Floating in the sea of unconsciousness, the breeze of the ocean hit his body as Dean was taken away from Earth. Whether it was in a literal way or another way, it didn't matter. He still regretted not even having any skepticism about the letter. It was too good to be true, and according to his friends, it was legit.
[20%]
[60%]
[100%]
[Demonic System Initiated]
And that was the last nail in the coffin, Dean immediately thought he went crazy. The screen that appeared right in front of his eyes immediately gathered suspicion around his own mind. The only demon that he knew was Menkaid, and he pretty much hated it.
[Scanning Current User]
Name: Dean Barnett
Level: 1
EXP: 0/1000
Strength: 20
Agility: 90
Dexterity: 110
Vitality: 100
Aptitude: 10
Magical Power: 500/500
Skill: Blitz Painkiller | Advanced Healing Spell
'Is this some kind of sick joke?' Dean asked himself as he looked at his own status on the screen right in front of him. He never believed something like this was even realistic in the first place. And right now, right after he was sinking on the bottom of the ocean, he got this kind of thing.
"The boy's damn lucky."
Dean could hear a faint sound. He also felt that metallic instruments were touching right into his chest. He couldn't feel that kind of thing if he had died. Conclusion-wise, he hadn't died. He was only losing control of his entire body from top to bottom.
"Nurse, laser gun?"
He was definitely in the hospital and the doctors were operating on him. He might be unconscious, but he could feel his whole chest being opened in search of a bullet that was stuck on his chest. It was not painful, but it felt like the doctor was putting his finger on his lung.
"Ah, got you. Alright, bleeding's stopped. Good job everyone. Still, one inch lower, the aorta is doomed. The second bullet only missed his heart by an inch too, this is an interesting lucky case."
The voice faded away again as Dean lost his own consciousness again. He was alive and that was the point. For now, this was the preferred outcome. However, Mick must pay for his crime and Dean would need the means to do so. He needed evidence to put Mick on the ground.
Dean had now stuck in the darkness again. No one was accompanying him but his own mind, and a figure on the side of his head. Dean couldn't describe what the figure looked like. The figure looked like a woman.
"Hey, who are you?" Dean asked the figure.
The figure then approached Dean. The figure was a girl, probably as old as she was. She was wearing a black long dress. However, that was not the thing that caught Dean's attention.
'Horns…' Dean muttered.
The girl was a Menkaid. To be precise, the girl was a demonic type of Menkaid. She had white hair. White hair and demonic. It reminded Dean of the killer of her own mother. Could it be that the soul of the demonic Menkaid stuck on his head? 'Fuck her!'
The smug demon laughed, "Hahaha, I'm the fourth…" Before she was able to finish the sentence, enraged Dean came in her direction.
Dean charged at the demon and slammed her to the ground. "Time for round two, you fucking bitch!" Dean then smashed the head of the demon to the ground multiple times.
The demon didn't have time to react. She then reacted by kicking Dean in his stomach and Dean recoiled backward. The demon took the opportunity to stand up from where she fell off the ground. The demon didn't get what happened, but enraged Dean immediately did another attack.
This time, Dean did a roundhouse kick to the demon's head and she fell to the ground again. Unlike last time, Dean immediately locked the demon in place and immediately choked her out.
"You bloody arse! You killed my mother!" Dean then put his hand while choking the demon's neck.
As he choked the demon's neck, Dean also felt that it got harder for him to breathe. He didn't care about it though, he immediately choked the demon even harder as he had his own difficulty breathing.
"If… you… kill… me… you'll die," the demon uttered as she ran out of breath.
"To hell with that!" Dean shouted as his vision began to spin around.
The demon lost his consciousness and Dean lost his consciousness too. Both of them fell to the ground at the end of that fight. Dean didn't know why, but he felt a little bit happier knowing that the Menkaid that killed her mother was now dead.
"DOC! HIS BEAT IS DROPPING!"
"SHIT! HEY! YOU! HELP ME WITH THIS!"
Dean resurrected from the dead again, and this time, the same demon stood up from the ground as well while holding down on her head. Dean was still enraged and the demon was fearing for her life now.
"WAIT WAIT WAIT!" The demon said as she walked backward to avoid Dean's rage.
"WAIT FOR WHAT? WAIT UNTIL YOU THROW A GRENADE AT ME? WAIT UNTIL YOUR GUN APPEARS OUT OF NOWHERE?" Dean shouted back at the demon.
"What the hell is a grenade? Listen to me! What grudge do you have on me?" The demon bargained for her own life.
"You should say that before you killed my mother, you swine!" Dean shouted.
"If you kill me, you'll die too. Our souls are bound, don't you get it, let's call it a truce, alright?" The demon said.
"Fuck that! You're my last loose end!" Dean shouted back.
The demon now got into her fighting stance. She prepared her fists. Now, Dean, even more, enraged than before to the point where the demon felt that Dean was a demon in human form.
"Are you a demon, kid?" The demon asked.
Dean charged towards the demonic girl. This time, the demonic girl threw a punch first but Dean dodged it and retaliated with a sequence of punches and kicks before throwing her whole body to the ground, head first.
'God damn it.' The demonic woman fell unconscious again and Dean fell to the ground.
"DOC! HE FLATLINED!"
"SHIT! GET THE DEFIL! 3 2 1! READY!"
Dean woke up in the middle of his mind again. This time, the demon had already stood upright next to him. Dean was tired of this bullshit and wanted it to immediately end. He began charging to the woman.
"Look, Dean, I'll help you get Mick. But please, listen to me first!" The demon said.
"Fine, this is your chance," Dean sighed as he crossed his hand to listen to the demon's proposition.
"Look, I'm going to provide you with power beyond your imagination," the demon said.
"Who are you? Where you are coming from? What's your affiliation? And what the hell are you doing in my bloody head?" Dean asked. "I wished I had my gun right now."
"Who am I? Let's cut it short. I'm Myra, used to be the 4th demonic lord, and you are the mere reason why I am in your head."
"Demonic lord? Beaten by me, of all people? Myra, as much as I can hold bullshit, this is beyond my pay grade."
"You…" Myra sighed. "Fine, I lost my power after jumping through three souls from different times. The first soul is beaten by the second soul, the second soul is beaten by you, and you seem to be my last chance."
"Ok, good excuse, since you lost your power, how can you provide me with power if you don't have any in the first place? And who was your second soul? Do you have any idea how little that narrows it down?" Dean asked.
"The second soul is the one you killed with your black rifle, rifle, right? Is that what you called it? The black rifle?" Myra asked.
Now Dean became more confused than ever. He had killed a lot of Menkaids, especially when he was scavenging. And black rifle? Was there even a rifle that wasn't black in his armory in the bunker up north?
"Be more specific."
"Please wait, I'm still digging your mind. It's like a bloody open book, and oh boy, the headline is interesting, no wonder you want to kill me." A screen appeared right beside Myra.
The screen was Dean's memory of the slaughter. In that screen, in particular, was the exact face of the Menkaid that killed her mother. Myra put the picture of the Menkaid alongside her own face. "She had blue eyes while mine is red."
Dean sighed as he realized, "Fine, sorry. But you're still a bloody Menkaid."
"I won't try to fix what I can't fix," Myra sighed harder than Dean. "Alright, what's this rifle? S-h-A-K-1-2? Yeah, that's the rifle name."
It kinda narrowed it down. Dean used ShAK-12 on his scavenging run on the ruin, but it was like asking a soldier who he killed with his service rifle. The answer would be 'A bloody fuckton of people.'
"Hard fight with ShAK-12? Hmm, I do remember fighting a Menkaid with my rifle, he's crazy strong with his ability to create shadows and decoys alongside having crazy ability to move at holy shit fast speed and raining down ice shards on his enemy, is that your guy?" Dean asked.
Myra just nodded. Dean then remembered the guy. He fought him by throwing grenades and flash-bang towards its direction to blind him while using C4 to expose his location. The ice shards didn't give any significant threat as long as they fell on top of his ballistic helmet. However, the shadows and the decoys forced Dean to use 50 rounds into the body and decoys of whoever that was. Myra's protege eventually stayed put though.
It was in the early time of his scavenging, probably when he was 15 years old or something. Still, if that was the demon lord's protege, why was he so fragile to be beaten by a mere 15-year-old boy? That was the question.
"Bullet is still bullet, and bullet kills," Dean uttered the same phrase that he wanted to say to every single arrogant magic-user.
"Well spoken," Myra praised.
"So, what do you have for me, Myra?" Dean asked.
"First reward, alright. Take your pick."
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[Hemostin] [500 MP] [Pick This Ability]
Forming blood clots in the area of bleeding to reduce the amount of bleeding to said area. Only can be used to stop one heavy bleeding in one major area. The ability would only last for five minutes.
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[Sleight of Hand] [Passive] [Pick This Ability]
Increase the speed of operating any tool by 10%. This includes a weapon's reload speed, writing speed, etc.
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Dean picked the Hemostin ability for a good reason. His only weakness was a wound in the thorax. He could easily patch up any wound on his hands or on his legs with his regular healing spell.
"Emm, alright, I guess?" Myra said. "Open your menu panel. I need to do some introduction for you. By the way, due to how your mind work, I don't think using basic layout will work for you."
"Show it away."
[Stats & Skills]
[Task & Assignment]
[Task Force Members] [LOCKED]
[Synthesizing Panel] [LOCKED]
[Research & Development] [LOCKED]
"Sorry if it sounds confusing, but you'll need to take a look at it one by one, alright? Right now, only two are usable, and it's because my lack of magical power, and I apologize for that."
"Apology accepted, Myra," Dean said. "Go ahead."
[Stats & Skills] was pretty much straightforward as it could be. It was basically showing Dean's skill and ability alongside with Myra's personal interpretation of his own stats. It would be the screen to monitor the amount of magical energy that Dean had left.
[Task & Assignment] would be the place where Dean could retrieve quest alongside with receiving rewards for any quest. Basically, it was the quest tab. However, Dean preferred the name to be like that. For now, it was all that Myra could introduce for him. Dean needed to work the rest all by himself.
"That's it," Myra said.
"Half of your skill is still locked. Basically, you only see me as an errand boy, don't you?" Dean asked.
"It's not like that, no. Heck no. Let's just say, we keep a mutual respect, sounds good for you?" Myra asked.
"Good for me."