"Ah."
Misogi watched as Rodeen's lifeless body fell to the ground. Slowly picking himself up from the ground, Misogi pulled the rope off of his arms. He grabbed all the items from Rodeen's inventory and added them to his own.
He began making his way out of the building that the two of them fought in.
Several of Rodeen's guards were waiting outside.
Misogi gave a bright smile and waved at the guards.
"Hey~"
The guards were obviously on edge, especially at the fact that Misogi had blood all over his body. One of the guards quickly moved to check the inside of the building. Misogi simply stood silently and waited for them to come back out. There was a shout from inside the building.
"R-Rodeen's dead!"
All of a sudden, the guards all turned their full attention to Misogi. With their weapons raised they charged at him. In an instant, his chest was pierced by the tip of a spear and his body fell lifeless again.
The guards looked confused by the lack of effort required to kill him. However, as they were getting their heads around what had happened, a grenade fell to the ground—out of Misogi's hand. Instantly the vision of the guards was filled with shrapnel before their untimely demise.
[Removed Source of Death]
A few moments later, Misogi raised his head and looted the dead soldiers around him.
With the ground littered with bodies, Misogi began making his way to the nearby building. The settlement was relatively advanced in comparison to many others. It was a combination of the organisation that Rodeen was able to enforce which allowed them to commit to major projects such as building more advanced infrastructure.
Making his way into a nearby house, he saw a group of people sitting inside.
"Hey, do any of you guys know where Alice is?"
The people inside looked at him in shock as blood dripped down from his clothes.
"U-um... we don't know..."
He took a few steps towards them, and a few of the men drew their weapons as Misogi approached them.
"You guys wouldn't happen to be lying, would you?"
"No, we honestly don't know, who are you anyways."
"Oh me? I'm Misogi."
With that, he turned around and left the house.
As he walked around the settlement, he sensed that more and more people were stalking him. From every direction, there were eyes which stared at him, observing his every move. Despite that, he continued to nonchalantly walk around the camp, looking for Alice.
Suddenly, he walked into a group of girls who were eating lunch.
"You know, you'd look a lot more attractive if you wore a shorter skirt."
The girl suddenly covered her legs in embarrassment. The embarrassment slowly turned into anger as the other girls stood up.
"Who the hell do you think you are, pervert!?"
"I'm just telling the truth, also, you could lose some weight."
The girl's face suddenly turned red before she slapped him.
"Go away!"
"Oh well."
Misogi left the group and continued to walk around the settlement. More and more people began gathering, Misogi could sense this and assumed that they were planning to kick him out with force. Ah, fighting big groups of people isn't my strength, he thought to himself.
As he began to walk out of the settlement, a girl suddenly stood in his way. In her hand was a fully functional and loaded bolt-action rifle.
"Hey, I'm leaving now so could you ge—"
With a loud bang, the bullet was fired out of the gun, blowing up Misogi's head.
[Removed Source of Death]
Misogi's head was reformed as he opened his eyes.
"Can you le—"
Suddenly, another bullet was fired from the girl's gun, killing Misogi once again.
[Removed Source of Death]
As soon as Misogi came back to life again, he took out a {Teleportation Potion} and splashed it on himself before the girl could shoot another bullet.
In an instant, Misogi was sent to another part of the forest.
Ah, that could've been bad if I was stuck in a cycle there, he thought.
In the new area of the forest, Misogi looked around.
Whilst Misogi's ability allowed him to avoid death at a cost, it didn't provide him with any other benefits. Unlike every other person, he was forced to collect resources the old-fashioned way, not only that, his ability came at a pretty steep price. As a result, he would never get the opportunity to truly thrive in the world.
All the time, he was either on death's door or suffering immense pain, as a result, his tolerance for pain and hardship was broken. Now, he killed as easily as he breathed, he saw no value in the life of others and he saw no value in the life of his own.
He walked through the harsh forest, aimless and hopeless. He wandered around until he stumbled across another settlement, this time, he arrived at the settlement of one of the biggest survivor groups in the entire world. It was a cumulation of thousands of different people. The settlement was the closest thing that this world had to a functional human society.
He made his way out of the forest border and into the outskirts of the village. Not soon after, he was greeted by someone wandering around.
"Hey, are you looking for something?" They asked, they appeared to be looking at the splotch of blood on Misogi's body.
"Nope, nothing in particular."
"Uh, I think you should meet the head of the village, I haven't seen you around."
"The head of the village, you say... alright, take me to them."
Misogi followed the person through the town, eventually arriving at a large wooden building. Inside, sat an older man who appeared to be writing something.
"Mr Aiken, we've got a new visitor, sir."
The old man looked up toward Misogi.
"Who are you?" The leader of the village asked.
"I'm Misogi."
"I take it you want to join the settlement?"
Misogi thought about it for a little while.
"Yes, I guess that is what I want."
"Alright, where did you come from?"
"I came from the forest."
The man seemed unimpressed by his answer but didn't push any further.
"What system do you have?"
"Ah, I have a Personal-merchant System."
"What does it do?"
"I get specific missions where I can sell a specific item for a high Token reward."
"I see."
Misogi was lying.