasai and Sara. First-class archer and second-class healer."
Kenji, second-in-command, he has the highest position in the frontlines next to Yamada. Though he's just as smart as Yamada, he's proven to be incapable of holding his emotions when things take for a turn, which made Yamada a better leader over him. Haruro is the strongest archer on our party who specializes on flame magic, he is also the main dealer in firepower and leader on the offensive squads.
Next is Sara, you may probably remember her. She's the healer that got her eye pierced by a spear and died instantly. Lastly is the problematic Kasai. He shows alot of potential and have contributed lots for the party within a short span of time. His ego poses a problem, though. Many times he would rather die than accept help against monsters. Kasai is also one of my bullies.
"What about you?" Kenji asked.
"I'm Hajime, specialize in..."
"Hah! There is no need for you to explain your role." Kasai butted in, "You're Kenji the useless, everyone knows about you! To think you got to survive this long without a proper rune, you must be thinking you're the luckiest man or something. You're nothing without Yamada's sympathy!"
"What about you? What is the self-proclaimed Hellmaster doing in the afterlife? Funny how you even died before me while you were still perfectly fine while I was bleeding out, don't you agree?" How beautiful would it be if I could just have my face back to fully make fun of him.
"I had an accident, alright? That bastard got a lucky hit on me, it won't happen next time." His voice slightly lower than earlier.
Now that the problem child has been dealt with, I faced Kenji and asked a question that's been on my mind for a while now, "Kenji, what about the others? I believe our casualties far exceed the five of us."
"They are all inside the bunker." Haruto answered for him. "You should join them too, I'll ask Kasai to lead you."
"Huh? Why should I have to do that?"
"You got the info now, aren't you satisfied?"
"But it's from Hajime the useless! What if he made that all up?"
"And why would he do that?"
Kasai sighed and motioned his neck to follow me. "All I'm doing is lead you to the entrance, you figure out the rest. I ain't gonna survive spending another second with you." He said that and walked off.
I followed after him.
~~
Haruto POV:
I watched the two walk off. Hajime the useless, huh. That's completely different what I've heard.
"How about you, Sara? You should head back too."
She shook her head and reaffirmed her intentions, "I want to fully make sure Sana is safe."
"You still haven't registered yourself. If you go now, you could still catch up to those two and tag along."
"But..."
"I'll relay the message to you in another hour, by that time the boss fight should definitely be finished already. You're still unstable from the shock, it would be beneficial for you to rest first. If Sana did die, she would definitely end up here. The lobby isn't that big in the first place. Just leave it to me, okay?"
"If you say so..." I waved her goodbye as she hesitantly walk away.
There were still missing links I want answers for, "Kenji, isn't he abnormally calm for someone who just died? Even Kasai who I've known to quickly adapt to situations still hasn't completely accepted the fact that he died. I can still see his left foot shaking from time to time."
"Who? Hajime? Hmmm, you think so? He's been like that since we first met him. For someone without power, we could never figure out what he's thinking. The fruits and his second rune, too."
"Fruits?" My question just raised even more questions now.
"From what I've heard from Yamada, they were once ambushed by a group of goblins on stage 1. If it weren't for the buffed fruits Hajime handed to everyone, the situation would have became really messy. Yamada said he doesn't know where Hajime acquired those buffed fruits so he speculates that he made them himself with a special combination of herbs."
"Isn't brewing pretty common? A majority of people in our party can do it, too."
"At what stage did you learn alchemy and how long did it take for you?"
"Hmmm, stage 4. About 4 days for each recipe. What about it?"
"The ambush was on the very second day the beta-testing launched."
"No way. Even if it's possible to completely perfect a recipe in 2 days, how did he manage the ingredients?"
"I was wondering that, too. All alchemy ingredients can only be acquired at the edge of the stages, and you know that's where the stage boss and the most dangerous monsters reside in."
"You're telling me he successfully fought peak-level monsters with no aid and within 2 days?"
"That I do not know, he might have acquired the ingredients somewhere else that no one knows of."
"What a mysterious person. What about this second rune you talked about?"
"Ah, you see..."
~~
Hajime's POV:
"Wait for me!" A girl's voice came from behind.
"Have we met before?" I asked her politely.
"Oh, it's Sara! From earlier! Sister of Sana! Sorry for not introducing myself any earlier."
"No, it's not your fault. It's just hard to recognize people when everyone looks the same. How did you know it was us, though?"
She stared blankly for a moment and raised both her hands in a "I don't know" fashion.
So she just went with the first person she saw...
"Do you mind if I tag along?" her voice was very sincere.
"I don't mind these things, don't know about Kasai, though." I glanced at him.
"Suit yourself." He didn't even look back.
It didn't take very long before we reach the bunker. The road on our way there was filled with nothing but silence.
"We're here, midgets." I'm guessing he's started calling us midgets just because he's a teeny bit taller?
He walked through a huge gate and went to a counter. "Register here. I'm going to sleep." He just went on his leisurely way.
I walked up to the counter to inspect it at a closer distance. A screen appears to be implanted into this white marble. I glanced at Sara to see if she has any idea how this works. She only shrugged.
If we're trying to register our identity, then there must be something distinguishable between us that we could show to the scanner. Is it...?
I swiped my hands and casually said the word "profile." As expected my profile popped up, it's exactly the same as before I died except for some changes."
>User:Hajime
>Title:Null
>Class:Null
>Rune:Null
>Mastery:Null
>You have Mail(1)
Mail? This wasn't here before. How do I open it? The system popped up a brand new screen overlapping my profiles. It's labeled mail and one of it is unopened.
"Read mail." Mails are a pretty common occurrence by the system that grants you the necessary information. We received one too at the beginning of stage 1 and almost every stage after it. What bothered me was mails would always send a notification whenever a new one arrives but this one didn't.
>Dear User,
>
> We humbly thank you for participating
>in our beta-testing project and have >already sent a reward to your profile.
>
> Please enjoy your stay in the lobby as
>you wait for the official launch of Worlds
>which would 11 months after the beta-
>testing project is over.
>
> -Administrator
Eight months have already passed. So I'll have to wait for at least 3 more months, right? Will we be revived by then? I guess that's the case if they're still keeping us alive at this point? There's too much things I don't understand. The reward, what was it?
I deleted the mail pop-up and have a quick check over my profiles once again.
>User:Hajime
>Title:Null(1)
>Class:Null
>Rune:Null
>Mastery:Null
>You have no Mail.
I opened my title screen to see what I got. Titles are very powerful in this game. Though, you could only equip one at a time, they can greatly affect your play style depending on which title you equip. Looks like all my previous titles have been deleted.
>Titles:
>
>1. Beta-Tester
"Open title No.1." It's always been a hassle to have to say the commands out loud. Why didn't they make it so I can just click and select?
>Title: Beta-Tester
>
> This title is only given to the few chosen
>7000 users when they have completed
>the beta-testing.
>
> Upon equipping this, the user will enjoy
>a 20% increase in monsters drop rate.
>
>Will you equip this title?
20% increase in drop rate? That's massive. There has been no item in Worlds that could increase monsters drop rate by even 1%. Isn't this pretty overpowered?
"Sara, do you see this, too?" I looked over at her.
"Yeah." She nodded.
Above her head appeared the words
I equipped my title, too, and went over to the scanner on the huge piece of marble that's been lying there for a while now. Now if I'm correct, I just have to show this thing my profile and it'll register me?
The screen changed:
>Hajime No. 5544
>Successfully registered.
>Please proceed to your respective dorm.
Sara went next after I was done.
>Sara No.5545
>Successfully registered.
>Please proceed to your respective dorm.
By dorm, I'm assuming it's talking about this gigantic structure just in front of me. It's a building of about 100 floors that extends to the clouds, it was also stretched out. You can see the balconies on each room from here. Counting those, I was able to conclude 30 rooms for each floor, there's probably more inside.
"I'll head in first. See you later, Hajime!" Sara waved me goodbye before excitedly going her way. I waved her back and waited until she's no longer in sight anymore.
On the way here whilst following Kasai, I found a funny structure on the way. If I just back-traced my way there, I could go and check out what it was. I have a good feeling about this.
~~
Haruto's POV:
I walked along the road heading back to the dormitory. Still thinking about what Kenji had said...
"He possess a second rune." Kenji simply stated.
"A second rune?! Does that mean he ate someone's finger?" I still remember being truly in shock.
"It's a story I heard from a teammate. Apparently, Hajime squashed and twisted a mob of lizardmen with some form of invisible force, it's as if gravity changed around him and he has completely control over it."
"Lizardmen? That's just recently... you mean our resource group was attacked? Didn't we already cleared all the lizardmen in that area?"
"Lizardmen has always been known for their exceptional ability to swim and camouflage in the swamp. I wouldn't be surprised if a few managed to escape and came back to sabotage us."
"How much of this is accurate? Did you confirm the second rune with him?"
"I do not know. There were no evidence of any lizardmen attacks by the time morning came. And the soldier who claimed that was still drowsy at the time and saw nothing by the time he came to his senses. As for why I didn't confront him directly, it will be rude to suspect him of something without evidence. If I can't trust my teammates, how am I to expect them to trust me as second-in-command?"
"I see, that makes sense."
"Let's end the discussion here. You should rest, too. We haven't been getting any new arrivals for thirty minutes now. It's not far fetched to say they won. Despite our wounds completely healed, the fatigue in our minds hasn't."
"I'll do that. You should rest soon, too, Kenji."
That was the end of the discussion. His second rune still unsettles me. I swiped to reveal my profile and turned it around to show the person walking before he past me.
>User:Haruto
>Title:Beta-Tester
>Class:Null
>Rune:Null
>Mastery:Null
"Haruto, leader of the Phoenix Squad. Good work." I introduced myself normally. This is how we decided to distinguish each other. With nothing to differentiate each other with, Kenji devised a plan to exchange profile infos whenever we bump into another person.
"Hajime the useless," came the reply and his profile.
~~