What should he do now? The answer was simple - keep running.
He could feel the monsters coming closer and at this point, he did not even question how he could feel it at all. As soon as he had exited the park he could feel the massive bodies moving in his direction.
That meant he needed to leave that area. So Mark turned away from his path and took the one on his side. What he needed was a little ground. Now that he had the bag with him he felt better.
He looked inside and there it lay, the gun Liam had given him. He had a chance now, but before that he still needed to create the chance.
How should he go about that now? What he needed to do was to trick those monsters. Since they were essentially animals, they did not have a lot of intelligence at all.
And he did have some ideas about the whole thing. Feral animals were kind of the same thing after all. But he doubted that his small net would be enough for the large bodies of those animals.
And there were two of them.
But that could also be used. If even one of them was injured enough to be contained, it would give a massive buff to his survival chances. He needed to take it right now.
"I need a good place" Mark muttered to himself. He had a plan now. Not a perfect one but he had one nonetheless.
He took off his jacket and placed it in a narrow alley. Then he exited the place and hid the opposite way.
Please go toward the jacket and not pay attention, he prayed inside his mind. It was all up to luck now and this was a risk. But he had no other choice. He had exhausted all his other options and he could not keep running forever.
He was not sure if it would work at all. This was still a hypothesis but he had no other choice but to pray.
He felt the shadows close by and much to his relief they actually headed for his jacket. He lifted the gun in his hand and raised it.
He had to take this chance and shoot as many shots as he could. And then run away.
Without looking at the target, he fired close to 10 shots and then he ran. The force of the gun had almost knocked him over and he was sure if he had not shot previously in the day to know it would do that - he would have likely died.
He did not see if his shots connected at all or if he was dead, Mark just ran.
The sun was going down and the shadows were approaching. It was getting darker and Mark could feel it getting colder. The night was coming and he had no idea if it would be his last or not.
It would be a miracle if he survived at all here.
The monsters were not moving but they were alive. He could still feel their heartbeat. Why could he feel that so accurately?
He was sure he ran and hid for almost an hour. It was a tiresome time for him but it was well worth his life. His body was tired but he pushed it to its limits.
His gun had no more shots. He was dead if he was to get caught now. He had no other defence either. He could only pray for En to come soon. Or Luna. Anyone would do.
And then he heard the gunshot being fired in the distance. It felt so good to hear that it would mean that someone was here. Someone was here to help him.
He felt his body go slack as it slid down the alley wall. There were tears in his eyes, tears of happiness of surviving and of being alive. His mind was blank now and his vision was blurry.
Congratulations on surviving and evolving. Welcome to the game now.
He blinked his eyes at the text but it was still there. It was floating in the air right in front of him and Mark was sure he had gone mad. Had the fear of the day driven him insane? Why was he seeing this?
"What is that?" Mark asked his hand moving itself toward the writing.
His hand passed right through the words like smoke and now Mark was sure. He was hallucinating. It was all an illusion his mind was cooking up past the experience.
His hand was still passing through the words when he felt it - something passed through his body and he could no longer feel anything. He could see the words twist in a pattern as they circled his wrist.
They were no longer legible but rather a ring surrounding his hand now. And then they snapped.
Mark felt like fire was burning his body from inside. The heat was the only thing that existed- him and the burning. The ring around his wrist was expanding now.
Somehow, the small bracelet was expanding down his arm and toward his torso. He could not see it below his clothes but he could feel the moment of the pattern.
The point it passed was cooler now, the fire being put out. Mark could feel something snap into place inside him and everything felt different.
What is going on now? This was not natural right? He had survived so why was this happening to him now?
What was happening to him now?
"Mark" someone was calling out his name and it was En. He could see him but he felt disconnected from everything. He could see but not call outback.
He did not even register anything other than his name. En was looking at his extended wrist and Mark wondered what he was seeing. Was he seeing the pattern too?
But it was below his clothes, his long-sleeved T-shirt hid everything from the view. Then what was he looking at? His pose?
"Answer back to me" He could hear him now. And he could feel himself open his mouth out as a squeak left his lips.
"It's alright. I'm alive somehow" Mark felt himself come back and his mind was unusually calm. He felt as if something was keeping it calm for him in this situation. Maybe it was the cool that was circulating through his system.
He felt numb because of it.
"Yeah, you're alive. Thank god you are alive. I saw the shots you made. They were messy but they did enough for me to clean them up good" That meant he had succeeded.
Mark was not sure if En was glad he was alive because he genuinely liked him enough to not wish him dead or if it was because it was his mission. He did not want to find out at all.
"I'll do better next time" Mark replied, his tone neutral. He did not want to be in such a situation again but he knew it could happen again. It would happen again because somehow, it was their reality now.
Those monsters would come and it would be difficult to get away without being able to defend themselves. As for his powers, he decided not to use them at all. They were far too dangerous to be left uncheck.
No, he could not risk that at all.
"I'll take you back home now. Liam will meet us there and we'll discuss what to do from here. You being alive changes things a lot. You are now the sole existence in this world which is not supposed to be here" En's words sounded worried.
Mark just felt detached. Ah, he was almost dead today but he survived. He had lived.
But now what? Now, what was left for him in a world which he was supposed to leave behind. Was his feeling of detachment due to that or was it a side effect of his trauma? And what of the thing back then?
The thing that was occupying his whole body? He wanted to ask En about it. He wanted to show En that too.
He took his other hand and pulled his sleeve back a little to see. The black tatoo that covered his body was still there and it felt even more mesmerising the more he looked at it.
And it did not look like ink at all. It looked way more metallic to be normal ink. It was smooth to his touch.
"Stop looking at your arm and stand up" Mark felt his concentration break at En's words. He was observing him with an intense gaze but he was not commenting.
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User authority confirming. Loading content, En Maschl - status level 3. Status not met
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The words were way too confusing and they echoed.
"Mark?" En asked, now closer to him. Mark just shifted away and now he was sure. Mark was not his seeing nor listening to the voice at all. Only Mark could hear this voice.
"En, I think I'm going insane. There is a voice inside my head" Mark said, his tone flat. En looked at him in a distributed manner, his gaze searching.
"A voice? What is it saying?" En asked, his voice cautious now. And curious too. Mark opened his mind to reply but a loud beep inside his mind stopped him.
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Status not met. Information classification updated. Status - confidential
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And Mark could not speak about the voice at all. He could still make noises but anything related to the voice inside his head just did not leave his lips.
"It won't allow me to say" Mark finally sighed.
"Don't joke around now. Let's go back" En's voice sounded tired and Mark knew what he was thinking. En surely thought that this was another one of his pranks as he had pulled these types before.
But he was honest here this time and it was not working. But home sounded nice. He wanted to go back home too and figure things out from there.