He woke up to two things glaring in his face: the streaming sunlight from the distant star already halfway through the sky, and a holographic screen. The pale blue light followed his line of sight, refusing to go away. So this was the legendary status window.
"Urgh…" The splitting pain he felt before falling unconscious was gone, leaving behind a dull throbbing in its wake. He rubbed his eyes, squinting at the words scrawled across the screen.
[You have a pre-existing contract. Contract registered. Updating Status Window.]
A list of notifications popped up, scrolling automatically.
[Ability 'I can bleed to death, but I can't bleed to death' has been acquired due to your strong reaction to blood. This ability is evolvable.
Due to a large absorption of blood, acquired special status 'Endless Appetite.']
Below it, a small progress bar was filled up a quarter of the way. It was labeled 'Blood Absorption.'
[Special status 'Endless Appetite' has created ???.]
… it was a hatching meter like the ones in P*kemon games.
[Rewards for 'A Monster's Hunger' have been calculated.
Difficulty: E
You have acquired the title, 「Monster Slayer.」 Strength has been increased by one level.
Points have been rewarded.]
Annoyed, Nox swiped up to read the rest of the contents. Difficulty E his ass, he nearly died in that trial. His finger paused as the notifications continued to pop up.
Did everyone see holographic scenes, or was it only people who signed a Chaos Contract? He did remember Hui saying that two people in his first trial awakened their abilities. There was a possibility that Chang Feng and Fay weren't seeing this right now.
[Rewards for unauthorized trial 'Playdate' have been calculated. Additional compensation has been rewarded.
Difficulty: D
You have acquired 「Adeline's Resentment」 and 「A Doll's Dream」. Your affinity with dolls has decreased. Your affinity with a creator's creations has increased. The Dollmaker acknowledges your presence.]
Nox looked at the notifications blankly. Who was Adeline? Curious, he touched the holographic screen. A small pop up window appeared below the words.
[Adeline's Resentment: "I'm Master's favorite! Only me!"]
It was the black haired doll that led them into the trial. Nox could vaguely remember her introduction, but it had completely slipped from his mind. He wouldn't be willing to go near those dolls again anyway.
Despite their well-behaved faces, they merely saw humans as 'things' to play with. They didn't understand the fear of death… except for Rose, he supposed.
After closing the description, the list continued on.
[Items 'Golden Egg' and 'Nattergalen' have been placed in your inventory.
Points and extra skill 'Keen Intuition' have been rewarded as compensation. Due to the exposure of Lilith's Roses, you have gained resistance towards illusions. Lilith is watching you after you killed her roses.]
… As the last person who walked out of the rose garden, Nox secretly let his ability eat to its heart's content. The large ring of blood red roses originally blooming with life became wilted, white flowers after his ability finished eating, hanging sadly by their stems.
His ability had devoured all the blood that kept the flowers alive.
Rubbing his nose, Nox took a look at his status window as the list of notifications came to an end.
[Nox (■■)
Title(s): 「Monster Slayer」
Ability: Lv. 3 'I can bleed, but I can't bleed to death' (Evolvable)
Skills: Lv. 3 Endless Appetite, Lv. 1 Keen Intuition
Status: 「Adeline's Resentment」, 「A Doll's Dream」
Stats: Lv. 4 Agility, Lv. 2 Stamina, Lv. 2 (+1) Strength, Lv. 3 Magic]
After some trial and error, he was able to figure out how to use points to increase his base stats. He invested points to increase his stamina to level 7 and saved the rest for later. For now, he wasn't sure if his magic stats had a direct effect on his ability and there was no one to compare with.
"You're finally awake." Roxanne appeared from her room with bleary eyes, pointing at the space in front of her. "Am I the only one seeing this?"
Nox pointed at his own screen. "Nope."
She groaned, flopping onto the couch. "Great. Now we're both crazy." Grabbing the TV remote with more force than necessary, she clicked the power button. The lazy pressing turned into jabbing before she threw it aside in frustration. "And now there's no electricity." She waved her phone around, screen lit but devoid of service bars. "And no internet. This really is the end of the world."
"What did you get?" Nox asked, ignoring her dramatism as he explored the holographic screen and its features. Even if it was the end of the world, they still had to live through it.
At his question, Roxanne sat up properly. "Rewards for the trial and a Chaos Contract that you mentioned before."
"What about your base stats?" Nox asked, wanting to get a better understanding of the levels ranges.
"Um…" she scrolled down. "Agility 3, stamina 5, strength increased to 4, magic at 2. Why?"
… Alright, he really neglected his exercise lately. Nox had a slim body so he only worked out when his little pouch of fat started to come back. It was just that he procrastinated for a month and the decision came to bite him in the ass. Fair enough.
As Roxanne spoke, her fingers moved in the air and a small wooden box appeared in her hand. "I think this is from Rose."
It seemed like he couldn't see other people's screens.
Nox peered at it curiously. It was just a simple wooden box, nothing fancy or intricate decorating the outside. "Why don't you open it up?" he suggested, glancing at his own items.
A soft, familiar melody drifted out of the open box. Roxanne gasped in surprise. "Oh, it's a music box." It was the song that Rose hummed to the birds.
"Is there a description?"
"It says, 'The tune she sang to her lover, long ago before the end.'" The siblings fell silent. For such a pretty song, it came with a rather depressing note.
Bang.
A sudden knock on their door jerked their attention away from the soothing melody. Swiftly, Roxanne placed it back in her inventory.
The knocking came again, this time more harrowed than before. Exchanging a glance, Nox got up, walked over to the entryway and opened it cautiously. "May I help you?"
A police officer stood on the other side, looking around nervously, his leg visibly shaking up and down in agitation. An unknown premonition flickered through Nox.
"Is this the residence of Mr. and Mrs. ■■ ?"
Slowly, Nox turned his head to look at Roxanne. Even with the distance between the front door and the living room, he could tell by her face that she heard every word. He turned back to the officer. "Yes, I'm their son. May I help you?" he repeated.
"What happened to them?" Roxanne demanded, shoving her way past Nox. She slammed the door open completely, releasing her unsteady temper on the police officer.
She grabbed him by the collar, and, to Nox's astonishment, dragged the sturdy looking officer closer and shook him, body gone limp from fright. The scene was almost comical- Roxanne, at 165cm manhandling a officer at least 20cm taller than her. So that was what level 4 strength could do?
"Where are they?!"
"They've been identified from the deceased bodies down at the station!" the police officer yelped, looking like he was about to pee his pants. Nox closed his eyes, standing off to the side quietly.
Roxanne's eyes darkening in fury, "Aren't you supposed to protect citizens from harm?!" Her fists tightened their grip on the blue shirt, words streaming out in unfiltered rage. "Can you do nothing? Why do you have to be so useless?" It felt like she was literally heating up in anger. "Is this all you have to say? Huh?!"
"L-look, I'm just doing my job. It's practically the end of the world but we still need to do our duties, do you think I want to be here right now?!" the police officer shot back, struggling against Roxanne's firm grip. "You're the last ones on my list! I don't have it any easier than you!"
A hand reached out and rested on her shoulder. Nox gently pried her hands away from the innocent officer. "That's enough, Roxanne."
Roxanne turned to glare at him through her watery eyes, corners red. She let him pull her away into a hug, crying openly while gripping his clothes. "I- why couldn't I do anything…"
Nox rubbed her back soothingly, giving an apologetic look to the miffed officer.
"Useless..." Roxanne mumbled to herself, her lower lip trembling uncontrollably. "I..."
As soon as Roxanne released his shirt, the officer had fallen onto the ground. Scrambling back, he fled the scene as fast as he could.
He didn't get very far, since an explosion killed him where he stood.
Bang!
Pwoom!
In a brilliant blast of light, the whole neighborhood was hit by a massive explosion.